Rise of the Legendary Emperor

"Don, you don't have to go there now, please get some rest"

Looking at Don had adorned his reinforced black armor, Arrora realized that he was planning to check on his kingdoms and pleaded with him not to leave.

"Yes, brother, your body is still recovering. I won't let you leave"

Catalie put her hand on the hip and said angrily as Don sheathed his black sword and drew his shadow blade out to see it's still working.

"I had enough rest, it's time I get to work. You two just relax"

He ran his fingers through his armor and felt the reinforced fibers and plates they dwarves attached to make his armor more sturdy and flexible.

The Bow of Arjuna perfectly merged with his armor and seemed invisible to the outside.

"So what about the new girl Knight brought with him? Did she settle down alright?"

"You mean Lia, yeah, we arranged a room in the castle. Poor girl lost her entire family, so Amaryll and the girls hanging out with her to make her feel good"

Arrora sympathized with Lia considering she was also from Elvelon and lost her family. Don could see the pain that suddenly emerged in Arrora's eyes when she talked about Lia.

"Do you want to go and kill those who hurt you?"

Arrora took a deep breath and slowly shook her head 

"We have enough enemies as it is, I don't want to make more. I'll let them live for now"

"Good choice. When the time comes, I'll accompany you to Elvelon"

She nodded as she walked towards him with a smile and corrected his robes and brushed some of the dust off his armor.

"There you go, but I'm still against the idea of you going out"

Don squeezed her hand on his shoulder gently and reassured her

"Should I leave the room?"

The little girl rolled her eyes and pouted 

"Come on, let's go"

He said as Arrora stuck her tongue out to make fun of Catalie and followed Don outside the room.

Just when he stepped outside the room, he saw Dhursir was waiting for him and he ruffled his beard and giggled looking at Arrora and Don.

"Dhursir"

He ignored the old dwarf's sly chuckle and asked.

"Tha thing ye asked me ta build for Nicolas, it will be completed in two days, me king"

"Good, then we can send him to a good sect for runemasters "

"I agree, me king. He can an' will reach rank 5 in a couple o' years"

"Ask Joel what's the best sect for runemasters and send him to me, I'll be at Ishikara"

The dwarf bowed and rushed to continue his works while Don and Arrora made their way towards the Array hall.

"Your majesty"

"Lady Arrora"

On their way, maids and servants greeted them with a wide grin and bow as both of them gave a nod and continued.

"What did you do with the people you rescued in Noa's castle?"

"Those bastards targeted orphans and refugees, so they don't have a family to send them back to"

"You should have tortured that bastard more"

He said when he heard Arrora as she sighed

"I wish I had but I was in too much pain to enjoy killing him"

They walked side by side, as their hands connected, they strode through the castle. She had a huge grin on her face forgetting all about Noa and the bad things that happened before.

"Give them a home and work to do"

"Amaryll will take care of that, you just relax, will you? "

************************

"Your majesty, you're back. Are you alright? They said you were attacked"

"I'm fine, Lord Clemo. How's Ishikara treating you?"

He quickly stopped Clemo's train of questions with his own question.

Don could now barely see his fat belly and he looked healthier. He even put some muscles around his arms because of the works he had been doing since Don took the reign of Agoria.

"Surprisingly good, your majesty. The noble families have way fewer crimes under their belt compared to Agoria and they are already giving back what they took away from the commoners according to your rule in Emir and Agoria "

"Fewer crimes huh? I guess Noa did all the dirty work here"

"I'm afraid so, your majesty"

Clemo scratched the back of his head and nodded while avoiding direct eye contact with Arrora. He heard what she did to Noa and had nightmares about it.

"You can explain my rules and laws to the nobles. If they disagree, send them to me"

"As you wish, your majesty. Do I have your permission to set them up with some business opportunities like we did previously, your majesty?"

Don scratched his trimmed beard and pondered for a moment before answering

"Why not, just make sure they have a clean record and pay their taxes"

He wanted to send away Clemo without giving any more work but when he looked around the throne hall and saw Noa's throne decorated with pink roses and velvets, he changed his mind.

"And Lord Clemo, get rid of this idiotic throne and tell our men to forge another"

The pink color throne in a rather empty hall looked ugly and he knew he can't sit on the throne without feeling nauseated.

"You can go now, Lord Clemo"

"Yes, your majesty"

Lord Clemo bowed and rushed outside to start his busy day leaving Arrora and Don alone with a group of black-armored guards in the throne hall.

"Arrora, where's the status report of Ishikara?"

"The trainees are still working on that. I'll give it to you before nightfall today"

"Can't wait to see it. So what do you think about Vivian? Is she doing a good job?"

"Yes, she's personally training the new recruits with Nanbu and strategizing with Ken and Ukita to form an internal army unit which she named Police force"

"Sounds good"

Since there's no throne to sit and relax, he walked outside to overlook the capital and the people.

" look!" Arrora quickly pointed at the sky when she stepped out as he looked up at the sky only to find that unbeknownst to him, the snow had begun to fall on the ground. Under the gray sky, there seemed to be an uncountable number of snowflakes. They danced in the wind, flying all over the place, accompanied by the shouts of the citizens of Ishikara

Arrora held out her hand, catching the small balls of sparkling snow. She could feel a chill coming from her fingers.

"It's snowing"

"Winter is here"

As time went by, the snowing only increased and it did not seem to slow down.

The capital had been wrapped in a layer of white when the sky darkened. Don felt unbelieving at the fact that it would be a few months before the sun would bask the kingdom with its golden warm sun rays.

Walking along the streets of Ishikara, Arrora could not help but exclaim. "The capital seems deserted, and soon, some nobles would also go to the upper parts of the continent"

"The upper parts said to be less affected by the winter, so it's natural for the rich to flee," said Don as Arrora placed her hand on her ear and nodded.

"The status report is ready and waiting for you in the castle"

"Good, then we can quickly and effectively allocate people during the winter"

"I'm really happy that you're here, your majesty" Arrora blinked and then laughed. She didn't call him Don because of the black-armored men around them. Until he makes it official, she didn't want the people to know they are in a relationship.

"Why?"

"Because I'm not good at things like this but you seem like a natural " She paused for a moment and seemed to look for her words. "Whether it's your ruthlessness or the way you handle things, the results are super effective. I don't think anyone can be good as you in ruling at such a young age"

"Is that so?" his heartfelt warm for some reason hearing her words. 

Unlike Emir or Agoria, Ishikara had a city wall around the capital.

Along the city wall, the trainees and black armored men were cleaning up the aisle of snow. When they saw him, they all bowed towards him with eyes full of respect and admiration.

"How is the situation here?"

"There are still refugees coming, your majesty and we're talking about bringing in all the villagers inside the city wall, in case this winter turns out to be harsher than the last one " It was Nanbu who answered him. 

"How many villagers are there?"

"Five villages, your majesty, the number of people living there is around four to five hundred"

"If we bring them here, do we have enough housing to allocate for them and the refugees?"

Looking at Nanbu struggling to answer, he realized that's the topic he was discussing with his men.

"We need to be ready for the worse, take in the villages, and if you don't have space for the refugees, move them to Emir and Agoria, they should share their homes with refugees until we build enough houses. Ask Amaryll for coins to hire enough carriages to get the job done"

"I'll get right into this, your majesty"

Receiving Don's order, Nanbu made his way towards the castle where one has to go if they wanted to teleport back to Everlight.

The rear section of the city wall had been transformed into a battalion to fight any enemy army forces. When all was quiet, most people would rest in the battalion to save energy. For the guards, a rotation system was implemented. Due to the low winter temperature, each warning patrol only stayed out for two or three hours before being replaced.

It was Vivian who laid these measures into place. When asking her, he found out that Ishikara had been targeted by some bandit groups during the winter. This meant that each winter saw hundred to two hundred soldiers being killed in the fight with bandits.

He toured the walls once again. It seemed that all was going smoothly, but his instincts told him that this winter is going to be anything but peaceful.