King Hector and the army camped on thier way , it was snowing heavily and was hard to travel in that condition , they laid tens of tents on a very large snow field and made fire inside to keep them warm, they made a big tent for all the horses, and another one for thier KING , meanwhile aeres , eraga and some soldiers were in the woods fetching wood for more fire
eraga sighed and said "I didn't think this journey would last ages like this "
" it's only been a fortnite eraga" aeres replied, sighed and continued
"you're spoilt, this is your first time outside the gate and you can't even bare "
" I didn't say I can't bare, I'm just saying it's a very far journey, two different things"
"no, that was obviously what you meant " "it wasn't "
"whatever sails your ship, eraga, I can't argue "
"mann, you're so boring " eraga smacked his head and exclaimed
"why are you even here" aeres asked
"well I can't stay in that tent with my dad alone , all he talks about is plan of attack , some information, or advice or his achievements, 'I had already been to battle at your age' *mimicking his dad's voice * , I've heard enough of those , you know, you both have a lot in common, you'd get along quite well and have super boring conversations ", eraga said
" you know you'd probably need those words, when you become king , so you-"
" I didn't say I wasn't listening, just said I've listened enough " eraga interrupts aeres
" I didn't even finish, you idiot"
" watch your tongue now, young man " "why are you even here ?"
"uhhhh, I think you already asked that "
"I did , but you are here and you're not doing anything, you're just walking around, blabbering, you should help carrying some woods at least "
" whatt?, TREASON..... "
"uhhh this brat"
"....you should be graced by my presence , me being here is a motivation for you soilders to carry out your job with utmost confidence" eraga proclaimed
" you mean carrying woods?, you should try that in a war instead " aeres countered "blah blah "
"I think your presence here is really enough for us my prince " a soilder said with a bow
"you see?, this a respectful and responsible soilder , please -"
" he's not a soilder , obviously, because he isn't dressed as one, he's a cup bearer " aeres said interrupting eraga
"huh, ohh" eraga exclaimed
"yes he's right my lord, I'm a cup bearer for lord Philemon", the cup bearer replied,
" right, shouldn't a cup bearing be...i don't know....bearing cups?, why are you out here in the woods?" aeres asked,
"well..... Lord Philemon asked me to" "strange....I personally delivered woods to Lord Philemon, there's no way he already burnt them" aeres doubtfully said
"I think maybe he wanted me to go out"
" he could just easily say go out if he wants right ?" eraga asked
" yeah, I think " the cup bearer answered , "anyways, do you have a name?, mr cup bearer " eraga asked
"wait you really want to know my name ?" the cup bearer asked excitingly
" uhhhh.....yeah, sure" eraga replied "please my prince, I'm not worthy of telling you my name"
eraga and aeres both looked at each other with a confused
"uhhhm, yeah, you....are worthy, why..not?", eraga pressed
" enough, let's get back to work , we can know each other's name later , we finish up before dark, eraga you have to help a little " aeres urged, eraga sighed and said "I guess"
"no please, my lord , I can do everything here, please proceed, I can't watch you work yourself out " the cup bearer pleaded
"I won't be working myself out, it's just some piece of wood" eraga replied
"no , please my lord " , eraga and aeres looked at each other again, it is strange because in the citadel or the whole of mycenae, no servant behave this low for royalties
"eraga, let him carry it, let's head back " aeres concluded
" huh?, uhhh..yeah alright , nice to meet you mister cup bearer " eraga quickly said
"likewise my lord " the cup bearer replied a bow , aeres and eraga started walking thier way out of the woods, "you thought that was strange right?"
"absolutely , no servant thinks he's not worthy to tell his prince his name, such absurdity " aeres answered eraga
"right ,Philemon have his own way of training his servants, I suppose ", eraga added
" it is rather strange that Philemon asked him to pick some woods even though he had enough, he wanted him to leave but in a less suspicious way" aeres assumed
" what do you mean, this is very suspicious"
"only because we found out , he thought telling him to go out will be suspicious for him so he rather, asked him to get wood"
" so it's possible the cup bearer didn't know you already gave him wood"
" exactly, because I didn't see him around when I delivered the wood"
"so this means Philemon is up to something suspicious "
" we can't say anyways, he could just really need some privacy, who knows, I'll just keep an eye on him"
" hmmmm, I feel bad for the kid though ".
Two days later , they were prepared to continue thier journey, they went back to thier formation and rode their horses toward Howelbr, it has been a peaceful and easy journey, even for the horses, at this point ,Howelbr was already in sight of the soldiers than checks around before reporting to the front batch, once the front batch gets the information, they send it to the other batch, it was one day away .
one day later the beautiful city was visible to all of them , the big beautiful trees, before the gates, colored leaves fell from the trees, with a refreshing smell of orchid,and strangely it was like snow never fell at all, the day was bright and beautiful as spring, the road leading to the gate was like it was made of steel, the soilders were surprised. As they got closer they saw people in front of the gate selling and buying, while some were on their way out, some were going in, some of them were travelers, business owners and transporters, they wore beautiful and shiny fabrics of different styles, designs and colors, it was exactly as dorian had described, now everyone had believed the wanderer. When the people saw the front line of armies coming ,they were frightened.
Philemon, the leader of the first batch came down his horse and spoke
" fear not, people of Howelbr for we come in peace and with no trouble"
" a hundred armed soilders 'come in piece' ?" a man asked
"well, let's say we are prepared for other wise, but we hope we won't need them or will we?" philemon questioned "
" do we look harmful to you?"
" you never know, they might by a whole army behind that gate"
" sorry to disappoint, we are just a small city living out our days , we didn't expect anybody to show up to the 'cursed land', so please why are you here ?"
" perhaps we got off on the wrong foot, my name is philemon, from greece, we heard of the miracle in this city, and we came to see for ourselves, just consider the soilders as safety measures, and we also have another 5 thousand armies on thier way , * the crowd of people in utter shock and fear *, and maybe another 5 thousand but that's not the case..... "
" that sounds a little more than safety measures to me , but it's not like we can stop you from witnessing this 'miracle ' you talk about, as you've guessed, we have no army , these people are in shock because we never expected anyone to dare step into the cursed land , not even miles from it , all we can do now is beg you to witness the 'miracle' and leave in peace "
" well...., we might do a little more than that , but there should be no casualties if there isn't any resistance" philemon mentioned
"wow so everything the wanderer said was true " a soldier exclaimed with awe
" it will appear so" philemon replied
"now you, go pass this message to the other batch " philemon added
"as you wish my lord" the messenger said with a bow as he hits his horse and rode away, philemon walks towards to man in front of the gate, and spoke
" let's make this easy, we are Greece, one of, if not the biggest kingdom in the world, even bigger than that of Rome, we would like to add Howelbr to our kingdom "
" why are you telling me this, I'm not the ruler"
"there's no king in this city, from my experience, a kingdom with a king tends to be less rowdy, more composed, more stable, everything here is beautiful but in a less composed manner, everybody is doing their own thing , there is no order , they should be soilders guiding the gate , and so on , if there's a king in this city ,he's definitely a drunkard, there might be no king but there's a ruler or rather a leader, I would say a very rich man, who is bold enough to do the things you're doing right now my good friend, therefore I think you're the leader, my surprise is the coincidence that you're here by this time "
"you appear really brilliant philemon... ", "thank you ", "...you're right, I'm the leader ,this is my people my name is maron , a big business man , and it is no coincidence you met me here because this is where I do my bidding, front of the gate , we have no army , we look after ourselves, here-", "really?, interesting....how about crime, how do you subdue them?"
" if there's no needs in the city ,everyone is happy, doesn't completely eliminate crime but reduces it , there are less crime here than your so called biggest kingdom , there are no poor people here, almost everyone has equal riches"
" how's that possible ?" Philemon curiously asked
" calculations, we sell our goods to other kingdom, through our undercover market, I don't intend to tell you all our secrets, but anyways...if you give them equal goods , they will most likely come back with equal money "
" hmmmm, interesting , I really want to know how these works but we really have no time for it, my king will arrive here soon, agree with his terms, and we'll all be fine "
"we don't have a choice, being found alone means that we've been beaten , we lost , you win"
" I wouldn't say it that way , it's more like a.... win-win situation, we both win mr maron" philemon said as he offers a handshake, Maron accepts
" you must come inside the gate , we can't risk getting seen , this much crowd might be sighted from other passersby, it might not look it but we have enough space for all your soliders " maron said
" good point maron but we must await our king". philemon replied.
maron understood and waited
Meanwhile back in the citadel, few days after kleon's huge funeral, a messenger has been sent to deliver the message to king Hector and his troop , the atmosphere felt off, the sadness was still very much present , Thaleia and other maids was still crying , they were still in black, lysandra was standing on the corridor, looking outside the citadel, lost in her thoughts, she still wasn't fully recovered of the event that took place recently , kleon was loved in the citadel, especially in the family , they all grew up with him , he never left, even when he was neglected by his father , his father despised him while he favored Hector because he loved hector's mother the most , it became a competition between Kleon and hector for the throne but no matter kleon's effort his father still preferred hector , kleon almost left the kingdom, before a war broke out , Kleon had to stay and fight for the kingdom, it was obvious that his fight contributed greatly to the victory , he fought alongside his brother and they saved the kingdom but his father was badly injured and was on his deathbed when he summoned kleon , apologized and explained that it was the best interest for the kingdom if Hector became king, due to hector's wisdom to rule and in battle, Kleon understood and supported his brother as king , even though his brother never gave him the same respect he never stopped being at his brother's side, he also was a big part of hector's family life,having no family himself, they loved him so much and now that he's gone , it left a huge mark in the family.
Few days later, some guards came to report to lysandra that the palace has been swept and there was no trace of aslron, lysandra was sad ,traumatized and perplexed , it was assumed that he burnt in the fire with kleon
Days has gone by and everything is starting to come back to normal, the sadness is fading and the citadel was getting lively as it once was, calista and Thaleia had invited helene to the palace to talk about eraga and help him get her ,they sat in one of the high dinner tables ,when helene walked in ,lysandra was present at the table as well, they were eaten, Thaleia saw helene and quickly ran to welcome her and asked her to sit , "nice to finally meet you helene, this -"
"uhmm, I knew you were at the bar that night but yeah it's really nice meeting you, you don't get to sit with royalty that often " helene replied interrupting Thaleia, while she was still standing , calista and Thaleia was shocked and somewhat ashamed, lysandra was confused and definitely didn't like her tone " who is this, Thaleia ?" lysandra said calmly but authoritatively, "uhmm yeah, so mom meet helene, helene meet my mom, the queen " Thaleia introduced.
helene quickly bowed and said "it's an honor to meet you my queen "
"Thaleia, who is this ?" completely ignored helene, this definitely startled helene, "mom, she is a girl eraga is interested in , can you believe it?" Thaleia answered
" no of course not, a girlfriend ?" lysandra asked
"uhhh, no, no, not yet ,at least " Thaleia replied
"what does eraga see in this ?" lysandra interjected
"mom, come on-"
"hey helena, or whatever on earth your name is, what does eraga see in you?"
lysandra pressed, starring at her from head to her toe , helene trying to control her anger said "I don't know your highness, I'm not eraga"
"of course you're not, you can never be -"
" my queen if i may-"
"you may NOT, calista , YOU INTERRUPT ME?"
"sorry your majesty " calista apologized
lysandra exhaled and said "I no longer have an appetite, I will be in my chambers, please entertain your guest "
"ohh..k mom "
she stands up and walked out of the room "sorry about that helene, with the death of my uncle and some other event that I cannot disclose ,she's been a little down" Thaleia apologized
"it's ok your highness, you don't have to explain " Helene replied
"please, take a seat", calista offered
"yes, thank you" helene said
"so do you like my brother " Thaleia asked
"woah, that's really straight forward, but I can't say for sure, he really is nice "
Thaleia scoffed and said "my brother, nice ?, he's very rude and stupid" , Helene and Thaleia both chuckled
"Thaliea don't say that about your brother In front of a guest"
"sorry calista"
"maybe that's why I like him" helene added
" so you do like him ?", Thaleia asked
"I guess so, yeah "
"wow my lucky brother "
"so that means your date with him in the bar that day wasn't ruined ?" calista asked "no, not all, it was actually great, we both talked and laughed for hours after you both left "
" wowww, so he knows how to talk to women ?"
"pffft , not a chance", helene answered Thaleia as they both laughed
"so I guess our invite was unnecessary then"
"no, not at all, I actually love it here, it's really beautiful "
"first time in the citadel ?" Thaleia asked , "yeah, yeah it is , I think it's living up to it's expectations " helene answered, hesitantly "must be nice, so what do you see in him? actually" calista asked
" am I getting interrogated " helene said in her mind "he's really funny, without trying ,he's kind , innocent and a little sweet, you know what ?, I actually told him we had sex when he was drunk and he believed it" helene continued
" really ?, he is such an idiot " Thaleia said and laughed
"THALEIA " calista warned
"ooops, sorry " and they all laughed as the discussion proceeded, then there was single knock at the door .