"How do I know it's not a poison or even you've been sent by the king of Everlight?"
Sander wasn't going to drink an unknown liquid just because she said so. Occasionally Sander would gamble if the odds are pretty good but in this scenario it's not as there were many variables like the obvious what if the liquid is a poison? and even if he drank the liquid what's the outcome would be?
"It won't kill you immediately after you swear your allegiance before my lord, he will give you the antidote as simple as that"
despite Sander's disapproval the woman before him didn't get angry, rather she still continued to talk with him in a calm tone.
"So this is a poison or sort of" Sander's inner voice reminded him. Even after hearing the woman, more questions appeared in his mind than the answers. He couldn't help but remember the master-slave bond because he thought that what if he needed to take the antidote in regular intervals to live, that way he would be similar to a slave to the king of Everlight.
"What about this, I will come to meet with your king as a first thing in the morning and we can talk like civilized people " he was dreaming about taking the throne for himself and had enough of working under a king after working for King Hedor so how could he accept to being someone's subordinate again.
Noticing the woman didn't reply he realized talking won't do much good for him now and looked at the doork.n.o.b in the dim candlelight as he calculated the distance between him and the door. At this point Sander cursed himself for not learning spells that could have gotten him a few precious life-saving seconds.
However, he couldn't afford to think anything else at this moment
"If you let me go now I promise I'll swear my allegiance to your king" Sander started to bluff as he slowly stepped to his right side towards the door
Seeing the woman standing there without making any move as he's just a few feet away from the door, Sander's lips curved in an arc
"Wrong move Minister"
but his smile disappeared when he heard the woman and wanted to shout for his guards but no matter how hard he tried he couldn't even make a sound as a sharp pain appeared across his neck as well as felt something wet running through his chest.
Intuitively Sander grabbed his neck hoping it will reduce the pain he's feeling only in a second to realize his throat was cut. Still, he was unable to digest what's just happened, he remembered the woman speaking but he was sure that he didn't notice she's cutting his throat but it doesn't matter now as his legs gave up on him and the dim light became full darkness before he hit the ground.
Minister Sander's corpse lay on the ground in a pool of his own blood. Killing Minister Sander, Arrora didn't feel any remorse or regret and she had one more thing to take care of before leaving. Arrora controlled the bound energy running through her and gathered a portion of it on her hand. With the bound energy on her hand Arrora turned it into a dark purple flame, it was not as dark as Don's h.e.l.l flame but when Arrora threw it on Sander's corpse it did its job just like Don's as in a flash there was nothing on the ground where Sander's corpse was a moment ago.
After Arrora's figure disappeared from the room, eventually the candle slowly burnt out but before the candle died, its light reflected on a drop of red liquid on the ground beside one of the bed's legs.
The following day was uneventful except for many guards running around the city asking and questioning people about the whereabouts of their n.o.ble employers. Some of the veteran mercenary groups were called out by the n.o.bles to give the task of finding their family members who had just vanished overnight.
Aside from the vanishing n.o.bles the common people got ready to celebrate the coronation ceremony of Warren. When the people heard about this, many were glad a commoner like them is taking the throne and some felt a tiny bit disappointed that the king of Everlight isn't taking the throne for himself.
In a short amount of time, Don's reputation among the people reached high due to his help during the war and due to the money he spent on them. Don would have been disappointed if he couldn't get their trust as he nearly spent half of the treasury helping them or someone could say buying them.
Although the people celebrated Warren's ascension to the throne, they still would have done the same if Don crowned himself except for a small percentage of people.
The Coronation Ceremony celebration started just after the afternoon.
This was the first celebration for people of Emir in a long time, a festival for the whole kingdom to let their worries disappear and be joyful. The streets were filled by children and adults with painted faces smiling and laughing. In the center of the street were performers of every type. There were acrobats and magicians, clowns and dancers. Along the normally dark lane were glistened hundreds of lanterns, illuminating with their flickering candles. Soothing music floated on the warm breeze and showered everyone with its calming effect.
Just like a gem on a crown, the main attraction of the ceremony celebration was the stage built in the center of the town square. It was the same place where Gael also known as King Hedor in Emir had built the stage during the war with rebels to show his explosions. Unlike before the stage now decorated with various beautiful color flowers and on the center of the stage was the throne forged by skilled masters, the dwarves. The throne had various designs delicately carved and etched on it. Seeing from afar the throne glowed on the stage like a moon in a dark sky.
Due to the beauty of the throne people didn't focus on the bulgy thing covered by a red silk cloth in front of the throne guarded by two of Arrora's team.
Meanwhile in the castle Loren was pretty excited as she couldn't stand in one position for more than a second. She just started to walk towards and backwards waiting for her brother to come out of his room.
"Come on Warren, you are taking longer to dress than a girl" Loren said in an irritated tone and when she wanted to scold him more Warren stepped out of his room.
Loren's mouth slightly opened when she saw her brother in fancy clothes that the king would wear during the ceremonies.
The dress was embroidered with gold lines and the girdle made rich use of precious stones and ornaments. He wore a red silk cape on top of a snowy white long-sleeved shirt and a black trousers embroidered in red lines matching the cape. The silver belt he wore had a red gem etched onto it in the center and gave. This was the first time Warren wore a cloth made of fine silk and high-quality magical beast fur which was a symbol of high-cla.s.s status.
"I don't like this" Warren ran his fingers through the dress and shook his head looking at Loren.
If the real King Hedor saw this dress and heard Warren, he would have cursed Warren's whole family because it was the ceremonial dress that King Hedor's father wore when he ascended to the throne.
This dress was gifted to Warren by Don who took this dress from King Hedor's treasury.
"Don't be an idiot brother, this is the type of clothes you have to wear after today" She said then she squatted down on one knee, and unexpectedly gave a standard n.o.ble bow and winked at him, " Your Highness"
"Where did you learn to bow? From the monkeys?" Warren made fun of her as he laughed while Loren stuck her tongue out at him like a child.
"What are you two doing? come on you don't want to be late" Joel came before them while the brother and sister were making fun at each other.
"Alright let's go" Warren sighed and started to clumsily walk behind Joel while lifting the long cape from tripping him.
