He started to strangle the child with all his might. The poor little kid was starting to lose his breath, when suddenly a small knife flew his way and pierced that man's shoulder.
He immediately let go of the child as he fell to the ground groaning in pain.
"How... how dare you hurt me!? Do you know who I am!?" The wicked man tried to express his authority even though his situation was miserable.
The man who threw that knife couldn't contain his laughter anymore as he finally burst.
"Pfft! Hahaha! Why? Do you have any memory issues? Do you not know yourself? Stupid man! Even in such a situation you dare act cocky?"
The man bent closer towards him as he had a deadly look on his eyes. Even though he was so close to his face, that wicked man was not able to see his face as the lower half of his face was covered by a piece of a black cloth.
His appearance was so domineering as he coldly spoke with a sharp looking eyes, "Get out of here, you pathetic lowlife, Scram!"
He was terrified to look at him. He gather himself quickly and distanced himself from him.
"You! You all! I will remember this! I will be generous and give you 2 days to empty this village and go to the wasteland in the middle north-west, get out of this capital and die on the outskirts of this country. Not only this village the other two neighbouring villages as well. If you don't heed my words, I will bring out a huge army of the king to kick you all out as per the King's order! Hahaha."
"You still didn't leave? Want me to put holes on your legs now? Huh?" His cold and terrifying voice made the man run for his life.
Ira who was watching all this from the side lines, couldn't help but hold her tummy and laugh like crazy seeing Amar act like a local yet powerful thug!
The villagers were happy that they escaped from him, but they were a little concerned about who those thugs were.
Ira showed herself from behind the bushes as she looked very delightful.
"That was a great performance! Good work!"
Hearing her words, the people were a little confused.
The elder broke the silence.
"Young lady, you mean to say that these are those King's soldiers? But why did you have to help us?"
"It was not my intention to help you all. Our Lady here couldn't ignore such impudence."
Hearing Amar's words, the elder was a little touched. But that doesn't change the fact that they had to leave this village along with their neighboring villages.
They were already in a sorry state. All that they had was their homes, but now, even those are being robbed from them. The elder couldn't bring himself to accept the fact that he raised such a vile human as his son. He held his chest in disbelief as he stumbled on his own steps.
"Elder!" The villagers were petrified to see the elder week on his knees. Even though the elder's son betrayed him and the people, the elder was someone who stood by the path of justice.
He always thought in the best interest for the people. That was the reason for their trust and immense respect in him. Seeing him in that situation broke their will to survive.
*Claps*
Everyone's attention was suddenly taken by Ira who was clapping her hands nonchalantly.
"Now-now, everyone, don't surround the elder like that. Let him breathe..."
She walked closer to him as she leaned a little to the front and stretched out her hand to him.
"Grandpa, are you okay? Do you feel ill anywhere?"
Unknowingly the elder grabbed her hand and stood up on his feet. He slightly nodded his head indicating a 'No', which earned a brief sigh of relief from the villagers.
"Elder, what do we do now? We are to leave this village and go to the outskirts of this country? Impossible! We will either die of starvation or by war!" The people started to look discouraged.
Ira cleared her throat and tried to draw their attention. The elder and the people were curious what she was going to do next. But surprisingly, she just asked for the map of the capital and squatted on the ground.
"A map? But why?"
Ira was so focused on the map that she barely heard what they were saying. The map that she was looking at now was something totally different from the world she came from. But it was somehow easy for her to understand it.
She studied the map thoroughly and asked them a few questions as she pointed out a particular place at the map.
"Elder, this place what is here?"
"That is a popular town with a very famous market in the country. It is said that, there is nothing that cannot be found in that market. What was it called again?"
"Champa market." Amar gave her the answer.
'Wait! Champa market? Isn't that the place where I met my brother for the first time?'
Ira had a smile plastered on her face as she happily pointed out another place on the map.
"This place has quite a good potential to act as home for all of you!"
The people had no idea what she was talking about. The wasteland that she pointed out had nothing. They could not even depend on farming as a livelihood. The all looked at her with questionable gazes.
"Hahaha. You guys don't trust me? Well it's fine. Come here, I will explain. It's our luck that they gave this particular wasteland to you all. See this is that popular town with champa market. As you have said there is nothing that could not be found in that market. But how do they get their resources? We are surrounded by two other kingdoms, in the left we have the great empire of Chaim's and in the right were are surrounded by the empire of Kail. Our country Surasena does trade with these two big shots. They route that both of these kingdoms use is this wasteland to get into our kingdom and vise-versa.
You were talking about livelihood... yes, we can use trade as our livelihood. We have to make sure that they both pass through us to get to the champa market. For the starters, we can set up a few inns for the merchants to stay and spend the nights, later when we have enough money we can perform trade and act as a middlemen between them...."
After hearing to her explanation, the elder was quite shocked. He couldn't believe his own eyes to see a little girl talking about finance and trade. But some of her words were a little hard to understand.
"Young one, what do you mean by bi...bi..big shorrts and sttttarrterss? What does those weird words mean?"
Ira scratched the back of her neck as she tried to explain.
"Well.. big shots means... ah... like someone important or influential... and starters... it means... like... how should I explain this one.... like something to begin with? Anyways don't look into the details grandpa. Gather the other villagers and let them know the situation. Even though what I explained is not something so simple, we have nothing but accept the fact and act accordingly before it is too late..."
The elder was in an awe with the way she was handling the situation calmly and even found a possible means to overcome it. Just like she said he gathered them and explained the details.
Hi All,
Here is a chapter for you all. I was literally so busy that I had no time to write. Please forgive me. But rest assured, I will write whenever I get the time and update a chap for you guys!
If you like my novel, give it a vote.
Thanks for reading!