Chapter 161: Interlude
|Bakun Xerias POV|
Dammit. God, why? Why do I must serve a mentally disabled emperor?
"Haaaaa. Are you absolutely sure about this?"
"Yes, my lord. The emperor gave a royal order to seize all the food we bring from the Western Continent. He said that he was afraid it was a cursed food the Lorian kingdom sent to us. He used that excuse to give the royal order."
God! Why did you abandon me! What do I do wrong for you to punish me like this? If I quit this job, I know the empire will collapse, and my family will be threatened by it, but I cannot take this idiocy much longer.
"Call the 'Blue Cloak' here. I need their service."
"Yes, my lord!"
I did not want to do this, but I did not have any choices. If I break my promise of feeding the people in the capital, the city will be burned to the ground by the peasants. Can't that fat fuck understand this?!? Can't all the people whispering a sweet word to the emperor's ear understand this?!?
They will be dead sooner or later if they keep doing this. I am already on the brink of insanity for all the work I need to do to keep the Empire stable.
Haaaa… Sadly, I need to use the help of my secret group. Blue Cloak is a group of magicians who quit the Tower of Magic after being discriminated against, and that I gather at one place and give them a job and place to stay.
Even the emperor did not know the existence of this group as only a few people know about my secret force. This force is the one that helps me keep the empire stable. From gathering intelligence to killing a loss cause individual, they do it all.
I snap from my thoughts when I see a portal appear in front of my desk. A second later, a man wearing a deep blue robe and holding a staff gets out from the portal.
"You called, my lord?"
"Yes. I have a mission for your group."
"Of course. Command us."
"I need you to create a portal that connects Drallac city to here. Can you do that?"
I look at the man in front of me and see him hesitate for a second before saying.
"Sadly, we cannot do that, my lord."
"Can I ask why?"
"There is a barrier that covers the entire kingdom of Lorian."
"What? Barrier?"
There is a barrier that covers the entire Lorian kingdom?
"Yes. The barrier is subtle and lethal. Because of the massive amount of mana in the Lorian kingdom, most people cannot feel anything wrong when they get inside the kingdom. However, to the people that have a sensitive, magical sense, they will know about it. Even then, they need to concentrate on detecting it. There is another method to know about this barrier that we personally witness."
"What is it?"
"Try to breach that barrier. We try to breach it, and the result is ugly. As you instructed, we will try to send some of our men to the Lorian kingdom, and the first thing we do is to teleport our men to the said kingdom, and then that was when the tragedy struck. When three or four men try to walk through the portal, they immediately fall dead."
"What?!?"
"Yes. Technically they did not die immediately. The people that try to walk through the portal get struck by a curse. That curse is very nasty. It was an illusion. A never-ending illusion. Some of our men experiment with the residual magical spell and find themselves trapped inside the illusion. That illusion tortured her for one year before it broke."
"Wait! One year?!? The Lorian kingdom has not yet reached its first anniversary."
"Exactly. She experiences constant torture for one year, but it was only inside her head and soul, but in reality, she was only trapped inside the spell for less than five seconds. She only experiments with the residue of the spell that is cast from the barrier. Can you imagine how long the people that try to teleport inside the barrier are being tortured? We predicted more than three hundred years. What makes matters worse, we cannot get used to the torture. All torture will feel like the first one."
That is horrifying.
"Yes. It was terrifying."
"Did I say it out loud?"
"No. However, I can see it on your face, my lord."
"I see."
"Anyway, even the magician in the Tower of Magic has a hard time breaching this barrier. This type of barrier is new to us. Runic magic is a defensive magical art that cannot be used as an offensive technique, and the barrier is full of offensive and defensive. We think it was a unique rune that Isaac Lionheart invented."
"I still remember it, anzus or something, right?"
"Yes. The Tower of Magic and us cannot use that rune as we did not understand the foundation of the said rune."
"Haaaa."
I rub the back of my neck in frustration. If we cannot get that food, the rebellion will be happening sooner than I anticipated. I already know there will be a rebellion, but I want it to start in my own time.
I want to make sure my family is safe first, and if the rebellion happens right now, I will be seen as a loyalist to the emperor for my position, and the rebels will kill my family. I cannot allow that.
Wait! If we cannot get inside, what if we get outside?
"Can you teleport outside the barrier? I want you to teleport us as close as the barrier. Drallac city is close to the north-central sea, no? We can teleport a ship there and sail from there."
"That could work. However, depending on the size of the ship you want to bring, we need more than a dozen magicians to fuel the portal."
"Two medium-sized ships should be enough. I only want to buy food that we can use to feed the people in the capital."
"Then I think twenty people should be enough. Twenty-four to make sure."
"Good. Gather all the people that can do it. After you gather all the people needed, we will go to my territory to get the ship we need."
I see the man in front of me nodding his head before getting out of my office with the portal he created. A monster on the battlefield and a monster in magical knowledge. Isaac Lionheart. The more I think about it, the more I am terrified of facing him in battle.
Why can't the emperor see this?
I really hope that bastard did not do anything stupid. The Variks Empire did not need their leader to bite the hand that fed them.
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My mother... She is in pain. She is in the hospital, and the doctor told her that her gallbladder needs to be removed. God. I don't know what to do. I already borrow money from family, use all my money from my original novel, and even get money from a Loan Company, but it is only enough for the surgery and not for the room and the medicine for it.
She is the only person I have that loves me. My father left us, and she is the only person that left for me. Please... Help me... I beg you.
I don't care to be called a beggar. I don't care to be called anything as long as my mother can live longer, I'm willing to be called a beggar.
I don't know what to do.
Please... I beg you to help me. Help my mother. She is the only person I have left in this world that is close to me. God... I-I don't know what to say anymore, but begging you all.
Seeing her still smiling while in pain makes me feel useless. I'm her first son, but all I can do is beg on the internet. As long as I can keep her alive and happy, I bear that insult.
I beg you. Truly. I beg you. I don't know what to do. She has been through a lot these past few months, and I cannot do anything to help her feel better.
You might already be fed up with me asking for your help, but... I cannot go to anywhere else other than here. Writing is my passion, and I want to keep writing, but real life keeps pushing me away from it.
Now... the only person who supports me in my passion is in pain, and I can only watch from the side. The only thing I can do is beg for the kindness of the people on the internet to help me.
You can call me anything you like. You can insult me, call me names, or anything, but please... Please help me. Help me pay the hospital bill.
Thank you for reading this nonsense, and I beg you... I beg you to help me.
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