In the Palace, Erefeild is meeting up with one of his most trusted subordinates.
Lord Erefeild: You understand it, right?
The official: Yes, my lord. I will carry it out as you requested,
As for White and Juvian, they are ready to leave the house and return to the capital.King Juvian walks into his office, then a few minutes later Lord White enters King Juvian's office.
The Courtier then takes out a batch of documents,
King Juvian: Lord White,
White then walks to King Juvian and stands beside him,
King Juvian: What do you think?
White leans down and looks at the document,
Lord White: Deliver the message back to Sir. Vess,
Outside of the capital to the north, Lord Vess's mansion later receives the message,
Lord Vess's assistant walks into his office and hands the letter to him.
Lord Vess then reviews the details of the letter,
Lord Vess: Deliver the meeting request to the House of the Maefen, and inform Lord Devien too.
The Assistant: Understood, my lord.
A few days later, both parties have gathered in the central hall of the capital,
Lord Vess then walk in the hall, as he look around, he see lord Devien and his right hand man standing and chat with each other. He then walked toward.
Lord Devien then heard someone calling his name from afar. He turned around and saw Lord Vess walking toward him. He lifted his right arm and waved to Lord Vess.
Once Lord Vess reached him, Devien hugged Vess and laughed.
Lord Devien: Vess, it's good to see you well.
Lord Vess: Same here. Anyway, we should be on our way now. I believe the house of the Maefen will be here soon.
Soon after the house of the Maefen arrives, both Lord Vess and Lord Devien walk into the meeting room,
Lord Vess: As we have already requested, on the west of the capital
Me: Skip, let's move on
In the Palace, Lord White is walking alone in the hallway; Then Erefeild zones out. As he keeps on walking, he notices that White is in front of him,
Erefeild immediately stops and stares at White. He then turns around, takes a few steps, then pauses. He turns around as White walks even farther.
He then walks toward White but just a few steps, someone suddenly shouting for White name. Erefeild immediately stops. His eyes widen, his mouth opens slightly.
White then looks around; he sees Marcus running toward him.
Erefeild is frozen as he stands still, watching Marcus and White walk away.
Erefeild smiles, his eyes tearing up, his chest lightened as he laughs.
Erefeild: Have God finally had mercy on me?
A few days later, in the south of the kingdom on it border gate,
a group of merchants and their man with the carriage
One of the merchants then looked at the gate and noticed there were more guards and soldiers at the gate than usual.
Then try to turn back, but one of the guards immediately shouted at them to stop.
7 soldiers immediately ran toward the carriage; 4 soldiers walked to the front of the carriage and questioned the merchant, while the other 3 soldiers looked around the carriage
The Soldier: Apologies, but we must inspect your carriage.
The Merchant: We are about to leave, so I don't think it is even necessary. Sir
The Soldier: Apologies, it is our duty
Two soldier then get on the carriage and grab the horse's reins away from their hand.
The Soldier: Please step out of the carriage as we inspect it
The Merchant: You can't do that,
The two soldiers then push the merchant to get off the carriage, and the man that the merchant hired to assist them is also ordered to get off.
The 3 soldier in the carriage is look around on it, is a bunch of valuables, some goat and beef hanging. Then he took the box of vegetables out; the floor of the carriage was unusually thick.
One of the soldier immedately jump out of the carriage and called for the other 4 soldiers to assist him; he then walked to the opposite side of the carriage from the merchant,
One of the soldiers bent down and looked under the carriage,
The Soldier: Usually, a carriage for carrying goods is normally this thick when it comes to its lower part,
Another Soldier: You think it had something in it,
The Soldier: Maybe
Another Soldier: Let's call the commander in
The Soldier then does a hand sign to the archer in the tower, and the archer shouts to the guard on the ground.
The Archer: A request for the commander's represen
About an hour later, Commander Gaden Pouran arrives.
Gaden then gets off his horse and walks toward the soldier.
The Soldier: Greeting, Commander
Commander Gaden: Detail?
As for the Merchant waiting, the soldier notices the Merchant keeps on walking back and forth, tapping their feet unusually fast, and keeps looking to the forest, then back to the soldier, over and over.
And one of the man just sitting still, sweating heavily, while another man is rubbing his hand aggressively and mumbling to himself.
Commander Gaden looks at the carriage.
Commander Gaden: Rip the carriage open
The Soldier: Yes. Sir
The Merchant suddenly heard a loud bang from their carriage. They then walk closely to each other.
The Merchant: Hey, this is not worth it. I want to get out of here right now. Do something,
Then a soldier shouts from the carriage,
The Soldier from the Carriage: Hey, handcuff all of them.
The Merchant immediately turned around and ran. The soldier went after them, but suddenly something exploding infront of him; and two merchant flying cause their arm to break.
Then Gaden walked out of the thick dust.
A group of soldiers immediately got on top of the merchant and the assisting man, to hold him in place as they struggled to break free.
Commander Gaden: All of you will now be detained and charged for smuggling illegal items,
The merchant shouted, struggling to move as two solider pressing him down to the ground, his eyes tearing up and drooling as he cried.
The Merchant: Please, I beg you, let me go. I have kids. If I don't sell these goods to my customer soon, they will starve to death.
The man that the merchant hired hit the soldier, then another soldier ran toward him and pushed the man's head to the ground.
The Assisting man: Get away from me. If my son dies because of you, I'll come back to haunt all of you after my death.
Gaden, keep staring at the merchant struggling; he then hears a faint voice calling his name. With each passing moment, the voice gets louder.
The Soldier: Commander,
Gaden's body jerked; his eyes flickered.
The Soldier: How should we proceed next?
Commander Gaden: For now, imprison them in any case that all of you are being manipulated or forced to commit this crime. We will give you a 60-day window to get a Law Expert to represent you in the Legal Court.
Merchant then shouted back at Gaden.
The Merchant: How are you expecting us to get a Law expert? I have 6 kids, I'm barely able to get a plate full of food on the table, and you're expecting us to be able to hire all of those dam greedy so-called experts. If you think that's the only solution, just kill me instead.
Gaden pauses,
Commander Gaden: Take all of them away.
Later on that night, Gaden sat in his office and stared at the moon, then suddenly someone knocked on his door.
The Soldier: Commander, we just got something; it needs your attention, sir.
Gaden stood up, opened the door, and walked to the carriage.
The Soldier then handed Gaden a list of what they found on the carriage,
Commander Gaden: What? Why are there so many?
The Inspector: We have counted a total of 34 big bags of highly concentrated pure powder drug, especially the fact that this merchant is not linked back to any kind of organization or any big group of criminals
Commander Gaden: Something must have changed. Report this back to the Palace immediately.
The Inspector: Understood, Sir.
The Report later landed on Lord White Lappen's table,
White: A normal group of merchants had that much,
The Assistant: Yes, my Lord,
Lord White: Who is currently handling this case?
The Assistant: It's Commander Gaden Pouran, My Lord.
Lord White: Inform him, question them, do what is necessary to make them talk.
Back at the border, Gaden walked into the prison cell and sat infront of the merchant's cell.
Gaden sat down
Commander Gaden: Are you doing well,
The Merchant and the assisting man looked at Gaden, then they just turned their head back, and the other just went back to sleep.
Then the soldier hit the cell bar and woke up all of them.
Then Gaden grabbed the soldier's hand. Gaden still looked at the merchant while grabbing the soldier's hand,
The soldier looked at Gaden. Then he let go of the soldier's hand.
Commander Gaden: How about if we make a deal,
The merchant then looked at Gaden.
The Merchant: A deal? What is this,
Commander Gaden: I want you to tell me everything you know. Where did you get so many drugs?
All the merchants then walk closely to each other and, mumbling, they then look back at GadenThe Merchant: We don't know anything; it belongs to someone, but we don't know who they are. They just sent us a letter here and there.
Commander Gaden: I know it is difficult for you if someone threatens you to speak. I can assure you I can assist you.
The merchant's eyes narrow, and grinding their teeth
The Merchant: Can you absolutely be sure?
Gaden pauses and stares at the Merchant.
The Merchant: You not gonna say anything? Well, I need to return back on in the next 3 days, if you can get some food on the table for my kid?
Commander Gaden: Then we have a deal; in return, you will open yourself to me