“Kill them!”
“Kill those Dentrions! It’s one gold coin per head!”
A Katzback warrior shouted loudly and ran out as other warriors followed with shouts.
“Kill those savage Katzbacks! We will not have them run rampant through our kingdom! Protect our family! Protect our kingdom!”
The Katzback warriors had animal felt over their heads and their faces were painted with weird war paint. They charged against the Dentrion soldiers who were ready to fight for their kingdom.
“Fire the arrows! Pull up your spears!”
“YOU!!”
The knight shouted and Dentrion soldiers fired the arrows at once. Katzback warriors held up their wooden shields and began charging faster. The arrows did not hurt them as expected, but it did cause some damage as some warriors had arrows stuck on their various parts of their body.
“They’re coming!”
“Ready your shields! Ready your spears! We must not let them break our defense line!”
The warriors charged into the shields and smashed into them with their axes and flails. The Dentrion soldiers then thrust their spears from behind the shields at the warriors.
“Fight! Fight for your kingdom! Fight til the death!”
A knight shouted and soldiers began taking out daggers to hack away at the warriors’ legs. There was no falling back.
The warriors also fought viciously. The battlefield was chaotic. Blood spilled everywhere and it brought death to all lives. It was when twilight fell upon the field that the horn signaling retreat was blown. The day’s battle was finally over.
Katzback warriors retreated from the field and the Dentrion soldiers were left to find their breaths and stare at the bodies around them. Younger soldiers seemed to be shaken by the war while older soldiers walked around, cleaning up and tending to the wounded soldiers.
“H-help… me…”
“It’s okay, you will survive. Don’t worry.”
“I-I will get… married if… I return…”
“You will, don’t worry.”
“You… You think so…?”
An older soldier spoke to a dying, young soldier comfortingly. The soldier soon fell into a deep sleep, never to wake up again.
“I’m sorry. I’m sorry…”
A tear came out of the old soldier’s eyes as he laid down the young soldier on to the ground. So many others were dead.
*
“Sir! Another war has started! Mijori Kingdom and Farsea Kingdom have declared war against each other! Farsea’s princesses were killed while traveling to Mijori and it started a war!”
“Tei Kingdom from the desert has invaded the neighboring Sadeewu Kingdom’s palace. I think they are fighting over Tawant Lake which is on the border.”
Jackson frowned at Todd’s continued reportings of the war. The world was yet again diving into a time of chaos.
‘All this war will help them in the end… but it’s going too well.’
Jackson thought to himself.
“We will have refugees then.”
“Yes, sir,” Todd nodded.
“Go tell the Donians.”
“Huh? Donians?”
“Yes. The Donians have a huge network across Mijori and Farsea. Let them take the refugees and bring them here.”
“We have too many refugees coming into the city these days. The capital will not bode well with us if we take in more.”
Todd seemed to concerned, but Jackson laughed.
“Oh, so you’ve been thinking a lot.”
Jackson spoke as if he were surprised.
“Huh? Oh! I’m sorry, sir! I didn’t mean to be rude.”
“No. It’s alright. I like having opinions. I’m sure the capital will keep an eye out for us, but it doesn’t matter.”
“Why?”
“Because we need to produce more corn… they will see that we need more people to work on harvesting corn.”
“OH!”
“They can’t block us from having more refugees unless they will send their own people to work in the fields. They can’t do that.”
“I see. We need more people to cooperate with them and give out more corn…”
Toria was being left alone by neighboring countries because they were the center of corn production. If Toria stopped producing corn, the neighboring countries would turn their backs right away and the Torian Kingdom would not have power to fight against all the countries.
‘We need more time… there will be huge chaos after Joonbum comes back. That’s when we will work to grow…’
“Bring all the refugees. Tell that tothe other merchants. Let them know that we will increase the amount of corn we will be releasing to them if they bring in refugees.”
“Yes, sir.”
Todd left the room. The door of the room opened again and Hectos came in this time.
“HEY! Stop sending those foreigners!”
“But I have no choice. We need to conscript refugees for more soldiers.”
“Ugh,” Hectos moaned. The problem of having many refugees was lacking a common language. As more refugees gathered, it became harder to communicate with one another.
“We are teaching them Hangul, so it will get better. It’s a time consuming process.”
“Ugh.”
“How’s the training going?”
“They’re okay, but I’m not sure because I don’t understand what they’re saying.”
Jackson laughed as Hectos ranted.
“I have more people looking for Sir Joonbum. Where is he?”
‘That’s why he came here.’
Jackson quickly figured out the real reason behind Hectos’ visit. He was the only one who knew the real reason for Joonbum’s departure. Even his mother did not know about it this time.
“He’ll be back soon. I expect in a week. You should just let those people know that he’s out on a covert field inspection.”
“Covert field inspection?”
“Yes. That will make them work hard for a week.”
“Oh, that looks like a nice idea. Haha. I’ll go then.”
Hectos ran out grinning. Jackson watched him leave and turned to the calendar.
“He must’ve finished it by now.”
