Chapter 135: Ch. 135 - Black Market

As Henry finally descended onto the scorched ground near the edge of where his beam had struck earlier, he was greeted by the familiar face of a man rushing out of the castle's doors. Following behind him were the servants and Ironhold knights who were probably tied captive inside.

The man in the front, whom Henry knew as King Rodric of the Kingdom he was stepping on, courtesy of the countless birthday parties that this man attended, tripped and fell just in front of Henry.

"You saved us! My Kingdom! Thank you!" The man bowed his head, his forehead almost touching the dirty ground.

The unexpected action coming from a King almost caught Henry off guard. The man looked so pitiful that he instantly felt something was wrong, the entire scene wrong, like something was out of place.

The people behind him followed suit and knelt on the ground, constantly expressing their gratitude to him. Some were crying while others had relief on their faces.

'Now that's what genuine gratitude should look like…' Henry turned his attention to the pitiful King who still had his head glued to the ground, 'Unlike this one.'

"King Rodric, am I correct?" Henry helped lift the man off the ground.

"Yes, yes, it's me. You must be King Henry, the things I've heard about you are really true, you are really as kind and benevolent as they say you are." There was a strained smile on Rodric's face.

'Now I'm sure this man is acting.' Henry mentally frowned. If it were other people, they might've fallen for the act but thankfully, Henry's senses are sharper than normal.

Even his instincts were telling him the same.

"Allow me to formally show you my gratitude. The castle is quite a mess, but I'll have my servants cook something for you, for the trouble."

Henry glanced at the pitiful servants behind him, the man didn't even bother to see if his cooks were in the proper state of mind and body to move around the kitchen.

"No thank you. I have another reason as to why I'm here. In the meantime, get your men to open the gates and let my army through, they'll help clean up the mess."

Rodric nodded his head several times, quickly barking to some knights, "You heard the man. Open up those gates and help them clean up!"

"Yes, Your Majesty." They stiffened up and rushed away to do as told.

Henry watched them leave and continued, "Let's go inside. You and I have a lot to talk about."

"Yes yes, talk. We shall talk. Please, follow me." With a shivering smile, Rodric led him inside the castle while the servants parted ways to give them space.

———

Inside was indeed a mess as Rodric had said. Food was strewn all over the floor, the curtains had smudges as if someone wiped their dirty mouth and hands using them, even the throne wasn't spared, the familiar flag of the Thorgard Kingdom lazily hung on the backrest.

Rodric gave him a discreet look of 'I told you so' before looking away.

After removing the said flag, almost in an angry manner, Rodric sighed in relief as he sat on it.

"Mind telling me what happened?" Henry finally asked.

With a solemn look on his face, Rodric narrated, "It was a fine morning yesterday, I was with my beautiful wife and daughter. All of a sudden, that morning turned nasty as soon as my men on the walls saw the Vikings' army from a distance. We…lost many people as we tried to resist with everything we got but ultimately failed." With a sniff and wipe on his eyes, he continued, "Thankfully, I was able to send my family away just before they occupied my Kingdom."

Henry simply crossed his arms, "Are you sure?"

Rodric almost froze for a second but was able to rein himself back in, "Y-Yes. That's everything that happened, I witnessed all of it myself." He shifted uncomfortably on his throne chair.

Henry tilted his head to the side without his eyes leaving the man's face, "Well that's weird isn't it? There was no sign of any large or even small-scale battle near the walls, surely the Vikings wouldn't have had enough time to clean everything up, am I right?"

Faced with this question, Rodric gulped a mouthful of saliva. He tried to open his mouth to spew yet another lie when all of a sudden, Henry closed the distance.

Now their faces were a few inches away from each other, once again, Henry asked but this time, there was something unearthly in the tone of his voice.

It was soothing, like how a mother would coo to her child, "I want the truth, King Rodric. Tell me what truly happened."

That series of words flawlessly reached his ears, and before he could control himself, his mouth opened up on its own and the words that came out didn't match his thoughts.

"I…I was blackmailed. I discreetly bought myself a child slave on the black market a week ago. The Vikings somehow caught wind of this. It was all a trap, when I let their single carriage enter through the back gate and into my castle late at night to meet the buyer and the child slave I ordered, it was already too late."

The man's grip tightened on the armchair of his throne, his eyes turned red while his voice quivered; it was as if Rodric was trying everything to stop his mouth from revealing the truth.

On the other hand, Henry's expression had already turned dark right at the moment he heard about child slaves and the black market. He didn't need to hear the rest of the story, he could already predict what happened next.

With a deep sigh, he released control of his powers over him. Being able to force the truth out of someone wasn't a magic spell. Rather, it was the blessing that he received from Grand Pabbie.

Back then, the rock troll told him how the blessing would allow him to see through lies and illusions, and eventually force the truth out of someone once he mastered it.

And it just so happened he achieved it a week ago, making it one of his most lethal weapon against spies and those who seek harm against Lioncrest. With it, he flipped his entire castle upside down, cutting down all the spies starting from servants up to closely tied merchants who've been serving Lioncrest for years.

Thanks to that, he was able to implement his Government Plan with ease, which he was initially unsure about, whether to give power to people over the Kingdom without being sure they're the proper ones to hold those positions.

Henry turned his attention back to Rodric who is now sweating profusely. Now that he's out of his control, the man's next words turned into a blabbering mess. The man wanted to pull back everything he just said but it was already too late, his mouth betrayed him and already spewed everything Henry should know.

Henry gave the man a smile that promised something, "Not only did you try to buy yourself a child slave even though I banned it personally years ago, but you even have a wife and a daughter at the same time? Not to mention, your actions dragged your entire innocent Kingdom to suffer along with you?"

Henry clicked his tongue and shook his head, "If that's the case, Rodric. You definitely already know what happens to pedophiles."

Seeing the man speechless, Henry continued, "You see how this looks, right?"

"So, who is your connection in the black market? If you don't mind me asking, of course." This time, Henry didn't force the truth. There's no reason to do so now that the entire thing is out in the open.

With a look of defeat on his face, Rodric finally spilled the rest.

———

"They're letting us in?" Back at the front of the gate, General Liam and his men were surprised to see the gate open and several knights belonging to the Ironhold Kingdom were gesturing for them to come inside.

"You think it's a trap, General? We could send a few men to test the waters." His close aide asked from his left side.

General Liam fell into deep thought. He came here fully prepared to siege the walls, yet everything that happened so far wasn't what he expected.

"Prepare a few of our best archers and send two men ahead. We'll march with them but at a slower pace. Have those archers ready to shoot their shot in case the two are attacked."

And just like that, they marched slowly while two men with the fastest horses ran full speed ahead.

Even now, he couldn't get his mind off the giant flame figure causing chaos in the middle of the Kingdom earlier. For some reason, there was no sign of large burning areas and there was no smoke emitting from the center indicating a fire.

It's as if everything that they witnessed earlier was nothing but a dream. The closer they approached, the more Liam realized that perhaps the flame giant from earlier wasn't on the side of the Vikings but the opposite.

'But I don't recall Ironhold Kingdom housing such a powerhouse within their ranks.'

Finally, the answers to his question came in the form of his observation. The two men he sent gave them the gestured signal that it was safe to approach.

And approach they did. Due to the gates still being open, and a large one at that, General Liam discreetly peeked inside and what he saw didn't make any sense.

The structures were fine, houses looked recently furnished and even the streets were clean, or at least a few parts of them. Liam saw a few charred corpses on the ground being dragged and pulled out of the way.

This entire scene is enough evidence for Liam that what they witnessed earlier wasn't a trick of the eye or an illusion. It was very much real.

And that was the first question he asked the knight whom he assumed to be their current leader, "We just saw a Flame Giant in the center of your city earlier. What was that?"

The knights exchanged a few looks of confusion with each other before the leader hesitantly asked, "You mean, you didn't know, sire?"

This time, it was Liam and his men's turn to look confused, "Was that something I should know about?"

The leader nodded his head, "It was your Highness, King Henry. He cleaned up the Vikings himself, save for a few who survived for some reason. He then proceeded to tell us to let you in."

"I'm sorry what?" General Liam blurted out, almost shouting.

With a nod of his head, the knight continued, "He's currently in the castle with King Rodric. I'll lead you there."

———

Once Henry got everything he needed, he allowed a satisfied smirk to plaster his lips, "It was a good talk with you, Rodric. I appreciate your honesty."

Thud!

"Your Majesty!" The familiar voice of Liam followed suit after the loud banging of the door.

Before Liam could even ask anything, much less open his mouth to speak, Henry already threw several orders for him to do, "Ah, speak of the devil, Liam. Kindly arrest Rodric here. He has crimes to answer for. And also, send some of your fastest men to fetch a pair of mother and daughter in the south."