At the Blackstones' home, Maya Blackstone could be seen sitting on a wooden chair outside, staring straight at the piles of wood in front of her, it was clear her mind was not at ease.
'First Tania and now Jude, my children had both gone missing in a space of a day from each other.' She thought. 'But where could they be that they haven't returned up till this moment.'
Her thoughts were interrupted by a neighing sound, she looked up to see that it was someone she had been waiting for and he wasn't alone.
Both horsemen pulled up in front of her as the one in front climbed down from his horse.
"Did you find him or her, any of them?" Maya didn't wait to start her barrage of questions.
The person who had come down from the horse was a very good friend of Jude who was always welcomed in the Blackstone's family.
Carl was also a fresh graduate from the Knights academy just like Jude, the two had made it back that day from the academy and that same name night Jude went missing.
He was of average height, a little shorter than Maya, his hair was thick to the extent that it grew out to cover his eyebrows.
"We couldn't find him or her," Carl said. "We've searched everywhere around the Kingdom and even outside the kingdom around the safe zones but there was no sign of anybody there."
Maya's face turned horrid on hearing that, what had become of her children?
In that instant a horse could be heard trodding towards them, the horse rider passed the first person who was still on his horse and rode till his horse was beside Carl's.
"Did you find anything?" Carl asked the man on the horse who happened to look younger than him.
That was Benjamin, Carl's younger brother.
"Yes, I did," Benjamin replied, pulling out a small pouch from his side.
On seeing the pouch Carl's eyes brightened but Maya didn't understand what was going on.
Carl stretched his hand and slowly grabbed the pouch as he inspected it. He opened it to see that there were a bunch of silver coins in it but one thing made him sure that it was Jude's and that was the single gold coin in it.
"Where did you find this?" He asked.
"Along the path that led into the goblins' territory," Benjamin said.
Carl turned to his brother with a mean stare, he understood very well what that stare meant, the goblins' territory was a dangerous place but it wasn't much of a big deal as he didn't enter the territory.
"What's that?" Maya asked, pointing at the pouch, what she meant was more like what does that have to do with what we are talking about.
"This is your son's pouch and judging by where it was found, he might be in the enemy's territory."
"Enemy's territory." Maya gasped, now she knew that her son was in real danger.
*****
There was a reason why Felix Blackstone wasn't in the house with his wife and that was because he had come to ask the king for help in finding his two missing children.
He was in the king's castle area and was standing outside the castle waiting to be called in. It didn't take long before a man in light armor showed up.
"The king will speak to you now." He said and led the way as Felix followed him from behind.
The king didn't grant an audience to most of the people who came to complain about one issue or report a problem, the only reason he was agreeing to see Felix was because he was one of the wealthy and well-to-do people in the kingdom.
If you were a nobody who hardly had enough for yourself and probably your family you would have to wait till it was dusk without still getting what you want and all the guards would tell you was that the king had a very busy day.
Doing what? Was always the question in these people's minds as they walked away, he would be in his castle all day and they would tell them that he was busy all day.
Felix had heard all these stories from different people, even when he was coming here, this was the reason why he was surprised when the guard called him in, he hadn't even been here for thirty minutes.
'What nonsense were those people talking about?' He thought, unaware of the influence he had through his wealth.
The king's throne room was in the room on the right just up ahead and when they entered there Felix could see that it was a really lovely place.
Everything from the floor to the rooftop looked like they were carved out of stone and that gave it a nice finishing.
"Mr. Blackstone." Felix heard the king call from his throne.
King Roy, the king of Asaka had taken over after his father died unprecedentedly.
The people believed that he was the one that killed him but none of them dared say that in the open.
He was on a white robe with two red lines running through both sides and he didn't have any crown on, and that revealed his scrunched-up black hair.
His body fitted tightly into his throne that he couldn't get up to adjust himself on the throne, he wasn't this fat at a young age but laziness and a carefree life had turned him into that.
"Your majesty." Felix immediately got on one knee after hearing the king call his name.
"I heard you have a problem, why don't you come closer and explain it to me."
Felix did as he asked he moved closer to him and explained how both of his children had gone missing in a space of one day apart from each other.
"My son just returned from the knights' academy with an A grade and just went missing like that," Jude added in expectation of the king to take quick actions knowing that a prominent knight that will definitely be a good asset in his club was missing, but the king had shown no expression on his face as he listened to what he had to say.
There was a period of silence after Jude had finished what he wanted to say.
"You know, Mr. Blackstone, there are certain conditions for this type of tedious task." King Roy said as a smirk applied on his face, he also had all his fingers against each other but his palms weren't touching.
"What?" Felix asked.
"It's nothing much, the requirement is to agree to pay triple of what you usually pay as tax."
Felix felt like slapping him, beating him, or even kicking him for saying that, he already paid a huge amount of tax due to the king's high tax demand of paying thirty percent of whatever you made, if he was to triple that, that meant that he would be paying ninety percent of what he made leaving him with only ten percent to take care of his needs and his family.
All the wealthy men who had come to ask for the king's help before knew one thing which Felix didn't know despite the high tax payment, there was one thing that the king loved more than anything and that was money.
*****
Mass release goals still remain.
100 power stones or 10 pizza gifts= 3 extra chapters.
500 power stones or 2 dragon gifts= 5 extra chapters.
1000 power stones or a magic castle= 6 extra chapters
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