Decades ago, a log trader named Zaar Astrada lived in a small city known as Baron. He used to live with his parents, his wife and two kids. He didn't earn much but enough for his family to survive. Everything was going well until his business started running in loss. He was in a huge debt when he left the city in search of some work.
Somehow he ended up in a land which seemed very prosperous, rich in flora and fauna, had expensive and rare gems and the biggest plus point was that it was not yet discovered by anyone. He decided to live there until he earned the money he needed. He thought he would go back home and clear all the debts before coming to this place with his family.
Several months passed just like that. He was almost done with earning the required amount. As a clever man, he gained a lot of trust from the people who lived there. Once he was about to leave the place, the news of Emperor Charles sending his men to conquer more land spread like wildfire. The people were scared and were in need of a leader, a king in order to avoid Charles slavery. But nobody was willing to take up the charge.
The meeting of all the important men in the town was held for the selection of their leader. After discussing things for days, they chose Zaar as their king. He was well built, strong, clever and had amazing leadership qualities. However, one condition was kept in front of him, he had to marry Scarlet, a beautiful young woman and also the only daughter of the richest landlord in the town. His support was necessary for the stable working of the court and law of the Empire. In greed of becoming a ruler, he agreed to marry her, abandoning his family he had left back there.
All the young and strong men in the town were gathered and vigorously trained. A whole well equipped army was formed before Emperor Charles men would attack them. It took almost a year for the things to settle down peacefully. And that is how the Astrada Empire came into existence under the leadership of Emperor Zaar.
Once everything was settled, power greedy men started opposing the Emperor. They wanted him to step down from the throne, however the number of people who opposed him were very few. Amongst them were the Minatos and the Revons. In order to avoid any inner conflicts, Emperor Zaar gave them a part of the land wherein they will be ruling as Dukes.
The Emperor sent his men to check up on his previous family. The neighbors said that his younger son starved to death. The pressure from the landlords and traders from whom he had borrowed money was increasing. Some bad men tried to lure his wife in order to take advantage of their situation. To protect themselves from those men, they ran away in the middle of the night without letting anyone know.
Emperor Zaar spent his last days in despair, resenting himself for all the hardships his family went through because of him. After his death, when his son took up the throne, the Revons started the conflict again. They were not satisfied by the amount of land they were given. The new Emperor was not ready to give them any more land, not wanting to be unjust with the Minatos.
The incident not only built the rage amongst the Revons for Astradas, but also strengthened their relationship with the Minatos. The Minatos have stayed extremely loyal to Astradas since then. The Revons traveled across the world and selected men skilled in using arms, archery and other martial arts and created the Black Wolves to take down the throne of Astradas. Even the current Emperor's elder brother was killed by these Black Wolves. Elders say that Emperor's elder brother was exposed to the world only to distract the enemies. Nobody knew that the previous Emperor had two sons until he took up the throne.
There is not much written about the Armantos in the history. But Zaar was not the only one who left the city that day. His best friend and his worker, Alex Armanto was also there with him. When Zaar became the Emperor, Alex was the one who lead the army. His loyalty until his last breath is very well known and appreciated by the Astradas. It also inspired the generations of Armantos to give their all to the Emperor and the Empire.
"Brother Jin, did you get any news from Noah or Yoshio?", I asked as we both sat at the dinner table filling our stomachs with delicious food. "Yeah, Noah said that the Duke is asking for huge taxes. He is coming back tomorrow because he doesn't want to delay your lessons. Yoshio will take care of the rest. And what about the book I gave you? Have you read it?" I nodded still chewing on the food in my mouth. I can't wait for the morning to come. I am excited to learn new things, especially from someone like Noah. I also can't wait to see him safe and sound so that I would finally be relieved. I have been greatly inspired by him only in the small amount of time I've spent with him. So, I have come to care for him a lot.
/Meanwhile/
"What did she say?", the man asked his subordinate. "She is not opening her mouth at all. She is pretending to be mute. I don't think we are going to get any information from her", the subordinate spoke nervously fiddling with his cloth. "Kill her!", the man growled in anger.