"After my mother died, my father married a bitch called Salesi. Together they had Xanali, the red-haired bitch "
"Xanali huh" he noted her name and continued his walk while Gaya narrated the short version of her flashback.
"Since the moment she was born, she got everything I didn't, my father's attention, mother's love, and everything I longed for" her voice slightly broke and revealed the sadness in her heart.
"A few years ago, I asked one of my minions to collect information the Naga land's population and food consumption level"
"Why?"
"Because I saw my father asking for a loan from nearby human kings, he wouldn't have done that if he had any other choices"
"You thought it has something to do with the population and food consumption of your people?"
"Yes, and I was right. According to my minions and spies, my father is liquidating the assets and taking loans from the nobles to run the kingdom. That bastard was driving my mother's kingdom to the ground and I wanted to fix the situation before he could sell the kingdom piece by piece with that Salesi bitch" It was obvious to Michael that Gaya didn't love her father very much by her tone and expression.
"What did your minion find out?"
"That was the weird thing, from the information I gathered, I realized that most of the wealth in the treasury was going to sustain the demand for food. And what made me loathe that bastard of a king was, most of the food we bought went to the prisons, to feed the prisoners"
"Huh?"
"Shocking right? I know. My mother died when I was six months old but I learned that when she was ruling, Nagaland was prosperous and a powerful Kingdom. One of the reasons for my mother's success was her rules, my mother made sure that rapists, murderers who killed innocent Nagas, and all other kinds of evil bastards die painfully. Because of that everyone feared committing a crime which kept the prisons from overflowing with Nagas"
"What changed?" Michael asked as her face twitched in anger
"Salesi and Xanali, they canceled many of my mother's rules saying that it was too cruel. My spineless father went along with them"
"Not all who commit a crime deserves to die, Gaya"
"But when the crimes were rape, killing innocent Nagas, and slaughtering children, they deserved to die. You killed an entire sect for the Rosewood village"
"You're right, those deserved to die"
"Except Salesi and Xanali thought they deserve a second chance.Five years for a Naga who slaughtered an innocent family and three years for serial rapists, what kind of punishment was that? Those bastards treated the prison-like a picnic spot and my father sold my mother's kingdom piece by piece to feed those evil bastards. It drove me crazy and that was why I always ventured out to calm my nerves because I feared I would kill that bitch and my half-sister if I stayed in my castle"
"You still didn't say what you did to deserves to get your meridians broke" she took a deep breath after Michael's question and stayed quiet for a few seconds before continuing
"I wanted to bring Nagaland back to its former glory after I take the throne which rightfully belongs to me. But when I returned to Nagaland after one of my adventures, I heard my father and most of the ministers chose Xanali as the next queen and decided to marry me to some prince of a distant kingdom"
"That's cold, why did they choose Xanali instead of you?" It was true that Gaya is an arrogant bitch but she was also the rightful heir to the throne. From what he heard from Gaya, Michael could tell that her father is too soft to be a king and Nagaland seemed like a place that needed a queen like Gaya rather than a softie like her father who was clearly controlled by Salesi and Xanali.
"Because my father loved her more than me and Xanali earned the people's support with her fake charity works and donations"
"She seemed like a bitch to me back there"
"That was her real face, human. I should have killed her years ago"
"Yet, she broke your meridians, how was she able to do that? If my memory serves me right, you must have been stronger than her" Gaya's face reddened in anger.
"When I heard they chose Xanali to be the next queen, I lost my temper and questioned my father about all the debts and revealed the kingdom's status, crime rates, and every dirty little secret he was hiding, in front of every noble and minister. Except instead of answering, that bastard threw me out of my castle, my own fucking castle but not before I killed his fucking guards and broke his jaw" she made a boxing posture and punched the air.
"So you broke your father's jaw, things are getting interesting" After hearing about her father and what he was planning to do, Michael couldn't blame Gaya for losing her temper.
"He wanted to feed the prisons despite the wellness of my kingdom, so I went straight to every prison in the kingdom and burned them to the ground before they could do more damages to my mother's kingdom. When I burned down the last prison, I lost most of my Arch energy and power, that bitch Salesi and Xanali attacked me at my weakest state. They captured me and brought me to my father, do you know the sentence he gave me?"
Michael shook his head but he had a feeling that it was not a community service. Tears already started to roll out of her eyes
"He wanted to kneel down and ask for forgiveness from the kin of the evil bastards I burned down. I'd rather die than kneel down and beg for forgiveness. And human..." she paused for a moment and when Michael looked at her face, he saw her eyes welling up.
"You were wrong human, Xanali didn't break my meridians, my...father...did...my own father" she then stopped walking and dropped to the ground in sorrow. Her father's betrayal and actions saddened her more than they angered her.
"I may have a father, half-sister, and half mother, human but I'm no different than you, an orphan. I was, am, and always will be" this was the first time he saw Gaya crying and honestly, it startled him to see her like this. However, he hatched a quick plan to exploit this situation in his favor.
" for what it's worth, I think of you as my family, Gaya" he wiped the tears off from her face and wrapped his hand around her shoulder to console her.
Just like he planned, her loyalty towards him jumped from 30% to 42%.
She was far from being his family but a simple lie made Gaya's loyalty towards him increase by 12% in one go. He would only consider her as his friend when she reaches at least 70% loyalty and until then, he decided to lie to her more often to increase her loyalty.
"Now take this pill, you'll feel better. Besides, you look horrible when you cry, hehehe" He chuckled as Gaya quickly pushed his hand around and punched him in the shoulder
"You bastard! Give me that" he honestly preferred this version of Gaya to the silent sulking Gaya. And by giving the fake pill, he managed to soothe her sadness and anger.
"So are you going to join the Guardians?" after swallowing the pill and wiping away her tears, she asked.
"About that, what is this Guardian Guild?" Surprisingly, Gaya didn't seem shocked but let out a stifled laugh"
"What would you do without me? Guardian Guild is like the Adventurer's guild but more powerful and influential. They are the law enforcers of the Elon Continent, in other words, if you want to rule this kingdom, they will stop you unless you join them and abide by their laws"
"Law enforcers" he was allergic to that word. Back on earth, the law and the law enforcers were his biggest enemies. However, on earth, he had no power to fight the law units head-on but in this world, he had all the means to destroy them if they stood in his way. He dreamt to control and rule this world from the shadows and he wouldn't let anyone stop him from turning that dream into reality.
"Where were they when Ralphy burned down an innocent village?"
"They may have done something if anyone survived the massacre and complained to the Guardian Guild. Even then, it was highly unlikely because the Guardian Guild would send someone to investigate and they will take their sweet time. When they finish investigating, either Ralphy would have killed the witness or he would have bribed someone in the Guild to make his case disappear. You have to be rich and powerful to get justice from the Guardian Guild, human. The Guardian Guild may have served everyone when it was found but now, it's all politics. And that's why no matter how great you are, you can't become a high Guardian, at best, you can become a bronze tier Guardian"
"Typical" It was not a big surprise to him to hear about the Guardian Guild because it was like every law enforcement unit on earth, slow, inefficient, and plagued by politics. Of course, they kept everyone in order on earth and all hell would break if there wasn't a law unit like police in a country. Considering Michael was a criminal, he never liked the law enforcers and never would.