Chereads / The Legend of Shadow Knight / Chapter 24 - Royal Palace

Chapter 24 - Royal Palace

The estate walls are created with special stone that was not available anywhere else in the world.

The reason was the stones being native minerals of the Demon Dimensions. When the first king Daksh won the war against the demons, among the many rewards that he obtained, these stones were also part of them.

Of course, if I just say that, you might think what's so special about them.

Here's what.

They can take a constant barrage of attacks from a Ninth Circle powerhouse for over an hour or two. That is without any enchantment or arrays inscribed on it. However, how could a King's walls not be enchanted?

Apart from that, the walls had another purpose.

There were several intricate carvings on its black surface. These carvings depicted the journey of the first king Daksh. First one being the carving of a small child being born in a straw hut to a poor mother.

Then the carving showed how a young boy fought against the bandits that came to loot his house. Another carving showed how a teenager fought with a beast to save his teammates, and almost died. Another carving showed how he defeated his first demon, saving a poor mother and child. 

Like this carvings ended with the last one.

It was a carving of the Young King Daksh using his sword to stab the Demon King who fell on his knees.

That was basically the history of the first king. I had seen those walls several times. In fact, that was a must-see stop for every visitor and tourist of this city.

No matter how many times I see it, I feel a weird feeling in my heart. My blood boils a bit and my heart beats with excessive excitement. I always felt like going to a battlefield and fighting for this great kingdom established by a man as such.

Even that day, with all those grievances in my heart, I still felt that excitement. 

It only dampened when Parvir came back with all the procedures fulfilled. All three of us were led inside through the majestic black stone gates.

These are also made of the same stone. Except the sculptures were a lot more intricate in them.

Once inside, I felt like I stepped into a completely different world. The first thing we were greeted by was the estate garden on the either side of the path. The garden had many exotic plants that were never even supposed to be grown in the Kingdom of Daksh. 

Some of them were from the demon plane and some of them were given by the other kingdoms during the foundation. There were several herbalists and plantmages who took care of the gardens for generations.

Most of these garden plants and trees have only purpose. To secrete good energy that increases virality. In fact, even as I walked past that garden taking a breath of that fragrant air, I felt the swollen lip heal slightly with a warm current of invisible energy enveloping it.

If even I could feel the effects just by walking past it, a normal person could be cured from a life-threatening injury just by sitting there for a few minutes,

However, the most it does right now is for the toddlers of the royal family to have food fights in the name of picnics.

After that patch of garden is over, the next are the water fountains on either side of the path. Actually, there are large pools of water on either side and inside that pool are water fountains. All of them are great sculptures.

One of them is the sculpture of a merman, the second one is the sculpture of a man that shaped that looked like he was made out of rock, of course the sculpture is made out of the rock as well, but you know what I mean. He is built like 'The Thing' from The Fantastic Four.

The third one looked like a Minatour, except instead of the bullhead, he had a boar head.

Then, there was another sculpture of a wereman. Or to be precise a werelion. He is very similar to a werewolf, but instead of a wolf, he has the features of the lion.

Those were all on one side. The other side had different four sculptures and all of these were women.

One of them looked a bit boorish. Muscles like a man and taller than most of the statues there. A large bun and she also held an axe that looked similar to the one Duke Paras wielded.

Another statue was of a dwarf woman. She looked like an adult sculpture that was made on a smaller scale. The third statue was of an archer. A woman, who wore a mask that covered the lower part of her face.

The last one might be the statue of the most beautiful woman there ever was. Just by looking at the statue, I felt some kind of attraction. She held a flute in her hands.

Four on one side, four on the other side.

As we walked past that, we came across a circle in the middle of which there was another smaller water fountain. This one was also a woman who sat in a meditative pose. Not many people know about exactly what the significance of these sculptures was.

Most of the kingdom never even saw them anyway, so most people don't know, but the ones that does know definitely inquired and came to find out their significance.

Those are the statues of the Demon Dukes. 

That's right. According to the legends the Demon King who was a threat to the Daksh kingdom, had nine underlings just like how King Daksh had nine Dukes under him.

All these Dukes were much stronger than the first Dukes individually, and the legend has it that the King has slayed all these Demon Dukes himself.

There was also another legend that said those statues had some remnants of the Demon Dukes within them. Those were the trophies of the first king Daksh.

After walking around that fountain, there was another arch that led us to the inner grounds of the palace.

There was another small garden and past that was the entrance to the palace. The entrance was a bit elevated, one had to walk through the stairs to reach the hall of the king's palace, and past that was the courtroom.

The palace doors were carved out of a special type of ivory. It depicted another scene of the first king.

Him standing straight with his sword in his hands and there were nine people standing behind him.

All ten of them, the ten heroes of the Daksh, ten founders of the Daksh.

The doors opened automatically as Parvir stood in front of them.

All four of us walked in. Massive pillars on either side of the courtroom are carved out of what you could consider the world's marble, only it will cost a village to buy enough to build one-tenth of each pillar.

Each pillar was so wide that it took three grown men to hug around him while holding hands.

These white pillars contrasted with the misty dark floor that looked like it was made out of Granite. And once again, the material could have cost another village for a square foot.

On either side of the path, there were many luxurious chairs carved out of similar white-colored stone. All facing towards the path. Those were the seats for the ministers, generals, and other court officials.

At the end of the path, there was a platform that could only be accessed by the stairwell in the front. The stairs were carved out of the same material as the seats of the court officials. Maybe that was indicative of something like the status of the court officials, but they looked good at least.

On top of that platform laid the throne that many a seat craved to the very being of their cell. The throne was not exactly dazzling. It didn't have gemstones and ornaments embedded into it, it wasn't sparkling like those in the fairy tales.

Rather, it was made out of bones.

The bones that came out of the skeleton of a serpentine dragon that acted as the mount of the demon king. All the bones that made its body and spines were modeled as the chair. On the right side of the chair beside the armrest, laid the skill, and on the left side, there was the tailbone of the dragon.

It had such a menacing aura.

One might argue that it looked a bit inauspicious to have a skeleton as a throne, but that did look great and powerful to the eyes. And the best part was that the skeleton was fully comprised of black bones. That's right, that skeleton was not white, instead pure black.

It provided a great contrast to the whole platform.

On that throne sat down the great king of Daksh.

A lean and muscular build. A darker complexion than that of wheat. Soft hair cut short, a black-colored crown on his head. He wore golden-colored robes that looked like they were woven out of pure gold.

His eyes are of pale blue color with his pupils being slightly silver.

The man oozed royalty.