The day before...
In a luxuriously furnished hall, an obese man sat on silk cushions surrounded by beauties. Sweat poured down his wrinkled face in cloudy drops, often wiped away by the sleeve of his purple dressing gown embroidered with precious stones that scratched his cheeks so unpleasantly.
King Tun enjoyed the company of pleasant ladies while drinking the overseas miracle of 'champagne'. The alcohol fuelled him more and more, and the more the man drank, the more he squeezed his concubine's buttock.
The monarch's rest was unceremoniously interrupted by the guard of the chambers. The man entered the hall and before he could open his mouth he heard an angry tirade against him.
"What the hell, I told you not to let anyone in, I'm busy." Drooling, the fat man shouted, actively thinking how to punish the negligent subordinate for his mistake.
"Your nephew Lin is here for an audience, but if you don't want to..."
"Let him come in." Tun shouted loudly, disappointed to realise that the guard had escaped punishment.
A young man, well-built and well-built, entered the hall with a slender stride, his every movement read army training and discipline, he was dressed in an incomplete armour, over a simple dressing gown, sharp features of Lin's face expressed confidence and humility, and only disheveled grey hair was out of the finished image, which incredibly pissed off its owner.
The young man got down on one knee, and looking at the floor loudly addressed Tun. "Greetings to King Haro, a member of the Imperial House of the Ruyen Empire..." Lin didn't have time to finish his long greeting, Tun struggling with his swollen legs got up from the cushions and quickly, as fast as a very obese man could move, ran up to the young man and put his palm on his shoulder.
"No need to be so formal, we are relatives after all, come on up." Tun summed up his words with a hand gesture and after waiting for Lin to get up, he hugged him tightly.
"Nephew, I'm glad to see you, come on in, make yourself comfortable, I bought something here, I'm sure you'll like it, and you chickens, why are you sitting there, open a new bottle!" Tun turned his head round and roared angrily at the concubines, who, with a frightened look on their faces, took out a new bottle of the marvellous drink from the drawer.
"No need uncle, I came to you on business, I heard rumours that..." Tun did not give a chance to finish his thought and interrupted his interlocutor again with his bass voice.
"Well, what are you talking about your business, yes business, sit down and rest, tell me how you are, we haven't seen each other for a couple of months, I'm sure you have something to tell," Tun looked at his blood and grunted senilely.
"Why are you dressed like a beggar again, you are a member of the Emo clan, and you should actively demonstrate our power and wealth, and in general you have considered my proposal, you are a noble guy, I understand that you have no shortage of girls, but your marriage will help to strengthen the position of our clan."
Tun sincerely loved his nephew: talented, gifted and most importantly loyal, not a dozen times Tun tried to seduce him into betrayal and each time Lin with dignity passed the test, in other words, he was the man on whom the king could rely without a backward thought.
"No, not yet, Uncle, have you received the messages from the abbots?" Unable to endure any more idle chatter, Lin asked the question he was interested in straight to the forehead.
"Yes," the king replied irritably, returning to his previous pillow position.
"What did you decide?" Lin was a proud, intelligent and responsible man - as soon as he heard rumours of the impending invasion, he rushed to the capital, expecting to meet the gathering army, but to his surprise there was none.
Angry at this fact, he ran to his uncle to inform him of the impending danger. And here he was, standing before the eyes of the king, and he did not like his tone, but he listened meekly.
"Nothing, they will manage it themselves, or I gave them the power for nothing, they are the rulers of this land, so let them protect it." Every word of the king echoed with pain in Lin's temples, the maid with a tray brought him out of a half trance.
Taking a glass, he drained it in one sitting. "Ugh." That was his reaction, Lin was essentially a teetotaler, rightly believing that alcohol took up too much time that could be spent more productively.
"But your majesty, we cannot abandon part of our own state to plunder." Lin spoke, and Tun drank champagne with a bored face, the man was frankly bored, and he was looking somewhere in the wall.
"I'll tell you one thing boy now you are young and hot, I was the same, but believe me with age comes an understanding of some processes, and now we just have to limit ourselves to inaction," Tun, in anger tightly squeezed the waist of the concubine, so much so that she even shrieked, letting her moans pass his ears he continued with irritation in his voice.
"Mena, Kali, Kima, are our old adversaries, and they may have agreed to the very factor of my reign, but I am sure in the cellars of their manors and fortresses they are gnashing their vile tongues at my good name and hatching plans for rebellion."
"If they lose, they are guilty of treachery, if they don't, the Chorus will spare them, and I'm not going to save them."
"But uncle, the people may not understand us, our inaction may serve us badly, and you haven't mentioned the Umi clan, as far as I know it doesn't claim much." The concubines looked hopefully at the young man, saying without words, 'Don't make him angry, it will be worse.'
"These buggers can be useful, of course." Tun picked up an empty champagne bottle and looked at it. "But even so they are still a band of murky brigands who are such a nuisance to everyone, I'm not worried about them, they can survive in a volcano, neither magic nor fire can eradicate them from the earth, especially their leader is the only one who hasn't sent me a petition for help." Tun stood his ground, laughing in his heart and eagerly awaiting news of the devastation of the coastal provinces.
"What if they decide to move inland?" Lin did not give up hope to change his uncle's mind, he knew from experience that if you push hard enough, he would most likely back down.
"And this is your headache, you are the manager of the troops, so manage." Tun said wistfully, preparing himself for a long argument.
"I understand, permission to go."
"Eh... yes go, though why don't you stay, they are very good." Said Tun and grabbed his concubine's breasts, forcing a long moan out of the girl.
"Unfortunately I have important business to attend to, so I have to decline." Lin bowed silently and headed towards the exit of the room. Tun didn't bother to stop him and triply enthusiastically embraced the lush bodies of the concubines with sweaty hands.
"Did you hear what you wanted to hear?" Asked a powerful-looking man, his massive figure could not hide even the armour, his face decorated with numerous scars that were more eloquent than any words, removing strands of dark hair from his eyes. He leaned against the wall, waiting for an answer.
"We sit in place and prepare the army, just in case, that's all." Lin winked at the man, who took the hint without a word.
"That's what I expected, let's go, shall we?"
"Yes Turo let's go, we have a lot of things to do." The duo walked quickly down the corridor, scaring the servants out of their corners. Unable to keep silent, Turo asked.
"Do you agree with this decision?"
"No, but it is not for me to judge, the king has given his arguments, and even if I do not agree with them, I will obey, as my duty and honour dictate."
"Duty and honour are bullshit, you're young, you'll understand when you get older," Turo said and roared like a horse, at such moments Lin wanted to slap his deputy, but every time he held back.
A long tongue was one of Turo's shortcomings, and his love of alcohol, women and gambling. After all, even with such a track record, Turo was a glorious warrior, a clever strategist, and a renowned mercenary.
Which in Lin's eyes more than made up for his shortcomings, but he didn't let up and continued to pile on the questions like a cornucopia of questions. 'He'll raise a dead man with his boneless tongue, heh, heh, heh, just so he can't stand his whining and eat half his face off.'
"I'm serious, what exactly are you planning..." Lin interrupted his deputy at half a word, from the opposite side of the corridor a whole crowd of dozens of people came out to meet them: servants and maids, guards, and musicians. Towards the duo moved the procession of the empress, whose outline could be caught behind the backs of her subordinates.
"What are we going to do?" Turo asked with a challenge in his voice, giving his superior a predatory smile.
"Go ahead and smile, I'll do the talking," Lin added after a little thought.
Lin knew his subordinate well, and that's why he decided to explain the elementary norms of decency once again, the mercenary's past was making itself known, Lin had blushed more than once because of his deputy's sometimes strange antics.
"Old chap, who do you take me for, of course, I'll try not to stare at her mountains, at least for a couple of minutes." The men moved closer to the crowd and from its depths a neat-looking man emerged to meet them and holding a massive scroll in his hands, read out.
"Present yourselves before the eyes of Queen Haro, princess of the Imperial House of Ruen, and guardian of the capital's hearth" the charming Arisu of the Sapphire Snake family!