******** Arthur's POV *******

"No. I can't do that my lord. Even if you ordered me to." I quickly answered him.

I don't want to be rude to him and just call him by his name. Especially when he just allowed us to stay in his castle, give us food and water and even gave really expensive items to the injured.

I also want to kneel and apologize to him for what I have done but before I can do that, he just asked me to sit down and casually let it go.

I never met a man as forgiving as him. If it is another royalty or high-class person, I will be immediately executed for my crime.

There is also about the healing item he gave to my injured people.

Healing items in this world are really expensive. Only a really rich person can afford one but he just gave two to my people without asking for anything. I also haven't seen a healing item before in a form of an apple.

I haven't seen golden apples in my life. I only knew about them from my mother's story.

'There is once a really tall beautiful tree about ten blocks in height that suddenly appeared in the center of the world.

Its leaves are really beautiful and said that once a day it drops a golden apple.

It is believed that the golden apple can heal any injury known to man.

Instead of sharing this wonderful gift, mankind decided to fight each other to decide who will own the tree.

Some of them even said that the tree is a curse since if you ate too much of its fruit you will get poisoned and want it to chop down.

Until one day, everyone notices that the tree vanishes without a trace.'

I don't really believe my mother's story but now I have seen a golden apple I'm not really sure.

Did the tree really exist? If so then, did the tree come back to give mankind another chance? His lord was probably been there since he said he has plenty of them.

Now I think about it. He said that he just recently built this place so he must come from somewhere.

"I see." He just said and judging by his tone he is disappointed.

I really want to ask him a lot of questions about himself and where did he come from but he is reading something and I don't want to bother him further.

I was about to excuse myself to leave him in his business when I suddenly remembered something.

"There is also something I want to tell you, my lord."

"What is it?" he said and I noticed that he is now back on reading his book.

"I believe I already told you, my lord, that I and my people are being chased. There is an army chasing me and people and we are barely a day ahead of them."

"How do you know you are being chased?" he asked me while his eyes still on the book.

"By seeing smokes from their camp. We tried to shake them off on our trail but yesterday, we found out that they are still chasing us."

Now I'm really angry at myself.

Not only we asked him to help us but we also brought enemies unto his territory.

"You are a day ahead you say? If there only traveling by day and by foot then there still about 30 thousand blocks distance between us. Maybe even more since the road is not straight."

I was awed on how easy for him to estimate the distance and how he is still calm after hearing there are enemies coming.

"Equipment?" he casually asked.

"All of them have leather armor and stone weapons but the leader will probably have an iron armor and iron weapon."

"I see. Then those people are not a problem. If you don't have anything else to say, you can leave and sleep."

I was starting to say my protest but remembered what happened in the basement.

It only took him one punch to knock me off my feet and he is not even trying at that time.

I also learned that his lord is wise so he probably knows what he is doing.

I just excuse myself after a while and leave his room.

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******* Carolus' POV *******

After seeing Arthur leave, I started to panic.

I can't believe that there are armed people chasing them.

He said that there are only equipped with leather armor and stone tools so I can just take them all by myself but I haven't killed a human being before.

It is easy to kill monsters since you know they are monsters but killing a human being? I don't know if I can do that.

But there are coming for Arthur and his people. I can't just let anyone take them or hurt them.

I just hope the monsters get the soldiers first or they never find this place.

Let's just sleep.

There is no point in worrying about it now.

I quickly closed my book and lie down on the bed.

'The problem of tomorrow is tomorrow's problem.' I just said to myself to clear my mind so I can quickly sleep.

*******

I woke early like any other day.

I got up on top of the castle to see the surroundings.

I see no army heading here and there was no monster incident during the night.

Another beautiful and peaceful day.

I told Arthur that I'm going to the mine shaft to collect some obsidian since even though the two injured people are recovering fast, I'm still worried about them and decided to go to the nether.

The people suddenly suggested to do some work around here like tending the animals, crops, and cleaning but I told them no since there are guests in my home and they are still tired from their journey. They really insisted and will not take no for an answer so I just let them. It is great that I no longer have to worry about the animals and crops. I can just now focus on mining.

I left Arthur in charge of the castle since he is quite smart and dependable among all of his people.

I quickly head to the basement to go to the mine shaft.

I did a quick check on the zombie in the basement in case there are any changes but he still has clear eyes so we are still good.

After reaching the deep side of the mineshaft, I started to think on how to do this.

I don't want to be careless and end up swimming deep into lava.

Maybe I could build like a basin using blocks where I put a single block of lava and pour water on top of it to turn it into obsidian.

After trying to turn a block into obsidian, I learned that you need one bucket of water to turn a block of lava. This is quite hectic since I can't carry plenty of water but luckily, there is a water pocket nearby the lava pool that I discovered so it easy to convert obsidian.

The problem is that it really takes a long time to break one block of obsidian even with my tremendous strength and enchanted pickaxe.

It is great to have a beacon right about now. I wonder if beacons exist in this world? I don't even know if the nether dimension exists so I'm not sure where to hunt for black skeleton heads to summon the wither.

I guess I'll find out when I finish collecting enough obsidian and build the portal.

After busy mining for about half a day, Arthur suddenly came running towards me in the tunnel.

I'm surprised he managed to find me here since the mine shaft is like a maze. I'm glad that he didn't get lost.

He looks worried and I can see the fear in his eyes.

I started to worry.

"My lord, there is an army approaching in the west." He quickly said to me after bowing.

What? Army? They managed to get here?

Damn.

I quickly ran back to the castle leaving behind Arthur who is trying to catch up to me.

I got up on the west wall to see that there is really an army heading towards here.

There is got about 50 of them and I can also see people riding on horses on the back.

They march in formation and stop until they reach about 10 blocks away from the moat.

"I am captain Merek of Xaerin Kingdom. The leader of this army. I want to speak to the person in charge of this place." I can hear someone talking in the back.

His voice is loud enough to be heard all over my territory.

What? They came from the Xaerin Kingdom?

I thought they still at war with the Astikuviel Kingdom.

Did the Kingdom of Astikuviel lose?

I should have asked Arthur about the situation in their place last night.

I can see Arthur running towards me and he looks like he is running out of breath.

"Arthur, take everyone and go inside the castle keep." I quickly told him after he is close enough to hear me.

"What? No! I can fight my lord."

"Just do it." I quickly dismissed his protest.

"Peyton. Bring everyone inside the keep and lock it." He said to the old man who is on the ground looking up to us.

Arthur just stayed and looks like he is not planning on leaving.

Damn. We don't have time playing tough guy here.

I just ignored him and I get closed to the wall to let the people below see me.

"I am in charge of this place. What do you want?" I said as loudly as I can so the person called Merek can hear me.

"I don't know what is this place or who you are but you need to hand over our prisoners." He demanded.

Their prisoners? This idiot is already considering them as prisoners even though they haven't caught them yet.

"And what if I refuse?" I tried to play tough and challenged him to see his reaction.

"Ha! You are willing to die for these people? You don't have an army. I have this place scouted in the distance. Just hand them over so you don't get hurt."

This is not getting good.

I look around the castle grounds to see if there are people still not inside the keep.

I didn't see anyone.

Good. At least the people are safe.

"Open the gates or we will be going to attack." He said after a while since I didn't say anything.

'Don't do it.' I started praying to myself that they will not attack. I thought I was ready for this but I was wrong.

"This is your final warning!" His voice is getting louder.

'Go away. I don't want to hurt you' I keep pleading them but I didn't voice out my cries.

"Fine! Foot soldiers! Prepare to storm the castle!" The soldiers in front equipped with stone swords and wooden shields started to move forward for about 1 block.

'No!'

"Start placing planks so you can cross over the moat and get on the wall! Make sure to prioritize that spear guy since he is a threat. Just ignore that other guy."

'Stop!'

"Go!"

I can see people on the front of the army started moving. About half of them started charging and they raised their shields high.

They are already 7 blocks away to reach the moat.

6 blocks

5 blocks

Time seems to go slow since I can hear their every step and see their every movement.

"What should we do, my lord?" I can hear Arthur asking me a question but I can barely hear him since I'm so focused on the people running towards here.

4 blocks… 3 blocks… 2 blocks

'GODDAMMIT!'

I quickly equip my armor, shield, and sword then jump off the wall.