I sat upon my throne as my councilmen surrounded me.

These elders of my great nation surrounded me, some with happiness in their eyes, some with anger, some with hate and some with sadness, but not a single one with a proper complaint.

My son stood amongst them, sadness and fury mixed within his eyes.

I felt pity for my son.

My reign would have come to an end soon enough, but under my reign our sovereignty had been lost.

We had lost to the Legion and their Dark God.

My son most likely felt helpless that from his reign onwards, the great nation of Elvenheim would now be a vassal for the Legion.

Our great nation with over a five thousand years of history was now a servant of a nation that popped up a mere few days ago.

The shame I felt as my nation was lost to me was horrible.

I wished I had the power to defend our freedom and sovereignty. In fact no one wanted to surrender, everyone wanted to fight till the last man but we were ordered to by our great goddess to surrender.

She had told the High Priestess that all would be well for Elvenheim and that aside from our pride from surrendering, nothing else would be lost and we would enjoy great prosperity.

So both reluctant and glad at the same time, we surrendered.

We were reluctant to surrender away our sovereignty but glad that no one would die in this war.

I looked towards my councilman and sighed.

King Elvehad: “My people, my councilman, my advisors, my son” I spoke out loud as I glanced over everyone in the room once “As all of you know, this is the final meeting to be adjourned before we declare to the public tomorrow, the outcome of the war” as I said those words, a heavy silenced enveloped the throne room.

Councilman Rhelven: “My liege” I watched as my closest adviser since my ascension to the throne a hundred years ago knelt down before me “Forgive this useless advisor” he said as tears streamed down his cheeks “For three days we've met here every day and throughout these three days we have come up with no solution to live down this humiliation and for this” his sobs echoed throughout the hall “this councilman can only beg for your forgiveness over his inability to aid you in your greatest hour of need” as he said this I myself began to tear up.

Not just Rhelven, but my other councillors stepped forward.

Councilman Elveh: “My liege” Said my own brother, who had voluntarily stepped down from attempting to gain the throne and decided to become an advisor to aid me, fell to his knees as tears dripped down from his cheeks “My brother” his cry echoed across the throne room “For a century I have aided you, but today, on this day, I beg for your forgiveness for not being able to aid you as we lose our country, as we lose our sovereignty” he banged his forehead down onto the ground “I apologise my brother, I apologise for being so weak” and like that my tears finally dripped down my cheek.

No matter what our goddess said, this pain was still unbearable.

For over a millennium we have not had a proper war, so our forces of 25,000 were useless in the face of a horde of orcs, especially one led by a general of god.

One after another, my advisors and councilmen fell to their knees and begged me for forgiveness.

They begged me, a failure of a king, one who couldn't even protect his country from being lost, for forgiveness.

I had ridden towards the fortress we lost to the orcs and had negotiated our surrender myself.

I was a king who had given his country up.

I can't forgive the men and women in this room.

I don't deserve to forgive them because it is I myself who needed to beg for forgiveness.

I slowly got up from the throne and moved towards my councillors and advisors and slowly lifted them up from the ground one by one.

I reached my brother and I grabbed him, lifting him up from the ground.

I held onto his cheeks and I touched my forehead to his.

King Elvehad: “My brother, please do not beg this one, this useless one for forgiveness” I cried “I am not worthy of your apologies, I am not worthy of your tears, so please do not cry for me, please do not beg to me” my brother began to open his lips to speak but I didn't let him “Please brother, do not blame yourself, none of you must blame yourself, for it is the fault of none of you, it is all mine” I said this as I pulled my brother into my embrace.

I had not cried in almost a century, yet today I had cried out more than I thought I had possible.

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My begging and tears instead of placating my loyal advisors and councillors only further drove everyone into tears and sobs.

My brother hugged me with all of his might.

I felt so weak.

So feeble.

The pain was unbearable.

I slowly separated from my brother as I walked towards Rhelvan, pulling everyone else on my way there up.

King Elvehad: “Rhelvan, my closest friend” I said I knelt down next to him “Please forgive this liege of yours, please forgive this friend of yours, for being so useless” I said as I bowed before him, but before my forehead could hit the ground, a dozen hands grabbed me and pulled me up “Let me beg for forgiveness” I roared as I wasn't allowed to let our my sorrow and beg my people for forgiveness, but I was pulled up and all the way back to my throne, before being forced to sit upon it.

They had moved away from me after placing me on this empty throne of mine.

I looked across the faces of all my councilman. The faces of all the people who had followed me for a greater part of a century.

The people who had trusted me to lead our country.

I sat on my throne, wallowing in my self pity.

I had smiled towards the Orc Lord as I surrendered, but now in my throne room I had the gall to cry. To let out my anger and sadness.

I looked towards my son who was on his knees, two single lines of tears flowing down his cheeks.

King Elvehad: “My son” I called out to my child who turned to look at me, the seething anger visible in his eyes “Come to me my son” and with that he slowly walked towards me. I slowly got up out of my throne and embraced my son “I'm sorry to hand over to you a fallen crown, but no matter what happens, please do not let your anger let you do something foolish” I told him “Even in my tears and self pity I know that we would never last in a war against the Legion, so I can only pathetically weep here, in the safety of my throne room, but you must abide your time, for we live much longer than they are capable of, so wait for your time, wait till the time is right before you make your move” I finally calmed the streams of tears coming from me.

My son had also stopped crying as did everyone else in the throne room.

We had all let our feelings out. We had come to terms with our future.

We may not have liked it, we may have hated it, but we had accepted it.

King Elvehad: “My son, obey our goddess, and may our future be bright” and with that I removed my crown and placed it upon the head of my son “From this moment forth, I abdicate, I am no longer King Elvehad, I am just Elvehad” and with that I gently pushed my son upon the throne.

Everyone was shocked at my sudden action, but no one complained.

No one had the right to complain.

Not even I, myself.

I moved away from the throne before kneeling before my son.

Elvehad: “All hail King Elfingried” and with that my roar was accompanied by dozens of other roars as we all pledged ourselves to our new liege.

My son simply cried as he sat on the throne as he watched us all kneel before him.

It was suddenly at this moment when the throne rooms doors were thrown open causing us all to turn around.

Three women suddenly began to walk inside the throne room. Not just any three women. Three 'Human' women walked inside.

My son got up off his throne and was about to yell when he suddenly stopped as he saw something.

I followed his gaze and what I saw made me feel shocked.

It was the symbol of 'her'.

The symbol of the women our goddess told us to be wary of.

The symbol of the human goddess.

Suddenly the three ladies began to smile and I suddenly knew something very bad was going to happen.

-----

Hey Guys, AK here!

First of all, two things.

One, you'll get another chapter guaranteed on Sunday, but maybe you'll get an extra on Saturday!

Two, if you feel the plot has slowed down, I do apologise. I am doing a lot of buildup for multiple events which will pop up all together in what I hope is a glorious fashion.

Nonetheless, I do hope you enjoyed the chapter, may your life have a thick plot.

Love and Peace,

-AK, the slightly getting back on track asshat.