Tynesday, 7th of Maia, 470th Year of the Fifth Era

Palmerton's King's Hall was quite an impressive structure, especially given the fact that it was constructed in only around a year or so. When he wasn't thinking of how the bandits were oppressing the Halak peoples, Josias could truly appreciate the efficiency in which the Bontarmata operated. Large, sprawling cities weren't a feature of Halak society which for dozens of generations were based on close-knit inter-familial clan systems.

Josias could remember the times his late grandmother would regale to him stories of how the Halak people were once united under the first king and had but a single kingdom with cities that could rival that of even the Banuans of the east. However, looking back on it, Josias had always thought the stories were either gross embellishments at best or complete fairytales at worst.

However there were still many things that could be appreciated from Halak culture. With one of those things - in Josias' eyes - being a culture of shame. A culture that unfortunately was apparently not shared by the Bontarmata, or at the very least the bandits who called Palmerton their home.

When the gates were opened, Josias as well as the rest of the Halak warriors who were playing 'captive' were greeted - or for a better word, assaulted - by a scene that they had never expected to see even in their wildest dreams. It was a scene of pure madness where men and women were gallivanting around in various states of undress and worst of all - without even a care for anyone watching - many of them were even engaging in such carnal acts.

The main floor of the hall was layered with several large and somewhat luxurious-looking carpets. On top of the carpets were various cushions and pillows where a large group of men and women were engaging in the act of procreation without care for an audience. Well, when he said group of men and women, the women had far outnumbered the men as he could only see no more than several men of varying ages with dozens of girls. Josias couldn't help but have his mouth agape in shock.

Instinctively, Josias had brought his hand over his nose before pinching it. The thick smell of incense and other such fragrances did little to mask the debauched and fishy whiff within the air. It was positively and absolutely nauseating. If it wasn't enough for his eyes and nose to be so unceremoniously assailed, the lewd moans, pants, grunts, and sometimes even screams that filled the hall did a good job of creating a sickening symphony.

Josias had quickly exchanged glances with his friends and they all had varying forms of reddened expressions. Josias was no inept idiot. He had enough of an education to know what relationships between a man and a woman entails despite the fact that he himself had no real experience with it. Well, it couldn't be helped. For one, he considered himself a devout christian. But on a real note, being engaged to the daughter of the Archbishop would obviously preclude him from engaging in things one would consider expected from young folks.

Even his friends whom he assumed to have more experience in the matters of sinful fornication - namely Sadrach and Mateus - couldn't help but to have equally shocked expressions as he. Josias only managed to calm himself down somewhat when he noticed that his father had maintained a stoic grimace throughout the whole ordeal.

Josias focused himself back to filter out most of the obscene actions that were taking place and steeled himself enough to give a more objective observation to the environment. At the corner of the hall, he saw a caged priest, kneeling and praying profusely as he closed his eyes. What a poor fate for a man of the cloth to have to bear witness to things that must've been far out of his own sensibilities.

At the end of the hall, Josias could see a throne and upon it was a man who had a similar appearance to Gregory. He could assume that the man was the so-called 'Bandit King George' of Palmerton. The bandit king was wearing only a robe and nothing under it as he seemed busy fondling a beautiful eastern-looking woman, however the woman had features that Josias had never himself seen before. Animal ears and a tail were present upon the woman, namely that of a fox. It was his first time seeing a member of the beast-folk in his life outside of just hearing stories from the elders and the traders. Well that wasn't completely true. Josias was familiar with the snakemen of Nagania, but he hated snakes and hated being reminded of them even more.

Regardless, the bandit king seemed to be enjoying himself quite well, being serviced by what looked to be three women at once. Josias had to give it to him, the bandit king truly was living the lifestyle that many men could only dream of achieving. But the lack of scruples really was something else.

What made things worse for Josias's sensibilities was that many of the young women that were there pleasuring the men didn't look all too willing, and they were mostly Halak girls. What angered Josias inside was when he saw that some of the girls were in fact actual girls that couldn't possibly be much older than his own younger brother. It was insanity and cruelty of the highest degree. Josias even saw one end of the hall where an older man was inducing two women to pleasure each other. Absolutely disgusting.

Just as Josias felt like he couldn't possibly stand this anymore, Gregory had cleared his throat and made their presence known to the bandit king. Gregory had taken a halberd and loudly banged it to the ground of the hall. In almost an instant, he had caught the attention of the entire hall. Even the bandit king - who was in the middle of having his member so voraciously swallowed while engorging himself upon the fox woman's breasts - had stopped what he was doing before he gave his brother a glare, a look of annoyance plastered clearly upon his expression.

The caged priest had also ceased his praying as he gave them his attention. However, the priest's eyes widened when he caught sight of Josias's father who had quickly yet subtly shake his head at the priest, signalling something. As if the priest could understand what his father was trying to convey, Josias saw him nodding before making the sign of the cross with a thankful expression.

***

Gregory could feel the pace of his heartbeat significantly slow down as the room fell silent. The moaning and panting had ceased as all eyes were on him now. All eyes including the now clearly irritated eyes of his brother. However, the irritation only outwardly stayed for a few seconds before George's face contorted into a smile. Though it was more of a predatory smile than any sign of genuine relief or affection at his brother's safe return. His mouth was smiling, but his eyes remained as sharp as ever.

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"...I see my brother has finally returned. I can also see you've decided to bring in quite a few new guests to the party though I would've preferred it if they had cunts instead of cocks." George had pulled back the head of the woman who still had her mouth around his manhood before he stood up and walked a little to the front of his throne with his arms outstretched "But putting all that aside brother, if you wanted to join you didn't need to interrupt everyone's fun like that. As I've said before and will say again, you are always welcome to join us here and have fun too!"

"Brother, I'm afraid this is no time for such frivolities…" Gregory put on his most dire expression to which George's smile had ceased. "There was a reason that I was so delayed in my return from the mission you had previously charged me with."

"What are you talking about?" George couldn't help but tie his robe around his waist as he started engaging with Gregory more seriously. "And where is Lasta? I had sent her with you to provide for documentation…"

"That's part of the problem. She escaped."

"What?"

"Along the way to the village, we were assaulted by a force of warriors among the Halak peoples. We had managed to drive them off and even capture some of them, but in the confusion she had run away."

"THAT BITCH! We've treated her with nothing but kindness! If I knew it'd come to this, I would've-...! Regardless! One escaped savage girl doesn't constitute a grave matter."

"It does if she made it back to her uncle."

"What do you mean?"

"One of the warriors we captured here was a member of the Hutangali king's court." Gregory pointed to Lord Parulian who had stepped forward to play his part "He speaks our tongue well, better than Lasta, and he had explained it to us."

"It is true, uh… your majesty." Parulian said as he kept his head bowed in the presence of the bandit king "I recognised the girl as a member of the king's family. His niece if I'm not mistaken. Her testimony to the king would be reason enough for him to muster all available forces to make a move against you…"

"These men were sent as part of an investigatory force into our realm, brother." Gregory continued the explanation "Luckily for us, because of that, they didn't have too many aura warriors with them and our forces managed to hammer them down and drive them back but we lost many good men along the way. However, not wanting to take our chances, we had no choice but to retreat back to Palmerton. It would take a few weeks for the local king to muster up his forces, but that should be ample time to prepare a defense!"

"Are you being serious, right now?!" George had angrily approached his brother as he finally grabbed onto Gregory's shoulders, his face showing an expression of fear that had all but wiped away any previous feelings of security. The orgy that was happening had also completely stopped as many of the bandits who were on the carpet had started standing up and recollecting themselves as they caught on to George's panic. "Those savage elders had assured us that the local king did not have the backing of his kingdom, yet now you're telling me he can muster a force to crush us in a few weeks?!"

"That's what I've been saying, but what you've just said proves that not all hope is lost."

"Explain, brother!"

"This captive here explained it to me. Not everyone of the warriors the king would muster has their loyalties to him. In fact this captive was working under the orders of the elders to infiltrate the king's men. That's why many of them surrendered easily to us."

"...That… that makes a little sense…" George nodded before turning his attention over to Lord Parulian. "But that still begs the question… What makes you think we can trust you, you damned savage?! How do I know this is not some sort of ploy by your elders?"

"...If you may, your majesty…" Lord Parulian started "If the elders wanted to end your reign, they wouldn't have bothered to go this far to entreat with you. A joint force between the king's forces and our own would be more than enough to crush this village and your forces. No, majesty, for now we have a common enemy and that is the King of Hutangali."

George looked to be in deep thought as he was standing very close to Lord Parulian and Gregory. He nodded, signalling Lord Parulian to continue his explanation.

"Alone, the power of the elders would be enough to challenge the king, but the aftermath of such a bloody struggle would only leave us vulnerable to the predation of the King's allies and their neighbours." Lord Parulian explained "However, if the forces of Palmerton were to aid us in the struggle, we could formalise a plan. If your majesty agrees to our further cooperation, allow me to write a letter to the elders at once and we can devise a plan of ambush and crush the king's forces. In return, we would formally recognise the formation of your Kingdom here…"

"...It's an offer indeed…" George nodded once more before asking, "And what's to make sure that I can hold you people to your word? I do not wish to be betrayed the second I make this sort of agreement with you savages. What can you possibly offer to me that would ensure Palmerton's continued existence?"

"The men you see captured here are important members of the Elder Clans of Hutangali. So long as we remain safe within these lands and are treated fairly, then a favourable accord would be reached. We would even formally recognise the transfer of sovereignty of the various villages already under your control as part of your new kingdom."

"...At this point, it doesn't seem like I have much of a choice…"

"All of this can be taken care of immediately, and in exchange, the elders would also require something from you to ensure your own faithfulness to the terms, majesty…"

George frowned at Parulian's words but nevertheless decided to hear him out, "And what would that be? Unless what you've been telling us has been a lie, we're not in a position to concede much especially with a coming invasion…"

"It's a simple thing really. Something within your possession that would be useless to you in the coming days. You wouldn't miss it even if we took it." Lord Parulian smiled.

"And what would that be?"

"...Your Head."

"...what-...??!!"

As soon as Lord Parulian said that, he had unleashed the aura he had been suppressing as his eyes glowed a violently brilliant orange glow as he displayed the full might of his fire affinity as heat exuded from his body. At that moment, the great hall erupted into a cacophony of screams as the women shouted out and started scurrying in fear as George was being held up by a large Halak warrior.

The guards in the hall were about to react and attack, but Gregory immediately held his arm out and banged the halberd to the ground as he unleashed his own aura. "EVERYONE OF YOU STAY BACK!!"

At Gregory's behest, the guards were thrown into confusion as they didn't have the slightest clue of what was going on. Added to that fact that Ambrose and a few other of the more veteran bandits of Palmerton appeared to be on the side that was assaulting George.

The captive Halak warriors had all released themselves from their weak bindings and immediately got into position to bar the hall's doors from any outside interference. Seeing the confusion that was happening, the bandit guards one by one started dropping their weapons which were quickly acquiesced by the Halak warriors.

Even when he was struggling as he was being held up and strangled by a five-star Halak warrior which his own four star energy could do little about, George had still managed to give his brother a great look of betrayal, "B-bro..Ther-...!! What… did you… do??!!"

Gregory couldn't bear to look at his brother's anguished look. Regardless of how much of a monster he was, he was still the brother who took him under his wing and who had cared for him in his own way this entire time. Gregory could only turn his head away in shame before muttering, "I'm sorry…"

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