Chapter 259 - A King’s Sarrow

After Julius had left the village, he had a bright smile on his face as there was nothing wrong going on in his life, everything just seemed perfect as he realised that he was living a semi-normal life for the first time in so long. With Lyla at his side, he was actually getting to talk to someone who was a human or somewhat human without having to look at them like a teacher.

"Hey Duke Drake, do you know if this place has a city or something? This entire area has been nothing but just endless amounts of fields," said Julius to which Drake gave a reply.

"Actually, there are quite a large amount of cities which I believe you would enjoy. You were just teleported far from them since the cities are constructed rather further away from the dungeons and since the main goal of your stay in heaven is to gain experience and as such level up, you were teleported far from the cities," Drake explained.

"Oh I understand then. Even so, you're still capable of teleporting me to the city right?" Julius asked to which Drake gave him a simple and expected answer.

"Yes," said Duke Drake before teleporting both Julius as well as Lyla, who had not been expecting anything inside the city which Julius had mentioned. Even though the two had just randomly come out of nowhere, no one seemed to have noticed since it was so crowded.

"Wow," said Julius as he looked up at all the tall and luxurious structures inside the city. Although they didn't look as modern as the half of the human realm which didn't have access to secret arts, it still looked majestic and even put some of the great kingdom's from Julius' world to shame.

As Julius walked around, he was left speechless as he stared at all the small shops and places that he could go to. All of the people seemed friendly as they didn't care to check if he was a human as they never considered that someone like that would come into their city.

While Julius was having all that fun while running around, something strange happened. For some reason, as he kept moving forward, the people began to turn motionless. They didn't even dare to breathe as they parted ways as if they were welcoming someone.

Lyla tried to reach for Julius' arm and grab him to the side as she herself was aware of what was taking place however she was a bit too late.

"You... why aren't you taking your position?" a deep and dark voice said behind Julius. The voice was so far away yet so close. It was as if the man who said those words was whispering in Julius' ear. Instantly, chills began to take over Julius' body as he froze in fear.

"Do you have a death wish?" the voice asked in a rather cold tone, however Julius was too scared to even give a fraction of a reply to the man. Instead, all he did was turn around to face the figure.

"You have glanced at me. Now I will be your benevolent king and allow you to have one more chance to live, get back in line and never make this mistake ever again," said the man who was a rather tall man that rode his steed while wearing enough gold in the form of jewellery to drown the entire city. Although the place had looked like a city, it seemed like they still followed a mediaeval type system in which a king would govern the people of their land. As such, even though Julius wasn't actually a subject of the man who you infront of him, he listened due to the sheer fear that he placed into Julius' heart.

"Well done, this is how you should greet your king. Do not let this happen again," said the king before walking forward without any interruptions like Julius.

...

"Are you insane?! You could have died!" the people around Julius began to yell at him due to the fact that he had not followed the greatest law in the city. Everyone was taught it from the day that they were born. That being to never stand in the way of the royal family.

"Seriously, the prince was probably having a good day today. That's why he let you live, if it was any other day, he would have killed you," said the people around Julius.

Although they still thought of that man as the prince, that was not true. A few moments earlier, the previous king had passed away which in turn made the prince the current king. He had been in quite a lot of pain as his father had passed around through natural causes which was the best possible way for him to pass away. Even so, the prince was in a great deal of pain and didn't know what to do and how he could even step up to the role of his father. He had no idea how to be a king.

From a very young age, the prince's father had told him to do whatever he wanted. The previous king had never gotten the chance to do the things he wanted as his own father, who was the grandfather of the current king, never allowed him to do anything which was considered to be fun as he wanted to prepare him to take over the role of a king. As such, the previous king didn't want that to happen to his son which was why he never forced upon him lessons on how to become a king. He simply wanted his son to experience something that he never had the luxury of. That being freedom.

Even so, no one had any idea what the current king was going through and instead assumed that he was having a good day as he was being so generous however that couldn't have been any further from the truth.

While everyone was yelling at Julius, including Lyla who was so close to leaving Julius was going on her own journey due to the number of times he scared her to the point where she almost had a heart attack, Julius simply stood still without even saying a single word. It was as if he was frozen in space.

"The look in his eyes. I know what he's feeling. I've experienced this before," said Julius as a single year left his right eye and while that happened, a single tear left the left eye of the current king which simply continued to ride his horse.

"Hwy Julius, are you okay? Why are you crying?" Lyla asked as she stepped in to which everyone began to get back to their own business as they didn't want to get involved especially since they were under the impression that they were the cause of Julius' tears.

"It's okay Julius, you didn't die so that's all that matters. You're alive now so you can live happily with me at your side," said Lyla to which Julius seemed way too distracted as he was in complete thought.

"Hey, what's wrong? You don't look so good. Are you feeling sick?" Lyla asked in concern.

"His eyes... they're crying," said Julius, to which Lyla seemed confused as she had never even begun to think that it was possible for the king, who was still the prince in her eyes, to cry ; however , even though Julius couldn't see the current king, he was indeed correct in his assumption.

"You're probably just tired. There's no reason to react this way. The prince was kind enough to let you live so you should appreciate it," said Lyla, however Julius wasn't concerned about his own life. Instead, he was much more worried for the prince. This was because when Julius turned to the dark side and began to lose control of himself, there was no one to stop him. He was able to do as he wanted without repercussions as there was no one that could actually stop him. Even so, knowing that, Julius didn't want that to happen to anyone else and as such he had a new goal in mind. That being to get close to the prince.

"Hey Lyla, how hard do you think it is to get close to the prince?" Julius asked, to which Lyla simply looked confused.

"Why would you want to get close to the prince? Remember that our goal is to reach 100 or at least make you reach level 100. As such, we can't afford to take any breaks," said Lyla to which Julius almost laughed.

"There's no need for you to panic so much. Don't worry, we have plenty of time for that goal," said Julius which left Lyla simply confused. As such, seeing that Julius bothered to explain to her what he meant.

"You see, even though there are a couple cool things to do to get experience points, they get repetitive and at the progression rate is is bound to get a lot slower, nearly everyone is bound to either complete stop trying to reach level 100 or be extremely fatigued and will spend so much time to reach the next level that they'll die before they can reach level 100 so let's balance things out," said Julius with a grin.