Marin fought the snow as he trekked back to the castle. He had successfully defeated Rocko, and scrubbed the spy from his Kingdom, but he still did not feel accomplished. If anything, he felt more dismayed than before. It was so frustrating that there were people out there who knew Marin and watched him from a distance, yet he did not know them.

  The view of the large stone brick behemoth appeared in the distance as he grew closer to Nocturne. After the events from earlier, he had a new found appreciation of his home. Inside that castle were all the citizens who made up his Kingdom. He wouldn't allow anyone to take it from him, or to hurt them, and as time progressed, his resources, influence and power grew to help stop it from happening.

  If Reech had been waiting for the right time to make a move on Marin or his Kingdom, waiting so long was becoming detrimental for him. Marin was only getting stronger and more connected by the day. It would only get harder the more time passed.

  A sudden dark purple wisp of smoke appeared on the horizon, trailing away from the castle at a rapid speed.

  Surely, that was Loid in his dispersed form. It darted forward, quick to meet the slogging Marin who continued to march forward to get back inside.

  When it met him, the dark smoke condensed, and Loid appeared.

  "Did you find them?!" Loid demanded.

  "I did." Marin didn't stop walking. Loid had to begin walking as well to stay with the King.

  "WELL?!"

  Marin realized this was not going to be a casual back-and-forth that they could do while returning to the castle. Loid was borderline hysteric, and Marin knew that what he was going to say would anger him to an extent.

  Marin sighed. He paused, stopped walking, and turned to face his right hand man.

  "I let them go."

  "You WHAT?!"

  "In exchange for vital information, which Rocko gave me."

  Loid had become just as angry at Marin as he was at Rocko.

  "No! That's not good enough to let him go!"

  Marin began trekking back to the castle again.

  Loid followed, continuing to voice his complaints.

  "That guy spent months spilling all your plans and secrets to some far off conspiring organization! You're really letting someone who is our enemy walk free!"

  "He was hardly an enemy, Loid. He had a debt to pay off, and he was put in the situation unwillingly. Besides, the damage he had done is already complete. Letting him go or locking him up won't change that."

  Loid jumped forward in front of Marin, cutting the King off from walking further. Loid confronted Marin face to face, demanding to be paid attention to.

  "Sullivan, he needs to PAY for the years of spying on us! Do you understand that?!"

  It was clear to Marin that much of Loid's fury was personal. Instead of seeing things in a more mathematical view, his emotions clouded his thoughts greatly. It wasn't surprising at all. The one who Rocko's betrayal hurt the most was the former innkeeper, and it was understandable why he was so angry.

  Marin wasn't looking to dismiss Loid's hurt heart, or come across as too merciful. Marin had let Rocko go as part of his deal, but because Marin severed Rocko from his home and protection, he cared not anymore what happened to the man.

  Rocko was now akin to a stranger. Even a thief, as he so claimed he was at one point.

  "Listen Loid. I fought him. He was an earth elemental as we suspected. I defeated him, and impaled both his shoulders with icicles. He's likely still stopping the blood as they continue to flee. If that's not good enough for you, you're free to catch up with them and satiate your desire for vengeance.

  I told Rocko I would let him go, but it was never voiced that someone else couldn't stop him. So go. Give him a verbal lashing, rough him up as much as you'd like. Kill him, if that's something you want to do.

  You can still catch them if you leave now. Just follow the footprints through the woods and down the mountainside."

  Marin then moved to the side of Loid, and continued into the castle.

  Loid stood there stunned, not a movement from him. He was speechless, not sure what to think or do. He just stared at Marin as he watched him walk away.

  Marin was acting quite numb at the moment. Usually, he would do a better job consoling Loid, or be by his side in his decision making, but the entire event with Rocko left him with plaguing thoughts of his past that tired him from doing more.

  He gave Loid his blessing if he wanted to chase after Rocko. There was not much more he was willing to do. Whether Loid actually took off after them, or decide to let them go and head back to the castle, he would respect either decision.

  Marin didn't stick around or glance back to see what Loid ended up doing. Back in the castle, Marin returned to the front office to deal with any new affairs.

  Throughout the day, he met with a few staff members, held meetings with ambassadors of other Kingdoms, and spoke with Harrel about the castle's finances. When asked by Helva or Harrel what the fuss was about earlier, he gave a short answer, and refused to elaborate.

  "Phil and Rocko are no longer with us."

  "What?!" Helva exclaimed.

  "They've elected to leave the Kingdom and live elsewhere," Marin spoke with almost no emotion.

  After that, Marin left the room. It was clear to both Helva and Harrel Yoren that there was more of an explanation than that, especially from reading Marin's mood about the subject, but it was clear he would not go into detail on the events.

  It wasn't until later that day that Loid finally showed back up in the main office to explain what had happened.

  He shared about the betrayal of Rocko to both of them, and explained how he had been a spy the entire time. When asked why Marin wouldn't speak the truth about the situation, Loid replied that it was still a very sensitive topic.

  The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

  It surely was. Throughout the rest of the day, Rocko and Reech would not leave Marin's mind. He kept pondering if he had made the right moves when dealing with Rocko. Perhaps Loid was right. Maybe he should have kept Rocko here.

  Dwelling on the matter wouldn't change the outcome.

  Marin had been so disturbed, he did not even show for dinner, a rare occurrence that had many wondering what was wrong with the King.

  It was at that point that Loid began to realize that Marin had been dealing with radical emotions such as him, but he dealt with them in an entirely different way. He began to feel bad about the way he lashed out at his King, not even realizing that Phil and Rocko had become as much of Marin's family as Loid was to them.

  There was a great solemn aura over the entire dining hall that night. Despite the fact that Phil and Rocko went unnoticed quite a bit in the Kingdom, it took them being gone for the citizens to realize how much they were used to seeing them. Many there had known the two the entire time they had been in Heroca Town.

  And with the King being absent, many knew it was not for a good reason that they had abruptly left.

  Later that night, Loid had worked up the courage to stand before Marin's cherrywood door into his personal quarters.

  He swallowed once, then gave the door a firm few knocks.

  Loid patiently waited, but did not receive the familiar 'Enter' command from Marin.

  He sighed. He went for the door anyways.

  When he swung it open, he called out his name.

  "Sullivan?"

  The office room was empty. Loid walked in, and headed to the left, checking for his King in the personal library.

  Marin wasn't there either. The fireplace in front of the two chairs had not been lit yet that evening. Loid called for him again, but there was no response.

  He then left that room and walked to the right, entering Marin's bedroom. He was absent from there as well. One matter caught his eye though, and that was the open door that led to the outdoor balcony.

  Slowly and carefully, Loid walked over to it. When he peered out the door, he saw his blue robed King leaning against the stone guard wall, overlooking the front yards of his Kingdom.

  "There you are," Loid said with relief.

  "Hey Loid."

  "I want to apologize for my behavior earlier," he began, realizing that Marin was taking the whole event equally as hard.

  "There's nothing to apologize for. Your anger was for a good reason. Don't dwell on it," Marin spoke without turning his head.

  Loid stepped out onto the balcony to get closer. The sun had already gone down, and a light wind had picked up. The air was already quite cold, but the wind brought an even more intense chill. Loid was not enjoying the feeling, but he was willing to endure it to talk to Marin. He knew that Marin felt not a hair of the cold wind, seeing all the feeling in his body died years ago.

  "Did you end up pursuing them?" Marin asked.

  Loid sighed. "...No, I did not. Well, initially I did. When you left, I took off after them, but half way down, I stopped.

  I realized that nothing I could do would help me. I mean, I would've felt great initially. But that feeling is fleeting. You've already done everything there was to do. I would have just been putting salt on the wound.

  Salt on his shoulder wounds, as you claimed you had made," Loid explained.

  Marin nodded. He almost chuckled. "I wouldn't have done him like that if he hadn't been so sassy. I mean, he was likely lashing out at me from fear and guilt, but I taught him a lesson not to underestimate or disrespect me the way he did."

  Marin tilted his head as he continued on. "And, I suppose even if he hadn't said those words to me, I likely should have ruffled his feathers anyway. He did build a golem that almost killed us. He had made it clear he had planned to use it against me when the event came up that did."

  Loid nodded. "I'm going to miss them. A lot of people will. And I'm not going to parade around the fact that Rocko was a spy. I told Helva and Harrel, but it won't be circulating around the Kingdom."

  "That would be best," Marin replied. He reached into his robe pockets, and removed the letter from Reech to Rocko. He handed it to Loid.

  "We don't want it getting out that our Kingdom had a spy, and cause my citizens to worry. Best if we destroy this, too. Take the letter and get rid of it," Marin explained.

  Loid took the folded paper. "I'll visit the scullery again soon and burn it in the fire."

  "I'm still coming to terms with the fact of the matter. I had really held out hope that this entire speculation with Rocko was misplaced, and the letter would disprove any suspicion of him. Instead, I read that he is to go into my personal quarters and steal my Arkanian documents. What a terrible tale it has been," Marin spoke out into the night.

  Loid had been reading over the letter again as Marin rambled.

  "...You realize this letter suggests that Rocko had the code to the vault? How could he be able to see what was inside without it?" Loid asked.

  "He probably does have it. I'm inclined to believe that Reech was the close friend of mine who betrayed me. He most definitely would have the seven digit code to give to Rocko."

  "And you really let him walk. Rocko has knowledge to access one of the largest fortunes I've ever seen, and he's freely roaming the land," Loid started up.

  Marin finally laughed. He then shook his head afterwards. "I'm changing the code, Loid. It's programmable."

  "Oh."

  "And, Doctor Eisen's quarters are along the way to the secret entrance. Even if he somehow made his way back, fought through all our soldiers and defense, he'd have to go through the Doctor, and I can say this with confidence, he is the strongest individual currently in our Kingdom," Marin explained.

  Loid didn't have to make himself believe it. He still remembered when Eisen's monstrous voice slipped out when he threatened him.

  "You're entirely right..."

  Loid rested his arms against the guard rail and leaned out to overlook the castle in a similar way Marin was. The feeling was almost intoxicating. This was the highest and most grand balcony the castle had to offer, and the view was astonishing, even at night. Not only could the entire front of the land be seen, but gazing upward, a beautiful view of the mountain peaks and even the land beyond could be admired for many miles into the distance.

  "I can see why you spend a lot of time out here," Loid finally commented.

  "You like it, huh? ...Yeah, it's a good view. Makes me feel better about anything after being out here for an hour or two. When I had this castle designed, I was specific in making this balcony have the best view over the Murok mountain range."

  "You remember anything about the architect? Or the building of the castle?" Loid wondered in amazement.

  "Couldn't tell you. Though if I ever get my memory back, I will gladly share with you anything you want to know."

  The two continued to stare outward over the mountains for a while. They were astonishingly high up, a reminder to Loid of the endless stories the castle was built for. So many floors, so many rooms. Yet somehow, within a few short months, they had already reached nearly full capacity.

  "What are we going to do about the castle being full? You realize that each day, we're mailed a hundred requests for people to join the Kingdom," Loid asked.

  "It's not shocking to me. I offer those who want to join a very generous deal. Free food and housing with a barely reduced salary in exchange for working in the Kingdom. Though if RAM increases our tax rate by too much more, I will have to reconsider conditions.

  It's looking like I will have to build external housing. We're growing very fast. I'll have far looser requirements for those wanting to live in houses, but they won't receive such a fancy deal that I've given the castle dwellers. We'll see how it goes," Marin explained.

  Loid nodded. He still wasn't sure how Marin would stop the vault depletion with higher taxes on the horizon if they're accepted as a Kingdom. In exchange though, at least they'd have eminent rights on the land around the castle, and the ability to pass local laws as well as establish their own currency if they felt the need.

  Not only that, RAM would station and provide a large amount of their own soldiers to the area, and Neo likely would as well.

  They'd pay much higher taxes to the central government, but in return they'd have great rights to their land, as well as protection from other Kingdoms and nations. Not only that, Nocturne would be able to send an ambassador to Irongrip to speak on their behalf.

  The increased tax rate would be worth the benefits. Marin would be able to pay it for years without changing anything the Kingdom was currently doing, but it would slowly empty out his gold nest. Indeed, new plans would have to be made to halt the drain.

  That was even if they passed the vote within the High Council. It wasn't known to Marin or Loid yet if they had even convened to vote. All ten power figures would be needed – the five high council members, and the five directors of the government. A majority in their favor would allow them the rights of a Kingdom. A tie would not.

  There would be a lot happening within the coming months. Events were moving quickly, and Marin would have to make a lot of decisions on what direction his Kingdom would take, on top of staying vigilant with what John Reech might do in the future.

  Time would tell.

  I want to thank you all for taking the time to read The Dead King. If you've made it this far in the story, you obviously like it.

  That makes me happy to know there are some people who enjoy the story as much as I do writing it.

  This is the final chapter of Book 2. If you remember, Book 1 ended with Ch 32 - Departure, when Marin left Tarenfall to return home.

  I will be taking a break from uploading for a while to gear myself up for Book 3. As I've hinted in this chapter, the next book will

  focus on major Kingdom expansion and all the struggles that come with it. It will also focus on issues with the government,

  the continued plotting of Reech, Marin looking for ways to recover his memory,

  and maybe some far away plots with Sygol and the Decay, which was hinted at way back in Ch 37 - The Knight From Before.

  I would greatly appreciate it if you're able to do so. It will boost the story's visibility and bring more readers to experience Marin's tale.

  Don't be too sad about my absence. I won't be gone too long, and when I return, I'll be back with new chapters every Wednesday

  like you're all used to.