The city

I could see the assassins near the gate lying on floor that I would never know since when. The disappointed and devastated civilians went back inside the city hopelessly. The person holding me threw me far away in digust to the warden who had once imprisoned them. The soil itself was wasted and infertile. Nothing would be growing out of this kingdom.

Weeks had passed and the voices of people in the city were disappeared. whether they all died or moved away, I won't have owner still. Or so that was I thought to myself. On next day, I heard footsteps not far away from me. It was footsteps of lots of people. Did the citizens came back?

"My goodness... what happened here?"

I have heard of this familiar voice. But I didn't remember whose.

"Kerykes! Kerykes! This is not looking good...!"

"What is the matter..."

"We have scouted all 5 other nations and they were all in ruins as well."

"How could this happened... wait did you all find something valuable while you were at it."

"Yes... a lot. Though the city were raided but the treasures were not taken."

"What I am saying it is among those treasures, did you find the most precious one... a necklace? The one with golden hexagonal frame and blood red shining ruby in the middle..."

"We did searched up tons of necklace... but we didn't find anything you were talking about."

"That's a shame... The council wanted to see what it looks like. Seems like its not happening anymor- Hey! What's that!"

 After yelling at my direction, the so called "Kerykes" ran to me. As I thought, this voice belonged to no one other than Prothana himself. Prothana, the harbinger of doom. If he hadn't turned back and provoked the greed of the six kings, would everything be still fine?

"To think that this grand and mighty of an artifact would be ditched like this..."

"Have you found it?"

"Yes... now let's go back to our state."

Prothana put me in a big white enclosed chariot carried by 6 horses. Journey to another civilization had started. Then I was transferred from a big chariot to a huge ship to cross the massive sea. When I was on the monument, the tower was so high that I could see the sea from very far away. But the world beyond it, was still a mystery to me. I had never knew that I would like to travel far away lands. Being in the room for hundreds of years, even the craftman Tuffa himself would not know how much fun I was having.

Several days later, I could see the silhouette of the new destination ahead. Unlike the overall beige and yellow color of my previous kingdom, which was mostly in desert with few forests, this new land was built in white marbles with tall gigantic pillars and contrasted by bright blue seawater. While the previous kingdom looked like it represent power and dominance with all golden wealths and architecture, this land was like a paradise to host gods. Maybe gods did exist and they came down to relax there.

A sign was incised in a humongus rectangle stone wall in front of the city saying 'Welcome to Neagi'. The city was built and developed around the organic structures like hills. More trading places could be found. Layers and layers of multiple walls were surrounding the city. Unlike Aladima which had densely packed houses mostly built of mudbricks and flat roofs, Neagi was looser and balanced with mudbrick and marble houses with tile roofs and much more city squares .

"Ah..! Kerykes Prothana, you are here a day earlier."

"What do you mean 'a day earlier'. Are the elders not here?"

"They went to the emperor to discuss about improving Neagi again."

"Have our city not been improved enough... We're all going to bankrupt at this rate."

"They need to catch up as well. We're not the only one with rising city constructions. About bankruptcy, don't worry about it. The emperor will cover it all up."

"Did he just raided a huge and rich kingdom? What is going on...? Why does he keep supporting things for free."

"The policies on taxation now is like robbing on the wealthy. Also the fact that currency has gone from coins and dime to papers. A literal bloody papers! You know what is abundant in the empire? Trees of course. They were producing cheap papers and distributing to every normal citizens."

"Hold on... paper? You mean that fragile and flimsy flat thing that can be tore or crumpled apart...that kind of paper? That forgettable sheet that mostly ended up like waste? You mean that paper?"

"Geez... no need to demote it like that. It can have its own uniqueness like books or pictures. Also they said it was easier for transportation"

"I didn't mean it that way. I was saying how is that as valuable compared to golds and silvers. It has to be cheap, right?"

"Well, they apparently can just write whatever value they want on the paper... so no."

"Unbelievable... Does that mean jewels will soon become meaningless?"

"Don't think of it too soon. The trend will probably just died out."

"You're right, it can't continue forever. Anyway, what are you doing here."

"What do you mean what I'm doing here. I'm a trader, you know that..."

"Sorry, there are too many things happening at once so it's hard to focus on obvious thing."

"By the way, I've heard that you went to kingdom called Aladima to negotiate about peace between empires. How was it?"

"First of all it's a kingdom, not an empire. It is weirdly ruled by 6 kings. And unfortunately, It didn't went well."

"Is the war gonna start soon?"

"More like finished. When I arrived there, everybody is either left or dead. I don't know who is responsible for an all out war. So I brought this instead."

Prothana pulled me out of the bag and showed it to the trader.

"Wow. It sure is beautiful. Is this sacred?"

"Yeah, it's the most valuable artifact they have. Even they only know it because I suggested what they have as a best- Oh..."

"What's wrong?"

"Nevermind... So yeah, it's really precious and I'm going to show it to the elders when they arrive."

"Well, good luck then. I have to go now. Do you want to buy something from me before that."

"No thanks..."

Prothana said goodbye to the trader and returned back to his house. Tomorrow will be the new day.