Chapter 490 Law Enforcers
There wasn’t any hesitation in Arthur’s mind as he burst through those doors. He didn’t know what was waiting for him on the other side, but if his people were hurt, he knew every last second would count towards saving their lives.
As the two entered the room, they could see blood marks and been splattered everywhere, and his closest advisors, friends he had known and fought with throughout the years, were lying on the floor covered in blood.
Immediately, Arthur went to the one closest to see how he was doing. Thankfully, groans could be heard coming from them.
"They’re alive," Arthur said, and it wasn’t just him. The room was filled with around twenty or so of Arthur’s men. These often stayed in the castle and would work around the city. They had been with him for the longest amount of time.
One by one, he checked on these people. They had severe wounds on them, but they weren’t dead, at least not yet.
Arthur wanted to know who had done this and why, but that wasn’t the most important thing right now. It was to try to save as many men as possible. The good news was that he had one of the best vampires by his side.
"Eno, is there any way of saving these people," Arthur asked. "You introduced the medicine to us, the surgery."
But when he saw the look on Eno’s face, it was not one he didn’t want to see, and the short shake of the head confirmed it.
"They have lost too much blood. Moving them would make things worse, and you don’t have the facilities to even do things such as a blood transfusion as such." Eno explained.
Arthur didn’t really understand what Eno was saying, but knew the first words he had spoken. He looked into one of his longest friends who was held in his arms.
"Arthur... I’m..glad..to see... you’re... safe.." He said as blood filled his mouth and started to pour out from the sides.
"You fool! Don’t worry about me, what about yourself?" Arthur replied back.
"I’m... just..sorry... I won’t... be there... to see... you... turn... this... Kingdom... into... something... great." The man replied, and his heartbeat was now starting to weaken.
"No!" Arthur cried. "Eno please something, anything."
"There is one way," Eno said...
Explaining the one way that Arthur could save them, it was to turn all the people in the room into vampires. With his strength as a First, he would have the power to do so, and they would be able to heal from such severe wounds.
Perhaps Arthur wasn’t thinking straight, nor was he in the right frame of mind at the time. But he had decided he would save all their lives there and then.
Giving them a part of his blood, he activated the ritual, and that day they had been saved.
After some digging, it turns out the knights, and the maids had been killed and were placed in a different part of the castle that was found later on. Arthur had gotten some of his armies from the city to come and look after the others. According to Eno, it would be some time before they recovered.
Now at least he knew they were safe. He could start thinking a little more clearly as well.
"Who would do that and why?" Arthur asked. "I understand if they were to attack those close to me, but to let them live? It was as if they were sending me some type of message."
"I have an idea," Eno replied. "Many of the leaders weren’t happy with the fact that you would become a fourteenth member, and now I’m assuming even more so are unhappy with the decision that you had chosen to make me king. Instead of taking it out on me, who they see as a fellow brother. They decided to take it out on you, an outsider. Perhaps a warning to not meddle with our affairs.... I’m sorry about this, Arthur, it’s all my fault."
"No... You gave me the option to save my people, and with your skills, you have saved them more than once. I must find out who did this though.’
Eno, then went silent, as if there was something on his mind he wanted to say but he hadn’t said it yet, until finally, he had broken the silence.
"I think we can find out who did this." Said Eno. "You might not like what I’m about to say, but you have to understand why I did it. I had a vampire stay in your castle. It has been here since the day I turned you. I was worried that something like this would have happened, so I sent him here to protect you. The truth is I already spoke to him and he told me who was the one who had come. If anything was to happen, he was meant to protect you and your people. The only thing was, I never expected a leader themselves to come."
"You’re saying, one of the leaders did this?" Arthur replied as he clenched his fist. He wanted to return to the vampire settlement and drag whoever it was out of there.
"Yes, but Arthur, I think we must do this the correct way. We must do this following the current laws. It will be a perfect opportunity to show the leaders and all the other vampires that this is serious, and this is how things will be from now on."
"Okay, I’m ready, now tell me who did this." Said, Arthur.
"It was the first leader. Cain."
A few days had passed since the incident and Arthur had explained to all the people that day what had happened to him. He didn’t choose to hide anything and also told them what he was and what had happened.
He had expected some of them to choose to leave him, maybe run away in horror, but instead. Each one of them kneeled down in front of him. Stating that they would continue to follow him as long as he lived. Later on, these twenty men would become the core group of punishers along with Arthur.
As the days went past, Eno had returned and finally had stated that they had enough evidence to convict the first leader of committing such a crime.
Arthur had returned, and the evidence was placed by Eno. The vampire that was there that day had confessed, as well as evidence of others who were at the castle that day. There was more than one person who said they had seen him.
"This is a setup!" Cain shouted. "I’m telling you, I would never do such a thing. I would never sink that low to even think about that."
But the evidence was heavily against him. No matter how many times he denied it, it was hard for even those that supported him before to believe his words. The punishment had been decided, and the person who was to deliver it was to arrive.
Since this felt like an attack on the new system they were to place and trying to set up. They all felt like there was only one thing they could choose, Death. Otherwise, they would have a similar situation as to what had happened to the first king.
The execution was to be made public to show all the vampires what would happen and who was to punish them. Out on the platform in front of the settlement, the first leader stood there, while Arthur too was present with his sword in hand.
Only Arthur’s face was covered. The punishers would not reveal their identity to many. Otherwise, they would never be able to live a normal life. Being targeted by those who wished to go after them.
"Is there anything you wish to say?" Arthur said. He had done this as his time as a king before. But it never felt good, and usually when people knew they were close to death. They would confess everything. But Cain did not, his very last words were....
"I didn’t do it, and this heavy burden will be put on your heart one day when you learn it wasn’t me."
There was no fight put up, like the others though, instead the first leader closed his eyes, and waited for the sword to come down.
"So be it." Arthur swung the sword, and with a clean hit, the head was taken off and the first leader was no more.
"Grandfather, Grandfather!!!!" A young-looking man shouted from off the platform. His eyes were filled with tears, as Arthur looked down at him. It was a cruel site for anyone to see.
The man standing down there felt like he would always remember this day, his grandfather who had treated him well and was the kindest man he knew. Him, Bryce Cain would never forget.
After the first execution, the vampires followed the rules well, and Eno had become a great king. The vampires continued to advance and didn’t look like they were slowing down. The only area where they were not expanding on was population, and this was all decided by the king.
As for the punishers and Arthur. He had finally faked his death, and in doing so they had asked him to move. Creating a new castle for himself in the vampire settlement.
Cases would appear now and again, and the punishers would arrive to deal with them. Their power was shown a few times, and quickly their name became known to all the others.
Everything seemed to be going fine, that was until the first king had decided that it was finally time. It was time for Eno to go into eternal sleep and pass his position onto the next.
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