Chapter 20: Tales of Hugo the Wondering Knight Part 2

"People are aware that there's something strange about the death of the former lord. That's why their fear of the king is reasonable. Since the news that the current king, has allowed civilians to be traded as slaves has spread around, people have started avoiding having children." Lisa seriously said to Hugo before continuing.

"You know how much taxes the kingdom has demanded to us per person?" She ask while staring at the sky.

"I don't know, since I was gone most of the time the lord handle all of it for me." Hugo said.

"The amount has tripled since the last time you were here. People are having a hard time to even put a food on their tables." Lisa said sadly.

"That much? how is it possible and why did it go that high?" Hugo question in alarm.

"That's why people are glad that our lord has not allowed anyone of our people to be handed to the tax collector. Lord Hubert have covered for anyone who hasn't enough money to pay their fees, and people know that taxes still keeps on increasing year by year. They just don't want to increase the burden on our lord. That's why they have avoided having children except for a few people who have spare money on their house." Lisa said as she has explained everything that has happened in the city since Hugo was gone for too long.

"I would be honest with you, Lisa, this thing is not just happening in our kingdom. Things are far worse in other nations. I've seen a lot of things since Lord Hubert often sent me to faraway places for a secret mission, but he also gives me a task to monitor and gather intelligence from other places, and for a long time, we noticed a trend happening in the entire nation of humanity, no matter what place I go everything is the same." Hugo said seriously.

"Every kingdom has suddenly started to raise their taxes and huge materials kept flowing in, on the treasury of every nation. A lot of merchants have become wealthy because of this. They cleared some magic metal mines infested with Magic beasts with the help of wizards and knights just to mine the special ore inside of it just to sell it to other nations." Hugo added in a solemn voice.

"Lord Hubert and I tried to look for answers behind the reason for all of this madness, and yet we all ended up at a dead-end, but I found something that almost put my life in danger. Thankfully, the magic artifact that Lord Hubert has lent me protected me from my demise. On the western part of our continent, the Kingdom of Brixton has made a huge underground city covered in special steel." Hugo said with a grave voice.

"A lot of manpower and money would be needed to build that thing, but no one even knew about it's existence. All of the people who made those structures are not allowed to leave that place. Their citizens only know that their king has hired a lot of slaves to mine some minerals and stones to be used on building a lot of structures and monuments, but that is all just a disguise."Hugo stopped for a moment to take a breath before continuing while his wife listen earnestly.

"I tried to look deeper but Lord Hubert told me to give up if the risk was too high, but I insisted on going inside. But I didn't expect that there was a powerful wizard that have discovered my existence. He tried to kill me with one of his spells though I managed to survive that ordeal. Lord Hubert has not allowed me to get near that place again as some wizards are capable of placing special marks on our body without our knowledge, they can detect this special mark if I was too close to their location." Hugo added as he carefully described all the details to his wife.

"Did you suffer any harm from that? Why didn't you tell me about this before? When did this happen? worriedly ask by Lisa.

"It happens a long time ago, and I've already learned my lessons. Even Master Hubert had strictly scolded me at that time, and it's all in the past, but what I've told you have bring a huge fear to both of us. If what they are building is happening all over the continent. Then there must be something big behind all of this. They wouldn't just build a giant underground city without any reason at all, and they did this in secret. Only a few people know about this and please keep all this thing a secret. For now, only a few people in our city know about this and we don't want anyone to use this against us." Hugo exclaimed.

"If what you said is true, then I pray that we won't need that same thing in the future, if they built that thing secretly they must want to use it in the future without many people knowing its existence, but such a huge secret can't be hidden in everyone's eyes. I wonder how they managed to keep this all under control." Lisa said in ponder.

"Wizards are far more powerful and very mysterious. Every one of them has its own specialty and arts. Some of them can even control the minds of people, but you don't have to worry about that. I have deal with them a lot of times. I know their capabilities and limitations. Besides someone like them is far too impossible to paid a visit to such a small and unknown city. It is far too unattractive to them and it's been years since they started building that underground city, but until to this day, they haven't even used it even for once. So it must be for the far future and until now Master Hubert haven't given up searching for the truth behind to why they build such a city I know that once he finds out the secret he will immediately informed us." Hugo explains confidently.

"I hope we won't need to use such a thing in our lifetime nor in the future. It's like they are building such a structure to hide for a long time." –Lisa said with a face full of worry.

"Don't worry my love the knights of Florentine City exist to protect all of you from harm and any danger." As Hugo assured his wife.

"But who would protect such people like you ha? Who would look after you? It's unfair that every time you went out for a mission. I must always send you out with a smile without knowing if you could even come back alive. You don't know how heavy I felt every time it happens."-Lisa said in an outburst as tears gush out from her eyes.

Hugo was stunned by what he heard and saw in his wife. He never intended to make her sad or cry. He always made sure that she was happy most of the time. For a long time, he didn't have any idea that his wife felt such things.

He always thought that his wife had no worries or burden on her shoulders every time he went out for a mission since she always saw her smiling most of the time, but he didn't know that behind those smiles was a face full of worry and care for him.

He felt happy knowing that his wife had stayed loyal and never demanded anything from him aside from coming home safely. He felt lucky to have her as his wife and promised himself that he would treasure her for all of his life.

"Shhhhh! Stop crying, my love. I never knew what you felt for a long time. I'm sorry I won't do that again." Hugo said as he hugged her and rubbed her back to try and calm her down.

He never expected that such an outburst of emotion would happen out of nowhere, especially to his wife, who he often sees laughing and smiling.

"It's just too unfair every time you went out. I always thought what if you didn't come back what would happen to me, to us I always waited for the day of your return, and every day that passes without me seeing the sight of your shadows always kept my heart on a leash, such a thing is too painful for me to bear." Lisa said as her tears continuously drop from her eyes.

"Shhhhh! I know, I understand. I won't do that again and the bad things you thought off would never happen, I promised." Console by Hugo as he tried to calm her down.

"Lord Hubert has already told me that I don't need to go out anymore for any mission that would take too much time and he has already stopped assigning me the mission to go to faraway places." He added before Lisa calmed down.

"I'm sorry if I suddenly said those words to you, but I have been keeping those things for a long time and when you told me that you almost died on one of your missions. I suddenly remember all those agonizing days when I dearly misses you and wish your safety from afar." Lisa said as she tried to keep her smile on her face but ultimately failed when tears kept on pouring out from her eyes.

Hugo leans in to wipe her tears with his thumbs and kiss her forehead as he uttered comforting words in her ears.

"For all the day you miss me I'll eventually make it back to you, I promise." He softly said as he kisses her head.

Uwaahhhh! Uwaahhhhh! MahMah! DahDah!

A loud cry have suddenly broken the atmosphere between the two couples as their son Hero anxiously looked for both of its parents.

"Seems like we have disturbed his nap time," Lisa said as she chuckled and cleared her tears out of her eyes using her hands.

Their son Hero has been behaving like this every time he doesn't see any of his parents in front of him. He always wants to be accompanied by someone, whether his mother or father.

It also took Hugo a few days before his son got used to his presence. The first time Lisa handed him their child, Hero have wailed and demanded his mother's care, scared of the man in front of him.

Even though Hugo was hurt by what his son had done, he knew that it is also his fault. Hero has never seen him from the time of his birth only stories and tales from his mother can be heard, but as a young child, no matter how many times Lisa told him stories about his father. Hero won't remember nor understand any of it at all.

That's why Hugo was so happy when his son started to accept his care. In fact, the first time that Hugo managed to hold Hero without him crying almost made him cry, and all Hero do at that time is to stare at him for a long time before giving him a bright toothy smile.

From that day on Hugo spend most of his time bonding with his son Hero. He never let him get out of his sight from the first month he successfully held him. For the fear that Hero might forget his existence.

He knows that babies like Hero have a short span of memory, so imprinting his existence as his father, is really important for him. So, from Hero giving him, some toothy smiles gradually turn into laughs, and eventually his son Hero has finally demanded his attention on his own. It happens when his son holds up both of his hands in the air for the first time asking for his father to carry him in his arms.

That day Hugo felt the warm feeling that started to rise up from his chest, and he happily share this development with his wife Lisa. Both of them have celebrated this little occasion on their house.

It is also the time when Hugo told his friend about this news and Gaspar suddenly reached out to them, to give him his "congratulatory gift" which is the food he made, that causes both couples to suffer from terrible diarrhea for an entire day.

Hugo would never forget that day. Although he managed to avoid tasting the spreading dark cuisine culture in the city, he didn't expect that someone he knew, would let him have a taste of it at all.

That is also the day that he found out, that Gaspar himself is considered as the father of Dark cuisine in their city.

Hugo never expected something like this happening in his life. Because the last time he check, Gaspar himself is still known as the greatest cook of Florentine City.

But to be honest, at first look, there seems to be nothing wrong with the food gifted by Gaspar. It actually looks good and has a great smell to it. Gaspar even told him that this is a new type of dessert he plans to serve at the Beaufort house someday.

That's why he was glad and very eager to try it out, and when both of them have taken the first bite.

An absolute taste of heaven spread on their mouth but after gulping that food on their mouth a burst of disgusting after taste followed it that almost caused them to vomit their guts. They immediately tried to wash their mouths with a cup of water, but still, the taste remains engraved on their mouths.

They almost vomited all the food they ate on that day, but thankfully they managed to resist doing it. Hugo doesn't even know, how Gaspar came up with this food, and how did even managed to disguise its taste and smell, but what he knows is that he will never accept any gift that has something to do with food again in his life.

But what they didn't know was that it was just the beginning of their suffering. With just a bite of that food, after some time has passed both of them suddenly felt  discomfort in their stomachs and bowels. Thankfully, their house has 2 toilet rooms and that is also where they spent their day seated on their toilets with their trembling knees due to weakness of constant bowel movements. It is also the day that Hugo felt a huge fear and anger towards Gaspar.

Hugo's thoughts were interrupted, when he suddenly heard the voice of his wife as she exited the room while carrying their crying son.

"Here's daddy oh! You're looking for daddy Hero?" Lisa sweetly ask the still tearful baby as she carries Hero towards Hugo.

Hero has been attached closely to his father since he got used to his presence. There are even times that Hero himself would request for Hugo's attention.

"Ahahaha! Are you looking for me Hero?" Hugo said happily as he approached his mother and son before happily holding Hero in his arms.

Since the day he return, Hugo, have spent his day happily and carefree with his family, and he hopes that this moment would continue for a long time till the day he dies of old age.

-End of Hugo's Tales-