“Sir Adam, King Sigismund will now see you.” Adam walked into the throneroom, guards were on each side of the king who was waiting patiently for Adam to walk up the hallway. “Sir Adam of Old Zealand,” King Sigismund said with power, “You have answered my summons, as all knights are sworn to do. “I have summoned you, to give you the order to go to The Holy Roman Emperor to see what we shall do about the conqueror of Asia.” Adam looked at King Sigismund and asked, how long he had to get the information back to him. “You have 6 months to complete the job, make it so.” Adam was interested in the job because he had never left the country before, but inside he knew it was just the same work that had been done a thousand times before, just in a new place in the world.

After 3 days of preparing, Adam was ready to leave. He was given access to a ship with a crew from the Royal Navy of Old Zealand. At the time it was the middle of spring, so the sea would be calmer. They set sail the same day and would arrive in France in 2 months. Until then it would be nothing but the ship, the waves, and the order.

He arrived earlier than expected, specifically one week before the expected arrival. When he left the dock, he immediately went to the nearest inn to spend the night and maybe solve some problems for money.

When he walked in he saw a bar with a few older men and a bartender who looked like a frowning cat, the room smelt of fire from the furnace. He walked to the nearest stool and sat down, then he asked for something to eat. The bartender brought him some roast lamb that had been butchered that day. “Why would someone like you be in a town like this?” the bartender asked with curiosity. “You are clearly from far away, so what is your business here?” 

Adam hesitated before saying he was there to do a job, but he needed a place to stay for the night. “We have 2 open rooms upstairs if that is what you need, 10 coins a night.” Adam agreed to 10 coins per night, and also used the opportunity to ask if anyone had any work he could do to make some money. Adam asked if the bartender had heard any rumors.

 ”Well rumor has it that there was a break-in at the general store yesterday if that is something you would be interested in.” 

Adam finished the conversation by telling the bartender he was done with his lamb, which had tasted like honey after only eating ship food for so long, and by paying him for the food and room.

The next day Adam went to the store, which had no people as they feared that whoever broke in left something behind. When he walked in he saw the owner who was still in his place as a cashier. “Hello, good knight!” the owner said with a kind manner, “How may I help you on this fine day?” Adam knew how to talk to people he had just met due to his experiences of having to ride around Old Zealand, helping any who needed it. Adam looked at him and asked if he needed any help with finding who did the break-in. The owner stopped smiling and said, “I could use some help.” Adam asked when it happened, to the reply of “2 nights ago just after sundown.” Adam then asked where they broke in from, to the reply of “That’s just it, I didn’t find any damage.”

Adam looked around the store which seemed to be in order, but when he went to the backroom, he found a safe which was still open from the break-in. He inspected the room closer and found one single thing that might help Adam find who did the break-in, a dagger from another country, which was sitting next to an open window that should have been locked. The dagger was an infantry dagger of the Mongolian army, which was a definite sign that it was no ordinary break-in. It must have been the Mongolians, which were taking over Asia. The question to ask is how did they get so far into Europe without anybody noticing? 

Adam walked over to the shopkeeper and told him what he knew, while also telling him there was nothing he could do against a small camp let alone a big camp of Mongolians. He also told the shopkeeper how he could defend his shop better, for example, by locking the window or filling it up entirely. The shopkeeper was disappointed but still paid a small amount for the searching he had done, that amount being 25 coins.

Adam went back to the inn that night where he used almost half of the money he had made. The next day he would leave for Germany where the Holy Roman Emperor was waiting.

Traveling alone is never a good idea even for a knight, however, the roads were clearer than expected with surprisingly no bandit attacks. The one attack that did happen was a pack of wolves that came to his camp one rainy night. Adam being the amazing fighter he was thought for fun he would try to scare them off rather than hurt them. Needless to say, that did not work out, so he used the fire which he had made to scare them off. He also found a fellow knight on his trip which he stayed with until he made it to Germany’s border where they left for different paths. 

Adam got to the capital of the Holy Roman Empire in 7 days which was slower than expected, but it was fine for the time he had spent in total. When he requested a meeting with the Emperor, he was told he was “Very busy,” and “It will take 3 days to have a meeting.” Adam had no choice, he would have to wait.

Three days had passed and Adam was running low on money. The prices at the inn were very expensive, especially because he was in the city.

When Adam went back to the castle, he was immediately escorted to the throne room. “Sir Adam of OZE will now see you, sir.” 

The Emperor was guarded very closely with 5 guards on each side of his gold and silver throne. “Speak.” said the emperor with power and confidence. break-in

Adam who was good at talking to royalty, as well as peasants, was not intimidated by the Emperor, he spoke clearly when he spoke King Sigismund’s message. “What shall we do about the conqueror of Asia?” 

The Emperor looked at him closely looking at the armor which Adam was wearing, seeing the mark of Old Zealand. “We will send you 10,000 troops, no more than that.”

 Adam also had his message for the king. “Sir, do you know how close the invaders are?”

“Yes, they are near Italy, no farther.” Adam told him the news that he had seen signs of Mongolians in France to the reply of “That’s impossible, there can be no Mongolians anywhere far into my Empire.” The meeting was then dismissed. 

Adam went back to Old Zealand as soon as he could, and the troops would follow behind. The amount though small, when it came to fighting, looked massive when seen at sea.

When he got back to Old Zealand he noticed many changes, for instance, the king was gone when Adam got back which was out of the ordinary as the king very rarely left the palace. 7 long days of waiting until King Sigismund finally came back. Adam was already expected to be there so he was let in with no waiting. 

“Sir Adam of Old Zealand will now see you, sir.” Adam walked in and bowed before the king who looked somewhat sickly. “How may I help you?” the king asked with a different voice than usual “I have spoken to the Emperor and he has sent 10,000 troops as I’m sure you have seen to defend our country.” The king seemed to not remember the order he had given. “That is good, I will have them put with the rest of our army.” At this point Adam was a little suspicious, so he asked the king with respect “Sir are you feeling well?” The king answered, “Why do you ask?” Adam looked at him and noticed something. He did not have the mark of Old Zealand, instead, it was the mark of a foreign place. Adam saw now this was not the king he had done the task for, this was Genghis Khan, leader of the Mongolians. Adam said “No reason sir.” So the conference was dismissed. 

 Adam was no longer working for the king which he had followed his entire life. 

His new ruler was the enemy, which he was not okay with. He wondered how people could have never noticed, so he decided to start an uprising. He exposed who the leader was, which was backed after he told some people to look at the king closely. It was decided that they all would do something against the leader of the enemy, who was now their leader. They got a massive amount of people and stormed the castle where they met little resistance, the resistance being 95 soldiers. Instead of killing the leader of the Mongolians, they let him go. After a few weeks of looking around the kingdom, King Sigismund was found dead in the well. The country would need a new leader. After much debating, which included much trash talk from every group including some betrayals from each side, Adam won the election. Some would claim that it was rigged, which could not be disproven.

 King Adam was a selfish ruler unlike the leader before him, he was especially cruel to people who were taken captive, but his people were not excluded. Although he was selfish he was wise and honest, when he felt someone didn’t deserve a punishment he would let them go. He also made many decisions that hurt his people but helped him, such as unreasonable taxes to pay for palace construction. He was the leader who changed Old Zealand into New Zealand which is still that way to this day. In Europe, France was attacked by the Mongolians, half of France was taken by the end of the fighting. If the Holy Roman Emperor would have listened things may have ended better for France. The Emperor would have never guessed the amount of French-Mongolian sympathizers. Adam would die at the age of 65 which was a long life for the time. Adam would be remembered for many generations to come as the one who answered the order of King Sigismund.