“Aaa…” I muttered as I sat on my horse, looking down from a hill towards what was once my home.

“Ancestor? You’re making some weird noises…” Asha asked who was sitting behind me. I still couldn’t believe my eyes. The horse figured that it wouldn’t move for a while so it started grazing.

“Aaaaaahhh…?!” I whimpered with despair. I kicked the horse and it jerked its head upward. It slowly made it way down from the hill towards the ‘town’.

“Ancestor..?”

“That is Follis?” I asked. Asha silently nodded, confused.

“The Follis I knew was the capital of a once mighty kingdom. It was the most important center of trade in the world. It had a massive fleet which could take down any sea monsters that fate threw at us…but...” I started muttering to myself.

“But…?” Asha asked.

“BUT WHAT THE HELL IS THIS SHANTY TOWN?!” I pointed angrily at the run-down town. The walls were all broken, the houses were only mud huts with broken roofs, there was only a dirt path and there were shit everywhere. There were only poor peasants moving around, just idly drinking and not working.

There were no smithies, no markets and any other clear buildings used for commercial. How was this place still running?! Did the Angolians forgot about Follis entirely?!

“I thought your...our family has a library?” I asked Asha.

“We do. It’s just that...well...it’s better to show it to you.” Asha guided me towards the Follis manor. It was the same location as my old manor a thousand years ago. However, the manor was at the same state as the town. The left wing of the manor was crumbling, there were broken and barred windows on every side.

“We converted the manor into a library. Well, it was the only worthy thing we had left in this place for people to travel to occasionally.” Asha pointed towards the manor. I got off my horse and made my way inside the manor. There were bookshelves but most were empty. There was only a few books left and the place was barely maintained. Just as I walked around the library inspecting what little books we had left, I heard some footsteps upstairs.

“Who’s there?! Better not steal the books! I have a sword! Or...something that could pass as a sword!” A man walked downstairs with a beat up training sword. I was startled but Asha was calm at the ordeal.

“Hello, father. No need to greet your daughter with a sword.” Asha waved with a smile.

“Asha? My walking money ba-...I mean….beloved daughter?!” The man shouted in surprise. Hey, I caught that. Another voice came from upstairs, this one belonged to a woman’s.

“Is my daughter here? I hope she has some money…” She ran down the stairs with her husband. The two Follises stared at me as I stared back.

“Asha, who is that man?” Her father asked, putting the sword down.

“Wait! Don’t tell me...that’s your betrothed?!” The mother asked excitedly. She was looking at my expensive looking gear deviously. That’s it, I’ve had enough. Screw it, these are my grandkids anyway.

“NO,” I uttered with a harsh tone. I quickly lifted my helmet up to allow these two idiots to clearly see my skull. “I’M YOUR ANCESTOR.”

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAH!” “AAAAAAAAAAAAH!”

.

.

.

I was standing with my arms crossed over the two Follises sitting down on the floor, looking down at the floor. I had Asha leave the manor so I could have a ‘talk’ with these two.

“So...from what I gathered, the Follises of the last few generation squandered all our money on some useless projects until the last few coins were spent by you two.” I went over what the two had told me in the past hour of interrogation.

“Mmm...yeah...well…” Asha’s father muttered.

“And since you were so poor that no one would marry into the family….”

“Ahh..ha ha….about...that…” Asha’s mother whimpered.

“...you figured that Asha would make a good smith, and you sent her off to make money. Is that right?” I tapped my arm impatiently.

“Ehh……” The two Follises whimpered. I sighed as I massaged my temples. As I ran my finger along my skull, I snapped my fingers. Asha’s parents sat straight with attention.

“I’m the head of House Follis since I’m the founder of it. Therefore, the rule is effectively passed back to me,” I announced.

“But that….”

“WHAT WAS THAT?!” I stomped my foot.

“Nothing! Nothing. You’re the head. I pass my rulership back to you…” The father whispered. I snarled at the two then went back outside.

“Hey, Asha. Get on the horse. We’re going on a short trip,” I ordered. Asha wanted to ask what happened but I just shrugged her off. We rode for a few minutes along a dirt path, towards an empty field. I got off and took a few steps around the field.

“Ancestor? What are we doing here?” Asha asked. I placed my finger on my mouth and hushed her. I gathered essence of death on my hand, until it formed a bolt. I threw the bolt towards my feet, at the ground and let it spread all over the field.

“Gathering workers.” I chuckled as the black fog seeped into the ground. Soon, the ground started to rumble and figures rose from the ground. The ‘workers’ rose smoothly while standing on alert. They were on formations and numbered hundreds. At the head of them was an armored figure riding a horse. It jumped off then knelt before me.

“King Sarjay. We had waited for centuries for your call once again. Your hearthmen await your orders, and we shall execute it until our existence is wiped from history. The Legions of Phollicia never rests. What is our first task?” He asked. The men were all possessed armors. Spirits of men who willingly sacrificed their bodies to be entombed onto their armor given by me and buried under the ground so that they would one day answer my call again. Without saying a word, I brought them back to the Follis manor.

“Hey, you all. Clean this place up,” I ordered them. The possessed armors all bowed down and did as they were told. Some ran towards the town, cleaning up the place. The leader of the possessed armors took out his lance then used essence of death to mold it into a broom. He started to sweep the manor’s interior along with a few of his lieutenants.

“This is…” Asha sighed. She was getting used to this, luckily for me. I walked towards the crumbling part of the manor and ordered the knights to fix it. Within minutes, the place was stable and I walked inside.

I found a table and some chair, then I ordered the knights to get anything related to documents and piled them up. Afterwards, I summoned a few damned spirits.

“AAAAHHH...I HAVE COME FROM THE UNDERWORLD TO HAUNT….Holy shit?! What’s with these tax revenues? Where’s the logs?! Am I being haunted or what?!” A spirit asked as he looked over the books and documents.

“Hey, you. Fix the documents and the accounting. I assign you as head accountant,” I ordered the spirit to sit down and start calculating.

“Siiiigh, I feel like I’m dying all over again!” He complained as he fixed his ghostly abacus onto the table then started jotting down notes on a parchment. That should fix the bureaucracy. I rode down to the town of Follis and saw knights running around fixing the place.

“Are we being invaded?! Will we finally have a competent ruler?!” A peasant screamed as he ran around the street. He bumped onto my horse.

“Hey,” I called to him. He shat himself when he saw my looking at me. I would also shit myself if a knight covered in full black plate armor, wearing a black horned helmet was looking down at him.

“Who...who are you?!” He asked.

“I am Sarjay of Follis. I’m taking over as the lord of this place. Go tell the others, or else," I warned. He obediently ran off telling everyone. Now that my rule was established, there were too many things all over this damned town that needed fixing.

I felt like my knights weren’t enough for my backbreaking plans for the place. I gathered the possessed armors and ordered them to hunt down every bandit in Follis and the area around it. I’m pretty sure that Follis was a gathering place for criminals since it had no order or whatsoever.

“Every single one of them was to be brought back alive to me,” I ordered the lieutenant. He bowed then rode off with his army towards the forest. A few hours later, at the town center, was a pile of bandits.

“Gentlemen. We can do this one way or another. Work for me for free or get locked up in a dungeon,” I announced towards the gathered men. A bandit bravely stood up, with his ropes still binded.

“Ha! Everyone knows the House Follis is too poor to afford dungeons! I choose the dungeon rather than work for you piss poor fucks!” He spat at me.

“Very well. He chose the dungeon, we give him the dungeon.” A hole opened in front of the bandit. The ground was rotating, black fog covered the walls of the hole and there were screaming from the damned from below. Before the bandit could step back, one of my knights pushed him in and the hole closed.

“Anyone else?” I asked.

“Oh! I’d love to work for free!”

“Yeah! Me too! Let’s build for the new lord of Follis!”

“Let's stop turning this place into a garbage bin!”

“What?” I shook my head. Anyways, with a large volunteer working force, I could start making Follis a functioning state and make it a shining star within the maps. After all, how was I supposed to take back my kingdom when my capital was in ruins?