Asean in Love

While the queen regent of Bali was preparing her wardrobe for the long journey, noise and voices of another language and even the sound of gunpowder could be heard in the castle."We are under attack", somebody shouted. "Queen, you must escape. We must hurry.The exit at the main door is already occupied, but we still have a chance to escape through the others that lead to the exit of the castle through the kitchen rooms.""No, I am still the queen here, I will wait for the enemies without fear.""Queen, we need to go now, They can kill you, you know it happens often."The queen paused to think."This was not in her dream, nor in any episode of the King of Bali movie.A sign that this is not life-threatening," she thought.The queen left her room with dignity, not fearing the enemy.Suddenly she was surrounded and unknown people wrapped her in a sheet cloth and took her from the court to their ship."Let me go", shouted the queen."Who are you to invade the kingdom of Bali?""Let her go", said an unknown man in imperial robes, and release her to stand in front of him."So, you are the queen of Bali with a mask"."Take off your mask!", he ordered.The queen resisted in vain, and as the mask fell from her face the queen said:"Send the other people out of this room and I will remove the mask myself.""All right, everyone get out", he ordered the soldiers and staff around him.The queen did not yet know whose prisoner she was, so she asked:"Tell me who you are before I drop my mask?""I am the king of the kingdom of Singhasari.""And I, the wife of King Bali Jayapangus", the queen said and took off her mask.Just like king Jayapangus, king of Singhasari was in awe of her fatal unusual beauty, which she hid behind a mask for years."I am not afraid to take off my mask before you.In Bali I have to wear a mask so as not to endanger my son's life, I soon plan to let my son lead the kingdom, I would rather do overseas trade in the Republic of Venice where we have business partners", she was a professional queen.The king was surprised by her openness."You see, Bali is a small kingdom that was often attacked by others, our greatest enemy is the Yuan Dynasty, if he attacks us with his huge fleet, destroys all the temples and loots the cities, the people of Bali will have to live in misery and hunger, and on top of that they will have to become his vassals, give to Yuan Dynasty gold and our army, and who know maybe would take me forcibly to Mongol generals harem or kill me.""What could be a better solution than to be my vassal, and together we will fight against Kublai Khan, we will not burn your temples in Bali, nor plunder your cities, what do you think of my offer?"Okay, but let it be a joint Hindu-Buddhist empire", she said, knowing that in a few years Majapahit will be the greatest empire in this part of the world."Many traders and refugees from the Song dynasty live in Bali who are Buddhists, they respect your Hindu tradition, and we can all live together and respect each other in peace. My husband personally invited representatives of the Song dynasty to visit Bali and that's how we met, but some people didn't like that marriage alliance, we had obstacles that were difficult to overcome, so I want to hear your opinion on this matter.I am also open to cooperation with merchants from other kingdoms, together we will be stronger to resist Kublai Khan's powerful and massive forces", the queen explained. "Yuan Dynasty since Kublai Khan, and now Timur Khan wants to subjugate me in order to conquer other kingdoms around, but as the daughter of a sea merchant, you know that this maritime Southeast Asian archipelago of ours is the most important trade route for overseas ships in Southeast Asia.Your husband King Jayapangus Raja was a member of our Rajasa dynasty from his mother's side, our families are still connected by kinship ties, so let us unite into one empire, and the Balinese merchants can open their colony on our island of the Singhasari empire as well""That's right and we as a vassal kingdom will defend you from Mongol attacks, they are not good warriors at sea, they are only trained warriors on horse to attack on land, but they are more numerous. That is why we will always be able to stop them at sea so that they do not reach our islands, they are most afraid of monsoons and losing their expensive ships in a storm, that is why we will cause storms when their war fleets try to attack us. Each Bali leyak can cause stormy rain and change the direction of the monsoon to stop enemy attacks."The king of the Singhasari kingdom also had his own demands."Your big ships sail faster and carry more cargo, and like Bali we produce pepper, cloves and nutmeg, so you will be our overseas trade representative when you visit the Republic of Venice.I will bring you back to Bali, and then you can go to Venice as you planned before like nothing happened here."The deal was made on the king's ship, but on the way back to Bali Island,they were attacked by a tribe of natives from a nearby island.In the dark and stormy night, the ship at sea fought against high waves and poisonous arrows flying in all directions."What happened?""Why are they attacking us?""We have entered their waters because of the storm, but we cannot turn the ship in the opposite direction at present until the storm is over.""Do you know which tribe that is?""The arrows show that they came down from the mountains."The queen of Bali recognized the tribe that belonged to the kingdom of Bali.They seem to be fishing at night."You have to lower the flag of the Singhasari empire and put up the Bali flag and they will go away on their own.""Be serious, no joke, where did we get the flag of the kingdom of Bali now?""That is easy, and I will make it", said the queen."Surely you have a needle and thread on a ship, they are especially used by fishermen and sailors, please, ask one of the sailors."Soon the emperor returned with a large needle, but without thread."Even a needle is enough to save us from danger."She tore her skirt horizontally and pulled out long threads to be the thread for the flagAfter 10 minutes the Bali flag was flying at the top of the flagpole. The natives immediately stopped the attack and returned to their island.The queen's pleated skirt was torn so that her legs were visible when she walked, which is not allowed to anyone because a sarong is worn especially because it covers the legs completely up to the toes."I can't go back to the castle like this", thought queen Kang.