Day 6: Daylight Saviours

"That…that's bad." The entourage were near Ken, their journey mostly uneventful, a few slip-ups here and there that both sides saw. But then, they had received from the radio that Rome was arrested. Kraz, called the other side to get him out of there, but…

"Rome told us to stay put." the person on the other side of the radio replied.

"But, why?" Kraz narrowed his eyes, with both Brick and Zeron listening in.

"We've made a big mess already." the voice said.

"But he didn't even kill that fucker!" apparently Renault had survived, shot in the foot they said. Still it was enough to warrant his arrest, it had been yesterday since his detention and everyone was in low spirits after that.

"Kenside, does he have contact? Can he communicate with us?" Brick questioned.

"He ain't responding sirs."

"Shit." Kraz cursed, while Brick shook his head.

"Let's hope he knows what he's doing." looking at the corner of his eye of one of the volunteer players coming with him. Showing off the tank in front a company of female knights, and they looked utterly bored.

Ken Central, Merchants' Quarter

"These carrots can grow in just in a few hours!"

"Really?" a merchant looked skeptically at the strange man in an attire he couldn't recognize anywhere. "Yup! and if we add our special minecraft bonemeal into the mix…!" the merchant watched as he procured on what looked like to be white powder and applied it to the small farm set up.

He widened his eyes as some kind of green miasma shot off from the plant, and watched as it grew in just a few seconds. "We can give you at least twenty-four bags of these, I recommend you save it on rainy days, if your crops don't grow."

"Hm."

TradeCo.'s Ken Central was a building that towered over the merchant quarters, having five upper floors and three lower floors. Each floor had a theme, though sadly the nether floor was limited. Days ago, the nether portal under Verod stopped working, in fact it hadn't worked since they arrived. Nor were the other portals as well, even newly built ones.

Some smart folks say that the event which caused them to arrive had something to do with it, theorizing that the portals were 'incompatible' with this world.

"Carrots will be 13 bronze, and the bone meal will be…2 gold each?"

"Sir, this is criminal!" the man swore.

"Didn't make the rules buddy, besides… Our veggies are just built different, aren't they?"

"Ugh…"

*SLAM*

"…Jesus dude, don't slam the door-"

"We got trouble." he looked at the shopkeeper straight in the eye.

"What trouble?"

"The fedora fags fucked it up big time." he rolled his eyes in response.

"What? What'd they do now?"

"No time to explain, we gotta hide, fast." he slipped by him and went down a trapdoor. Leaving the two in awkward silence.

"Welp sir, looks like we'll be closing early."

*SLAM*

The shopkeep and merchant looked at the group of men pouring in, a well dressed man pointed at the person behind the counter.

"You are coming with us foreigner."

"What." he raised his eyebrow.

The blonde fop's eyebrow squeezed together, it might have looked like it would popped off his face. "No time for games, as I, Charles Albercomb has come to arrest you- Where are you go- SEIZE HIM!" he snarled, letting out some spit. But the thugs brutish strength was not enough for his speed at him dropping down the hole. The merchant who was left behind was unfortunately caught in their beatdowns.

As he lay bleeding and heaving, he had only one thought in his mind. "They wouldn't know…" slowly but surely, he stood on his shaky legs and grabbed the bags and carrots on the counter, limping his way out of the store.

Never was he seen again.

"Alright, they didn't see us covering the tunnels. We're good to go." six people were in the tunnels, one of them carried the torch onward to their destination.

"Where we going?" one asked.

"We're joining Hanz's hideout, they'll never get us there." the torchbearer answered. Actually, it was built by the mafia faction, as a safehouse if anything went wrong on the surface, like the one they are in now.

Fucking hell, Rome.

"Wait, why didn't we fight?" a younger worker asked.

"We need them, remember? Hopefully, Sock and Brick will sort out the situation, we'll be in radio contact with 'em."

"What happens if they fail to sort it out?"

"…"

…

…

…they kept on walking.

North Ken, Ken

He stepped down, the atmosphere somber and grey. Unlike the first time the Verodians appeared, this time people were scared to look at them or perhaps some other cause.

"So, where's the company boys?" Brick looked around.

"They've been laying low, I think." Sock answered. An incident had shut down Ken Central, at least for now. Some thugs were looking for them, they overheard over the radio that the things being done were unlawful, all in the name of public order. Seems like they were rounding them up, for an easy kill.

"Wait, where's the reception? Someone was supposed to meet us right?" He turned to look at Claudia, also looking troubled.

"You there!" she called out to a random townswoman, who hurriedly went towards her liege. "Why are the streets empty? What on earth happened while I was gone?" she questioned.

"Milady!" she bowed. "An accident happened in the local tavern, the Verodians tried to help, but… Lord Pappenheim was shot when he tried to stop them." she bowed again.

"Yup, that's how the story went." Brick surged forward to Claudia. She turned her head to him.

"You knew?"

"The radio, told us." he presented his black box to her. "Apperantly, Rome suspected Mr. Pappenheim here, has been running a human trafficking ring, or a more accurately, a dark elf trafficking ring right under your nose." During the early years of Celestine's reign, the stance on slavery was officially outlawed, with no humans ever being enslaved ever again.

But that didn't stop them from trying other races, specifically the dark elves, where the troubles began. Recently dark elves were also part of the list of not being enslaved, but the rules were only read at best, but no action was taken unfortunately.

Claudia's eyes widened. "How?"

"Ehh…" he scratched his head. "We were doing some intelligence gathering around our area, we had to know if everything you had was legitimate. No offense." she nodded slightly, the implications slowly growing.

"Kraz's guy, Rome. Found a dirty little secret of one of your… ministers? What was Pappenheim in charge of anyways?" he tilted his head.

"He was given authority over the city guards and militia." she answered and looked back at the townswoman. "Thank you, miss. You may leave now." she bowed again and smiled a little, before leaving.

"Heh, you're actually pretty nice." Brick never really saw what she was really like, only knowing her from the infamous scenes he came to remember.

"Klaus has been helpful in that regard… What did you think of me?" she raised her eyebrows, quite offended but not too much to be a problem. Though she came to regret saying that, as it became too personal for her liking.

"I dunno, some kind of strict matriarch or something." he looked away from her, eye sockets forward to the road. "Let's go, can't keep the crowd waitin'." he banged on the metal, signalling the tanks forward.

The machines bellowed smoke and steam and surged onward, followed by the vanguard of shining knights and rugged mercenaries.

The Court Dungeons, The Grand Hall of Ken

Rome heard the lock open from his prison.

"You are summoned." he heard a gravelly voice say. He stood up from his shitstain of a cell, while the guard with a black eye stared daggers at him and his clean form. Another curious perk of them, was that they never became dirty nor bruised, well kind of, they do, but it disappears quickly leaving behind no scars or marks.

He thought of escaping by killing himself or mining down, but… things wouldn't be resolved. He knew he had gone a bit too far. "But then again, shooting him in the leg makes that an understatement." he thought. He had to plan something, perhaps more just than involving minecraft powers.

"But that's all I have in the end…"

The Grand Hall of Ken, Ken

The court let their desires known, a gaze of disapprovement surrounded Rome, reminding him of those old school days…

"Heh, some things never change…" a bitter smile framed his face.

Still the muttering and whispers continued, the room was designed in a way that those in power were high above the one who spoke. He could see that all eyes were on him, chained and surrounded by all sides.

In front of him, he saw a grizzled old man, a short grey beard that looked like it would cut you in half. His skin tanned from either being born that way or through working a lot outside. He was led in front of the old man, his stare steeling itself right through his eyes.

And if he looked closely he saw a small flash of… curiousity?

Another man raised his hand and clenched it in a fist,

"The trial shall commence!"

And everyone quieted down.

"State your name, foreigner."

"… Rome."

"Rome…? A peasant then." another man whispered under his breath.

"Rome Empire." he said.

"Empire is your family name?" The old man was incredulous.

"Ye… no. Not really."

"This peasant is taking us for fools! Pronounce him guilty already!"

"I won't tell you my real name! My code name is enough!"

"Silence you-!"

"Fine."

Everyone looked at the old man with wide eyes. "The court shall recognize you as Rome." If the mafia man remembered correctly, the old man right in front of him is Grave Levantine, the guy who raped his daughter in front of his own son. "I wish Brick spared me the details." he really did not want that thought in his head right now.

Still he narrowed his eyes at the old man.

"Did you shoot Lord Pappenheim with your 'gun' as you call it?"

"Yeah, I shot him in the foot."

The crowd murmured more at the audacity of this foreigner. "Why?" Grave questioned.

"He was preventing me from saving the dark elf sex slaves that he kept around." soon the room was chattering.

"Lies!" he looked around the room and saw the man himself. Utterly bandaged from top to bottom. "What an over dramatic bitch." he stared at them with a slow smile framing his face.

"You won't find them, anywhere in the city." Rome closed his eyes, pleased.

Grave looked up to meet Renault's eyes.

"Is this true?"

Renault stammered a bit before saying, "It is not true at all! Me and my men have been trying to keep order in the city. But that ruffian down there has disrupted my public order! Is it not suspicious that he tried to keep me away from the rubble?"

"Oh now he's playing dirty." Rome thought, still smiling, still confident.

"Perhaps, he is the one keeping the accursed dark elves! Yes… that's it! He-"

*SLAM*

The crowd looked at the doors that were slammed open, the familiar figure of Claudia Levantine stood before them, as well as a man in a white mask and blue coat, his identity undeniable, and he was surrounded by more of the strange Verodians and everyone stared raptured.

"So, this is where they've been keeping Rome, huh?" Brick crossed his arms.

"How dare you come here! You can't-" a noble fop tried to start.

"Claudia…" Grave Levantine was surprised by her arrival.

"Lord Levantine." she nodded.

Things were just now getting interesting…

The Court Dungeons, The Grand Hall of Ken

A guard was patrolling the cells when he heard something strange. It was like the sound of rocks banging together. Following the noise, he turned the corner to see the prisoner's cell…

Empty.

"… thought normal people would escape stone prisons, unfortunately for them we are not normal." Doctor Yale mined more stone for their little tunnel.

"How come they didn't shake us up for items?" Tiko said.

"Duh, they are stored in your inventory, they can't access that unless we're killed." Milford said.

"Yeah, if they were gonna imprison us, they gotta be more elaborate than that." Mark said.

"Wonder if the girls are okay?" he said.

The Safehouse, Under Ken

"Are you okay?" Hilda asked Asha.

"I'm worried about Marky…" She sobbed.

Shortly after Rome shot Pappenheim, things got ugly near the collapsed tavern. Rome told them to run, along with the dark elf girls, the exploratory group stayed behind to help Rome even though he told them not to.

They stopped killing when Rome urged them of their position, and when more men surrounded them, they surrendered without a fight, at least to keep the conflict between Verod and Ken from boiling any further.

Hilda sighed.

"There, there, girl…" the female guides found themselves in the secret safehouse that was shortly constructed during their arrival, in courtesy of Rosa Nostra. This was where the real operations in Ken was being done. After Rome got detained, they opted to follow Hanz's leadership, and for now were staying low, yet rescuing some people here and there.

In hopes, that Verod will grow.

And grow stronger.

AN:

10/20/21: Short chapter for now, watch out for "Day 6: Trial of Rome" soon, also might do a time skip to day 8 after that.