Rose was gone from the room she'd left her in within the Crimson Orders headquarters. The site only making it apparent that she'd left without even having gone to sleep. She cursed in her head as even her friend wasn't willing to place her trust in her anymore.
Was she gone to the embassy, or had Natsume squirrelled her away assuming the Crimson Order was compromised. That at least was easy enough to figure out because she'd meet Natsume and figure it out by how smug she looked.
Right now, she only had four people she could trust completely, and her sister had other concerns. So only three knights she could trust to find her friend against however many people Orianna would spend looking for a missing princess. Well at least it was in Midgar and there was only so much they could do.
She could be calm no matter how much it irked her. She had to be as Iris turned a corner and locked eyes with her because her sister was not calm in the slightest. Frustration and anger clear on her face. Her sisters anger abated slightly as their eyes met but it was still too early in the morning to be that frustrated for either of them. "Is your news worse than mine?"
"Perv Asshat is standing outside the Crimson Order asking to be let in to find his fiancée and has a decree from Father saying I'm supposed to let him pass." Iris was furious enough to let a few sparks loose around her from magic. "I hope she's not here, because while the servants can't let him in sooner or later, I need to answer the door myself."
She let her own anger bleed away as morbid amusement took its place. "Be sure to let him right in she isn't here."
Iris was taken aback her anger sputtering for a moment as she calmed down. "They brought twenty soldiers without even checking. I'm supposed to be focussing on the tournament."
She let a real smile grace her face. "She was here for a short while before being moved elsewhere. I guess some people weren't told." She hadn't been and she paused as she thought it over. "I can at least be polite enough to give him a guided tour on your behalf then.
Iris frowned at her. "Don't start a war just yet no matter how detestable he is."
The man she met at the door was twice Roses age and that same slimy kind of presentable that meant she despised him from the first word. Natsume had compared him to Zenon and she felt it in his smile that looked faker than anything.
"Princess Alexia a pleasure to meet you, it seems my fiancée was last seen near here and after she failed to turn up to a meeting with her father… well I've been asked to check and make sure nothing is amiss."
She hated him already, so she smiled as easily as always. "The pleasure is all mine, but this visit was quite unexpected can I have some time." It was almost like she was implying Rose was still here.
He took the bait as he grinned at her words. "I have already gotten permission from his Majesty so I am afraid I really must insist right now." The document came up and she made a go at looking pensive as she read through it.
It was okay to look worried that he knew at least this much. A random stranger seeing it was unlikely so she would have to go back to looking at every knight she had like they were traitors. "Well, if my father insists then you are welcome to it, please come in that it might allay your suspicions. The dormitories would be upstairs you understand."
"Thank you." There were two staircases and he took the right ones for the room she had given to Rose, even as she felt a pit drop in her stomach. That could be a coincidence she supposed but she didn't feel it was likely.
He walked straight past the first few rooms, halfway down the hall before he stopped to ask if he could search through the rooms, a short cursory inspection. Even as the pit in her stomach grew deeper as she smiled split between anger at his information and humour at his impending embarrassment. "Go ahead."
He started with the room she'd hid Rose in without even a second thought and found it empty. Before slowly working his way up and down the corridor in the hope that he might find something. So now she was back to that wonderful moment where she had no knights she still trusted.
She grit her teeth and bore it even as she felt her anger rising. She was actually going to have to thank Natsume for this wasn't she? Specifically because they still had a rat sitting around inside the Crimson Order who was collaborating with him.
She breathed out and calmed herself returning a sweet smile to her face. "I take it you have found everything in order, or do you need to see every room in this place to know she isn't here."
Perv smiled back. "I don't know where she could be but the soldier watching her swore that she had entered this building, I would like to check fully before I condemn him for lying to me you understand. It would be terrible to arrest and torture the wrong person."
If he'd just point them out she'd gladly take care of her traitor for him. But she was being nice Alexia at the moment no matter how little he deserved it. "Well given she's in Midgar wouldn't it be best to leave it to us to find her." Because then she could drag it out and do nothing and punish anyone who tried otherwise.
Perv was not that stupid though. "Nonsense the princess of my kingdom is missing, my fiancée is missing so how could I not be worried. Your father has given his blessing for me to take it into my own hands to find her so how could I not put all my effort in. Though I hear your own engagement went poorly perhaps one day you will learn what we do for love."
She doubted he would ever learn himself.
One of Natsume's followers contacted her calling a meeting shortly afterwards. Soon enough she didn't even need to wait to see her act smug over the whole thing, because she knew that Perv had visited and that Rose was gone.
She could at least grace her with a proper smile because she wouldn't have wanted Rose to be there when Perv came through. "I see you managed to take Rose away just in time, I honestly would have liked to be kept on the same page if we're partners."
Natsume frowned back but held her nerve. "I did have a plan for that and a member who was following her to intervene if she did something foolish in a moment of haste." Natsume's frown deepened. "But I can't take the blame here nor the credit, she decided to leave on her own and whoever has her now is something I'm still working on."
A letter was pushed across the table for her to read and it was at least in Rose's script. It sounded like her and so she could rely on the fact Rose was at least cooperating in her disappearance. "But this says she went to the embassy, and I think Perv would know if that was the case."
"She didn't make it." Natsume held her gaze for a moment before continuing. "The person I left tracking her saw a blur moving faster than they could catch intervene and carry Rose off."
A figure moving faster than the eye could see, strong enough to drag Rose away without any resistance. The last party for this little game had arrived, "So I guess Shadow Garden has decided to make their move."
Natsume smiled uncomfortably back at her fidgeting for the first time since they'd met. Only a crack but that insufferably smug exterior had slipped for a moment. Still a fake smile soon followed, and she offered her own answer. "I don't have much understanding of them beyond them moving us out of the arena at Lindwurm do you think they have anyone who could pull it off."
How to push that button in her mind. "Their leader Shadow is a terrible person bereft of any moral character, and yet he has enough strength to back it up. If he had chosen to intervene even my sister would be hard pressed to stop him so your friends would be caught unaware."
She stared at the only occasion Natsume had ever seemed uncomfortable and felt the pit in her stomach deepen even further. For everything else Natsume already thought it out and had an answer prepared. Her subordinates were all girls just like all the members of Shadow Garden.
She should have known the moment she offered to have members join the Crimson Order, because it seemed that everyone they recruited was a spy and it only mattered who they were for. Natsume was Shadow Garden all along, she hoped that they had at least given the job of annoying her to someone important. "Well as you aren't aware of them should I fill you in?"
Natsume squirmed under her mask of calm and she smiled back. This might just be the first conversation she'd ever truly enjoyed with her.
Annerose settled into the stands to watch for any sign that what she'd glimpsed was a truth and not an illusion.
Her companion was frustrating to deal with but also easily the best man for the job. Infamous in his own right that he had better eyes than anyone to always know when to run away.
Beside her clad in gold was the 'Unbeaten Legend' a title he barely deserved. "If you've brought me just to look at the maiden knights, I've already seen them. No idea where they came from but they're not exactly what I would have considered something for you to worry about."
Annerose watched the two upcoming contestants with trepidation. The small group of overwhelmingly strong girls that had taken the tournament by storm were intimidating in their own way, but she was still stronger than any of them. She was certain of that much.
The actual reason she was here stumbled into the arena with a listless gaze. "I need your opinion on her opponent and hopefully I'd like to see if she can bring out his full power."
When that old man had let his killing intent loose and left the entire street suffocating themselves and barely able to stand, Mundane Mann had simply treated it as normal. Had grabbed the certain death about to crash down and swallow her like it was nothing.
The shiver that still rang down her spine at the memory said it wasn't a lie. That if she fought either of them it would only be death that awaited her. Bit if anyone knew how to judge a man at first glance it could only be Goldoh, who had run from every fight he might lose.
"Are you sure?" Goldoh looked at her askance. "His battle power is barely double digits this is going to be a short fight."
Tomorrow they would have whittled down the number of fighters enough that they would move to the full arena. But for today he was still standing up about to meet his first fight against one of the knight otaku.
They were doing really well but there was a difference between them and him. Alas for his goal he would cut down anyone even if it was one of his students. His sword coming loose as Mundane Mann wobbled to the field looking almost on the verge of death.
The match began and the girl in front of him froze, locking up as her eyes fixed on his sword as though expecting her end to come at any moment. Two swordsmen facing off across the expanse each waiting for the other to move. He could win easily, could charge and break her defence but that wouldn't look at all discrete now would it.
"Come show me you deserve to wield that blade." Before he'd even finished the words she flashed forward, a shimmer of light on the edge of the blade just like the one he'd used previously, the light touching his eyes.
He didn't need them but made the action to cover his eyes even as his blade twisted to parry such that it might have been accidental. The next swing came in and he made to clear his eyes as another parry and then she was off balance.
A simple enough opening and he stepped forward faster than the eye could see, the flat of his blade slamming into her hand just hard enough to force her to drop the sword. Even as he stepped back into position fast enough that it looked like he hadn't moved.
The girl looked confused for a moment then nodded calmly. "Thank you for your instruction once more."
"You have improved." It would be too cruel to humiliate her and say she hadn't when he was pretty sure she had backed up plenty of his skits previously. Yes number he couldn't be bothered to remember was a member of Shadow Garden, so he'd at least treat her well.
Two knights awaited him as he left, Annerose of the seven swords of Vegalta and some guy in overly gold tacky armour that was probably some form of main character. She hung back and so it was golden guy who stepped up to greet him.
"Goldoh Kinmeki the ever-victorious golden dragon."
The ever-victorious golden dragon, which was definitely a proper hero kind of title. Two main character type people coming to him, like a private little club for those few who had the strength to see through his façade.
When in doubt just use a modified truth as the best way to keep all your lies in order. "I met several of them while hunting bandits here and there. They had potential so I gave them a few pointers as any knight should do to those who wish to learn the way of the sword. Surely you have taught a few to be such a prestigious knight."
Annerose spoke. "Well, his legend is pretty unique so he's probably not quite what you expect from it."
He nodded. "He hasn't slaughtered bandits across hundreds of battles then?"
Annerose spoke even as the golden dragon winced. "I don't think anyone else here quite trends towards the hundreds of battles, it would take a long time to reach that many."
He shrugged. "A walk here and there, maybe going bandit hunting as little as two or three times a week and you get to more than a hundred battles in less than two years. It is only through fighting countless battles that being ever victorious can mean anything otherwise we'd have to start giving that title to kids who'd fought only one spar in their life."
Goldoh certainly looked embarrassed at that statement, so he probably wasn't as good as he thought he was. But that was fine he had the perfect response for it. "Don't worry one day I'm sure you'll actually fight someone half decent and then you'll actually have something to brag about."
He shifted his feet to the sound of thumping footsteps.
The red uniforms of Orianna's guards rushed past weaving their way through the crowd looking for anyone suspicious. Which given the nature of the tournament was half the contestants he reckoned, maybe all of them. Rose wasn't even here and was practicing her lines in his dormitory for the moment and he'd left her with a good escape route if anyone did come searching there so all that was left was to decide how to stir things up here and now. "How arrogant they are to act like this in Midgar."
Goldoh shrugged his shoulders. "There are fights not worth picking, even a small country has its fangs so they're right to bow their heads."
He grinned at the setup line as he walked off towards the fracas. "There are men who do not cower, perhaps one day you'll become one of them."
The distance to the fray vanished before him as he reached out and caught the guardsman's hand. "This place is a tournament and if you want to throw around words you should be ready to meet a blade."
Indignation arose on the face of the man he was holding, even as the other guards half drew their swords a quiet tension resting in the air. "Are you interfering with an investigation sanctioned by Orianna and the King of Midgar."
A single finger reached out even as he let a sliver of killing intent loose. Though the flick had no force to it the man still collapsed. "This is the Bushin festival so I'll gladly cross blades with you if you want. But Midgar does not allow foreign powers to march on our soil without reprisal regardless of what the King says."
He turned to glance at each one in turn and felt them quail. The guards turning tail and running before he made his way back to his two newfound friends. "See sometimes it's countries that need to learn to be afraid of me."
The streets teemed with the promise of violence.
Dollanar had forsaken this place long ago that much was evident. Because the dragon worn on shirts wasn't the blue and silver of his own colours. It was red on black that could only be picked by someone who had never met Dollanar and knew him only by word.
Still the sight filled Surtr with unease, it didn't matter how little they remembered if they chose to follow his lead when he appeared. She followed it back to the source, the shop that was selling an excessive amount of dragon merchandise was impressive indeed.
The crowd swarming it even more so as more people than she had ever seen in her life swelled into the store such that the line to enter stretched out around it. She settled in at the back herself and waited slowly moving forward until she had reached the entrance.
It was unlike any store she had ever seen, but then she felt that way with many of the cities of the modern era. Grown so much larger again now that demons no longer hungered at the door. The dragon shirts were out in force here, but so were a hundred other garments and a thousand other products. The store wasn't pushing them so much as they were selling everything, and it was the customers who were so enraptured by them.
Which made it even less likely as she looked around that this was the birthplace of Dollanar's movement. Just a few thousand people cramped into one building nothing remarkable about them at all as…
Aurora stood before her eyes the Witch of Calamity reborn amidst the world. Her hand swinging down to the hilt of her sword in an instant as she prepared herself for the slaughter to come. The monster in human form turning towards her and smiling as she stepped forward.
To think the two of them would meet here. She would do her best to drag the fight away from the crowd, do her best to ensure some could survive but against the monster before her eyes nothing could be guaranteed. Not even her own survival.
Aurora tripped a look of surprise and confusion on her face as she crashed down into the ground harmlessly and the tension disappeared. Aurora had never tripped in all their battles, had never wavered or faltered.
She pulled her hand from the hilt of her sword calming herself because Diabolos couldn't be just setting up a store in the middle of a city and it was just an uncanny resemblance. The darkness concealed within was elsewhere but once she found it the only choice would be to strike decisively.
She was sure the other Rounds knew it too, they had to cut down as much of the opposition as possible before Dollanar arrived.
Beta had setup her little club on her own accord. To lead them towards the goal Shadow had set for them all. But it seemed she still had much to learn because even when she was so close, she had been unable to stop Rose from being kidnapped. But when she was in doubt as to what to do Shadow had always known so she came here today to ask.
Cid was calm in his seat and unworried, so at the least she hadn't failed too seriously. "Do you know the best place to hide something Beta?"
There were many ways although the best would be to give it to her lord and let him decide, or perhaps in Shadow Garden. Rose wasn't in Shadow Garden so it wasn't the answer he was looking for and she thought about it for a moment. "To hide it amongst countless others of its own kind that you cannot distinguish the correct answer from a wrong one." Like a student hidden in the dormitories. Rose wasn't sleeping in her own room in the Academy, was she?
She fidgeted nervously because while she thought it was a good answer Shadow always had more to teach them. "It is a good answer but not the best one. The best place to hide something is behind a lie that everyone knows to be true."
She nodded her head and noted it down. A truth like the fact that Mitsugoshi belonged to Gamma in her identity as Luna, and so no one had ever bothered to suspect it actually belonged to Cid.
He smiled back. "The Orianna Kingdom has no knight orders worth mentioning. It is a truth you will hear a thousand times from anyone who you could ask. It is so well known that you probably cannot name even a single knight beyond Rose from the Orianna kingdom. So let me tell you a tale of how it began."
She nodded in silence turning to a fresh page. No matter how the cult had tried to erase their presence her master had always been able to see through it as clear as day.
The words came even as she scribbled to get it all down. "Long ago the Cult turned the Orianna Kingdom into a charnel house as they released an army of demons to ravage the land and crush all who would dare oppose them. Broken and defeated the King of Orianna had no choice but to bow his head to the cult and offer surrender and beg for the lives of his citizens."
"Once under their Aegis the Cult sought to cripple the kingdom that they could never rise to oppose them. Under the ever-watchful eye of the cult they were stripped of funding and their knight orders were torn apart with the threat that they would come back and destroy any attempt to rebuild them."
She nodded in understanding scribbling notes down on the paper in front of her.
"But what knight could accept that? For the strongest who remained who had seen their country ravaged by demons, who had become heroes in their own right to be told to lay down their swords was unthinkable. Under the command of their leader who had drunk the blood of demons and become immortal and the support of the King in secret, they vanished. The Order of the Black Rose has stood ever since loyal to the country alone and those who defend it waiting for an opportunity to throw off the shackles binding their country forevermore."
It was a paradigm Beta knew well. For wasn't it the nature of Shadow Garden that those who learned the truth would join the fight. But they had their lord who was pure of heart and noble in deed to lead them and without that it would be so easy for such an organisation to become as bad as the ones they fought. "Have they kept to their purpose and can be seen as allies, or should we be taking action to counter them as well?"
Cid paused. "They are not our enemies at least on this day, but the sideshow before the main event. A chance to fan the flames and unbalance the enemy before we strike for real. Consider them an opportunity for now I suppose." He turned back to her a grin firm on his face. "Tomorrow it will end."
"Tomorrow?" She couldn't see the flaw and had thought that Perv's position had already been consolidated. Still Shadow could see it and if he thought it could fall in a single day then it was true.
Shadow clearly saw through her uncertainty. "Perv has staked his reputation on a goal he cannot achieve. He dreams himself as a manipulator but cannot even see the board, so all he does is reveal his allies when he makes a move. Look closely to those who gather round and support him, for everyone with sense will soon be trying to run from his legacy as fast as they can."
She understood the sight obvious now. "We're using the chaos he creates to recognise other members of the Cult still hiding in Midgar. Are you going to take action as well?"
"Perhaps I will lend him a favour, but this is a sideshow before the main event. His army is already surrounded, so all you need is to take note of those who would aid him."
The red cap and full suit were close enough in fit that he slipped in unaware amidst the rush. Just one soldier among many scouring the streets on a tipoff they'd been given. Well that he'd given them, but they didn't need to know any of that.
They were here to reclaim the princess from the ruffians that had never held her in the first place. But by the time they realised that it would be too late and there would be blood on the ground.
Fifteen soldiers from the Orianna kingdom piled through the door into the tavern. Fifty half drunk swordsmen fresh from losing their bouts in the Bushin festival stared back. The tension growing as they eyed the swords already drawn.
In front of him the leader of their squad hesitated. A moment spent counting their number and his own as the confidence left his body.
Cid did not as he tossed the nearest table aside. "All of you are under arrest for conspiracy to kidnap Princess Rose of the Orianna Kingdom." For a moment confusion and anger played across the crowd. Then he punched the man closest to him, just to punctuate it for emphasis.
The other patrons were on their feet swords drawn even as the soldiers at his back trembled. He danced merrily forward with a smile upon his face to get the bar fight started and flashed away in victory the moment after.
It had been his first. The first time he'd ever started a bar room brawl, that common mob like action taking on a deeper meaning only once you knew what was truly going on.
Rose met him on the roof and in an instant they were off, a slight bit of speed and the scuffle below fading away into the distance. A nervous look on her face as she eyed the chaos behind them. "Will they be okay."
He pondered it for a moment. "Perv will only send people who he trusts to know he poisoned your father. So hopefully not."
She looked disquieted at that. "How can you tell which ones are on his side and which ones are still loyal?"
"We're in Midgar he could only bring so many soldiers. With them having to travel with the King leaving it to chance would put his plot at risk so basically the entire diplomatic delegation should be considered compromised." And also because it let him just treat them all as opponents.
He could see Rose thinking it over for a moment and then she nodded. "Perv has made himself the face of a diplomatic mission to Midgar."
He nodded for that was the beauty of his plan. Perv was a guest relying on the goodwill of Midgar to manage their hunt. All he needed to do was to conduct a handful more false flag attacks and the King would have no choice but to condemn Orianna. Once that happened the stage was set.
A failure made for everyone to see as his first role in office.
Prime material for him to enact his own plot and tear out the foundations of his power out from beneath him.
Still first he had just a few more scenes to set the stage. Because this might be his only chance to carry out every mob plan, he'd ever made for the guardsman overstepping his bounds in foreign territory. He could instigate his bar fights in so many different ways now he had a uniform.
And once he was done, he could just switch sides and start riling up the competitors as the guy nursing his drink in the corner ready to fight the system.
It was all coming together.
Iris was back from a meeting with their father, which from the fury boiling over her hadn't exactly gone as well as they'd hoped. Which was entirely in line with what she'd expected.
Alexia grimaced herself. "More ostrich policy then. I guess until we can find something more on the Cult again he'll continue to bury his head in the sand."
"He knows." Iris punctuated the words with a burst of flame around her. "That Perv doesn't actually have the backing of King Raphael and has just chosen to not question it because it's simpler."
She nodded along at the words as it wasn't that unlikely, her father had always been friends with Rose's father so of course he would find it strange the man had delegated all his duties to someone else.
Then her mind caught up to Iris's continuing tirade and how her father had also known that Midgar had been infiltrated all the way down. Had known for years and turned a blind eye to it as standard policy. That it was easier to let there be sacrifices than to fight them.
She had been one of those sacrifices once and was now only alive because Shadow Garden had rescued her. She had long come to terms with the fact that her father had been powerless to change anything on that day, yet those words still hurt.
It wasn't the powerlessness of ignorance or a matter of having been lied to. He had deliberately turned his head aside and deemed that it would be easier to accept her death than stand up and fight. It seemed Iris was even angrier than she was disappointed in him.
She forced a smile back. "It wasn't like I was waiting on him to come and rescue me at the time anyway. We both knew for the longest time that he didn't want to look further so nothing has really changed."
"I will change it." Her sister was there in front of her in an instant. "It's okay I still love you I won't let it continue on like this." Iris hugged her with the same warmth she'd had since childhood. The kind older sister she could always rely on.
She believed in her sister it was true. But right now she didn't truly believe in the rest of the Crimson Order either.
Her father had chosen to sit it out and go with whichever side won.
Even if it was the Cult that wanted to use her as a blood sacrifice in their experiments.
Had this also been part of Natsume's plan? Had she seen the way things were going right from the beginning? Because right now there was only one side she could pick if she didn't want to die.
She steeled herself for tomorrow she would meet with Shadow Garden once more.
To meet with a Rounds was an exercise in discipline, for they had no patience for fools and even less so for failure. Hubb was meeting with two of them right now and given the nature of the news would rather be anywhere but here. He'd rather they'd asked for Perv who he felt was far more responsible, but one did not refuse when they were called.
The tension had only grown as the two of them had left him standing here for a solid five minutes without letting him speak, because they had seen the outside and no words could convince them it was going well.
Finally Gaunt broke the silence the image of calm as he gave out his sentence. "Someone is going to die over today's failure Hubb, I'm sure you can at least understand that much." The old man smiled without warmth. "Speak and let us decide if it will be you."
He would not hesitate in his answer. "Most of Midgars forces are currently still not committed because we lack intel of who we are supposed to be fighting. Pervs forces are wading into a city filled with fighters and getting wiped out without sending anything back and I thought it best to wait until you could give a better picture rather than waste my troops meaninglessly."
Mordred turned from where he was currently burning by the fireplace. "You think Perv has been wasting the children I gave him pointlessly, do you?"
He gulped. "Yes." His eyes twitched to Gaunt hoping the old man might show a flicker of empathy, but the man had none.
"Good." Mordred let the flames around him ebb away slowly. "For I have no use for anyone who would look upon today's events and say anything else. You at least have the good sense to not kill everyone I gave to you and achieve nothing."
He let his breathing slow at what seemed to be the right answer.
Gaunt rose from his seat looking down at him. "Perv has become a disappointment the worst kind of failure. Whatever he asks for whether aid or troops to make up his losses refuse it. From the events of today it's obvious that more than just having been exposed our opponent sees him as bait. A chance to see if we will step into the light to save him."
Mordred carried on where he left off. "You have been leaning on your king to avoid having him condemn Perv, that much is obvious. It ends today for as much as a weak king is easy to control a rebellion right now benefits our opponents in this game more than us."
No more than anything the thing that made him not want to be here was that Fenrir had given him a message to relay to the two of them. If he didn't say it then he would die, if he did say it, he might well die too.
Mordred was already spilling flames as he turned to him. "What message has Fenrir given you that has you paling like that. Or would you rather I burn you to dust and pull it from your soul?"
He swallowed at the threat and braced himself. "Fenrir wants to let the rebellion run its course because he thinks it will be a good way to draw out and execute the leaders. If you intend to do anything that would disrupt it he um." He swallowed again under their gaze. "Fenrir has said he'll fight you himself."
The two of them stared at him in silent disapproval.
Mordred returned to his seat. "How I loathe working with Fenrir."
Gaunt nodded in agreement pouring the both of them some tea. "Look at the bright side, if Fenrir is making a mistake, we'll never have to deal with him again."
Had he survived this meeting, he almost let his shoulders slip in relief before the order came. "Hubb stay standing there for another five minutes to think about your actions. It'll do you good."
This was not going to plan. The king had remained silent and now discontent was threading its way through Midgar at a pace he hadn't anticipated at all. What was supposed to be just a wedge between Perv and Midgar was now on track to becoming a full rebellion as discontent swept through the armed mercenaries that walked the streets.
Even Midgars troops were walking on eggshells, as though the whole place was becoming a powder keg waiting for one spark to light it.
Midgar was a stable country wasn't it?
Other than that time the princess had directly been kidnapped by Zenon. That time his sister had gone missing after been kidnapped by bandits. The whole slew of bandits that existed in every corner of the country.
Midgar wasn't stable at all, and the resistance was going to be going in full swing. Everyone preparing for the chaos to come and the question now might only be when it would start. He twiddled his thumbs because he may have actually escalated a bit faster than he had planned.
But at least everyone else was going to be just as unprepared as he was, and they still didn't know what would be the actual spark. For he alone knew that there was an actual dragon coming.
He shrugged because even if he was unprepared so was everyone else, which meant it was a ripe field for him to take on his own roleplay to the next level. It was setting details and right now he had something more important to think about. "Everything proceeds as I have foreseen."
Rose was staring at the sunset alongside him, any sign of hesitance in his plan gone now as she leaned against him. "One day is all it took to create this much tension in the city. To the point where it feels like it could all spill over in a single moment."
"These tensions were always there I have just brought them to the surface. He has overstepped his bounds and so all that is left is for you to condemn him in the eyes of his peers. A king is only so much as he had the respect of his people, once you take that away he's now just a man alone amidst a sea of enemies."
This chapter comes to you in spite of Palworld. Go my self-control yay me.
Well next chapter things are actually going to start crashing into one another rather than just buildup. Eh go forth and die on the sands chapter.
Anisomeone: These questions were asked and answered in private.
To anyone else: I respond to questions in reviews by Pm and then publicly, and questions by PM privately only.
I promise to try and avoid being too harsh when answering.
I have enough of a thick hide to joke about my complexity addiction and the fault may well be that I edited some part while half asleep anyway and its not as clear as I thought it was. The previous story I completed had its most famous review being that I forgot to write names often enough for people to understand what was going on, I will survive.
BetweenIandGirl: Thank you different is good. It means there's a reason to read this as well as EIS.
