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Of Arms and Arcane: Chapter 126
🕑 Added 2024-08-03 13:37:25 +0000 UTCThe next day, at 4am in the morning, before people usually woke up to start the day, at each garrison station throughout the whole capital city, a Royal Guard pretty much kicked in the door of each garrison’s commanding officer’s sleeping quarters and shoved royal orders in their face.
Within half an hour, troops were flooding out of their garrisons into the dark morning. They positioned themselves on the different layers of the city walls that separated different districts, the main and minor gates, and even the sewer exits that poured waste out of the city.
And when all the troops were in place, platoons of soldiers led by the kingdom’s spy master’s men started kicking down doors of all known and suspected criminal organizations, especially those they know have a legit front.
Throughout the capital, there were sounds of scuffles, beatdowns, magic flying through the air, and people being dragged out of buildings.
By the time the sun rose, there were lines of people in chains being marched into carriages that traveled towards the king’s castle, and there was a surprisingly large number of people who were caught outside the walls. Not only from the sewer exits, but also previously undiscovered tunnels that the soldiers went into to trace where it led to.
And while all this was happening, a certain brothel owner who put this whole kerfuffle into motion by hiring two lizardfolk was hiding in the in the sewers along with many other criminals who escaped in time.
***
It was late morning on the day of the crackdown on crime in the capital as King Argus IV looked over his capital from a balcony in his castle.
He had read through the preliminary reports of what was discovered when he decided to “shake the whole fucking metaphorical tree and see what falls out.”, and was rather disappointed with his finding.
But it was not the lack of what was found that disappointed him, it was how much was found that disappointed him.
In his education, while he was being groomed to become the next king, he learned that as much as he could try, crime could never be 100% stamped out, and if he ever tried… he could just read the historical accounts of his and other kingdoms that have tried or are still trying this utopian world of having totally no crime.
Needless to say, it never went well. What was needed was to balance the scales between public safety and the freedoms he bestowed upon his citizens, and from what he had read so far… it seemed like the scales needed rebalancing.
The initial reports told him that the walls of his city were not as hard to penetrate as he thought it was, in fact, there were enough tunnels or camouflage holes in the walls to make a sapper envious, but that was not all. He was expecting a black market or two, not seven of them with some of them selling slaves that had been outlawed in his country centuries ago.
As he was thinking of all the shit that was happening under his nose, he recalled the record of the last time a shakedown like this happened. It was done by his great-grandfather late into his reign as king, and while it cleaned up a lot of the problems within his country, it was also akin to political suicide. Because along with the cleanup of the criminal element, came a long list of names that came out of the criminals’ mouths in hopes of clemency. Names and words of their nefarious or traitorous deeds that his late great-grandfather could not ignore.
Not just any names, noble names. King Argus IV closed his eyes as he knew that he was going to go through the same thing as his late great-grandfather did. That was when he heard a sequence of knocks on his door that he recognized.
“Come in.” he said, and a masked individual who was his Spy Master walked in and came up behind him.
“Your Majesty, the latest reports… it does not look good.” his Spy Master said as he turned around and grabbed the out-stretched report, and as he read it the king's brows creased as he confirmed for himself that he was indeed going to follow in the footsteps of his late great-grandfather.
Within was a long list of names of nobles, merchants, and civil servants in rather high positions being accused, and with proof of them doing some heinous and potentially traitorous things.
When the king was done reading, he pinched the bridge of his nose and said the words that were going to cause him a lot of grief, but had to be done for the sake of the kingdom’s health, wealth, and security.
“Proceed with the arrests.” King Argus IV said with a weary voice.
“All of them? Are you sure your Majesty?” the Spy Master asked, knowing the consequences of executing this order.
“Yes.” the king answered and the Spy Master bowed and walked away.
Before the Spy Master, left the room, the king called out, “Spy Master… I started this to make an example of those targeting the country’s interest, only for it to escalate to this. Am I doing the right thing? Taking so many powerful people to task?”
The Spy Master turned around, and after a moment of silence, responded, “In the long term… Yes. But for the near future, I fear your right to the throne will be called into question, and if noble blood is to be spilled, you may be called a mad king. But I will do everything in my power to lessen the blow, your Majesty.”, and with a bow, exited the room.
***
Me and the boys have been confined to campus grounds for a week and counting, and in that time, I have been hearing some crazy news of the capital being in a state of upheaval or some shit like that.
No names were mentioned, but turns out that my attempted kidnapping pissed the king off big time, and he turned the capital’s criminal underworld on its head.
After the second day of the crackdown, I heard of riots and lynching of criminals and thugs in the streets by the average citizens. It got to the point that all the students living on campus were also confined for their own safety.
Due to this, me and the boys are a little bummed out for not being able to take on any more jobs until we are given the OK to leave, but thankfully there were still some things to keep busy with in school.
While the boys practiced their swordsmanship and got some extra classes from the instructors on duty, I took this time to continue tempering my mana pathways while assisting Professor Sageira and practicing my enchanting.
There are two more weeks left before a new school term starts, and I can’t wait for my school year to be over so I can visit my family.
