Enlightened Empire

Chapter 372: Consequences

At the height of Saniya’s winter solstice festival, a bomb exploded and burst apart the ancient shackles which had bound the Yaku people for generations. The two lightning strikes, combined with the two speeches afterwards, had changed life in the city forever. After months of depression and centuries of suppression, the people of Saniya were finally free. Together, on this solstice festival, they celebrated their newfound freedom, at last without restraint.

Gone was the depressed atmosphere of the previous days. People were dancing and shouting in the streets, full of spirit. Those who had been lucky enough to stand in Rapra Square to witness the miracle told everyone about their experiences. They spoke of the bright lightning that had robbed them of their sight, and the revolutionary words of the priest and the king that had robbed them of their breath. Again and again, they retold the same stories, until their throats ran dry.

Although the weather wasn’t quite cold enough for snow, the city was still filled with a white downpour, all throughout the night. Though no one would have been surprised by another miracle at this point, this wasn’t one.

Rather than snow, it was raining white pieces of paper, thousands upon thousands, until everyone in the city held one in their hands. All of them were printed with the new bill of rights that King Corco had introduced in his speech. From now on, these fundamental rights would direct the laws of the Kingdom of the South.

These papers had appeared out of nowhere and spread everywhere inside the city as soon as the speech was done. Clearly, this had been prepared long ago. On every street corner, locals stood and read the papers, either for themselves, or for others who couldn’t understand the new Yakua script as well as them.

Today, no more performers would be necessary to entertain people. The people of the city could just entertain themselves, drunk on the new freedom they had been granted.

At the same time, many of the guests from other parts of the empire also held stacks of the printed papers, to carry back home with them and spread them among the locals there.

Today was a momentous day in medalan history. Everyone knew it, and the jubilant and excessive atmosphere reflected that. However, while everyone recognized the importance of this moment, not everyone was happy about it.

As Lord Rafun hastened through the city streets, he peeked at all the uncouth commoners with a mix of suspicion and dread. After the shock of the lightning revelation had come the shock of the king’s speech.

What is that idiot doing?

All that went through Rafun’s head was the impact the idiot king’s words would have on all the commoners in the kingdom. Didn’t that king understand that he was also one of the lords? Even if they had their disagreements, in the end, the other lords of the south only wanted a share of the cake. After all, the king was so rich, he could afford to share some of his wealth with his fellow lords, could he not? Why would this king get so upset by their reasonable demand that he simply smashed everything apart? Wasn’t he afraid that the mob he had riled up would also take him down once they were done with his political enemies?

Obviously, Rafun hadn’t been the only one to think so. Right after the speech had ended, the lords, priests and their servants under the central tarp had scattered like a spooked swarm of pigeons and fled in different directions. Now, the lord felt like he was isolated in hostile lands, surrounded by enemies.

As Rafun looked around the faces of commoners, a deep-seated dread gripped his entire body. Within those faces, he believed to see no more of the fear and adoration he had gotten used to. Instead, those familiar emotions had been replaced by anger or disgust.

For the first time in his life, Lord Rafun felt threatened by lowly commoners. Maybe this had been a fear he had always held deep down, a fear that governed all those who governed, the fear that the mob would one day stop listening to their commands.

After a few seconds of panic, he still managed to control this fear and portray outward confidence. In the end, his identity and education as a noble did their work and helped him regain control of his faculties. Thus, he channeled his fear and turned it into anger.

For a while now, Rafun and his group of warrior servants had barely moved forward at all. The more he thought about the commoners who were blocking his way now – when before they had always obediently moved to the side – the more annoyed he got.

“Make way!” the lord shouted and stepped forward, his men.

His warriors had formed a protective ring around their lord and helped him create a path through the crowded streets, but their numbers were limited. Despite their strength, the mere dozen warriors were no match for the endless hordes of ordinary people. Already, his men looked exhausted. After all, they had had to push and shove their way through the crowd ever since they had left Rapra Square.

In the end, the lord had to take matters into his own hands and clear a road for his escape. With his own hands, he shoved away some commoner in uniform, part of the local guards. Unlike earlier in the day, the man didn’t obediently make way this time. He stared at the former master of the city with a mixture of disbelief and annoyance. Still, Rafun’s level of cultivation, and the man’s lack of preparation, meant that his resistance was pointless. With brute strength, the lord and his group forced their way through.

“Hey, don’t make trouble here! Who do you think you are!”

As Rafun charged past the policeman and heard the haughty commoner’s grating words from behind, he became even more aware of his isolation. However, the city hadn’t devolved into chaos just yet, even though he himself was causing so much of it. More and more, the lord realized that, maybe, the southern king wasn’t as much of an idiot as he had first thought.

All these years, while the other lords were enjoying themselves in endless banquets, King Corco may have been preparing for the violent revolution from the commoners. After all, the kinds of changes that the king had proclaimed in his speech, weren’t they already happening here in Saniya?

Guards and soldiers like the one he had just pushed aside were armies made up of commoners, rather than warriors. Although their official status was that of a warrior, there were very few cultivators among them, and most came from humble, lowly backgrounds. Thus, their real status was awkwardly placed, somewhere between commoner and noble. At the same time, they were also fiercely loyal to their king.

Not only them, even their commoner families would surely be thankful to the king for elevating their status. Even some of the king’s closest advisors inside the castle were commoners, not to mention the thousands of commoners who were working in Saniya’s royal manufactories, in direct employ of the king.

On the other hand, some real warriors, with real cultivation and of high birth, were doing all kinds of construction and crafstman’s work in the city. At first, this work had been forced labor, punishment for their crimes. Thus, the other lords of the south hadn’t said anything about it. After all, forced labor from prisoners of war was unusual, but not unheard of in Medala.

In addition, the prisoners had been rebellious servants from King Corco’s own estate, so Rafun had thought it wouldn’t be a good idea to get involved. Otherwise, couldn’t the king also get involved in his own internal affairs?

Now however, these warriors had long worked off their crimes, but they were still doing the work of craftsmen. During their raids of the city’s workshops, some of Rafun’s supervisors had met several such ‘warrior craftsmen’. Quietly, before anyone had realized, Saniya’s warriors had already become commoners, and its commoners had already become warriors. These, the city looked much like the society espoused in the king’s lightning speech.

Thus, with a stable base of commoners to support him, King Corco wouldn’t suffer at all in the upcoming turmoil. At the same time, Rafun remembered the fellow lords who had stood behind the king as he had given his speech.

All of them would be considered allies by the commoners, no doubt. Their sigils had been clearly displayed behind them, and every last one of them had been named specifically over the course of the speech, just to make sure the commoners would consider them allies to the king. Thus, they would retain the halo of the ‘miracle king’s’ protection.

The more Rafun thought about it, the more he realized the insidious nature of King Corco’s plans. This wasn’t some random divine message he had received by coincidence. And the contents of the message itself had been no coincidence either. This was clearly a planned assault on the league of lords which had dared to oppose King Corco, an assault that had been plotted by the king himself.

As more and more pieces of the puzzle fell into place in Rafun’s head, his anger left him, and his stomach began to churn again as the dread crept back up. Together with the warriors around him, he made his way off Saniya’s islands and back into the main city. Farther away from the appearance of the ‘miracle’, there were a lot fewer people clogging the streets, so Rafun could finally speed up his escape. From here, they only needed to reach the outer ring and leave the city. Then, they would be safe at last.

Safe, is it?

Again, Rafun’s stomach ache got worse as an uncomfortable thought lodged itself in his head. With worry, he looked at his own warriors around him. After all, was he truly safe? If the king’s ‘civil rights’ became law in the entire southern kingdom, Rafun’s own men would stand to benefit as well. Of course, there were those who would stand with him no matter what, but he really couldn’t tell how many would be tempted by the new freedoms.

Many warriors had their own ambitions after all. Many would dream of being free, no longer chained to the orders of their lord. Many would surely prefer the life of a business owner or a landlord over the life on the battlefield. Others may hold some long-lasting grudge against their masters, for one reason or another, and were eager to live out their treasonous fantasies.

In the past, rebellions from warriors had been rare, since there was no real chance of success. Even if they succeeded in toppling their lord, they could only flee the estate and become bandits in the wilderness somewhere. After their betrayal, no lord would take these warriors in anymore, and they also couldn’t live and work like commoners could.

However, with these new laws, they had the chance to betray their masters based on legal code, and then start a new life as commoners, in Saniya or elsewhere. Deep dread gripped Rafun as he realized that his way of life was on borrowed time.

For now, the loyalty of his warriors – as well as years of education and training that weren’t easy to overcome – still kept them by his side. However, there was no guarantee that would remain the case for much longer. Thus, it was imperative for him to leave the city as soon as possible, before his people had time to think and got any bad ideas.

Then, once they had left this dangerous environment, Rafun would send out a messenger back south and return to Governor Mayu Saqartu’s army as soon as possible. With the entire league of lords together, as well as with their allies in the north and overseas, there was no way for the king to withstand their power in a frontal attack.

With their military might, they could still crush this king and his plans, to prove the correctness of their old way of life. They would burn down this entire city if they had to, and kill everyone in it. These ideas were far too dangerous to survive.

So far, many members of the league had been hesitant to attack a fellow lord in the open, but now they had no other choice. Otherwise, the old world would really end, and they with it.

Before Rafun had realized, the crowd had somehow thickened up again. Annoyed, he found that his warriors were once again struggling to push through the masses. Thus, he once more stepped up by himself to make a path.

What if they slowed down and his men had another chance to think of rebellion? With the same angry confidence as before, he stepped up to push away the first commoner in his way. However, he saw the man’s vicious expression for but a moment, just enough to learn his fate, but not enough to prevent it. Before he could move, he heard the boom of the pistol near his torso. He didn’t even have time to curse his fate before he was hit by it.

In another part of the city, Priest Watayi looked down at the bloody hole in his body. In great confusion, his eyes wandered back up. His head felt like it would split from pain, and his eyes felt like they would bulge out of his skill, as he stared at the man who had shot him dead. He was dressed like any random commoner on the road, and was someone Watayi had never met. Or at least, it was someone Watayi didn’t remember.

Did they have old grudges? Was this planned? Or had the commoner remembered the priest’s actions against the miracle king these days and decided to take revenge by himself?

After the king’s speech, Watayi had already known what fate would await him if he stayed in the city. His priests were being scolded by some, while others simply threw food at them, or the balled up prophecies they had been spreading in the city. Right away, the priest had realized that he had lost.

Since the mood had turned, he had tried to escape the city by himself. Maybe in the chaos, he could get away, he thought. On the way out, he had even changed robes into something more plain so he wouldn’t become the mob’s target. However, someone had still kept an eye on him, and that someone had struck when he had been at his most vulnerable.

An hour earlier, Watayi had still been the most powerful priest in the southern kingdom. Now, perplexed at his fate, he sank to the ground, and died.