Hot soup spills down my throat, flowin’ into my once-empty stomach. My face eases into a satisfied smile. The tension in my stiff, rigid muscles is undone from the inside out. I chew, savor the flavor, and gulp down the soup, then reach for the ale mug to wash it down. I guzzle down the frothy bronze ale. This tavern’s ale’s got a tingling bitterness that packs a punch. That’s the good part. Luckily, I’m not one of those guys who get wasted after one or two mugs’ full, but I make sure to eat when I drink just to be safe. The tavern’s treating me, and let’s face it, it’s suspicious if a single adult male eats in a tavern without havin’ a drink.
I listen attentively to what’s goin’ on while I eat and drink. It just so happens to be mealtime, so the tavern is bustling with just the right number of customers. The more customers there are, the noisier and livelier the surroundings are, and the more people are lulled into a false sense of security. They start lettin’ little truths slip, ones they’d never utter in a quiet room. And rumors have a way of trickling to rural villages.
“The Atbridge’s bridge was washed away again.”
“Again? Must be because the rains haven’t let up lately.”
“Prospects are slim for gettin’ it fixed any time soon.”
“Then we have to go without a bridge now?”
Aid, assistance, and permission from a ruler are indispensable necessities for repairing large bridges. None of which has been granted. So the bridge they’re talkin’ about will remain unfixed no matter how much time passes.
“Can’t laugh this one off.”
“Damn straight about that.”
Damn straight they are.
When I first started eating here, most of these customers had no fear of Lord Designs. Some of them even welcomed him, since he slipped in to power by entirely ignorin’ all the systems and institutions our king had put in place. He left those who obeyed him alone and purged those who didn’t. He offed the nobles, government officials, knights, and soldiers at a mad pace, but didn’t directly lay hands on civilians. At least not yet…so far.
Everybody who was loyal to the king was slaughtered indiscriminately, or they made a run for it and are scattered about the kingdom now. It’s not a guarantee anybody actually survived.
Things became increasingly more suspicious after not one or two, but three months after the kingdom’s ruler switched unnaturally. Lord Designs’ first major action as the new ruler was mass renovation of the castle. Then came an increase in personnel in his private army. After all, he couldn’t trust the king’s soldiers or any of the knights who were loyal to the king. Rapidly ridding the castle of them, he filled the holes in with men he hired with money.
Nevertheless, the castle’s savings are finite. Cue Lord Designs throwin’ the weak to the wolves to balance his accounts. Fires burned down towns, droughts dried up wells, rivers surged and washed away bridges, infectious diseases wiped out large populations. But it doesn’t matter to him—Lord Designs has decided to ignore the plights of the people.
From everything I’ve overhead, he’ll give the same reply, without fail, to any entreaty that doesn’t catch his fancy: “It’ll be dealt with appropriately in the near future.”
That near future will never come. Terrifyin’ thing is that many hands rose in support of this policy. Primarily the hands of the strong, young, and wealthy. Typical.
“Hooray! Now the dregs of society will be out of the picture!”
“Second-rate citizens are happier dead.”
“If we’ve got money to coddle them, we should get some too.”
Start chippin’ and castin’ away the bottom of the pyramid, and you’ll eventually find yourself on the bottom next. Might not be today or tomorrow, but someday your turn will come. Before you know it, you’ll fall to ruin, endin’ up on the very bottom. By the time you know to panic about your head on the next chopping block, it’ll be too late.
“It wasn’t supposed to turn out this way!”
You’ll be runnin’ ‘round like chickens without heads until ya take the final blow, and bam, that’s it for you. But no one thinks it’ll ever happen to them.
To make matters even worse, Lord Siegfried is showing the people how to take advantage of each other. Want something? Plunder it, even if it means you gotta kill to have it. He’s gone and turned into a role model, advertisin’ doing wrong is the right way of doing things. He’s officially given permission to the scum to let loose with his policy of taking “appropriate action in the future.”
But this is all typical stuff for any usurper. The real bad stuff came afterwards.
After letting all hell loose, Lord Designs simply turned his back on the chaos. He won’t even try to demonstrate his power to keep things in check because he only cares about his own greed. He charges headlong without lookin’ back. In a sense, he’s doing something different from others cut from the same cloth that preceded him.
“I’ll make Princess Lala Lilia my wife!”
Now he goes around shouting that off the rooftops without givin’ a jot about what other people think. A man past his forties with a daughter of his own is openly announcin’ his desire to marry a young girl of seven. It’s a must for him! Well, if these rumors of his desires have trickled down to rural parts in the middle of nowhere like this, then it’s gotta be known throughout the kingdom.
Yet for all of that, Lord Designs Siegfried is currently this kingdom’s ruler. He stands at the top and tightly clutches the money and power. Ergo, nobody challenges or criticizes him. They can’t stop him.
“I’ll make Princess Lala Lilia my wife!”
Chaos has befallen the kingdom as a result. Criminals run rampant everywhere, pillagin’ and lootin’ in broad daylight. Breaking down walls and boldly walking into homes, and taking to the streets to surround any ol’ random passerby and beat them senseless. And control over the public order has been on a one-way street to lenience. Moreover, Lord Siegfried’s private armies have taken a page out of his book and openly take whatever the hell they want. Plenty of men are happy to join in the pillaging.
This kingdom is already in tatters and full of bug-eaten holes. The outer walls that the late king left behind are barely holding together. Once the next large-scale disaster hits…the base of this shaky kingdom will give way. Like a house built on sand or ash.
Look, I’m an ignorant man when it comes to government, but even I understand what’s going on.
Lord Designs Siegfried just wants the title of King. He doesn’t care for governin’ the kingdom, no way no how. He’ll devour this country until it falls apart around him. And then he’ll move on to his next prey like the parasite he is.
Just how he hopped wives to climb the ladder of social status.
…Enough of these ill thoughts. It sours my food.
Putting my thoughts aside, I concentrate on the food before me.
Protect the princess till the end. That’s our last hope.
“Thanks for the meal. It was delicious.”