The galloping of the horses resonates through the streets. It's morning and the air's still wet as the sun's first beams illuminated the horizon. The marketplace crowd has yet to show, and the sellers were setting up their shops. A young maiden found it hard to cross the road today, as a horses bolted past her.

"Hey~" She jumps back to one side letting the horses run by. "What's going on today?"

She adjusts her glasses and looks both ways. Making sure nothing would run her over, she ran to the other side. She stuck to the side watching as a few more horses went by.

In this side of the road is a little shop made of wood and cloth. The roof looked to be caved in, it looked like a sophisticated blanket fort that was built 5 years ago. Dirty with stitched up holes. Bro's Magic sells everything an adventurer needs from potions, swords, armor, to magic scrolls.

"Why's Red here?"

"Red's here?"

The two brothers commented the moment she entered their blanket fort of a shop. They both had turbans tied around their heads like two large bee hives.

"Hey, guys."

She said trying to smile while fixing her red hair. The brothers turned to each other and smiled, their smiles were gone when they turned back to her.

"Wasn't our shop... Oh, what was it she said about our shop Ahmed?"

"I believe it was 'This place smells like piss and looks like shit'. Oh, and 'Rat's blood has a better recovery than your potions'. It was something along those lines Ahmad."

"Oh yeah I remember now... and what was a much better shop than ours, she said something like that right, Ahmed?"

"Yeah, she said the Sorcerer's Place was much better, and that we should take a lesson from them Ahmad."

They were making a show of talking to each other loudly while ignoring her.

"Mi mi mi..." She gave a nervous laugh, her palms were sweating. “It was a joke, don’t take it to heart... let’s forget that, let bygones be bygones."

A fake smile that nervously flickers on her face.

"Huh!?"

"Huh!?"

She took a step back at their menacing glare. She had nothing to say to their hostility. The brothers slowly eased their glares and sighed simultaneously.

"Why're you here Red?"

"Yeah why are you here?"

"Yeah, we thought you married the Sorcerer's Place."

"Yeah why don't you drink some rat's blood since it's soo~ much better than our potions."

"Come on guys those were just jokes... Yeah, jokes."

"Was that funny Ahmed?"

"I don't know, was that funny to you Ahmad?"

"Alright!~ I'm sorry, I might have said too much."

"Might have?"

"Come ooon~"

"Hmm..."

"I just want 2 recovery potions and a fireball scroll if you guys have one. And I'll be out of your hair."

"Do we? Huh? Ahmed?"

"Yeah I think we have those but especially for red we can sell it for 1 gold."

"Gold!? For 2 potions and a scroll. 5 silvers tops."

"If you don't want to pay you don't have to shop here, you can always go back to the Potion Rainbow or Sorcerer's Place."

"Fine! Fuck."

"Uum?"

"Uumm?"

Both brothers were surprised and looked at each other again.

"Okay, what gives? Why're you here?"

Most only came to the Bro's Magic shop for their cheap prices, it was 'so' cheap it was bad.

"Yeah what's going on Red?"

"Why's a big shot like you buying from us?"

"Haa~"

Her shoulders dropped, she just couldn't take it anymore.

"That's what I want to know, what the hell is going on today? And my name is Robee!" She took out a gold coin and pushed it on Ahmad. "Here take it, now just get me the best two potions you guys have and a fireball scroll."

If there is such a thing as ‘best’ means anything in this shop.

Ahmad bit the coin and handed it to his brother Ahmed. Ahmed went to the back, disappearing behind some dirty sheets, which is the wall.

They both waited in silence till Ahmed came back with the potions and the scroll. She immediately took them and jammed it in her pack. 

"Potion Rainbow is out of recovery potions." She let the truth be known.

"Aah-" Ahmad rolled his eyes. "I see why you're here now. And the Sorcerer's Place"

"They're out of fireball scrolls... I don't know what's going on. And these guards running around today? They all look like they're going to the palace… from the looks of it."

She said a lot more relaxed now that she's gotten what she needs. The brothers are a bit angry, but they knew her personality well and saw her genuine concern.

"Those horns earlier... But don't worry about the King."

"You were friends with him right, then you know better than us not to mess with him."

"Yeah, it's a death sentence for anyone having to fight our king."

They both confidently told her their opinion.

But that's what concerned her the most, everyone knew how strong the Red King was so who would be willing to go against him. The horns sounded some time ago, and all the guards from the watchtowers headed to the castle. It was a strange feeling, like if you could smell the smoke but not see the fire.

"You heading to the castle too, then?"

"Naa~ I know the king can handle himself, you're the last person I need to hear that from. I'm going to Nadnol..." Plus how am I supposed to help The Red King? That's the reason I left that, to begin with. With him, all you can do is stay in his shadows and play a supporting role. I'm going to make it on my own. "Well, I'm heading off, see you guys later."

And so she got a ride out of Tengai while the guards headed further into the center of the city. Through the city, the town, and the village she watched the horses pass her by.

♦♦♦

"Master Danial we found them in the king's bedroom."

The agonizing faces of these elves, what a wonderful thing to see. To take advantage of this city for so long, now you understand what you’ve done.

Ha ha ha, are they looking pale because they ate the fish or because their precious king is dead. And then there is this human, a traitor.

"Men! You have all done well, I'll reward these women to you. Do with them as you like!" Hahahaha- Traitors! Traitors! Traitors! There will be no mercy for traitors! "Oh~ another thing if you come across an Alpacaman don't hurt her. Her name's Lami. If you see her around guide her to me."

“Master Danial!” A man came running, trying to say something in the middle of breathing.

"Calm down will you. Take a few deep breaths."

He calmed down under my instructions. Where is he from the other camp, did they finish killing the guards. Or did they surrender. I don’t think I gave them much of an option to surrender.

"Master Danial, they've gathered outside the castle. They're demanding we open the gates."

So the guards from around the city have finally shown up. They'll summit when they realize the king is dead.

"Has everything in the castle been taken care of?"

I directed my question at everyone, even the maids on our side who've gathered after the king's death.

"Hmm... Manerk and Omewa aren't back but, but everyone else seems to have come back." Does he know all these warriors by name? I know 300 is a small amount compared to what he had before. "This place is big… let's hope they aren't trying to search every inch."

As long as we stamp out any of the resistance left in the castle is good enough. Don't need to find every fleeing maid, we can take care of all that later.

"What about the soldiers who went to the housing and training areas?"

We split up for a reason, they should be fine given most of the guards are sick after eating the fish.

"You..."

He just ran here, maybe I should ask someone else.

"Y-yes, Master Danial."

Doesn't matter.

"Yes, you go gather all the troops who went after the guards. Their housing area. Gather them all in front of the gate."

When we open the gates we'll give them something to look at, something really nice to look at.

"Yes, Master Danial."

He barely had any time to catch his breath and there he goes running off. I will remember to give him a promotion when this is over.

What was left of the king was a blackened and burned body.

I wonder if they'll even believe that this was the Red King. Well if they don't I still have this thing with us. With this, we can take on the entire army if we have to.

"Hey, just tie her up. Tie them all up, for now, we can't be wasting time here with these rats." I couldn't take him making all that noise anymore, beating on some maid, or secretary or whatever she is. They can beat them and kill them all they want after we’ve wrapped things up. "Yes tie them up, and you chop the king's head off."

I pointed at to the burnt body, but he still seemed a bit flabbergasted at my words. Is this so hard to understand?

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

"I said cut his head off. And put it on a spear. Try to keep as much hair on the head as you can when you cut it off."

We'll show that to the people waiting at the gates, Ha ha ha. Hopefully, they can still recognize that face. There's still some of that hair left… red...

"Manerk... Where's Omewa?"

Zejimal shouted at a man at the other end of the hall. He was pulling along some fat yellowish dog of a beastman. When he got close enough the dog recognized me.

"So-sorcerer."

He stuttered and collapsed to the ground and prostrated before me. Is he trying to beg? Ha.

"I found him and some others like him locked up in the dungeons. There were a bunch slaves crying to see their Masters."

Slaves, crying to see their Masters? Perhaps more people like Lami. The world is going crazy when you have loyal beastman and disloyal humans.

"I see, what did you do with them?"

"I didn't know what to do, I left them there." That was for the best; at least for now.

"Hmm... What about Omewa?"

"Ah… Sorry Master Zejimal, but I don't know where he is. We split up when we got to the Library."

"Hmm..."

"It doesn't matter what one soldier is doing right now Zejimal. Let's head to the gates, we have to still deal with the traitors."

Then we'll need to figure out what to do with all the bestman freely walking around. I still don't see that butler anywhere, is he hiding somewhere? I thought he'd come to help the king.

How long is he going to take to cut the king’s head?

He pulled the Red King's head up by the hair, and with a single swing he sliced his head off. Blood sprayed on the floor, and on the warrior that performed the decapitation. The body fell to the side when the last bits of flesh joined at the neck that the blade didn’t fully cut stretched and broke; spurting blood like a freshly opened champagne bottle.

Blood drips from the decapitated head as liquids still left in the pipes slowly drain. What was a stream slowly turned to single droplets. Singular droplets fell as he carried it to the spearman who pointed the spear at him. He took the spear and jammed into the head until it was stuck tightly so that it can be waved around like a flag. And for the most part, the hair stayed on the Red King's decapitated head, making the thicket of hair sway majestically as it is waved. The soldier accidently held the spear right over his head and got droplets of blood on his head. He learned quickly and held the spear in front, not above.

I looked to Zejimal to take charge. I could do it personally but it's better to have warriors command warriors.

"Hmm... Alright, everyone, we'll be now defending. You'll be at the front."

"HOO!"

The warrior thrust the head up higher.

"Alright, all of you follow me."

Zejimal led the way. As we let the warriors walk up front, the sorcerer's took to the back where we can utilize our magic the best.

"All of you that's enough, follow Zejimal. We can deal with them later."

There were still some beating up the maids or tying them up tighter and tighter. They were falling behind even the sorcerers, I waited on them till they took their places following Zejimal.

When they all left I got to see just the slaves, tied up and beaten on the floor. They had all been so smug; now with the stupid king gone they had finally realized their place. Below me, they laid weeping in despair, a sense of satisfaction I hadn't felt in a long time filled my being. All of you wouldn’t be here now, would you? If you knew your place.

♦♦♦

Is this all, looks like only half showed up.

"Who's that? I'm sure someone like that didn't work at the castle."

The other watchtower looks like its collapsed, and this one’s taken over now? Did the entire castle fall?

"I don't know... You think the king's having a hard time."

Who!? Who can give the king a hard time?

"You think you can shoot him down from here?"

If you brought a bow and arrow, you should use it.

"You want me to shoot up? It's easier for them to hit us from this spot." So he's saying he can try but he rather not. "Look someone came from the south tower."

He stopped his horse right in front of us, its hoofs kicking in the air.

"Hey, watch it."

"You the only one?"

It looks like it. I'm surprised even one of them came to support the Red King.

"Yeah, none of them listened."

It's amazing you tried to talk to them.

"It looks like only half of the guards showed up." Yeah, I guess this is it, waiting any longer is pointless. They still haven't opened the gate; that means either the king is still fighting or he's... dead. "Should I take charge or do one of you want to do it?"

I rather one of you take charge, but I can't wait any longer.

"No... go ahead Samuel."

"Yeah go ahead."

"What about you general?"

Come on old man you have the most experience with this kind of stuff.

"I'm not a general anymore, just one of the troops."

Ah, come on. Alright. Alright.

"We warned him too."

Hey now isn't the time for that. Whatever happened already happened. There's been a movement of a rebellion for the last week or so, but nobody could have predicted they would act so soon.

"Now isn't the time for that kid."

Thanks, old man, you sure you don't want to be the one commanding?

"Haa~ Alright! Then everyone! I'll be giving you your commands."

We don't know what's going on inside after the horn was sounded there hasn't been any communication. The people standing on the watchtowers aren't listening to our commands so they're probably the invading force. No one’s opening the gates, and it doesn't look like something we can break down right now. Should I send people to get some offensive scrolls? It's a bit too late for that. Standing at gates with no way to attack; this is why I didn't want to take command. Don't even know what to say; what commands can I give?

I turn my horse to the side to get a good look at the whole army. Should I ask how many of them have some scroll on them? Fuck.

Trying to charge up with them having the vantage point is just stupid. It's lucky that they haven't fired at us yet. Why aren't they firing at us with some scrolls or something? Did they run out or no commander to tell them? I took a deep breath to stall for some time; maybe all I need to give is a motivational speech.

"Sir! We got the ladders!"

Few horsemen came galloping holding a bunch of ladders.

"Oh, good job. I told them to get a few before I came here. Thought we might need something to get over those walls. But with them standing there..."

Old man, you're a savior, I knew you should have taken charge. But, yeah with those guys up there we'll be shoot down before we get up there.

I jumped down my horse with the craziest idea I ever had in my life.

"Everyone we're going up!" I pointed at the ladders. "But we'll be shoot down the movement we near." If it's just anyone they'll be shoot down without half a chance. "That's why I'll be leading the way. I'll be the first to go up there. Everyone! Follow behind me!"

That's right I'll go, I have perfected my Sword arts and Thousand Hand Strikes. I'm the only one who'll be able to make it to the top.

I arranged myself into a 3 man team; one I hope others can follow. It looks like they're following.

"Alright after I reach the top all of you follow!"

I shout one last time and run with the ladder on tops of our heads. We drop it on the ground so I get a bit boost with the ladder; like pole vaulting. I leap up the rungs like a monkey, the few arrows that come flying completely miss me and in seconds I reach the top.

♦♦♦

Hmm... So he's letting me take charge.

"How many are there!?"

Don't take so long, you don't have to count an exact number… give an estimate. What does it look like… from up there?

"More than 10,000!"

Hmm... I thought there would be more.

"But more are gathering... from everywhere."

That makes more sense… Yeah, spin around and look at every direction from up there; not just in front of the gates. There should be more than… 45000 guards around the city and they should have all heard the horns.

It's set up like a chain but… usually, the horn starts at the other end and reaches the castle. I bet this was a surprise. Hm Hm Hm.

"T-t-tthey're coming! They're trying to climb up!"

Can't see a thing from here. Maybe I should've climbed up. Hmm...

"The Red King's reign is over, but the war is not. Behind that gate the ones who oppose us, the ones who deny humanities right full place have gathered… Conveniently for us to crush. It is time we take what is… rightfully ours. The gate will be soon opened and when it is… show them your courage! Show them… what you do to Traitors! Show them… the power of humanity!"

"OOOOHHHH!"

Cheers erupted from the people, Hm hm hm.

As I gave the signal to open the door, a soldier from outside had made it to the top of the wall. One of the warriors engaged him in melee and seemed to be losing.

Hmm- I just charged them up… To see their own get beaten now would be bad…

"[Sorcery: Fire Bullet]"

Danial aimed at the man with his figure. His head burst into flames the next instant and he collapsed to the ground like a puppet whose strings had been cut.

"Open the gates!"

Hmm… If you were going to take charge the last minute you should have done it from the start… Well, whatever.

"Ready yourself men."

This fight is going to determine our future.

"OOOHHHH!"

The moment the gates opened and the soldiers lined up in front of the castle could be seen.

"Uno crush them!"

Danial gave a command and the Golem that was right beside me vanished. Appearing again in the middle of the soldiers in a similar fashion to how the Red King had appeared in front of us. With bodies flying through the air.

"OOOHHHH!"

The warriors cheered again and ran towards the chaos.

Maybe because of the chaos it took them a while to see the pole… Maybe it took them a while to realize whose head was on it... Maybe because they were too busy fleeing from the Golem… It took them a whole 5 minutes to surrender. Hm hm hm.

"Sir, Should we chase after them?"

"Hmm...”

“No, let them run. We won't be able to catch all of them even if we tried. From the number of soldiers that showed up the lot of them still, agree with us. Zejimal sent a few of them to each watchtower in the city with the message ‘the king is dead'. We'll see what happens from there."

Confusion is spreading out in a wave as those who witnessed the massacre ran. They have nowhere to run to in this city anymore. Mass panic and rioting will soon envelop the city, all we can do is wait it out... It's like watching the fire burn itself out.

"Then Ilmey, can you heal these guys?"

"Our side was hurt?"

Hm hm hm, the casualties and injuries on our side are minuscule.

"Don't make light of it Ilmey, some perished in the fight. They deserve respect, their lives were sacrificed for our victory."

"Alright, alright," I said don't make light of it… and that's what she says. "What's with that look, don't worry I'll heal them. They still need to get Master Danial's message to the rest of the guards."

"Sir what should we do with them?"

There were soldiers on the ground that surrendered, some were injured. They gathered to one side… away from the field of corps.

"Tell them to clean up their friends. And you make sure they do it properly. Move all of it over there."

I have to point it out or they'll fuck it up.

Hmm… We sent a few of the troops to corners of the city to gather the guards on our side, and to spread the news. We'll figure out where their loyalties lie, either they will join… or die. When the slaves find out… they'll surely try to run,

Hmm... I wonder what he plans to do about that.

After we assigned everyone’s tasks we went back in the castle.

"Shouldn't you leave that here to defend?"

Danial is taking the Golem back with him… into the castle. It will serve a better purpose defending the gate.

"No, they should be fine. Plus I rather have this guy beside me."

"It's completely covered in blood, I wonder what he's going to say," Ilmey commented. "Shouldn't we send someone to get him? I said we would when we were done here."

Hmm...

That's right, we should get everyone on the estate, to the castle. The next few days are going to be lawless... after that, we'll have to slowly recapture the city slowly, section by section.

♦♦♦

When Omewa came back the only ones around were the slaves. The bestman tied up and beaten down with nowhere to run.

"Where the hell is everyone!?"

He shouted not really expecting an answer from the beasts. But he got one anyway.

"They went out to fight the army." It was a yellowish dog bestman sitting on the floor like the rest with his feet and hands tied up. But he was alone, separated from the group and leaning against a Column. "Soldiers are gathering in front of the gate, from what I heard. They went to fight it."

"And who are you?"

"I'm a prisoner to the Red King and a slave to the old Yellow King... The name's Flubo."

"I see... Then I'll go join them."

♦♦♦

I ended up wasting time chatting with the maids. One of them even started playing chess with me, she's quite good. I would say, she's better than the Sorcerer, and Ilmey. Finally, after the game I was able to excuse myself to my room.

After the door closed behind me, I activated my Ki Master class allowing me to feel the presences around me. I waited till the maids left the door to activate my teleportation skill.

[Power of Hermes: Teleport].

And there I was in the dark passageway again, the same place the sorcerer teleported me to the first day.

[Mage: Night Vision] [Explorer: No Footsteps]

The only place that interests me here is the library. If I can find a few good books I'll be happy. I opened the map and followed it to the library. Well, there is also some weird tunnel that leads to a weird closed cave according to the ninjas, but that’s not important right now. They didn’t find anything important in there. It’ll still be good to map it though if I have time.

The door's locked. I didn't even realize this door had a lock last time I came here, but it's a good thing he let me in last time.

[Power of Hermes: Teleport]

There I was again in a room with bookshelves on each wall, stretching the entire height of the room.

There were clearly too many for me to go through right now, I'll have to wait till I remove the Sorcerer before I can take these out. They were all in the common language of this world, Hsilgn.

[Bookworm: Translate]

As one reads Braille I swiped through the titles with my fingers. The alphabetic jumbled in my mind, turning into words and then a jumbling of words produced meanings. They were not complete sentences but they have meaning, and some had grammar. As I swiped my hand across the books, some that caught my eyes were The Floating Island, The Gods, Without Kings, The Dystopia of Elsaavadore, Demons and Paintings, What is Democracy?, The Failure and Hope of Anarchy, Human Evil, Inconsistent Good, Magic Constants, Theoretical Magic, Unmagic, The 4 Continents, Fiction and The Dangers, Free Knowledge, Beastman, The Stars, The Unprovable, and The Catcher in the Rye.

The last one caught my eyes because it shared a title with a book from earth. It could be translation error because of similarities of some kind.

So I opened it up and tried reading it. The longer sentences were a lot less precise, more literal in meaning perhaps. But the story seemed similar, the first few pages at least reminded me of it.

If I had a stack of paper I could use a better translation skill. It's times like this when I wish I had specialized in creation instead of destruction.

♦♦♦

They met each going the opposite direction.

"Omewa what happened to you?"

The Golem, Zejimal, the Sorcerer, and the apprentice girl; other than the Golem they all had a higher status in the rebellion. Having these eyes staring at him made his palms sweet.

"S-so-sorry, I heard the~ army is attacking."

"We already took care of them."

Ilmey informed him.

"I-I-"

"What's with the blood Omewa?"

Omewa worried about his absence, but these people don't seem to mind as they asked their questions, calmly. Taking a deep breath he calmed himself as well.

"I had a fight with a butler. He was pretty good but don't worry I won."

There is no way he would mention the butler’s already sickly state when he arrived. If it wasn't for that he might not be standing here right now.

"Aah, I see." The sorcerer nodded his head in approval. "Actually it's great you're here right now. We were just talking about how we need to send someone to the estate. Go down to the gate and tell them you need to go get William. They'll set you up with a horse."

They healed the horses more than the soldiers that surrendered, and got enough horses to send messengers.

"Understood! Master Danial."

He ran off before Ilmey could give him a message.

"I wanted to tell him to bring the chess board."

"Hmm... Really… that's what you're thinking about?"

"It's just William's good at it, so I want to beat him. A muscle brain like you wouldn't understand."

"Show me some respect, will you... I'm still your senior."

"Hahahahahaha!"

The sorcerer laughed happily to the two's bickering.