Hm.

Out there in the distance, there is a sound of screaming. Many members of the crowd at the square can hear it as well. One by one people within the crowd turn their heads in the direction they hear it coming from.

There seems to be some commotion near a group of similar looking apartment buildings. The crowd can recognize the panic shouts. Fairly soon after the screaming starts, a plume of thick black smoke rises into the sky, slowly dissipating.

Shaula and Angelidis see this pitch black cloud as well.

"Shaula, what is…" Angelidis asks, slightly dazed by the sight.

"That's where Ajax was. Something… might actually be happening there." Shaula narrows her eyes. She points her ears towards that area, drowning out the sounds of the murmuring crowd around her.

She hears screaming, shouting, as well as the sound of fire burning almost angrily. She tries to pick out individual conversations, but it’s difficult from this far away. She wonders if Ajax is alright. However, the issue seems to be a fire rather than an explosion or anything else.

As a result, he is most likely fine since fire can’t even damage him. She considers his demeanor when he had first asked to check out what was happening in that apartment complex.

He seemed like he knew something important… Why didn’t he at least tell me something about it? I need to go help him, see what's going on.

As Shaula prepares to leave, the Captain of the guards is having a different reaction to the fire nearby. Quinn Tritol confronts him.

"Tell me the situation, Captain. What is that there?" Quinn asks, lifting his face towards the smoke dissipating into the clouds.

"I have… no idea, sir." The captain replies, also transfixed by the sight of the plume of smoke. This was not in his predictions. What's happening over there?

Then it starts to dawn on him. His sergeant had promised him a distraction. Though the Captain and his subordinate hadn't exchanged details about it, he knows the sergeant has undercover ties to a human supremacist terror group. He's not ignorant to how his sergeant interpreted his orders.

It basically boils down to the sergeant telling those unhinged maniacs to: "Create a distraction by any means."

Is this all they managed to do? A cloud of smoke? The fuck is the point of that? Are enough people in this crowd going to leave just to check out a fucking signal fire?

He grits his teeth before taking a look at the noble’s demeanor. Quinn looks impatient, so the Captain gives the noble a plan of action.

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

"I'll have my lieutenant dispatch a few men to see what's going on in that area. Whatever's happening there, we'll get to the bottom of it." He answers Quinn, slightly agitated.

Though, the Captain is more perplexed than outraged. He had planned to create a distraction. Yet why was it that this distraction amounted to a small fire? From what his sergeant had informed him, the Twin Moons are normally better than that. They're highly trained, highly organized, highly secretive and most importantly, effective.

From what it looks like, either the sergeant's plan to incite something failed or their group is more fucking useless than we had assumed.

The Captain's trusted sergeant, the sole tie between the guards force and the Twin Moons, had already left to see why they only pulled off a small fire. He used the excuse to his subordinates that he had to get involved as a guard rather than the undercover agent he actually was.

The one obvious thing that both the sergeant and the Captain overlooked is that the guards were not directly in command of the Twin Moons. The sergeant's instructions to them had been short and vague, to purposely ensure a tie between the guards and the terror group could not be inferred by either the group itself or anyone examining the situation after the fact.

In the end, it's them, the terrorist group, who will interpret the instructions given to them. The Twin Moons interpreted "create a distraction" somewhat too loosely as it was just a facade over their true overarching purpose: to carry out terror that directly results in dead demihumans as well as incite violence against demihumans through false flags.

The sergeant might have shown some incompetence, but a lot of the fault lands on the Captain for deciding to make use of them in the first place rather than pulling it out by the roots. A group like the Twin Moons is not a trained pet of the guards, it is more of a caged up, hungry, rabid beast, unable and unwilling to understand its master's desires, even if it wanted to.

Though the Captain isn't one to evaluate his own mistakes. He's more angry at his sergeant for failing to deliver.

I need to have a long talk with him about why they failed to carry through. What the fuck are we paying them for if they can't carry out a simple distraction? This just feels so half assed… Now, even if today’s assignment ends up going fine, I won’t be able to show off my command and team management competencies. Ugh, no fast promotion, no recognition, nothing.

The Captain straightens out and decides that it's now or never. Maybe he can salvage today by displaying his pure competence. Though, whether he actually has competence or only believes he does, remains to be seen.

If it's going to be like this, then it can't be helped. We need to arrest as many of the beastkin as possible the old fashioned way. There should be enough of my men in the crowd already… I swear I’ll have that old draconid fuck begging for mercy before the night is over.

***

"Are you going to check it out, Shaula?" Angelidis asks. She offers the question but she doesn't want to leave the square herself. The old draconid man, who Angelidis learned was named Barden, is still speaking to people in the area.

Though he is no longer giving speeches, he is still offering solace to the people, speaking about how they deserve better standards, their own liberation, both humans and demihumans. Angelidis doesn't want to see him harmed today and Shaula has picked up on the depth of her wish to protect him.

Shaula nods in affirmation to her question. She cannot leave Ajax to handle things in that area by himself. Whatever they need to figure out, they can do it together. She’ll be there and back before the guards make their–

But, before she can leave, she hears a sudden high pitched noise. Several people in the crowd cover their ears to block out the tone.

"The fuck was that?" Angelidis speaks, startled.