Both she and Ajax get to the crowds in the road where the statue marchers are entering through. Most of these crowds seem to be festival goers, but there are others here who seem to be counter protesters. They must have followed the statue marchers to confront their march at its terminus.

For a lot of demihumans, such a racist provocation like the one the marchers are making can’t just be allowed without pushback.

{Ajax, were you able to get enough people to leave on your end?} Shaula asks, having reunited with him. She uses sign language. Dzan and Sigvor are in the crowd next to them watching the statue marchers. They did succeed in helping the elderly and families with young children leave as quickly as possible.

{Yeah, I think I did my job well. How about you?} Ajax asks.

{All good, all good…}

There are a lot of marchers. Over a hundred are entering slowly through the festival entrance. They’re all in the middle of the road, their convoy being surrounded by the city guards. The guards are what divide them from the people at the festival as well as the counter protesters.

“Get back in your cages! Get back in your cages! Get back in your cages!”

Everything the marchers chant, they chant it as one. This allows them to drown out the festival goers and the counter protesters. The protesters are right now still disorganized. They were caught by surprise with the sudden statue march.

Who knows how long the human supremacists have been planning this… Ajax wonders.

Ajax and Shaula have seen the city guards a number of times already. They recognize their appearance. They have crimson, full body magic armor, with helmets covering their heads, but not their mouths or noses. Every so often, their armor glows in provocation, ensuring that nobody approaches them too closely.

They look just like they did at the city gates going into Tritol.

{Why aren’t more of them leaving, Shaula?} Ajax asks. The crowd around the marchers isn’t small by any means. Less people left the festival than he had anticipated.

{You can hear what these pricks are saying, right? The demihumans here who aren’t with their families will stick around and shout back.}

She and Ajax can hear their counter-protest chanting. The crowds are repeatedly shouting “fuck off”, “kill yourselves”, “pedophiles”, “rapists”. The two last insults are about what human slaveowners were like towards their slaves for ten thousand years. The chanters seem to be ignoring them, but it’s too loud to tell.

“We are the 33rd! We are the 33rd!” Shaula and Ajax hear this new chant by the marchers.

{What’s that mean, Shaula?}

{No clue…}

They look over to Dzan and Sigvor. From how they’re reacting to this chant, they seem to know. However, they can’t tell what Ajax and Shaula are asking using sign language. They’re only watching the protests with annoyed expressions. Their entire day is being ruined by these despicable racists. Ajax and Shaula keep watching the protest.

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Currently, the guards are still keeping everyone away. Shaula notices that they don’t seem to be enjoying the protest. Even through the protest, she can hear their fast heartbeats. They’re just like cops back on Earth. Immensely scared all the time and wielding their power against the civilian population who they are effectively besieging.

She can see some of them clenching their jaws in anger. However, the city guards must remain silent and impartial. So long as they do that, they can still maintain a face that can pretend their force isn’t just an extension of the church.

A few more minutes pass with the marchers and guards keeping the protesters at bay. There is some commotion. Shaula notices someone throwing rocks from the crowd at the human supremacists and the guards. One of the guards run over to place someone under arrest. She doesn’t want to interfere.

But, she sees who it is being arrested.

She’s crying. It is a little girl. The guard is holding her roughly on the ground as he applies restraints to her hands. Shaula forces her eyes to zoom in on the little girl’s face. She can see who it is. The ten year old girl who stuck around. She must not have left with her brother.

Kids who are here with their parents would have been taken home already. Any families who stuck around would have made sure their kids didn’t act rashly. But, she must have thrown rocks because she only has her brother to keep her calm.

She must have heard what was being said too. She must have seen the crowds and their rage. She must have wondered why they weren’t doing anything. So, she did something.

Where is her brother!? Shaula thinks, gritting her teeth.

Shaula starts walking through the crowd towards the cop who is hurting the little girl’s shoulders. Ajax follows her. Her blood boils. It takes great restraint to to keep herself from accidentally setting the people around her on fire.

[Why are they arresting that kid? Don’t they have anything better to do!?] Ajax whispers towards her.

Shaula doesn’t hear him. She wonders why that little girl followed her, why she put herself in this situation. Of course, the girl isn’t to blame. After all, the guard is the one using such force on a child. The girl must have run over here to where Shaula had run. She must have heard the protest and came here.

Shaula gets closer to the guard and the girl. She actively pushes people out of the way as she walks through the crowd. The guard picks up the girl, running while carrying her away. She heads to the exit of the festival from where the marchers had come from.

Shaula freezes at the guard’s audacity.

You’re going to put the girl in jail? For throwing rocks at you? Where the fuck do you think you’re–

All of a sudden, a young boy starts holding onto the guard’s armored leg, preventing him from moving forward. The boy is also crying towards the girl.

“I-It’s going to be alright, don’t worry, Revy. Let her go! Let her go, you asshole!”

The crowd around the kids and the cop starts to get even more agitated and start approaching the guard. Shaula can hear the guard’s heart rate shoot up as they surround him.

But, in order to suppress the crowd, two other guards block them from getting closer. They all have shields on their left arms and they push the crowd back. One of them also holds out his sword in a threatening manner.

The boy, the one who was following after the ten year old girl back there, is picked up by another guard. The two kids start crying as the police start walking away with them.

[Both of those kids… are going to jail right now? Where are their parents? What the fuck is this shit!?]

Ajax looks over at them with his jaw clenched, his knuckles white in rage. The air starts to get colder. As he breathes, his breath becomes visible. Shaula pays no attention as she keeps pushing people out of the way to get to the cops. She is about to reach the front of the crowd to intercept them.

However, someone grabs her shoulder.

“What are you doing!?” Shaula shouts in anger, making those in the crowd around her shrink back. Quickly, she is yanked back into the crowd, before the guards notice her. The guards look at the crowd having heard that sudden loud shout but they can’t find a source.

“Shaula, you need to calm down. Don’t do this.”

It is Angelidis.

“If you do something like this, there’s going to be a massacre.”