Being trapped in a riot has a very different feeling depending on what kind of riot you are currently in. The people are about ready to explode, check. The guards are out in force, check. Buildings in flames, shops being looted, carriages, chariots, and carts being flipped, no check. For starters, the people aren’t acting violent just shouting out their problems. Most of the merchants have been heavily affected and several caravans are about to go bankrupt from having to stay in the walls for too long. Oh sure, they were knowledgeable of this stuff, this stuff happens and they are glad that they are inside the city and not outside, but prepare adapt and attempt to improve their situation or preparedness for this kinda thing? Never!...

So they are currently having a shouting match at the currently unarmed guards who are doing their best not to turn this into a bloodbath, currently. Oh yes, did I forget to mention that? The guards are completely unarmed, this is so that they could calm the civilians down. It was a situation unique to the town. So were the civilized, relatively, riots. This was because the Baron would call the royal barracks in the fort next door into the city to help put down the rebellion at a moment’s notice. Nobody ever didn’t call the baron decisive. Never kind, never gentle, never reasonable, but indecisive? Never! He was very decisive, usually resulting in death.

Since the baron usually decided to kill so quickly the guards had come to a decision. And that decision was that they would rather be pummeled to death themselves then agitate the crowd. So they all showed up in force, without force. Not even a knife between them. Of course, most of the guard were not here. They were ready and doing their other jobs keeping the rest of the city not rioting in check. But here the guard were unarmed and trying to keep the citizens calm for the sack of themselves and their families… It usually didn’t work.

And the reason that it usually didn’t work was the nonlocals. The locals didn’t even shout all that loud, they were relatively cordial given the situation. You could always tell the locals because they were the ones that did not toe the line for fear of their head falling off. No, it was the out of towners that were screaming their heads off, egging the guard on, and just being all around unpleasant. However, the locals also held the out of towners back from attacking the guard as well. This was in spite of they themselves getting hit. Because while the out of towners may not know to fear the baron, the locals did. Riots in his territory were not unknown, and they were something the baron even tolerated to a point. But no one ever went over the baron’s point in his territory more than once. And the ones living in his territory had never even done that much.

But what would be even weirder about this riot was that it was about monster rights. They were saying that they should be out there talking to the monsters and negotiating with them. That these monsters were not our enemy and that the people should gather and take down the nobility. They were not getting much traction though. Mostly because people knew that that was brilliantly stupid. These monsters were a bit of a new breed for these parts sure, but monsters they still were. The warriors were advanced enough to know how to use weapons to kill, this is true. The princess flying ants were capable of talking to you as well. But they would all kill the messengers, eat his family, and burn this country to the ground. Because they were monsters, it’s what monsters did. Everybody knew that, so why were these geniuses thinking it was going to magically change because they felt for the grubs? Think of the grubs? Think they would be squishy and whether they could make a stew out of em’?

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So it was a relatively peaceful if stupid riot that Micky found himself in. And it was another local nearby that was telling Micky all this despite Yolanda being right next to him burning at the chance to gossip and glaring at the other man. But Micky was still not happy with the woman right now. And while she didn’t know why he was angry with her, she could at least notice that.

So Micky took in the sights on his new ride. Sure, the sights were a riot, literally, but for the village boy this was something new. The biggest riot he had seen was the one time a villager flipped their shit, the bunch of times he’d seen it. It was nothing like this, in spite of it’s name quiet, riot. As they wheeled him through the streets he took in the sights. But they were not doing this because they thought he would want to suddenly go sightseeing in the town. They had a purpose, mostly to get him out of the house though.

It seems that this riot was a smaller one that was part of a movement started by that isekai that had visited his party. Quite the social butterfly that one. They had been all over the city orating about freeing the people from tyranny and releasing the monsters to live in peace. Apparently, they were a part of a piece of green movement or something where they came from? He wasn’t sure, but it sounded like a nice ideal for a world in which not everything wanted to eat your face, and that was just the local vampiric grocery merchant.

Micky found himself taking a stroll to several places including the adventurer’s guild. He was taking a sabbatical and was notifying them of his departure for a bit. This was nothing new and many of the class had already done something similar for all sorts of reasons. Another part was for him to see if he could get the girls in since there were several washouts that had decided to give up, and were not replaced. These actually had their guild licenses revoked and were banned from becoming adventurers. This was a much more complicated process that would not be finished with a quick stroll around town.

He then went to Yolanda’s house and was sequestered away for a more focused study session. To say she was pissed at him for almost dying like a side character would be an understatement. She would make him harem Mage MC material if it was the last thing she did! This month or so… It would depend on her schedule and what fun parties came up while he was in training. Oh sure, it would be more intense than what the guild would ever do to a candidate, but he could do most of that training either alone or the supervision of even his young charges. She could not miss a social engagement, period.

So Yolanda was taking charge and kicking his ass in whole new ways and on a whole new level. And he was going to like it! She had spent a few years in that profession and she quite enjoyed herself so she would probably bring some of those techniques here. Though leather was a hard no, she couldn’t pull it off anymore.

The riot was over rather quickly and the guard was back out in full force again, only this time they were heavily armed. Micky also saw that monstrous group running around with them. Eventually, they found what they were looking for and know Micky was going with Yolanda on a social call to see the baron for a, as Yolanda put it “Special social engagement in a way only the baron can throw!”. Micky didn’t know what she was talking about, or alchemist prescribed, but he was well aware of what kind of party the baron’s son liked to throw. So he held his reservations about it. He would have to take his time to prepare the appropriate clothes to wear in front of the baron anyway. Although it was short notice it should be fine to get something that wouldn’t stand out, and according to Yolanda, at this kind of party you did not want to stand out!

Unfortunately for Micky, he also had eight women he was going to have to achieve the approval of before he could go to a party and not stand out.