I was swearing to myself, why, why I ruined everything. You don't go and call tyrants tyrants on their face, you don’t bother them. Yes I needed to save my cousin but we were fighting a sword fight. I should have gone the whole way then. But if I killed a noble openly in front of everyone the system would have needed to make an example of me. Nobles keep their power and titles because the nobles don’t let other people cross them openly.

Now that insane man is going to hunt me down. While I was thinking all that lord steel touched my shoulder, he said “Hank, we need to talk.”

Marcus Steel being only a grand knight had no castle. He had a Keep in between in his 12 villages. This keep was a square rectangular tower like building made out of stone. Around 10 meter by 10 meter in size.

My family, Tom his pretend uncle carpenter and Tom’s wife's family were all standing in the Marcus Steel’s keep’s saloon. The keep’s decorations were few but elegant. Although Alfred Herch called him an upstart he had the taste of a true nobleman. He had few of his sergeants around. He started to speak up. “This will blow all of our faces. Things are bad. Hank said he will kill him so I trust he has an assassination plan. I don’t like underhanded tactics but they are the ones that save most lives. I think even if Hank succeeds that took too much time. So my best plan is this. Three of my best men have grudges against Alfred, so I will send them with you Hank. Also among you if any of you want to join Hank on his obviously very risky plan you can join him. The rest will be sent to hide in a faraway village out of my lands. Tom raised his hand, then my father, then Sam and Tim. I said to Sam “You are not coming; you will go with our mother and sisters to protect them.” Eva’s father said “Sir, we are not any way involved if we know this sort of problem will find us. We would never have agreed to this marriage, do we need to go too?” Steel looked with eyes filled with pity “Sorry, If Alfred had any reasonability we wouldn’t be in this position in the first place so you need to go too. This is not a punishment, it's for your safety.”

Mother soothes Charlotte, while they leave the keep with Marcus’s guards. Father looked desperate he whispered to me “I shouldn't have said to you to save Tom, but it is too late for regrets. I hope you have a good plan.” After unrelated people left the room Marcus asked me “What is the plan young man” I had a plan but I don’t like sharing my plans. In the ex-world my people looked down upon military men sharing their plans. Yet I needed to disclose some of it. I said “I don’t have any intention to directly attack Alfred Herch. That will just end up in us getting killed. But I don’t have to attack him directly to get rid of him. I have good reason for someone in the Herch family trying to overthrow him.” Marcus raised his eyebrows. “How?” he asked. I said “I made a batch of knives and sold them in the Baldenburg. There is a gang called Iron dagger and one who bought the knives is either their leader or a high ranking member called Bruce. I spoke to him and he said to me they were backed by a powerful political power whose aim is the overthrow of Alfred.” Marcus smiled “But not the Herch family. Good catch kid.” Marcus stood there and thought a minute then turned to me. “My guess is the most probable candidate is Alfred's half-sister Gloria, The prettiest girl I have ever seen but completely filled with ambition, although she don’t have violent outbursts like Alfred she is as merciless as him and I don’t expect her to treat her people any better than her elder brother.” Everybody looked down when they heard that. But apparently I didn’t look like I did give a damn, because I didn’t. When all eyes turned to me Tim spoke “He thinks people who live under tyranny deserve what they got.” I didn’t remember saying this to him but he was right. I had no mercy to people who lived under tyranny. Tyranny didn’t happen overnight. In despotic countries people are selfish, they are willing to bend the rules for their own gain. For example in those types of countries what tyrants do does not meet any resistance from the masses, on the contrary if people think they can gain something from it they openly support suppression and torture of their own neighbors. You look at those types of countries, people who live there report their neighbors who are critical of the government for little monetary gain and sometimes for even less than that. Those people do not want to earn their living in an honest way, if they get even a small official position they try to turn it into a scheme of bribery. Of course the people who get the bribes give their own bribes to their superiors. And they pay bribes to their superiors. That way government functions become a can of worms. The rules and law applied to the poor and weak does not apply to rich and powerful. If you are strong it is smooth sailing for you and if you are weak everything becomes forbidden. That way the rich and strong suppress people below them, and in turn the suppressed, suppress people weaker than them. People are ruled the way they are, and the way they deserve. Of course in time people might start to get smarter about it and want to resist the tyrants. When that happens if they have the right ideas and values they become like the United states independence movement, they make a state based on rule of law, separation of power. And if not they become a mess and if they are lucky another tyrant takes the place of the previous one. If not they become anarchy and everybody kills each other, like Syria and Libya.

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

Marcus turned to me and said “How do you plan to use this situation?” I said to him “The people under Herch have nothing to lose but chains. If I show them their masters can be defeated they start to rise up in masses. For that I need a band of warriors, not many. Around 40 to 50 should be enough. When we build up necessary unrest the powers against Alfred will make their move. When that happens we will not be going to do much. They are going to kill each other. And after that if somehow Alfred survives I am going to cut him down. Marcus said “Alfred is not good at governing but at least he knows how to hire mercenaries, and he has gold to hire many of them. People who rise up will be slaughtered in masses” I looked with indifferent eyes and said “How is this my problem? If people kill him that is a win for us, If he kills his people he as no one to work in fields he will go bankrupt and that is another win for us.” My father said “Son you are cold” I shrugged.