Volume 2 Chapter 6
The Fallen Future
In a tower within a castle in the capital of a certain kingdom in the west of Versailles met the eleven mystics who ruled over this domain. Each of these men shared a skill, the ability to see glimpses of the future. Alone the skill only gave vague references to effects from their cause, but when the men shared their visions, the image became clear. Like their predecessors and the ones before them, this group used their combined ability to secretly govern the futures of the kingdoms around them. Through insight into cause and effect they could see how their decisions affected the future and could choose whatever action that benefited them the most. In this way the members of this group had lived with greater luxuries than even royalty for almost a thousand years.
Once a month the men get together to share and interpret their visions. On this day however the eldest member was troubled, what he had seen over the past month was a nightmarish image over and over again. As he sat down at the table along with the others to discuss each vision they had over the past month, he could see some of the others were fidgety. It seemed he was not the only one who had seen it. As the senior member he had the duty of writing down each vision in a large tome. After taking it out and opening it to the current page, each member shared their visions over the past month.
-Rhinclast will fall
-The demons are to blame
-Demons rising, Rhinclast falling.
-Before the next moon, Rhinclast will fall
It went on like that for each man. Each one had described a group of demons faced men that was somehow linked to the fall of Rhinclast. A flaw of their ability was that they could see cause, and effect, but not much between.
Rhinclast was a small kingdom, the easternmost kingdom of their domain. The royal family of Rhinclast did what the mystics told them to, and in return the mystics prevented anything that would cause the downfall of the royal family. There had been hundreds of incidents in the past thousand years where they predicted a kingdom would fall, but each time they took the necessary measures far enough in advance to prevent it. They reason this was possible was because they always saw such things months, or even years in advance. Now however they saw it would happen within a month.
The room was loud with panicking, they understood that should the kingdom fall, it would change everything they had predicted would happen afterwards. The collected visions which foretold events to about a year in the future would be rendered worthless.
The eldest mystic closed the tome loudly, silencing everyone in the room. He said, “We cannot allow this to happen. This meeting will be extended until we have with absolute certainty, prevented the fall of Rhinclast. First we must find the identity of these demons.”
The men had their servants scour the city for all the information related to demons that had something to do with Rhinclast. In one hour they found it. The eldest shared the document with the rest.
Wanted: Demon Thieves
Bounty: 2150 Gold
Crime: Grand Theft, Murder, Evasion
Appearance: A group of about twenty men wearing demon masks
Most of them use different weapons, no magic users among them
Faces unknown,
Strength: Extreme combat coordination between them. None have been reported slain since their first appearance one month ago
Special note: Steals highly valuable cargo en route going to or from Soles, the capital city of Rhinclast. Many of the caravans that were stolen from recently had hired a number of guards, all of which were slain
Location last spotted: Downsure trail, after stealing a the gold tax payment of the town of Trisdon on its way to Soles.
On the wanted poster where their is usually a sketch of the criminal was a terrifying demon mask, the same one that haunted their visions.
The eldest mystic instructed the others to look through old tomes to see if anything like this had ever happened before. He had to somehow figure out the connection between Rhinclast falling and these thieves. After a few hours, they believed they had an answer. About three hundred years back there was a band of barbarians that raided up and down the kingdoms. the mystic group at the time foresaw that if they were not stopped they kingdoms being raided would fall from their control. They succeeded and after investigating it was determined that at the time, the people who had suffered loss under the raids were rebelling against their government’s failure to stop the barbarians hords.
The eldest spoke, “We must under any circumstance stop these thieves.” The men agreed. They each contributed to a fund which they would use to stop this future. The men divided into three groups and over the next three days discussed various ways to remove the problem and their possibility of success. In the end it was decided on that they would hire a mercenary group within Rhinclast kingdom. After the decision was made, each mystic saw the fall of the demons. It was concluded that this action had a 100% guarantee to work.
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Varg had just gotten back from assignment. His crew had been hired by one of the local guilds to clear out a recently purchased mine of monsters. The mine was as larger than an average dungeon and had monsters between level 220 and 290. It was finished before the 2x experience had expired. Varg was one of the strongest mercenaries in the kingdom.
As he approached the counter of the client guild, the clerk said, “ Ahh, Varg. Good news to report I hope.”
“The place is empty and safe to work in.”
The clerk smiled, “Brilliant. You finished ahead of schedule, which means more money for the guild. Here is your payment in full, I do hope to work with you again.”
Quest Completed: Clear the mine
Difficulty:C
Reward: 1800 Gold
You have leveled up!
Varg left without a word. A happy customer was a repeat customer, and repeat customers were the lifeblood of a successful mercenary. However as he was leaving the man at the counter said, “Wait sir, we have a letter for you.”
Varg turned around, “Another request?”
“Don’t know, not from us anyways.”
Varg opened the letter and read its content.
-To the mercenary Varg,
On the behalf of the Kingdom of Rhinclast, our group wishes to hire your services. Stop the activities of the band of thieves who wear Demon masks. How you stop them is entirely up to you. But on the condition their activities come to a halt within ten days, you will be paid a sum of 65,000 gold.
-Sincerely, the Shinshoo group
Varg re-read the page twice. On the bottom was a genuine stamp of the Shinshoo group, the most influential group in six kingdoms. It was wasn’t something that could be faked even by a master forger, but the request didn’t seem to match the price. Varg brought up his contact list and clicked whisper to an acquaintance of his, an information broker named Quinn.
-Hey Quinn, you there?
-Varg, been a while. What can I do for you?
-I need information on a group of bandits in Rhinclast who wear demons masks.
-Ahh, them. Had you been around you would’ve heard about them, you been under a rock for the past week?
-Give me the info Quinn...
-Right, right. One moment.
Varg waited for about fifteen minutes before Quinn started up again.
-Alright, the Demon thieves, so named because of the scary masks they wear, have been wreaking havoc on the trade networks in and out of Rhinclast for about a month. They steal the best stuff, imported or exported. I’ve got reports of payments of gold being taken en route, some valuable gems and even garments being taken, and a long list of assorted goods of varying values and types. These guys haven’t limited themselves to one market, they pretty much steal anything that someone will pay a good amount for and they are relentless. It seems that not a single incident where they have tried to steal has actually failed.
-Sounds like they are overqualified to be thieves. Anyone with a 100% success rate shouldn’t be targeting anything less than the best but these guys seem to be deliberately targeting everything.
-That’s right. And the people are not happy. They’ve tried everything, sending their stuff in secret, sending it in quantities too large to steal, and even hiding their stuff with stuff that has almost no value like flour or wheat. They even hire security guards and such to protect them on route, but those bandits succeed each time. And apparently anyone who looks at those demon masks gets a debuff, so they can’t fight at full strength.
-I see, and even with such an advantage, to always be able to defeat the security guards means they must be strong.
-I’ll say, you should hear the reports. I’ll send you some contact info on some of the guys who fought against them.
-Sounds good, what else can you tell me about how the thefts are affecting the people.
-Well lets see...
Varg thought that there was something not right about this. Because every commodity was being robbed everyone was unhappy. But a professional thief would stick to only the most valuable of items. There was no need to anger so many, unless that was their plan in the first place. Quinn began up again.
-Yea, the people have been complaining to the government. They are convinced that the government should be able to do something about the bandits. In truth they have sent several units out there but most haven’t found anything, and some haven’t been seen since.
-I see. Send me anything else you can think of later, put the bill on my tab.
-Alright.
Varg went to a bar where he found an old colleague, a barbarian who Quinn said was one of the men hired to protect a supply shipment from the bandits but was slain.
“A pint for my friend here.” Varg paid for some beer and passed it to the barbarian who looked down at it and said, “You don’t give things for free, you’re not that kind of person. What do you want?”
Varg sat right beside the large man and said, “Only everything you can tell me about those demon guys. I’ll buy you all the beer you can drink until you’re done sharing.”
The barbarian smiled at the proposition. The longing he spoke, the more beer he got for free, and the more he talked, the more he would have to say. The man picked up the glass and drank it down in a half second flat before saying, “Three more.” He was going to get as much out of Varg as he could.
“Ok, what do you want to know?”
“How did they fight, tell me everything.”
In the time it took for Varg to complete his sentence the barbarians inhaled the three glasses and requested three more. “Well, the first thing is that there didn’t seem to be a mage among them. They were all martial combat fighters, and used a good variety of different weapons.”
Varg was almost impressed by the barbarian’s ability to speak a sentence, drink a glass of beer, and start up the next sentence without any break in the conversation.
“How many were there?”
“About twenty I think.” *Chug*
“Was there anything impressive about the way they fought?”
*Chug* “Oh yea, *Chug*, they fought like machines. *Chug* It was like a choreographed play.” *Chug*
“What do you mean?”
“Well, they fought like a perfect team. When I smacked one of them to the ground with my war hammer, three of them rushed me and attacked me simultaneously. I ain’t never seen anything like dat. My group had forty men total protecting the caravan but it wasn’t enough. Two of the bandits somehow managed to hold off almost half of the guards while the others methodically took care of each guard and myself. The merchants themselves had given up without a fight after we were all killed so the bandits took the supplies and left them unharmed.”
The barbarian’s grammar while chugging was both good and bad, watching it was oddly disturbing considering the man could not achieve such conversation skills while drinking unless he practiced a great deal.
Varg only had two more questions. “Did the two who were taking on most of the guard seem like the leaders?”
“Don’t know, they never spoke during the whole thing, never gave out orders, never shouted threats or warnings. It was eerie.”
Varg nodded and asked, “What effect did looking at the masks give?”
“Hmm, lower morale and fighting spirit. Not that effective against combat classes, but mages might freeze up if they get a good look at them.”
Varg got out some coins and placed them on the table saying, “Thanks for the info.”
Varg paid a visit to the commodity exchange and paid them well for some info. In two days a supply of rare Orichalcum ore was going to be secretly taken out of the kingdom, hidden in a large caravan of flour. It seemed it was a part of the kingdom’s own reserves, meant as payment to Windset for some of the much needed supplies the kingdom desperately needed. Varg had little doubt that the thieves would target the shipment.
Varg spent the next three hours going from guild to guild, asking for anyone who wanted an easy job, as well as from his own mercenary guild. Varg hired 200 NPCs and users from various guilds and 50 users from his own guild, men he trusted and could rely on.
It was a win win situation. His task was to stop the bandits from stealing. He guessed the reason to be the stability of the government. If the bandits showed up his 250 men would either capture or annihilate them. If they didn’t show up then the orichalcum ore would make it to its destination and help stabilize the economy. Either way he knew that he was expected to succeed, regardless of what happened.
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Rudolph was a user in a government position. Through an odd assortment of quests he had obtained a job that paid six gold coins a month as the assistant to the head of state of Rhinclast in the capital city of Soles. Basically he worked under the man who was in charge of keeping the kingdom’s commerce running smoothly and his own job was to make his boss’s job easier. He had chosen the class of merchant to strike it rich in one of the recently opened kingdoms of the west, but he found only misery. The kingdoms had laws that were made for the sheer purpose of ensuring that those in power stay in power and those without power never acquire it. Rudolph had hoped that he could change that and be the first of many to take advantage of the changes. It took a couple months but he succeeded in getting this far. However once he reached one of the highest points a user could reach, he realized it was a dead end. The men who had the power to change the laws were also protected by those same ancient laws. They would never change them. Rudolph would have to change them himself. Even after a month had passed, he still recalled every detail from the first time he met that kid.
It had been a long day filing civic orders and summarizing hundreds of documents down to the main points to give to his boss before the man complained that they were still too long. Of course had he left something out the head of state should know, he would receive a pay cut the following month. At the bar he frequented was a tall black haired kid he had never seen before drinking orange juice.
When Rudolph sat down, without even looking over, the kid asked, “If you could, how would you change the kingdom?”
Rudolph smiled and said, “Start from scratch. Erase all the laws and write new ones that don’t restrict trade or innovation. Make a kingdom where if a guy wants to make it rich, the kingdom itself won’t try to stop him.” Rudolph was of course speaking about personal experience. The houses of many of the great noblemen in Toles had family businesses that each had a specialty. When Rudolph showed up he tried to sell foreign goods at a decent price. However he found out that he could only legally sell them to one store who paid less than he purchased them for. That store was owned by one of the houses of noblemen. Because of the laws each controlled supply and demand for their own product, anyone who had the same must sell it to them. And anyone caught trying to sell elsewhere was severely punished.
The kid said, “How would the kingdom be able to start from scratch?”
After pondering for a moment he answered, “You would have to replace all the men in power.”
“And how would that be accomplished?”
Rudolph had thought of this conversation with a random kid and a theoretical exercise to satisfy a child’s curiosity. He said, “The laws that need to be changed protect the ones who don’t change them, the only way to replace them would be for the kingdom to fall to a rebellion from its own people.” Then as an afterthought he said, “But that would cost tens of thousands of gold.”
The kid said nothing and left. Rudolph wondered who he was but thought that in the end it didn’t matter. That was until the next day when the kid showed up in front of him with a sack of 20,000 gold and said, “What next?”
After that it got serious, the kid said that if a man who could replace the king swore his loyalty to the kid’s patron, the patron would pay for the uprising. Rudolph introduced the kid to the a nobleman named Dorruk. He was apart of a branch family who did not receive anything from the business of the main family and due to the laws in place, he basically had no future. He was not a good man but he wasn’t bad either. The kid discussed in private with him and after returning said Dorruk was acceptable. Afterwards Rudolph and the kid made their plans to drop the kingdom to its knees before taking off its head. First Rudolph gave the kid all the information he could on various trade routes and dates and times of departures of various goods. Because of Rudolph’s position he was able to obtain the information easily. Less than a week after the ‘Demon Bandits’ started raiding up everything of value, Rudolph’s boss was tasked with solving the bandit problem. He requested knights and troops of various strengths to scour the kingdom till the bandits were found. But because Rudolph had been leaking all of their movements, the kid only encountered the ones he could deal with. Because most of the citizens worked in some way for one of the great house's family businesses, with each theft the businesses suffered. However the greedy noblemen were unwilling to part with their fortunes to pay the workers of the stores no money had been made from due to the robbery so they simply fired their worker and made the ones they didn’t fire work harder for reduced pay. Needless to say the city was outraged. Jobless men and women who had families to feed would go hungry. However that is when Dorruk stepped in to save the day. Most of the money obtained from the thefts had gone to Dorruk to buy food and supplies for the angry masses. Massives groups were organized in secret by Dorruk who told all the people it was their government’s fault they had to rely on the kindness of another, it was the government’s fault that all of this was happening.
Somehow the kid had obtained hundreds of weapons and given them to Dorruk to spread to the masses. Because he had not bought them from any smith in the kingdom, there were no signs that a secret army was gathering right beneath the government’s nose. Rudolph suspected that most of the weapons and armors given were from pursuers the kid had slain but the drop rate for such items was low at best. He still partially wondered how someone could get so many weapons at once.
Back to the present, Rudolph was preparing for the end game. However he was never told what to do on his own. In fact he was specifically told that should the kid’s bandits be defeated, he should pretend he never met the kid and forget about everything. The kid was very serious about that point and made him swear it. He still didn’t understand why.
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Varg sat on a horse outside the Soles city limits with 250 men. Coming his way was a caravan of twenty one carts carrying flour, and secretly carrying orichalcum ore from the treasury of Soles. The young merchant in the driver’s seat stopped the wagon and said, “Please be on your way sir.”
Varg walked up to the side of the wagon and said, “My name is Varg. I am a mercenary here to ensure your caravan gets to Windset safely.”
The merchant looked as uneasy as one can when 250 armed men stand in front of you and said, “That won’t be necessary sir. I have already paid a group of warriors to guard my wagons. I fact they are the ones who are now driving the carts.”
Varg look back and counted. twenty-one carts, twenty guards, the same number as the members seen in the demon thieves. Varg noticed that many of the drivers seemed uneasy at the prospect of being escorted by 250 armed men. Though that nervousness could have just as easily come from the fact that they were currently surrounded.
Varg continued. “This is not a request. I was hired to ensure this caravan gets to its destination. I have been promised payment from another party, you don’t have to pay anything.”
The merchant seemed to be considering this before Varg stepped in closer and said, “Your cargo is the likely target of the demon thieves.” The merchant froze up for a second before Varg continued, “I was hired to take care of them. If we encounter them we will deal with them, if they don’t come then your delivery will be successful.”
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
After a moment the merchant relented. He whispered, “Very well. And to think I went through such measures as disguising guards as drivers so as not to draw attention to myself. But I guess if you found out about my cargo then it is likely the demon thieves know as well.”
The merchant started up in a louder voice, “You can come, but you will have to feed yourselves. I will not allow one speck of flour to taken during the trip. You have enough provisions for two weeks?”
Varg nodded, “The window the thieves attack is within three days after departure. We will of course escort you to the border of the kingdom, and have enough supplies to last us the week it will take to get there.”
“I see. Well, then, lets go.”
Varg’s horse kept the slow pace alongside the lead cart, there were a few things he wanted to ask the merchant about the guards he had hired. He silently sent whispers to his lieutenants to keep a close eye on them.
Varg made various small talk with the merchant. The man had never been robbed by the demon thieves before but was familiar with one of the noblemen houses of Soles. These combined were the likely reasons he was put in charge of carrying the orichalcum.
After a few hours Varg asked, “So where did you hire those guards?”
The merchant said, “Ah, yes, well. They came with one another. I was looking to hire some guards who wouldn’t mind driving the carts. That way I could go ‘incognito’ without anyone looking twice at my caravan. I always figured that those bandits sized up merchandise by how many people were guarding it, so if I was transporting flour with no guards, they wouldn’t notice me.”
Varg smiled for a moment before saying, “But those bandits were stealing precious objects and valuables before people began hiring guards.”
The merchant widened his eyes for a moment at the realization of the flaw in his logic and remained silent for a while.
Varg considered what the merchant said, that the entire group had been hired at once, that they all already knew how to drive a wagon, and that they seemed to have no problem with driving a wagon for two weeks to, then from a location, a whole month. Nothing about it added up unless they were in fact the masked bandits. Varg partially understood why the merchant didn’t suspect a thing. Not one of the guards had a murderer’s mark, the tell tale red diamond on their forehead or their name highlighted in red above their heads. That didn’t however mean much to Varg. It was possible that the masks they wore had some ability to shield them from the murderer’s mark if they killed while it was worn. Perhaps they simply fought a great deal of monsters before coming here, that too would erase the mark. Of course they also could have simply donated to the church and been relieved of their sins by the clergymen. It wasn’t cheap, but it was a fast reliable method for a murderer to appear safe.
Varg decided to tell the merchant his worries. The young man’s first reaction was, “Well to put it bluntly, how do I know you are not thieves here to kill me and take the ore? Nothing you have told me is something exclusive to them, even if you aren’t the demon bandits, you could still be thieves.”
Varg reflected on the idea, it was true that from his perspective the merchant would see Varg’s group far more threatening. Varg took out the letter from the Shinshoo group and showed it to the merchant. After allowing him to read it over he said, “I am being paid enough to keep me on task. I have never failed in my assignment. Even if I have to die you will get your cargo to Windset and I will stop the demon thieves.”
The merchant however was still looking at the letter. A small smile appeared on his face before disappearing so fast Varg wasn’t sure he saw it at all. The merchant said in an amazed voice, “65 thousand gold? That’s incredible! Ok, I believe you. So, what do you want to do? The orichalcum ore is stored beneath the flour of each wagon in a strong box bolted to the wagon itself.”
Varg considered this, his first priority was to get the bandits but to fulfil the spirit of his assignment if not the letter his second priority was to get the ore to Windset. If all the ore was in one wagon he could send it ahead with some of his men and used the rest would surround and capture the bandits, but that wasn’t an option. Varg said, “We need to capture them in a place they have no way to escape.”
The merchant looked ecstatic, “I know! There is a trail a few hours from here that leads into a canyon that is a complete dead end. I’m the only one here who knows the trail, the others won’t suspect a thing even if we change our route.”
Varg smiled, “Perfect.”
Two hours later the caravan was lead into a narrow canyon with no way to climb up the sides. After fifteen minutes through it they arrived at a dead end too steep to climb up. By then his men had armed themselves. Varg took out his sword and said, “Drivers, give yourself up or you will be killed.” By the end of his sentence each had at least three swords pointed at them. A few minutes later they were all tied up and Varg was speaking.
“Am I right to say you are the demon thieves?”
One of the younger looking captives spoke up saying, “You got the wrong guys pal.”
Varg thought this would make things easier, the one who spoke up was the one the merchant identified as the only one he hired and who the rest came with. This was the most likely candidate for leader. Varg said, “So you’re not the demon thieves then?”
The captive said, “Hell no, why you be tying us up without cause man?”
So it wasn’t going to be so easy after all. Varg drew his sword and put it up to the kid’s throat and said, “The demon thieves have 20 members, you came with twenty members, you think such a coincidence would be overlooked?”
The captive looked appalled by the logic, he said, “Hey man, we didn’t choose the number, that merchant did. I was da last person in line for this job so I got hired, but the guy behind me wasn’t.”
Varg said, “Excuse me? Tell me in full how you were hired.”
“Hey man, that merchant called out at the bar I hang out and said he was hiring 20 dudes who could drives a wagon for 1 week. He paid 2 gold when we signed up.”
Nothing the kid was saying matched the merchant’s testimony, so one of them was lying. Before he was certain it was the kid, but his manner of speaking made him think perhaps he wasn’t bright enough to fit the description of the demon thieves. If he wasn’t lying, then the merchant was.
Varg quickly looked around, the merchant was gone. Varg ran to the closest wagon and started throwing out the sacks of flour. After a few minutes with his men staring at him he nearly emptied the wagon. Nothing was underneath, no strong box, no orichalcum. However on the side of the wagon previously hidden from view by the bags of flour was a piece of paper stuck to the wagon’s interior. It was difficult to see at first because it was coated in a light layer of flour but now Varg could clearly see a rectangular strip of paper with a symbol on it that looked similar to the english letter F. Varg inspected the rest of the wagon to find that there were in fact, six such papers inside it. Suddenly a loud sound came from overhead. The sound of rocks breaking. One such rock broke off and fell onto a pair of men, crushing them.
Someone yelled, “Avalanche!!” Then another yelled, “Hide under the wagons!”
The men rushing under the closest wagon was like a scene of musical chairs. The space under the wagons could not fit everyone. A moment after everyone started gathering around the wagons another rock fell right onto a wagon. However against everyone’s expectations, the wagon immediately exploded in an enormous fire ball. An instant later the wagons on each side of the explosion exploded as well in a beyond deafening KABOOM! Like a domino effect the explosions spread one by one to all twenty one carts in less than four seconds. The fire from the explosions completely filled the canyons scorching everyone inside .The flour in the air burned everything like a dust explosion. The flour fueled inferno lasted about six seconds. When it had settles, all but the strongest were dead. However they died a moment later when the rocks the explosion broke off the canyon wall crushed everything.
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Setsuna watched the blaze from a distance and knew to wait until the tremors had stopped before approaching. Crane had sent his men on another assignment, she only came to watch his plan unfold. When everyone was distracted by the apprehension of the drivers Crane hired, Setsuna lowered a rope from the top of the canyon and pulled Crane up. After that Crane waited for the mercenary to figure it out before he used Seismic stomp to cause some of the rocks to fall. Once a rock hit his wagon bombs the fire that shot out of the crevice looked like an erupting volcano. Setsuna told this to Crane but he assured her an erupting volcano looked very different.
The pair slid down the rocky cliff face to the bottom. It was too steep to climb up but not down. Their intent was to look for and finish off survivors but the rock covered everything so there wasn’t much to see besides crushed armor, broken burnt wood, and rocks, lots of rocks.
Setsuna asked, “You think this might have been a little excessive?”
Crane answered, “Absolutely. Before now I wasn’t allowed to do this kind of thing, I guess I was making up for lost time.”
“And why weren’t you allowed again?”
Crane pulled out a shrunken head and threw it to Setsuna who caught it on instinct before realizing what it was. She wasn’t squeamish so she didn’t think it was too bad, until it said, “Hello there.”
She almost dropped it before catching it at the last second. She called out to Crane, “Why do you have a talking shrunken head?”
While digging through more rubble he answered, “Its a radio. The guy on the other end gave it to me. He sees you talking through the matching shrunken head.”
Setsuna’s first thought was why someone would have a shrunken head radio. She held it up again and said, “Hello.”
“Hello again. I heard what you asked Crane. I am the one who told him to to use skills like this before now.”
Setsuna asked, “Why not? It’s effectiveness is pretty apparent.”
“Yes, but against the Shinshoo group, you must not use your best hand until it is ready.”
“The shinshoo group?”
“Yes, yes. Some time back me and some buddies raided west but good. It was a blast. We were unstoppable. But then that dam shinshoo group stopped us. I Only figured out later it was because they could see into the future. They could predict our moves and strategies. When Crane told me he was going to change the west, I told him about the shinshoo, and about the only way to fight them.”
“Which is?”
“Originality at the right moment. The only time we were able to fight back was when we came up with a completely original idea we had never tried. When we did that it was like those guys couldn’t see it, they saw something else.”
Crane walked over and continued where he left off. “Even in a video game you can’t predict the future due to free will. I’m guessing the foresight ability comes from some prediction calculation engine. Like something that takes all past experiences and tallies up the possible outcomes. But if it makes predictions based on the past, then something original would be outside its calculation parameters. Because of that I had to seal some of my abilities until the time was right.”
It was a bit complex, but Setsuna understood what he meant. To fight against fate itself, he had to play dirty.
The pair rode horses Setsuna had brought to the canyon the day before back to Soles. It was there that Crane’s men were training the rebel army that was gathering.
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The mystics of the Shinshoo group called an emergency meeting. Up to the point where it actually happened, each man had seen the demon group being defeated and captured. After that they saw that the kingdom was safe. But after the mercenary group failed each man saw the kingdom’s imminent fall.
Upon arrival the group split into three groups and made predictions for each plan of action they thought was possible. But the image they came to was not clear.
-If the kingdom sends its strongest knights to deal with the bandits, the kingdom will fall.
-If the kingdom does nothing, it will fall.
-If another country sends aid, Rhinclast will fall.
No matter what was done, they could only see the fall of the kingdom. They didn’t know what to do. In cases where they couldn’t prevent an outcome like a specific law being passed they would assemble a team of bureaucrats they knew would be able to repel as soon as possible.
But this time was different. The future they saw seemed to stop at the fall of Rhineclast. Like the future after that had yet to be written. The group spent the next several days trying in vain to find a way to stop the future.
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Rudolph was at the palace. The head of state seemed furious. Rudolph wasn’t aware of this but his boss had received orders to stop the bandits, but not deploy the knight, or military. Rudolph handed him another summary of claims reports detailing losses of the noblemen family businesses. As soon as his boss opened it up he threw the report against the far wall. Of course the head of state had no way to know that at least three-fourths of the reports were false. Employees who had been forced to work more for less pay had been stealing from their own stores and blaming it on the Demon thieves. A reputation of steals everything, combined with never fails made for an excellent excuse to make money at the expense of the noblemen houses. Or course this had been the intention to begin with, to rot the economy from the inside, making victims into accomplices.
Rudolph’s boss said, “This is unacceptable, can’t these lazy fools do anything themselves?! Must I be expected to do everything for them?! Yet I can’t even use my own resources!”
Rudolph causally commented, “What do you need sir?”
After a snort he said, “I need those crow begotten thieves disemboweled!”
Rudolph nodded and said, “Then send the kingdom’s army, its not like they are needed here.”
The man practically growled, “I was advised that is not a wise decision....”
“If I may sir, I received reports that seem to indicate where the thieve’s permanent base of operation is.”
“You, What?!”
“It is in this folder sir.” Rudolph walked up to his boss’s table and pulled out one of the folder’s in the stack and casually handed it to the man who almost ripped it out of his hand.
The folder contained reports that stated the frequency of robberies was higher around a certain area, and that scouts who were sent to that area recently returned with reports that a camp has been set up. The report was of course a complete fabrication the kid handed to Rudolph to gie to his boss today.
Rudolph waited until he saw his boss’s eyes reach the bottom before he said, “Whoever said sending out the army may not have known about these most recent reports.”
After a silent moment the man said, “Indeed.”
A few minutes later orders were drafted up and given to Rudolph to give to the army. It was a full deployment, the 31,000 soldiers of the castle were to go to the camp and kill the thieves.
It was then that the Kid gave the signal. Along with the false document the kid had given Rudolph, he had also given him three boxes to sneak into the castle. After the signal he was to open them. The first had a map of the castle, Rudolph had given it to the kid who had marked over 200 locations on the map with precise detail. Under the map were stacks of paper with a symbol on it with instruction on what they were and how to use them.
Rudolph spent the night doing as the instructions clarified. He placed the notes onto specific points on interior and exterior walls in a specific alignment. The notes would turn into a large fireball after going off but wouldn’t go off unless disturbed. Placing them on walls was safe unless someone slammed into them so most were set on walls or wooden cross beams. After three hours he placed most of them, now he placed the triggers. By placing them on the ground, anyone stepping on them would be engulfed in flames. By placing them across a door and door frame, anyone opening the door would be engulfed in flames. And of course if anyone engulfed in flames approached another one of the flame tags, they would be set off, like dominos.
After placing the last one Rudolph hurried along the only safe path through the castle to the entrance. At the entrance were around six hundred armed men standing by, each wearing the mask of a demon. Apparently Dorruk had also been given the signal, and now Rudolph knew what was going to happen. He yelled out to the crowd before him.
“Everyone in this castle has failed you. And now they will pay with their lives. This castle will be set ablaze, and everyone who doesn’t wish to die will run through here where you will meet them. it it then you will be able to thank them for all they have done for you!” Rudolph raised the dagger at his side to make his point clear.
At this the men started yelling excitedly beneath their masks. This seemed to wake up many because the next thing Rudolph heard was a series of explosions. Someone had set off a trigger and now they would either be on fire or baking. Rudolph stood back so he could see the blaze.
Castles don’t catch on fire easily, and more specifically stone doesn’t catch on fire. However smoke does rise. Rudolph had already closed windows according to the instructions given by the kid. The smoke would purge every room of the castle’s upper levels while fire would torch every one of the lower floors. Because of the massive weight the castle had to hold the lower levels had more wooden support beams that were added later. After they all burned out it was likely that the castle itself would completely collapse.
A few minutes after the first explosion men wearing pajamas ran out of the castle only to be slain by armed rebels. Even women were slain, it wasn’t a pretty sight, it was mob mentality combined with the anonymity provided by the masks hiding their deeds. Several times groups came out escorted by guards who tried to protect them but there were skilled fighters amongst the masked rebels who easily took out the guards before they could do anything. It was overall a one sided massacre.
Loud rumblings shook the ground, Rudolph yelled at the top of his voice, “THE CASTLE”S COMING DOWN!!”
The men heard him well enough and ran away before the whole thing collapsed beneath its own weight.
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In the morning after the rebellion Setsuna was buying goods from one of the newly opened markets. Several NPCs had been hoarding goods, likely stolen from the store they worked at, to sell after the plan went through. It was more expensive than an average store but still cheaper than the previous stores had the priced. Setsuna and some of Crane’s armed men went to the homes of each noblemen house with a copy of the new constitution. Setsuna made it clear each family had three options, sign the document agreeing to all terms, leave Rhinclast, or be executed for crimes against the people. Some actually took the option to leave, the rest signed the document. Afterwards she met Crane and the merchant Rudolph who had been speaking to the army that had just returned from their wild goose chase. It seemed to her that the whole lot was more relieved then angry about the whole thing. They appreciated that the plan to destroy the castle was held off until they weren’t in it. Later it seemed that Rudolph was assigned as the head of state. With his help Dorruk was able to get the government back up again in under a week.
That was when everything changed, Crane never told Setsuna was all of this was for. He had of course told her this was a job requested by the king of Donriel kingdom, the land three kingdoms over in the west. But he never told her why the king requested it, answering it each time she asked, “You’ll find out soon.” After the news had been sent to Donriel that the kingdom of Rhinclast was back up and that Dorruk was completely loyal to him, every user in Royal Road received a message.
Declaration of War
Herios Goldking VI, ruler of the Kingdom of Donriel, has declared war against the Kingdoms of Palmer, Koler, Omis, Ler'kal, and Thyest.
Over the past centuries these kingdoms have repressed their people to keep the old families in power. The newly appointed King of Donriel seeks to change the western fronteir of Versailles.
The Goal is to overthrow the kings within each kingdom.
As of this moment, all achievements, weapons, armors, and the prices of all basic necessities, will be frozen at the current place/price in all towns belonging to any of the participating kingdoms.
User who participates in quests related to the war will acquire an increase of 20% of the Experience points upon completion, as well as a 20% increase in Experience points for defeating those aligned against you.
Crane had been standing beside her when the message arrived. He calmly said, “This is where the fun begins.”