Herald of Steel

Remus breathed a sigh of relief upon seeing the crowd disperse on their own, almost ecstatic that the whole incident was resolved without requiring the spillage of blood.

If the crowd had really attacked, although he was fully confident in being able to fend them off, Remus could not guarantee all his own men would come unscathed.

Not to mention what kind of horrendous casualties that would cause among the civilians and the subsequent political backlash from it all.

Remus might not be very well versed in such tedious intricacies, but anyone with half a brain could see the consequences of a foreign army slaughtering the natives of a city in their very land.

Such a thing could never be good.

Hence, Remus let out a swallowed sigh seeing the crowd slowly but surely retreat, as the legionaries kept banging their sword on their shields to encourage the act.

And once they were finally out of his sight, Remus could at last unclench his fist, and then in a slightly irritated voice muttered to himself, 'I will need to tell Alexander about this, and ask how to handle the next time this happens.'

Yes. The clever general was observant enough to notice the writing on the wall.

The mob might have retreated today, but it was only because they did not dare face the armed legionaries.

However, that anger still remained.

They were going to be back for revenge.

Remus was sure of it.

Not 'maybe' they were going to be back.

No.

Remus could see it in their eyes.

They had been simply scared off, and be it tomorrow, the day after tomorrow, or even a week from now, they will come back, and at that time, they will come prepared.

And Remus knew he had to be ready for that.

'I gotta burn those ships,' Hence the commander was more than ever determined to torch the ships,t.

And with that in mind, the ever decisive Remus wasted no time, leaving his deputy in charge even though the crowd had just dispersed and there remained a risk of them coming back, as he beelined straight for the mansion, dead intent on making Alexander acquiesce to his demands.

While this was going on, you could be asking, what was the mob doing?

Because they certainly were not obediently returning home if that's what you were thinking.

No.

Because although the crowd 'dispersed' from in front of the legionaries, their white hot anger was still there and since these people had taken to the streets, they needed to vent.

Thus after finding Alexander too tough a nut to cut, they instead broke off into small groups and began to recklessly set fire to various shops and houses as a way for their outlet.

And many even started to shout,

"This! This shop! It sells all those things from Zanzan! I remember seeing it."

"That's right! I remember buying wine from them! *Spit*, I can't believe I paid my hard earned gold on that!."

"Yes! And I remember the shopkeeper even complaining about it. Saying he knows that lord. Find him! He lives on the top floor of the building!"

"Burn him! Torch this place! Turn everything to ash! Those who sell the goods of the devil are devils themselves."

"Right! Get him! Get that Adhanian dog! We will burn him with his shops!"

It was like this the mad frenzied crowd then began to turn on their very own, dragging many of their own brothers out of their shops and beating, thrashing, and even burning them alive.

All of whom without exception were simply innocent traders, whose only crime was that they bought and sold Alexander's goods.

And for whom did they bring these goods you ask?

The very people who were killing him.

Ahhh, the irony!

But did those red eyed, half insane men see about the hypocrisy here?

No, of course not.

They were sometimes not even content to just kill the man.

Many even climbed upstairs of the shops and attacked the man's family living there, assaulting, maiming, killing, and violating them.

While at other times, when climbing up was too much of a pain, they set the entire 'apartment' block to fire, blocking the exit and burning all those inside alive.

How barbaric!

And how tragic!

And amongst all this chaos and destruction, what was perhaps even more damning was that most of the shops the mob attacked, most of the shops that sold Alexander's products were owned by the Margraves family.

Or at least supplied by them as wholesalers to these retail locations.

Meaning in a way, all these shops generated wealth for Miss Linda, the next most likely head of the Margraves family

They were even worth quite a lot, further made precious by the Margraves's recent money troubles.

So in a twist of irony, as the mob was destroying these places as a way to protest against Alexander, they were actually reducing the money Lord Parker got to keep during his temple heist.

Because given the widespread destruction, the family would have to step in and provide relief, unless they wanted a large part of the city's population to live without a roof or a means of livelihood.

It was apparent that the fear Lord Parker had about the mob turning against him was coming true letter by letter.

A fear was further vindicated by the fact that the rioting public soon transformed their anger and hate into greed, as they then began to openly loot the city,

They decided to no longer restrict themselves to shops that sold products from Zanzan.

Now it became an open turkey shoot for everything out here.

Each and every shop the gathered mob could get their hands on, they began to put it to the torch, uttering all kinds of the basest profanities as they did.

But the difference now was that now, before setting fire to the shops and buildings, the men would make sure to empty out of all valuables.

Be they food like wheat, meat, fish, vegetables, salt, or precious stone and metals like gold and silver and diamonds, or other fine goods of metal and earth, or even slaves and livestock.

After all, it was the greedy shopkeepers and their families living there who were guilty.

But the goods they were selling were all pure, so why let such good things go to waste?

Ah, how the narrative changes.

Now that they found they were allowed to possess these things, suddenly Alexander's goods were no longer the work of the devil.

In fact, they were so desirable that during all this mayhem, several fights even broke out among the crowd themselves, as various factions began to fight over what they perceived to be their loot.

Many even killed in their state of blind bloodthirst, just to get that beautiful glass piece, or that fine metal cooking pan.

Alexander's products were that popular.

Thus, as the mob began to spread their malfeasance, the result was that a significant part of the city was soon put under the rule of fire and raging inferno, as long licks of flame began to jump from one house to another, from one street to another, until huge plumbs of smoke started to rise out of different part of the city, making them visible even from the surrounding villages.

And after seeing for a while, Lord Parker could finally no longer stand by.

If he did not stop this madness soon, just like Alexander had predicted, the city was going to turn into a maelstrom and they were all going to be burned to death.

Hence turning to his general, he dictated in a very hardened voice,

"Achillas! Send in the man. Bring order to the city. No matter the cost!"

He originally did not want to do this because getting a mob under contral was a difficult task.

Especially if you were trying to do it without causing casualties.

Something he knew his men could never do.

They were soldiers, warriors, people who killed for a living.

They did not manage or herd sheep.

Thus by releasing them, he was basically letting loose a bunch of wolves into a pack of panicking sheep.

But given the unforeseen development, even though he lampooned in his heart, Lord Parker had little other choice.

The city and the hundred thousand innocent people in there needed to be saved.

And so the subsequent result was something he himself had already expected.

The blood that Remus had managed to so luckily avoid, by a twist of fate, Lord Parker ended up staining himself with.

The lightly armored spear units entered the various streets quickly and then instead of trying to disperse the crowd, they began to treat them as enemy combatants.

So they reacted as they would in a battle, throwing their javelins and then charging with their spear in a locked shield formation.

This was what they had been taught after all.

Which credit to them did work….

Upon seeing the terrifying soldiers clad in all black, the gathered crowd stopped all their misdeeds and began to run.

However, the casualties were staggering.

And it left a bloody stain on Lord Parker's name in the people's hearts.

Many were not even sure who was worse, him or Alexander.