Server Lost

『For King & Country』

Within the next three days, everyone set out on their own directives. Runa and Vivian going to the Fae Imperium, Jack sending them halfway by portal, to the edge of the Greyhorn Territory. Snow and Rein went off to their respective Guilds with a letter of introduction from the Castle Lord, Ivan Carmichael.

That very night, lesser noble houses known to conspire in corruption that serve beneath the Castle Lord's jurisdiction were to be arrested and tried, the verdict always being guilty.

Their sons, their daughters, stripped of their status and enslaved. All whilst their fathers and mothers were imprisoned in the dungeons of Noctia for 'Crimes against the Crown.'

Despite the righteous appearance of this act, it was simply to acquire their coin filled vaults and candid regulation of the noble dominated trade and trafficking within the city's territory. Eliminating the presence of Kline's criminal enterprise through the use of inside knowledge as he knew everyone involved in the city.

Those who were once on top, soon found themselves hung depending on the severity of their crimes and their direct descendants on the bottom of the food chain as slaves or indentured servants.

Of course, those were the ones who were caught right away by the Castle Lord's men. And then there were those who initially escaped the order, using their own Men at Arms as their rear guard to hold off being captured during this coup against the wealthy and corrupt.

It was no matter.

Jack, flying low with his wings extended from his back, the wind rushing through his hair. He was making headway towards a convoy of Nobles who had initially escaped.

Men, women, children. They were all running as fast as they could in the darkness of night, the riches they could carry or pack away in tow.

They dare not use lamps to light their way. They moved slowly along the gravel and dirt paths leading away from the central highway heading further inland.

The only thought going through their mind was self-preservation and to spread word out of 'House Carmichael' using the king's name for self-gain and falsehoods.

They weren't to escape. Silence was a must.

Within minutes he was directly above them, surfing on the wind as it howled under his wings.

"I found them Kokei," Jack uttered under his breath.

"Do you really have to kill them?" The skeleton asked curiously, as he had spent three days experimenting on dead bodies that just happen to turn up in the Dungeon.

One of them being the former Master of the Merchant's Guild, who had been in a vegetative state and ended up succumbing to a fatal aneurism during a mind altering experiment.

"It's that or wiping each one of their minds individually... Or taking away their will, enslaving their minds all at once." Jack retorted and he didn't feel like having a bunch of slaves who couldn't think for themselves or called him Master. He didn't mind being treated like a god, if anything he liked the idea, but he hated the thought of being surrounded by artificial personalities or yes men.

"Both I'd say are worse than Death," Kokei responded with a low tone of voice, though not really understanding Jack's particular reason, but agreed with his own moral rationality which Jack would have dismissed in his own mind.

"Then we're an agreement," Jack shook his head watching as the entitled old bloods ran, they hadn't noticed him hovering above just yet. Following their group of people, the clopping of horses.

He even watched as one of the wagons capsized over and squashed a slave or two who were running beside it. A light frown passed his lips as he drew his spear from his inventory.