Thieves of Mercy

Nizza starves. The earth is dust, the wells lie bitter, and the Crown demands what the land no longer holds.
Charles Leclerc, son of a once-honorable knight, is sent to serve the powerful Lucien Bianchi - a man whose wealth gleams brighter than his mercy. Within Bianchi's grand halls, Charles is meant to learn obedience, but instead, he finds deceit, silence, and hunger dressed as order.
When a band of mountain outlaws strikes against Bianchi's men, led by a young archer, unknown, Charles witnesses a kind of courage he has never seen: ruthless, precise, and yet guided by compassion. The outlaws steal from the lords to feed the starving. They fight not for glory, but for the people left behind.
Drawn to the rebel leader's defiance, and haunted by his own divided loyalties, Charles is forced to choose between the world that raised him and the one that might save him. As blood and justice blur in the dust, two men on opposite sides of the same hunger begin to see each other - not as enemies, but as something far more dangerous.

PS: I chose another Name for Phillipe Bianchi, because the Man in this story seems to be no good man, and I don't want to use real people for something like that :) Hope you enjoy