Various nobles look from their estate''s to the chaos happening further out of the city, demons haven''t started patrolling the inner district yet, but it''s hard for their movements to not be visible. Most of the big names among nobles have already gone to the keep to protest the actions made by various institutions coming to light, many more nobles are being left behind in their estates. At first, they felt relatively safe in the inner district as a whole, until carriages with the military showed up. With riot control being taken off their hands by various monsters, these men now have new orders turned inward. Led by one of the many men who sided with Esstrey and Crendell, they have been assigned to clean house from within. Captain Krenkov was assigned for this, an ideologically motivated man that held great respect for Crendell, and despised the aristocrats for their laziness.
The carriages spread out across the gated community of the nobles, and some stop in front of the estate of Bleizwer Malencia, a distant cousin of the duchess. A man who knows that power not held closely is sure to disintegrate, and as such has the largest personal guard of all the inner district nobles. As such, two carriages have stopped in front of his estate especially for him. He himself looks out of the window with great suspicion, but his chance to run has already passed.
The gate-guard do their best to stop the men, but the captain simply orders their arrest.
"I have been picturing this moment every day for the last three decades." The guards put up little resistance once held at gunpoint by the liquidators, they have seen what the new toys of the military can do, and it''s only available to Esstrey''s people due to ''lack of supply''.
The men break through the gate, by shooting the lock off, nearby garden personnel who were watching the entire exchange realize too late they are caught in the political crossfire of the military storming in. People are grabbed and brought to the carriages, loaded up for transport.
"Hey! Halt! This estate is-" *BLIING*
"By order of the keep, anyone obstructing liquidators in their arrests are to be dealt with accordingly! Arrest the staff, arrest them all." Krenkov isn''t a very empathetic man, a trait he knows he has all too well, and a solid good reason why he respects Crendell. Here at this moment, this trait will not be a curse of his, but it will be his blessing as he does the dirty work of people with a vision for the future.
The liquidators rush inside the mansion as they shoot open the lock, at the end of the hallway stands Bleizwer with a bodyguard of his, the two men gaze at the entry of the military with open hostility.Find this and other great novels on the author''s preferred platform. Support original creators!
"Ready, aim!" Krenkov doesn''t even try to negotiate, he was sent to this estate specifically, and the people above him know perfectly well what he would do. Bleizwer''s eyes widen as he''s not even offered an explanation, and his bodyguard only gets enough time to position himself in front of Bleizwer.
"VUUR!"
*BLIING* *BLIING* *BLIING* *BLIING*
<hr>
Zulie has recently been re-deployed, and having to work in conjunction with demons and undead is certainly a new experience. She would complain, but her and her old partner James always got the shit jobs. It was always dirty cleanups of opponents of the duchy, this time the cleanup is simply a little bit closer to the keep. Honestly, she isn''t sure whether she actually opposes this kind of work closer to the duchy, ever since James had his skull cratered by a monstrous creature of legend. That little realization shook Zulie to her core, even if said monster now hangs around the keep as well, there will always be dangerous things lurking around the corner just beyond the walls. At least within the walls, Zulie knows what kind of dangers there are.
*THUD THUD THUD* "Open up! This is the Malencian Guard! We here for an inquiry!" An old lady slowly opens the door, and peeks through the gap she made. Her eyes stay locked on the demon that is with Zulie for a while, before her eyes fall on Zulie.
"Ma''am, we heard you claimed to have information regarding this individual." The demon speaks much softer than Zulie doesn''t, and he holds a wanted poster of one of many non-compliant individuals causing trouble.
"Y-yes, I saw him frequent the neighbor''s house, and I-I don''t want any trouble." The old lady points her hand out of the door to the house next door, barely realizing what kind of fate she just consigned her neighbors to.
"Thank you for cooperating ma''am, we''ll get this mess sorted." Zulie moves to the neighbor''s house with the demon attaché in tow.
*THUD THUD THUD* "OPEN UP! This house is under investigation of The Guard!" Zulie is noticeably less gentle with this house as she was with the house of the woman who cooperated.
"Shit, the guard''s here, what do we do?" Muffled noises come from inside, the panic within the voices of the inhabitants is easy to hear.
Zulie gestures her demon attached at the door who begins kicking at it, at first it doesn''t budge, but it slowly begins to give way under the repeated abuse of the demon. The mild panic inside escalates, but before they can take action, the door breaks off its hinges.
"In the name of the guard, get down or get dead!" The demon screams it in joy, and leaps on the hapless inhabitants. Zulie lets him go at it, since he knows he has to restrain them for questioning. She tries to confirm their faces with the wanted poster of the criminal, but finds that he''s not here. She rushes through a door that was left wide open, and finds a ladder to the roof. Climbing it, she discovers a path was made to travel over rooftops easily, and sees the perp escaping over the roof of the old lady. She won''t reach him in time for apprehension, so she will just have to do the next best thing. Leveling her gun, she aims at the criminal trying to escape.
*BLIING*
The corpse of the wanted man falls off the roof loudly. The old lady from before watches from her window as a man was turned into a corpse by her very own actions, realizing far too late what she had done.