25 Repercussions
1357 Words
It was Yvaine.
"Go away, I want to be left alone," Janus said.
"Janus please open up, I need to talk to you." She was banging the door, and she sounded alarmed.
She didn't stop banging, it only got louder and louder.
Janus resigned after what must have been a dozen more pleas. He was tired.
Yvaine hugged him as soon as he opened the door. She looked around at his room and saw the mess that it was in. She looked him in the eyes and wiped his tears with her handkerchief.
"I know this is hard for you, but you have to stay strong. You have to keep your head up. You shouldn't let them to get you." Yvaine said.
"What's the point? Their taking everything, and for such a stupid war demonstration at that." Janus said.
"You may not agree with it, but Mydir has been a looming threat that we have been facing for a number of years. If we don't do this right then the manor is just a small part of what we will lose." She said.
"You agree with this? They don't have to slaughter the orcs, they're retreating. It doesn't feel right to me that they have to suffer even after that, just so we can show another country that was strong."
"Father's judgment is sound. He can lead us to victory."
"You don't really think that do you?" Janus said.
Yvaine stepped back and looked away. Those words seemed to have struck a chord.
"It is my duty, I can't think of anything else. Janus, I'm sorry about not warning you about the earthworms. I thought It would be harmless, that the church would not object."
"You and me both. It also seemed very trivial to me, and Sir Arthan thinks the same. Do you know why they're doing this?"
She shook her head. "Perhaps you just caught their attention, ten times per acre seemed to be a very large increase so they went investigating."
"Damn it. I have to go to the manor, as soon as possible."
"Janus, can promise me something?"
"What are you talking about?"
"Promise me this, when you get there. Don't do anything rash okay? Keep your head down and be careful."
"Yeah, I heard that before."
"Listen." She held Janus by the shoulders. "I know I'm not making any sense right now but somethings amiss. I have a bad feeling about all of this. And I'm afraid I can't help you while your there. I have some preparations to do."
"What is it? What's going on with Media? What's gotten you all wrapped up about it?"
"It is my duty as a diplomat. I must follow through. Promise me you won't do something rash okay?" she said, touching his cheek.
"Okay, okay. I promise. I'll check what happened and see how we can go from there."
"Perfect," she said. Say hi to the children for me will you?"
"Of course."
And she left Janus for the night. That calmed him down, but he was too tired to do anything else. As soon as he touched the bed he was fast asleep. Thoughts about the knife disappeared into the night.
#
To his surprise, all of the servants who came with him before asked to accompany him to the manor the very next morning. Sir Arthan was still obligated to guard Janus but he was ready to go when Janus came down. Millen, Duflo, Bodwin, Rufus, and Cedi all volunteered to join in despite having other duties in the castle. Master Darius allowed them after much pleading and protesting. Janus prepared himself for the worse.
The situation in the manor was even direr than he anticipated.
The manor was barely recognizable as the gates opened. It seemed like he had returned in the aftermath. The inquisitors and soldiers had left the day before. Their work was swift and efficient.
The serfs and workers all stared at him as his carriage approached. They looked dirty and exhausted. The fields looked like it had faced a storm just the night before. The crops were all still standing but the leaves and grasses were all in disarray. It seemed that the inquisitors dug around the soil mercilessly during their inspections.
The guards assembled and bowed down to him when he arrived. They were all apologizing profusely. A band of soldiers and inquisitors arrived in droves, carrying with them official documents from the King and the Holy See himself. They had no choice but to comply, they were tasked to accompany inspectors but were not allowed to intervene. They were basically held at spearpoint.
"There's no need to apologize. You did what you could do." Janus said with a sigh.
Call it whatever you wanted - an inquiry or an inspection - to Janus' eyes his manor was ransacked and looted. His granaries and reserves were taken by both the inquisitors and the crown. What's left was merely a pittance, not even enough to provide for personal needs. His earthworm colonies were burned down with extreme prejudice. What was left was a pile of ashes even bigger than the goblin settlements. Whoever burned this did a very sloppy job, even damaging the adjacent barns and silos. The children who were seen tending to the colonies were asked to confess for hours. The men were forced to evacuate the animals and some of the stored goods to the dormitories.
Then they came for the dormitories as well.
"Magic, your highness. They used magic to take away all of the stones. They said that they could use it for fortifications." Said
Master Ringo, with dark circles in his eyes. The old man was distraught.
"Were they authorized to take all of this?"
"They had documentation your Highness, it was signed by the King. They were free to take anything that could be useful to the battle at the northern fronts."
"But they only took down the things that we recently built correctly?"
"Yes, that is true."
Just as Janus expected, there was a deliberate intent behind it.
"Was there an inspector from the Crimson Blades? Someone wearing red armor?"
"Yes your highness, there was one of them."
Rows of dormitories were now reverted back into bare scaffolding and wood. Janus couldn't believe his eyes, every bit of stone from all the settlements that he built was now taken from him. The cold months were approaching, and a lot of workers just lost their homes.
Those who resisted or pleaded were bruised and beaten. There were no casualties, but the ensuing chaos led to some of the workers who were recently hired to quit and go back to their towns.
The goblins received the brunt of it. Their homes above ground were now reduced to nothing since they were all made of iron and stone. They were said to have been stripped down of their weapons and every bit of metal that was in their body. They were bruised and stripped of their clothing, mocked, and insulted by the soldiers. The workers had to smuggle clothes to them when no one was looking so that they could be protected from the heat and the cold. The only good thing about this was that no one knew that there was an underground goblin burrow, and many were in there hiding as the inspection of the manor was done.
"Princey? What happened?" Kazzuk asked him as Janus came to visit.
"They got me Kazzuk. They found that we were doing so well, so they took it from us."
The tools were taken away, every scrap of iron was removed and taken by soldiers. They intend to meet all of it and use it to build weapons and machinery for the siege engines.
Even the water conservation tanks weren't spared. Since these were primarily made of metal.
Janus was astounded. Master Ringo came to him with the numbers and it didn't look good.
It was as if the manor had reverted to when he came first here. Except now he had more mouths to feed and a band of goblins who needed work.
Everyone looked to the Prince, asking why this happened. Janus couldn't look them in the eye.
"We'll survey the damage and check on what we can work on. We can come back from this."
He had no idea if that was true.
Janus had his work cut out for him, but he had no clue where to start.
- Writer
