Chapter 50: Serene Serenia (2)
Wizards from the Reinvelt Knights, the CEF, and the guards of the city all
gathered to ensure that the reconstruction of the city of Serenia happened
smoothly.
It didn’t take long. Two days later, most of the work that had to be urgently
done was finished; many houses were rebuilt, and quite a few were left for the
people, the houseowners, to rebuild themselves.
The public property was reset, and at the Ring Road, the announcement of a new
plaque to honor the deaths that happened due to the corruption incident was
made.
In that city, a rumor had spread far and wide.
"The Witch Queen is real and killed members of the CEF."
It was two different things. The rumor mill had spun originally to take the
terms of:
"The Witch Queen had caused the corruption."
Yet, in just two days, the hushed voices started to change, and, on a more
frequent level, people learned both the name of the Witch Queen and the fact
that there had been casualties in the CEF.
And finally, on the third day, the lord took to the pier outside his castle.
Standing alongside Adam and Arlene, he announced:
"For the brave city of Serenia! For us who have overcome a horror, the magnitude
of which we shall not witness again! I announce a feast!!"
"WOOOO!" "SERENIA! SERENIA! SERENIA!" "LONG LIVE THE REINVELTS!"
People screamed out loud, their adoration on full display.
"Open all the warehouses, spread out the ale and the barrels of alcohol! Every
pub in the city will get 10 Gold Ders from the Lord’s Castle, so feed the
people!"
Another cheer rang out, and so began a festival.
The city itself transformed in almost no time. It was a sight to see. People
hung decorations all over the streets. Beer and ale started to pour out along
with rations from the warehouses. Serenia was always a rich city, but this time
they went the extra mile.
Inside the lord’s castle, too, change started to happen everywhere. The halls
were decorated. Big businessmen, nobles, and other people of relevance in the
city and nearby villages were invited.
A grand feast was being prepared inside as well, with Lord Soren’s wife, Lady
Riana, preparing a ball for the people.
Adam, too, was getting ready with some finishing touches when his room’s door
opened and, holding two glasses of wine, Arlene entered alongside Nea and Dumas.
All of them, all ready to go out.
"Do you not know to knock?" Adam asked, adjusting his cravat.
"What? Why do you take so long to get ready anyway?" Arlene quickly jumped on
his bed and started sipping from the wine. Lady Nea and Sir Dumas stood on the
other side. Adam glanced at them and winced his brows; those two, too, shrugged
and grabbed their glasses.
"Some prebooze," said Dumas. "I thought it would be nice."
He walked up and landed his hand on Adam’s shoulder. The two knights of
Reinvelt—in fact, all Knights of Reinvelt—had grown up together with Adam and
Arlene.
For them, such proximity was normal.
"It’s crazy, though," Dumas continued. "What has even happened on the ground?
Now everyone thinks that the CEF attacked the Witch Queen and died, causing this
mess."
Nea took a sip of the wine and nodded at those words. The topic of the Witch
Queen made her slightly dull, whereas the other girl in the group laughed out
loud.
"What else do you think? I pulled some strings. What did these CEF people even
think, going to chase after a wild goose instead of hunting down the corrupt?"
Adam agreed.
It was a simple public opinion engineering. Arlene simply had to speak the kind
of language that people understood, repetitively.
"Still, how does that work?"
Arlene took a swig and started explaining. "You see, the CEF already has a
pretty bad rep. The corruption incident hadn’t brought in as much rage among the
people as it had brought in fear, and amplifying that with a figure of another
fear? That was not going to work. That’s why the entire city seemed hopeless at
the beginning."
Presenting a mountain that simply no one could climb—what would that do other
than break morale?
For Adam, such a situation was absolutely not welcome. Not just because he
wanted the city of Serenia to be in a better mood.
It went deeper. Already, a big problem had come up due to the event at Blue
Danube. Even though it wasn’t something he directly knew, the political
consequences of such events were always big.
That’s why Arlene took matters into her own hands. She smiled and laughed,
ignoring her dress in their "pre-boozing."
"People hate the CEF, and the CEF hates the north. We couldn’t give them much
power here. So it was better for the air to say ’the CEF poked the hornet’s
nest.’"
"This is, of course," Adam, finally finished with his dressing, turned around
and walked over to where Dumas and Nea stood. He didn’t want the wine his sister
had brought, and instead went for the beer his fellow knights were drinking.
"Just a part of things. We have to absolutely rule out two things."
He raised his mug; the two knights and the lady on the bed all reached in, and
everyone clinked their glasses.
"Cheers," they said in unison as they started drinking again. Adam, downing the
entire mug in a single go, wiped his mouth and continued.
"We have to make sure that the Witch Queen really wasn’t involved in the
corruption incident. That will only happen by catching the corrupt. And the
other thing is that we’ll have to ensure there is no attack coming from that
side. I find it hard to believe the Witch Queen is real."
"What kind of demon could be spreading corruption like this in a city anyway?"
asked Arlene.
"I am not sure, definitely not an airborne one. Could it be a succubus or
incubus?"
"We better check that. You don’t think it’s one of those strange ones that would
invade bodies?"
"The Doppelganger thing we saw on the frontline? What a parasite, that demon."
"It did get those black arms out of the bodies it possessed. I guess it won’t be
capable of hiding well."
"About the corruption incident," Dumas intervened. "We don’t know the
possibility of involvement, but I wouldn’t rule it out."
Adam nodded. He had already sensed something off the first time they were
talking.
"That living armor, if it’s truly as the CEF described, then we had encountered
the armor for certain... It tried to kidnap Nea and her boyfriend."
Coldness spread in the room.
