Chapter 6
"Extra! Extra! Brigadier General Clementon arrested for trying to bribe Lord Ruth! Read all about it! Full story! Get your Selatapura times Here!" the newspaper boy shouted, waving his stacks of newspapers as he paced up and down the entrance to the Selatapura train station.
"I'll take that," I said, dropping a quarter into the boy's hand as I took the paper.
"Huh. I didn't peg you for a newspaper reader Richard." My escort Captain Bardon scoffed, "Don't you army intel people know what is happening before it becomes news?"
"Oh, shut up, Bardon. Your leader was arrested, of course, I am going to read about it." I shot back.
"All the write about are lies anyway," Ben said, blowing out a stream of cigarette smoke before taking another drag. "Come on, the car's that way." He gestured to a red Model 98 sedan (1927 Whippet Model 96 Sedan) to the left of them.
As we drove down the streets, I noticed something strange, the luxury cars that were always parked by the roadsides were gone, and so were the blue-uniformed police officers. The once gridlocked downtown was now almost devoid of life.
Ben must have noticed the confused look on my face as he began to explain.
"Lord Brat arrested everyone working in Whitehall. Banging on about anti-corruption while he fills the streets with his goons. Much of downtown is in shutdown right now, waiting for this to blow over."
"Heh. I read up about him you know, Kalden Ruth, second son to Phillip Ruth, the minister of Interior. Did you know he used to be friends with Prince Rainer? Before he was kicked out of the academy."
"Huh, No, shit," Bardon said.
He was a staunch supporter of Prince Rainer, well, who wasn't? The Prince is good-looking, cares for his subjects, and with his fiancée, helps the poor and the church.
"Yeah, if what I heard in the Royal Academy are true, they were best friends even."
"What changed?" Bardon asked.
"Take a guess," I said with a smug grin.
"Er... the Prince found Kalden bullying other students?"
I shook my head chuckling, "You got an active imagination there. Colonel. No, they fell out because of Baroness Yuno. Kalden disapproved of the engagement. Made quite the stir from what I heard, and Kalden allegedly even dumped water all over her."
The lurched to a stop and Ben turned to face Richard, "That piece of shit did what to Princess Yuno!?"
"Hey, hey. Watch your driving. I know you love the Prince fiancée and all, but you sound like her father or something, and you shouldn't call her princess, she is still not part of the royal family yet."
"She is in my books. Prince Rainer and Princess Yuno will lead our nation to glory. I will make sure of that." he announced proudly.
Nice to know people like you exist.
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We pulled up to the entrance of Hotel De Galaisas, and Bardon handed to keys to the valet. The hotel restaurant was empty at this time of day, save for the five men sitting in the middle of the hall. Just how it has always had been.
The rest have already assembled around the large table, their bodyguards standing at the corners and against the walls of the room, out of earshot.
"Is anyone else coming?" Bardon asked the table.
The men shook their heads collectively,
"Alanxander and Tolbert were arrested just yesterday."
Lueken, head of the Selatapura merchant guild said.
"Tsk. We just have to-"
*Pop!
And the all the lights in the dining hall went out simultaneously, bathing the entire room in pitch-black darkness.
"What the hell!"
The men quickly stood up from their seats, their bodyguards rushing over to their side.
*Plink.
*Boom!
The sudden flash of white blinded everyone, for a brief second. What followed was the most torturous twenty seconds in my life, a high pitched shrill rang out from within my head, scrambling my brain, blocking out any coherent thought from forming.
The impact to the back of my head was a relief more than anything else, as it stopped the ringing, sleep followed quickly afterwards, and I embraced it, anything was better than that high pitched shrill.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone