parentshiftbook Chapter 377 Interlude (part 1)
Chapter 377 Interlude (part 1)
"How did it all come to be?"
Salicious asked himself in his thoughts, despairing over the scene he could see from behind his cover.
The old man hid with his men on the two sides of an ancient passage of two rows of columns aligned across a narrow pass. Hiding in the shadows of those columns, the old man had to watch how his disciple and successor now marched at the head of a massive, noble uprising.
"Stay down or we will shoot!"
The royal guards lined up above the mouth of the narrow passage, holding just the perfect spot to stop any further advance.
But Banjay continued to smile.
Standing defiantly at the very front of the riot, he brought his hand up, stopping the march... Only to step ahead all on his lonesome, unnervingly confident no one would dare to shoot.
He was a royal cousin, after all. And not even the guards with the highest noble ranks wouldn't dare to raise their weapons against the royal blood.
"Who here can talk with me?!" Stepping a few steps ahead of the passage, right into the half-circle of the patriarch-king's men, Banjay pushed out his chest as if trying to provoke someone to react and come out.
And quite unsurprisingly, the leader of the king's guards stepped out.
'He knows just what to do to make everyone act as he desires,' Salicious sighed, feeling conflicted over how his disciple made him proud.
But as the two of them, Banjay and the guard's officer, met in the middle of the kill zone, something silently changed.
Rather than screaming at each other, the two... started to have a completely casual conversation. As if the heightened emotions of the capital nobles rioting due to the looming threat of Basela's fall.
If the fortress gives in, the imperials would have a nice, open road all the way to the capital. And this was a distress that those nobles couldn't allow.
The assaults of the mighty mountain hold continued for the last week already, with the empire pushing down south at a much greater pace than anyone assumed to be possible.
Still, despite all the rioting... Banjay continued to have a graceful conversation with a fellow noble, right between the king's elite guards and the flower of the capital's nobility. And as much as Salicious hoped to, he failed to hear what their conversation was all about.
***
"How long do the rear units need to close in on the riot?"
Banjay asked as soon as he exchanged polite greetings with the noble guard.
"Excuse me?" The panicked face the guard showed only proved Banjay's suspicion.
'So they've put a newbie to the holding unit, meaning those two are leading in the rear.'
Being the rat of the palace's corridors, Banjay more than just knew his way with all the figures within the capital. And the tactics used by the guards... were written by the man himself, all recently modified, practiced, and tested in anticipation of this very day.
"I will ask again, how long do Hyvar and Assa need to close the riot's path to retreat?"
The newbie officer gulped down his saliva.
"Sir, I'm not sure I understand..."
"Pass the news," speaking out right as he brought his sword squarely into the strongest point of the young noble's guard, Banjay took half a step back to give him some breathing room before repeating the exact same strike. "We broke the siege of Basela."
The young guard's face tensed up... Only for Banjay to follow up with a quick kick that safely sent the young guard flying back.
And hearing the cheers from behind, he could finally breathe a sigh of relief.
The young noble landed safely a few feet to the back, taking but a moment to regain his footing.
Banjay directed his foot straight for the largest of the plates of his armor, after all, allowing the force of his strike to disperse over as large of an area as possible.
But that in itself posed a problem.
How was he supposed to pass on the news and hopefully stop Nelea from doing anything stupid, if he flew back only a few steps to the back?
"I'm sorry man," Banjay threw at the young guard, watching with guilt as his face started to change. "I've gotta make it a bit more real."
The young noble's face turned still, changing from pride in helping out to terror of realization of what Banjay meant... and then to a shaky smile as he prepared himself for the worst.
'Haaa... youth...' Banjay barely held back a tired sigh.
He then dropped his sword, simply allowing it to slip out of his fingers.
Yet, by the time its handle fell down to the ground, he rushed up the distance, and with all the might of his rapid advance, he struck the young noble right in the same spot as before.
This time, the young guard fell to the back quite the distance, stumbling past the line of his men and effectively stopping Nelea in her attempt to get to the front.
'That gives us a little bit more time.'
The young noble was going to be fine. Banjay perfectly controlled his strength, even though he rarely got to use it outside of practice. And on the whole theatrics of him picking himself up by the bootstraps to stand defiantly against a superior opponent...
'Yeah, give minutes at least,' Banjay smiled to his own thoughts as he walked back towards the rioters, stepping down the incline of the path and towards the narrow pass in complete silence.
Halfway back to the crowd, Banjay stood down... and raised his hand.
And after one more moment of stressful silence, the massive crowd of the rioters erupted in cheers!
"URAAA!"
"LONG LIVE BANJAY!"
"NEW SUN OF THE KINGDOM!"
The capital nobles screamed their guts out, quickly moving far, far past the official agenda of the entire riot.
'Those idiots.' Banjay resisted the desire to roll his eyes. Still, sensing a commotion behind his back, he turned around, ready to face the defiant noble once again...
Only for his plans to go awry quite a bit.
Because instead of the young noble, it was Nelea that stood at the front of the king's guards. And with a sword in her trembling hand, with the suit as elegant as it was impractical, she challenged her uncle.