Enlightened Empire

Chapter 365: During the Festival (1)

A warm breeze from the Verduic Sea entered through the harbor and heated up the streets of Saniya. Up above, the gray sky released a drizzle of rain. Each fallen drop melted away another little patch of the snow that had been collected in the city since the start of winter.

Shielded from the elements by the walls of the large stall he sat inside – as well as by his generous coat – Sami the carpenter could quietly muse about the humid weather with a mind at peace, and in harmony with his surroundings.

In fact, the people outside the stall looked to be in a good mood as well, despite the weather. Countless people of every imaginable group strolled the streets once again. In the distance, Sami could hear music from two groups of street performers, and there were smells of food and drink everywhere around him.

This time, even many outsiders had come to the city to participate in these once-in-a-lifetime festivities, to add to the excitement. The crowds around him were as dense and as aflutter as they had ever been. Though Sami still felt like the peace wouldn’t last for long.

With mixed emotions, he poured another cup from his steaming pot of mulled wine and handed it to another face in the endless line that had formed in front of his stall.

“There you go, please enjoy,” he said. “That’ll be two copper then.”

“What do you mean? I thought everything’s free,” the guest complained. In response, Sami tried hard to suppress a sigh. This wasn’t the first or second time this had happened. It was only just noon, but he had long stopped counting how many people had complained about paying such a small amount for the expensive, spiced wine.

“Well, the people from the castle said that even if everything else is free today, we still need to charge everyone for the booze,” Sami explained in a bored tone. He really had explained this too many times already. “They probably don’t want the entire city to drink itself to death. If every drink’s free, there’d be chaos in the street, don’t you think?”

Usually, that little comment was enough to make the customers understand. Most people would back off and obediently pay. However, there were always a few who wouldn’t be so willing to give in. The guy in front was clearly one of them. Anger formed on the guest’s face as he stepped forward to snatch the mug of wine from Sami’s fingers. However, the barman had quicker hands and rescued the drink before it could get kidnapped, or spill its steaming contents all over Sami’s workstation.

“You said it’s free! Now it isn’t! Aren’t you just a scammer!?” The guest screamed at Sami, his face right in front of him, and his finger almost up the barman’s nose. Annoyed, Sami pushed the finger away and stepped aside to avoid the rain of spittle. He thought he would have been safe from the downpour inside this stall, but he had underestimated the humidity of his customers.

“Look, buddy, I didn’t say anything,” he replied, now in a bad mood. “These’re the castle’s orders. Just ask anyone else who’s selling liquor today. They’re all doing the same. So this has nothing to do with me. I’m just the messenger. So don’t blame me just because you don’t have two coppers to rub together.”

Even now, the guest didn’t back down. From the shiny appearance of his robes and the fancy leather shoes on his feet, he didn’t even look that poor. Maybe he was just particularly stingy, or so entitled that he thought everyone else in the world owed him something.

“I think you’re just trying to trick me,” the guest insisted again, stepping right in front of Sami once more. “Don’t lie to me, the drink is really free, but you’re just trying to steal from people and line your own pockets with the coin of some gullible drunks. Isn’t that how it is? But you found the wrong mark this time. I’m not simple-minded like the others, and I won’t be tricked! If you keep this up, I will tell your boss what you’re doing here. I know a lot of people in this city. Don’t test me. So how about you be a good boy and-”

“What’s the problem here?” From among the crowd appeared two towering figures who surrounded the haughty customer on both sides. Although he looked annoyed by the interruption, the customer calmed down as soon as he saw who he was dealing with. Outnumbered and up against people who could clearly handle themselves in a fight, he wasn’t half the man he had been in front of Sami.

“And you are?” he asked, still rude, but much more civil. However, his question wasn’t answered by the intimidating giants. Instead, a reply came from a beautiful, young lady with noble temperament, who appeared from the same direction as the giants.

“They are associates of Master Ekkoko,” she answered the rude guest’s question. “He wants to know why you are starting trouble at his stall.”

Intimidated by Master Ekkoko’s name as much as by the giants to his left and right, the guest began to sweat.

“Ah, please excuse me, Lady!” A squeak escaped his throat as he was rattling off excuses. “I didn’t know. Please overlook me! I will disappear right away and never show my face again in front of lady!”

Although the terrified customer finally ran away without his wine, Sami was no longer interested in him. Instead, he had only eyes for the young woman.

“Ulan! You didn’t come a moment too early,” he greeted his girlfriend.

“You see, I told you that we should get some support from Master Ekkoko,” she said, a beaming smile of victory on her face. Earlier, Ulan had visited him and watched a similar incident. Worried about Sami’s safety, she had promised to return with some reinforcements. With the two guards to protect him, Sami’s work would be a lot easier.

“Thank you, Masters. I’ll rely on you for safety form now on,” he politely greeted the two giants.

“No worries, friend. We’re just here to protect master’s things. Just think of us as air,” one of them said, while the other nodded his head in agreement.

After, the two stood a bit away on both sides of the stall. They were far enough to not disturb anyone, but also clearly visible to all guests on the street. With this deterrent, there would finally be peace at the stall, Sami guessed.

“What a mess,” he said after everything was cleared up. At the same time, both he and Ulan took a seat behind the stall again, and the first customer came forward gingerly to be served.

“Then why did you take the job?” Ulan asked.

“Compared to this place, the mess at the manufactory is even worse.” Sami sighed. “At this point, with the way the city is these days, I have no idea if we can ever start work there. I have to make money somehow, right? So I need to make use of the rare mood right now and get some coin before we go back to before.”

“That’s true,” Ulan admitted. “Finally, the people are back to normal.”

From one day to the next, it felt like the threatening mood created by the supervisors had disappeared into nothing, as if the city’s past had quietly returned, without warning. Not even the supervisors were making any trouble any more. Though Sami was sure they weren’t acting mindful of the guests, or the other citizens. Maybe today was just an inconvenient day for robbery, he thought.

After all, all work would rest during the festival, which meant that all manufactories would remain closed. Thus, the warriors could no longer reasonably use their old excuses of ‘supervision’ and ‘spot checks’ to rob people. Even in their shamelessness, they hadn’t quite reached the point where they would simply break into the workshops, at least not so long as they were sober.

Not to mention, many people from all over the empire – and even from other places far away – had accepted King Corco’s invitation and had come together in Saniya to celebrate this winter solstice. The lords who stood behind the supervisors wouldn’t want to look too greedy in front of their fellow lords from the north, so they restrained themselves for once and stopped the plundering for a few days. Just for the duration of the festival, there would be peace in Saniya.

However, this peace came at a high price for the king. For the entire duration of the festival, the castle would be paying for everything. To that end, the kingdom’s treasury had sent out requests to every tavern, bar, inn, and food stall owner in the city. Most of them would offer their goods in stalls all along the city’s roads throughout the festival. And all of it, no matter how much they sold, would be paid for by the crown. Even tonight’s rooms for visitors would be covered by the king’s coin.

As the couple spoke about the general situation in the city, Sami continued to serve customers. Luckily, there were a lot fewer complaints from guests now, so they weren’t interrupted by anyone.

“Anyways, why are you here? Not that I want to complain,” Sami added when he saw Ulan’s raised brow. “Just, shouldn’t you be out with your troupe? I thought every entertainer in the city would do street performances today.”

Just like today was a busy day for the tavern owners, it was equally busy for the entertainers. There were traveling folk and local entertainers on every street corner, plying their trade with great enthusiasm, as for once they were well-paid for their services. On most days, the traveling folk had no right to enter Medala’s cities and towns in the first place.

Only during large festivals like this one would they be allowed inside to entertain the masses. This time, they had even tasted the reliable hard coin of the crown. Their great mood translated to the people and elevated the city’s atmosphere by another level. Ulan’s own acting troupe had been performing since morning, so Sami was surprised that she had time to visit him.

“You can only perform for so long. Transporting your voice across a crowded street is very draining,” she explained. “So our first lineup is on break for the rest of the day, and our replacements get a chance to shine. I could have stayed with them of course, but then I wouldn’t be able to be with you, would I?”

Ulan’s sweet words hit Sami hard, but he had a hard time expressing himself, at least in front of a large crowd like this. Thus, they shared a nice, long silence just sitting together and looking at the crowd.

“I can hardly believe that the city has returned to its old image this quickly,” Ulan finally said once there was a lull in the stream of customers.

Since everything was closed, and everything was free, there was no reason for the warriors to waste their time banging on doors with no one behind them. At least for one day, the city was back to its jubilant attitude. Though Sami knew that it was nothing more than an illusion.

“Yeah, it’s finally back to normal again,” Sami agreed at first, but then decided that it wouldn’t be good to lie to his prospective wife. “It’s all a facade though, really. None of it will last, I don’t think.”

“How so?” Ulan looked over to Sami, with the hint of a smile on her face. Maybe she just wanted to start a conversation and wasn’t curious about the state of the city at all. Sami still decided to play along.

“Don’t tell me you haven’t noticed,” he said “Today, everything’s free, so everyone’s taking a break. That includes the supervisors. They have the day off, so it’s nice and peaceful. But I guarantee you that the warriors are gonna start their supervising again tomorrow. Though at least for today, it really seems like we can breathe easy.”

“If only.” Ulan sighed. “Have you seen any of the priests today?”

“I’ve seen a couple walk past, and one of them bought some wine. But other than that, I’ve been sitting here all day. What did I miss?”

For a moment, Ulan looked around, maybe to see if there were any priests within earshot, before she continued.

“They’re still preaching the same nonsense as before,” she whispered. “The end of the sinful city. Doom. Even the papers they hand out are the same. As far as I could tell, they are stationed along the major roads and on both ends of the big bridges, to make sure everyone in the city hears them.”

“You can’t be serious,” Sami replied on reflex. After a few seconds of shock, he realized that he shouldn’t have been surprised. “But that’s exactly what I was talking about before. They won’t stop just because we’re giving them free food. We should just forget about our worries, and enjoy the festival for today.” He looked at the back of his previous customer, before he whispered, “Because tomorrow, we will take matters into our own hands.”

“Now you can’t be serious,” a wide-eyed Ulan shouted in shock, before she caught herself and lowered both her head and her voice. “Do you really want to rebel, just because that fool Chanca told you to?”

“Chanca’s often a fool, but this time he’s right.” Sami insisted, stubbornness lodged in his heart next to bitterness. “It’s not only the priests either. I’ve seen how the warriors have acted today as well. They’re not robbing people, but they’re cutting in line, shoving people out of the way, and acting however they feel like in general. Tomorrow it will only get worse, until they’ve played all of us to death. We can’t just let those fat-”

“Shhh!” With a shocked expression, Ulan covered his mouth and motioned beyond their stall with her head. Only now did Sami realize that two of the ‘fat bastards’ were walking towards him. One was a lord with a large entourage of warrior servants behind him, and the other was obviously a priest.

Despite their different identities, they seemed to be in harmony with each other. Both carried the same arrogant smile with them. Without considering the line in front of Sami’s stall, they walked straight up to him.

Although Ekkoko’s men had come over to guarantee that something like this wouldn’t happen, neither of them dared to step up. Not only were they people a commoner wouldn’t dare to offend, not only were they outnumbered by the lord’s guards, the noble also carried an axe decorated with fancy gold and ruby ornaments on his hip, making no attempt to hide the deadly weapon at all.

Sami stared at the gleaming steel and remembered the axe he himself had held during the night a few days back. Now, he wished that he had one hidden inside his stall, just in case.

“Bring me your best wine, boy!” the noble interrupted his thoughts. From his tone, he clearly considered Sami to be a lesser person, but the barman could not retort at all. Without a choice, he put on a practiced smile and did as he was told. This time, he didn’t expect to get the payment.