“What are we waiting for? I have urgent meetings to attend to today!” Shouted a noble dressed in all expensive silk clothes and an exquisite fur coat exuding his wealth status.
“Calm down there, Litr. There is no way your anger will quicken the current situation.” Minister Phaspho tried to talk the other party down even though he was equally frustrated that they were kept waiting for quite some time now.
The advisors, ministers and nobles who were on the scene did not realise that Evon had purposely leaked a minute amount of a rage inducing drug into the surrounding atmosphere that led them to be a bit on the edge. The Guards were oblivious to it as they had already also taken a pill of Evon’s antidote so that they would not be affected. This enabled the Guards to stay rational and sane enough to keep the place in order.
As for the nobles and ministers, Angry people do not talk rationally, and that would eventually tip the scales further in Rex’ favour. It wasn’t that Rex was unable to beat them in an intelligent conversation but rather, if they were shown like this on a national broadcast, the general public would sympathise with the new king over their existing cabinet of ministers.
“Attention! Court is now in session!” General Vual shouted as his guards opened the doors for King Rex to enter the Grand Meeting Hall.
“Court session?” Phaspho looked around, and many of the other ministers and advisors were just as confused. Did someone mess up? Was this not a get together meeting to greet the king and learn more about his agenda for the Demon Metropolis? What kind of court session was he talking about?
Suddenly with a clap of Rex’s fingers, everyone who had been sitting around the Grand Meeting table found themselves cuffed. Even some of the bystanders got magically bound, and the Demon Home Guards swarmed in from the various entrances and held them down.
With another clap, the furniture in the Grand Meeting Hall had been deliberately shifted, and the Demon Home Guards were carrying benches and even lock bars to hold the ministers in chains. In the meantime, the Grand Meeting Table had been teleported out by the System, providing the home guards with space to set everything up.
“What is the meaning of this!? Stop this nonsense immediately! It is not funny at all!” Litr shouted out with blazing fury. This was the first time he had been chained down, let alone by the authority of the Home Guards.
Instead of being ridden with guilt for shoving someone of Litr’s standing down on the ground, the Home Guards who performed the act were elated.
They knew how much evil he had done with his business and connections, yet he had escaped countless times from the Demon Metropolis Central Police’s investigation department. Many times, the leading investigator who had accumulated sufficient criminating evidence against Litr, had been abducted and the case against him must be dropped.
Those investigators weren’t killed since resurrection was available. Rather, they got captured, tortured and their life had been made miserable than death itself. Rumours had it that some of the victims were left rotting in an isolated cell after being chained up with a limbless body. Some had it ‘lucky’ with their bodies cryo-freezing for eternity. (Sounds better? Actually, that meant they were thrown into an ice based dungeon core, and the place became their graveyard.)
Those were initially rumours… But when people started to go missing one after another and subsequently having entire investigative teams to suddenly disappear, it was not a mystery that they were taken care of to ensure the rich and corrupt were able to continue with their business. (Some even joke that being in the Major Crimes department for the Central Police was putting one foot into the grave.)
“Don’t you think because you are the new king, I have to listen to you! My connections are far and wide. Enough to bring you down if you do not listen to me!” Litr cried in defiance but was abruptly interrupted by the Demon Guards with their batons.
“After you have seen what I could do? Nevermind, I guess there are some people who are that oblivious. Oh, and you don’t have to listen to me talk that much. In fact, I am here today to listen to you. You, as well as everyone else who has been invited, will get the chance to give their testimony.” Rex announced to the nobles, ministers and advisors that had been chained up within the meeting room. The Home Guard then rearranged them in an orderly manner and forced them to their knees.
In a matter of minutes, the entire place had been renovated into an impromptu courthouse for the first hearing under King Rex’ ruling with the mages’ broadcast being shown publicly without the knowledge of the ones accused.
While General Vual believed this method of rooting out corrupt officials was extremely brutal and unconventional, this was the first time in the history of Demon Metropolis that the ruling owner had used such a course of action. He always considered corruption to be something normal even though Vual tried his best to avoid it.
There were times, it was too sweet of a deal, especially when it would help his department of Home Guards to grow. Yet, when confronted by Rex, Vual admitted to everything without the intervention of the System.
“That is why I was not wrong choosing you. From now on, you shall act as my right hand.” Rex had praised the man and instead of punishing him, provided him with the opportunity to change the bleak reality they had been living in.
Still, it wouldn’t be so easy. This being a court case, had instantly made the corrupted officials decide to keep their mouth shut. They had been interrogated before. They had been threatened before and yet all those did not matter as long there was money on the table.
Just by buttering a few fingers, those corrupted officials had been able to make all the problem go away. Not to mention, Kiva was previously at the top of their hierarchy, allowing the abuse of power and money to go unchecked as long as he received a cut from it. Alas, with him now gone, it had left a power gap that had made each official hungry to become the next Kiva.
One might say that demons were born this way, and unfortunately, that was how the majority were discriminated as such by the rest of the Dungeon World even though there were plenty of honest, peace loving demons. It was similar to the situations where monsters were stereotyped to treat humans badly and vice versa because of how the Dungeon Cores worked. But there were also many instances of monsters and humans cohabiting together.
Thus, Rex decided to change all of this in a progressive manner despite being in office just for a few days. He had learnt enough of this city’s plight from Moloch as well the collective data from the System’s ability to tap into everyone’s mind after their capture.
In a glance, Rex knew what was wrong with their system and their way of life. But only through the System, it made him realise that those hard-working honest demons had been repeatedly ripped off by their richer counterparts. Seeing that they were being dominated in a fashion like how the Royal Zodiacs flaunted their power and wealth, Rex could not help but decide to use his power against these nobles.
He was now King. There were things a proper King should do to get the people’s trust, and this opening act of his was one of them.
“Order! Order!” King Rex, now acting as judge, jury and executioner slammed his hammer demanding silence from the group.
However, the officials were not willing to listen. They defied Rex’s command with even more shouting. Yet, the Home Guards were quick to silence them with the officials having no knowledge that the broadcast had already been airing throughout the whole city.
“I will be questioning each and every one of you to prove not only your subsequent loyalty to me but also to root out any officials, advisors or nobles who have wronged this particular city during the rule of King Baal,” Rex announced, and that alone stunned every single person in the room. (As well as those watching.)
