"They are way too happy." The inspector muttered to himself, as he looked closer at the crowd.
Standing behind the cheering peasants, every ten feet or so, was a guard. They wore the black armbands of the new City Patrol. They weren't cheering. They were watching the crowd. Their hands rested casually on the hilts of their swords.
A peasant woman stopped waving her flag for a second to wipe sweat from her brow. A guard stepped up behind her and whispered something.
The woman's eyes widened, and she immediately started waving the flag again, her smile stretching even wider, almost painfully so.
"Security is tight," One of the guard noted, riding alongside the window, "Dozens of them. I have counted more than fifty guards just now. Where did Caelum get the budget for this?"
"He didn't," The inspector said softly, "Caelum is gone."
