It was pure chaos. The herald ran off to give orders to the messengers, who at first didn't even believe what he was saying. In the end, all of them rushed to their horses and rode off to spread the message of Her Imperial Majesty to every corner of the capital. Meanwhile, the Imperial Guards did exactly as she had ordered. They caught everybody in the palace with the red silk scarf in their hands, and it was much more than they first thought it to be.
From maids, to butlers, to cleaners, to gardeners, even some of the guards had the scarf on them, but they did what they needed to and arrested forty-two traitors, throwing them into the prison under the palace, and they only ended up killing two of them.
One was a butler who fought back with a dagger in his hand, though he died quickly as a blade of a guard tore through his heart, and the other one was the same maid who shot Daisy, and well, things didn't end up good for her.
She wanted to fight back, to shoot at the guard, but the flintlock gun jammed and the only thing that remained for her was the blade cutting her skin, and bleeding out, and all while these were happening, Daisy was still in the meeting room with Orsen and Albert, the nobles.
"We are going to execute them in front of our people."Orsen, you are from now on my Imperial Advisor. You will always be at my side at every single given time." She said, and Orsen just bent down, accepting it. "First, before we do anything, go and change into military attire. We need to show that we are ready to fight. We need to show that we are for the people and to protect them, so go and come back changed, quickly."
Daisy ordered them but none of them moved and the one that actually asked the question was Fern.
"Your Majesty, the empire is already unstable, and executing those nobles who bought those who suffer is not going to work for us, not even for a bit." He was brave enough to raise his concern, but didn't look in Daisy's eyes. No, he was clever enough to know that his words might snap something in her, but what followed it was silence from everybody.
Daisy didn't answer him, nor anybody else. They were just looking down on the floor, waiting for her to say anything, but nothing came.
How much is that number? How many are siding with them?
[System: In the game scenario the maximum number was five thousand. But this is larger and different, as it is a real scenario, with real unrest. My prediction is of anywhere between a thousand to ten thousand.]
That is impossible. We would know if there were ten thousand ready to take arms against their rulers. If there were ten thousand, they would gather more… that is impossible to be that many.
[System: It might be impossible, but even with a thousand on their side everything can go wrong. If you massacre them, more will rise up, and even those who had no interest in it or were not bought by the nobles, will join them.]
It was true, and Daisy had seen countless examples of it back on Earth. Protests would break out, and then the riot police would charge in, beating people, flooding the streets with tear gas, firing rubber bullets into the crowd… what followed was always worse, a larger protest. Even those who had no interest in the cause, who didn't even agree with it, ended up joining in, only because of what the police had done.
And in this scenario, it was far worse. There were no rubber bullets, no tear gas. Only real ones. Swords that would cut people down, bullets that would tear straight through bodies, and cannons that could obliterate everything… but there was no choice.
"Everybody who sides with the traitors is a traitor themselves." The way she carried her voice made her meaning unmistakably clear.
Everyone understood that those deemed traitors would be slaughtered. Whether they were hundreds or thousands, they would die by the justice of Her Majesty… and more over Daisy knew it all.
She was living in an era defined by war and conflict, the 17th century and even if this was a game, the developers had copied it from real-world events, real conflicts, real threats. And now she had to do what leaders in reality had always done.
To fight, because if she didn't, she would fall quickly.
"Now go and change into your military uniforms!" She shouted her orders again as they were frozen for a moment, but soon they hurried out of the room… everyone except Albert, who was already in uniform, standing quietly at Daisy's side, lost in thought.
Thinking about how it had all come to this… how they had reached a point where the enemy was no longer beyond the borders, but within them. A moment where the sword that had to be unsheathed was aimed at their own people, those they were once meant to protect.
The answer was simple.
It was because Daisy's father had ruined everything.
He had waged war against anyone who dared to utter even a single word of criticism, massacring entire tribes that camped near the borders. And yet, even then, he had never killed his own people so easily, nor in numbers as vast as the ones they were now facing.
Though thought about morality didn't bothered Albert's, because he had been trained that way. He was trained to do it, trained to kill without hesitation, without questions. He is the Imperial Executioner Commander for a reason, a man who left no room for thoughts that could disrupt the orders he was given.
In short, he was ready. Ready to unleash hell on anyone who stood against them. And it wasn't just him.
Sixty thousand men, just a portion of the Imperial Army, were being mobilized under the command of Generals Zarah and Böring, under the Imperial authority of Her Majesty Daisy.