25 Ch 16.1 the crossbow

MRE Ch 16.1

Jason's carriage arrived at City square. City square was full of people , packed closely. It was the first time that people were invited by the administration to take part. They were interested to know why these arrangements had been made, the mystery behind two copper per stone.

Jason got off his carriage, climbed the stone platform, and saw a curious look in their eyes. When someone in the crowd noticed that the young man on the platform was their prince he yelled, murmuring started within the crowd, later it was confirmed that he was the prince when guards announced.

People bowed and greeted him, they tried to reach him. But Charles' men pushed them ten meters away from the platform. Those in back couldn't see anything but they heard it, they climbed on nearby House's terrace and balconies to get a glimpse of what was going on.

Jason returned their salutations, " This evening we have gathered to punish those nobles that sucked our kingdom, they looted it . They kept you deprived of what should be yours and they lived lavish lives." He paused , gave the crowd enough time to process .

He wanted them to feel that for everything bad going in their lives these nobles were responsible. Common people to be envious of nobles with lavish lifestyles was normal, but if they were told that it was on their expenses nobles lived such life.

" The war that caused many families to lose their bread , was waged on our kingdom by them…." . Murmurings became loud, frustration on their faces. Even if they did it, what could we do now?

" Today, I have decided to punish them. But they will be punished by you, they are your criminals."

Jason pointed towards the stall " there you could donate money to help those families, affected by wars. You will pay one copper, the other one will be contributed by the Royal family."

Now it was clear to them, they got to take revenge for what had been inflicted upon them. Meanwhile they would help the families, burdened by war.

They were excited to get an opportunity to take revenge . There was nothing wrong with their mindset, living in the Kingdom might have made them lose sense of compassion for those who they see as enemies. They were struggling in the scorching sun and nobles were enjoying fruit of their labour.

Crowd gathered near the stall , they paid one copper and bought stones. Within a few minutes all the stones brought by the carriage were sold.

They got a way to vent their agony, how could they let it pass.

Conley and his group were brought to square, bound in iron chains.

Nobles were frightened when they saw the furious crowd with stones in their hand. They could guess their fate.

They were chained to poles , tightened, and it did not allow any sort movement. Conley was in the middle, with Counts next to him.

Conley looked at the furious glare people gave them. The people he abhorred his entire life , were about to kill him. But  he would not plead or show any weakness. He glared back at them with a smirk ' come at me'.

People got enraged , stone pelting started and continued for an hour. Many nobles pissed and pooped . After pelting stopped, all nobles were dead except Conley .

Duke Wilkinson came forward with a spike, impaled badly wounded Conley on it and left the square without saying anything.

The punishment was finished. People left, soldiers cleaned the mess.

Charles and Jason returned, they left Duke alone.

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In palace Jason asked Charles " Sir Charles, is there nothing to record dates or events"

Charles replied " There are, we denote dates in official documents but many times they are not written."

"Then what date is Today "

" Umm, let me see" Charles left.

A guard arrived running with a parchment in hand " your highness, sir Charles sent this," guard handed it , bowed and left.

Jason opened it and saw '23rd of june 432 Arcania'.

In Tallus every kingdom has its own calendar , dates and months are the same everywhere , difference is in the years.

[In Arcania callender 432 Arcania represents it's been that many years since formation of the kingdom.

Date 23 June will be same for every kingdom/ empire]

Jason got to the field behind the palace, a warehouse like workshop was there. Several people were present at the workshop, most of them were soldiers who came to get their bow repaired.

Sale of bows had increased many fold; this was the effect of the longbow.

Archers were given double the salary of common soldiers. It was very easy for a common man to excel with a bow than a sword which needs a dedicated teacher to master it's moves.

Jason went inside the workshop , guard at the door saluted. He said  " Sir Hekler , I have a new weapon idea, do you have time for it?"

Hekler was embarrassed , he did not go to see the prince when he arrived from war because of workload. " Why trouble yourself ,your highness, you could have just called for me. Your time is precious than mine." Hekler told Jason.

Jason saw a bow , it was not the same he had designed, he took a bow and looked at Heckler.

Heckler said " this bow was made from the input we got from the training and soldiers who returned from war. It's more effective than the previous design."

Jason was happy to see someone doing improvement in design. After firing a few arrows, he said " Hmm, this bow is better than the previous one. Good, you have done a good job."

" No it was just a stroke of luck" Heckler replied politely , then asked " your highness you said you came with a new weapon design".

" Yes, I came here to build a new bow like weapon"

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