While the atmosphere of love was prevalent in Alterra, it was a little more depressing in Guia Village. Or rather, the newly minted Iron Mountains.
At this time, Gill was watching a handful of men as they tried to attack him inside the territory. One had gotten particularly close, only to get flashed out of the street and disappear.
This was the 9th bloke to get thrown in the territory prison today. It was also the 4th former guard. The other two cursed, and changed their strategy to just contain him instead.
Heh, at least after losing a few they finally figured out some rules.
Not that it mattered, of course.
Gill gracefully avoided their combined attacks as if he had eyes everywhere. He caught the arm of the nearest one and kicked the other. He twisted the man's arm behind his back, holding him down.
Gill then tightened his grip and the man patted the floor underneath in pain. "AHH!!" he yelled, and his companion, who struggled to get up glared at him.
"WHO THE HECK ARE YOU!?" he asked, "HOW DARE YOU STRUT AROUND HERE LIKE YOU OWN THE PLACE?!"
He yelled this so everyone in the vicinity could hear. They already had quite the audience, all the way since the first guard who attacked him, and most people gave him bad looks.
"Like I said, I'm the temporary steward here, cleaning up the place until the new people come in," he said, looking at the normal citizens. "Alterra is definitely a better ruler than Baltimore ever was," he said. "Except for these bastards, of course."
He tightened his hold even more and the man screamed like a slaughtered Broat.
"By the way, I suggest you don't send yourself to prison," he said with that droning tone of his. "There's a bail of 20 gold for violence, and an additional 10 gold for attacking someone from the leading party," he said, voice monotonous, and his face didn't change no matter how much the locals glared at him.
"New Rules," he said. "Since it has become a satellite of Alterra, its rules got reflected here, too."
Gill was assigned here temporarily, and he arrived just the previous day. He would be staying here while waiting for the actual assigned personnel, after which he was allowed to go on an indefinite leave so he could go and look for Cassandra.
When he arrived, there was naturally a bit of chaos after they found out the territory actually lost and the lord and all his closest cronies even died in the process!
A lot of the strong guards had perished, and the walls were standing only because of the sentries. The previous day, a few monsters even managed to get inside!
The only reason it didn't go completely bonkers was because Alterra's rules were mirrored there and some people found that overtly stealing and hurting others was no longer allowed as it had been.
Most citizens with some liquid funds had already left, while the people who were stuck were either too poor, too weak, or too greedy.
Worse was that during the first few days, there was no one who took the seat and claimed the lordship.
After a day of absence, certain groups, i.e. the remaining guards, naturally took on the helm and they were definitely not happy to see Gill there. Althea even gave him Baltimore's head (which had a few footprints) to show off.
This place was made almost entirely of aborigines (except for him) and Alterra did not have the illusion that taking over would be easy even after the place had been successfully annexed.
This was overthrowing the established power with a strange new one. Of course, there'd be a lot of challenges.
"If you cooperate, we can guarantee you'd live better lives than when Baltimore was here. At least most of you anyway," he said, stopping himself from revealing anything more.
He did not say that those who did evil during Baltimore's reign would be punished but that was when their power was set and he wasn't doing this on his own.
The guards just thought he was trying to soften them up with the promises and gained a bit more arrogance. "Don't you want to keep us, boy? Do you want the remaining forces to go, huh?"
Gill gave him a look. "You say that like we need idiots like you."
However, knowing there were mysterious new rules that hadn't been announced, the men behaved a bit, though their glares remained to be scary.
They stomped away, no doubt to bail their companion in jail, and probably plan their next step to make him pay for what he had done. Gill shrugged, not caring, and proceeded to go around the territory to observe again.
This time, there was no one who dared come his way and start a fight. This was good because the prison was full now and the prisoners were already like sardines squished together.
On the bright side, it made them more willing to pay the large amount of bail.
Anyway, most people didn't receive this money through honest means.
A lot of these men's cronies tried to get money from innocents, but thanks to the rules those people just ended up going to prison themselves, squishing them tighter even more.
Only Gill was allowed to let people out of the jail, and he took his time walking there.
When he arrived he saw them tightly squeezed, very smelly, and was hurting each other to get to more comfortable positions, his lips twitched. "So… who's paying bail?"
Everyone wanted to. Those who did not have the money borrowed from others, though some weren't entertained. In the end, about a third were left behind and the rest went back home (though not without sending malicious stares in Gill's direction, all of which were shrugged off without care.)
This moment caused all of the remaining guards and powers (who had wished to take advantage of the void in power) to decide to finally leave this place. Not just them, but a lot of people naturally went away. After all, without guards, how could the territory still keep standing? No one forgot about the monster mobs!
Anyway, the guards and the others spit on the ground, yelling 'good riddance'!
See if this place could survive without them!!
They didn't know that Gill watched them leave the gate with a relieved smirk on his face.
Well, less work for him!