Timber!

As Jonas and Mendo walked down the street towards the east gate, they caught an insane number of gazes from the people around them. It looked like the word had spread as Jonas had hoped it would. Jonas looked at Mendo, who was clearly uncomfortable under all those gazes and patted him on the back, saying that he felt as uncomfortable as he did, but then he said something that made Mendo instantly relieved and even kind of proud. He said, "Maybe we both feel uncomfortable under all those suspicious and curious gazes right now, but if the tree falls as I promised, then I'm going to give you just as much credit as I'm giving myself".

What Jonas said wasn't a lie. He felt incredibly uncomfortable at this moment, but what kept him going was the thought of getting all those people to vote for him and Mendo. He could just imagine how much both of them could make out of this place. Not even mentioning, if this powder worked the way he hoped it would, he could repurpose the town's guard into an army, which could not only be able to take down those wild animals but even other armies! Flintlock rifles were merely the first step they had to take. Even just 200 people in that army were probably enough to take on an army of 500 knights. If they were in a defensive position, they could probably even take on 1.000, maybe 1,500! Not even mentioning how easy it would be to make a functioning canon, he had memorized so much stuff just from his school history books that the number of things he could make was incredible.

The only thing he needed now was for the gunpowder to work.

He walked with Mendo towards the east gate, was an unusual number of guards stood and then stopped the two of them. The man who stopped them was none other than the first guard the two of them had met when walking into Fontechia. He asked Mendo "What the hell does everybody want over there!? Mendo, you tell me now what's so interesting about the mines? Why do so many people go there today? I swear I've already seen 100 people come through this gate here today, and that's just the non-miners!"

Mendo anxiously looked at Jonas, whose hands were shaking as well. 100 were quite a bit, he didn't expect the word to get out that much just through those 5 people. Well, there wasn't anything he could do now. Jonas's palms started to sweat slightly. If he were to screw up now, a good 100 people wouldn't have just wasted their time, he would also be a liar in the eyes of many.

Jonas and Mendo soon reached the place on the road where they stood yesterday, only now a ton of people stood on that spot, the man from yesterday, Heinrich, being the first to recognize them. He jogged towards their direction with the other guy named Ulf following him. The first thing he did was yell from about 10 meters away, saying "If this tree falls today, I'm going to eat my shoe!". He indeed was quite the provocateur as Jonas and Mento had to note. But them arriving was just perfect as Jonas needed two extra people so as to set up the explosion. He said "Hey can you two help us out real quick, we need two extra people to set up the "felling" sooner" The other two guys looked at each other and simultaneously said "Yeah".

Standing in front of the tree was really impressive as Jonas had to acknowledge. He looked at the sheer height of it for quite a bit. After that he told everyone how they had to set up the bag, telling Mendo to place the bag as far as he could into the hole, then putting one end of the fuze inside it and pulling the other as far away as he could, then he should wait for the other's to come to him.

After the bag was placed and Heinrich and Ulf filled the whole with a meter thick layer of dirt and snow, they started to walk towards Mendo. When they came close to him, Jonas gave Mendo his Zippo lighter and quickly showed him how it worked. He then told him to only light the fuze when he saw the other three arrive at the road, and when he lit said fuse that he should run to them as fast as possible. Mendo looked quite nervous while the other two looked rather confused. They didn't know what the lit bag could do against the gigantic tree.

When Jonas and the other's reached the road, they were instantly bombarded by questions, which the other two quickly avoided by saying that Jonas was the one who knew what was going on. After being bombarded by questions for a good minute he told the people asking him to just look towards the tree.

As soon as everyone looked towards it, Mendo could be seen sprinting towards them as he quickly arrived by Jonas's side, shakingly handing him his lighter back. Then Jonas loudly announced "Everyone! If you slowly count in your head down from 20, you will see how I and my comrade over here will fell this tree!" He grabbed Mendo's shoulder, indicating who he meant, even though most people there knew who Mendo was.

Everyone looked kind of confused, with a few yells coming from the back, but most people complied. Even Jonas did, as he slowly counted down in his head, then loudly spoke the last 10 seconds out to the crowd surprising everyone.

"10! 9! 8! 7! 6! 5! 4! 3! 2! 1! Close your ears!" As soon as he said those last few words, a light could be seen at the gigantic base of the tree, engulfing the whole lower section of it in a cloud of black and reddish smoke that quickly expanded.

After that, and the ear-shattering roar could be heard amongst the crowd, throwing some people to the ground while leading some others to hold their ears and scream in pain. Mendo, who had followed the advice Jonas screamed at the end, stood still in complete amazement, not know what to say at the sight of this monstrous power. When he pulled his hands off his ears, he could hear someone yelling "Look! The Tree is falling!". When Mendo put his gaze back unto the tree, he could see how it slowly tilted to the side, rapidly increasing in speed as it finally hit the ground with another earth-shattering noise.

Shortly thereafter, the ground shook furiously, once again knocking some people over. In the background, people yelling things like "This is god's wrath!" or "Earth has finally decided to abandon us!". Some people cheered, a few people cried, the majority was shocked. The tree which stood there since they were born, which had always been a thorn in many people's eyes, just collapsed. And all that thanks to... two people? Almost all attention was directed at the two people standing at the front. One was a young-looking man with grey hair, who stood there in utter shock, just like the rest of them. But the other one, no one had ever seen before. He stood there with one hand on his crook, while the other one was hanging down beside him.

He didn't look shocked, nor did he cry or scream. The only thing he did was stand, with something that looked more like the posture of a man who just won a battle. The man turned towards Mendo, now revealing more of his face, which wasn't familiar to anyone. He had a weird beard no one had ever seen anyone wear and his eyes weren't full of pride like his posture would've revealed, rather they looked to be filled to the brim with relief. He patted Mendo's back, who looked back to him in a look of sheer amazement. Then he said something inaudible to everyone except him and Mendo.

Both of them turned around to the crowd who were looking at them with an unidentifiable emotion. Jonas was the first to open his mouth, his words already shaking the audience to the core as he said "This is our official participation in the election, my name is Jonas Gunst!" then Mendo quickly took over, putting aside his nervousness and trying to sound as sure as he could "And my name is Mendo Ralft! We are both going to run for the election of the position of Mayor!".

Jonas took over again, saying "This display we had for you was only the start! if you elect us, not only do I promise you that we are going to never have to fear any beasts! I will personally promise you that we are going to lead this town into a new era!" The nervousness Jonas felt at the start completely vanished, now he was only filled with determination.

Mendo also copied Jonas, slowly draining himself of his nervousness. He would have to make sure that both of them enter the election officially, which included paying the price of one Ishiore. But the money they had now was only the start. Mendo started believing Jonas that he could lead them into a new era. After the showcase he had just given, most people would probably think so. This point made itself clear after the 100 people that were so shocked at the beginning began cheering furiously, making noise that normally only 600 people could make.

Not so soon after the explosion, Mendo and Jonas started walking back as they wanted to register themselves officially but were stopped by the two guys who helped them out. Their faces had an expression of utter disbelief and shock on them but were at the same time cheerful. Heinrich wanted to open his mouth, but when he did, nothing came out. He was completely shaken to the core, as was Ulf. Jonas looked at the two of them, saying "I told everyone that we are going to lead them into a new era, and I wasn't lying. It would be nice if you guys could keep away the people that want to ask questions. We have more important stuff to do right now".

The baffled Heinrich didn't really know what to say, so he just nodded his head and went back to the others.

On their way back to the gate, about 4 town guards rushed towards them, screaming at them with all their might "What in god's holy name happened!? Did the tree just collapse!?" It sounded like they were screaming as one entity as their minds all conceptualist the exact same sentence at the same time. Mendo, who was now full of confidence said, "Well my friend... we did it! Or rather, he did it" Mendo looked at Jonas who was next to him.

The guards looked at him with the same disbelief as everyone else who had heard the news or seen the explosion.

Soon, people would be able to see the first-ever election poster with 2 mayor's on the board standing on the marketplace.