It was snowing again.
The old man sat down by his desk after looking into the direction of the miracle that had happened just outside the east gate. The tree that had stood there, which had caused immense problems for the town's guard and was generally a thorn in the eye had somehow fallen to the ground just that noon.
The man nervously tapped the feather he held in his shaking hand as he reached out to get himself a paper to write on. His feet tapped the ground nervously as if he was a schoolchild who was waiting that the bell for recess finally rung.
He slowly tried writing a sentence onto the white-brownish-looking paper but didn't get very far as the words looked like the drawing of a child. He couldn't calm his hand down as it just wouldn't stop shaking. He didn't know what he should do, should he report this to Galvie?
But after thinking about it, he feared that the nobles in Galvie wouldn't care for a falling tree, especially not if it's in some backward town such as Fontechia. The man really didn't care about the nobility in Galvie, but what he feared was that they would one day come to the town, and bring over their rotten system of blood heritage. The town he grew up in didn't have nobility and didn't need any! They already had the election system for over 5 generations, so it was basically already there when the town was founded.
He wouldn't dare to suggest the rotten system the entire country had in place which only gave one certain people the right to govern a population they probably didn't even care about!
He himself did only accept the deal that Galvie gave him because it ensured that the election system would be continued. He thought that he himself was the only one seeing the extreme value behind a system that gave the people the right to govern themselves based on their circumstances.
He was sure that he himself was the perfect leader for the town. After all, he preserved their traditions, although they had to suffer through some heavy taxing and pretty bad abuse of power as the sulfur trade showed. But those were prices he was willing to take so as to keep the traditions he and his family were so proud of alive.
Suddenly, someone knocked loudly on the door.
The old man almost fell off his chair as he was so bewildered by the knocking. After all, a lot of loud noises were heard that day.
He quickly changed the way he sat on his chair and straightened his back, then quickly followed with a "Come in".
"Mr. Enkel, there is a crowd on the marketplace... and they are surrounding the two new participators who just joined today" The guard brought across casually, it was clear that he didn't think much of the current mayor.
Enkel narrowed his eyes, asking "What exactly are they doing? are they paying people to vote for them?" Enkel was extremely suspicious and nervous about the two new participants that just joined that day. Not only did they cause an extreme uproar when they participated as two people, there was also a rumor flying around that they were responsible for the falling of the tree.
The guard replied almost in an instant, again with a tone that wasn't really befitting of someone who was talking to their superior "No sir, they seem to be talking to the crowd, they even seem to have some guards around them that keep the crowd from getting to them".
Now Enkel was confused, why would they be talking to the crowd? Normally, if one announced their candidacy in the election, nobody really cared who they voted for and rather looked who brought them the most benefits. Actually, Enkel didn't really get "elected" into the position and rather bought, as the people in Galvie made a deal with him when the sulfur reserves were discovered in the mining village.
Currently, most resources they bought were also from Galvie, even though they could buy them for much cheaper elsewhere. He himself didn't really know how economics worked, as he just got into the position through luck and persevering love for traditions which eventually led him to the deal with Galvie.
He needed to write a few documents and had some work to do so he dismissed the guard with the inconsiderate attitude and plunged back into trying to get himself to write onto the new paper he had gotten himself.
As time passed, the only thing Enkel managed to write onto his paper was about 3 sentences. He just couldn't write for some reason. As he audibly sighed, he stood up and stretched, making sounds with his back that you would normally only hear when someone flew down the stairs. He walked out of his office but remembered that the two new thorns in his side were apparently talking to a crowd in the marketplace.
He walked into a different room in the town hall which faced the market. He looked through a french window, which was one of the only of its kind in Fontechia, down unto the marketplace. He could clearly see the sun slowly setting on the horizon, and when studying the marketplace, h could clearly see two people talking to a crowd of maybe 10 to 15.
Enkel began laughing aloud, that was the reason why he was that worried? In his mind, it was the most hilarious thing to happen in a while. He put the worry he held towards the two to the back of his head as he was just overreacting.
Enkel didn't actually fear that the two would win, he rather feared that he had to take action against them. He loved his home, and he didn't want to harm anyone that was living there, but when the traditions and history of the place were endangered, he would do anything that was necessary. It was a duty in his eyes.
Not thinking too much about it, he closed the curtains and decided to go to sleep, he would just have to do double the work tomorrow
The next day, Enkel sat at his desk again, this time he got down a few more words than the day before, but it wasn't enough to even be called a document. He held his feather in his right hand, but the important letter he still had to finish wasn't even close to being that. Right at that moment, the inconsiderate guard once again came in this time not even bothering to knock thus startling Enkel. The guard also didn't bother wearing his normal attire, meaning he hadn't put on his iron helmet nor the chainmail he had gotten when being promoted to a personal guard.
The guard came in and looked at Enkel, saying that the two participants were at it again and this time, quite a bit more people were surrounding them. Enkel thought back to yesterday, where he got distracted by all the worry of the 2 new participants. He slightly smirked and answered the guard that he didn't need to worry as it was not of his concern. The guard didn't seem to oppose the idea of leaving as he quickly followed Enkels command, unusual behavior from him. The other guards also seemed to have a dislike for Enkel but didn't show it directly in front of him, instead, they would yell about his poor management of town in the tavern.
After the day seemed to stretch itself to an end again, he finally finished the important letter he had to send to Galvie. In it, there was no mention of the explosion but rather menial things such as asking how the duke was doing or writing some information on how many beasts were in the area. What Enkel particularly noted and also wrote down in the letter was the increase of the aggressiveness the beasts had shown around the area. Especially the fullbears, who were known to only attack in packs could be spotted to attack an entire group of people alone, this was already noticed about a year ago by the town guard, who had to shut their mouths about it since an incident was a group of them got attacked on the way to the mining village.
As he stamped the letter and got the envelope ready, he started to wonder if the other two participants were still outside. They were quite the weird bunch Enkel had to say, but he was sure that he would once again "win" the election. Enkel was pretty old, so he was sure that he could only be the mayor of the town for the next 4-year election. After that, he would go and entrust the town to his child, as he was sure that his kid would understand his ambition to keep the tradition in the town of Fontechia.
As he was pretty curious he once again walked towards the french window on the other side of the town hall. Looking onto the marketplace, he could see the two figures both still seeming to talk to a crowd like yesterday. This time, however, Enkel noticed that the number of people seemed to have increased to about 20 people. He kept a straight face and then shrugged his shoulders, after all, convincing 20 out of 3400 people wouldn't help them in any sort of way.
He repeated the same process as yesterday and closed the curtains, then walked towards the bedroom in the hall and went to sleep.
As the next day commenced, Enkel work up to the smell of fire. He was already familiar with that smell and could quickly assume it's the origin. He put on some of his clothes and lazily walked to his office where he would have a better view of the fallen tree. He looked outside the window and saw a gigantic smoke pillar merge with the sky were once the tree lay. Flames could be visible, slowly eating their way through the gigantic trunk. This was the way they usually got rid of the ginormous trees that they felled. One or two of them were enough to be processed into all the planks needed for all the homes in the town, another would be needed for most of the old wall. The rest were burned while the ashes and leftovers were either used as charcoal or send down the Kaskar river. Actually, most of the charcoal used in the town were still from its inception, as the gigantic amount just didn't seem to run out. There was a popular joke in town about it as well, that being that the four kingdoms would be united before the charcoal of Fontechia ever ran out.
Enkel did the same routine as always, sitting down on his Elz wood chair and getting a piece of paper, then taking out his ink and feather and writing about the things happening in town.
The day once again wasn't anything special to him, as it was basically just routine to Enkel, but as the day ended he once again went to the room with the french window.
"Their still there?... how many people is it now?" He murmured to himself. He counted the people that were once again standing in front of the two men that were talking to them. This time it was about 50. Enkel had a bad premonition but didn't want to let his mind get consumed by worry again. So he closed the curtains again. "Maybe there are fewer people tomorrow," He said to himself so as to keep himself clear-minded. He went straight to bed again.
To Enkels dismay, the numbers of the people seemed to increase day by day, as the next day, 100 people stood there, then 150, after that 250, then 300, 400, 450!
Enkels hands sweated profusely, his entire body shaking. Not only did the crowd increase, but the people talking to them seemed to be more serious about it each passing day as well! in the first 2 days they seemed to have a casual conversation with the crowd, where is slowly with time passing by, the both of them seemed to be yelling in an incredible way, seemingly bending the crowd to their will just by speaking. It was an incredible sight.
Even the spot on the marketplace changed! At first, it was just a normal space just like any other on the market, but from the third to fifth day there seemed to slowly grow a wooden plateau which helped in elevating the two participants to stand out and to easily talk to bigger crowds.
Enkel slowly gripped his hands together, seemingly getting extremely angry. How was is it that these two could attract such a huge number of people in just 8 days!? It seemed so unbelievable, what were they even talking about?
His old body seemed to feel invincible through the anger he felt at the success the two had, but he quickly realized that getting angry wouldn't be of much use for him either. He decided that he would leave the town hall the next day and listen to what those two unheard-of men had to say.
He tore the curtains to a close, and still quite angrily walked to his bed.