One week left

A few weeks had passed since Jonas had demonstrated the "gun".

He felt kind of ashamed, as even calling the barrel he had the blacksmith make couldn't qualify as more than a crude cannon barrel, and that would be stretching it already.

He sat on the crude sofa in Mendo's house, holding another drawing of a plan he made. It was a drawing of a cement kiln, which he would let built once he became mayor. He didn't even really think about losing the election, it just wasn't a thought that appealed to him in any way. He thought that after the two displays he had shown, the people would vote for him and Mendo just on the premise of them having shown what power they could hold.

Mendo and Jonas had talked a lot in private about what they planned to do after getting elected, and both of them constructed a concise plan after a few weeks of discussion. The main thing they ended up on to start with, would be reinforcing the walls of the town.

After they made cement in a large quantity, they could start with "reinforcing" the town's wall, which was pretty much just one layer of pine wood. The wood itself was quite tough, but just by judging the power of the fullbear that Jonas faced, he could guess what a group of beasts like that would be able to do against that piece of wood.

During the reinforcement of the walls, they planned to slowly make the town more self-sufficient, switching from where they bought their food from Galvin to Concuilsen. At first, this might have seemed contradictory, as "switching" the source of food wasn't really affecting their self-sufficiency, but when one looked at the details this switch entailed, it was actually an extremely freeing move.

If their food came from Concuilsen instead of Galvie, the latter wouldn't hold the monopoly on food, meaning that they lost a bit of their power on Fontechia. The other thing was that Concuilsen was significantly closer than Galvie per boat and land, meaning that they could transport the food more efficiently.

Those first two steps would take place simultaneously, and both of them would need their own supervision. This actually pressured Jonas quite a bit. He wasn't used to people relying on him, which meant that even one tiny mistake of his could cause a complete stop of the project. Not even mentioning the fact that Jonas quickly gave himself the blame when something went wrong, and he made himself down quite a bit. Self-encouragement was foreign to him, he just wasn't able to give himself an honest compliment, he'd always find something he did wrong or was unhappy with.

At that moment, Mendo entered the house, seemingly out of breath with sweat flowing down his face. Jonas looked at him with a worried expression, asking "Everything ok? Did something happen?".

Mendo put up his head and opened his mouth, but nothing except his exhaled air came out of it, he then shortly thereafter closed his mouth and put his hands onto his knees, taking a few more hectic breaths.

"So- sorry, it's just *inhale* that something is *exhale and inhale* happening on the marketplace *exhale*" Mendo finally found some words he could say, even though it didn't quite seem like a sentence and more like cut-off words. Jonas didn't inquire as to what Mendo meant by "happening", but he could make out that it wasn't something he could take lightly. Jonas got his walking stick and stood up.

Mendo, who had finally caught his breath, saw Jonas's face, which had a weird expression he had never seen before. Or so he thought, but he could quickly remember where he had seen such a face before, but knowing what face Jonas made was even more confusing to him.

Jonas looked as if he just got the news of someone close to him perishing.

Mendo didn't know why, but he also knew that asking wasn't an option he could use. He saw Jonas walking over to him who asked him what was happening on the square.

"I- I can't really say it the way I want to, but the current mayor is using our stage and is holding a speech" Mendo saw Jonas's expression change from one of grieving to one of urgency, but he hadn't even received the full news.

"That isn't all... remember the crowd we had when we demonstrated that gun thing? I couldn't even count them, but they also showed up again... No, I think there are even more this time!". The expression of both of them synchronized, with the two having a look of distress on them.

Just rushing to the marketplace now wouldn't do them any good, especially because they didn't have their guards around them. Jonas used a lot of his money for the things he did the last few days, almost singlehandedly sponsoring their campaign with him paying for the materials of the gunpowder and stage. He also paid the blacksmith for the "gun" they had made, including the lead ball that went with it. All this had cost him the majority of his money, leaving him with one-fifth of it.

Jonas was stuck, he didn't really know what he could do, only having an undetailed plan he quickly thought of. Mendo was just as perplexed as Jonas with the situation, as he had quickly realized how powerful the speeches they gave were. But at that moment, a spark in Mendo's head was lit, which led him down a path of quick thinking.

"What if we talk against him? His points will probably only revolve around how it would be better to stay with Galvie and such, so we could simply try to devalue his arguments with ours!" Mendo's face still looked thoughtful, but a small ray of hope shone through his blue eyes. He looked up at Jonas, who's faced was one of absolute astonishment.

Jonas didn't expect Mendo to reach the conclusion of having a public debate. He himself wasn't really used to giving speeches to an audience, only having done small presentations in the few years he worked as an engineer, but he had quickly gotten the hang of things after the first two speeches they gave. He didn't expect, however, that a man with zero knowledge about the existence of speeches, could come up with having a public debate. It showed him that Mendo had made a pretty big jump in his mindset.

The idea of public debate was extremely appealing, as Mendo had already pointed out what the main topics of the mayor would be. That meant that the two of them could work around those arguments, turning them against the mayor and increasing their own chances of winning the vote. This however meant that they needed to somehow get up on the stage, and judging by the crowd, this would probably be impossible to go unnoticed.

"That could indeed work as an idea, we just need to work around the mayor's arguments and turn them against him, but we probably can't get on the stage" Jonas answered in a low voice. Mendo took notice of this problem, opening his mouth and giving an understanding expression. The two were lost in thought again for quite a while.

As noon approached, the door to the cabin was thrown open by a panicking Rife who looked to be out of breath. She looked at the two men standing beside the fireplace and tried to catch her breath before yelling "The mayor is holding his own spee- "We know" The two men replied synchronized.

Rife took a step back as she was quite startled by the pure similarity the two men shared. It was almost as if she couldn't recognize her dorky brother, who often forgot important things and traveled for a living. She also felt quite hurt at the rude treatment she just received as she just wanted to bring them the news of the mayor holding his own speech.

Holding back her agitation, she asked "So what are you going to do against him?".

"Talkback" Jonas replied, "We are going to destroy him with his own arguments", He stopped before continuing his sentence, but this time he said it in a low voice, "But we have no clue how to get onto the stage..."

Rife looked confused, as she didn't understand the problem. She bluntly asked, "What? Why don't you just do it? What is he going to do to prevent it? isn't he just going to make himself look bad?".

The thoughtful expression the two made quickly froze up when they both looked at Rife with a look of admiration in their eyes. Rife didn't expect the sudden response and was somehow embarrassed by the looks the two gave her, making her face go red. The two now looked at each other, then quickly turned towards the door and left the embarrassed Rife standing in the cabin. She turned around in complete confusion and decided to follow the two.

When arriving at the marketplace, the three of them saw the huge crowd of people that were watching the stage. On the stage, nom other than the mayor of the town held a speech, even though he was quite clumsy with his wording at times.

"I am going to say it again everyone! If we want safety, we will get it from Galvie! If we want food, we will get it from Galvie! If we want to sustain tradition, we will get it from Galvie! Don't you see what would happen if everyone would elect the two-paired runner-ups? We would make an enemy of Galvie!

The bad idea everyone! that is a really bad idea!

Imagine what would happen if they came into office, chaos! Galvie would annex us without a second thought!

They'd implement a baron, someone you can't choose! It would ruin everything our ancestors have given us!"

The crowd burst into a discussion. It looked like they didn't completely reject the idea the mayor proposed. Jonas had to admit that it sounded convincing the way the mayor put it, but if probed into, his arguments wouldn't hold. Jonas told Mendo to come with him and both of them walked over to the small stairs that led up to the stage. Rife wasn't following them, as she didn't really want to stand in front of halving the entire village.

As both of them walked the tiny stairs, a few in the crowd noticed them, making a ruckus among the audience. When Enkel looked over, he noticed the two entering the stage.

What should he do? Enkel didn't even bring guards with him, he just took the stage spontaneously as he didn't know what else he could do. He was at a dead-end and this was his last resort to somehow turn around the election.

After all, the election would be held in one week.

He didn't have any sleep and thought of as many plans as he could, but in the end, this was the only one he would morally agree with.

He had no idea what the two-paired participants, which was the name the people had given them, would do with him.

He looked both of them straight in the eyes, making the grey-haired men step back a bit.

The man with the stick though continued his advance.

He-man came closer and closer, and when he stood right in front of Enkel, he struck out his fist in his direction. Enkel looked at the man's fist in extreme bewilderment.

What did the man want? and why was he trying to greet him?

Enkel slowly struck out his fist and lightly bumped the men, then the man said to him "My name is Jonas, my partner over here is Mendo. We have something of a rivalry going on at the moment, but that doesn't mean we can't introduce ourselves right?".

The man said his words in a friendly tone, but a smile wasn't present on his face. He looked Enkel dead in the eyes, with his head tilted downwards due to the height difference between the two.

Engels's first reaction would normally have been to get intimidated, but he had something far worse and far more intimidating threatening his and the life of his loved ones. As such, he shortly introduced himself as

"Enkel, current and future mayor of Fontechia".