40: Confusion (b)

Three days after the rumours spread, it was a common question amongst the peasants. Were they really being controlled by the Royal Family?

They went against Trojan, but ultimately, they were against hierarchy. Having people above others simply made life unfair.

Being born to a noble family meant that you had an easy life. Being born to a peasant family meant that you had to break your back working just to survive.

The world was unfair, and to them, it raised the question of why these people were allowed to be above them to begin with.

Regardless of what their ancestors did in the past, everyone should be judged and determined by their ability.

That was what they thought.

Sadly enough, for those peasants fighting for that ideal, a world where ability determines your worth, not your birth place. For those peasants, the sad truth remained that they had not much ability to begin with, but were fighting anyway.

Regardless of ability, their goal was clear. Make the nobles and authoritarians that thought they could get away with anything pay.

The first person they wanted to make an example of was Trojan, the one they thought caused the fire and destroyed an entire city.

They were on their way, their collective thought being if they were to make an example of Trojan, the rest of the nobles would finally take notice.

However, when a rumour spread about the Royal Family trying to deceive them into doing what they did, confusion struck.

They started hesitating, even those of the greatest will slowed down and thought about it.

It seemed possible.

For the Royal Family, burning a city without being found out was entirely possible.

Furthermore, the more they thought about it, the more things seemed to click for them.

Trojan, a young and fast growing nobility, growing so fast that he could very well threatened the Royal Family's position of power. It made sense for the Royal Family to try and get rid of him, and of course, they were not going to dirty their own hands to do so.

What if it wasn't?

Then why had the Royal Family not confronted Trojan despite the situation? The rebellion was raging, and the Royal Family had not done a single thing to fix it.

They could have deployed guards, they could have deployed their army. They could have even captured Trojan and publicly show his execution.

But nothing was done.

Initially, the peasants thought that the Royal Family had just been unable to capture Trojan.

But the new rumours spread quicker, and more information was made up.

They theorised that the Royal Family had indeed come in contact with Trojan, but did nothing to him.

There was also another theory that the Royal Family wanted to have the rebellion kill Trojan so that they would not have to do a single thing.

The Royal family was using them.

The further the rumour spread, the more they slowed down. In just three days time, the rebellion almost came to a stop.

There was no proof of the Royal Family's innocence, nor was there any proof of Trojan's innocence. They started questioning their actions, some of them even dropping out of the rebellion.

But a simple rumour was not enough.

The Royal Family, rather, the Princess ordered spreading the news around by posters.

The King did not object, Alastor helped. They spread posters across the rebellion and most of Inner City.

Duke Phoenix was to blame, and there were some evidence of it. The evidence was convincing, to anyone who knew the event as a whole.

To the peasants, the evidence looked made up, it looked fake.

The poster simply looked like a pathetic attempt of trying to divert the rebellion elsewhere.

In other words, it made the Royal Family look like they were manipulating the peasants again.

The doubt they had faded slightly.

They were being controlled by the Royal Family, and just when the rumours started reaching its climax, the Royal Family tried to control them again.

It almost looked like the Royal Family was trying to distract and get rid of the rumour that had been floating around.

They barely knew who Duke Phoenix was, and they all ignored the poster, using it as a fuel to go against the Royal Family.

Of course, there were a few smarter ones amongst the rebellion.

Those who were well educated despite not being nobles.

They started reading into the posters, and they started to form a better picture of the situation.

Those who were smarter started speaking to the rebellion, started getting people to believe that the true aggressor was in fact Duke Phoenix, and that the Royal Family had managed to gather the information accurately.

Arguments broke out within the rebellion, those those arguments rarely resorted to violence.

Verbal arguments started, dragging out.

Within a matter of less than a week, it was almost as if Trojan never existed to begin with.

The rebellion continued on, most of them against the Royal Family, the rest against Duke Phoenix.

Their final goal was simple, to get revenge for the manipulation, for the mistreatment which they had gone through because of these nobles.

They hated being mistreated, and most importantly, they hated being manipulated to benefit those who thought of themselves as greater.

They continued the rebellion, marching through Inner City. Except, instead of heading towards where Trojan's estate was, they marched towards the centre of Inner City.

Towards the Palace.

The Royal Family had not been aware of the rumours that spread. The Princess had insisted that they spread the rumours, and that Duke Trojan had passed away at the hands of Duke Phoenix.

The Princess was young, and lacked much foresight.

The King lacked the full story and followed along with the plan. Alastor also lacked a complete understanding of the situation, but carried out his orders according to the King.

The Royal Family now face the incoming rebellion, and they had their army prepared and ready.

Duke Phoenix had also prepared an army of his own.

The irony.

The rebellion, Duke Phoenix, the Royal Family. All of them thought themselves to be doing everything of their own will.

But they were acting according to what Trojan wanted.