Chapter 164: Chapter 164: Celebration

Abram City.

During the previous day, a simple fence had been put up along the parade route that starts from the castle plaza, limiting sections where people could cross the route. Some brand new soldiers, who obviously have close to no experience in battle and clad in ostentatious leather armour, are busy organizing the crowd. They would make reports to the full-time soldiers on patrol.

Bars and inns have lined up tables in front of their establishments since the crack of dawn, shouting this way and that in order to sell their overpriced snacks. Children play chicken by crossing the parade route before the parade, and mothers’ scolds follow.

It is the day that the King Cailan Theirin will parade in Abram City. The parade is an act of publicity that Ferelden is still stable upon Arkland's exit from the kingdom. It is known fact that Margrave Lambert is one of the great noble and rules Abram province but actually Abram has two heads, Lambert is the official head while Blare is the unofficial ruler. Since Blare family is more trusted by the merchants, their reputation is respectable.

King will parade with the head of two families. 

The current head of Lambert and the next in line for Blare have unpleasant rumours. 

Margrave Lubreo Lambert is womanizer while Minerva Blare is a lot less repugnant than Lubreo.

But she also has plenty of publicity, neither good nor bad, by means of lowly rumors that claim she takes other beautiful young women as lovers. Long story short, most people expected a run-of-the-mill ceremony that day.

The Lambert castle is already half empty. Four out of ten of the soldiers guarding the parade belong to House of Lambert and the houses under their faction. About the same number of soldiers belonged to House of Valois, constant rival to House of Lambert, and the houses under their faction. The rest belong to Blare faction and Beltz faction. That adds up to more than eight out of ten knights of Abram taking part in the parade.

And, even though the parade starts in the early noon, it takes time and effort to build a formation and move the parade along without a hitch. Any ceremony requires much more time in preparation than the duration of the show. So, the knights and soldiers, along with the advisors who take care of business backstage, are already out and about.

Soraya Zoen heads to the carriage she had prepared earlier on. While she has it guarded with private soldiers loyal to House of Lambert, since they have to spend more men to guard the parade in response to the challenge of House of Valois, the number of guards are slightly less than usual.

Over the stepping stool the coachman have placed, Soraya climbs into her very own small carriage. She has already told the coachman where to go. The carriage slowly starts moving towards the center of Abram City.

She takes out a bird from the cage that had already been placed in the carriage. The bird is staring at Soraya’s eyes, charmed. It is her familiar, trained for this day. She takes out a bracelet-sized jewel from her pocket… An Eye, created by Soraya. She places it on the bird. With a crow, the bird flies away. Soraya picks up the polished mirror from within the bird cage, and concentrates as she speaks an incantation. Footage appears on the mirror, from what the Eye on the bird is seeing.

Then, the carriage stops. She opens the window and peers outside, across the street, where a part of a wall slides open like a window, where a rangy man pokes his head out.

"A new mission. Your target is the household merchants Hiro, in Old Town of Loitering. You may take anything from the shop. It is likely that he is in the shop, but he may be watching the parade. He’s not a fighter, so it shouldn’t be hard. As soon as you find him, even in a crowd, kill him."

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"I can leave the body?"

The window closed, and the carriage starts moving again. They are professional assassins, not working under House of Lambert, but controlled by Soraya personally. Of course, none of them understands that they are being controlled by her. The small carriage carries Soraya through the alley. The sun is approaching its zenith, and shining brighter.

***

Just as Minerva has schemed, after House of Valois has challenged them on their honour, Lambert is forced to place the majority of their military power in the open. This means that they couldn’t as easily use those manpower to back up their shady operations.

According to the guard plans, soldiers working for House Lambert are supposed to guard and block the roads there. If Lubreo’s strategy is going according to plan, the mercenaries would not have been able to get into the house at all. So, their plan is not being executed perfectly.

A trumpet blares, and the people cheers. The parade has started. 

Through the plaza with the cheering crowd, the parade slowly moves up the main street. Either side of the road are already filled with people, engulfing the site with an odd sense of excitement. Of course, the crowd is never single-minded. Some genuinely celebrates, some are there to be entertained, and some just enjoys the festive uproar without even knowing what the parade is for, alongside the merchants with pop-up shops and pick-pocketers who are after the purses of all of people above. The diverse crowd keeps on cheering, for each their own reason.

The parade is led by soldiers with trumpets. They sounds their shiny trumpets to announce the commencement of the parade. These soldiers aren’t professional musicians, but at a time like this, they are greeted with thunderous applause and cheers. In front of each bar, the bards play along with their own instruments. The bustle of the crowd, the noise, and even the people follow the parade along its route. Even the horses, with plenty of experience on battlefields, are nervously looking around, putting the knights off of their game.

The festival last month was quite extravagant, but the only people in the crowd then were the residence of the city. But this time, it is a ceremony that exemplifies the future of the country. The number of people in the crowd are different to begin with, and the time spent to prepare the parade is not even a contest.

From a bird’s eye view, one could observe the major roads of the city, like arteries, and the people pouring in and out of them.

The knights on patrol are getting on edge on the future route of the parade. Even though they couldn’t join the parade… Well, because they don’t join the parade, there are mountains of things that they could do. Keeping an uncontrollable crowd in check and guarding them is a strenuous feat in and of itself. While they could arrest any plebeian, they are ordered to keep ferocity to littlest on this day of jollification, and most knights don’t have experience commanding people who are neither soldiers nor their subordinates. Still, the knights and soldiers keep up the good work. Since most merchants know Minerva from her days as a merchant guild officer, they are supportive of her.

The waterway city of Abram, that had originally prospered with business, has fewer knights and soldiers relative to its population. While the mercenaries are brought out as well, but they are ridiculously bad at these kinds of guard duty. Some suggest shrinking the parade, but they are met with various complaints that shut them down every time.

"For the… If there were five more, at least three more men could lead…"

A knight complains, but there are only so many people to go around. Even the soldiers under them are running around until late last night, and from early this morning. Battles that end quickly after vigorous exertion and calm but long-winded guard duties are a different story altogether. The parade has just begun, but the knights look rather exhausted.

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