King Mrozek stepped down from the lavish royal train. He wore clean, extravagant Artificer Power Armor and a breathing mask, sealing himself off from the filthy air as he impatiently questioned the captain of the guards beside him.
"Where are those dregs? Hurry up and end this. I don't want to spend another moment in the filthy lower hive."
If the five useless guard captains appointed in a row hadn't all been killed by those dregs, noble as he was, he would never have graced such a foul place with his presence.
"My king, my men have already found those dregs' hole."
As the captain of the guards spoke, he operated a data-slate and showed it to Mrozek.
"The dregs' nest is in the dome known as Silt Ground."
"Dregs are dregs. Sludge Swamp sounds like a filthy place the moment you hear it."
The captain of the guards said ingratiatingly, "My king is wise. That is exactly so."
"This Sludge Swamp was once a large reservoir belonging to the Water Guild. Later, it was abandoned, and over a hundred lower-hive gangs fought a brutal battle for it."
"In the end, the entire area was reduced to ruins, all the water pipes burst, and it became a place like a pit of sludge. That was how it got its name."
Mrozek frowned tightly and said in a contemptuous tone, "Dregs have no brains. They don't understand that after a free-for-all, nothing is left."
"The guard are even more useless. They take so much money every year, yet they can't even deal with a pack of dregs."
"Lead the way. End this quickly!"
Mrozek said impatiently.
An hour later, the king followed the guard commander into the passage, his boots stepping into sludge frozen by Naryan-Mar's cold weather.
At first, he