"Why is every big city turning into a battlefield these days?" On the streets of the Old Capital, Deva watched the crowds rushing about in protest and instinctively shrank back.
As a paladin and an officially employed guard, she should have been standing with City Hall. But looking at those unarmed yet impassioned citizens, she simply could not bring herself to act.
So should she try to talk them down?
As the saying went, a single silver coin could stump a classed individual. Without any policy changes, there was no point trying to persuade people over money. Going out would accomplish nothing but earning curses, and none of the clerks working at City Hall would do something that stupid.
"Down with the city council! Down with these sanctimonious bastards!" a man shouted as he splashed paint across City Hall. "Those worthless dogs never do any work. They sit in these pretty buildings with temperature-control spells all day, figuring out how to squeeze the few coins out of our hands. Those bastards deserve to go to the Abyss and become maggots!"
"Exactly! Other places collect taxes to guard against bandits and enemies. Haluar is so peaceful that we barely need military spending, yet these people think of nothing but how to get more money every day. Turns out the bandits already put on noble robes and moved into City Hall!"
"Even goblins have to risk their lives when they rob people! These bastards gorge themselves until they're fat as pigs, their bellies bigger than my wife's were when she was pregnant. They never do anything proper, just sit around plotting how to hurt us. Why doesn't The Lady of Magic send heavenly fire down to burn them all to death?!"
"I heard that aside from classed individuals, these people visit high-end