As the highest-ranking military officer in the Kafhoka region died in an "accidental firefight," a massive wave of chaos swept through Bernier.
No one could say for sure what had started the chaos, but it was undoubtedly connected to something that had happened on a street in the Old City. In any case, once several houses in the Old City were set ablaze, the towering smoke and flames seemed to signal that the chaos, long held in check, could no longer be stopped.
This was especially true of those who had lost everything in the investment scandal. They desperately needed an outlet.
So anything connected to the Misty Sea Trading Company became a target. The building belonging to that fraudulent company had already burned down, but the people who supplied it were still in the city.
At first, gangsters had approached several major merchant guilds that did business with the trading company, trying to extort a little money from them. But this mistake was soon imitated. The disillusioned people gathered in the harbor district had watched the gangsters blow open the guild hall doors and carry things out. Something dark inside them had been stirred.
When the first starving man, his vision blurred with hunger, worked up the courage to join this "zero-dollar shopping spree" and successfully made off with food and a handful of coins, the situation quickly spiraled out of control.
In a single morning, most of the shops on several commercial streets in the harbor district had been "visited" by the angry crowds.
The shopkeepers didn't dare resist. The slightest defiance would get them dragged out and beaten by the furious mob. With people caught up in the excitement throwing punches without restraint, and the herd mentality that made them believe no one could punish everyone, the