As the former capital of the Kingdom of Bagnia, and especially given the Republic's perverse misrule, most of Votradnoi's citizens felt little resistance to Chris's arrival.
The few who did resist had been wiped out in the night's unrest as Alanka assembled his Holy War Army.
Although a few diehards still clung to the kingdom on the day they entered the city, once those people were dealt with, not a single voice of opposition remained in Votradnoi.
That did not mean everything was settled, however. On the contrary, it was only the beginning of the trouble.
Votradnoi was larger than Ankandela and had more people, but the two faced much the same predicament. It, too, had run out of food, and tens of thousands of starving refugees crowded the city, exhausted and hungry, waiting for relief.
Chris had enough food, but he did not have enough personnel... and by personnel, he did not mean soldiers. He meant reliable, capable grassroots civil servants to manage the city's daily affairs.
Just because grassroots staff seemed insignificant did not mean they were unimportant, or that he could casually find a whole bunch of them.
That assumption might not have been much of a problem in modern society, but it did not hold true in Chris's current circumstances.
Grassroots civil servants played a crucial role in city management, organizing and carrying out everyday tasks such as food distribution, maintaining public order, and repairing infrastructure.
Without enough grassroots civil servants, Chris's policies and relief measures would be difficult to implement effectively.
For instance, although food was plentiful, without someone to distribute it sensibly, the starving refugees might cause fresh unrest out of hunger.
The city's infrastructure needed repairs, but without anyone to coordinate plans and supervise, the work would struggle to move forward.
Chris had