Change was taking place slowly but inexorably across Bagnia, including within the new strategic zones. Progress was slow, and the Minisians were deeply uncomfortable with and distrustful of their new rulers, government, and policies.
But none of that could stop change from coming.
The Kingdom of Bagnia was getting better.
Yet even as everything flourished, some would swim against the tide.
Street-Sweeper reined in his scrawny horse on the shaded side of a hill. Narrowing his eyes, he studied the small Minisian town below, known as "Kalan Town."
The town was small, built along a muddy stream. A few reasonably sturdy stone buildings stood scattered among clusters of crooked wooden houses. On the tallest roof, a black-and-gold Double-Headed Eagle flag hung limply.
The flag was the symbol of the Kingdom of Bagnia, signifying that His Majesty Chris's rule had reached this place.
Yet Street-Sweeper's brow furrowed deeper and deeper.
As an Inquisitor who had spent years navigating gray areas, he had seen plenty of shady and outright criminal dealings, giving him an animal instinct for order and chaos.
On the surface, the town below seemed to have accepted its new rulers, yet a strangely discordant atmosphere hung over it. A Player passing through on a quest had sensed something wrong and reported the irregularities to Street-Sweeper offline.
Street-Sweeper had come to investigate himself, and something was indeed very wrong. For one thing, he had seen neither the tax office nor the Militia Patrol Unit the new regime usually established at a town's entrance.
Instead, several thuggish men in ragged leather armor, with blades hanging at their sides, squatted there, lazily basking in the sun. Their eyes, however, swept over the occasional pedestrians and peddlers entering and leaving like those of vultures.
That was certainly not how official soldiers should