Chapter 557: Dangerous words
"Every morning you wake up and wonder if there’s still enough flour in your house to make a day’s meal from. Because even if it was there yesterday, you know it could’ve gone rotten overnight or got eaten by bugs in the blink of an eye. Because this might be the only sack of flour you might afford in months! But you know who doesn’t have these thoughts in the morning?"
The few hundred citizens that gathered on a square listened to Ramwill’s every word with mandibles opened wide, as if his words were bread. There were people of all ages, from elders with chitin cracked and bleached by age, to youths who were still actively moulting.
The only thing all these had in common was their lack of money. These people were farmers, low-tier craftsmen, peddlers and beggars—people who always struggled some of the worst when a disaster struck. Some of them carried subtle signs of illnesses, too—but nobody on this dingy square could bother to quarantine these people.
Ramwill himself stood on a large barrel to be on top of the crowd. There were some of his Wildmen standing nearby and at the edges of the square to look out for guards.
A hundred bees were flying around the area, doing the same. But Ramwill was sure that many more were watching his performance with their scrying magic.
After his question, Ramwill made a short pause, giving the audience a chance to think. It was a test of their opinions and a way to make them listen better at once.
"The emperor?" A teen found the bravery to shout. "He’s rich! He can buy more!"
Ramwill clicked his mandibles in approval. This was just the answer he wanted. Perhaps the bees directed it, or perhaps it was just on the surface anyway.
"THAT’S RIGHT!" Ramwill shouted, shaking a fist in the air. "The emperor and all the other rich bastards that hide in their mansions! When people like us were dying so fast that there was nobody left to burn the bodies anymore, what did they do? They hid away from the hungry and from the sick and waited until the worst passed! Now another famine has hit us, and they are going to do it all over again!"
The crowd erupted in angry shouts. Ramwill’s words lit a dangerous fire in them—now these people reminded him of the Wildmen whom he cheered up before a fight.
"That ain’t fair!"
"Fuck ’em rich!"
"We want food! Food! Food!"
"YES, FOOD!" Ramwill shouted so hard, he feared for his throat. "The rich have food, but they won’t share. So let’s take it ourselves and share with those who need it! Your families, your friends, farmers who will sow the field of crops to feed you the next year—we can feed them all!"
"Yes! Yes!"
"Feed them all!"
The crowd wasn’t even thinking by now that Ramwill suggested an open rebellion against the emperor’s army. Or that the emperor’s army had weapons, while these peasants were lucky if they had a paper knife or some sharp crafting tool.
The crowd wasn’t thinking at all—it was just reacting to Ramwill’s words and its own mood.
Ramwill knew that as long as he didn’t let the crowd think, he could direct it far, especially with all the bee-pixies here to point the thoughts of these people in the right direction.
But... he lowered his hand.
"There are too few people to do it. The guards will get us," he said.
The crowd’s heat immediately went down. People looked like someone had poured a bucket of cold water on them, and looked around in fear, realising what they had almost signed up for.
"But there are way more hungry people in the city than there are guards! Especially with most of them being outside the city, fighting wild beasts and bandits!" Ramwill continued before people began actually leaving. "If you ask more men to join, then soon, we will definitely be able to take the food this city deserves from the hands of the nobles who hoard it!"
The crowd cheered again, but much more dubiously this time.
"I can do it. I can lead you to victory!" Ramwill promised hotly. "With me, the blessing of Mother-Nature... You can see it yourselves! My chitin is healthy, and the eyes of my whites are clear from any plagues that could cloud it and cloud the eyes of many of you. I am the chosen one, and I will not lead you astray!"
The crowd’s agitation was at its lowest, but people still listened to the captivating way Ramwill spoke. He didn’t miss the opportunity to talk more about his former victories, embellishing them greatly and hiding the fact that he was a bandit before coming to this city.
The lack of city guards showed—an entire hour passed before Eloquence, his poison-tongued guide, told Ramwill to stop his preaching and leave the square before the entire operation blew up.
After people from the square, scared by the warning about guards, flew away to their houses, she spoke with Ramwill, who was hiding himself in the whorehouse he spent the most money on in this city.
’Good job on the square,’ Eloquence congratulated Ramwill. ’I worried there for a second, but you planted the seeds of rebellion in their minds perfectly! In a day or two, they will sprout even taller and share their seeds with other people as well. Grand Commander Malevolence will be happy to hear this.’
Ramwill shuddered a little.
’I got what I was promised already. A soft bed, women to warm it up... Besides the emperor’s throne, Malevolence can’t give me anything anymore... It would be nicer if she just vanished from my world entirely!’
’Oh, but you should be happy that Grand Commander is happy. She can’t give you anything, but she can surely take it all away!’ Eloquence said between Ramwill’s thoughts. ’You are useful for our goals, but it won’t be the end of the world to lose you.’
’Dammit!’
’Keep working well tomorrow, Ramwill-human!’