Steel and Mana

Chapter 74 – Sabotage (2)

The road back home was taking a little longer with our inflated size, but they were surprisingly obedient. I kept an eye on Dorian, examining his skills as the family leader, keeping everything together with the others. Well, not that they had any other choices anyway. I couldn't help but feel a bit excited, thinking what their expression would be like when they saw my city, but those thoughts were quickly chased away when I noticed multiple riders hurrying towards us.

I watched as Oleg stopped our carriage and rode forward, meeting them before turning his horse around and galloping back to us. We were already in my territory, so I knew they were our people; there was no doubt about that.

"My Lord!"

"Slow down!" I leaned out of the window, watching his troubled face, "The world didn't collapse now, did it?"

"That didn't, but the temple did!"

"Explain." I ordered, my voice deepening.

"Only a day ago, the half-completed temple collapsed while the workers were beginning to prepare the structure for installing the roof. It came down completely! So far, we know of around a dozen dead workers and many more injured. The news says that people are still missing under the rubble... Minister Merlin has taken control of the situation, and they are working to clear it and rescue those who may still be trapped under it. But their chances to survive are..."

"Slim. I get it. Collapse... how? What happened to the magical formations that should make the stones weightless while building?"

"The Prime Minister sent a letter... My Lord..." He whispered, giving it to me, and it was still wax-sealed by the minister's new emblem, the stylized A of Avalon.

Opening it and reading through his hasty handwriting, I was surprised at how collected and sharp he was, pointing out the main issue he discovered after investigating the collapse. The formations were sabotaged, and examining the mortar used to hold it together was different. Weak... it was nothing but a dreg.

"Sabotage..." I whispered, shocking Sasha, who was leaning over my shoulder, reading the letter.

"My Lord...?" Oleg gasped, his hands trembling, automatically going towards the hilt of his sword.

"The first clues point towards that being the case. Sasha, you stay with the men here and take over looking after Dorian and the rest. Escort them into the city, to their new home, and get them settled in. So far, don't let them come out, and don't let them see it happened! That would undermine our authority... this came at the worst time possible!"

"Yes!" She nodded, kissing my cheeks while I climbed out and on a horse, leaving with Oleg, joining the messengers, and riding straight towards Avalon.

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"Lord!" Merlin shouted, rushing up to me when we arrived.

"Good job; any news since you wrote me the letter?" I asked, patting his head, looking at the giant pile of rocks and rubble that was still being carried away by hundreds of volunteers. I could even see Mikan amongst them, working with her two hands.

"I investigated the formations first. I was the one who drew them up initially, especially now, as we were getting ready to raise the blocks high up. I suspected that maybe the CC implementation was screwed up, or maybe I made a mistake... Now that we are switching to using CC to activate them, I thought I maybe did something wrong..." He murmured, still feeling guilty, but continued, steeling his expression and voice, "They were modified."

"By who?"

"Not a mage." He answered, knowing full well what I meant because of my tone of voice and because my eyes were watching Mikan, trying to see if her worried expression meant something else... but no. She was so focused on finding more people and helping them that she didn't even notice my arrival. "They were intentionally chiseled away, randomly. Whoever did it didn't know the runes' meanings."

"..."

"The other thing is the mortar. The mix was off, very off! I took samples and brought them away for you to examine them. Minister Rennar is currently compiling all the workers' names and details of those who operated at the temple. He is in the palace, Lady Luna keeping an eye on him."

"Mhm. Good work." I whispered, watching the devastation and the bodies covered by dirty sheets a few meters away.

"If you want to-"

"No." I interrupted him, walking into the rubbles, rolling up my sleeves, and beginning to haul the shattered rocks and debris away.

I don't know when the people noticed me, but I didn't care. I worked alongside them just the same, instructing them what to do and helping them drag the bodies out right until nightfall. In the end, we managed to pull three bodies out, workers who were still breathing. When I finally retreated to the palace, I went straight to meet Rennar, not bothering with wiping off the grime and dust from my body. I looked like I was a miner myself as I entered the sparkling, clean throne room.

"My Lord!" Rennar exclaimed, trembling; the ministers' table was filled with hundreds of stacks of papers, being organized into multiple piles. "I take full responsibility for the-" He started, trying to pull himself together, but I didn't want him to think I was blaming him.

"Not your fault. It was sabotaged, as you already know. We were too lax with the city's security, and I myself didn't expect something like this to happen! It seems it was too much to ask of everyone to agree with me."

"..." Nobody had anything to say to me as I walked over to him, looking at the chaotic trail of bureaucracy, half handwritten, the other half printed.

"We will enact a change. We are going to do a census, register every living soul, and issue an identity card to everyone with their fingerprints recorded down."

"Fingerprints?" Merlin asked, following me all day, looking just as battered and dirty as me.

"Yes, they are unique to the individual. There are no two same fingerprints on this earth." I calmly explained, "Sadly, I don't think we can find our saboteur like that, as the place has been touched by too many people by now."

"Tsk... If I knew that first, I wouldn't have let people start touching things..."

"It is okay, Merlin. We saved some lives... that is what matters." I smiled at him softly, patting his back before turning back to Rennar. "I want the names of those who had access to the mortar. I want their full details, and I want it by morning!"

"It will be done, My Lord!"

"Good. Merlin? You go home and rest."

He wanted to say something, maybe protest, but in the end, he nodded and left while I headed towards my bathroom, leaving an anxious Rennar behind with his trembling helpers, hurrying to complete my order before the sun came back up.

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"Dorian has been settled down and, for now, is being guarded by multiple soldiers; you should not worry about him." Sasha whispered into my ears as we sat in our big, wide bath while she massaged my shoulders from behind.

"Mhm... thank you, dear." I moaned, looking towards the door and seeing Luna walk in, wearing a towel and bringing over a big tray filled with food.

"Here!" She smiled happily, kneeling beside us and beginning to feed Sasha and me.

"Food?" Asked Yuri, her head rising from below the water, gasping for air because she was nibbling on something else a moment ago. Luckily, she wasn't biting. "Great! I need the energy because this is going to be a long night!"

"Sorry about that." I added while she leaned over us, letting Luna feed her a piece of meat soaked in some kind of barbecue-like sauce.

"It's okay! With my girls, we will keep a quiet watch over the city and find the bastards. We will capture and bring them back before you if they try to meet up!"

"If they are stupid enough to go against the mandated curfew." Luna shrugged, continuing to feed us like a mother hen, which was pretty funny.

"They did sabotage us, didn't they?" Yuri argued, grinning with a savage light in her eyes, "Bastards are already showing signs of being idiots."

"That is true..." I moaned a little, feeling Yuri fix her position on me, sitting into my lap. "Aren't you going to be tired?" I looked at her while Luna put a piece of cheese into my mouth while Sasha continued kissing my neck.

"As I said... I need energy! Fufufu~ You just rest! Leave the rest to us."

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Inside Sorbo's home, the head of the saboteurs were unable to fall asleep. He was sitting at the table beside his kitchen window, watching the night sky while his legs were bouncing up and down, anxiously drumming on the stone floor. One of his hands gripped a half-empty bottle of ale, unable to decide whether to drink the rest or not. He felt sick... sick to his stomach.

Everything went south way too fast. They started with screwing with the composition of the mortar, but it seemed it was ineffective. It still made the stone slabs stick together, and the construction continued as planned for a week. No matter what they tried, the damned mortar was still holding the building together. Some suggested that the formations were the culprit, keeping it weightless, so they began planning what to do with them. After investigating a little, they found them all and finally sabotaged them the previous night, but the construct still remained standing.

Until morning. Then the workers arrived, continuing their job, noticing that something was off. Still, even as they sent for help about why the formations were not functioning, they continued with what they could, not wanting to fall behind schedule. They were selected to build it for a reason. They were talented and professional workers, as Minister Rennar once said in an open speech, so they were not going to be held up by some minor setback. Yet, that setback turned out to be worse as only half an hour later, the whole structure, now weighing its full strength, was unable to hold up its weight and simply collapsed, burying dozens of people.

"Fuck... fuck... fuck..." Sorbo repeated over and over again, raising the bottle with shaking hands, taking a swing from it, wanting to forget the shouts, cries, and the thundering rumble it caused.

He was close by, watching, witnessing it all before running home, and since that morning, he had refused to come out or do anything. The only lucky thing he felt was that the others acted the same way. None came to visit him neither in the day nor at night.

"Just keep your fucking mouths shut... keep it shut... bastards..." He grumbled, hoping that the rest knew how to lay low and stay out of sight, out of earshot until the dust settled.

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Waking up the following day, thanks to my wives, I felt much more relaxed, clear-headed, and ready to work. Walking into the throne room with Sasha and Luna, Rennar was still there, without having a wink of sleep throughout the night. He stood straight when we entered, prepared to give me a full report.

"My Lord, I have all the people of those who were tasked with preparing the mortar. Here are their names and family statuses, and I collected everything we know of their previous lives before coming to Avalon."

"Good job, Minister Rennar." I whispered, taking it away from his trembling hands, and beginning to read it through. "You were thorough. I like it. Go back home and rest for today. I will need you to be focused."

"I... My Lord... I can still... work!"

"No. This is going to be appropriately investigated, and I need clear heads. Go back home, Rennar, and rest. You need it, as we all do. Even after catching the saboteurs, we must deal with the aftermath, prepare reparations for the dead workers' families, and so on."

"Reparations?" He asked, as multiple of his assistants also scratched their heads.

"Of course. The breadwinner of their families is dead... I won’t let my people become vagrants in my own territory!" Just as I exclaimed, the door opened, and Merlin walked in. Looking at his robe, it was telling me that he was still not fully there. He was probably tired and was unable to sleep because all his buttons were misaligned. "Now, go and rest, Rennar. We have a lot to deal with. First, I will examine the mortar that was used," I sighed, turning towards Oleg, who was arriving right behind Merlin, "then I will interrogate them one by one. My General, go, collect the people who have their names on this list and bring them to the palace! I want to have a good little chat with them all."