15 Rebellious thinking

Maine was genuinely having a bad day. At first, the president had been very forthcoming when Maine had asked for the map to the lower realm. Only by the time two military "advisors" had entered his room and notified him that they would be advising him at all times had he realized that he was knee-deep in shit.

They might have been called advisers but they clearly were combat mages sent to observe him. He couldn't send them away, the president would immediately initiate an investigation against him if he did that.

And on top of that, the entrance shown on the map he received was in uncharted territory. Who in their right minds would ascend the alps and fight their way through hordes of mountain goblins and rock trolls just to descend into another realm?

Well, it did seem like a good hiding place for a bunch of criminals. Though if they were as strong as Roy had said they wouldn't need to hide, would they?

But all that didn't matter. The fact was that Maine needed to try his best to apprehend them and therefore he would need to send some of his forces into that place. Just who would he send? He didn't want any more deaths. Some low-level criminals had already started acting up in Marienburg due to the local police forces having shown weakness.

"You have been sitting there for half an hour now chief of police, it's lunchtime already! Is the police force nowadays to incompetent to even catch a group of criminals? We can dispatch some military forces to do your job for you if you aren't up for the task."

Just as Maine was about to give up trying to think of who he would send out one of the advisors gave the perfect suggestion. The advisor had only been trying to get Maine to go eat lunch because he was hungry and couldn't leave. However, what he said was a great idea in Maine's mind.

The military was usually tasked with anything outside the explored territory so naturally, this mission was more suited for them.

"We are indeed too incompetent to handle this. Since you offered I'll take you up on that and ask the military to take care of exploring the lower realms."

"We can most certainly do that but what kind of police are you to be scared of some lower realm?"

The other advisor was a little flustered that Maine had accepted, neither of them had enough influence to make that kind of decision. Therefore he tried to attack the police chief's pride hoping he would then turn down the offer. Maine however, was having none of it.

"My worry isn't necessarily the lower realm. I'm more worried about the two-day hike up the alps."

And at that, the two advisors knew that the president was most likely going to kill them. They had been sent to gather evidence on Maine being in contact with Roy in order to arrest him but had ended up making more work for the military instead.

"We will have to report this to the president first. Such a long trip needs to be approved."

"Sure, go ahead and report to him. I just hope the military doesn't turn out to be incompetent."

Maine was smiling like a cat that had just stolen a fish from right under the fishermen's nose. The two advisors hurried away. They had accidentally revealed that they were in direct contact with the president something they shouldn't be. In another bout of fluster, they had completely forgotten that they were ordered to keep an eye on him at all times.

Maine naturally wasn't going to let this golden opportunity go to waste. The second those two advisors we're out of sight he sprinted into the direction of the prison cells. He was in a rush and arrived before the cell only minutes later.

"Back for more? I already told you all I know about the lower realm."

Roy greeted him with an unusually pissed off voice.

"What happened to you? Did you sleep badly?"

"The president's goons came and tried to make me confess that I was working together with you. They even offered to reduce my prison sentence if I implicated you."

"Good thing you didn't."

"And how do you know I didn't?"

"If you did I would be sitting in the cell next to you and wouldn't have to deal with the president's monitoring. He sent two combat mages to accompany me at all times."

"So what, are you just here to complain?"

"No, I'm here to ask you if you would join me for some good old treason. A rebellion to impeach that idiot of a president."

"And what would I do? I'm in prison, you know!"

"Let's not pretend like you couldn't break out of that cell if you actually wanted. I reckon that the only thing keeping you here is that bullshit loyalist mentality of yours and the fact that if you escaped you would give the president more evidence against you."

"Then what are you proposing? We just storm into the president's office and murder him in cold blood?"

"That would never work. I'll sound out the police for people who would join us. You will soon be relocated to a real prison, you can search for likeminded people there. I'll also ask Kate to do the same in the military."

"And what will you do after that? Become the new president?"

Maine hesitated. He had never thought that far but if he said so now it would seem like he hadn't thought this through. Just then he remembered an add he had seen a couple of times while browsing the internet for maps of the alps.

The add had advocated a council based system of governance. The council would consist of the leaders of various important branches of the state along with representatives for the citizens. He had thought it a little suspicious that he received such an add just when he had been thinking about rebellion but he had nothing else.

He told Roy about the political system while of course omitting the fact that it had been an add.

"That does sound better than what we have now."