An Outing (2)

Amarao led his men onwards and out into a small flea market that had been set up right outside the entrance to the slum equivalent of the population zone, although it was small by the standards of the massive market square that all new visitors to the city run into.

Nothing looked too amiss to Cyrus at first, it was just people conducting their business with a surprising amount of customers. Most of the customers looked to be of the lowest classes, those who had to venture out of the safety of the city for work on a daily basis who often did not come back in for several days at a time.

When Amaro and his men entered the market no one acted as if anything was amiss, if anything they even looked relieved that the men of the underworld had arrived.

More than a few merchants left their stalls temporarily and greeted Amaro with a smiling face, even giving them some samples of their products before going back to conduct their business.

'How odd. In the wasteland no merchant would look upon these people with kind eyes, instead they would be afraid that they would be robbed or forced to pay an exorbitant tax for no reason'

Still Cyrus watched on, even as nothing of interest really happened as Amaro and his men just diffused in the surroundings acting as if they were just normal customers.

Half an hour later a change finally occurred, with a large group of men led by a pompous looking young man. All of them were clearly better off than the usual citizenry you might find in the area, alerting the world of their slightly superior status by their clean clothes and freshly shaven hair.

It was clear that they did not come with good intentions, however, as all the men were carrying pieces of lumber or bricks and had a menacing expression on their face.

Walking up to the entrance of the small marketplace, the lead young man took a deep breath and yelled out loud,

"Rabble, my merchant guild as given you fair warning and even offered compensation for you bottom dwellers to leave. But instead you ignore my grace and instead spit in my face by occupying this area. As I have said before, this territory is of interest to who I represent but today they have had enough. Either you leave or we will MAKE you leave."

To make his words seem even more threatening, the men behind him raised their makeshift weapons high into the air and yelled what they imagined to be war cries.

Though to Cyrus it seemed quite comical, the merchants and citizenry in the market had on grave faces like they had just met a mutated beast suddenly in a dark alleyway.

The pompous prick of a young man who spoke looked extremely pleased by the display, as well as the looks of fear that his words had evoked.

One of the merchants walked up, a woman merchant who had her own charm despite her humble outfit, and addressed the pathetic pest of a man with a gentle tone.

"Sir, we have the right to this spot as ordained by the Administratum. It has been under my lowly family's name for over a decade now, if we were to bring this up to the judiciary they would surely side with us."

The petty prideful young man did not like his moral superiority be questioned, for a wicked scowl took hold on his face as he strode up towards the fearless woman and slapped her across the face with the full force he could muster.

The amount of force was enough to knock the woman to the ground, but she looked back with fierce eyes that did not give in despite the assault.

"Harlot, quiet your tongue. Hmm, you look a little decent now that I have a closer look. After we are done expelling the rest of the rabble here I am sure you can help my men relieve their stress."

The men behind laughed a raunchy lustful laugh as they walked up towards the woman, undressing her with their eyes and imagining how she would scream under them all night long.

Cyrus had seen enough at this point and was about to act when someone else acted for him.

From the faceless mob strode forth several men all at once, the men of the underboss, who with no words exchanged revealed small metal pipes from their clothes and engaged the opposing group.

The first downed foe was by Amaro himself, who moved with startling speed for his age and knocked out the men who had approached the woman with his bare hands. Especially the lead who had slapped the woman, who got knocked up into the air with an uppercut then jabbed several times in the stomach while he was still airborne.

It was clear to the spectating Cyrus that those who were taken down with the metal pipes had an easier time than those who were dealt a blow by the fists of the aged man.

A few short moments later all the aggressors had been easily dealt with, clearly proving that they were but a paper tiger when it came to fighting people who were not the most ordinary of citizens.

Having finished the fight, Amaro was wiping his knuckles clean while approaching Cyrus, all the while his men in the back stacked up the knocked out fellows into a nice stack outside the marketplace. Next to him was the woman who was apparently the owner of the space, who was clearly grateful to Amaro despite confused as to why she was suddenly called to meet some random person.

Once they were face to face Amaro opened by saying,

"Well? Did that paint you a pretty picture of how the rule of law is in the Empire?"

Cyrus had plenty of questions but he stayed them temporarily in favor for asking the most important one,

"I understand that this was a conflict of ownership over a piece of land. But is the owner truly that woman behind you? If she is, then why was this ever a problem that required you to step in from them just forcibly removing the true land owners and taking over the space?"

Instead of explaining himself, Amaro signalled the woman behind him to step up and explain for him. She was unsure of how to address Cyrus, but seeing that Amaro spoke to him plainly it was clear that they were at least equals.

"I am the rightful land owner. Though even if I am the rightful land owner, it is impossible for a small thing like this to reach the eyes of the Judicars, Sir. Not unless we are lucky enough for one to happen to be in the area and willing to talk with us, but they are usually stationed in the richer and more important parts of town.

"As long as the citizens here are able to leave for work and contribute to the Empire with their labor, small incidents like this are mostly ignored. I guess its because there are so many small problems that it is easier to just ignore it all together?"

To put it mildly, Cyrus was shocked at the revelation that he had just been made aware of.

'While it is clear that much of the Empire is better than the wasteland, it seems that at the lowest end of society the two still share much of the same...'

"Of course if someone like you were to put in a word," interjected Amaro, "I am sure that the Judiciary would move into action. But even if you stood here all day and reported every single incident you saw, all you would be doing is wasting your time.

"Too many incidents like this come up. Even my own organization can barely keep up and a lot of things slip through the cracks. Not to mention that the moment you leave everything will go back to the way it was."

'We both do not know how Judicars and Arbiters are recruited specifically, but they definitely come from the scholars of the administratum. I imagine it is simply a problem of there not being enough of a reason to warrant more resources to solve small problems like these' said the dark half from within.

'But..but these people would have been clobbered half to death if not killed outright and that woman would have been made a plaything for the desires of those beasts. How is that a 'small problem'?!?' responded the bright half.

'What is the Empire's main goal? To make all of its people happy or to survive as a nation? To some degree, making its people happy counts towards the true goal of survival as evidenced by the massive amount of entertainment they invest in.

'But if it does not affect the big picture then the institutions of the Empire are more than willing to turn a blind eye. Besides, people like Amaro will exist to fill in the cracks.'

'I know that,' started the bright half, 'I have access to all the same information you do...but that does not make it right. Just imagine the dozens of things that could be going wrong right now, maybe even in the hundreds. Its unacceptable, is the Empire not supposed to be the best of humanity?'

'Then what are you going to do about it? What solution do you have to fix everything?' asked the dark half seriously.

To which the only reply was,

"I...I don't know. But I will find out.'