The Villainess Will Not Bring Dishonor To Her Family

173 - Afterwords

[AN: Warning, this contains ~5 chapters worth of story]

Narrator's Point of View

Over the next few months massive changes would shake Ristaze to its roots, similar but incomparable to itself.

---Till now---

During the one month the Princess had been out of the capital multiple initiatives had been put into order. The first of which was the 'Royal Intermediary For Pharmacy and Herbology'; A state funded company to control all export of medicine, drugs, herbs and spices. The company would buy the plants or powder from the producer, and then sell it on to merchants either local or foreign. However, its main function was to assist in the transition to disallowing a very, very long list of drugs. Lists had been put up around the capital, containing names of to be illegal plants, where owning them would be marked as a crime. The company would be the only legal way for the producers to get rid of their remaining produce and plants, though requiring them to list themselves up to avoid them producing any further drugs.

Alongside this, House Listere lead another initiative which was far more in the shadows. They were digging through the House Salender papers that were in the capital, getting locations of the underground guilds and the underground tax section. By the time the Princess returned to the capital they were mostly done with the preparations to turn over the underground of the capital.

The day after Emilia returned to the capital, letters were sent to all countries that Ristaze had business with, declaring the end of an era in Ristaze, and that she had laid claim to the throne. Furthermore, that Ristaze would not be accepting delegates before springtime, to risk putting them in danger.

---Late Fall---

As late fall approached half of the armies holding the capital closed  went south, striking directly for the head of the snake, killing Lord and Lady Salender in a collaborative effort between part of the forces from House Tepet, House Celeste and the Northern Marquesses, guided by Princess Emilia's words that carried the knowledge of the dead. Large parts of the capital went into an uproar, during this time, causing large amounts of trouble for the troops remaining at the capital. Barely held in check by Lady Tepet, Bertram and Reynold who arrived at the capital to alleviate exactly this. During this, both Bertram and Reynold displayed frightening instincts when it came to the underground's underhanded tactics, especially including assassinations and traps.

The injured Tepet troops would be healed by House Listere or the Heir's new fiance. The battle hardened Tepet soldiers were already impossible for a civilian to injure in a fair fight, and the resisting nobles had hidden in the shadows. Shadows where the Northern troops would find them. The capital river became a deathtrap, an area avoided by anyone that didn't need to be there.

As house Salender fell, an odd, tense silence fell over the capital, and for the first time a very real fear started to spread.

A week before the beginning of winter a royal decree was announced to the public throughout Ristaze, but mainly in the capital, and in the now occupied large pleasure cities along the river going from the capital to the sea through the former House Salender territory.

'Any members remaining in UCOR, will be arrested and executed come winter.'

UCOR was an abbreviation for United Criminal Organizations of Ristaze, the formal name for the system House Salender had been keeping control of for the last many hundred years.

Over the following days members of UCOR gathered, preparing for their resistance. The decree meant an all out war, and what had been dissatisfaction before turned to a war for survival. Of course, many who could tried to escape UCOR as well, especially those that had already seen or experienced the force of trained soldiers. Those who were only halfway into the organization hid away, some sending a 'resignation letter', betting their lives that the Princess would be serious.