Into the Lion's Den (City of Kore)

The crowd was very quickly beginning to rally around Barchiel as news of the mayor's downright criminal acts and shady practices came fully to light. The man was doing his job splendidly, ensuring that no possible excuse the sleezy mayor of Kore City could offer would be enough to save him, let alone his job.

The mayor is startled of what is the uproar is about. As he nears the sight of where Barchiel is making his announcement, his jaw drop. Why is that brute spewing all of this? How did he know all about this? "Lord Magia! What is going on?! Why is that brute spewing...lies? Y-you must punish him at once. This slander c-canot go unpun-"

Then he takes a good look at Ferro's calm and even satisfied face. "Y-you? You were in on this as well?!" The color from his face drains at the betrayal. "Stop the carriage at once! Rebels and traitors are amist!" He wants to put as much distance between himself and the man that has planned this.

The mayor's retinue guard guards themselves are also at shock of the event, though not as in despair as themselves but more of what they are hearing that they don't immediately rally to defend him.

Ferro puts his staff in the way of the exit and shoots the mayor a fierce look. "You really were dumb enough to think I'd side with a slimeball like you. All of these things that Barchiel is colorfully informing the crowds, all of it true. On top of that is how you started hiring adventurers and mercenaries, leading them to believe the Midara in the forest we're dangerous, but you just wanted them gone, didn't you?"

It was a cold fury that was in his eyes, directed solely on the sleezy mayor of Kore. He spared a brief glance to the guards, asking them, "and did either of you know about this? That you were protecting a corrupt man, one about to take a huge blow to his career and reputation, at that?"

Well, so much for maintaining their air of cover until the very end. Still, this worked out for Ryofu. Not like she didn't have her own choice words for the rotund little goober, especially as he was quaking in his boots, but Ferro had already verbalized most of them for her. And it was long past the point where any excuses could pull him out.

"You would not believe how easy it was to nip everything the big man is saying from his personal files. All of it straight from the horse's mouth, too. There's way more in there that I didn't pull out, too. So, tell me..." She addressed his guards, taking off her glasses and putting the ear to her mouth. "How much is that coin worth, hmm? And I'm not talking price...after all this, how much is it really worth?"

There were various wide reaction from looking at the mayor ranging from the more predictable disgust to the more unease as if unsure what to do to looking as if they heard nothing. One unseen guard mutters "They don't pay me enough to deal with this shit." The ones looks like they were going to take up arms saw that most of their peers were not doing anything and decides to stay out of this.

The mayor's eye widen at the inaction of his own guards in the face of these adversaries. He is alone and trapped. Alone and trapped. ALONE AND TRAPPED!!! Slowly, the desperation of fear grows in into anger with a trace of some insanity as he begins to cackle uncontrollably. "Ha, hahahaha!!! You've taken everything from me you bastard! I was suppose to rule this city by my right, and you went and ruined everything!!!"

And like a cornered rat with nothing to lose, the mayor draws out a hidden dagger and lunges towards at Ferro. Unfortunate for the man, one of the guards, seemingly more armored than the rest, swings his fore arm into the mayor's face, causing the rotund official to squeal as he is knocked backward. Immediately the guard draws a long dagger and points it at his throat. "Don't move." He hisses.

Ferro was surprised to see the mayor pull a weapon on him, but became thankful for the guards pinning him down. "Thank you," he offered to man sincerely. "I should've been better prepared." Grimacing down at the underhanded pig, Ferro stood up from his seat focusing his mind and channeling his power into the palm of his hand. With a flash, a mushroom popped into his grip, and with a few shakes of its cap, little spores flew into the corrupt politician's face, putting him quickly to sleep. "Take a siesta for a few, Mr. Mayor. You'll need it."

The mayor's reaction was annoying, yet not unexpected. Folks snapping and lashing out when they didn't get their intended way? Barchiel had heard of quite a few people who did that, before getting swiftly put in line.

Walking forward, he prepared to use his Bolter in a show of intimidation, before noticing some kind of...odd mushroom appearing into existence in the monk's hand. Warp shenanigans, most likely.

The tubby mayor was surprisingly lucky in that moment, that the guard had stopped him. Her senses had picked up the movement, and in that moment she had been ready to intercept, before he was shoved back into his seat. Ryofu would not have been as soft with him as the guard was, fully ready to break an arm if it had come to it. Thankfully, it hadn't come to that. In that split moment, Ryofu had seemed like a tiger ready to pounce, but it had been only there for so short a time that someone could have blinked and they would have missed it.

And Ferro had even come with something useful to knock him out! How helpful. Saved everyone some trouble. She settled back into her seat with a grin and her arms crossed, fully satisfied with the anarchy they had caused. Would likely take some time for things to settle in place, but chances are the cries for change and recompense would not go unheard. "I'm sure you'll be plenty busy answering for all of this real soon." She gave a little wave as Ferro worked his magic.

"Well, I guess all that's left is to turn him in and hand over the necessary evidence," Ferro sighed, leaning back in his seat in the carriage. He looked the way of the two guards and added, "I hope you two don't mind giving eyewitness testimonies later. We wanna make sure this guy won't be able to do anymore harm for a long time."

The mayor coughs as he is forced to inhale some of the spores. It didn't take long for the effect to take effects before he his out cold, letting out a loud obnoxious snore.

"That's fine with me. Never wanted him in office, I always thought he was a weasel. So not surprised he is also a crook." The guard that had laid low the mayor says as he retracted his dagger into his boots.

"I helped him get up there. Now I feel like an idiot." The other one facepalmed, sounding quite miffed.

There was a little bit of regret among the guards, and quite a few had wised up to it all. Thankfully, no one was on his side, it seemed like. The information thrown out had done more than enough damage to his reputation for any of that. It looked like they had just put a nice, clean bow on this whole operation, but a thought remained in Ryofu's head.

"So...what happens now?" She scratched the side of her cheek in thought. "We just exposed the mayor for the slimeball that he was. Obviously he's gonna get carted off to the authorities and put on trial, but...who takes over now?" Ryofu was a little worried that they had just uprooted an entire city, but she was hoping someone in power might have a backup plan.

Ferro stopped for a moment and nervously scratched his head. "I guess that's up to the people in charge just below the mayor and the folks of the city. Smoking out a corrupt politician is pretty doable, we proved that today, but we can't exactly plop someone else in his shoes." He was content to believe they did some good today, but he hoped that whoever took the mayor's place would be better than him, not worse.

Whatever the case, hopefully the people of Kore could start repairing their relationship to the Midara of the woods. It might take a while, but if they know they're innocent, maybe they'll wisen up.

"Alright, we'd better go an haul this guy off. Sooner the better, else he might wake up. I don't expect him to be able to escape or do anything substantial, but it's better to be safe than sorry."