Sunday, May 30, 2021

The Price of War

The crowd outside the Hall of Swords swelled to a size impossible to ignore, broader than the sea crashing loudly on the rocks. "No more war! No more fighting!"
The doors opened and an officer appeared. He looked over the shouting crowd and the waving signs, frowned, and asked, "Is this a protest against us?"
"Yes! Who else! No more war!"
"But we're fighting the infernal hosts."
"We know! That's the problem! No more fighting!"
The officer again surveyed the troubled sea and saw no harbor anywhere. "I don't understand. Do you want to be killed by monsters? What is your objection?"
"They don't got nothing we can strip after the battles! My kids are going hungry! Where's the armor?!"
"Doesn't that strike you as a tad ridiculous?"
"NO!" The crowd shouted as one and fell silent afterward, and during that lull one among them stepped forward and doffed his hat. "You see, sir, all these battles, and we know you work hard and we appreciate it, they ruin our fields, you see, and so in a normal war we make it up with a bit of post-battle plunder. As it is now though, does it really matter that the monsters mean to eat us if we can't buy nothing to eat anyway?" The protestors yelled their approval of what their impromptu spokesman had said.
The officer pondered the speech, then spoke himself. "But then, what do you want us to do? Pick a fight with another country between battles?"
"Oh, if you could sir, that would be wonderful."
"Or drop some of our armor on the ground so you can pick it up when we aren't looking?"
"Heavenly!"
"I see. I will relate your concerns to my superiors, though I have no idea what they will make of them."
"Bless you if you do, sir." The spokesman said something of that nature, though it was hard to be sure among the cheers and screams of joy. In the end, the army just gave them a bunch of money, which the protestors all agreed to be a satisfactory result.
Finis

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