The capital of the Vendor was an underdeveloped but rich city. It was surrounded by giant walls towering at about 30m in height and constantly guarded by soldiers. The city had five of such walls separating the land into four sections in concentric circles. The fourth section in the middle was where the Royal Palace stood. It was the most heavily guarded section of the city.
The divisions were meant to ease the governing process but deep down nearly every citizen living in the capital knew that the divisions were there to divide people on the basis of their power.
The outer sections namely the first and second was where weaker people lived and the inner sections namely third and fourth were where powerful people, the Nobles lived. The outer sections were poorly developed in contrast to the inner sections. The difference was drastic.
The weaker people were not even considered for high paying or high skilled jobs while nepotism and favoritism led to powerful people hogging up all the positions. This led to the poor being poorer and rich being richer. And the result was devastating.
The weaker people were only taken in for manual labor and were not even properly paid. Unable to support their family the suicides rate increased, the mortality rate of infants increased, violence against women increased, the outer sections turned into hell while the inner sections led a peaceful, entertaining and lavish lifestyle.
Power was considered valuable for the awakening of the spirit of the Vendor. That was the Creed the Vendorians lived by.
The Royal Family Andrian held the top position in all over Vendor. Serving under the Royal Family were the five most influential Nobles families, Dissians, Belforians, Falgunis, Jehoiakim, and Cohauks.
The head of the Cohauks was a blond man with bright blue eyes, Argos Cohauk.
Argos was reading a report on the crime rate in the capital sitting on his desk. He was in his office in his grand mansion. He seldom had to leave his mansion for duties and operated from within most of the time. Unless he had to represent his Family in a function or if he was called to present in The Royal Court, he wouldn't leave his house.
Argos sighed and shook his head as he read the report. The information was gathered by the joint collaboration of the spy network of Falgunis family and Cohauks family.
The family of Cohauks and the family of Falgunis kept a close relation mostly because the family head of the Falgunis was his childhood best friend and secondly, they shared the same ideology.
Among the five influential families only these two families worked for the well-being of the society and believed in giving equal rights to the weaker commoner class. This obviously was not supported by other families since they made profits by misusing the lower class commoners.
The five powerful nobles had many rich families as a member of its faction and it was the members of the other 3 factions who heavily misused the commoners for their benefit.
And they feared that if the commoners were to be given equal rights and treatment, the value of power and their influence would decrease which in turn affected their profit. Argos thought of these families as parasites sucking upon the blood of mistreated commoners.
The report mentioned several brothels that operated in the lower sections as well as the upper sections of the capital. These brothels were owned by the members of the other three families factions and they were a source of huge profits.
The girls that worked in those brothels were mostly from lower sections and they were held against their wishes. The girls were subjected to cruel and merciless acts for the entertainment of the upper-class members.
Argos was aware of such activities but his hands were tied without evidence. His whole faction had little support from other upper-class families and even including Flagunis families faction, their support would be less than the other 3 influential families faction. The capital had some strict rules against such heinous crimes but the top 3 influential families kept it under the rug with their power.
The capital was a dangerous place and the nobles were sucking every ounce of purity from it like a hungry parasite for their benefit.
Argos sighed when he thought about the future of Vendor.
To clear his mind he walked in front of the huge window in his office. His eyes shone brighter in the moonlight.
Even with such bad governance in the capital, the country wanted to wage war against their sworn enemies, Canaanites. He thought of the preparation that was going on with full force in Vendor, preparation to win what rightfully was theirs, the reality.
And his heart grieved more.
When will that time come?
He wondered.
When will peace be finally achieved?
A low knock on the door disturbed his thoughts.
'Come in,'
Argos permitted.
A girl in a maid's outfit entered the room. She was of average height and had crimson eyes with a stern expression on her face.
'Master, Mr. Comb has come to visit,'
She reported.
'Umu, send him in,'
The maid bowed and left to fetch Comb, after a minute or two Argos heard a pair of footsteps approaching. The door opened and a pale looking man appeared. His mouth and nose were covered by a black mask.
'Hello, Argos, long time no see,'
Comb raised his hand to gesture a 'hi'.
With a brief look from Argos, the maid understood his intention and closed the door behind her as she went about her chores.
'What brings you here, Comb?'
Argos asked in a serious tone once the maid left.
'Oh nothing, just wanted to see how my favorite person was doing,'
Comb sloppily sat on the couch that was on the side of the room.
Argos observed him carefully. Every time Comb had visited him, he had brought nothing but trouble. Not to mention, he was a very shrewd, selfish guy who only cared for his desires. He won't leave a stone unturned to satisfy his greed. If Argos wanted, he could destroy Comb in a matter of seconds but there was a reason he could not do so. The reason was – Information.
Comb gathered information and that granted his safety. He could not be touched because of the information he held, if it gets revealed then the consequences would be too devastating. On the other hand, the information that Comb did give out occasionally would usually be accurate and was of course valuable. Comb's information gathering skill was incomparable. Many of the nobles kept a Spy squad or an elite group of mercenaries whose main task is to gather information but none of those groups could be said as skilled as Combs. And the sad part is that they had no information on him. That was why Argos considered Comb to be a poisonous snake ready to strike at any time.
As the uncomfortable silence built up, the atmosphere turned grim. Both of them were observing each other carefully like hawks, analyzing their every move and action. One wanted information while the other wanted a formidable pawn that could be sacrificed.
'I have a task for you to accomplish, Argos,'
Comb finally broke the silence, he had decided.
'And that would be?'
Argos raised an eyebrow.
'Kill Damara,'
Comb spoke casually.
'What?'
Argos eyes widened in shock. He had feared this situation.
The snake has dug his fangs.
'I leave the planning to you but I want him dead in a week if I don't get the news, you know the consequence,'
Argos knew the consequence alright but killing Damara, that was a task that he could not possibly accomplish. One, he was his childhood friend and killing him would mean betraying their friendship and two, Damara was powerful than him and held high authority.
'Why him?'
Argos asked. He knew the answer he would receive already but still, he insisted just in case.
'It's simple he is in my way, so he needs to be removed,'
Comb was blunt, as he had expected. Getting out proper information from Comb was very hard. He was a very secretive man, no one had ever seen his face and there is no information on him. In fact, most people aren't even aware of his existence.
'It's your call, Argos'
Saying so, he vanished in thin air.
What are you planning to do Comb?
Argos could only question in his mind with no satisfactory answers. An easy guess would be to create chaos in the capital. But with the information that Comb has creating havoc wouldn't even be a problem, all he had to do was release it in public. So, what is his motive? Why kill Damara? Damara, the head of the Falgunis family and his childhood friend, why?
What could he possibly gain by killing him? Is he also following under someone's order? Is Comb really the brains? Maybe he might just be a follower of someone powerful? If so then who is his master?
All sorts of questions popped into Argos's mind. The situation could not be taken so lightly anymore now. Argos had to make a decision; kill Damara and save his family from downfall or save him but lose his family's reputation.
After giving a lot of thought, Argos finally made up his mind.
A tiresome week lied in front of him!