[Chinebar Republic, Tellus, five years after Daren Forolan's funeral]
Now the epicenter of Chinebarian politics, every move of Halcyon's citizens is under scrutiny. The situation had cooled after the Sarrakians had settled down in Halcyon. The capital was still under construction and was barely livable. It would only reach the standards that nobles would accept in another five.
Several attempts had been made to move the government back to the capital. However, the nobles stubbornly refused. Any political sessions or debates couldn't happen if half the participants were missing. Halcyon could only stay the temporary capital.
Greed started to surface among the Sarrasakians. Halcyon was a highly advanced city that had long competed with it. As time passed, many settled down and started considering longer-term plans. Halcyon's wealth was a prime target. For that goal, they began to wade into the political waters.
The cleansing of those who misbehaved years earlier was already forgotten, and now the Sarrasakians had some foundation to support their schemes. The divide between the native Halcyons and the Sarrasakians grew deeper and more volatile as time passed.
During this time, Edwina's attendance at social gatherings had dwindled. No one knew when she decided to study abroad. They only noticed after she left to spend her final year of high school abroad at the capital of the neighboring Ferreus Empire.
Despite Innello and Rebecca's best efforts, Tregario became more outrageous by the day. Fueled by his lackeys and Sarrasakian supporters, Tregario's arrogance and pride knew no bounds. He was spinning out of control and had waded deep into the city's political currents before his parents and grandfather noticed.
Their vassals had formed the basis of this nightmare trying to push Daren out. Now, others were finishing the job.
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[Chinebar Republic, Tellus, ten years after Daren Forolan's funeral]
Halcyons were now fed up with the Sarrasakian leeches. They wanted their city back. As the Sarrasakians were known to do, they weaseled their way into power. Naturally, corruption and nepotism followed in their wake.
A battle had started between the Halcyon City Lord and the City Council and the federal government. The latter had become too used to staying in Halcyon. Funds kept being diverted or going missing from the budget to rebuild Sarrasak. What should have already been completed was not even halfway finished.
The competition had spread to the noble families. Business had become cutthroat, with rampant scams and trickery killing smaller businesses. Halcyons and Sarrasakians couldn't stand each other anymore. Only a single spark was needed to ignite riots. The most likely spark was Tregario Forolan.
Tregario had barely finished high school. Of his original vassals, only the dredges remained. The filthy rich who wanted to become nobles, the troublemakers, and the scandalous. Even they were beginning to have second thoughts. The Sarrasakians had pushed them out of Tregario's inner circle and constantly tried to take advantage of them.
The City Lord and Lady completely cut off their son's allowance. They attempted to send him to a faraway university to separate him from the Sarrasakians' influence. Hopefully, he would mature and see reason. Tregario only ran away from home.
He became engaged to a woman of Sarrasakian nobility and lived in a mansion bought by her parents as a wedding gift. The pair were wedded soon after his nineteenth birthday. With his own business, Tregario was free from his parents' control.
Tregario spent his time having fun, though he claimed that he was managing his businesses and learning how to become a City Lord from his father-in-law. To be fair, his businesses were doing well and he did put some effort into learning.
However, his businesses were thriving because of managers introduced to him by the Sarrasakians. The young man never noticed the missing funds from his businesses. He learned how to drink, gamble, and party from his Sarrasakian friends while their fathers taught him everything wrong in a subtle way.
The public and the vassals had given up on Tregario. He never noticed and thought that he was still the beloved poster child of Halcyon. At one point, the future of the entire Forolan family was in jeopardy. Any normal contender couldn't beat him due to the Sarrasakians' interference.
To everyone's shock, Edwina emerged as a black horse contender to become the Halcyon City Lord. After her year abroad, she stayed away for another two years. When she returned home for Tregario's wedding, Edwina had matured into an intelligent young lady, though her prideful nature remained.
She had mediocre talent with magic but was extremely talented with swordsmanship. Edwina was immediately admitted into Nafriton University for her final years of university. To Tregario's annoyance, people, especially his parents, began to praise his sister.
After Edwina graduated, she began to serve by her father's side. During social events, she appeared with her mother. Edwina worked from the bottom up, slowly earning the recognition of the vassals. Gradually, a circle of reliable allies formed around her. She didn't intend for this to happen, but Edwina couldn't stand to see her hometown sliding into the abyss because of her stupid brother.
Tregario became more jealous of and enraged by his sister as time passed. He couldn't stand anyone getting in the way of him becoming City Lord, especially since Edwina began to remind him of the deceased Daren. As the petty, childish man he was, Tregario started to make trouble for Edwina.
However, all of the Halcyon nobles aside from his remaining allies refused. Furious by this perceived betrayal, Tregario had several shops smashed and shipments destroyed. The Sarrasakians made some secret moves on the side to target the Forolan's businesses.
This incident nearly led to war. The silver lining was that the Halcyon City Lord was finally able to force many of the stubborn Sarrasakians to move back to Sarrasak. Politicians who wanted to move quickly followed. Within a year, the federal government would officially move back to Sarrasak.
The public finally felt rays of hope after years in the dark. Citizens were giddy with joy to almost be rid of the plague in their city. While parties went on in the streets, some planned to retaliate. Believing that his sister had done this to get rid of his support, Tregario struck back.
He made a bargain with a sleazy foreign merchant. In exchange for wealth, Tregario would give the merchant his sister and a high-ranking title if she was kept under house arrest in his hometown abroad. How could the merchant say no to such a deal?
The merchant then passionately pursued Edwina, who vehemently refused his advances. After this didn't work, Tregario helped the merchant to take Edwina by force. However, the Forolan family realized that some scheme was at play and set a trap. Edwina easily took down the merchant.
As a result, the siblings had a complete falling out. Edwina was disgusted by Tregario's blindness towards the Sarrasakians' ambitions. Tregario's interference with Edwina's marriage was the last straw for her and many others. She finally declared her intent to become the next Halcyon City Lord. Tregario was infuriated by his sister's attempts to usurp his rightful position.
Public support for Edwina was overwhelming. The people couldn't let someone like Tregario become City Lord. With support from her parents, the vassals, and the city, Edwina decided to strike a final blow. If Tregario could get outside help, then she could too.
While Tregario played his petty tricks outside, a full-blown business war was taking place between the Halcyons and the remaining Sarrasakians. Innello and Rebecca tried several times to talk to their son, but he refused to see them.
A couple of years later, the business war was still ongoing but had now expanded into politics as well. The Sarrasakians were still trying to control Halcyon from their own city. At the height of the business war, Edwina unveiled a new joint project between Halcyon and the main southern ports, Altalon and Vilskameau.
With the support of those two cities, Sarrasak was forced to yield. All of the nobles had to withdraw their forces. The two ports tended to stay neutral, but when they did move the ground quaked. The pair controlled almost all of the trade in the republic in one form or another.
After the city had calmed down, Edwina was officially named the heir of the Forolan family and the next Halcyon City Lord. An engagement was announced between her and a young nobleman from Port Altalon, the city that controlled the river leading to Halcyon.
With this, the greedy Sarrasakians knew that the battle was over. They couldn't push anymore or risk getting all of their trade getting cut off. So, the nobles quietly surrendered by withdrawing all of their remaining forces from Halcyon. The city was finally free from the corruption plaguing it for so many years.
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Not even two months later, Tregario and his wife divorced. He had been busy flirting with other women during their marriage, and his wife had never even tried to have a child with him. With the presented evidence, Tregario was declared at fault during the divorce. All of the assets that he had were taken away.
The Sarrasakians had always planned to dump him if things went wrong. Now penniless and alone, Tregario was conscripted by the military. He still had alimony to pay, so Tregario reluctantly went along with them.
His pride prevented him from ever going back to the Forolan family, but Stallesso Forolan had some of his friends in the military watch over him.