The Duke failed to notice during the previous events that the keys were in the possession of the jester who had left shortly afterwards.
The keys were later found to be dropped outside of the door and there was no trace of the jester being left behind so nobody knew he was there.
Since there were a couple of jesters being used on a trial basis and had been for several years already, it made it easier for the jester to go unnoticed as they went around the palace grounds.
It had been something time since the main jester of the palace had disappeared along with the princess so it was difficult to find someone who could last long inside the palace.
The king treated his jesters poorly if they did not perform how he wanted so there would be many entering the palace but few would be able to live for long after entering.
Meanwhile in another part of the Mercy Kingdom closer to the outskirts where many lawless factions gathered closer to the ports and slum areas where they had more control, there was a rowdy bunch of people gathered fighting in a tavern as they drank and gambled.
It was a normal sight to see in such places all around the kingdom which had lost any kind of civility and control.
Places that were once safe had been turned into areas where it was best if people did not wander around too much and kept their doors locked.
Unfortunately those measures were not enough to keep the citizens of Mercy Kingdom safe.
Any kind of knights order or palace guards that were supposed to maintain order had abandoned the poor citizens to whatever would happen to them at the hands of the criminals who controlled most of the kingdom.
The tavern was filled with unruly looking people who looked very dangerous and should not be messed with.
They were too caught up in their current activities to notice that the most recent customer had already sat down alone at the bar. "Mercy's finest."
A blue haired and blue eyed woman dressed in polkadot clothes and a painted face had been the one to make the order.
She left a couple of coins as payment and then took a quick drink of the served drink downing it all in one.
There was a brief look of satisfaction in her eyes as she took out a small booklet which contained several images and names.
After carefully looking at the booklet and around the room for a moment, she closed the booklet placing it away once more.
The bag she had placed near her feet was opened and she pulled out a metallic bat which was swung out towards the person at her side the moment it was revealed.
Just as she had made a move, the tavern became darker as the door was blocked off by many larger figures who entered and blocked the exit.
The tavern broke out into chaos as the strange new group started to attack many inside the tavern.
Anyone targeted was either shot, stabbed, beaten or were hit with blunt objects leaving them in a dangerous state.
The person who had initiated it all was the female who had entered first and it could only be identified as Zero.
Zero looked down towards the bodies lying in the floor and turned to those that followed her to Mercy Kingdom. "Collect the heads of this guy.. this one too.. this and this one. Send them to the White Storm people to handle."
A green haired man with white makeup and a purple suit grinned as he took out a saw moving towards the bodies that were either dead or were close to death. "Was this part of the agreement too boss?"
Zero let out a bored yawn and replied. "There is still much to do. We should hit up some more places in the area and take over some places. We should start making our presence known as a decent criminal group.
As for the heads.. we cannot exactly be seen visiting any Marine posts now can we? If we want the rewards then they can handle those matters. They do have a Warlord to handle those matters so I doubt there will be any problems."
Zero had been talking to Alyssia about how to proceed upon arriving on Mercy Kingdom and they both agreed that it would be best to make use of her unique position to shake things up a little.
Any rival criminal groups or wanted people would become good prey for the Asylum who would be using their position to take on anyone they deemed necessary to eliminate or take over.
They would behave as a growing criminal group that was seeking to prove itself and was actively seeking to expand but the truth was that they were just using that as an excuse to remove a lot of the bad elements from Mercy Kingdom.
Zero was not going to miss an opportunity to gain a profit for the Asylum and to support everything she needed to do after her plan was completed in Mercy Kingdom.
It would be difficult for known or suspected criminals of the underworld to walk into a Marine post to hand in the bounties so it was best if it was left to the White Storm.
Zero and her group had already targeted several places already showing little mercy to those who had the biggest impact on Mercy Kingdom and was a danger to it.
It had only been a short time but one small area was already subdued by the Asylum who had grown quite skilled during their many months or years in the New World criminal underworld.
One tavern turned into a small base being attacked then a human trafficking group was destroyed.
Most had just thought of it as a normal everyday event of rival gangs fighting it out between themselves or another gang making a sudden grab for power to eliminate a rival gang.
There started to be a little difficulty and further pushback the more such events took place since it started to look like the group taking action posed a real threat to their livelihood.
Several heads of some bigger groups started to grow more weary the more days that had passed with there being more gangs being overthrown or wiped out.
Some slaves and victims of the gangs had even joined with the new gang that had been challenging others so they were gaining more momentum and numbers to support their actions.
There were groups that felt their resources and funds were at risk so they had started to consider other options to move everything to a safer location and strengthen the protection.
Some smarter groups started to reach out to others in order to talk about how to deal with the newcomers who were getting in the way of their business.