34- Keep going up

—The only pests are you! —The old man shouts as he rushes towards one of the soldiers and begins to hit him. At that moment, other towns' people, drunks, and vagabonds with rather worn and dirty clothes, come out of the alleys to go support the old man.

All the recruits are somewhat afraid and shocked. They run to help their partner, people throw shit, stones, and sticks at all the recruits. The commander is not there at the moment. There is a lot of disorganization because of that. The disgust of some recruits does not allow them to approach. Others know very well that if they can not control this situation, the sanctions are going to be very harsh. So between flying shit and screams of homeless people, they subdue several. A small group of five recruits. However, most of them are having a hard time. At least seven recruits from the entire troop are frightened and do not know what to do. They attack them and begin to flee without success. They are beaten by several of them. Other recruits are trying to defend themselves and manage to get a few of them to move away. Emens and Ferzan fight and manage to subdue a few of them. Amid all the chaos, one of the recruits runs out to tell his superiors about him. After a couple of minutes, Commander Octavio arrives on a steed along with several palace guards. Realizing this disaster in which they visualize shit everywhere, homeless people biting recruits, people screaming. Pay special attention to some recruits who are evading the situation. Hiding or fleeing from the place. He tries to memorize all of these.

—Guards! —Octavio shouts as he skillfully prepares his rifle—. End this mess once and for all!

The guards mercilessly knock out a couple of homeless people and others shoot them directly. Several of the homeless people who are being held by the recruits are kicked and hit with weapons. And the rest of those who remain loose flee in terror at the sight of what could become a horrible massacre. Many cannot escape and are chained to take them away. Commander Octavio gives another order:

—All those who are evading this situation will have an exemplary punishment, for not obeying the crown. Guards! Bring them right away!

Ferzan and Emens continue to hold three homeless people to the ground. While they wait for some order.

—Well, filling us with shit will have its reward. —Emens says laughing, while he holds a beggar to the ground with his knee—.

—My father is not going to believe this. —Ferzan says laughing while he holds two homeless people against the wall—. Well, let's finish this.

Among the recruits left fighting. They managed to arrest fifteen homeless people. The other ten who escaped or chickened out will be assigned tasks such as scrubbing shit from every corner of this sector.

The vagrants are thrown like rats into the dungeon, the inefficient recruits receive a penalty of twenty lashes and those who did their job by not cowering will be given orders until the mission ends.

Night comes and the detained recruits spend the night with the vagabonds, the others sleep in the palace barracks as usual. The next day Ferzan leaves the palace along with the other recruits but notices that the prince and several nobles expressed concern on their faces as they hovered at the entrance to the palace.

They arrive at the dirty sector again, but this time there are no homeless people so the task is relatively simpler. After a while the other recruits arrive with their eyes towards the ground, ashamed and sore from yesterday's sanctions. They all start to work, Ferzan tells Emens what he saw at the entrance to the palace.

—Hey, I noticed that the prince and his loved ones were a little nervous at the entrance. What do you think is the reason for that?

—It could be the girl.

-TRUE! —Ferzan says thoughtfully—Did he escape?

—If she made it so that she hides well, if they find her they will only kill her.

—I feel guilty for that girl, I hope she does well.

During the maddening and somewhat exhausting work, they notice a royal exploration party passing by at full speed with their horses.

"There they go for the girl..." Emens comments.

The work continues until the afternoon and the sector begins to look a little better. They already assume that this district of the city will be ready by tomorrow at noon. Today all recruits will be able to sleep in the barracks and eat relatively the same food.

The next day the prince continues his tense walk from one side to the other, while he looks anxious at the entrance, as if waiting for an answer about something. The recruits finish cleaning the craftsmen's quarter, they are now heading to the textiles quarter and this at least was not so chaotic and the homeless were not fighting, but rather seemed dying in the streets. They coughed, asking for something to eat. The recruits knew in advance that they had to get them out of there, so they forcibly threw them away.