Enri, Nfirea, and Ninya approached the shattered unit. “He really was telling the truth. It’s still hard to believe.” Nfirea said as they stepped over corpses to reach the fallen King and his Head Warrior.

“King Ramposa was wiser than we knew.” Enri said while leaning over to close the wide open eyes of the fallen king. “His real enemies weren’t on the other side of the battle line, but around him.”

“So this was what, penance?” Ninya asked, planting her staff on the ground. The rest of the army had surrendered as soon as the last of the nobles fell, and at that moment they were stripping off their armor and donning regular clothes, ready to go back home.

Queen Enri shrugged, “I honestly don’t know… maybe? He probably heard what his son did, maybe the shame was too much, maybe the Guild’s terms of apology were too great… maybe losing his only boys was too much? Maybe this was just the only way to make sure he was successful.”

Nfirea grunted as he tried to pick up the Royal Head Warrior’s sword. “Gah… this is heavy… he must have really lived up to the legend of his lifetime.” The young King said, looking over the fallen corpse who lay pinned across his king’s body. “I could see that, who knows what lies he spun to the nobles, but he got them all together, and told us where they were, and if his daughter and the Marquis did their work well, then the rest are purged in the capital too. So much for asking Sir Momon to rule us though… which is honestly a shame.”

“You don’t want to be a King, Enfi?” Enri asked and reached out to take his hand.

Nfirea vigorously denied it. “No, being your husband and an apothecary of some note, doing my research, making my potions, that’s what I wanted, those I take by choice, but the crown is being forced on me.”

Enri squeezed his hand, “I’ll make it up to you… every night, as long as you can keep up.”

“I’ll do my best.” Nfirea said with a dry voice giving the lie by the gleam in his eyes.

Ninya pointed to the Kingdom soldiers, “Do you really want to send them all back?”

“That was the agreement.” Enri replied, “I wish the Head Warrior lived to see that we kept it, but for his own reasons… I guess he didn’t want to survive his king. We’ll send both their bodies home with proper honors. King Ramposa III might not have been a perfect King, but he gave his life to try to set things right. So he can’t have been all bad.”

“But that many soldiers…?” Ninya asked.

The Wolf Queen shrugged it off, “Without armor, or weapons, or the will to fight. We can be generous once to people who had no choice about coming against us. Besides, I don’t want to start things off acting like-”

“Understood, my Queen.” Ninya replied, “Understood.” She shuddered at the comparison she was sure was coming.

In the end, the plunder of weapons, armor, and war gear, less that carried by the King and his most loyal servant, took dozens of carts to fill, and the army that had been brought to destroy the rebellion, left feeling grateful to the rebels for their lives. Their one task, bury the dead of their own side, and then depart with enough food to go back to their homes. The sound of thousands of spades heaving earth, the smell of stirred up grass and blood, it still made Nfirea feel like Enri seemed to be whenever she visited his workshop.

But it had to be done. The ranks of the Wolves of Carne formed up before sunset, and began the walk home to await the official concession of their independence. “Are you worried they’ll go back on it?” Ninya asked when she rode beside her Queen.

“No, not really. Sir Momon went that way, I’m confident that he’ll persuade any opposition that going to war against us would be a futile waste.” The Wolf Queen replied, “And we’ll reach out to Master Gown as well, we can repay our debt much faster now. I doubt he’d be pleased to know the people he rescued are under threat again before we can properly pay him back.”

Satisfied grins ran all around.

“A kingdom… a real kingdom… I never imagined…” Ninya gasped as the reality began to set in.

“Brita… she would have been very proud.” Enri said in a quiet whisper.

That left them somber until they returned to Carne. The ramparts of the village were jam packed with people, the roaring and cheering soared over the heads of the returning victors, but before they could enter, Enri called a halt.

“Before I enter my home again, I want a moment of silence for the honored dead.” Enri bowed her head, and both soldiers and residents alike did the same.

When she raised her head, and others with her, the gate opened, and the Wolf Queen and Wolf King rode into their home in triumph.

When she stopped at what she still thought of as the village center, and turned around to see her army had not even fully entered the gate yet, another sober realization hit her. ‘By the gods… we’re going to grow… massively, and soon.’ She felt the hot wind of change rushing over her body, but forced herself to focus.

“Husband… would you?” Enri asked, and Nfirea obliged, against his wishes, then rose up in his stirrups.

“I’m not one for long speeches, I’m not eloquent or gifted in that… so I’ll be brief. We fought, we won, we’re free of the old and able to build something new. Let’s do better than they did, tomorrow. But for now… go and celebrate however you see fit!” Nfirea’s brief speech went over very well with those who were casting hungry looks on lovers who had been apart for far longer than they wanted to be, a sensibility he shared.

He cantered his horse over to their home, Enri and Ninya on either side.

“You two… you need your privacy… I think. I’m going to spend time with my sister, and work out what comes next for her.” Ninya started off with a happy expression, but a bitter, difficult, sorrowful one replaced it.

“It’ll be alright… she survived a lot to make it this far… just have faith in her.” Enri said with a sympathetic look.

With that said, Nfirea and Enri entered the house where they found Peter and Lukrut sitting at the table as if the pair had been waiting for the royal couple to return.

Enri started to frown, but Lukrut held up his hands in surrender, “Wait, wait, hear me out. I just wanted to fill you in on everything before we settle in around here. Also…” Lukrut briefly stopped, “I wanted to say thank you. I know… My Queen, that you were thinking of Brita with that moment of silence... I was too. We were never an ‘item’ you know. Never a couple, not really, but if only she’d lived?” The irrepressible blonde flirt’s hands shook so badly he shoved them into his lap to hide them. “I think, maybe… but now I’ll never know. I could flirt with a hundred women a day, get turned down every time and I’m fine by the next beer, but that one… I just couldn’t say what I wanted to, now I can’t.”

“Maybe she knew?” Enri offered, and Lukrut closed his eyes and shook his head.

“No, my Queen, she was too much like you, too dense to notice when a man is over the moon for you until he makes it impossible to ignore.” He flashed a winning smile up at Enri, who dropped her mouth open in disbelief at his bold statement, until Nfirea started to laugh, and all Enri could do was laugh with him.

Lukrut and Peter accomplished the same response, and it was hard enough that Lukrut had to wipe away a tear. “I let her go and die without saying anything, I won’t make that mistake next time… anyway, about what Peter and I managed…”

Enri listened as best she could, but the truth was she kept turning an eye toward the bedroom, so often that it was a relief to be done, and she fairly dragged Nfirea in after her, tearing at his clothing as rapidly as he tore at hers.

It wasn’t until after she was lazy, happy and exhausted in bed, that Enri had the distinct sensation that she was being... watched.

Renner looked up at the sun, it was a little warm overhead, but not yet unbearable. The sound of a rope snapping taut and the creaking noise of the swaying body was drowned out by cheers.

The next noble was brought up. “On the charge of selling peasants to be turned into dust whores… how do you plead?!”

Predictably, he shouted, “Not guilty!” His fine clothes and fat body did nothing to endear him to the crowd.

But when the judge presented the receipt of sale, the crowd roared out their boos.

“The sentence is death!” Princess Renner announced… and another fat noble almost snapped the rope before the rope could snap his neck.

So it went, until there were no surviving old nobility that were not too young to matter.

Before word even reached the city that the battle was lost, that the King was dead, and the conflict was at its end, there was already an excitement in the air at the feel of change.

The evening of the last hanging, Princess Renner called together the current head of the adventurer’s guild, the merchant’s guild, the mage’s guild, and various other key artisan and crafts guilds. She also called together the largest farmers and miners, everybody of importance but no title within the city.

They sat around the long table, clad in the clothing of their professions, while Princess Renner sat at the head of the table with Climb at her right hand, and the Marquis Raeven at her left, one of the last survivors of the old nobility.

Armed guards filled the role of servants, the clink of armor and smell of oil wafted through the air, but was quickly drowned out by the smell of good wine, something these preeminent men of their trades uniformly appreciated.

However, they had the good sense to not touch their cups, until the Princess of purge touched her own. When she did, she didn’t drink, instead, she spoke.

“I’m not telling any of you anything new when I talk about the divisiveness, petty politics, and absurdity of the old nobility. You yourselves were often its victims, so we can skip that part.” The Princess said, keeping her tone quite blunt and drawing their attention all the more for doing so.

“The Kingdom needs people to rule it, but we don’t need incompetent rulers who have no idea how to do anything but abuse their power. So… I am going to establish a ‘new’ nobility. You.” Renner said, pointing to both sides of the tables with her arms outstretched.

Stunned into silence that did not even let them babble, she was free to continue. “However, I didn’t just get rid of one problem to get a whole new set of them. I’m the last unbound heir of King Ramposa III. So you have two choices… hail me as the first Queen of Re-Estize, or risk civil war. Do I need to tell you how well most of you will fare during civil war?”

Pale faces and looks of horror was proof enough that she did not. “We were lucky enough that the Wolves of Carne only wanted independence, and that my father found a way to salvage the Kingdom at the end. You won’t be that lucky twice. Besides that, the entire plan hinges on a clean succession that lets us make a smooth peace with the new Kingdom to the east.” Renner paused for effect. “Without that… war resumes and you’ll have angry peasants, goblins, trolls, nagas, and who knows what else rampaging all over the Kingdom. What do you think they’ll do to your livelihoods?”

To the pale faces, were added horrified, hyperventilating breathes from more than a few men who most greatly depended upon peace for their prosperity.

“Exactly. So, tomorrow, I will have it announced that I am the new Queen of Re-Estize, and you gentlemen, will spend the rest of that day getting ennobled. And in return, as your first ‘gift’ you will make sure that the entire city is overjoyed at my ascension. Are we clear?” Renner batted her eyes at them as if she were innocently giving them the time of day, when in fact she was dangling the world before their eyes.

Heads bobbed like wobbling dolls.

“There are some ‘additional’ conditions, for starters your title will only remain the same or increase, if your child marries someone of merit rather than blood nobility, or completes seven years of service to the crown when they come of age. I won’t have talent languishing at the bottom. You gentlemen know the value of talented learners, embrace that in your nobility as well.” Renner waited while they let that sink in, and then she added her final condition.

“A large part of the destruction and hatred, not to mention general distrust, came from seeing nobles with no connection to the common people. Therefore I intend my reign to begin in the exact opposite way. I will marry a commoner that I elevate to the ranks of the nobility. A man well known for his skill, power, bravery, and protectiveness of the people.” Renner reached beside her to touch the hand of her bodyguard.

“I will wed Climb, and he will be my consort. Through his ascension, and yours, all the kingdom will have hope for better lives, even if we suffered some losses before today. Are there any objections?” Princess Renner asked in a sweet voice that said there damn well better not be any.

“P-Princess, you didn’t… I don’t…” Climb stared down at her, more than a little flustered.

Marquis Raeven however, shook his head and looked down at the young blonde warrior, “Now, noble Climb… your ‘wife to be’ asked if there were any objections, and speaking as a married man, I advise you to understand now that it’s always happier when, with some women, there are none.”

The Marquis was rewarded by a radiant smile from the Princess that almost made him forget just what she truly was, ‘Though perhaps he’ll temper her some, we can only hope.’ He thought, and Climb fell to quiet blushing.

“Now, there’s only one final matter to attend to, and then I’ll let you all go to spread the word among your people about what I expect tomorrow… and remind key members that there are more titles and lands to be had, than there are spaces at this table.” Renner’s voice stilled the budding conversation.

“As you know, my father, brothers, and Gazef Stronoff were all killed in the conflict, our nation needs a new Royal Head Warrior… and I could think of no one better than the man who broke the back of Eight Fingers. Sir Momon, would you join us, please?” Renner called out, and right on cue, Pandora’s Actor opened the door and stood behind the throne.

“You accept the job, don’t you, Sir Momon?” Renner asked rhetorically.

The towering onyx warrior looked down the length of the table and crossed his arms, defying anyone at the table to consider opposing her selection.

“My Queen, I would be pleased to accept such an offer. My partner after all, has decided she missed her friends from Carne and has chosen to return, that leaves me free for as long as you need me to… help keep order.” Pandora’s Actor said in a voice that was deep, noble, and menacing all at once.

If there were any thoughts of rebellion, they were quashed at the sight of the unbeatable champion with ties to the new Carne Kingdom and the new Wolf Queen, with the power to crush and slay skeletal dragons all by himself, taking a side with the new Re-Estize administration. ‘That worked out well,’ Renner thought, ‘father’s plan wasn’t bad, but Lord Demiurge’s was better, but that’s to be expected. I still need to satisfy my curiosity about whether Momon is Master Gown’s son, or brother, or what… but for now it’s enough to know… there’s nobody left in my way.’