“This is outrageous, Alphonso!” I said towards the king who was the only person with me in the throne room.

“The law must be applied.” He stated calmly, even though I was walking to and from the sides of the red carpet going up to him the whole time.

“You know very well I am running a charity organisation which provides food in the slums. You were taking all the money away they could save up because of my actions until I spoke with the guards who were responsible for carrying out your orders.” I said a bit angrily.

“You … what have you done?” He said, clearly surprised about that news which couldn’t reach him before I did. After all, I basically stormed into the royal palace on my own.

“Morals, Alphonso, morals. I applied the morals I am living by which includes not to steal from the poor.” I stated.

“I wish I could live by these morals as well, but we do not live in a world where this is the case.” He said, closing his eyes in resignation. He wasn’t a bad man, but I wouldn’t allow him to be a good one either.

“… when have you been to the slums the last time? When have you looked into their eyes and talked from man to man about their struggles?” I asked.

“… that is …” He mumbled, clearly uncomfortable to answer.

“A long time ago? Your highness, I am hereby filing a formal complaint as the current representative of the eastern duchy in the capital city. Your actions do not adhere to the principles of this nation I am devoted to. As per paragraph two of the carta of noble rights, I hereby inform you about my dissatisfaction with the application of the law in the northern slums and want you to reconsider your approach in the next ministerial conference.” I stated calmly. I knew my rights, but I also knew that forcing them to talk about the issue wouldn’t change anything.

“You have no seat in any of these conferences, and neither does your mother.” He said, knowing full well why this was the case because the other three dukes even though they were absent for most of the time, were on that council which made laws for the whole kingdom.

“And neither does any other woman, but I am not here to debate about that. I want you to discuss possible other approaches to the current problem we have at hand.” I said indignantly.

“Noted. I will talk with them for the necessary fifteen minutes, but I fear we will not come up with another plan than what we have now.” I hoped that as well. There was no good plan for the shitty situation I created for him. The nobles pressed him to retrieve the money, fearing they would be the next to be robbed, but the money was so thinly spread he had no other choice but to search the whole slums for every copper coin he could find.

There was the option of letting it rest … but he knew we wouldn’t stop after doing it one time. It would damage his reputation within noble circles after all. Angrily, I turned around on my heels and walked a few metres until I stopped again.

“Alphonso?” I asked completely calm.

“Yes?” He asked slowly.

“I am telling you this as the saint now, from eye to eye. Unnecessary cruelty never leads to a great outcome for anyone. I had to experience on my own body a few days ago.” I said and looked to the ground, even though I wasn’t facing him anymore.

“I am sorry to hear that. If there is an-“ He stated, but I interrupted him soon enough.

“The only thing you can do is to reconsider your approach.” I claimed and strode out of the room, leaving the king alone with the impossible situation at hand. He wouldn’t change his way of dealing with the issue. He could not. The other ministers, nobles themselves, could not risk letting this situation get out of hand either.

And if they would not find the culprits which were us, they would have a dissatisfied population at hand faster than they could look.

First were the northern slums. Then the western, eastern and southern slums. All paid with copper coins. He could try to stop the money from spreading in the first place, but we wouldn’t make it easy for him. He couldn’t stop the carts with the money anymore, as they were waiting outside the city already, just waiting for their part. The money would spread. And he would need to get it back.

Slum after slum. Dime after dime.

Until we would start throwing silver coins on one marketplace in the commoner district. I was already wondering what he would do then on my way back, a huge grin on my face … sadly, I wouldn’t be there to experience this as my nights would be littered with stealing and murder.