It wasn't long before the estate ground to a halt.
A crowd gathered at the front gates.
They were demanding their back pay.
Elmer had burned through nearly every cent in the treasury on his little vanity project.
And even if there had been money left, it wouldn't have mattered. Elmer had already decreed: one copper coin per person, per month.
Enough to kill any illusion that work here would ever pay.
The household guards didn't truly try to stop the crowd.
After all, with no wages of their own, they could barely feed themselves.
Elmer's voice cracked with fury:
"Is money all you people care about?!"
Someone pointed at the jade pendant hanging from his belt:
"That gold-inlaid jade alone could cover every last one of our back wages! What right do you have to lecture us?!"
"Pay us! Yeah! Pay us what we're owed!"
The crowd surged forward. Elmer's face went white.
"These ungrateful wretches! That bastard Andrew must have spoiled them rotten!"
"Rush him! Strip the clothes off his back and sell them for what we're owed!"
"Go!"
"You wouldn't dare!"
Elmer staggered as hands grabbed at him from every direction, barely keeping his footing.
"Decree from His Majesty!"