Chapter 565: Blood Rights to the Mines

They arrived hovering over the mobs, only a crystal ship between them and the chaos.

Though the mobs were just chaotic masses at first, Kai had experience with such battles, especially in Krysal. This wasn't the nation he'd left, but the sides were still representing themselves according to old allegiances: the ex-crystalliers wore masks of arrogance, while the ex-slaves carried an aura of raw anger, despite being better fed and better dressed than before.

Kai noted that his students looked toward the mobs with anxiety, despite all their experience. They'd mostly fought monsters, and occasionally enemy warriors, but masses of people were a different animal, a savage side to humanity. Even from a tactical standpoint, such battles were difficult: someone with less Power than you might never be able to win a straight fight, but if you were distracted, they could still injure you with a surprise blow.

"Hold steady," Kai said. "We're going to jump down there to split up the sides, so this should end without serious violence."

"So we're not helping either side?" Bonto asked.

"Not until we have more information."

Even as he spoke, Kai realized how true that was, because he was changing his initial opinion already. He was tempted to see crystalliers as arrogant, but the better-dressed side had a lot of people who had the scars of ex-slaves. And the other side might be dressed in the style of pit slaves, but he would have sworn some of them were merchants. Maybe not the old style of merchant, but their builds and the way they stationed themselves at shops suggested otherwise. Perhaps old city workers moving into new roles?

"Please tell me you aren't going to throw me into this," Untariin said. Unlike the others, he had additional reasons to look nervous. "Even wearing Goralian clothes, even if no one recognizes me, someone might still make assumptions..."

"No, I understand that could just inflame tensions. Stay here. You two, on the other hand..." Kai turned to Bonto and Tori. "Nobody will have any idea what to make of you, so you'll be good enforcers. Don't hurt anyone, just disable if necessary."

"Uh, aren't you going to take care of things?" Bonto asked. "They pretty much worship you, and I don't want to fight Krysali..."

"People aren't thinking straight at times like these. Besides, if you want to spend any time here, you need to start building reputations of your own. I can't run around and do everything myself."

That instantly appealed to Bonto, while Tori just looked more nervous - Kai judged they were both prepared enough, however, and this was an easier test than a full-on riot. So he jumped off the side of their ship, trusting they'd find a way to follow.

Kai hadn't used any method to slow his fall, so he crashed in the center of the growing mobs. Alone, he might have shocked them into obedience, or he could also have triggered a start to violence. His students came not long after: Bonto rode a piece of crystal he levitated via mana, while Tori had made a line of crystal between her positions and moved down it hanging from a bronze ring. Their strange arrival threw the mobs off, giving Kai enough time to speak.

"This isn't the time to be fighting each other," he declared for the crowd. "What's going on here?"

Someone shouted his name, and another ex-slave thrust out a finger. "Show them who's boss, Kai!"

"Please," one of the ex-crystalliers said, "I've heard you're a reasonable man..."

"We've had enough lies out of you!" An angry young man on the ex-slave side, though he didn't look like he'd served in the mines, began running toward some civilians, well-dressed but with pit scars. They only carried blunt iron rods, but the sight of the weapons was enough to make several weak crystalliers leap into action as well.

It would have been easiest to jump in the way, or freeze them all with Void Gaze, but Kai meant what he said and so he waited, letting it happen.

Fortunately, his students were up to the task, and smart enough to choose their targets. Bonto leapt at the wealthier side, crystal smashing against crystal, except his were charged with mana in a way that no crystallier ever did. Tori spun among the ex-slaves, chakra-laden metal extending from her hands - it hooked robes and caught ankles, sending people to the ground without severely injuring them. Using such unfamiliar abilities for Krysal, they didn't escalate the fight further.

They only made one mistake: there was an ex-slave building up a jagged lance from a higher position, preparing to hurl the projectile at them. With around 100 Power, the woman could never have taken Tori or Bonto on her own, but a vicious lance like that could definitely injure.

Frozen by Void Gaze, and its owner collapsing with eyes rolling back, it wouldn't injure anyone.

"Enough!" Kai didn't need to raise his voice much, and this time he commanded attention. His theory had been right: neutralizing the enemy without raising a hand had made his power clear and killed the potential riot. "I was told that you had a fair agreement in Kartiis, everyone working to mine their own qi crystals. I intend to meet with both sides to find out what went wrong."

He already had the basic information, but setting separate meetings broke up the riots further. While Bonto and Tori split up the crowds and urged everyone to return home, Kai identified the leaders and arranged to meet both at the crystal mine.

The mine itself was ordinary enough, blasted far more open than he remembered it so that people didn't need to work in claustrophobic tunnels. Both sides impressed on him the justice of their cause, basically repeating what his students had already told him: the ex-crystalliers had the law on their side, but the ex-slaves had a point that this still left the weakest at a disadvantage.

Half-listening to their tired old arguments, Kai stared out over the mines, feeling the qi crystals throbbing underneath. There was enough for everyone, yet they still fought over it. Even if he solved their problem, would anything change?

"Kai Clanless?" He must have been silent too long, because one of the leaders called out to him. "What will y-"

"I don't know who's right," Kai said as he turned back. "I'm also no leader, to make decisions for you. Eventually, you have to resolve these problems yourselves."

"But that's just what we're trying to do! They stopped us from-"

"I didn't say I'd leave you alone. I intend to go into the pits myself and do what I can. I may not be able to mine enough crystals for all of Kartiis, but I will work for Krysal as hard as I fought for it."

A big stupid gesture, the sort of thing that went over well with both crowds. Of course, Kai had his own motives, primarily hearing from both sides while he scouted out the shape of the mines better. He hadn't been a crystal miner for very long, but he remembered the basics, and he was overwhelmingly more powerful than he had been back on his first visit to Krysal.

Listening to the average people trying to work in the mines, he found himself much more sympathetic than listening to their leaders. Too many of those on top, noble or revolutionary, exploited the struggles of others for their own benefit. They spoke of rights earned in blood even though they weren't the ones shedding it.

When speaking to the ex-crystalliers, Kai found himself unexpectedly sympathetic to their cause. They had surrendered all their privileges and they were following the rules, mining their own crystals for themselves, so they felt betrayed to have more demanded of them. In a strange alliance, they had the support of multiple ex-slaves, those who decided to work there again. Some of them felt like the other side had too many freeloaders, acting like revolutionaries even though they'd never fought.

Even though he saw many things to anger him on that side, Kai wasn't willing to simply condemn them all either. While Kai spent a while carrying loads of crystals, he spoke to various traders who made good arguments about the economics of the crystal trade: if the most powerful warriors were dominating all the good veins, it made it hard for them to buy and sell crystals for normal people.

If he'd actually needed to come up with a policy solution, Kai would have been puzzled. It seemed like no matter what he chose, someone was going to suffer, others were going to be angry, and the problem would continue.

Fortunately, this was a problem that could be solved with power.

"Alright, everyone out!" When most of the miners were leaving for the evening, Kai demanded that the rest leave as well. As every single person was evacuated from the mines, the leaders of both sides watched Kai with increasing nervousness.

"Are you... going to take the mines away from both sides?" one asked. "We aren't children, to have their toys ta-"

"No," Kai said.

"You've heard our plight, haven't you? Unless they're penalized, they'll keep-"

Kai raised a hand and he got silence, even from the leaders. He watched as the mines were confirmed empty and stretched his own senses through them for good measure. Everyone was watching now, some hopeful and others nervous. Did his reputation really suggest that he would destroy the entire mine rather than let anyone have it?

Instead, Kai leapt into the air with Thunderbird's Wings and soared over the mine. He raised one hand, focusing Tyrant's Claw in a different way than the usual, phasing his strength but keeping the explosive power...

When he swung, he tore three furrows through the earth, each the length of the city wall. From above, he could see the claw marks as clear as day, and they might be visible from the city towers as well. On the ground, the impact was half-way to an earthquake, sending many of those watching tumbling.

By the time Kai landed, some were still utterly confused or angry but understanding was dawning on a few. Tori gave him an appreciative nod, while Bonto was shaking his head and laughing. "That's fucking genius!"

That might be a bit much, for what amounted to a brute force solution. Still, Kai smiled as he turned and looked out over the three new mines that he'd opened.

He remained a while longer, helping to clear out some of the collapsed areas by carrying boulders that others couldn't manage. Bonto and Tori helped, since they had strength far above the average person in the city, and he confirmed that they would stay.

Officially their purpose was to mine crystals for themselves, since they both needed more to advance, but they could also keep an eye on everything. Now that so many new areas for mining had been opened, in theory all sides should be able to find their own places... Kai wouldn't put it past them to start more fights, even in the face of abundance. But he'd have to leave that to his students, because he was tired of the place.

When Kai said his farewells and jumped back to the crystal ship, he found Untariin waiting restlessly.

"You see how it is?" the other man asked. "Krysal is always like this. Even if I wasn't noble, I'd never be free of it. In Goralia... I liked how you at least pretended everyone was equal. I actually felt free there."

"You want to go back?" It wasn't much of a question, but Kai asked it anyway.

"As soon as possible. I didn't want to leave Tori and Bonto without options, but for myself..."

"Yeah." Kai didn't say any more, and they flew off to their rendezvous point.

Looking back at the city, with its new mines slashed into the earth, should have made Kai happy. Yet he couldn't help but think that this was going to continue. No matter what he did, Krysal would fall back into chaos...