2.6 Men's Rights: The Protest

Meanwhile, the protest was in full swing down below. Slogans were being chanted, cries for justice were heard, and surprisingly, the number of protesters had grown. Well, the number of people close to the protest had grown.

Kyros had seen his teenage followers sweating buckets while standing in the midday sun and had called them over to take cover under his cloud. To further quell the discomfort from the heat, Master Stonebottom had sent for some pomegranate juice from “one of them fancy cafes” in the palace district. The juice had promptly arrived, and along with it came the complimentary rugs—a humble gift from the cafe owner to assist with the Great Mage’s protest.

The rugs had now been spread out below the cloud. The teenage girls, Valdek, and Bertie were sitting down and enjoying their juice, while the drunkards remained standing, shouting their slogans in between sips of the beverage. Amidst all the yelling, Kyros was occasionally signing autographs for the teenagers, who were enviously glaring at the little girl riding his shoulders. Esmeralda, for her part, collected more signatures and accidentally spilled some juice on the Great Mage’s head. Even the guards had joined the protesters under the cloud for some respite from the heat and the promise of a cold drink.

Esmeralda, from her vaunted position on top of the Great Mage, was the first to notice the approaching entourage. “I think the Queen is here,” she said.

“We want justice!” Kyros was shouting.

There were a few other slogans in the mix.

“Down with oppression. No more jobs!”

“And no singers!”

“Ban Bulguk!”

“Freedom or death.”

“Ban turtle soup.”

“The Queen is here!” Esmeralda yelled at the top of her voice.

Everyone looked at the child and then at the approaching figures. The guards were the first to react. They immediately ran back and occupied their former positions while making sure that none of their equipment was out of place. Valdek stood up. Bertie and the teenage girls followed his lead.

“I see four people,” Esmeralda said. “There is the Queen, one old knight, and two other knights. Everyone’s from the Queen’s personal guard.”

“How do you know that, Esme?”

“Their heraldry is in your comics, my lord.”

Thomas and Master Stonebottom, who had been fearless until now with some encouragement from liquid courage, quickly lost their nerve and crab-walked to a safe position behind the Great Mage and quietly lowered their placards.

Thokk, on the other hand, stood beside Kyros, proudly carrying his banner.

“FREEDOM!” he shouted as the Queen came closer.

The two younger royal guards quickly moved to cover their liege, while Sir Arthur’s hand hovered just above the hilt of his blade, ready to draw in an instant. When they saw that the orc was just yelling and had no intention of attacking anyone, they all visibly relaxed and moved aside at the Queen’s command.

Queen Seraphina Stormcrown walked over to the protesters and stood directly in front of the Great Mage Kyros Magnus, staring him right in the eye.

“Kyros,” she said.

“Sera.”

“I see that you have had a busy morning.”

“I do what I must do for the sake of justice. But it looks like you have come with the intention of crushing our justified protest. You think bringing Uncle Arthur will intimidate me? Uncle Arthur, hi!”

“Lord Magnus.” Sir Arthur bowed respectfully.

“I don’t need Uncle… Sir Arthur to intimidate you, Kyros. I only brought the guards to stop you from puking all over the palace grounds.”

“Your Majesty, can you please not speak to the Great Mage that way? It is very disrespectful,” said a squeaky voice from the back.

Everyone turned their eyes towards the source of this foolhardy comment. It was one of the teenage Kyros fans.

“Oh! Look who it is,” the Queen calmly said. “Isn’t that Lord Davenport’s youngest daughter? Does your father know that you are here, child?”

“Umm… Your Majesty…”

“Sir Lucian, take down the names of all the girls here. I will personally summon their parents to the palace and inform them of what their daughters have been doing, instead of studying.”

“Yes, Your Majesty.” The half-elven royal guard produced a small book and a pen.

“Let’s see, in addition to Lord Davenport’s daughter, we have Lady Valerie’s twins. Is that little Cynthia I see? How are you, my dear? Did your father get the gifts I sent last week?”

The noble daughters quickly started walking away from the protest, followed closely by the daughters of the merchants and commoners. The fast-paced walk turned into a brisk run within a few steps, and soon enough the teenagers were sprinting along the road (as quickly as their individual dresses allowed), eager to be home before their parents found out.

“That’s what I thought,” Queen Sera said with a satisfied smile.

Once the girls had left, Kyros and the others turned to face the Queen.

“Don’t think, Sera,” Kyros began, “that just because you and your thugs—” He looked at the book-wielding royal guard. “Oh! Hey! It’s Lucian. Everybody, it’s Mr. Camilla… I mean, Mr. Oakridge. Cami’s husband.”

Everyone remaining waved at Captain Lucian Oakridge.

“Hey, Kyros. Everybody.” Lucian waved back, until a glare from Sir Arthur silenced him. “Sorry… Lord Magnus,” he quickly said and bowed just as Sir Arthur had done.

“Captain Theodore is also here. Hey Theo.” Kyros waved and the others followed suit.

“My Lord Magnus.” Sir Theodore bowed.

“Alright, alright, that’s enough. We are not here to exchange greetings.” Queen Sera looked around at the protesters. “In your little group, I know this idiot,” she said, pointing at Kyros, “and of course Master Stonebottom. Yes, I still see you, Master Stonebottom, despite you trying to hide behind Kyros. Does your wife know that you are here?”

“No, Your Majesty,” said a small voice from behind the Great Mage.

“You three, I do not know,” she told Thomas, Valdek, and Thokk. “But Sir Arthur has informed me of who you all are. Now, seeing this group, I am certain of one thing. Whatever this is, the idea must have been put in their heads by you.” Queen Sera looked directly at Esmeralda, sitting on top of the Great Mage. “Isn’t that right, brat?”

“No, Your Majesty.” Esmeralda smiled innocently. “My dad brought the Great Mage and others to our house while I was playing with Bertie. I just gave them pen and papers, that’s all. If you want, you can ask Bertie.”

The Queen glanced at Bertie. Bertie hid behind Valdek.

“I very much doubt that,” Sera replied. “If I had to guess, this dumb protest was entirely your idea.”

“Hey! You two know each other?” Kyros asked.

“Yes,” both the Queen and the little girl said simultaneously.

“How? When did you two—”

“Ask your wife, Kyros.”

“Oh, okay. Wait. No! This isn’t right. Why are you bullying Esme? I am the leader of this movement. I am the President of Meridian Men’s Rights Gang—”

“Group, my lord.”

“Yes… Group. If you have any questions, you direct them in me… I mean, at me.”

“The Meridian what?” The Queen started chuckling, which quickly became full-blown laughter. “Men’s Rights Group, really, Kyros?” Then she laughed some more.

“Don’t mock us, Sera.” Kyros pouted. “This is a serious organization. We are here to fight for our rights.”

“And freedom!” Thokk yelled.

“Yes, and freedom. Thank you, Thokk.”

Queen Sera glanced at the crayon-written placard that the orc was carrying. It said, “MARRIAGE IS BETWEEN ORC AND GIRLFRIEND, NOT ORC AND GIRLFRIEND’S GRANDFATHER.”

The only other placards that were still up were the ones held by Valdek and Bertie.

Valdek’s said, “SAVE TURTLES.”

“NO SCHOOL ON MONDAYS” was written on Bertie’s.

Sera pointed at them. “So, these are the demands of your ‘organization’?”

“Yes. But we have more; we have a proper document,” Kyros said proudly.

“Really, Kyros? So, cancelling school on Mondays is on the agenda of your Men’s Rights Movement?”

“Yes… wait, no. What are you talking about?”

“The sign that little Bertie is holding. That’s what it says.”

The Great Mage turned around to inspect the sign, and so did the others. Even Bertie looked up curiously.

“What? How did it get there? That’s… Sera, that’s not part of our goals. Esme, how did…?”

“My lord, the document.” Esmeralda quickly passed the list of Demands and Grievances to the Great Mage. “You should hand it over to the Queen,” she added with haste.

“Oh, yes. Thanks, Esme. Yes. Sera, this is our official list of demands. You will find that they are all very reasonable.”

The Queen snatched up the sheet of paper. “Let’s see what this is all about. Hmm… From the poor handwriting, it’s obvious who wrote this. What do we have here? To… blah… blah… blah… and then From… blah… blah… blah. Okay, here is your first mistake, brat. You need to start the letter with From, not To.”

“Really? But the Great Mage said—”

“Ignore what he said. It’s just an annoying habit of his. Don’t copy that.”

“Yes, Your Majesty.” Esmeralda nodded dutifully.

“It’s a perfectly valid style,” Kyros grumbled.

“Okay, moving on. We, the oppressed Men, bracket, elf, human, orc, Esmeralda, dwarf, bracket of Meridian.”

“Wait! What was that before dwarf?”

“Shhh! Let me read it, Kyros.”

“I thought I heard—”

“Shhh! Where was I? Ah! Hereby ask your majesty blah… blah… blah… oppressed… treated badly… blah… blah… blah. And then there is a lot of whining. Here we are, the demands. Let’s read this properly.”