The Lick of Blazing Fire

"My Lord, lower the price of fuel. Our farm machines need fuel!" cried the commoners in the courtyard of the residence of Lord Bromenius, one of the governors in the Kingdom of Seodurnag.

“Fuel is a resource for all, including the people. Please lower the fuel prices, My Lord!" The cries continued to be heard in unison regardless of the scorching sun that was getting hotter and hotter.

The common people need fuel to support their agricultural machinery, although it is still very simple the farmers are grateful that a few years ago agricultural machinery technology was invented. Now those machines were mostly idle because the price of fuel had suddenly skyrocketed.

"There's Lord Bromenius!" Someone shouted as he pointed his index finger at the balcony of the stately home where they were currently channeling their aspirations.

"Yes, it's him!"

As the commoners ran towards the balcony, they climbed over the high fence that separated the courtyard from the balcony above. Lord Bromenius' bodyguards immediately circled to protect the honorable man. The people crowded around and shouted out what they wanted.

"My Lord, we beg you, just lower the price of fuel this time."

"Give us fuel aid so that our agricultural output will also increase, My Lord."

"It should be free because fuel belongs to nature!" cried someone with the loudest voice.

"It should be free!"

"That's right, it should be free!"

Other commoners chimed in. It's true that the fuel they use comes from nature, even though commoners are the ones who mine it. But the reality was that the fuel became royal property after being successfully mined by the people for minimal wages. The people still have to pay a high price if they want to use it. The commoners were being squeezed by their kingdom.

"Lord, we beg you. Many of us are starving." They conveyed the impact of the soaring price of fuel for their agricultural machinery.

"Starving? The solution to hunger is to eat food, not fuel," Mr. Bromenius joked.

"Yes, we can eat fuel including eating your bodyguard's meat!"

"Aggghhh!"

Bugh

Someone stabbed one of Lord Bromenius' bodyguards in the left chest, killing him before their eyes. The commoners' emotions were further inflamed because Lord Bromenius even insulted the current condition of his people. Some of the people retreated from around the bloodied body of the bodyguard. The situation was silent for a few seconds.

"Look, your bodyguard is dead because of your arbitrariness!" taunted the stabber.

"Other guards will bury him, take it easy there are still thousands of people who are ready to lick me to replace him," said Lord Bromenius while shrugging his shoulders as if other people's lives were worthless, even the lives of his guards.

The attitude of Lord Bromenius as their governor can make anyone stroke their chest every day. He was a reflection of almost all of Seodurnag's rulers, arbitrary and cold-blooded. The old Mr. Bromenius could no longer speak harshly and loudly, but his decisions still determined the fate of his people.

"Lower the price of fuel." Someone shouted, bringing the focus back to Lord Bromenius' residence.

"Lower the price of fuel! Our farming machines must operate," said another.

"We mine and we pay, lower the price of fuel!" The commoners again chanted their aspirations.

"Go away, it's a good thing I don't send old farts like you to war," said Lord Bromenius gruffly.

"The fuel should be free, My Lord, since we're the ones who mined it." They didn't care about Lord Bromenius' insults.

"Free you say? Hahaha ...." The ruler burst out laughing as he waltzed away from his people who were crowding around him.

"I'll make it free tomorrow." He said again before the door of the mansion was closed by his guards.

"Tomorrow will be free?!" They chanted.

Cheers of joy for their victory erupted. The commoners dispersed to leave the spacious courtyard of Mr. Bromenius's house. Satisfied and hopeful expressions lit up the faces of the commoners after the ruler promised free fuel.

At the moment, the Seodurnag Kingdom was in the midst of a crisis, as the war against the neighboring country had left the kingdom's economy in dire straits. 

Despite the commoners' hard work to earn a living, they couldn't enjoy the fruits of their labor due to rising taxes. Seodurnag needed everything for the war.

In the middle of the night, after the commoners had been clamoring for the fuel price to be lowered, a fire broke out in a village on a plantation. The people who were fast asleep immediately woke up when they realized that the air temperature around them was heating up.

"Fire! fire!" They shouted, waking up the other villagers.

About one hectare of plantation land planted with apple trees, tomatoes, and various vegetables was smoldering. The sky above was brightly lit by the flames that consumed the farm. Some residents who had woken up immediately tried to extinguish the fire with makeshift water.

"How come, did the lamp leak?" Someone asked.

"I don't know, I also woke up after everything was gone," said another.

More and more people woke up and tried to put out the fire. The atmosphere in the middle of the night was tense as the flames spread even further, while the villagers could only draw water from the well. Women rescued their children, while everyone else worked together to fight the fire.

"We should report to security," said one resident, but it wasn't just one person who came up with the idea.

"You know all government buildings only open after sunrise." Someone else said irritably.

"Damn it!" He swears.

No one knew the cause of the fire, other than one or two lanterns that were sometimes set up at the edge of the garden, there was nothing else that might have caused the blaze. The villagers worked hard to extinguish the flames until the yellowish tinge of the eastern horizon began to appear. Their energy had been expended for the safety of their gardens. Eventually, a few villagers' representatives returned to the city to report the chaos and seek assistance from the authorities.

"The fire is still burning." Someone muttered with a desperate look.

"Maybe the fire tanks will come soon," responded one of the garden owners hopefully.

The fire tanks arrived, and the villagers cheered hopefully after a long night and early morning of struggling to extinguish a fire that was only getting bigger. Their gardens were their only hope for survival as they had nothing else to make a living from. Even if some of them were traders, their merchandise was none other than the produce of their gardens.

Unknown to them, the tanks weren't just spraying their burning gardens. The tanks also sprayed people's houses, roads, public open spaces, and almost everywhere in several villages. Just as the tanks were leaving, a huge explosion occurred, the flames were many times larger than before, and black smoke billowed and soared like a giant monster in the sky.

Screams of pain and songs of death filled the suburban villages. Not only were their gardens and homes devoured by the red rooster, but many residents also failed to save themselves. They only realized that what the tanks were spraying was not fire-fighting water, but oil and gas, which fueled the fire.

Meanwhile, at Lord Bromenius' residence, the authorities were laughing, and the old man said, "I have fulfilled their request, free fuel, right? I gave them all a city's worth for free."

***