Leo’s finger hovered over 'Y'. He could go back. He could be the hero. He looked at the city he had built: the guarded docks, the empty judge's bench, the priestess who now believed arson was a tool of divine mercy. He had won. Cleanly, efficiently, perfectly.
The final line of the walkthrough appeared, burned into his screen in letters of cold fire:
Would you like to load a previous save? (Y/N)
But the game didn't end. The screen flickered. The black-and-silver walkthrough faded, replaced by a single line of text:
He pressed 'N'.
The next target was the head of the city’s arbitration council. Leo fabricated a confession from a rival merchant, saying he was the one taking bribes to weaken the city walls. The evidence was flawless—Leo had used the smuggler’s own ledgers, now altered. Judge Malory, furious, threw the innocent man in chains and, to be "fair," recused himself from all city matters. The new judge? Leo’s puppet.