Ruler Light Online five

by Larcombe, Tom

  “If they did that would mean they were done really early.”

  “Not so much,” Eddie said. “We slept in a bit. I blame staying up half the night to stop the fire for that.”

  “It's okay. I don't think I really need to watch the trials. I don't know what kind of punishment Bodil will set for them, but if it's too extreme, I'd rather not watch.”

  “I did mention to her that I didn't want Arvid killed, not that I think she'd assign that punishment to attempted arson. We did discuss exile though and blacklisting him from the businesses here.”

  “That sounds appropriate. He tried to sabotage the community, so now it won't support him. Very eye for an eye there.”

  Eddie shrugged.

  “I don't know about his accomplices though. They were the ones to actually perform the act, but I feel bad for them. Their biggest problem was hooking up with Arvid, but I suppose the fact that they were willing to do what they did tells us what they're really like.”

  “Eddie, isn't this why you brought Bodil in? So you didn't have to agonize over punishments and the like?”

  Eddie brightened.

  “You know, it is, so I'll just leave it to her. One or both of us should probably be at the trails though, in case she wants testimony as to what we saw.”

  Tiana sighed.

  “You go there, I'll go to my temple. If they need me, you can tell them where to find me.”

  Eddie nodded and the two of them got dressed and headed out. Lucky went with Tiana to the temple so she could run out to the pond, and Eddie went to the town hall.

  “Hey Griff, did they hold those trials yet?” Eddie asked.

  Griff shook his head.

  “No, the Justiciar said something about witnesses and wanting to ensure that the punishment could be carried out immediately when I saw her earlier on.”

  “Where was she going?” Eddie asked.

  “She headed out about twenty minutes ago, I haven't seen her come back yet.”

  Eddie waited with Griff, discussing what needed to be done for the city next. Since they had most of the places Eddie had decided they'd need for a city, Griff had proposed that they go through their list of people with professions, find the ones they wanted, then prioritize those and start providing what the people would need to perform their professions. There might be buildings or equipment they'd need, or both in many cases. Eddie knew he could provide the buildings, but the equipment would come down to Delgar in a lot of the cases.

  Or maybe I can just talk to Kerr. He was all over studding my armor, did a decent job of it. Maybe I can get him to build some of the gear they need, Eddie thought. Working with Delgar too much gets tiring pretty quickly so maybe deal with Kerr as much as possible? Explain it as not wanting to steal as much of Delgar's time? I'll have to give that a try. Too bad Opron isn't still here.

  When Justiciar Bodil returned, she was carrying three backpacks. Eddie cocked his head at her and gestured.

  “If they are all to be exiled, I'll send them out immediately. I won't condemn them to death that way though, these packs should have what they need to travel for several days,” she said.

  “Ah, let me know the cost and I'll reimburse you for them.”

  “These came out of the funds you'd already given me to get set up, so there's no need. We can discuss a stipend for the court at a later date. It will only be necessary if we're needed frequently. Otherwise we'll be able to perform our own crafts to pay for our necessities.”

  “We discussed the lack of any need to simply go with necessities already, Justiciar,” Eddie said. “And you shouldn't need to provide for yourselves when you're providing a service for the community. There are taxes coming in now and I'm sure we can arrange a portion of those for a salary for you or a budget for your office.”

  “That is unnecessary, Mayor Eddie,” she said, then her brow furrowed in thought.

  “Eddie, honestly, it would be improper and would hint that those that ran the town were immune to its justice were you to do so.”

  “Bodil, that's the way things were done where I came from, so I wanted to offer you the same. If you choose not to go that route, then at least allow the city to pay for things like the exile packs. It wouldn't be right for you to have to pay for that either.”

  She nodded firmly.

  “I think that we can come to an agreement along those lines. Perhaps we are paid for those days we hold court, reimbursed for items like the exile packs, but otherwise receive no payment. That would eliminate any idea of impropriety. Everyone believes that they should be paid for their efforts, so payment for the court days will be fine. Funding for anything needed for judgment should also pass muster.”

  She nodded again.

  “We can discuss that more later. For the moment, I need you to witness what you observed last night. The two guards that apprehended the men on trial will also be there. I have Karl's signed statement, so we shouldn't need him. Court will begin in half an hour.”

  The trials went quickly, individually at least. The first two were for the men who attempted the arson. They pleaded guilty and were sentenced to exile. However, Justiciar Bodil called for an hour recess between their trials.

  “Why so long until the next one?” Eddie asked her as they waited.

  “Because, that first arsonist is now being escorted out of the Meadowlands. If he chooses not to continue his association with the others, he'll have a head start of an hour to put some distance between them. Should they wish to continue to associate, he can wait near where we escorted him to until the others arrive,” she said.

  “Ah,” Eddie replied.

  He'd hadn't even thought about how the men being sentenced might react, whether they might want to distance themselves from the others, or anything else.

  I am so glad we got a Justiciar to take care of all of this. I would've really sucked at it, he thought.

  An hour after the second arsonist's trial, Arvid was led in. He was still all mouth, threatening the guards, Eddie, Bodil, and the city itself. Bodil glared at him and spoke a single word. Eddie couldn't make out what she'd said and it took him a moment to realize why.

  Arvid was silent now, his mouth was still moving but Eddie couldn't hear a single thing he was saying. He stayed silent as Bodil read the charges and the evidence aloud. Once she'd finished and asked if he had any defense, she removed the silence, only to be deluged with a foul verbal tirade. She spoke again and he went silent once more.

  Bodil glanced over at Eddie.

  “Are you sure about this? Exile seems a soft punishment for an unrepentant criminal.”

  “His family wants nothing to do with him, now his so-called friends won't want anything to do with him either. He'll lose his comfortable house, and I doubt he has much in the way of skills to provide for himself. Exile may end up being crueler than execution in this case, but it's still my preference. It gives him a chance to straighten out and live his life right, but it's up to him to take that chance.”

  Bodil smiled, then nodded. She pronounced sentence on Arvid and the motions of his mouth suggested that he was now screaming at her, or trying to. Bodil provided the exile pack to a guard and instructed him and one other to lead Arvid well out of the city, in a different direction from where they'd lead the other two.

  “Was that necessary?” Eddie asked. “The three together might have had a better chance.”

  “The first two requested it,” Bodil said, “and I found it an easy request to grant after having experienced Arvid myself.

  ~ ~ ~

  Eddie headed over to the temple after the trials. He was sure Tiana would want to know what had happened and equally sure that she'd be relieved that she hadn't needed to testify.

  Once he'd broke the news to her, the two of them got Lucky from the pond and headed up to the inn for lunch. Jern was sitting in the common room when they got there and when they sat down he looked up at Eddie.

  “Eddie, lad, just the man I wanted to see.”
/>
  “What is it, Jern?” Eddie asked.

  “I've been thinking...” Jern started, then went silent for a bit.

  Eddie simply waited, Jern was obviously trying to put what he wanted to say into words, but having problems with it.

  Or maybe he just hasn't totally decided on something? Eddie thought.

  “I'd like you to carry a message to my family,” Jern said finally. “Well, not you you, but maybe have it sent along with the charcoal you trade with the Hold? I feel bad that they've no idea what happened to me and after almost dying? Well, I'd like them to know that I'm okay at the moment at least.”

  “I can do that, Jern,” Eddie said. “Oh, and I saw this in my inventory earlier on. I forgot to return it to you sooner.”

  Eddie drew out the golden medallion Jern had handed to him when the dwarf thought he was dying. The rubies inset into it sparkled in the light as Eddie handed it back over. Jern took it and immediately slid it over his neck.

  “I knew there was something missing,” Jern said, “but I'd stopped wearing this piece on a regular basis, so I just couldn't place what it was. That was it though.”

  “Okay, so a message? I can definitely do that. We've got someone going up once a week with a load of charcoal and I don't think adding a scroll to that will be a problem.”

  “Aye, I'm level sixteen now, after the raid, so even if they demand I return home I can deny their request. It might cause friction, but so be it. I just don't want them to think I'm dead, which I'm sure they do right now,” Jern said.

  “Well, you write up the scroll and give it to me. I'll give it to whoever is doing the trading trip this week and tell them a dwarf asked me to have this delivered to Hammer Hold. No lies, that way, and if anyone asks him, he can tell them what I said. It is a slight misdirection, but probably better that way, yes?”

  Jern nodded his head vigorously.

  “You were right as well,” he said. “That chalice of Tiana's restored one point of my lost heartiness from the drink I took yesterday. I'll go back down after lunch if Tiana's going to be there, use it some more?” Jern said, a slight grin appearing on his face.

  “Yes Jern, we can take care of that right after lunch,” Tiana said.

  When they'd finished eating, Eddie and Lucky walked the two of them down to the temple. Eddie continued on up to the castle, checking on its progress. When he got there it didn't look like much of anything had been done since the last time he checked, so this time he went in.

  Or he started to anyhow. Once he walked through the portcullis, he was stopped.

  “Hey, you can't some in here,” someone said.

  Eddie looked over and saw a man, holding one of the mallets used for cutting stone.

  “Oh really, why's that?” Eddie asked.

  “You ain't authorized to be in here, get out now, or else.”

  Eddie's eyes widened. He was more amused by the idiot than anything else.

  “Or else what?” Eddie asked.

  The man hefted the mallet threateningly and Lucky responded by growling, deep and low in her throat. Eddie's response was less overt, but a moment later he had his sword out of his inventory. He gestured with it.

  “I believe that you're the one who doesn't belong here, so why don't you get out,” Eddie said.

  The man's face whitened.

  “Now, I don't remember seeing you on any of the construction crews I hired, so I'd better not ever see you on any of them again. I'm good with faces so I'll remember you.”

  “You hired,” the man said, indignantly. “You didn't hire me.”

  “If I didn't hire you then why the hell are you on my property, working on my castle?” Eddie said. “I'm Eddie Hunter, mayor of this city. Now get the hell off of my property or suffer the consequences.”

  Lucky was slowly stalking forward, in that low to the ground position cats take when they're getting ready to pounce. When the man saw that she'd closed half the distance between them without his noticing, he jumped back.

  “Oh, and leave the mallet here. I'm pretty sure that's one of the tools I provided,” Eddie said. “You've got until three before you become an overgrown cat toy. One... Two...”

  The man dropped the mallet and darted for the exit as quickly as he could move. Lucky made to chase him, but Eddie dropped a hand on her.

  “No Lucky, let him go. I think that we're going to be having more problems than just him here.”

  Eddie stopped and listened. He didn't hear any work going on at all, which didn't surprise him in the least from the lack of progress he'd observed on the castle. He did, on the other hand, hear voices.

  He moved closer, as quietly as possible, and listened for a bit. What he heard made him angry.

  “So, we're just going to sit here? Aren't we supposed to be working?” a voice asked.

  He recognized that one, it was one of the masons he'd hired and he knew the voice even if he couldn't place a name to it.

  “Why work more? We did some today already. No-one's going to know if we stop early.”

  This voice Eddie didn't recognize, but the following one was another of the masons he'd hired.

  “Mayor Eddie will. He's got masonry himself. He can do as much, or more than, any of the rest of us, so he'll know.”

  “Bah, the stupid mayor won't go out of his way for something like that. Even if he does, we just pay him off. That's the way the guild works, you know?”

  Eddie had heard about enough. He was sure he'd hear even more if he waited, but he wasn't willing to. He moved into the tower that he'd heard the voice coming from, then up the ramp until he saw a group of six men just sitting there.

  “You and you, go down to Griff, would you?” Eddie said, pointing to the two men he recognized.

  “What do you think you're doing, ordering my men around?” one of the others said, getting to his feet.

  The other three men tried to stop the two from leaving

  Eddie grinned at the speaker. He'd taken the time to armor up and pull the sword belt and sheath for his weapon out of his inventory, so he was fully geared up now. Lucky was still around the corner and the man hadn't seen her yet.

  “Your men?” Eddie asked.

  “Yeah, they're members of my stonemason guild.”

  “Your guild?” Eddie asked.

  “Yeah, what about it?”

  “You don't have a guild,” Eddie said. “So you're obviously lying.”

  The man stepped closer to Eddie as though trying to intimidate him. Instead of being intimidated Eddie stepped even closer still, glaring at the man eye to eye.

  “Who the hell do you think you are?” the man said.

  The two men Eddie had ordered to go to Griff had finally gotten away from the other three and as they ran down the ramp, one of them turned and called over his shoulder.

  “You're in trouble now, that's Mayor Eddie.”

  The man that was right in Eddie's face blinked at that.

  “Pay me off, would you?” Eddie said. “Why do you think that would work when it's my personal coin that's been paying the masons and carpenters for quite a while now. So, to turn it around on you, who the hell do you think you are? Where's the foreman and all the workers that were assigned to be working on this castle, and why shouldn't I run you through right now?”

  “Oh, so you're one of those rich assholes, eh? Why don't my men and I teach you a lesson and remove some of that coin from you? Four on one odds, you know? You don't stand a chance.”

  Eddie sighed and shook his head.

  “Not only are you stupid, but you're unobservant as well. First off, it wouldn't be four on one, it would be four on two.”

  He whistled and Lucky finally came into view. Her fur was all bristly so she looked almost half again as large as she was. She was also growling and hissing as she walked towards them stiff-leggedly.

  “And second, it would only be four on two if you were even vaguely a threat, which you aren't,” Eddie said.

  He fin
ished his words with a smooth draw of his sword that left the tip of it in the hollow of the speaker's throat.

  Eddie didn't think the man or his friends would be a problem, not even if they all tried to jump him at the same time, but he Evaluated him anyhow, just to be sure.

  Olaf Cairnson

  Human (male)

  Level:7

  Class:

  Craftsman (Mason)

  Specialization:None

  Health: 78

  Mana: 32

  Stamina: 168

  Really? What a waste of your time. You are currently unable to obtain more information about Olaf with Evaluate.

  Eddie almost laughed when he saw the results of the Evaluate. Olaf, who was acting so big and tough, wouldn't last seconds against either him or Lucky, never mind the two of them together.

  Eddie, seeing that the man was nothing but a bully and con man, went to put his sword away. As soon as the tip of it entered the scabbard, Olaf lunged at him. Eddie's response was almost instinctive, he snap kicked forward, the metal reinforced tip of his studded leather boots driving into the man's crotch.

  Olaf crumpled and fell to the floor, sobbing.

  Success:

  You have the option to learn the skill Unarmed Combat. (Help Unarmed Combat for more details)

  Would you like to learn the skill?

  (Y/N)

  Eddie quickly thought 'Yes' then dismissed the notification.

  “Now, how about one of you tell me just what's going on here.” Eddie said, glaring at the three other men.

  Olaf wasn't going to be any use for questioning any time soon, Eddie was sure. So he'd turned his attention on the others. Not trusting the bully, Eddie turned to Lucky and pointed at Olaf.

  “Guard him Lucky, I don't trust him.”

  Lucky snarled and leapt until she was right in front of Olaf's head, staring down at him.

  “Don't think that she isn't fast enough to get out of guarding this asshole and run any or all of you down if you try to run. Plus, I know your faces now and I'd rather not bother the Justiciar again today,” Eddie said.