LIGHTNOVELONLINE Chapter LXIII – Their family is found out.
47th of Summer, 5859
Mount Curry, Casamonu
Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall.
- Book of Proverbs, 16:18
Mount Curry is home to many a romantic scene, from rolling hills, to wandering adventurers, and to lovers making escapades of the kind which would cause the age rating of this work to go up if they were to mentioned in more detail. People engaging in coitus more ferarum à la canines aside, there was a pair who was currently busy engaging themselves with less amorous ventures out there in the mountains.
“It’s been twenty days, Tangerina…”
“Yes, and you have been complaining for the last fourteen days.”
The pair in question were a sight which may be familiar to the reader: a most edgy-looking black knight and a portly magician whose hat was still doing its best to scrape the sky. There was also another figure following them from behind, one of an overly edgy-looking hooded figure whose edginess had overflowed to sheer ridiculousness, which by definition would make them a trio. However, the figure at the back was only carrying their supplies, and they definitely weren’t going to be fighting with all that weight on his back. Hence a pair they stayed as they’d be the only ones worth mentioning in a tale of any sort, for who cares about the poor porters of heroes?
“You’re not the one cooking inside a black suit of armor in the summer heat!” complained the guy who was cooking inside a black suit of armor in the summer heat. “Plus, I haven’t gone travelling outside in a long time. My muscles haven’t warmed up yet.”
“I haven’t gone travelling outside in a long time, but do you see me complaining?” replied Tangerina. She most sassily shook her head, her tangerine hair whipping around like a crazed horse’s tail. “No, no you don’t.”
“I can see the fact that you haven’t gone outside in a long time.” He sighed and looked straight forward. “Ah, what happened to the beautiful Tangerina I met at my first arrival…”
“Nothing.” Tangerina shrugged much to the annoyance of her comrade. “It’s just that you have no taste, or respect…”
“Peh! Why should I respect anyone?” He extended his arms out in the grandiose fashion of a villain. “They should be respecting me, the one with the capital and the power.”
“At least you are honest. Especially with that black armor, it suits you.” Tangerina cast a bit of water and rained it down on herself to cool down. “Though, I wouldn’t be surprised if you died a virgin.”
“I can just pay someone to solve that problem.” replied he. “Unfortunately, I cannot pay someone to change the weather… urgh. I can’t breathe under this helmet.”
“You can just take of the helmet, Mister Edgelord.”
“You know what…” Mister Edgelord complied, plopping off the helmet which had been completely covering his face. “…I think I will. Everyone knows my ‘secret’ identity anyways.” Inside the helmet was a sight even more familiar to the reader: Kim Seong-min, CEO of Isegye Corporation and (un)retired adventurer. He had vowed to take business into his own hands: the business of eliminating the fugitives hampering trade in the region. What he was hoping for was to solve the issue before the next quarter, so that he could paint a brighter picture to his shareholders in the company. If the customer was always right, then the shareholder was something more than right (Kim himself failed to make a good metaphor there; his relationship with literature and writing started and ended with contributing to flamewars online).
“Sir, is it okay if I took off my hood as well? It’s quite hot for me as well.” said the figure who had been following in the back. Kim gave them a thumbs up, and Nirmal revealed himself to the reader. I’d love to hide away in a treehouse somewhere and pass this summer away, he thought. This dark elf missed his home, the concrete of Earth and the brick of Gemeinplatz wasn’t good for him despite the fact that he was living a decent enough life as the personal secretary of a CEO. “Thank you, sir.”
Kim didn’t really react to being thanked; his brain busy with being pissed off at the fugitives. “Tangerina, detect anything yet?”
“If I had, I’d inform you immediately so that we can stop this farce. The only living beings here are the grass and the wild beasts.” Tangerina was wagging her staff while holding it up to the air. From the outside, the staff looked like any other stick. From the inside, it was any other stick. She had sold her magic gear right after her retirement, so the best she could do was use the thick branch of a tree. Thankfully, Tangerina still had her overwhelming magic power to compensate for overwhelming lack of equipment. She could still detect every living being in a 100-meter radius without having to audibly cast a spell. “Oh! A person… and a herd of sheep - yep, that’s another shepherd.”
“Great, if we were looking to slay shepherds.” replied Kim, whose patience was running thinner than the wages he paid his workers. The only thing that they had slain were a bunch of weaponnappers who had tried to go against their overpowered party. Needless to say, there were no proper corpses left to mark where the beasts once stood.
“I sense another group… of three. No, four. Four. All of them are at a higher elevation.” Tangerina paused. She closed her eyes, focusing on the worthless stick in her hands. “They have stopped moving. Now they’re heading for the side of the road, and crouching. From the way their arms are positioned, I believe all of them are carrying weapons or tools of some sort. Maybe they plan on ambushing us?”
“Maybe. They are foolish if they plan on doing so; I’d guess that they may be hiding from the guy in black armor.” replied Kim, the guy in black armor. “Let’s head away from them and hide somewhere ourselves. Keep a close watch, Tangerina.” In rare moments like these, Kim did actually sound like a competent person instead of an online troll with way too much money.
Kim’s party walked away from the men they had detected, before throwing themselves behind a row of trees next to the road. Soon, their hunt would begin…
47th of Summer, 5859
Libertycave, Mount Curry
Donuts. Sugary, sweet, those are not at all related with what was happening at the moment… or so the unenlightened would think. For Ayomide, the ever-observant maid café worker turned radical abolitionist catgirl wizard wielding giant beams of multicolored light, the gathering in front of her was very much related to donuts. The donuts she’d one day rip out of the enslavers of Gemeinplatz who had deprived her of the right to have some. Donuts which… why am I thinking about them again?!
Ayomide sent a cold gust of wind towards her own face. That seemed to wake her up somewhat from the donut-related thoughts that surfaced whenever she saw the Provisional Council of Curry gather. The council had gathered once more, this time for a situation which had just occurred for the first time in Libertycave: crime.
“Men of the council… Calm down, calm down, for the Lord’s sake be at peace!” Old John Brown missed the days when he had a small crowd consisting of people numbering in two digits. Now there were around two hundred freemen, and organizing them all had become quite the chore, especially at times where debate was about to get heated. “Do you know why you all are here today?” A few murmurs indicating agreement emanated from the crowd. It was only a few, however, so the rest of the members of the audience had to be enlightened. “We are here to discuss the matters of a crime which occurred in Libertycave yesterday. Could the defendant please come forward? Defendant?” Brown had become all too familiar with legal terms thanks to his own case in court that led to his execution.
The donut suddenly became calm. One freeman raised his hand to speak “Captain, what is a ‘defendant’?”
Shinasi replied from the back “I think that’s a fancy term they use in courts… don’t worry about how I found out. It was just a misdemeanor, I swear.”
“…you are right, young man. What is a defendant?” Brown had forgotten the fact that he was dealing with people who didn’t even have a chance to go to court if they were accused. “A defendant is the one who has been sued by the plaintiff, the one accusing them of committing a crime.”
“I’m the defendant then?” A young boy came forward. It was Ejike, the former servant of Sir Algernon.
“And I’m the plaintiff?” Next to come forward was Bilal, the overseer of the kiln workers in Libertycave. “I’m not the one whose copper was stolen, but the kiln workers want me to represent them.”
“Yes, you two. Bilal, you can act as a prosecutor. Stand forwards please, and may I have order in the courtroom!” Brown didn’t have a gavel, so he used his spear to pommel the ground whenever needed. The freemen quietened down as he pounded the earth. “I also need… let’s say, six people to act as the jury, you will be judging the facts of the case.” After a short round of deliberation, six freemen stepped forward and took their seats on the couches taken from the Algernon estate.
Everybody could instinctively feel that the old man was to act as the judge, especially considering that his flowing white beard gave him a most judge-like appearance. He didn’t have any training, except for having been executed for treason in the United States, so Brown did his best to sound professional without any professionality in the legal profession. The old man pommeled the ground a few more times to get everyone’s attention. “Ahem, ahem… We are gathered here today, may the Lord be our witness, to hear the case of the copperworkers and Mister Ejike. Mr. Bilal, could you give us the facts of the case?”
“Of course, Captain.” Having already broken the rules of the court already by not referring to the judge as “His Excellency” or whatever, Bilal continued. “It’s simple. After learning math, me and my men decided to track the inventory of our copper. What goes in, what goes out… It turned out that a lot more copper was going out of our stock than the copper going in to our furnaces. So, me and my men decided to launch an ambush against the copper thief, and we found Ejike approaching the pile of copper. We tried to stop him, but he took a rock from the ground instead and wounded one of my men before escaping.”
“Yes, I have seen the wounded man.” Brown turned to Ejike. The jury had gotten heated hearing thievery happen in Libertycave. “What say you in your defense, young man?”
“First off, I only happened to walk next to the copper pile at night, on my way to get something to eat for sis. I didn’t do anything to it; none of my hands ever touched a piece of copper.” replied Ejike. “I didn’t mean to hurt anyone either; I was just scared when I saw a group of men approach me in the dark.”
“Is that true, Mr. Bilal?” Brown’s piercing gaze slowly turned towards Bilal. “Did you see him reach for the pile?”
“No, no I didn’t, captain. Still! That doesn’t change the fact that one of my men were wounded by him.”
“Oh you-”
Brown pommeled the ground once more. “Gentlemen! Let’s act like the civilized men we are. I think we have heard everything there is involving arguments that aren’t needless arguing. I’ll leave the jury decide.”
After brief deliberation, so brief that it took as long as it took for this paragraph to be written, the jury ruled that Ejike was not guilty of theft, and that he had acted in self-defense. Thus, an argument which would have taken several days and possibly escalated to cause a few more injuries was solved within minutes thanks to the rule of law.