Michael

Michael's dreams were strange that night. Pictures of people in chains flashed through his eyes, filled with a feeling of contempt and hatred. Followed by mass graves of the same people surrounded by men with distorted grinning faces and gold flowing out of their mouths as the blood ran between their feet. Michael tried to run, tried to get away but an old voice spoke to him, "You can't escape this, Michael. You can either fight it or join it."

Michael closed his eyes and covered his ears in panic, he didn't want to be here he just wanted to get out. It felt like he was a kid again, the same as he was before the coma, he was scared and tried to avoid everything.

"You must choose. I hope you make the right one," the voice echoed in his head when he awoke with a gasp.

He breathed heavily when he sat up in bed, the dream started to fade but the emotions were still as clear as day.

Why are my dreams always so intense, can't I just dream of dragons or unicorns for a change, Michael thought as he rolled out of bed. It was time for him to get up anyway he had an early appointment with his father today. He grabbed a notebook and began quickly scribbling down what he had seen in his dream before it faded completely. He didn't trust his dreams after the whole demon child disaster, so he had started to write them down. After he was done, he carefully hid the notebook under a floorboard next to the nightstand that he had loosened for this very use.

- A while later in Lord Rowan's study -

"So, you want a written order from me, instructing you to clean up the town from criminals?" Lord Rowan seemed amused by this request.

"Yes, Father."

"And why exactly do you want to clean up the town so suddenly?" As always, his father was open to any suggestion as long as good reasoning was presented.

"I was in the town the last two days and talked to the merchants about what was most important for their trade to flourish, and they said that a high crime rate was one of the most detrimental things. This is also one of the things we, as the ruling family, have great influence over to change it," Michael explained his well-prepared arguments. He wasn't going to run into such a meeting with half-baked preparations ever again.

"I heard about it; you have bought a smithy. My steward came to me complaining, how the money supposed to be for your education is wasted on that." He looked at Michael for a moment before he continued, "But Solon has assured me, that this is to teach you how to handle a business and that it was a very good deal, that will turn profitable in the end."

"Yes, and this operation will help teach me, how a town watch works and how they go about their work, while simultaneously educating me on the effects of crime on the town."

"Is there even a high crime rate in the town, that would justify work? The commander of the town watch hasn't reported any surge in crime."

Michael had anticipated that question and had prepared an answer. They had paid the debt of Harald yesterday and spent most of the day speaking to the locals, all to prepare for this conversation, everything would hang on how his father would take his arguments. "Yes Father, there is. I talked to many traders, craftsmen, and other workers, there seems to be a lot of crime that just doesn't get reported for one reason or another. I don't want to accuse anyone without further proof, but I heard that some of the watchmen don't take crime reports very seriously or investigate them lacklusterly. I don't know if it is because of a lack of motivation or a worse reason but I intend to find out. Even if there is none, I can still learn something that will prove advantageous in the future."

Lord Rowan sat in silence for a while, inspecting his son while he thought about what he had heard. "Are you suggesting that some of the watchmen are being paid off?"

His father didn't care for much concerning his governing of the counties, but order and security were something he cared a lot for. "I think it is a possibility, yes."

The man sighed and concluded, "And that is also why you asked this meeting to be in private and for me to not share any details."

Michael nodded.

"You know most people would laugh in your face, a seven-year-old trying to clean up the town and investigating the town watch. It is a weird situation to be sure, but you are not normal yourself." His father looked like he was reminiscing his eyes unfocused and a slight smile on his face. "Over a year has gone by already and I have watched your progress with interest. I decided a long time ago to not treat you like a child but as an adult, you simply are. If someone asked me who was more mature you or Matthias, I would be hard-pressed for an answer."

Michael smiled a little, he had completely given up on trying to fit into his age a while ago. His father seemingly tried to get to the point of his rambling, "If Matthias or any other adult that enjoyed my trust, came to me and told me what you have, I would grant their request. So, I don't see a reason to deny it to you, but I want to warn you, I will judge you on how you handle this also like an adult. You will have to prepare for the consequences if you fail."

"Of course, Father. I will not disappoint you."

"I am counting on it."

Michael got his letter and left the study, meeting up with Solon, Sola, and Geron in Solon's room.

When he entered the room Solon asked him, "How did it go?"

Michael held up the letter as an answer and the dwarf relaxed and asked, "You didn't tell him about your plans, did you?"

"No and he didn't ask, also I formulated it vague enough that I can justify it later if necessary. Now we just need some information and evidence, but it will have to wait for after our meeting with the town watch though, we do have to make a show out of stamping down on thievery and similar so that no one gets suspicious. What did you find out Geron?"

The knight signed annoyed, "I asked around and the town watch seems to be doing its job from what I could gather in the castle, but the moment you leave official sources it all flips. Bribery, protection money, and stuff like that seem to be rampant in the lower strata of the town and the town watch does nothing. It doesn't happen in the richer districts, so they don't care, or they are paid to not care."

Michael could understand his annoyance, the knight was part of the poor population before Michael's father took him in, so he could relate to the people. "And Fredrick is the center of it all?" Geron shrugged, "the people are most scared of talking about him, so I assume that he is."

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Sola was listening to the whole conversation. "It is the same as in most bigger cities with the lower-class citizens, I could have told you as much. But I don't really see the reason why you should personally take care of this. It does seem awfully risky for someone of your age."

Michael looked at her surprised. "Sola you were the first person to not treat me like a child and now you want to start? I don't think there is anyone else that would do anything because as Geron said, it doesn't affect the upper classes so it will never reach Father if the town watch doesn't care. It is on us to do something about it."

"I am just concerned for you, I have seen what can happen in large cities with vast criminal networks, to people that try to challenge them. There are literal wars between criminal groups." Michael put his hands in hers and looked her in the eyes, "I will not back down just because it is dangerous, you know this because you have taught me these values."

She smiled proudly and replied with a chuckle, "Should not have done that until you are a little bigger."

He squeezed her hands lightly before he turned around. "Good, Geron you will accompany me to the town watch barracks and we will see what is going on soon."

While Geron and Michael were walking through the streets Michael asked, "Do you think this is too dangerous?"

The knight didn't seem too surprised by the question. "It could get you in trouble, but I still don't believe that anyone would lay a hand on you, if anything happens to you, I could imagine Lord Rowan personally rampaging through the town."

"Really?" Michael chuckled at the thought when Geron continued, "But we need to be careful, we have no idea who is in on this whole thing and who to trust and even though you might be safe, other people like Harald and his family are not."

"We will not talk about our plans with anyone, we will see if we can sniff out the bad ones in the town watch first."

They approached the watch garrison's gates, where they were greeted by a guard who escorted them inside. The garrison wasn't as big as Michael had anticipated, a large wooden building with a little courtyard in the middle. There was currently a group of ten watchmen training in the yard.

"It is smaller than I thought," he said to Geron, and the knight nodded. "There are smaller watch rooms on the walls and the castle, so the main garrison doesn't have to be all that impressive. The town is also not that large, so it doesn't need too many watchmen with the guards and knights of the castle so close by."

They continued through the building, ignoring the curious looks they got until they reached the watch commander's office.

He was a tall and older man, dressed in the coat of arms of the town watch, his tired eyes focusing on Michael as they entered. He had seen the man before in the castle, he never looked happy whenever Michael had seen him.

The man bowed and introduced himself, "My name is Johnson, commander of the town watch, I welcome you to our barracks." Michael greeted him too and they sat down.

"What can I do for you, milord?"

"I have visited the town often in the last months and heard from the citizens that thievery is something that is on the rise, and it is becoming a problem, I have gotten an order from my father to come here and join the investigation and try to solve the problem or at least watch your people while they do it, as part of my education. I would like to see how the men of the town watch investigate crimes and solve cases." Michael tried to sound as excited as possible to fool the commander, that he was just an excited child.

The commander looked at him tired not giving him much of a reaction at all, he didn't even try to hide it, "I heard that you intermingle a lot with the townspeople, but I assure you we don't have a thievery problem, there are some cases as normal in any bigger settlement but nothing big."

Michael calmly took out a scroll and handed it to the commander, "These are all thefts I could find in the last two days, imagine how many I couldn't find in such a short span of time, they are mostly in the lower income parts of the town and so they probably think the watch doesn't care, that's why they don't report them. Father said that it could become a problem if that amount of thievery starts to boil over into the trade district."

The commander looked at the list and frowned, "Hm, this is indeed a lot, how did you come by this list if they don't report it?" Michael smiled innocently, "I asked."

The commander sighed and rubbed his eyes, "Alright, ehm I will introduce you to Sergeant Pollok he takes care of these parts of town and will take you on his investigation." A couple of minutes later the man entered the office, he saluted quickly. Michael inspected the man and wondered how a man of his weight could do this job, while Commander Johnson explained the situation to him.

"Understood, sir, I will get my boys to take a look and ask around, but I really don't see a reason for his lordship to waste time on some petty thefts," the voluptuous man said.

"It was ordered by Count Rowan himself, for the boy to learn about our work and petty theft is the safest way to do it. Lord Rowan has surely thought about it, and it is not your place to question it," the commander didn't show any kind of the overboard respect Michael was used to from other people. The sergeant had a hint of contempt flashing over his face, Michael wondered if it was towards himself or the commander.

"Yes, sir." He turned to Michael and stood to attention, "It will be my honor to show you what the town watch is all about, milord." There is the overdone respect, Michael really preferred the commander's attitude of respect but not overly so.

They left the office and went into the quarters of the watchmen where Pollok assembled his men. They were a mixed bunch of people, eight of them with Pollok. He explained the situation to them and their orders and then turned to Michael, "These are my men, a part of them at least there are nineteen in total under my command. We are organized in shifts, so normally we are fewer here, most of the men here are not on active duty right now but if an order comes in, we are always happy to jump in."

Michael nodded, that made sense as they probably have patrols out at all times, they need to cycle their men. The men didn't look very happy though.

Pollok organized three groups and sent them out to question the citizens of his area and investigate the thefts. Michael watched the different men carefully trying to judge their reactions, but he didn't get too much, he hoped that Geron had a better eye for people than him.

Michael was in the sergeant's group and followed them around the street, while they questioned the people and conducted random searches. He tried to ask many questions to mask his real purpose here, but he did actually learn a thing or two from the watchmen, as they explained how they picked out who looked suspicious or how thieves normally conduct their business. He also got a quick lesson on lockpicking which was actually quite interesting.

Michael also quickly noticed the reason why the thefts, beatings, and extortion were mostly not reported, the people seemed afraid of the town watch and visibly confused at their nice demeanor and questions. As expected, their questioning didn't lead to much, but they caught a man with a lock pick set and he was brought in for questioning.

After a couple of hours, they ended their tour and after arranging the time to meet for the next day, they parted ways. Michael and Geron headed to his newly acquired smithy, as this project would need a lot of work as well. On the way there Michael asked Geron for his thoughts on the day. "There is definitely something wrong with the town watch, the people were too afraid of them. I would bet my sword that this Pollok is involved."

"I agree, nothing seems to happen without his orders," Michael said. "We have to find out who is getting bribed first before we can do anything else, if we can't investigate without Fredrick being tipped off, we won't get anywhere."

They continued to the smithy where they met with Harald and Solon. They went over the books, or rather their lack off, and Michael got on-hand lessons in business management after a while Harald was forced to sit next to him to learn, as Solon criticized how the shop was run before. They got to the conclusion, that they would need to repair the building first and try to bring in more customers by showing a more competent front before they would do anything further.

At the end of the day, Michael finally got into his room and was glad that the day was over. Tomorrow normal training would start again, with only his afternoon lessons being conducted in the smithy and with the town watch.

He let all tension fall off his limbs and stumbled over to his table. He had neglected his studies the last day and wanted to get back into them. He rummaged around on his table until he found the sheet of paper with his magic invocations on it. Just as he wanted to start, he noticed a book with a red cover on the ground next to his table, he hadn't noticed it before because of the darkness in his room but with the little orb of light hovering in his hand, the book was quite obvious.

Michael picked it up and inspected it, he had never seen it before. Maybe Solon forgot to tell me that he got me a new book, he thought but quickly rejected that thought, the dwarf wouldn't have just dropped it on the ground or even left it in his room for that matter.

He opened the book and saw a bunch of numbers and names. It looked a little like the balance sheet Solon had shown them earlier, but it was different. Michael skimmed over the entries but couldn't make sense of the names and numbers until he found a name he recognized.

"Pollok."