Barbarian Girl

She was leaning against the wall in her cell, it was not even bright outside yet but she didn't have much to do but train and sleep anyway so her sleeping habits had become a mess. She was glad that she had a room now where no one bothered her, the little lord had kept his promise. The days had become uneventful lately, in the morning the dwarf would come by to teach her his sign language and remurian, around noon she would often battle the knights in the training ring, and in the evening the little lord often came to talk to her. It had been a year and she hadn't tried to escape once. Why? She couldn't answer that herself. Maybe it was because she didn't believe she would succeed or because she had nowhere to go if she did succeed, either way, she didn't like to think about it.

She wanted to go back to sleep when she heard voices from beyond the door and tried to listen. "Milord, you can't, we have orders." That was most certainly one of her guards, she was not completely fluent in their language yet, but she understood much and could guess the rest. It turned out that learning a language every day for hours a whole year long is pretty effective.

"I have an assignment from my father, and I need her for it, so step aside, I will bring her back don't worry." That was the little lord, he was up to no good again as it seemed.

The door opened and indeed the boy stepped in, he dropped a package of clothes and a belt with a sword and an axe attached in front of her feet. In her language, he said with a broad smile on his face, "Come on, Eydis, we have work to do."

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Michael

Michael stood in the courtyard of the town watch barracks, inspecting the watchmen as they arrived for the announcement that Commander Johnson had called them here for. All of the corrupt men were here and a high number of the good ones as well, 82 in total. Many of them eyed Eydis with mistrust and curiosity but no one commented on the young and armed barbarian girl. She in turn ignored them completely and simply enjoyed being out of the castle.

It was nearly time. Commander Johnson stepped forward letting his gaze glide over his men, there was no hint of tension in his body, he looked as tired as always, but it was only a facade. Michael was impressed at how the man could keep his cool with the whole plan relying on this moment; he wished he could be as calm. The commander then clapped loudly into his hands to gain the attention of his men but also as a signal. A door on the side of the yard opened and four knights came through it, positioning themselves around the watchmen, who looked at them with confusion.

Johnson clapped in his hands again to regain their attention and began loudly, "Men, today I have a duty that weighs heavily on me, as it is a result of my lacking leadership. Lord Michael Rowan has brought to my attention, that a part of the watch is receiving bribes and working with criminals."

The men were whispering to each other with some of the ones that Michael knew froze in place.

Johnson raised his voice to overcome the noise, "I will now read a list of those that have become criminals in this fashion, I implore you to not resist, the knights of Rowan will cut down anyone that does. Those that are not called upon and know they have never taken any bribe, will arrest the traitors on my and Lord Michael's order." At the end of his sentence, the knights drew their swords to hammer the point home.

The watchmen eyed each other with mistrust and voices of protest could be heard, as Johnson began to slowly read the list. With every name called the chaos in the ring of knights worsened as the watchmen were unarmed and a scuffle of the loyalists arresting the traitors ensued. It didn't take too long, as most of the traitors didn't put up any resistance and the ones that did were quickly overwhelmed by the loyal watchmen.

The traitors were dragged to the front and forced on their knees in front of the commander and the knights sheathed their weapons as their work was done. 21 men, some weeping, some begging for mercy, others denying everything and the rest dead silent.

Johnson eyed every last one of them before he spoke again, "You are a damn disgrace, every last one of you, you will be dealt with, but we have other things to do first. Take them away and make sure that not a word of this gets out." The prisoners were dragged away under protests and yelling. After the men had returned from imprisoning their former comrades Johnson called forth the three sergeants present. "I will now explain what your objectives will be, so listen well. The only way the town watch can regain its honor is to make this right ourselves."

- two hours later in the Red Lady -

It was a typical morning in the Red Lady, business was slow, as it always was at this time of day and mostly the new girls were on shift to get some practice in the lower income hours. It was actually kind of idyllic if you were to compare it to the shouting and laughing of the evenings. This idyll was suddenly broken when a man rushed in screaming, "The town watch is coming!" Suddenly there was panic, the warning pretty much useless as men dressed in the coat of arms of the town watch entered right behind him, one shouted, "Everyone on the ground."

Screaming and running ensued as many tried to get out as fast as possible through the back door. They were stopped when more watchmen broke down that door and boxed them in. Most complied after that, throwing themselves on the ground their hands covering their heads.

Some didn't comply and tried to fight their way out, but those notions of bravado were quickly snuffed out by the batons of the watchmen. The whole thing only took a minute, and the watch was in control of the main room. Behind the watchmen followed Michael accompanied by Eydis and Geron. He took in the sight for a moment and then made his way to the stairs.

"You can't do this, do you have any idea who I am, I am a noble, you filthy peasants!" That grabbed Michael's attention for a moment, and he looked over to where the voice was coming from. It was a corpulent man at one of the tables, his face red in anger and breathing heavily while a watchman tried to search him for weapons. Michael shook his head and continued on, when they reached the stairs, he turned to Eydis and said, "Go look for the slave quarters and make sure they are safe please."

She nodded and went past the bar looking for the women.

The watchmen waiting at the stairs began ascending them once he had arrived and split up at the top of the stairs, securing every room. Michael followed the ones that were headed to the office hearing more shouting as the watchmen dragged people out of the rooms. The guards in front of the office drew their weapons when they saw the watch approaching and prepared for a fight. Geron stepped forward, for them to see and said, "Do you think this is worth it?"

They looked at each other and decided that fighting a knight was way out of their pay grade and threw down their weapons. They were arrested and Geron pushed open the door to the office and entered with two watchmen before Michael followed.

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The office was as neat as the time Michael was there before except for the table, where documents were quickly moved out of the way and some even on the ground, Fredrick was currently ripping some apart when the watchmen grabbed him and forced him onto the chair, preventing him from destroying any more.

"What is the meaning of this," he yelled while fighting against the watchmen's grip, his anger nearly concealing his confusion.

"You are being arrested, that is what is happening," Michael said with a calm voice while Geron drew back a chair for him to sit down.

"I am a law-abiding citizen! You have no cause to arrest me!"

Michael took out the red book and held it up, "The corrupt men of the town watch have already been arrested and some have also already confessed. So, for the cause, it will be bribing official personnel, but I am sure we will find other crimes later, like extortion, kidnapping, and maybe even murder."

"That book does not belong to me," he was in shock, it was clear as day, just a couple of minutes ago he was a man who had everything, money, power, and status, and now everything fell apart seemingly out of nowhere.

Michael leaned back and smiled, "Don't worry you will be able to explain everything to my father once you are judged, you only have to convince him."

"I have powerful friends; they will not let this go!"

"Their influence might be a lot smaller than you think if they stand there beside you. You really shouldn't have chosen a life of crime if you didn't want to end up in this situation." Michael picked up a piece of paper from the table and looked at it, it was a letter he was writing, nothing suspicious about it.

"The rumors were true," he whispered to himself, and after a couple of moments of silence, the man finally looked at him with a weird look in his eyes, a mix of panic, confusion, fear, and hate. "You are no child; YOU ARE A DEMON!"

One of the watchmen punched the man in the stomach and he gasped for air. Michael frowned; he really hated that rumor. "You just underestimated me because I am a child, nothing demonic about it." He got back on his feet and told the watchmen to take him away. He yelled the whole time as he was dragged out.

Michael looked through the bookshelves when a watchman came in and said, "Milord, I think the ..." - he thought for a second - "the woman you came with wants you to come to her."

Michael chuckled and asked, "How did you figure that out?" He already started moving as the man made a face and admitted, "It was quite difficult, with the hand waving." When Michael got down the stairs, he called the sergeant who had led this raid, the man hurried over to him and gave him a little bow. "Anything to report?"

The man shook his head, "Nothing specific, milord. We are still interrogating the employees, we did secure the whole building though, and are going to start to search and confiscate everything relevant."

"Any word from the other units?" The raid on the Red Lady was not the only one, all over the city the town watch supported by the knights was raiding warehouses, homes, and businesses, trying to round up anyone with a connection to Fredrick and his criminal activities. They focused on the criminal elements for now as they were at a higher risk of fleeing or concealment than a bribed official might be.

"Nothing yet, milord."

"Alright, good job," he left the sergeant and followed the watchman out into the backyard. Here he saw the other building on the property where the slaves were housed and now, they were mostly spread in the yard talking with the watchmen.

Michael found Eydis in a group of women and approached them. "I am here, what is the matter," he signed at her, once she had spotted him.

"They know of a hideout where other girls are kept but can't speak remurian so I thought you could relay that," she signed back. Michael wondered how she had communicated with the woman but pushed the thought to the back of his mind for now. He called in a watchman and told him to relay the information to Commander Johnson and that he should send a patrol. He then translated what the women knew and sent the watchman on his way.

He stood there for a couple of minutes taking in the scene, the women looked alright, most well fed and few had any sort of injury, but many had a gaze, that was far away as if they weren't in the moment. Michael could see a couple of faces that he recognized from when he was here before but didn't approach anyone, he would have to hear a lot of their stories later anyway and didn't want to cloud his mind with anger right now.

Eydis tapped on his shoulder to gain his attention and began to sign, "What is going to happen to them?" Michael had thought about it before, but it was a difficult question. "Their ownership will go over to my father if Fredrick is found guilty, same as all his possessions. What happens with them afterward I can't tell you. My father doesn't trust slaves, so he won't employ them in the castle or anywhere, the only reason he keeps you is because you were a gift from my uncle, and you are locked up nearly all the time."

She frowned at the mention of her being a slave but didn't sign anything while he continued. "They might be sold, I guess that would be the most probable situation." He saw the frustration on her face at this. She probably hoped they would be freed or at least kept by Lord Rowan as he treated her with some amount of humanity at least, even if it was little.

"We will have to find out later, I will talk to my father and see what I can do alright?" She smiled at him, something that had happened more often, the longer she had been in Reen, and he returned the smile. They stayed in companionable silence for a while longer while the watchmen carefully grouped and questioned the slaves, they also knew that they would go into the property of house Rowan, so they were careful.

"Milord, there is trouble!" Michael turned around and saw the sergeant followed by an out-of-breath watchman approaching him. "What is it," he asked with concern, his mind spinning up every catastrophe, that could possibly have happened.

"The unit raiding Fredrick's estate has met strong resistance from a skilled augmenter. The knight you sent was still in combat with him when I left but it didn't look good, so Sarge sent me to get reinforcements," the runner said between deep breaths.

Damn, Michael thought, he had expected to have the highest resistance in the Red Lady, that is why he brought Geron and Eydis here, but it seems like he was wrong. "Geron, Eydis on me."

"Should we send support," the sergeant called after him.

"You stay here but send word about it to the commander."

Michael hurried through the building until he got out to the street. "Guide the way," he told the runner.

Michael had problems keeping up with the adults but with some mana injection, they managed to reach the estate in a reasonable time, as it wasn't too far away from the Red Lady anyway. At the gate, they saw a group of watchmen staring concerned inside, some injured as well, when they saw them coming, they waved them inside. Behind the gate was a small courtyard, multiple men were already lying on the floor some groaning, some completely devoid of life but Michael could see only specks of blood here and there. The knight he had sent was weak on his feet, swaying left and right as he grasped his weapon. The man in front of him was a small man with an athletic build and a shit-eating grin on his face. He was clad in normal clothing and only had arm guards in terms of armor and most curiously he didn't have a weapon.

Geron rushed onto the side of his fellow knight and grabbed him. "Are you alright?" The knight only weakly nodded before he sunk together, the tension falling from his limbs now that support had arrived. Michael ordered a couple of watchmen to take him away, all the while the small man just watched.

"You must be the demon boy noble I have heard a lot about," the augmenter said with a smug tone.

God, he hated that rumor. "And you are?"

"You can call me Yon."

"Alright Yon, I order you to surrender yourself on the orders of House Rowan, get on your knees, and put your hands on your head," Michael said with as much authority as he could manage but Yon didn't seem all that impressed. "Sorry, no can do. I have been contracted to protect this house and everything in it. But I would consider voiding my contract if you pay me enough and let me go my way."

"You really think that is going to happen?"

"Nah, but I reckon you would really like to get on the information and stuff in this house before they burn it all," he was still grinning like he had all the cards in hand.

"Well, I guess we just have to take care of you fast enough."

"The last one didn't fare so well," Yon laughed loudly.

Geron stepped forward and said, "I will take care of him." Before he could get far, Eydis grabbed his arm and walked past him. He looked at Michael with a raised eyebrow, who just shrugged and said, "Guess she wants to let off some mana."

"Oh, now you have to let little girls fight for you or is she supposed to be my payment?" Michael gritted his teeth and said loudly, "Beat him up, Eydis, but it would be nice if he survives, I want to see him hang."

Yon still laughed as the fight began.