The cat girl's whiskers twitched when her inhuman eyes reached mine. "You're a real storm bringer, aren't you, Lawrence?" she said with amusement.
"Move aside!" a male voice yelled out from the crowd. The gathered onlookers quickly parted, and a group of a dozen soldiers appeared. They were well equipped, with some soldiers wearing studded leather and others wearing chain mail and carrying shields; each man had a sword, mace, staff, spear, or bow. Apparently, the Watch had arrived. "What happened?" a heavily armored soldier asked. The man had dark brown eyes, a beak nose, and a narrow face. He had the demeanor of a hawk.
I pointed my finger at the fallen man. "I caught this man trying to pickpocket me; he then attacked me with his sword," I explained. I pointed to the large blood stain on my tunic above my right shoulder as proof. "He stabbed me right there."
"I noticed the fight while walking down the street and decided to intervene before either combatant was seriously injured," Kalistra said. "I only knocked him out," she added while pointing her scabbard at the thief on the ground.
The leader of the Watch nodded in approval. Street fights often ended in needless death. Death should only be administered by the Watch or the Executioners, not the rabble here on the street. He caught a glimpse of the specially adorned scabbard. Recognition of the symbols caused the man to examine the cat girl more closely; he recognized her as the star pupil and prodigy of the prestigious Butterfly School of Swordsmanship. A shiver crept up his spine at her presence but the seasoned soldier kept his calm demeanor for the benefit of the onlookers. "You both need to come with me. You are required, by Law, to give official statements to our scribes of this incident. This man will be tried by the People’s Court based on an examination of your statements." He secretly prayed to God that the cat girl will voluntarily submit to the Watch; he had a wife and two kids to support.
"But I'm wounded," I reminded the officer while pointing at my shoulder again.
"We'll have a healer deal with it at our offices," he replied dismissively. The wound was barely a scratch in his view. But considering that the target appeared to be a nobleman, the complaint was understandable. Realizing that the cat girl would never jeopardize this man’s life due to her Honor, the leader decided to take advantage of his presence next to her.
I heard the officer whistle and the guards immediately surrounded Kalistra and me, effectively preventing us from leaving. I had no interest in getting into trouble with the Watch and thus, I decided to comply. "We will be happy to give official statements at your office," I smiled politely. I may as well try to save face publicly by suggesting that our compliance was voluntary. Once I agreed to leave with the Watch, a pop-up appeared. It read, "+2 Reputation. +40 XP."
I had totally forgotten about the game's reputation system. I admit that when I played the Merlin game, I focused more on dungeon crawling to rapidly raise my character level. I never bothered to check my reputation score. Now that I was forced to spend more time within the city, or at least until I was strong enough to dungeon crawl, I need to pay more attention to my Reputation. Otherwise, I could find myself locked in jail and rot there for the rest of my life.
While the leader was telling the crowd to disburse, I temporarily turned my attention back to the issue of reputation. A high reputation had a number of benefits. First and foremost, it helped relieve a bit of the negative effects of a low Charisma attribute, such as mine. Second, when negotiating with merchants, a high reputation could result in a price discount on merchandise. Third, a high reputation was a people-magnet and drew more potential henchmen and followers, as well as party members, to your cause. Fourth, certain in-game quests had a reputation requirement, whether that reputation was positive (famous) or negative (infamous). Finally, a high reputation was absolutely essential for someone seeking the Crown. Thus, increasing my personal reputation was added to my growing mental to-do list.
We walked for about ten minutes and apparently went through the busiest streets in town if the crowd of pedestrians was anything to measure by. Shortly thereafter, we approached a building with a tall spire. At the very top of the spire was a white cross. I was very surprised to see the cross and wondered if the Watch was a religious order.
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The building stood by itself on its own street. Ignoring the spire, the building was like a mansion, with numerous windows, doors, and apparently offices. On the very left end of the building was a horse stable. On the right end was what appeared to be the prison, where people in chains were being led in and out by the guards. The middle section was a set of enormous double doors with decorative stain glass on either side. Heavily armored guards stood attentively in front of the doors.
The leader of my contingent spoke to the guards, who then opened the heavy looking doors and waved for us to enter the building.
Inside was a large lobby with numerous desks manned by clerks. The Watch brought us to a desk with a reed-thin, pale looking man with tiny spectacles. Ebenthal, who had been walking with us in chains and had his belongings confiscated, was led away through a side door, presumably to sit in a jail cell while awaiting trial.
The scribe looked at us and held up a wooden cross in his left hand while raising his right hand up to his ear. "Do you swear by the Holy Cross, the Law, and the Order to tell the truth and nothing but the truth upon pain of death?" he asked.
To my amazement, the cross started glowing.
Kalistra raised her right paw and said, "I, Kalistra, do so swear." A beam of light flew from the cross and struck her in the heart.
The scribe turned his attention to me and raised his brows.
I quickly followed the cat girl's example. "I, Lawrence Eugene Mulligan, do so swear." When the beam of light struck my heart, my organ felt hot for a brief moment. I had a bad feeling about what will happen to my heart if I lied to the scribe.
The scribe nodded in satisfaction. He laid a parchment on the desk in front of him and dipped the quill into the inkwell. "Proceed," he commanded.
Kalistra started describing how she came upon the fight in the street and what action she took to end it.
As she spoke, a healer approached me and started rubbing a foul-smelling ointment on my shoulder wound. I winced when I felt the application of the substance burn my open wound. Thankfully, the burning sensation disappeared after a few seconds.
The scribe transcribed the witness testimony without comment. When she was finished, he set the parchment aside to let the ink dry. The official placed another parchment in front of him. He looked at me and said, "Proceed."
Again, I followed Kalistra's example and quickly gave my own testimony. My testimony was much longer; it included my initial encounter with Ebenthal inside The Noble Lady and also how the man followed me into the street. When I was finally finished, the scribe nodded again.
"Where are you residing?" the scribe asked.
"The Butterfly School of Swordsmanship," Kalistra answered.
"The Noble Lady," I said.
The scribe added a note to our respective parchments. He then stood up. "Thank you for your testimonies. You will be informed when the defendant is to appear before the Court. Your presence will be required in case the Court has any more questions for you. Until the trial is over, you are required by law to remain in the town of Tregome. Dismissed." The scribe rolled up the parchments and put them in a storage chest.
A pop-up appeared in front of my eyes. It read, "+50 Reputation. +100 XP."
The two of us walked out of the government building.
Kalistra looked at the sun and winced. She was very late for her class. She turned to me. "I have to get back to my dojo. I'm really late and my papa will yell at me." Her eyes were downcast and her fluffy ears were bent down too.
I was really tempted to pet her head just then. However, I was rather leery of the weird cat people customs and didn't want to have another misunderstanding with her. "Actually, I was thinking of dropping by your dojo and perhaps take up sword lessons. Can you take me with you?" I asked.
The ears sprang back to life. "Really?" Kalistra asked with a gleam in her eyes.
"Yes," I nodded. "If you watched my fight, you know how weak a fighter I am. I really need to improve my melee skills," I added.
"You sure are weak," Kalistra agreed as her mind rewound back to the street fight. She looked at me again and made a decision. "Okay, let's go!" She took off and ran on all four paws.
"Wait up!" I yelled and started running after her.