My butler woke me up earlier than I wanted or agreed to, insisting I make my visit to the palace. No amount of bitching or threats helped.
“How dare you enter a lady's room while she sleeps?” I protested.
He shrugged off my complaint. “I've seen you sleeping before, my lady. Remember? You told me you need to place the request early, or you might be postponed until tomorrow.”
I sighed, annoyed. If Elenia were nearby, he wouldn't remember anything but standing guard outside the tent. Yet, when it comes to my sleep, he suddenly has no problem recalling every detail!
I turned over. “What’s wrong with being postponed? Tomorrow is also a day! You're fired! Let me sleep!”
He chuckled. "You can't fire me, you don't pay me anything!"
After that small victory that left me speechless, he declared, "Breakfast is served!"
Seeing that I still didn't move, he resorted to threats. "I don't want to use the cold water I brought with me, but if necessary…"
“Don't you dare! You're risking your life!” I yelled in outrage, raising my eyes to see... he had none. It was just an empty threat. I snorted.
“I don’t pay you?” I asked, surprised.
He nodded eagerly. “No, you don’t, but you should correct that!”
“But didn’t we talk about payment before?”
“Yeah, but talk is cheap,” he replied. “You said you’d fit the bill, and that was all!”
I chuckled and rolled my eyes as I stood up, wrapping myself in the bed linen. Since our travels through the jungle, I seem to transform during the night and find myself in the morning, out of my pajamas, somewhere in my room—spread on my bed, beside it, or sometimes under it.
I went to wash up and found myself facing a new problem. Last night, Mike had shown me how everything worked, but I’d partially forgotten. I still remembered how to flush the toilet, but couldn’t manage to get any warm water. Drats, the way they implement bathrooms, water flows, and heating isn’t standardized, and I’ve encountered a different version each time. Well, cold water it is. At least I was really awake after that shower.
After having breakfast together with the 'students,' I headed to the palace accompanied by Ju.
With her following a step behind me, I realized I now looked like one of those rich nobles, strutting around to display my elf servant. I had to work hard to ignore the envious and sometimes disdainful looks I received.
The palace was adjacent to the vast university compound, and in less than a quarter of an hour, we entered it. Guards were stationed at the entry and lined the corridors, but access to most areas was permitted. Some restricted sections required special allowances, but I didn't need to go there. I knew exactly where the magistrate for veteran affairs and war compensations was located and headed straight there. I had visited this office with Cala a few times to cash in smaller rewards when I needed money, or at least I had Cala's memory of going there.
While I could remember the palace vividly, I had completely forgotten how to operate those water taps. Or perhaps I had never learned that part at all. It was clear that when that fateful explosion happened in the Death Node, some fragments of Cala's mind were embedded in mine, but not everything. Again and again, I discovered missing pieces, and I still wasn't sure what it all meant.
As I pondered this and casually admired the beautiful architecture of the palace, we passed a green yard just in front of the magistrate's office. Suddenly, a boy jumped from a group of people and ran directly toward us. My mind was elsewhere, and before I could react or say anything, he dropped to his knees and took Ju's hand in his.
"Sister, please help me!" he mumbled.
He was trembling all over, burring his face in Ju's robe as he clung to her legs. From the group, a guard had jumped to follow him, and then two more followed.
Everything happened so fast that I didn't even realize those weren't royal guards. Barely seconds after it all began, the first guard reached us, only to have a thirty-centimeter sickle materialize in front of him. His eyes widened in shock, but he couldn't stop and impaled himself on it.
He hung there, trembling feebly like a bug pinned to an invisible wall. Ju raised her hand, warning the other two guards.
"Stop, and I will heal him!"
I turned to look at them, my mouth opening to say something but closing again as my mind struggled to comprehend the situation.
The two remaining guards halted, staring at their impaled colleague in horror. They then turned their heads back, clearly waiting for instructions. A woman in the group, dressed in a very elegant gown, nodded reluctantly, clearly displeased to have her conversation interrupted.
I just had the time to identify them: guard, level sixty-five, guard, level sixty-eight.
At that moment, several royal guards burst into the yard just as the sickle vanished and the flailing man fell to the ground. Ju knelt beside him and began to heal him. The man, breathing hard and coughing blood, soon showed no signs of the horrible wound except for the spilled blood and the cut in his shirt.
The royal guards approached us cautiously but determined, forming a half-circle with drawn swords, isolating us from the rest of the people.
As I stood there, peaceful and cooperative, while Ju healed the wounded guard, one of the royal guards, a red-haired woman in her twenties who seemed to be in charge, raised her left hand, possibly signaling the others to stop. She sheathed her sword and walked closer while the others remained ready nearby.
"Was that spell that spilled blood yours?" she asked, directing her question at me.
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Obviously she would suspect me, not the healer or the scared young boy.
Only then did I notice the collar around the boy's neck and his long ears, finally understanding the situation: a young elf slave had seized his chance to escape. That 'spell' had been Lynx's claw.
I sighed and nodded. "Who else?" I said with a shrug. "I'm sorry. I thought he would stop before impaling himself on it."
She raised an eyebrow, taking me in. "I see," she answered.
More royal guards arrived, but she signaled that everything was under control. She turned back to me.
"Spilling blood inside the palace is a felony that may carry the death penalty if you are found guilty of aggravated assault. You are under arrest!" she declared, watching me attentively to gauge my reaction.
I knew it was bad, but not that bad. I sighed, raising both hands placatingly. Fighting now would be stupid. Besides, I hoped there was still a way to walk free.
Ju raised a hand. "May we just walk into the next room first, for a short moment? My lady was just about to place a claim with the magistrate."
I thought the guards would explode with fury at such audacity, but to my surprise, they accommodated her.
"Ah, veterans," she mumbled. "It's okay to walk into the next room and stay there until I come to take you!"
I suppose she wanted to get the story of the incident from the other people without us there. She turned towards her guards.
“You accompany her and wait for me there!”
They nodded. The kneeling boy was still trembling on his knees, clinging to Ju's hand. She spoke gently to him.
“You can stand up now, you are safe. Come with us, please.”
Strangely, I wasn't particularly alarmed. The guards didn’t seem particularly hostile, and I hoped I could escape if I really wanted to. I remembered that Cala had been arrested a couple of years ago when she was level eighty-two for participating in a party that went swimming in the forbidden royal bath.
The royal cells in the palace had been clean, and the guards surprisingly civilized.
Well, that’s how I entered the magistrate’s room—to place my bid for a domain—with a royal guard escort, followed by Ju and an escaped slave. I'm not sure I made the impression Mike wanted me to make there.
The conversation with the magistrate had been very short and efficient. He took my token and promised that I would get the nomination as soon as I got out of jail, dead or alive. He assured me that the normal wait time was less than a week, but he also recommended that I prepare a representative and my testament in case I am found guilty. In any case, the nomination festivity will be on the first Kargath day after my liberation.
Soon, the red-haired royal guard woman came, and we started walking towards the guard’s headquarters and prison.
“You know, there are a lot of people who would sympathize with what you did,” the woman explained. “Even among the guards. But the law is the law," she added with a sigh. "You spilled blood inside the palace walls, so you have to face the judge. A good point for you is that your... elf healed Madam Clarissa's man.”
“Madam Clarissa?” I wondered.
“The head of the Clarissa Company, one of the leading handler houses...”
“Oh...” I exclaimed.
We walked further in silence for a few moments.
“She doesn't take it personally against you. She said that if you pay fifty gold upfront, she won't raise any other charges. Anyway, I understand she has now booked a fifty gold debt line for you in their companie's accounts.”
She shrugged, not expecting a reply from me, then continued on another theme.
"You know, something bothers me..." she said and paused. I stopped to look at her, waiting for her to continue. She nodded toward the young boy who was following in a distance together with Ju.
“This boy had been tested before being allowed into the palace. To ensure no such scene occurs, each slave brought inside this compound is interrogated by the guards. They have the option to run away right there. If someone brings a slave here, it's like daring us to do something, knowing we can't intervene directly. That's why we often separate the slaves and ask them a few questions to give them a chance to escape. Yet he was meek and followed her without saying a word to the guard. The question is, why did he suddenly risk everything by asking you to free him? You could have let her guards take him back.”
“You mean this was a trap?” I wondered, surprised.
She shrugged, eyeing me.
“I’m not sure. I don't know. He seemed genuinely afraid, but who knows. Maybe he managed to break free from the compulsion to follow his master... or did you help?” She looked at me, trying to see if I had influenced the young boy, then started walking again. “Oh, well, why would you have done that? To get arrested? Whatever, it’s not my business. You’ll get your questions from the judge...”
I sighed and followed her.
"Nice spell, by the way!" she said with a grin, changing the subject again. "Stopping a level sixty-two guard with one spell? You've got my respect, lady!"
I rolled my eyes at the undeserved praise. Lynx had managed to remain completely unnoticed, even after displaying his claw so spectacularly.
“You use the adventurers' scale?” I asked.
“It’s not just theirs; they don’t have a monopoly on it. More or less everyone uses it nowadays. It’s the best scientifically done measurement," she replied. "Just because they use it doesn’t mean others can’t.”
Five minutes later, I found myself looking at Ju and the boy from behind bars. Due to the ring, she was forced to stay within a few hundred meters of me, but the guards were kind enough to let her stay by my side. The boy still clung to her hand and hasn't spoken a word since the event. With him being an elf it was very difficult for me to estimate his age.
We were in an annex to the guards' headquarters, and at the end of the corridor, I could see a main room bustling with guards. In our section, only a couple of guards were talking softly. There were no other prisoners in this wing, except for one visibly inebriated noble in a cell opposite mine, closer to the main room.
Ju was sitting on a simple wooden bench opposite my cell. I sighed.
“If there could be just one time when I start something and nothing bad happens. Seriously, I go visit you and get blasted, I try to wash myself and ants attack us, I sing a song and that almost starts a war, I fly the zeppelin and Mike falls, I walk to the magistrate and end up in prison! It feels like I’m cursed!”
She looked up at me guiltily.
“I can guarantee there's no curse on you,” she said hesitantly, but the guilty look in her eyes said much more.
I took a deep breath. “Did you do something?” I asked.
“Ahem,” she coughed into her hand. “I’m always doing something. Not sure what you mean specifically.”
There was no need to ask her any more; it was clear she had done something—perhaps removed a geas from the boy—but this wasn’t the place for details. It was better for me not to know what had really happened.
“Was it really necessary?” I wanted to ask, but seeing the wide-eyed boy clinging to her hand, I swallowed my words. I looked at her with half-closed eyes and instinctively scratched my scalp near the left horn.
“Could it not wait?”
She shook her head without saying anything.
“So let me get this straight. Somehow his geas is... malfunctioning, and I idiotically cast a spell to impale that guard, because I’m that stupid!”
“Ahem!” There was a cough from the shadows to the right of Ju, startling the young boy. “You can’t stop them by throwing flowers. Besides, one would expect someone at his level to react faster.”
I rolled my eyes. Lynx had followed us even here.
I sighed. “Okay, okay. We’ll solve this one way or another. Let’s see what's coming up,” I said, nodding towards the guards.