Duke passed several more villages along the way and found similar “problems” with excessive harvests until he was over a hundred twenty kilometers away from Cloudspire. He bought up the excess in each village he encountered and was finally happy to have found a roadside Inn that seemed to mark the boundary edge of his AURA of PROSPERITY. He was delighted to see an actual roadside Inn and immediately decided to head inside.

As he entered, a stout woman looked up from cleaning a table and offered a greeting. “Good day, traveler. Welcome to the Restful Roost Inn. Have you stopped by for a meal, something to wet your whistle, or a room to break the monotony of the road?”

“How about a meal and a drink to start?” Duke sat at the table she had indicated. In moments she was gone into the kitchen while a middle-aged man came out to greet Duke.

“Good day to you, sir. I am Jack Miller and you have already met my wife Emma. Are you an adventurer of some sort?”

“Odd question, but I’ll bite. Yes, you could call me an adventurer, but what brought you to that conclusion?”

“Well, you are alone and not a local. Only an adventurer would be either foolish or brave enough to travel the road by themselves. Especially this road.”

“You make it sound like this road is dangerous.”

“Aye, it is a mighty dangerous road. With the bandits flowing into the area, we must make sure we have protection well-paid to keep ourselves safe. Figuring out which bandit lord was the one that would come out on top was a bit of doing, let me tell you but it seems we guessed right.”

“Why don’t you appeal to the kingdom for aid? Or hire adventures to drive the bandits off?” Duke gestured at himself as he spoke.

“Let me ask you this. What happens if the king’s men come and drive the bandits out of here for a few weeks and then the bandits come back? What do you think is going to happen to the one who called the king’s men in? Yeah. Same thing for adventurers. Better to accept it as a price for doing business and go on with our lives.”

“I can’t fault your logic, but it doesn’t seem right at all.”

“Doesn’t matter if it’s right or not. It is the way it is. Nobody’s gonna change that anytime soon. But don’t you worry about all that. We’re all paid up here so there’s nothing to worry about. Ah, here’s Emma with your dinner.”

Duke graciously accepted the bowl of stew and small loaf of bread, thanking Emma as he began to sip his watered-down ale. He placed a handful of silver coins on the table. “We didn’t discuss a price, so please take what is appropriate.”

Emma took a pair of silver coins and slid the rest of the pile back to Duke. “That is plenty.”

“Are you sure? It’s not like you are overflowing with guests right now and I can afford to pay more.”

“Quite sure, young man. Thank you.”

“Then would you at least join me for the meal? Eating alone is not what I would like right now.”

Emma nodded to Jack, and he hurried off to the kitchen. She sat down opposite Duke. “So, what’s your name, young man?”

Jack came back in with two bowls of stew in his hands with bread held against his body in each arm. He placed it all on the table and the couple joined Duke in eating.

“My name is Duke. Yes, I know it’s an odd name, not a title. Have you had any interesting guests lately?”

“Well, we did have a delegation from the Kingdom of Tannish come through here. They stayed for a night. Very nice young men and women. Other than that, only our occasional passers-by and, of course, the bandits like to come here and have a drink or two. But they don’t cause us too much trouble since we pay our tax.”

The whole prospect of bandits taking over the area was making Duke twitchy. He decided to stay the night at the roadside inn and see if these bandits showed up. He dove back into the conversation with the innkeepers.

“So, you came here from the capital. What are they calling it now?”

“Cloud-something, love.”

“Cloudspire.” Duke corrected.

“How is the new king? Is he any better than the old one?”

“I would say he’s far more interested in the welfare of the people. If he heard about the bandits around here, he would be inclined to come here and wipe them out personally.”

This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

“He’s that concerned about the average citizen? I doubt it very much. Nobles are more likely sit on their arses and collect taxes. Isn’t that right, dear?”

“I have to agree with Emma. We have had all manner of nobility stroll through the inn over the years and none of them have ever concerned themselves with our situation.”

“I understand. Most nobility are born into it and have been taught a certain way to act. This king wasn’t born into it. He took the kingdom from Chopie after Chopie went mad and turned on his own people.

“Oh, so the new king is prone to violence. That’s not great. He’s going to get us involved in another war, isn’t he?”

“I hope not but he did get his position through war, so he has to be downright warlike. What do you think, Duke?”

“I think he’s a man who cares a bit too deeply about his friends and family and will do anything to protect his people. Like I said, he would wipe out every bandit in the area if they threatened his people.”

“You sound like you know him. Have you met the new king?” Jack seemed to be thinking a bit more as he asked his question.

Duke decided that he had carried the charade on long enough and let his disguise drop. “Well, of course I know him. I see him in the mirror every morning.” As the pair stared at him in shock, he continued. “Now where do these bandits live? I need to have words with their leaders.”

“They…they are in the hills above the road. But they are strong. They’ll kill you.”

“Not likely. Emma, Jack, you have been great to get to know. I’m going to head out for a while, but I’ll come back when all is settled. In the meantime, allow me to clean up a bit.” Duke activated CLEANSE and RESTORE. The results were rapid and remarkable with the color returning to faded paint, wood being restored to its original finish, and even the cutlery returning to its original condition. Duke smiled as he stepped out the door that no longer squeaked when opened.

Once outside, he settled atop the inn and activated his DUNGEON SENSE. Closing his eyes, he concentrated on slowly expanding his radius and taking in everything he could see. It took about ten minutes to scan his full six-kilometer radius. He had expected to find the bandit camp, but all he could lock onto was a pair of riders making their way up into the hills. He took to the air to pursue the riders.

Soon, he was following them as they meandered up into the hills, surprised that they didn’t notice him at all. Then again, how many people looked up and behind themselves when riding horses up into hills? Their focus was on the path before them. Duke’s focus was on his DUNGEON SIGHT as he scanned the area ahead.

It was not long before Duke could see the bandit’s camp. He was quickly able to count 37 bandits in total, including the two who he had stopped following as they approached the camp.

Not too many for me to handle, but certainly more than the local villagers could handle. And I’m sure they know it. Do I give them a chance or just call righteous hell down upon them?

Duke flipped a coin. It came up heads which he had decided meant that he was going to speak with them first. Shrugging, he set out walking towards the camp, taking a similar route as the two riders had taken. It seemed to be a rather common trail which led Duke to believe that the bandits were well-established in the area – something that did not make him any happier.

To the bandit’s credit, he was spotted before he actually made it to the camp. A trio of riders rode out to confront his disguised form. “Who are you and what are you doing here?”

“I’ve come to speak with your leader.”

“Saparov don’t speak to nobody ‘less he wants to speak with them.”

“Tell Saparov that he can speak to me now or speak to me over your cooling corpses. I’m coming into the camp to speak with him.”

The short recurve bow that creaked as it was drawn back gave Duke a warning that the trio were making their move. Duke decided to speed things up and TELEPORTED to the center of the camp.

“Saparov! Come on out so we can have a talk.”

A tent flap snapped open as a willowy man unfolded himself to his full height. “Not the smartest move you could have made, stranger.”

“Saparov, I presume?”

“I am, and this is my territory. You have exactly ten seconds to say what you have to say before I debone you like a river trout.” He slowly drew a long thin curved blade that looked an awful lot like an oversized filleting knife.

“This land belongs to King Duke, not you. I suggest you vacate.”

“The king’s not here.” The man’s sneer was Hollywood-classic.

“And if he was?”

“I’d filet him just like everyone else who else who has dared challenge my authority. These are my lands and that is all there is to it. No one dares challenge me here.”

“I guess my ten seconds are up now. What was it you said you were going to do? Oh, yes, filet my flesh from my bones, right?”

Saparov made his move, darting his knife in a forward arc that would slash Duke from armpit to elbow. Duke responded by TELEPORTING Saparov’s humerus bone into his left hand, and using it to block the knife strike. A slash which had lost all of its leverage without the bone to anchor the tendons and ligaments. Duke took a step back and dropped his disguise.

“But you see, the king IS here!” Duke saw the looks of shock that flashed through the bandits at both his appearance and what had happened to Saparov. The bandit was staring at the limp appendage hanging from his shoulder in shock and horror, the knife falling from his hand.

Before anyone else could react, Duke blasted out a wave of LIGHTNING around himself, covering the entire camp, arcing to strike every bandit in the camp save one. The arcs of LIGHTING missed every single horse but most panicked and ran off anyway as the thunder rolled out into the hills reverberating and echoing into the distance. The lone remaining bandit stood trembling facing Duke, a dark stain travelling down his leg.

“You saw what happened here today. Banditry is a capital offense in this kingdom, but you, alone, have been shown mercy this day. Choose a new path and live a full life. Spread the word so that no one else makes this poor choice.”

The bandit could only numbly nod. He opened his mouth to speak, but the smell of the charred corpses overwhelmed him, making him fall to his knees vomiting. Duke was gone when he looked back up.