Chapter 50:

I felt a lot better after smacking around a lot of guardsmen in sparring sessions. Their newfound respect for me seemed almost a little wary as well. Going back up to my office, I continued my work. I started writing a letter to the King. I didn't actually intend to send it, as I hoped to go in person. Still, every detail and scrap of evidence was included in the letter. Then, I stacked it off to the side for further verification. The only thing I was missing was a name. I was almost entirely certain it was Roderick, but so far all the evidence was circumstantial.

That night, the captain knocked on the door and entered without permission. I looked up and saw he had a grim expression on his face.

"We found something already."

"That was fast. What do you have for me, captain?" I responded, mentally noting this man's efficiency. He was doing a good job so far.

"Yes. The witch, Agatha, the chamberlain's wife. We apprehended her after she was leaving a clandestine meeting."

"Who was she meeting with?" I asked, curious.

"Roderick's right-hand man. I don't know how he managed to get into the county without us knowing. But that wasn't the worst of it. The third party at the meeting was an Aldorian envoy."

I blinked, pulled out a map, and looked it over the captain's shoulder. That wasn't a county or name I recognized from the kingdom until I looked farther south and realized that it was the name of the empire at our borders. I would need to look into our relationship with them.

"That is concerning," I said. "What did you find on her?"

"She had a letter." The captain handed it over to me, and I skimmed through it.

"Hmm. This is rather damning," I said. There were little bits of veiled hints, but it was further instructions for handling coin, and Roderick had even signed and sealed it himself. Putting it together with the rest of my evidence, I concluded, "I believe we must go see the King."

The captain nodded. "Prepare to leave in the morning," I said. "We travel as fast as we can."

***

I regretted those words deeply. Traveling as fast as possible involved riding horses, which was something I had never done. Apparently, not in this body either, as my legs screamed and complained. We weren't even to the edges of my county only an hour after leaving the fortress, and I was ready to take a break. How was I going to survive another two days of this?

Luckily, I didn't have to wait long before we were forced to take a break. We found a massive tree blocking the road, which was only an hour out of our county boundaries. As we stopped, we didn't move to clear the obstruction but remained well aware of this common trap of bandits. The guards charged into the woods from each side, taking the bandits by surprise. Several arrows flew, but the bandits were not expecting a charge, so most missed. Though several guards went down injured, the bandits struggled to draw their swords as the guards bore down on them.

I charged right along with the guards to the right and paused, waiting half a second for the bandit to finish dropping his bow and drawing his sword before I ran him through. Honorable combat and all. The bandits must have overestimated their abilities because they didn't outnumber us by much at all. Before I even had a chance to find a second soul to send to Valhalla, the guards had put down every last one of them. Nine were dead, including the one I had killed, and another fifteen were captured, knocked unconscious with truncheons or blade flats, and bound up.

They should have just killed them all. They'd be hung anyway, and now, checking my amulet, I was one short of my monthly quota. I guessed roaming the roads waiting to be attacked by bandits would work for maybe the first couple of months. Now, we didn't have enough guards to escort them back and also get me to the King as fast as possible. The captain looked at me for a decision. The guards looked at the bandits with fear in their eyes.

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"As Count Alaric of County Alaric, I sentence them to death," I declared and turned away. I didn't have to watch this, but it was necessary. Sadly, as I expected, none of those souls counted for my quota.

The light exercise didn't help my throbbing legs much as we continued riding for the capital.

***

I arrived feeling better than I expected. In the evenings, I found that if I snuck off a little bit, I could activate my self-healing spell without anyone noticing. That fixed anything like saddle sores and what might have been stress fractures in my legs from all the riding. Still, we had an hour of riding in the morning to reach the capital, but I was more presentable than I had feared. I represented my county with the county seal. I was let into the noble quarter surrounding the palace.

Apparently, we maintained a small manse in the capital, and soon we were all situated. The manse had only a few servants—a cook and a carriage driver paid on retainer. Still, it was more than enough for me to get changed and freshen up before seeing if the King would have us for an audience. I sent a message ahead so we wouldn't show up entirely unannounced. We wouldn't get a response likely until we arrived ourselves. I didn't expect to be able to see the King today. Still, when we showed up at its gates, I was surprised when his chancellor ushered me into a back room where a middle-aged man with gray in his beard sat sipping on a glass of wine.

Guards stood in the corners of the room, watching me closely. He gave me a somewhat warm but small smile when he saw me.

"Ah, Count Alaric," he said, and I bowed low.

"Your Majesty." I greeted.

He waited for me to stand. "It's been a long time since I've seen you. You probably don't even recognize me, but you were so young last time."

I shook my head. "I'm afraid not, Your Majesty."

"Yes, your father was not a man for court, though I could have used his counsel dearly many times over the years."

I nodded, not having ever met my father, and simply let the King talk. He mentioned a few more things but quickly allowed me to get to my point.

"You've come with quite haste, I've been told. I assume it has something to do with what you have been tasked with."

"Yes, Your Majesty. There appears to be more than simple bandits, as you suspected."

He grimaced but motioned for me to continue.

"When looking into the problem, I spent some time auditing my own finances and found that a certain trader in my house had been claiming to pay more taxes. But instead of taking the money for himself, the money was being sent to you regardless, simply being counted differently. Upon further investigation of this family, I found that Roderick had been employing the man and had him send additional taxes from my county under his county's name."

The King grimaced. "That's an unpleasant business."

I offered him a stack of papers, and his guards ushered me forward. I set them down on his table next to his wine goblet, and he flipped through them as I stepped back to my spot, carefully watched by the guards. Once he finished, I continued.

"The only other thing not included in that report was that the meeting where we recovered the letter to the trader's wife was also attended by an Aldorian envoy."

The guards' armor clicked and clanked slightly as they shifted in surprise, and the King looked up. "Hmm. That is worrying. And these claims of witchcraft?"

I shrugged. "Unsubstantiated, but I thought I would include them for completeness' sake."

"Good, good," the King frowned. "I will need to consider what to do and talk with my advisors. But you have done extremely well, and I will see you rewarded for your service. I will see you tomorrow at noon for lunch, where we can discuss what we can do further about this."

"It would be an honor, Your Majesty," I said, and I was escorted out. I promptly returned to my manse, ready to sleep in a nice bed. I might not even get up for dinner.