CHAPTER 90: Officially free

Our three hostages were looking a bit subdued following their undignified release. Sitting inside a shack that was falling more than three meters couldn’t have been fun, even if I prepared for their crash landing by throwing a few hay bales on the ground. In hindsight, I could have perhaps added a few more bales considering there wasn’t much left of the shack after it fell out of the transfer storage. Sustelia and I extracted and untied the three of them while they processed the latest information from us.

When the three were ambushed, the bandits dropped a hidden net from the forest canopy onto the cart. Even then, both Karato and Hana were able to escape and kill a few bandits before Schneider was taken hostage, forcing them to surrender. Locked in that village shack, blindfolded, and tied up, they had no way of knowing what was going on outside. It seemed the bandits took umbrage to the death of their compatriots, treating their three hostages with disdain and minimal care. As a result, they were in such a poor state of care they all needed two days of rest to recover. Of course, nothing some good food and sleep could solve. Even the usual sunny-side-up Karato looked more scrambled than usual and didn’t say much.

Sustelia and I set up camp near the place we released them, deep inside the forest where prying eyes wouldn’t find us. Even then, we kept a watch on the area but didn’t find anything the scolems couldn’t resolve themselves.

While the others slept, Ara and I were able to go through the inventory of items from the stored bandits. We of course retrieved Schneider’s belongings and the other two’s personals. Luckily the bandits thought the pocket dimension storage rings were ordinary rings and simply confiscated them from Schneider thinking they were simply expensive rings, without knowing what a treasure they had found. In the core were a lot of weaponry clothing, camping gear and stores. Looking at the inventory of goods, it was plainly obvious that our bandits were actually Berelli’s cavalry. They were so sure of themselves that they only did the absolute minimum to hide the fact, no doubt aware that if anyone else found out, they would either shut up about it, or die. No doubt the villagers knew. But they probably didn’t say anything for fear of execution. That was pure speculation on my part but what wasn’t was the feedback Ara gave me about their modus operandi.

I felt for that captain. When I watched that with a few of my school friends during a summer camp we battled to sleep for days afterwards. No doubt that was where Ara got the idea in the first place. I wondered if that could be classified as torture to someone never exposed to something like that before. Sorry Mr. Captain. Ara was quite cruel for using that.

When I related my discoveries to Sustelia she looked visibly shocked.

“Why would Lord Berelli send his men to circumvent you, wasn’t his tax embargo enough?”

“Who knows. But if I had any reservations about taking the actions I plan to, they’re no longer there. I’m just glad we caught the bandits early. They could’ve done a lot of damage to our business. My picking up their tracks a few days ago saved us. Only heaven knew what might have been if I didn’t have my plant knowledge.”

Lord Berelli never pulled his punches in a fight he had started. In return, I would not hesitate to punch below the belt; Queensbury rules of engagement could get stuffed.

Around that time in Camp Endeavour, Sebastien sat at his desk looking at a letter sent by Shane, having arrived by some magical means on his desk as if delivered by Shane himself. It even bore the Goldcastle stamp. In the letter, Shane related the situation with Karato, Schneider and Hana and the unfortunate death of the adventurers. There was no mention of the involvement of the Berelli family, only that bandits had been responsible.

“So, Shane decided to go on to Shimmerstal. I wonder if that had anything to do with Hana?”

He said to himself. Sebastien didn’t worry himself about the things Shane related, after all, there was more than enough concerns for him just running that small village they called a woodcutter’s camp. There was only one thing concerning him more than anything else, just how did Shane manage to deliver a letter to his office without anyone seeing a thing?

“Shane. Did you really have to come along?”

I, on the other hand, lay down on a bit of hay in the cart with Sustelia, Hana, Karato and Schneider. The complainant, Hana, was lamenting the fact that when she finally had a chance to be free of me, had to endure the embarrassment of my presence.

“Well, firstly I’m not the one that needed rescuing, you know. Besides, Sustelia wanted to see the capital and I’ve got my own plans when I get to Shimmerstal.”

No one said anything since we already had a plan of action to deal with the Berelli Estate’s action against me, actions with far reaching implications. I needed to ensure they ran well.

“Hey Shane. How exactly are you planning to get access to the wood warehouses of the Berelli Estate, I doubt you’ll just be walking in there on your own?”

“A good question. I think I’m going to follow up on some old converts of mine, proselytes that need my guidance. I think they’ll be excellent for the job. Sustelia will be giving me a hand with my recruitment drive.”

Sustelia, of course, had no idea what I was talking about.

“You don’t mean those thugs you beat up in one of the small side roads a while ago, do you?”

Karato scoffed at my idea.

“Ah, I see you know of my followers. I sense of late they need closer guidance from me, to turn from their unsocial ways.”

“You know, I shouldn’t be hearing any of this and somehow I feel it has little to do with them being unsocial. Why do you want to use those misfits anyhow?”

“I didn’t say anything illegal, besides I’m not the one that’s going to be doing the convincing.”

I looked at Sustelia.

“What? I’ve got nothing to do with this.”

“What do you mean? They’re going to love you. I swear they’ll want more of your time.”

“Yeah, before I bust their heads with my fists.”

Everyone couldn’t but laugh. I felt sorry for Laurel and Hardy, they certainly wouldn’t want to see me again. Not that they had a choice anyhow. Somewhere in a deserted alleyway: two men, a big, rounded man, and a skinner taller one suddenly got chills running down their backs.

“As for using them, don’t worry. I’ll have them helping old ladies across the road soon enough. But I’ll clip their wings just enough to stop them from becoming a nuisance.”

After a few days of travel, and crossing the checkpoints set up by the palace guards and Berelli’s tax henchmen, we reached Shimmerstal. Not finding anything worth taxing, Berelli’s men just waved us through, especially after determining who Schneider and Karato were. We weren’t above reporting the incident of the bandits, giving some watered-down story that we escaped somehow. On reaching Shimmerstal we all needed to officially register at the gate, our subsequently our presence there would be known to the palace. A familiar face greeted us.

“Hey Rodergurn, good to see you again.”

I greeted the gate guard that helped Hana and I so much the last time we were in Shimmerstal. He kindly directed us out of the traffic to the side of the queue heading into the gates as he did his normal pre-arrival inspections. Rodergurn saluted Karato then greeted us all.

“Greetings Hana, Shane, Karato and Schneider. Did you all have a good trip?”

“A few bandits tried to cross swords with us. Nothing we couldn’t handle though.”

“That’s not good to hear. We’ve had a few bandit incidents down your way of late. Would you like me to issue a warrant to find them?”

Rodergurn was offering to specifically send out knights to investigate the road to search out the bandit’s hideout. Karato shook his head.

“No need. I don’t think the bandits will be bothering anyone in future.”

Rodergurn laughed at the insinuation.

“Do you want us to place a report?”

Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

“Nah don’t bother. I’ll report it at the palace when I get there.”

“Very well, I’ll look forward to seeing it.”

Rodergurn, being a gate guard would be one of the few people privileged to see reports regarding the city or road.

“Anyhow, you guys are free to go through, I’ll let the guards know. Oh, by the way Hana, are you and Shane going to be sparring with Karato and King Leopold by any chance? The guys never stop talking about those sparring sessions.”

Now why did he have to go and say that? Worst of all were the responses from Hana and Karato.

“Definitely. I’ll see you there.”

Thanks for making a noose for me in the hanging rope Hana.

“Wouldn’t miss it for the world. Thanks for the reminder, I’ll let His Majesty know Shane wants to spar again, I know he’ll really want to be there.”

Thanks Karato for placing the noose over my head and thanks for pushing me, Rodergurn.

The next morning as the top edge of the sun peeked over the horizon, King Leopold and I faced each other in the palace’s sparring ring. I leaned down, touching the ground to add gravity to his body when he hollered.

“No skills.”

“That’s not fair.”

He just smiled when he lunged at me with a roar.

“Aaargh!”

Was it the sound of his voice or the look of pure destruction on his face that made me beat a hasty retreat? I couldn’t say but I did that in full view of hundreds of knights. The first rule of sword fighting; never show your back to your opponent. I disagreed. If one could run faster than your enemy, why not? I suffered flashbacks of my escape one of those dinosaur things when I first arrived on that world. If the king ran after me through those bushes at that time I still would have run for my life.

At the end of the session, I only tied with King Leopold because I managed to wear him down by sheer determination. Like Karato, he may have been good at short distance fighting that required quick bursts of power, but he was poor in aerobic activities. Since I spent a lot of time running in the past weeks, it seemed a good way to even the odds. I felt a bit bad for my behaviour and so afterwards when the five of us sat under that solitary tree, eating some lovely snacks for breakfast with the king, Hana, Sustelia and Karato, I apologised to him.

“My apologies for treating you like that during the sparring session, I still feel bad about that.”

“Oh, do not worry about it. I explained to the knights that it was a prime example of what a strategic withdraw looked like.”

“Yeah, that’s probably why they were laughing so loud.”

“I think you’re one of their favourites.”

Yeah, probably for all the wrong reasons. Thankfully Hana put up a decent show and with her hand-to-hand combat, plus a few basic judo lessons I taught her, she nearly got the best of them if it weren’t for their experience coming through and saving them. Some of the manoeuvres they pulled were spectacular and could only have been learnt through many battles. Even the starstruck Sustelia sat absentmindedly nibbling at a biscuit while blatantly staring at King Leopold like a deer hopelessly stuck in the glare of a car’s headlights. He didn’t seem to mind in the least and eventually as noticing her for the first time he started a conversation.

“I have not met you before. Sustelia, right?”

“Uh, y-yes. Um, Your Majesty.”

“You are a member of the Minstrels, correct?”

“Y-yes Your Majesty. Although I only recently joined them.”

“I suspect that armour something that Shane made for you?”

Sustelia stopped mindlessly gnawing at the biscuit, looking down at her reinforced leather armour. The way she nodded made her look like a little girl talking with her grandfather. The king knew as well as any that armour was an expensive commodity for most adventurers.

“You should join the Goldcastle team, I think you would make a good addition.”

I nearly spat out the tea in my mouth. Hana paused with her cup midway to her mouth, smiling.

“Anyway, I see that Shane is still feeling bad about his bout with me. You are taking it way to seriously, besides I think I’ll lighten up your mood by letting you pick another item from the royal stores again.”

I sighed; I simply couldn’t get excited about it, even if the king was offering it too me.

“Did I say something wrong?”

The king looked genuinely perplexed.

“No Greg. He thinks the stores are second-hand items.”

Hana quipped for me.

“Really? Karato always seems to enjoy going there though.”

Yeah Karato’s fossicking compulsive disorder would never allow him to come out of those storerooms if outside circumstances didn’t force him to. The king looked in thought while stroking his beard.

“I can guess why you feel like that though. No one really goes in there and it usually tends to be a one-way destination for old items. Why not take everything that’s in there?”

“Huh?”

“Huh?”

“Seriously?”

“Well, I think people normally take me seriously. I am normally a man of my word.”

“Sorry, it’s a figure of speech where I come from to show amazement.”

He smiled and nodded.

“Besides Karato can show you if there is anything of a sensitive nature. See, that changed your day, did it not?”

I nodded, although I didn’t know what I would do with most of that junk. Selling the stuff may have seemed like being rude. Karato on the other hand would probably never leave me alone, I’d probably dump most of it on him anyhow. While I mulled in my thoughts, King Leopold produced a scroll and handed it to Hana.

“This is something that should change your day too.”

“What is it?”

“Well, open it and read.”

She opened the scroll and started crying. Not again, I thought. The last time Hana cried everyone including the king started bawling. But when she handed me the scroll I had to struggle to hold back mine. The letter was a slave contract cancellation for her.

“May I have the privilege of removing your slave collar Hana.”

He asked. I certainly didn’t challenge him, that cancelled order cost him a lot of gold. Afterall, I already removed the collar’s enslavement attribute. Then it struck me like a bomb, would the contract cancellation work and would the king then find out? As if reading my thoughts, the king said,

“Karato already told me about your ability to remove her slave contract. I am making it official though.”

I sighed a breath of relief. How was I going to break the next bit of information to him I wondered? Again, Karato obviously tipped off the king because his next statement hit straight to the bullseye.

“Mr. Papadopoulos can issue slave contracts for you on behalf of the labour guild. I suggest you go through him for those dark elves. Nasty piece of work by the way. Now Hana. Please allow me to remove this.”

She nodded and exposed her neck and allowed him to cut through the strapping. That he could cut through the strap indicated that I already removed the slave attribute because if it wasn’t, King Leopold would have been thrown a good five meters away by the collar’s protection the moment he touched it.

After a few minutes he cut through the collar, removed it from her and passed it to a servant as if he handled a long dead rat.

“Thank you.”

Hana said thankfully as she rubbed her neck. As overwhelming as King Leopold’s gift was, I didn’t want to be outdone. I opened my pocket dimension and took out a cloth wrapped parcel. Like shopping mauls, paper gift wrap didn’t exist there, so a cloth cover and ribbon it was. I held it out to her clearly catching her by surprise.

“I have a small something I’ve been keeping for you.”

When she opened it, she paused for a moment to study my gift; a choker necklace, the thickness of her thumb and made from incredibly fine sections, lay in her hand. Looking closer at the black choker, she couldn’t see the individual components, as if the necklace consisted of a single piece of flexible but light metal. An adorable enamelled white daisy with a yellow centre hid the choker clasp in front of the wearer’s throat. Hana’s eyes filled with tears once again as her fingers brushed across the pretty daisy.

I hugged her and gave her a passionate kiss that left the king coughing in embarrassment. At that moment I didn’t care what he thought about us, Hana meant far more to me, but later I did recall that situation with some trepidation. I was probably a bit presumptuous in front of him. Hana blushed as I finished kissing her and helped her fit the choker.

“Ahem.”

The king interrupted our passionate moment.

“Would you consider making more of those necklaces for the palace?”

“No.”

“No.”

Our unanimous answer hurt his pride, but he never let it get to him. He smiled and waved his hand dismissively.

“Oh, I thought I should try at least. Do you have that dathrod with you now?”

King Leopold offered a distracting question, but he surprised me a little, so I nodded. To be perfectly frank, I shouldn’t have been that surprised that he knew about the dathrod.

“I would suggest extreme caution though. I’ll release it in the sparring ring inside a cage perhaps?”

The king agreed.

“Shane, I want to show my knights the dathrod. Are you alright with that?”

“I’m happy to leave it in your care until you are finished with it.”

When we finished our breakfast, I showed the king how my transfer storage worked. I first embedded the cage into the ground, then released the uneasy dathrod into it. With a loud bang it hit the other end of the cage then started rampaging, hitting the cage with its massive paws, its claws extending past the bars in a threatening display of intimidation. A few minutes later it stopped moving and continued following me with its eyes, resuming its previous attitude towards me.

“It seems to like you.”

King Leopold dryly commented.

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