The city of Norlov was pretty huge for the average person, the biggest city I'd seen so far in this world. It would take quite a long time for anyone to walk from where I was on the outskirts of the residential district to the castle, but of course as a goddess it was extremely easy. I didn't change size or jump there, instead opting to just teleport over to one of my worshipers at the castle itself. The boy Wilfor was being carried in my arms. Even though we were around the same size it was of course trivial for me to lift his weight.

It was the middle of the afternoon so the castle itself hadn't much activity at the moment. When we arrived it was before a startled maid, in fact the same one that I had spoken to when I went over my book pitch a while ago. She was startled to see me and bowed immediately.

"Goddess! What brings you here today? And who is this boy?"

I just smiled at her and hefted Wilfor to adjust how I was carrying him. He looked pretty embarrassed to be carried by me but wasn't about to argue with a goddess.

"Oh he's just someone I'm helping at the moment" I replied. "Do you know where the king is right now?"

She stood back up again and nodded.

"Yes goddess! Its evening so he'll be in his room winding down for the day."

"Thanks!"

I brought up the map and did indeed see the king's soul in his quarters. He seemed to be alone as well, with only a guard standing outside the door to his room. His wife was in the next room over but she wasn't my concern at the moment.

I whirled around and dashed off in the direction of the king's room. The layout of the castle was laid out to me on the map in my head so it was easy to plot the most direct route there. At the speeds I was traveling no one saw more than a brief blur and felt a gust of wind. I was working on running even faster to make it almost instantaneous

Within less than thirty seconds we arrived at the door where the guard was standing watch and I came to a sudden stop, basically appearing out of thin air for the man.

"Woah!" the guard sputtered in shock. "G-Goddess Jenna!"

With a smile I put Wilfor down and put my hands on my hips.

"I'd like to see the king please."

Wilfor just stood to the side and behind me clearly scared about being here in the castle. He looked between me and the guard nervously.

The guard gulped and saluted me with this kingdom's arm across the chest. There were some beads of sweat on his forehead as he had heard about my visits to see the king and knew what it would entail.

"Y-Yes goddess ma'am! He won't be happy to see you though."

I dropped my arms and turned to gesture to Wilfor.

"This boy is Wifor. Keep an eye on him won't you? I don't want a single hair on his head harmed."

The guard looked up to avoid eye contact and saluted again.

"Yes goddess!"

I then smiled at Wilfor and gave him a pat on the head.

"Stay here with this nice man ok? I'll be out here again shortly."

Wilfor gulped and nodded, his eyes looking like those a lost puppy. He was clearly putting his trust in me.

"Ok..."

With the boy in good hands for the moment I turned my attention back towards the door and the room beyond. From the looks of it on my map the king hadn't been made aware of my presence yet, the door probably too thick for him to hear our conversation. He was sitting at a table hunched over with his back turned to the door.

In one smooth motion I opened the door, stepped into the room, and closed the door behind me. The sound of the door closing wasn't any louder than normal as I wasn't slamming it or anything, but it did alert the king who jumped in surprise.

The plump man turned around in his chair with an angry look on his face. Once he saw me however his expression quickly changed to one of worry and even fear.

"Not you again!"

His reaction was expected at this point and I just smiled pleasantly. I put my hands behind my back and slowly walked over to where he was sitting and just tried to look as innocent as possible.

"Alphonse! It's so nice to see you again!"

"I know you're lying" he replied with a glare. "It's certainly not good to see you goddess."

The goddess was said with the inflection of sarcasm. It was always pretty clear that his stance was that his kingdom didn't need a goddess to rule over them and he wasn't a fan of me at all. There wasn't anything he could do about it at this point of course, but in light of his feelings I tried to leave him alone as much as possible. Situations like this however forced me to address him.

I brought my hands back around to my front and shrugged, stopping several feet away from his left side.

"I know you don't like me barging in on you kingy poo. But you know that as ruler of this kingdom I have to come to you about important things."

Alphonse sighed deeply and brought his hands up to his head before dropping them again.

"What is it this time?"

With the pleasantries out of the way I let my true emotions show. My face changed into a frown and I stomped my left foot in anger. While speaking I raised my voice in righteous indignation as my eyes lit up.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

"What the hell is going on in your prisons? I just dragged a little boy out of a dungeon cell where they didn't even feed him! Who the hell gives the death penalty to a child? Being thrown in the dungeon to rot isn't a valid punishment for anyone!"

The king's own temper started to rise as it often did and his face reddened. He raised his voice back at me and angrily countered.

"How like a goddess to act so mightily morally superior! Do you really think you deserve a say in how we deal with crimes? If this boy was in a dungeon he did something to deserve to be there!"

My left hand was in a fist and it ignited in fire as I glared back at him.

"You little shit! I'll interfere how I like to protect my worshipers! Or did you forget about that part?"

Alphonse scoffed and turned halfway back to his papers.

"Goddess of children and criminals. Fitting I suppose!"

The shouting of the argument had brought the queen into the room. She was now standing in the doorway leading to the adjacent room with the door half ajar. There was concern on her face and when she looked at me there was fear as well. She just stood there silently clearly unsure what to say.

Her husband hadn't noticed as he lacked the senses a goddess like me had. When I looked over at her she took it as her cue to speak and timidly stepped into the room. She was a shrewd and manipulative woman with humans but clearly had no idea how to handle me.

"Is everything alright in here?"

Alphonse turned around and huffed when he saw her. He then turned back to his papers and attempted to focus on them and ignore the situation.

"The goddess was complaining about the rule of law."

After my outburst I had calmed down considerably. The fire on my hand had gone out and I had taken several deep breaths. Instead my demeanor changed to one of annoyance as I crossed my arms across my chest and shifted my weight onto my left side.

"The problem isn't the rule of law moron. The problem is the lack of justice."

Alphonse sneered. "What's the difference?"

I sighed and tapped my left foot. Then I glanced over at the queen.

"Sashui... Do you know the difference between law and justice?"

The queen lifted her right hand to her chest and gasped in shock. She didn't want to be called out or have my attention on her. There wasn't a choice but to reply to me and she spent several moments trying to figure out what I wanted to hear. She was unable to think of anything and sighed in defeat.

"I don't know goddess."

My foot stopped tapping and I smirked a little.

"Laws are rules that are made up and written down. Justice is upholding what is right and good. Just because there's a law about something doesn't make it just. There are plenty of evil and unjust laws possible. If there was no law against murder would it be just to do?"

The both of them thought about it for a few moments. Neither of them had probably thought much about it. It was pretty normal for people to grow up in a society and accept whatever laws they had as justice, regardless of whither they actually were just. That was the number one way throughout history that evil people in power were able to get the populace to go along with their terrible crimes.

Sashui was the first to speak.

"I suppose not..."

Alphonse then sighed and slammed his fist on the table.

"We can't rewrite our entire system of law just because you want us to! Do you have any idea how long that would take? How devastating that could be?"

I dropped my arms to my sides again and sighed. I could understand his point but this was something that had to be done eventually.

"I know I know. I'm not saying everything has to change overnight. For a start you both are going to begin reforming the prison system. I don't want children thrown in jail and I don't want people left to starve to death in a cell somewhere. Starting tomorrow morning the message will be sent out to every corner of the kingdom to all the lords and sheriffs that they're to treat prisoners with dignity. Understand?"

The king stared at the table in defeated anger.

"Do I have a choice?"

"Oh you do" I replied with a smirk. "Though you don't want to choose disobeying me. Trust me."

"It shall be done goddess" he said sighing.

"Good! I'll be checking up on you later now. Please do your best!"

I then turned around towards the door and put my left hand on my chin. It'd probably be best to explain a bit more about my plans for the future of justice.

"There's a system of law and order called the 'public court' that I'll be writing up for you and all your lords. It'll be something implemented over time of course, but a necessary change. Basically how it works is there's a force of peacekeepers called a 'police force' that arrest criminals and investigate crimes. Serve and protect and all that. Then the criminals are able to present their case in front of a group of their peers called a 'jury.' There is also a judge that oversees the whole thing and makes impartial decisions. Between the judge and jury the fate of the supposed criminal is decided. The death penalty in this system is reserved for only the most extreme crimes like murder and those that cause mass suffering."

Sashui had her hands in front of her stomach and looked actually interested.

"It sounds complicated."

It was true and all I could do is nod my head in agreement.

"Yeah it can be, and its not perfect. However nothing outside my father can truly be perfect. All we can do is get as close as we can to true justice. I'll be looking forward to your cooperation."

With my piece said and the rulers of the kingdom on the same page for the most part I departed. I walked over to the door I had entered from and opened it and stepped out into the hallway again. Both the guard and Wilfor were looking at me with wide eyes as the door shut behind me without me touching it.

"Hey there guys" I said with a smile and tilt of my head. "I'm back!"

The guard gulped and saluted me again, standing at attention and avoiding eye contact.

"Y-You certainly know how to handle yourself with the king and queen your goddess-ship."

I giggled. "I mean yeah! I'm not scared of those two sillies!"

He looked down at me and risked meeting my gaze.

"That new system of law certainly sounds nice. Do you think it'll really work?"

They had listened to the whole argument. Of course they had. Oh well it can't be helped. It's not like it really mattered if this rando and a child heard it as neither would fully understand it or remember what I had said. That's why I had to write it down for everyone. I'd have to write a copy for Quarely as well. He was the only lord out of the provinces I actually liked.

"Oh course it will!" I replied flipping my hair behind my head. "It's worked before! And besides, how is human society supposed to evolve without trying new things? Trust me the growing pains are worth the end result of a just system. Justice is good civilization."

I then turned to Wilfor and smiled warmly at him. Then I reached out and took hold his shoulders. To my great satisfaction he only flinched for a moment before fully relaxing under my grip.

"Why don't you come with me now hmm? I know a nice village you can live in where the people will be kind to you and help you grow up big and strong. Whaddya say?"

He smiled brightly and nodded.

"Yes miss goddess!"

I lifted my left hand and ruffled his hair.

"Good boy! Let's go."

As I wrapped my left arm around the boy I looked up at the guard and gave him a nod and a wink.

"Thanks for keeping an eye on him for me."

The man gulped and bowed.

"Of course goddess! Anything for the glorious Goddess Jenna!"

That was the attitude I liked to hear! It would be a balancing act to make sure people didn't get too blindly devoted to me, but for now some fervent loyalty was greatly appreciated. Just because I allowed people like the stinky king to talk back to me doesn't mean I enjoy or want it.

Now the plan was to go to Doovlin and drop off Wilfor. It seemed my home village was turning into quite the dumping ground for the various derelict souls I came across. I'd have to expand into other places, though places I could truly trust were in short supply as of now. Surely Vinedenne would be a good place too.

After dropping off the boy I'd have to go to Vinedenne and talk to Quarely directly. He really was really understanding and cooperative compared to all the other nobility in this kingdom. If anyone would help me beta test the new court system it'd be him. Societal change in small doses is often a driving force of other drastic changes and so we'd have to be a bit careful.

While thinking on my future plans I opened a portal to Doovlin and whisked my most recent charge away to the new and better life awaiting him.