Chapter 5: Accord With The City Lord

A naked woman blanketed in nothing but a red cloak stepped into green grassy ground. Flower beds that varied in shapes, colors, and sizes were cleverly placed and beautifully grown. In the middle of it all was a large water fountain, and just by looking at it everyone would know that it was well-maintained.

On a wooden bench near the fountain was a man in red suit. He seemed to be in his forty and had a lean build. His hair was red and so were his eyes, trimmed beard and a cut scar adorned his fair face.

The woman in red walked towards the sitting man until she was right in front of him. The man looked up and offered her his greeting, "Najma, come come, sit beside me." The man moved aside and sat at the right edge of the bench to make a room.

Najma took his offer and sat at the opposite edge, she leaned her back on the wooden slats.

"Thank you for coming. I am sorry to summon you so suddenly, I hope I didn't disturb something? Last I heard you were busy butchering your colleagues." The man teased.

"Do not tempt your fate and reignite my rage, Lord Hemmel." Najma cautioned.

Hemmel sighed and leaned his back on the bench, "Can you see the fort from here?" He asked, pointing his finger northwards.

Najma followed the direction Hemmel pointed, and found the distant fort that towered above every tree and building within the city, "Obviously." She replied.

Hemmel took a moment of silence, he then smiled while still looking at the distant, "That fort was the entire city, originally. There was no guilds, no houses, no public park, and there was no the four districts. Just an ugly, old, haste-built fort."

"King Reiza, the eight ruler of Slara, the late father of the current King, decreed the fort to be built, and ennobled my grandfather as a Count to govern this little piece of land. At the time, King Reiza was worried that the newborn country of Malka would cross the great forest Wiltras and invade us. He also grew tired of monster infestations that often born from Wiltras's unmanaged dungeons. He even instructed this place to be named Forefort, mainly praising his own futuristic vision to guard safe this kingdom. So... yeah. That was how its all began."

"Then the decree was carried, the fort was built and my grandfather governed it. As the time passed, my grandfather realized that he could make use of the dungeons he weeded. So he did what other nobles did: Monopolizing the harvest of mana crystals from the dungeons he conquered. He saved the money, amassed his army, and built this beautiful city. People started coming over and inhabiting this sorry, small, remote land. Then, when my grandfather died, my father took over. And when my father died, I took over. And when I die, my son will take over."

Hemmel turned his head and looked at Najma beside him, "Do you understand where I am going from all of this?"

Najma looked back at him, and paid him no words.

"You fucked me, Najma." Hemmel said with voice full of wrath, "You wrecked my city, and by extension, spat on my family legacy. By the god, you don't know how much I want to kill you for this." Hemmel coldly confided.

Najma opened her mouth and was about to retort, but then Hemmel cut in, "I know I know, its not your spell, not your doing, but you wouldn't be so naive to believe you have no part in it, would you? Twenty three buildings are destroyed, any infrastructure within radius of one hundred yard around the guild are blasted, nineteen civilians are injured, and three people were dead. Do you understand the ramifications from such numbers?" Hemmel challenged.

Najma's silence was his answer.

"Right now, I want to strangle you so hard that when I throw away the rope its black mark will still remain on your neck, untouched. Then I want cut you into five pieces, and feed your corpse to the dirties, ugliest pig." Hemmel said, his voice grew deeper and more sinister.

During the entire time Hemmel mumbling over his craving for revenge, Najma was completely unfazed. This was not her first time listening to a mad man who one-sidedly held her accountable over something that wasn't exactly her fault.

Just like the Guild Master, Hemmel had expressed his knowledge of the nature of the trouble, yet still he demanded her to be responsible. Najma just sighed and let the man continued mumbling. She was quite a bit sad over the scarcity of mutual understanding.

Your miseries are yours alone, She thought to herself. Her mind wandered to the receptionist lady that had successfully calmed her down.

"But that is just me being arrogant." Hemmel snapped, his friendly voice and leisure mannerism were back, as if all of his mumbling before was just a facade.

Najma turned her head and curiously looked at the man.

At her questioning gaze, Hemmel just shrugged, "We both know that I don't have the necessary strength to take you on." He answered.

"I have an army of three thousands, but you already beat their commander. I have mercenary of two hundreds, but you already took them on and defeat their master. If Geralt the black fist and Wilhelm the thunder lancer can not win against you, I don't think I can." He explained further.

"So here is what I am about to do... Najma, I want to offer you an accord." He casually proposed.

"What kind of accord?" She indulged.

Hemmel sighed for a moment, then turned his gaze away from her, "Simply put, I need people to know my authority is still rock solid. I need them to see me successfully reign over you. So I need you to play along with my charade. Tomorrow, there will be a court to judge people who are involved with today's destruction. I want you to attend the court as my prisoner. You will appear while heavily wounded, wearing clothes in shambles, and bound in shackles. I want you to let yourself to be hanged with enchanted chain while being burned by blue flames at the same time. Then, when the crowd left, I will hand you five hundred golds, enchanted clothes, and a carriage that will secretly deliver you out of the kingdom."

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Najma sighed, "And why should I do that?"

Hemmel leaned over to her, "Because I know you need protection."

Najma raised a brow, "I do?"

Hemmel giggled, "Your persistence to hide the true nature of your [class] is useless, Najma. If I can figure it out, then others can too."

"Hemmel, I don't know what the fuck are you talking about." Najma snapped, she was annoyed that the man before her kept talking nonsense.

Hemmel smiled, thinking she was still pretending, then her annoyed face was unchanged, then he knew that she really didn't know. Hemmel leaned back and sighed, "This is unfair, why god bestow immense power to people without head?"

"Maybe because God knows we will not scheme to trade people's lives for authority, title, and wealth?" Najma retorted.

Hemmel looked at her, annoyed. He sighed again then looked into the sky, "Say, Najma, imagine you are a seven years old girl, you held no magic nor skills, how many people with the same physic and age with you that you can fight?"

Najma raised a brow at him, "Why a sudden change of topic? And no, I don't know. Maybe only one or two?"

"The topic hasn't changed, I am about to explain the nature of [class]. And yes, that is what exactly most people would say, they are not sure if they can win a fight against someone who has exactly the same physic and age. Then how about this, you are armed with a knife, and your opponent aren't, do you think you can win the fight now?" Hemmel asked.

"I am still not sure, but the win probability has surely increased." Najma replied.

"Correct. Then how about this, you are not only have a weapon, but also wearing an armor, do you think you can win now?"

Najma answered without pause, "If that was the case, I will almost certainly win."

"Right? if you are a seven years old girl with weapon and armor, fighting against a fellow seven years old girl with nothing but bare hands, you will almost certainly win, right? Then how about fighting against someone older? Let just say, someone who is twenty years old?"

Najma raised a brow, "I don't know. Even with weapon and armor, I don't think a seven years old girl can win a fight against someone who has more power, agility, and experience."

"Right? It is almost impossible right? But! If the said kid can win a fight against an adult, what do you think is the cause?" Hemmel looked at her.

Najma mulled over for a second, "I think there are three possibilities. First was the kid just got lucky. The second was the adult was just bad fighter. The third was..." Najma trailed off, her eyes slightly widened, she had finally caught on what Hemmel about to say.

Hemmel looked at her and nodded, "The third possibility was the kid has a damn strong weapon and armor, let just say, an enchanted crossbow which shot will always hit, so the kid was able to fight and kill her opponent from distant."

Najma and Hemmel leaned back, they took a deep breath and sighed. "I am sure you are already understand what I am about to say from telling you such a long analogy. But let me say it out loud. The age gap analogy between the kid and the adult is a perfect example of how the [level] gap between you and your opponent works. Just like how seven years old kid has no chance winning a fight against a twenty years old adult, the low-level fighter also has no chance winning a fight against a high-level opponent."

"Meanwhile, the weapon and armor analogy explained the power comparison between an ordinary, advance, and fabled [class]. Ordinary [class] is akin to simple weapon like a knife or a pitchfork, they are cheap, easy to get, and there are many of them. Advance [class] is akin to advance weapon like a bow or a sword, they are expensive, hard to get and master, but almost certainly deadly. Then there is Fabled [class], which akin to a weapon of myth that allow its holder impossible feat."

Hemmel turned his head to her, "Najma, you are a fighter below [level] one hundred, yet you are able to win a fight against Geralt and Wilhelm who are at [level] three hundred. If any monarch finds out, they will kill you, because they can not tolerate the existence of another fabled [class] holder other than themselves. The only reason they haven't attack each other is because they haven't amassed enough powerful followers."

Najma turned her head to Hemmel and looked him back, "and you want to save me from them? why? I imagine the reward for telling information about me would be massive." She asked.

"That is true. But then I will be ordered to detain you, which I am sure could only be accomplished by fighting you. and we both know who will be the loser and the winner." Hemmel answered.

"Why so pessimistic, surely they will strengthen your hand?" Najma raised a brow.

"They won't. They will use me to probe your power first, so they can minimally spending their forces." Hemmel replied.

"I see." Najma sighed, "So we are on the same boat here."

Hemmel could only nodded.

They took a moment of silence, a gentle gust of wind breezed at them.

"I have a question. Even if I take your offer, how can I be sure you will not betray me? You can use a proxy to tip them off, and even if I flee to another country, how can I be sure I will not meet the same danger?" Najma asked.

Hemmel gave her a smile that was so awkward, "You are overestimating my position, Najma. You have to know, every party that is involved in the hunt of fabled [class] holder will be dragged to the bottom of hell. They will be used and abused until the [class] holder is perished. If this situation can be compared to something you can relate to, then it will be when a mere common folk witnessed the assassination of a noble. There is just no way the said folk will ended up in a good place. If he sided with the victim's family, he will be forced to cooperate until the culprit is dead. If he sided with the culprit, he will be killed."

"And to your second question, you just have to lay low for a few years, the gold I will give you will enable you to do so. Then, when you decide to be an active adventurer again, you just have to make sure there is another strong adventurer who could outshine you, so you could hide in his shadow."

Najma mulled over all things she had been told. After sometime, she decided to take a path she judged to be quite adequate, "Alright. I will take your offer, but only on two conditions. First, I don't want enchanted stuff on my execution. If I feel even a minuscule amount of mana on my chains and shackles, then the deal is off and you can consider your life is over. Second, Before my execution, I want to raid some dungeons until I reach level one hundred so I get my first [class] evolution."

"Deal." Hemmel swiftly grabbed Najma's hand and shook it over and over, and Najma looked at him bewilderedly, "What? I won't bore you with some stupid question like whether are you capable to reach level one hundred in one night. But seriously, you have to get it done before tomorrow's second bell."

At that, Najma nodded.

"Now that we have an accord, lets get going and do each other's bidding. Karen!" Hemmel called out. Then a shadow rushed out from the nearby tree and kneeled down before him. "Get this witch some clothes and escort her to unconquered dungeons that have been booked for military training." He ordered the woman before him.

"Wait." Najma interjected. Hemmel and the kneeling woman looked at her, "I have some business I must take care of. Give me the clothes and wait for me at the south gate."

Hemmel frowned, "South gate...? You want to meet with Ben?"

"You know him?" Najma asked.

"Lady, this is my city. I ought to know every leaf that fall on my territory, let alone some nasty bandits that lurking around the slum." Hemmel rolled his eyes, "I have some guesses about this business you are talking about, but I think I don't want to add more trouble to my plate. Go then, see you at the gallows."

Najma nodded, then they all parted ways.