Bob was bored and annoyed. As a lord he had to listen to speeches before killing everyone and this latest speech was horrible. The lawyer Rupert was explaining for the third time why some track of land was not owned by Bob but by some low level lord called Summerset. “And so my lord Bob as you can see my employer Lord Summerset family has owned and lived in Greystone keep for the past three generations. His family claim to the land is ”
A sigh came out of Bob. “Alright for half a hour you have gone on and on about how long the Summersets have lived in Greystone keep. What does it matter? I have a large army and the Greystones friends have abandoned them. The paladins might be too embarrassed to attack what in effect in now a manor. But as I believe the actual walls and fortifications of Greystone keep were pulled down. I will have no trouble taking over. ”
Rupert face turned red “You have no right to do that the land belongs to Lord Summerset. By the laws of the gods and man that is his land” “Well I have a army that disagrees with the laws of gods and men. Besides was Lord Summerset great grandfather a bandit.” “There is no evidence of that” Bob nodded “Well it does not matter as Lord Summerset does not actually have a castle any more. You have your piece of paper saying its his land and I have a sword. Just like rock paper scissors sword beats piece of paper. Now if you had a rock or say a castle made of rocks”
“Spare me your witty remarks. I will see you in court where Lord Summersets fellow lords will strip you of your titles and lands.” “Given by how much they are paying me to keep the goblins from their lands they do not have any troops to spare. So you can take your court of gentlemen and shove it up your ass. I should sue you for wasting my time. That was the most horrible half a hour I have had since I had to swim through a Ogre camp latrine.” Rupert face turned redder and Bob chuckled “Listen I am taking as much land as I can so the next lord that comes to you to have you talk to me just fill in a letter of complaint. That way I do not have to listen to you moan and complain for half a hour and I will have something I can wipe my ass with.”
Rupert began to splutter and clutched his elbow. Bob looked up “Right well I will leave to to it. I have to go and buy all the healing potions that work on heart attacks and drink them” Rupert fell to the ground and Bob looked at Rabbit “Why do you not go and buy him a potion for his heart? Do not forget to get your gold back and have him sign a receipt for the potion if he can not pay. After all the potion price was raised by a hundred times recently” Bob starred at Rabbit noticing her widening eyes. If Rupert did not have a absolute fortune on him Rabbit would be able to get him to sign a unfair loan agreement.
Bob grinned as Rabbit ran off thinking about Rupert. Letting him die had been his first thought but that might have been a bit too much. Bob was already taking a lot of land from the richer humans. The blow back was going to be large. More than likely trade embargoes and nobles blocking his trade routes would only be the start. If he crossed the middle class then he would face even worse issues. It was nothing a bit of violence would not solve but perhaps taking a step back might be more beneficial. Bob decided it was worth a shot. Pretending to play nice cost him little. Besides after he took as much land as he could he would go back to murdering all his enemies.
Bob decided as everyone was telling him he needed to use the rule of law to settle things now he would start. Bob pulled out a standard debtors contract and changed the interest rate from 110 percent a year to a day. All he would have to do is have Rupert arrested after signing the document. If he sent him by carriage back to Lord Summerset it would take him roughly 10 or 11 days. Bob smiled and called one of his new paladin watchers over. “Something is up Rupert collapsing seems rather strange. It could be some kind of trap so keep a eye on him.” Bob looked at his new castle and new wall which was being built. What kind of idiot pulled down a castle wall because it interfered with the view. In the distance his men were ripping down a house and digging up the trees that would block a archers view from his new castle.
Bob whistled thinking if Rupert did not pay then Bob you use the non payment to destroy the debt contractors. If Rupert paid off his huge debt then Bob would have a massive fortune to buy the service of mercenaries. If he failed to pay then Bob would sue him and more than likely lose. But it did not matter. If he refused to pay then Bob could use his refusal as a excuse to attack the loan industry. After all legally Bob had a case. Bob grinned and had Rupert been able to see him he would have perhaps died of fright at the evil grin on Bob's face.
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A paladin wearing dark armour rushed over with Rabbit. Jim was a giant of a man with a nasty gash he refused to get healed on his face. He glared at Rupert “Boss you want me to remove his head?” “No we will use him to test the slavers ” Jim looked at Bob “Sir we have the strength to claim all the lands around why not let me and the boys bring fine and steel to those evil slavers. Let them and their families burn on the moral plane as they will on the infernal.”
Bob nodded “I really want to do that. But they are losing money every day. I had a couple of accounts take a look and they have to be bleeding out gold. No one stays losing gold like that so either they are keeping their operations open because of some kind of pride. Or they have a plan some kind of ambush. Either way it does not matter. They can not afford to keep paying all the mercenary troops they have operating and soon we can clear them out from the local area.” Looking Rupert who was being tended to by Rabbit Bob motioned Jim to accompany him away. Tossing the contract he had draw to Rabbit up he brought Jim to a space with on one around.
Starting with the truth was always a good idea Bob had found and since he did not have to lie he decided to go with just the truth. “The slavers are losing ground. Every day they get weaker and soon we will have them all. Or we should be able to kill them all. As you know I do not like leaving behind lose ends. The issue is we are strong enough to reach out and kill all of those in the human lands outside our control. Once we begin to slaughter the families of the slavers things will change. So my plan is simple before we start killing the slavers families I need them as weak as I can.”
Bob stared into Jim's eyes “Can I rely on you to let villages burn. Because it might come to that. Or I am hoping they do something that stupid. What I need to know is can you follow orders when they start burning villages just outside my land?” Jim shook his head “No sir I watched my sister be violated by those animals. I will not sit by and let it happen again.”
For a second Bob stopped and just looked at Jim. “Alright I will send you on a few missions to increase the slavers costs. If they catch you they will torture you to death. If that happens I will avenge you it might be in a year or so but I will avenge you I swear. Or I will try things can get out of hand. What I will promise you is this. I will kill every slaver without mercy in my lands and I will try and get all of them in the humans lands.
I AM BOB AND BOB IS GOING TO UNLEASH THE NINE HELLS ON EVERY SLAVER HE CAN.”
Jim grinned “It is all we can ask for. Your a evil demon and that is why we are following you. But if you fail to kill the slavers because of some political reason we will cut off your ” Jim stopped talking remembering all the stories told about Bob. Bob nodded “I will not fail or stop for any reason. Not because I am some kind of crusader but because I am a peasant upstart who the lords want to kill. If tomorrow I swore to stop attacking slavers and handed them your head as well as selling most of the people under me into slavery. Still the slavers would look down upon me and try and kill me. I a low born dared to try and take some of their power. I refused to sit down and be their slave like a good dog. I was not born rich or with noble blood and dared try to rise up.
I have one last thing to say in order to kill as many slavers as possible I need them to break the treaty first. It can not be in a minor way either. Once they do that I will have a excuse to slaughter them all. I will spare you the politics but at this moment the only thing holding me back from gutting them all are the treaties I have signed. I had to sign them but I do not plan on honouring my word. They know it I know it frankly the birds in the air know it. My issue is that I do not want to be known as a oath breaker, So I need the slavers to break the treaties first. Once they break the agreements they signed even by a hair's breath I will march out and slaughter them all.
You know I hate farming I do not really like combat either. But if I am pushed to it I will not falter. Jim all I need is a excuse just get the slavers mad enough to attack one of my villages and I will do the rest. It has to be a slaughter of one of my villages or something like that. If they attack a priestess and her body is found or you barely manage to rescue a local priestess that would do it. ”
Looking at Bob Jim felt a sliver of unease. Bob was a maniac and he was working with him. He had no doubt given half the chance Bob would torture every single slaver to death and then go to bed happy his enemies were dead. Jim swallowed happy that Bob had not become a slaver. The slavers were evil incarnate but Bob was worse. While the slavers would get drunk or forget about grudges Bob would not. If a slaver ran into a knight on a one way bridge he would back up if Bob ran into a knight on a one way bridge he would startle the Knights horse and toss the knight off the bridge or die trying. This maniac was not going to kill the slavers because they were evil. He was going to slaughter them because they were in his way.
The image of Jim's sister Irene appeared in her mind from when she was happy and danced. Before she was taken and her limbs cut off. The slavers were all going to die and that was all that mattered. Jim decided it would be worth it even if he died. Of course following Bob was a issue. Bob was frankly evil. Jim shivered thinking about what would have happened if it had been bob who enslaved his sister. Then he carefully stopped thinking about it and headed off to start a war.