"One of the ancient rules the dwarves kept to this day was the right to contest a judge's decision via trial by combat. Should the challenger succeed, then the case would be forced to be retried, with a different judge.

This clause was rarely invoked, usually only by either desperate people or those wholly unsatisfied with the results of the judgement. Dwarves as a whole tend to accept their faults gracefully, so the clause rarely saw use between themselves other than some cases later proven to be mistrials.

With Knallzog opening its borders to people of all races, however, the clause saw use far more often, especially when it comes to dealing with humans. It got so bad to the point that they changed the rules so that the once formal duel of the trial by combat was replaced by a duel to the death to discourage people from abusing the clause." - Garth Wainwrought, professor of socioeconomics at the Levain Institute for Higher Learning, circa 599 FP.

When the week passed, Aideen found an invitation letter from Ginnie, for an event at the grand colosseum later that evening. That got Aideen to raise an eyebrow out of curiosity at the very least.

She was naturally aware of the dwarven love for gladiatorial bloodsports. They were held weekly on the grand colosseum under the mountain, and though deathmatches were usually not on the cards, people still died when accidents happened or beasts got lucky.

Aideen was not the biggest fan of such things to say the least, so she wondered why Ginnie invited her to one. Her invitation came with a ticket, one which brought her to a private booth, where she found the sisters she helped a week ago accompanied by an old dwarf in fine clothing.

"Ah, a pleasure to meet you, Young Lady," said the dwarf politely as he stood and offered his hand for a shake. His deep rumbling voice easily identified him as a male. He had deep brown skin, and hair that was a deep shade of golden-brown, fashioned in long elaborate braids that connected to some of the braids on his majestic beard. "I've heard a lot about you from my dear wife."

"Oh, you're Ginnie's husband?" asked Aideen as she firmly shook the dwarf's hand. Despite his fine wear, the dwarf's leathery face and hands had many old scars on them, worn as if they were badges of honor. From the calluses on his hand she also judged the man to be a veteran warrior. "Nice to meet you too, mister…?"

"Leopold Eisenschirm at your service, Young Lady. I was formerly Her Ladyship's Captain of the Guards before things… happened," admitted the old dwarf with a smirk as he bid Aideen seat herself on his other side. Magda and Lena, the sisters she rescued, greeted her from their seats, looking far less nervous these days. "She bid me to inform you on the progress of the lawsuit against the guild when you arrived."

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

"Oh? So fast?" asked Aideen with a raised eyebrow. A mere week for a judicial process was definitely fast, since the last time she saw any such process anywhere near as fast was at Elmaiya where the Empress herself had basically pushed for things to happen as soon as possible. "I had not expected to hear the news so soon, to be honest."

"We dwarves might have what seemed like convoluted laws and regulations, but we pride ourselves in our efficiency with them," said Leopold with another smile. Another dwarf in the liveries of a butler brought tankards of fine mead for the four of them in the meantime. "The court case itself only took four days, but since they were unsatisfied and demanded a trial by combat… we had to wait for the colosseum's match day instead."

"Trial by combat?" she asked once more. Aideen was not unfamiliar by the concept, just had not expected the dwarves to still use such ancient clauses, much less in their judicial system. "Wait… is that why Ginnie's not here?"

"When Her Ladyship got a chance to flex some muscles, she'd take it," replied Leopold in a far more nonchalant manner than Aideen expected. "She is still the high commander of the eastern front after all. And she's been bored by the lack of action these last few decades."

"I pity these fools for actually challenging her to a trial, honestly."

Before Aideen could ask Leopold what he meant, the announcer below declared the final event of the day, a trial by combat, between the Guild of Unburdened Healers, and the Kingdom of Knallzog.

Such trials typically involved champions, but the dwarves pride themselves in their martial prowess, so Ginnie had eschewed the idea of a champion and personally stepped into the sandy arena.

For the first time, Aideen saw the old dwarf dressed for war. She wore a suit of masterwork plate armor so thick that it looked more fit for a warhorse to use, and had a massive tower shield the side of a door in one hand, with a large battleaxe that had a warhammer built into its back end in the other.

Her opponent - likely a human judging from their size and proportions - was similarly clad in full plate armor, and held a large two-handed sword in their hands. Almost immediately, they demonstrated that they were a mage as they coated their blade in arcing bolts of lightning.

All the showy lightning bolts proved to be in vain when Ginnie just barreled through it shield-first though. From the way the lightning dispersed on striking her armor and shield, Aideen thought they must have been enchanted with anti-magic, much like her own weapon.

The human was flustered when faced with the dwarf's onrush, their blows ignored as they barely scratched the thick armor Ginnie wore. Even from her seat high above the arena Aideen could hear the old dwarf woman laugh out loud and mock her opponent for their incompetence.

An anticlimactic end came to the battle not too long after when Ginnie struck the human's left knee with the edge of her shield, causing it to bend backward. Then a swipe from her axe severed the human's sword arm at the wrist when they tried a desperate swing as they went down.

Aideen saw how Ginnie stepped on the human's chest with one booted foot, her weight combined with the armor's causing the plate their opponent wore to creak and bend in protest.

Ginnie had her weapon raised high to deliver the final blow, when the human under her foot spoke for the first time. It was in heavily accented common, but Aideen caught the plea for mercy as what it was. The voice also identified the human combatant as a woman.

"Don't be telling me you signed up for a trial by combat without reading the fine prints?" Ginnie asked as she scoffed loudly. The weapon in her arm descended mercilessly towards the pleading woman nonetheless.