The drunk man said, "What do you want, you filthy noble? You here to take my money again or just to mock me?"
Kaelen answered, "No, no. I'm here to help you. I want to listen. Learn more about your situation."
Kaelen thought that reputation was extremely important. So he asked again.
The drunk man replied, "Monsters attacked our farm. Our harvest is ruined. The knights don't care—they don't even lift a finger. And the lord keeps raising taxes on us. Worst of all, my daughter caught a disease. I asked the priests for help, but they couldn't do anything. Nothing. They asked me for money—three copper coins—while my entire harvest is worth only two. Please, noble sir, give me some money."
Kaelen decided to say out loud, "I accept. Here, take three copper coins."
The man was overjoyed and thanked him. People started gathering around Kaelen.
Kaelen stood up and said, "Anyone who wants money, I will give it to you. But promise me that one day, you will help me, because I have a dream—a dream that seems impossible."
There were seven people. He gave each of them three copper coins—that made twenty-one copper coins total. Adding the first three coins, that made twenty-four.
He still had two gold coins, two iron coins, and six copper coins left.
Kaelen went back to the lord and confronted him. "How dare you? You have knights—what are they for? Just to look good? And what are your taxes for?"
"If nothing changes by tomorrow," Kaelen promised, "my knights will come and destroy your lordship."
The lord, angry at being scolded by a young man who looked no older than twenty, was about to slap him. But he remembered that this was a Leonheart—and that if he touched him, he would face the worst death imaginable.
Instead, he forced a smile and agreed.
Kaelen asked, "Where's the nearest inn so I can rest?"
Seeing an opportunity to look good, the lord let him stay in the castle.
But not everything went smoothly.
Suddenly, a noise—a blast. Not from gunpowder or TNT, but magic.
How did Kaelen know? He saw the attacker. It was one of the people from the tavern. Kaelen looked at him with a sharp eye and was surprised.
He decided to kidnap the attacker and bring him back to their headquarters as a hostage—to force the lord to listen.
There were hundreds of villagers. Though this village was considered small, and a lordship in this world, it was as large as a megacity by Kaelen's standards.
It was huge. Extremely huge. With thousands and thousands of villagers.
Maybe because this world had never suffered the plague of white death?
Kaelen woke up, all tied up. But instead of being angry, he was happy.
Because he had a plan. An idea.