I sigh long and deep. The pain in my head reached its peak. I look out to the remainding people left in the hall.Three men left, I sigh again, all three nobles. A Duke, Earl and a Baron.
Damn. I'm seriously tired of this shit already. I just want to get this over with, but I'm at my limit.
I snapped my fingers. Blood came down from the ceiling. During the whole ordeal I was having the blood of the dead gather to the ceiling so didn't have to use my own blood to fish out punishment if necessary. The blood came down and wrapped around the three remaining men's necks, then hardened.
"You are free to roam the castle. If you intend to leave the castle that collar around your neck will tighten and you'll lose your head. If you try to harm someone same thing. That collar is meant to tighten not expand, so don't bother transforming, or you'll once again lose your head. Take this as a moment of stupidity on my behalf. I should throw you into a cell, but I won't. Not yet at least."
I look to the general, "Send out a letter to their families summoning all family members, young and old, every single one. Those who don't show hunt them down and execute them on the spot. When they arrive let me know, then we will judge once again. I have to finish pulling out the weeds, then send out a letter to summon all noble families Earl and above. We'll deal with the upper ranked nobles before we deal with the rest. With that you're dismissed"
"Yes, your majesty," he's said head bowed, then he turned and left.
"The rest of the people in the room gather in front, the ones I judged already.".
With that the ones that were standing off to the side stepped up in front of the throne. Two Royal guards, nine castle guards, thee maids (that stayed behind from taking care of Margaret), and three cooks.
"You have the right to choose, you can either stay here, in which I'll make sure you're compensated for the wrong doings done to you, or you can leave and start a new life away from here. If you leave you will still be compensated. If you leave you are not to speak a word of what you've seen or heard today, and guards are to leave their armor and weaponry. The choice is yours."
"With all due respect, I do not see you as my king, so I will take my leave now," a royal guard said, then he set set down his sword and removed his armor leaving only a tunic and pants and left.
The other royal guard followed suit, "my reason is different from his. I think you will be a great king, your grace. I have long seen injustice in these halls and am glad they have finally received punishment for their wrong doings. However I could not protect the previous king, so I will start over and rejoin the army and retrain myself. When I finish my training and reearn my spot I hope you'll have me."
"If it has not been taken, I'll gladly welcome you back."
Three of the castle guards dropped their armor and swords, without saying a word. The rest hit their chest twice and dropped to one knee. "We will serve, your grace."
"Good, tonight I will think of a reward for your loyalty."
"HA!" They shouted, beating their chest once again.
The three maids got to one knee. "I wish to serve your grace, however I wish for some time to think. A small reprieve from duty. When I come back I will serve with the best of my abilities," one of the maids said.
"Granted. I was planning on giving those wronged a small vacation either way."
"Thank you, your grace," she said.
"I wish to continue to serve. I don't need a vacation. I just wish to serve, no compensation necessary, your grace," another maid said.
"I feel the same, your grace," the last maid said.
"If that is how you feel, then I will grant it. You are dismissed. Let the other maids who are taking care of Margaret know of what I offered, then you may continue your duties."
"Yes, your grace." They said in unison, then left.
The three chefs didn't say anything for awhile, then one spoke up. "Your grace are you serious about giving a woman the head royal chef position?"
"Yes.". My tone flat and decisive, "Her talent as a cook is higher than all of yours. It was even higher than that sleaze of a head cook before. I'm more baffled she wasnt the head chef before now."
With looks of anger and frustration they aggressively removed their uniforms signifying their position as royal chef and slammed them on the ground. Feeling insulted that I said a woman is better than them at something.
Sexism is strong in this country. Women have next to no rights here. I was surprised that there was even a woman working in the royal kitchen. I will change that soon enough though. Slowly giving women more and more power. Eventually giving them the same rights as the men of this country. Now I have headache for a different reason. Just imagining the backlash. If only they knew the truth about their founder, Bahaumut, being a woman.
"The rest of you are dismissed. I will have a reward ready for you tomorrow."
Once everyone left I got up and walked away. Through the doors down the hall straight to the royal bedroom. When I opened the doors immediately I was disgusted. Gold everything bed, chairs, tables, tapestry, picture frames, everything was made of gold.
I pinched the bridge of my nose and sighed again. I closed the door and walked down the hall once again to one of the guest rooms.
I opened the door and was slightly relieved. The designs of the furniture were intricate, but everything was made of wood. High end wood, but wood nonetheless.
The bed, large with red sheets and half a dozen pillows. Made for moderate comfort. Pressing my hand on the mattress is sunk just enough for it to be perfectly comfortable. A black nightstand on each side with two drawers each.
The desk fancy in design and was obsidian on color. A quil with ink and a stack of papers with nothing written on them, for long sleepless nights. A single obsidian chair paused in.
Over by the window a small, black wooden table with a red cloth on top and a set of matching chairs. There was a flower vase sitting in the middle of the table filled with white lilies.
Better. I sighed with relief. At least there isnt gold in every room. I sat on the bed letting my body sink slightly. Finally.
I feel a drop fall to my hand, a red drop of blood against my pale skin, then another and another. I press my fingers to my nose, there was blood on my fingers. Damn, used full status too much today. My magic is also pretty drained. I still have more to go. More to judge. Today was just an appetizer there are hundreds of nobles. I should be able to get a few days rest though. The Dukes family won't be here right away. I'll just have use it sparingly until that day.
I look around the room, then up towards the ceiling. A long, exhausted sigh escapes my lips. So much to do still and so little time.
I lay my head down, not bothering to change, and close my eyes. My thoughts busy, hurried of all the millions of things I have to do. Trying to calm them, but failing. Guess it'll be restless sleep tonight. After an hour of tossing and turning the world finally goes dark as I drift off to sleep.
****
A scream startled me awake. A maid at the door her hands covering her face. She was staring at me like I was a dead man. I look at the around and notice all the blood. There was blood on the pillows and still on my face.
Ahhh. I didn't clean the blood or stop my bleeding last night.
I reassured her that I was fine, saying that it was only a bloody nose, that I ran into a wall last night. She seemed skeptical, but let it go.
I know I lied me someone who values honesty has lied. Like hell am I gonna tell the truth and reveal a weakness to those I barely trust though. So a little lie isn't too bad.
"Where is the General," I asked. Starting to remove my shirt. Revealing my toned body.
The maid blushed,then answered, while trying to look elsewhere, "General Fireborn is in the yelard training the troops."
"Can you grab him for me? Also if you could send Eliza to the market and grab me some clothes. I only have this one shirt and pants."
"Yes, your grace." She answered still blushing and still too embarrassed to look at me. She then bowed and quickly left.
I was sitting on the bed waiting, then after some time there was a knock on the door. "Enter."
The door opened and the general walked in. He was stunned for a second seeing that I was completely undressed. He shook his head. "You are not dressed. I could've waited, your grace," he said.
"I have no clothes you would've waited awhile. But don't mind that I called you for a reason."
"What did you need l?"
"First, I need your name. It feels weird calling you general all the time."
"Its Matthias. Matthias Fireborn."
"Good. Matthias the second thing I need from you is fifty of your men. I need them to do something for me."
"What is it you need them to do, your grace?"
"I need them to storm the castle and bring all things of value in this castle out to the throne room. Everything that is of value. Gold, silver, jewels, vases, if it is of value it needs to be in the throne room."
"What for, your grace?"
"We're going to sell it. Well some of it. The gold and silver is going to be melted down and turned into ignots. Which brings me to my third and final thing I need. I need you to find a merchant whose willing to buy the stuff. Then I need a blacksmith and an alchemist to remove impurities and melt the gold and silver into ignots, then we'll sell those as well."
He looked shocked, the fact that we're selling things of value in the castle, seemed to have shocked him.
"Why are we selling things of value within the castle? Our Treasury is full there should be no need to sell things within the castle."
"Its not for our Treasury it's for something else entirely. Its precisely that the Treasury is full that we need to do this. Now go, unless you like staring at my nude body."
He blushed, he was highly embarrassed, with the shock of selling castle valuables, he had forgotten that I was nude.
"At once, your grace," he gave his bow and left in a rush.
I stood from the bed and walked to the window, staring out into the garden. The sun shining bright. I inhale deeply, then sigh, "Soon I'll get this city back on track. To do that I need talented individuals. I'll need to find them. But right now it's time to give back to those who have lost."