Chương 47: Chapter 46 - Paying Off Debts

She found Dustin in the large ground floor room he had now officially commandeered as his office, the same one with the broken table. He was pacing back and forth when she rushed in, and a look of relief appeared on his face when he saw her, followed by alarm when he saw her arm.

"What happened?! Is everyone okay?" he cried out. Kiara collapsed on the couch. She had been running a lot in the past hour.

"We're fine, mostly. Soren and Estella are at the infirmary, but I think they'll be okay." Relief returned to Dustin's face at the news.

"Lord Grivalt is dead," she said bluntly. Dustin's face went white. He buried his face in his hands.

"Oh dear. I knew it was a bad idea for you to go there today. What happened?" Kiara relayed the events as accurately as she could remember them. Accuracy would probably be important here, for legal reasons. There were plenty of guards left at Lord Grivalt's estate that knew she had been there, and the servants had all witnessed the fight. Word would get out that she had killed him, and Baron Norshod would no doubt come knocking.

With the immediate threat on her family's safety removed, and Soren and Estella safe at the infirmary, her mind went back to the reasons they had originally avoided confronting Lord Grivalt directly. She wasn't sure how things would play out from here.

"He may have been within his rights," Dustin mused after she finished, stroking his chin.

"Within his rights?" Kiara sputtered.

"Beating his servants for no reason and threatening to kill me, then openly attacking me?" Dustin shrugged.

"He was a ruling noble. You were a guest in his home. Although it sounds like he was still willing to let you go until he saw the money you offered him. If that's the case…" he trailed off, thinking deeply. After a moment, he finished his thought, "If he attacked you in an effort to steal your money, and you defended yourself, then that changes things. A wealthy house like House Yountal isn't completely devoid of rights in a situation such as this." Kiara was dumbfounded.

"There has to be a way to settle this properly. I don't think I did anything wrong." Dustin looked at her apologetically.

"I agree, but Baron Norshod is the ruling noble here in Easton. He can act with impunity, unless the count himself steps in."

"So let's go to the count!" Kiara exclaimed.

"Lord Grivalt tried to kill me!" Dustin nodded thoughtfully in response.

"Yes, I think you may have something there. If he attacked you to rob you, and you defended yourself, then Baron Norshod will have to see reason if he doesn't want us taking the matter to the count." He stood.

"It's probably best if we go file an official complaint against Lord Grivalt at the city offices, as soon as possible." * They made their way to the city office buildings, where they waited in line for twenty minutes before it was finally their turn. As they waited, Kiara recognized the familiar pull to open her World Engine interface. As she did, she saw a new message from the World Engine waiting. Congratulations! You have showcased the merits of your class by defeating a tier 2 mage in combat for the first time.

You will be given the following rewards: A 5% increase to each of your stats. The size of your soul space has been increased to a diameter of 10 feet. Stats: Strength: 276 => 289 Mind: 100 => 100 (MAX) Endurance: 56 => 58 Healing: 31 => 32 Sleep Fatigue Resistance: 21 => 22 Food / nourishment requirement: 21 => 22 Durability: 104 =>109 Life Expectancy: 64 => 67 The bump in stats was small, but welcome. She poked around in her soul space momentarily, admiring the new size.

The coins from [Fat Stack] barely took up a fraction of the space now. After they had waited for their turn, a bored clerk barely glanced at them as they walked up to the counter. This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

"How can I help?" His voice was devoid of emotion.

"We need to file an official complaint against a noble," Dustin declared. The clerk pursed his lips, then reached beneath the desk without looking and pulled out a piece of paper.

"Fill out this form, I'll add it to the stack." He patted a large stack of papers on the counter, at least an inch thick. Kiara eyed the stack. Their complaint would get lost in there. She wasn't sure if that was a good thing or not.

"We'd rather not wait in line again, can we fill it out here at the counter?" Dustin asked the clerk.

"By all means," the clerk consented with a sudden smile, leaning back in his chair and closing his eyes. Dustin filled out the form, highlighting the self-defense aspects of the story. Once he was done, Kiara read it over. It looked fine to her. The clerk opened his eyes as they slid the form to him. He briefly glanced at it, then sighed in annoyance.

"Ugh, if this resulted in the death of a ruling noble, then it's a different form. Let me grab it." He moved away from the counter for a minute or two, then returned with three new papers.

"Fill these out instead." He resumed his previous position with his eyes closed. Once Dustin started writing, Kiara spotted that same small smile on the clerk's lips. He didn't mind that they were taking extra time, during which he could nap. He seemed completely indifferent to the fact that they were reporting the death of a noble. One form was essentially the same as the one they had already filled out, just with a different form identifier on the top, and slightly different questions.

It wanted the details of their official complaint written out, with arguments for what offense the noble had committed, and against whom. The second form wanted the backstory of what led to the altercation, the details of the altercation itself, and the reason for the ruling noble's death. It required the address of Kiara's residence, with a disclaimer that they would likely be contacted about the event in question.

The third form was an affidavit that she signed, indicating she would be willing to appear before a city tribunal, presided over by the baron, to answer any additional questions they about what happened. She was honestly a bit surprised that they didn't want to do that right away, but she wasn't complaining. Once the forms were filled out, the clerk looked them over, pointing out a few places where they'd missed filling in a required piece of information.

After he was done, he looked at them with that same bored expression from earlier.

"Anything else?" Kiara was a little taken aback by his nonchalance about the entire situation, and decided to ask Dustin about it later.

"What will happen to Lord Grivalt's estate?" she asked the clerk.

"Specifically, the servants at his estate?"

"His estate transfers back to the baron," the clerk explained.

"The baron will determine whether to institute a new lesser lord to rule that jurisdiction, or if it will be dissolved into the lands governed directly by the baron. The estate staff will likely be let go, as new staff will be brought on by whoever takes over management of that area."

"Some of the servants were indentured," Kiara explained.

"Ah," the clerk held up a finger.

"In that case, their debts will also transfer with the rest of the estate to the baron."

"Can I pay those debts off?" Kiara asked.

"Uh…," the clerk faltered, unsure of the answer.

"That is… let me find out." He hurried away from the counter again, in search of someone that knew the answer. A few minutes later, he returned, with a supervisor in tow. She was tall and prim, with graying hair and a pair of glasses so far down her nose they were at risk of falling off any moment. She studied them both as she approached. The original clerk stood back, letting her take care of things.

"You wish to settle the debts of some servants belonging to a deceased noble's estate?" she asked them, staring at them down the bridge of her nose. Kiara felt like a small child, at risk of being scolded.

"Yes, ma'am," she replied. The supervisor ruffled through the forms they had filled out until she found Lord Grivalt's name. Then she found the date.

"Deceased today?" Kiara nodded in confirmation.

"His estate won't have been transferred over yet then, come back in three days or so." She turned to leave.

"Wait!" Kiara called after her, getting her to turn back again with one sharply raised eyebrow. The height difference between her two eyebrows, caused by her current expression, was impressive – it had to be some kind of record.

"What about those servants?" Kiara asked.

"What will they do for the next three days? There's no one there looking out for them." The woman closed her eyes and pinched the bridge of her nose.

"I supposed we could come to some sort of pre-payment arrangement. Do you have any details about the terms of their indenture?" Kiara looked to Dustin for help.

"Ah," he chimed in.

"We do not, but we are willing to pay the maximum that those terms might be estimated at. We also have purchased some of these indentured servants from Lord Grivalt previously, if that helps set a precedent."

"Indeed it would. Do you have any of those contracts on you?" A few papers materialized from Dustin's storage ring. A contract for the six servants whose debts they'd paid off previously, along with the most recent letter showing a list of some of the servants at the estate. The woman perused the letters and the contract, then did some math on a spare piece of paper.

"Based on the previous agreement, it seems that the servants at Lord Grivalt's estate were likely serving terms less than five years, for the most part. The amount you paid previously was high, but if we use that as a precedent and assume five years remaining for each servant, which is also likely on the high end, that would be twenty two ruby coins." She waved one of the forms they had filled out in the air.

"We have your address, and can follow up later if needed, based on the documents we find at Lord Grivalt's estate. You will likely get a refund of some amount in a few days' time." Dustin nodded at Kiara, who then pulled the twenty two ruby coins from her soul storage and placed them on the counter. The younger clerk's boredom vanished, at the sight of the large sum of money.

The supervisor didn't even blink, she simply picked up another form, filled in the amount of money they had paid, signed the bottom of the form, then pushed it across the counter for Dustin to fill out.

"We'll be in touch," she said as she picked up the coins, then turned and left.

"Thank you!" Kiara called out to her back. The woman raised a single hand in acknowledgement without turning back. With the final form filled out, they thanked the young clerk, who had returned to his bored demeanor after the coins disappeared, then left. All of the servants from Lord Grivalt's estate wouldn't fit in Kiara's carriages, so she purchased two large wagons from a merchant outfitter in the city. While Dustin finalized the purchase of the wagons, she hustled back to her house to gather up a few guards.

With the guards piled into one of the wagons, they picked up the carriage that Captain Soren had taken to the infirmary, then started back to Lord Grivalt's estate.