“That breast plate is far too high quality to be something an ordinary bandit would have,” Mr. Hoyt said as he walked closer.
While his father walked over to take a good look at the emblem, Ethan pulled the man’s mask off, revealing a bald-headed man that Damion recognized.
“Hey, that’s Barnes. He’s a member of the Falks Guild in Bufort,” Damion said.
“You know what… that emblem… that’s the Falks Guild’s crest. That’s why it looked familiar,” Ethan added.
“You sure you recognize him,” Mr. Hoyt questioned Damion.
“Yeah, he gave me trouble yesterday when I was in the Association. A bunch of people witnessed it, that’s how I recognized him.”
“You’re right, Ethan, that is the Falks Guild crest, and if this man is, as Damion says, a member of the Falks Guild, I would bet my left arm the others are too.”
“Why would the Falks Guild attack our trade caravan?” Ethan asked.
“Greed,” Mr. Hoyt answered without hesitation. “They probably got wind of the Association sending a large portion of their artifact materials on our trucks and decided to try and get it all for themselves. The value of those ingredients is in the tens of thousands of platinum. The Association didn’t even give me the value of the contents or an inventory. I think they did that to minimize the risk of a leak and to check up on me if anything went missing.”
“Do you think it was the whole guild, or just some members going rogue?” Ethan asked.
“Well, this fellow wore a layer of clothing over his guild issued armor. So clearly they were trying to hide their identities, he probably wasn’t even supposed to wear the armor, but chose to cover it up instead of obeying.”
“Either way, with this evidence it will be hard for the Falks Guild to deny the charges. Load up all the bodies. We’ll turn them over to the Justiciar Order when we get to Saung. I’m trying to open up a trade hub in Bufort, I don’t need a dispute with their largest guild right now. Damion, you tell the Justiciar what you know, but don’t spread it around that we know it was the Falks Guild. If the Justiciar can’t place the blame squarely on the guild, I don’t want the guild to go after my trade company with the grounds that we are spreading lies about them.”
“Yes sir,” Damion answered. “But why didn’t we talk to the Justiciar Order after the attack on the way to Bufort?”
“I did,” Mr. Hoyt answered. “The local Justiciar took the report, but considered them a low threat. These bandits, though, were E and D Rankers. One of the ones that got away I think was low C Rank. The Justiciar won’t let such powerful bandits stay out there. They’ll want to hunt them down.”
For Damion’s entire life, he had held knights and mages in high esteem. They were supposed to be the protectors of the weak, the defeaters of monsters. But here in just a few days, Damion began to see how naïve he had been. His naivety actually surprised him a great deal, since had seen such corruption and worse in his past life on Earth.
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Damion supposed coming to a world that had so much in common with a fantasy world, Damion figured he must have blocked out the fact that this was not a story book where happy endings were almost guaranteed. And that left Damion with a sobering thought. The good guys do not always win in reality.
The Justiciar Order is the knight order responsible for enforcing the law on knights and guilds. As Damion was discovering, just like on Earth, power had the tendency to corrupt. People on Nerotath could give in to greed, fear, lust, any of their baser emotions, and become monsters. But unlike on Earth where it was usually only the rich and powerful that could skirt justice, Damion’s new home had people with real power that would sometimes become real monsters.
Damion and Ethan loaded the bandit corpses into truck 1’s trailer and then resumed their positions on truck 2 while Mr. Hoyt cleared the road. In less than five minutes the trade caravan was on the move again.
For the rest of the mission Damion listened to Ethan telling him not to get lost in his head. What he had done was necessary. If Damion had not killed the bandit, if he had not come to help Ethan and his father, it was likely they, and the rest of the trade caravan, would have been killed by the bandits.
The effort from Ethan was appreciated by Damion, but not needed. Damion had already come to terms with killing the bandit. If people were going to act like monsters, Damion was going to treat them the same way.
When the trade caravan reached the gates of Saung, Mr. Hoyt jumped down from truck 1 and spoke with the guards. One of the guards pulled out a communication tablet, a device startling similar to a cell phone, but powered by magic, and spoke hurriedly into it while the other signaled for the gate to open.
The trade convoy rolled into the city and settled into the holding area and, as Damion climbed down from the roof of truck 2, he saw a group of gold armored knights heading towards them. It was a squad of Justiciar Order knights, each with identical armor and helms that concealed their features. Damion guessed Mr. Hoyt had alerted the guards at the gate and they in turn had alerted the Justiciar Order.
“Please show us the bodies,” one of the Justiciars said to Mr. Hoyt.
Mr. Hoyt led the way to the back of truck 1’s trailer and showed them the bodies. One of the Justiciar made the bodies vanish and Damion surmised he pulled the corpses into a spatial artifact. This surprised Damion greatly since he thought only mages had enough wealth and power to buy and protect spatial artifacts.
“Who fought the bandits?” the Justiciar asked.
Damion timidly raised his hand, while Mr. Hoyt made a sweeping motion with his hand to indicate himself, Ethan and Damion.
“The three of us did,” Mr. Hoyt said.
“Very well. You will accompany us to our headquarters for debriefing. Stamping out the rise in bandit activity since the beast wave has been given the highest priority.”
The group of Justiciar Order knights led the trio to a fortified building not far from the city gates. The building evidently doubled as a garrison for the city guards and as a base of operations for the Justiciar Order. Inside, Damion, Ethan and Mr. Hoyt were led to separate rooms, which Damion thought were startlingly similar to interrogation rooms.
“Please have a seat,” the Justiciar that accompanied Damion said motioning to the sole chair in the room. Once Damion was seated the Justiciar continued, with a rather monotone voice. “Please state your name, Rank and affiliations for the records.”
“Damion Wells, F Rank knight, student of Helga Teft.”
When Damion mentioned Ms. Teft, he saw a flicker in the eyes of the Justiciar. Damion was not sure, but he had a feeling his teacher was not as simple as he thought. Not that any A Ranker could be considered simple.
“Thank you. Now, if you would kindly go over the events of the bandit attack.”
Damion proceeded to recount the events of the attack. Starting with the sudden stop of the trucks in Benault Forest, and the loss of his sandwich. While Damion was recounting his actions during the battle, the Justiciar came over to Damion’s side and asked to examine his sword.
“This is a good weapon,” the Justiciar said as he returned Damion’s sword to him. “The fire glyph is quite versatile. You should focus on doing more than just a slash with it.”