Not (Just) A Mage Lord Isekai-Chapter 45 - Need to Improve

The trial for Grivis was set for the middle of the next day. Just late enough the folk of Tetherfall could be introduced to their new Magus Dominus first.

I'd set up in Grivis's office. Which had also included a bedroom in the back. It had been neglected with a layer of dust over everything when I claimed it. Which I hadn’t even touched. There’d been no time to sleep. I'd splashed my face with water, gone for breakfast, and when I returned, the bed was clean.

I was adjusting my robes myself. To say Calbern was making himself scarce would be to imply he hadn't been around. My clothes had been laid out, the scarf beside them. A report on the village’s stores.

The evidence proved he'd been there.

He just hadn't been in sight.

Not an easy thing, to lose trust in a person I still considered a friend.

Picking up the scarf he'd wrapped around me before I'd first met Perth's father, setting me on the path of a Magus Dominus, I hesitated. It was still the scarf of a newly awakened mage. Not of one who was halfway through Astral. And yet…

I wrapped it best I could, though I knew it wasn't perfect.

After all, I wasn't Calbern.

But then, he'd never been perfect either. Just exemplary.

Unable to help myself, I let out a small chuckle. Then a bigger one. Soon I was laughing so hard I was crying.

"Boss, you okay?" Tanis asked, poking his head inside the unlocked door. He had a circle of flowers in one hand, and his dark hair was curled up into a spiral on his head.

"I'm… ha… I'm exemplary," I answered, bursting into laughter once more.

"Uh. That's not contagious, is it, boss?" Tanis asked, closing the door so there was only a thin strip of his eye showing, the flowers disappearing behind his back.

"If only it was, the world might be a better place," I said, shaking my head, the humor fled as quickly as it had come.

Tanis nodded, letting the door drift open a bit more, holding out the circle of flowers. "Whatever you say, boss. You ready for your big speech?"

"Big speech?" I asked, realizing a trace of my amusement remained. "You can't give too big a speech, Tanis. That's how you lose them."

"Uh… you sure lost me, boss," Tanis said, letting the door swing fully open as he tapped his chin with the flowers.

"That's my point exactly," I said, striding past him out into the office area without asking about the flowers. I had no desire to wear them.

“Uh, boss,” Tanis tried, but I waved him along. Shrugging, Tanis fell into step behind me, both hands on the flower circle as I went out into the nets. There were several positions I could've chosen for a speech. Balthum had preferred a position above them, floating in the air. He'd given a lot of speeches from there. Grivis had preferred to stand at the narrow end of the chasm, causing his voice to echo, making him feel grander.

But I wasn’t them. There'd be no speech.

Instead, I chose to meet the villagers outside their homes, on the walkways and rigging where they worked. Tanis kept lifting the circlet of flowers, but thankfully Selvi showed up, and I got her to take it. She slid it on her head, and Tanis beamed as they helped introduce me to folks one at a time. Selvi was looking much better, in a clean tunic, the bright lines on her face starting to look like faded scars after another round of healing.

As we went, I couldn't help but be shocked how thin most of their folk were. Wiry, with corded muscles, yes. But thin. And there weren't many old people or children. There were perhaps three children under the age of ten, including the kid, Wood Rat. Who I noted didn’t show up.

Tanis and Selvi were both obvious exceptions to the thinner population. So, when there was a lull in visitors, I asked, "Why's everyone so thin. Except those who served on the guard, everyone's thin as a rail?"

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Tanis and Selvi exchanged a glance. "Well, you gotta be healthy to fight the monsters. Everyone knows that. Means first pick of the crops. And if you ain't in the guard, then you gotta make do with what's left. Sometimes we go hunting down in the vale, which has lots ta eat, but we can only haul back so much, ya know?"

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I let out a long sigh, looking to my side. But Calbern wasn't there. I'd been about to ask him about the stores Grivis had put aside. Since that wasn't an option, I turned to the people I had available. "And the stores? Grivis said we had over six months worth of food."

The deck swayed beneath us, neither of them answering right away. Selvi was looking down, her face scrunched up while Tanis tapped his chin. Then he shook his head. "Don't sound right, boss. Got two months of extra for the guards, maybe. Plus whatever the other knotters got tucked away."

"Maybe Balthum had treasure or supplies we never saw," Selvi suggested. "I was his bodyguard, but that just meant he’d make me watch all the unpleasant rope-rot. Grivis handled a lot of the drudgery for him. Plus there was plenty the old bastard kept to himself."

"Hmm. We'll have to check into it," I mumbled, waving them forward. "Well, let's keep at it. More folks to meet."

All in all, the morning passed better than I could've expected. Except things had taken a bit of a shift when it was made clear that not only would I be meeting everyone, there'd be a trial for Grivis later in the day.

A sort of subtle tension hung in the air.

It felt strange, to sit on a trial.

Even stranger was how biased the judges would be.

My other judges had not been treated well by the man we were about to judge. The first had been tortured, her beautiful face now tattered, red and raw. And the other had been strung up to be quartered by the net. And I'd taken his place as the leader of the village.

It was, perhaps, the least impartial court Grivis could've been tried by. At least on the face of it. And yet we were still better than the nine villagers who had been selected to pass his sentence.

I wasn't sure Tanis could hold a grudge. And Selvi, despite her disdain for the man, felt as though she would try to follow the law. For myself…

Biased was a perfect word for how I felt. Not because of his former position, though. Just because of the outpouring of people who'd come, begging to give witness to the crimes he'd done. Or that his men had committed.

There had been so many, and most were sincere. There'd been a few who'd been trying to weasel extra food or supplies out of me, though they'd had legitimate grudges of their own.

The pity I'd felt for the man had long since evaporated. He'd been responsible for these people, and left them with nothing. That the villagers recalled crimes of not just Grivis, but his men, left me with mixed feelings. Had I known the crimes before they'd died, it would have felt more like justice.

Then again, the only proof these people could offer was their state of existence and their words.

Grivis's prosecution wasn't a witch hunt, thankfully. I'd witnessed several of his crimes with my own eyes. And read even more in his own reports. It was quick, those with the most grievous crimes sorted before hand, then allowed to step forward and speak. We didn't even try Grivis for his crimes against my fellow judges.

As the last witness gave testimony, I looked towards where the man was sitting in a sling of rope, with a rough wooden plank beneath him. His mouth was bound with several loops of rope, and he seemed to be trying to object to the accusations once more.

“-and my daughter never came home. Found her body in the Deep, stuck in the rapids.” The man giving witness said, his eyes locked on Grivis. “He took everything from her. From us.”

The other accusations hadn’t been any better.

In the end, he was sentenced to a fate the community considered worse than the net. Because to be sentenced to the net, you had to be part of the community.

Grivis had told me he wanted to travel, yet I knew this wasn't what he had in mind.

He was on his knees, begging through the rope binding his mouth. When Tanis pushed him to his knees, he clasped at the big man’s leg, right at the edge of Tetherfall. Below, hundreds of feet down, was the rocky bottom. It was where they dumped their waste.

Doubted Grivis would've appreciated knowing that instead of worrying about his fate, I was already thinking whether it would be worth the effort to reclaim the rich nutrients that’d been thrown down.

Tanis stood Grivis up, holding him by the arm as I stepped forward.

"Beneath the sight of your people, you have been found guilty of rape, murder, slavery, and extortion," I said, my voice carrying as I took his bound hands to support his weight, removing the burden from Tanis. "By the rites of rope and rigging, you have been judged unworthy of the net. You have been sentenced to Fall."

He continued whimpering as I picked him up, barely able to get his feet off the ground. I was thankful for the nonstop training since we’d left Nexxa’s domain. Then with a quick Gust to add some actual strength to it, I cast him outward, ensuring he'd fall on the rocks and not the valuable, soft, nutrients.

When he hit, it sounded more like stones clattering than flesh collapsing. But Eagle Eyes showed me it had been him. I stared down at him for almost a minute and felt… dissatisfied.

It was according to their local laws. And I'd chosen to follow them, to build confidence in their system. But I didn't want this to be such an easy choice in the future. There needed to be steps.

Still, mercy was the province of the strong.

If I wanted better, then I'd need to improve. And not just myself. The allies I could trust. Not just in power, but in moral fiber.

Being in charge meant tough choices. I'd known that since I swore the oath to become a Magus Dominus.

Which meant I needed to address my issues with Calbern.

Looking down, I stared at Grivis’s corpse.

Then I took a deep breath. It was time.