Swiss Arms-Chapter 145

Swiss Arms-Chapter 145

Swiss Arms
Chapter 145
-VB-
Hans von Fluelaberg
I stared across the iron bars at the three men currently inside a holding cell.
"Why?" I asked.
The three men, all of whom were part of the one wave of refugees, didn't dare to answer.
"You were growing wealthy. You were becoming powerful in your own right. You were respected. You were even heralded as the foundation of our city's growth. So
why
did you decide to steal from me?"
It was a simple question.
But it was not one with a simple answer. Or an answer at all.
Most of the men here couldn't answer the question easily. Couldn't when they knew their shame and error.
"That money you stole was supposed to go into the defense of the city and the wider Compact," I told them. "It's what kept
you
from being drafted to war. It's what I used to train the rangers to elite level fighting force on par with the knights. There is no way a mountain fief not selling priceless goods like gold, silver, and porcelain could do that. You know that there are others out there like the Duke of Bavaria that want all of this for themselves, and fuck anyone else who was already here. So why did you do this and risk everything?"
No answer.
The shame ate away at them.
They might have been smugglers and thieves, but they weren't -.
"Please, I had nothing to do with this!"
I rolled my eyes at the man who kept insisting on that.
Unfortunately for him, my rangers and the investigating merchants had seen him pocket money.
He was a liar, and unlike the rest of the men here who were going to receive their punishment with dignity… he was trying to get out of it still.
I stood up, glared one last time at the three guilty men, and left the cell.
"Make sure their last meals are decent," I told the guards. "That is the final service they get for the work they have done."
And obviously, their families will be told to hand over all of the money they got illegally.
As for the last man…
I walked over to the front of his cell.
"Hello, Eric."
Eric was one of the few original Davos residents who came to settle in Fluelaberg just after I took in the first wave of refugees. He was always skittish but… I never thought someone from Davos would stab me in the back like this.
"I didn't do anything, Hans! You've got to believe me!"
"Do you have a twin or something who looks exactly like you, then? Because I have eyewitness testimonies that you worked there and pocketed money yourself," I said tiredly. "Are you saying half a dozen people hallucinated someone like you being at the exact place
you were arrested at while moving goods
?"
"Yes! The boss just called me in for a night duty! I didn't know they were smuggling!"
"Really."
"Yes!"
"Then what's the pile of silver pfennigs that we found at your home?"
That shut him up.
I let out a sigh as I stood up.
"Don't bother and enjoy your last meal."
"Wait, Hans! Please, I don't want to die!"
Too bad.
-VB-
Isabella von Fluelaberg
"How much?" she nearly choked.
"They skimped out on at least a couple thousand silver pfennigs," her husband replied blandly as if -.
"Exactly how much?"
He grimaced a little. "Workshop 11 smuggled out four thousand silver pfennigs worth."
Her fingers nearly shattered the porcelain tea cup in her hands.
Four thousand silvers?
Four thousand
?
That was enough money to buy half of Rheintal again!
"Husband, you can't be serious…?" she asked him, aghast at how nonchalant he was being.
"We've recovered most of it," he replied, still calmly despite the fact that enough money to buy a few baronies over had nearly slipped through his fingers. "When their families realized what happened, most were quick to hand it over."
"Most?"
"One family decided to try to run with the money. They were the family of the Workshop 11's manager." He sounded … regretful. Tired.
"What happened?"
"The eldest son drew a sword. My rangers reacted as they should." Her husband looked like he wanted to have a drink. "Now, that family has been reduced to just two children, one girl and one boy, who are both less than ten years old."
She cringed.
Workshop 11's manager had a large family.
"What about their relatives…?"
"Part of the group who tried to run. They were
all
in on it."
"... I see. And what will happen to the children?"
With her own child now, she was … more concerned about the fate of the children than she would have been otherwise.
"Wards of the state," he replied evenly. "I won't put them in the orphanage because I'm not sure about what the other children and matrons will do to the children of traitors. I can't make them my wards because they are commoner children, and your family will be pissed if I take in the children of traitors as my wards, because that is a reward, not a punishment."
"Then…?"
"... I know a trustworthy man. A ranger who wasn't involved in the deaths of their parents and relatives. I can put them with him if he accepts."
She let out a subtle sigh of relief.
"That would be acceptable."
Hans grunted.
"... Their trial will be later today."
She blinked. "You're giving them a trial?"
"Everyone deserves a trial, even if the evidence is damning as hell," he blew out a sigh. "It'll be a point to my rule being fair and just as well. The people deserve to know who hurt them, even if unknowingly, just as much as I do."
"What about their families…?"
He snorted. "Eric's mother will want him dead herself. He put his nieces and nephews in danger by association. And if this was anywhere else, they might have been exiled from the city."
That was true. It wasn't uncommon for the relatives and families of a condemned criminal to be exiled, if they were not "important." After all, they should have ed something to the authorities if they knew about it, if only to make sure that they made their non-involvement clear.
Eric, the man who continued to deny his involvement, had family in Davos and Fluelaberg. If he was exposed in court as having been found to be a member of the smuggling ring, then all of his family would come under scorn and suspicion. Business would dry up. Advancements would be blocked. Opportunities would be taken away.
Jobs
might be taken away. People will start not associating with them.
In the medieval age, that was more or less death by a thousand cuts.
His nieces and nephews? They will have no good marriage prospects within the Compact or in any of the neighboring lands who didn't want to piss me off on a chance. For that alone, Eric's mother would have beaten him to death herself.
The useless son had gone and caused damage to the family.
She let out a sigh. "We will have to make sure no lasting damage hits his family," she spoke up.
Hans hummed in agreement. "Perhaps a job offer for his sister at one of the lesser business we have?"
"What does she do?"
The talks continued in that vein as they planned to mitigate the damages internally and externally.
Because even when problems were resolved, there was no end to problems.

.
!
Chapter 145