Swiss Arms-Chapter 146

Swiss Arms-Chapter 146

Swiss Arms
Chapter 146
-VB-
Hans von Fluelaberg
The trial lasted a whole day for the smugglers. They were allowed character witnesses, allowed to speak in their defense, produce evidence that might show their innocence, and even were allowed to hire one of the few syndics who lived in Davos and Fluelaberg to come to their defense.
I, in turn, gave my evidences in the form of unofficial ledgers confiscated during the raid, witnesses of my own, more evidence in the form of false bottom cargo boxes and false bottom wagons, and my ledgers of ed losses comparison between all of the workshops, which showed how disproportionately high the ed losses were from the smuggling workshop.
Everyone who wanted to watch the trial's proceedings was allowed to watch, but unless they were willing to speak substantially on behalf of the defendants or to present evidence, they were told strictly to not speak. And to my surprise, a lot of my people did show up. Friends, families, rivals, business partners, strangers, immigrants, locals, and neighbors of the defendants all came to see. It felt like half of the city had shown up.
And as the trial dragged on and on throughout the entire day and past sunset, it became clear to everyone that the smugglers were guilty. Not only that, they were guilty of stealing tens of thousands of silvers over the course of just two years.
Enough silvers, in fact, that had I been able to collect them as tariff and taxes, I would have been able to hire double the number of rangers to keep the county safer or to forgive tax for others who fell on hard times.
Enough money was stolen, in fact, that a visiting noble who sat through the entire trial commented - during recess - about how most smugglers who stole less than a hundredth of what these smugglers stole would have been executed by hanging.
And not the instant hanging where they drop the criminal to snap the neck but the kind they slowly pulled them up so that the criminals choked to death over several minutes.
With the conclusion obvious, there was only one thing left.
Execution.
And I decided to carry out the sentence personally.
Why?
Because I needed to give this incident a meaning. I won't accept the executions to be a formality or even a bureaucratic process. Were there going to be people afraid of me for handling the execution myself? Yes. Were the families of the sentenced going to hate me? Yes.
But that was because life mattered. At least the lives of my subjects did more than those I killed on the battlefield. And it was because they mattered that I won't just stand by and let someone else do it.
Perhaps in the future if I continued to be successful as I was now and the city grew to such a size that executions held less meaning, then I might step back then.
But right now? Right here?
I passed the sentence so I owed it to them to carry it out.
Such was noblesse oblige.
The crowd watched as the tired and resigned prisoners slowly walked up towards raised wooden dais where a single executioner's block sat in the middle.
And underneath it, a bucket.
I stood next to it as the executioner.
The first person up in the front?
Eric, the man who had proclaimed his innocence until the very end. Who shouted at eyewitnesses that saw him working from dawn to dusk for the smugglers. Who denied receiving money when the ledgers showed him taking his pay to keep quiet.
By the end of it, he had finally realized he wasn't escaping this and had settled into a quiet rage.
The soldier - a regular garrison soldier and not a ranger - pushed Eric up to the block and then made him kneel.
"Any last words, Eric?" I asked loudly but not unkindly.
He didn't say anything for a while before he spoke. His voice wobbled as he spoke. "I'm sorry."
I nodded. "I know," I said as I raised a blade. Not my human cleaver but a true executioner's sword. My eyes roamed the crowd once… and saw his parents there.
I did not hesitate.
"I will make it quick," I said as I lifted the blade… and brought it down in one swift, almost imperceptible swing.
The blade sliced through his neck right at the base of his neck smoothly. Like I was cutting into butter and not a person.
And his head fell.
"Next," I ordered after a moment. Soldiers came in and pulled the body away, and the next person was pushed up to the front. A servant came up to the block and wiped it clean once before retreating quickly. And once the prisoner knelt before the block, I asked for their last word again.
After that, the sword flashed.
---
When the executions finally ended, I had put to death half a dozen people and exiled another two.
By all rights, I had the exiles dead to rights, but there was
just
enough evidence to suggest that they hadn't been involved in the smuggling and had not taken any extra money from the workshop. The rangers also didn't find any hidden income or anything like that in their houses or with their relatives, but they also hadn't ed what should have been suspicious.
It was for that reason they were exiled.
I knew for a fact that one of the two truly wasn't involved.
But the other one…?
She was suspicious enough that I had followed her in the dead of night after she was kicked out of both Davos and Fluelaberg.
I was glad I had leveled up my Stealth, too, because there were times that I thought she had seen me.
As for why I was following her…?
Just a gut feeling.
After traveling through Davos to Kloster, the mousy woman I followed scurried off of the road and into the woods. Unseen and unheard by her, I followed behind her at a distance.
Then I saw her pull out a shovel from her skirt pocket and start digging.
She dug for a good ten minutes… and then pulled out a bag from the ground.
A bag that clinked with the sound of coins.
A
heavy
bag by the looks of it. A bag heavy enough that, even if it was filled with only copper coins, she shouldn't have been able to earn that fairly.
I closed my eyes and sighed.
I didn't even bother to tell her that I was here.
I just pulled out a bow, nocked an arrow, aimed, and shot.
The arrow whistled.
And then
thunk
.
Then a crumple of a fallen body.
She didn't get back up.
After that, I buried her with the coins she stole.
If she wants money that badly, then she can die with them just like everyone else.
Besides, that was just a few dozen silvers. Let some fortunate soul in the future find that … along with the skeleton.
-VB-
A/N: The smuggling ring has finally been put to an end.
As always, more chapters can be found on my Patreon and Kofi (vandalvagabond).

Chapter 146