A New Star Chapter 50

"I-I don't know who you think you are, but you won't be getting a-away with this," the baron stammered. 

"My dear baron," I said, gesturing, though rather forcefully, for the people still conscious to enter the sitting room, "I believe you might be laboring under a few misapprehensions. Allow me to clear some of them up for you: 

"Firstly, you seem to believe that I have no cause. This is patently untrue; I have far more than enough evidence just from the locations I have already hit to link you to numerous crimes. And, I'm quite sure, you're very large, very fancy house likely contains all manner of incriminating evidence. 

"Secondly, you also seem to not understand exactly how much trouble you are in. Yes, you are a baron, even a landed baron, which gives you more weight at the court. To put it bluntly, however, I don't give a shit. Let me ask you a question baron, now that we are seated? Would you allow my the grace?" 

We had all entered the sitting room and taken chairs, though the baron was on the edge of his, both from a combination of nerves and anger. "It's clear you are powerful, girl, but you are vastly ignorant. If you think a few minor smuggling issues is going to do anything, you have thought wrong. However! I will say, your crass and unwarranted invasion of my premises is far more serious! I will demand recompense, and you will not be able to pay. And you!" 

He had turned to the knight at this point, while I just silently watched him frantically digging. "You had a responsibility, sir, to guard our premises and our operations! What are you doing, bringing a fool like this here, and at this time of night? You must be daft!" 

"I would ask if that's all, but, quite frankly, I don't care," I said coldly. When the baron made to speak, I activated my Gravity Affinity and crushed everyone else in the room with five times regular gravity. Five gees should be nothing, even without a body-boosting affinity, as long as a person had improved their body affinity even a bit; even a tier one body affinity should easily be able to withstand five gees if it had been improved a few grades, just to E or F. Instead, everyone was crushed into their chairs or into the floor, gasping and trying to continue breathe through the immense pressure. 

"Listen to me well, Baron Manfred, as I will not be repeating this," I said, only easing the pressure slightly. I was concerned about these weak fools passing out, and also I wanted him listening to me and he was so weak the pressure was taking up his whole attention, limited as that was. "My second question was not just idle fancy; your group can throw a bit of weight around and ignore the guards and the city inspectors, but what if the daughter of a Duke got involved? My, my, what if it wasn't just the daughter of a Duke, but a Grand Duke? What might happen then?" 

"Y-you…you c-can't b-b-be…" the baron sputtered.  

"I'm not sure what exactly is running through your tiny brain right now, my criminal friend, but it's probably more or less correct," I said calmly. I let the pressure up on Lester before turning to him and saying, "You have done decently well so far. You have a level of…flexibility that I can utilize, for the time being. Would you be willing to watch the baron and his servants here? I need to contact a few people and get a few things rolling." 

"Yes, of course," Lester said with a deep bow, though he had a look about him as of a man walking up to the gallows. 

"Relax, Knight Errant, I'm not going to eat you," I said as I rose. "I will put in a good word for you, and my words carry weight. Considering I am in the capital this week under the auspices of a Y-ranker, if I say for them to be lenient, you will not face issues." 

"Th-thank you, your grace," he said, bowing again before straightening, sweat pouring down his face. 

"Relax," I said with a roll of my eyes, walking out of the sitting room. "Make sure they don't do anything crazy while I'm gone." 

I accepted his acknowledgement as I quickly walked upstairs, moving to the baron's office, not at all difficult to find. He had papers scattered everywhere, the slob, but I was able to grab a few interesting documents immediately. He also had a secret hidey-hole in his desk behind the top drawer on the right side, which I was able to get at in but a few seconds. There was a trap inside that was supposed to spring a thin needle into the person who opened it incorrectly, a needle coated in a vicious poison. Unfortunately for my dear friend, the foolish baron, the needle wasn't even enough to penetrate the heavy gloves I wore this night, nor would it have been able to punch through my Tier 7, grade F skin. I took the stash of documents, and the piece of jewelry, contained within and pocketed them, along with the other documents I had from the gang warehouse.  

I left, walking into The Dark, and moved quickly back to the Count's estate, a moderate distance from the baron's estate. They were in the same district of the capital, but different sections, with the Count having his estate in an area that several wealthy merchants and more minor nobles, such as unlanded barons or baronets, had their capital homes. The land in the capital was extremely valuable, even before this current industrial revolution made living in the cities, and especially the capital, even more desirable, and having even a small home here was a sign of wealth, influence, or both. I moved out of The Dark as I entered the front garden of the Count's estate and opened the front door, finding it unlocked, which was rather unsurprising. The Count's man met me inside immediately, as if he had been waiting there just for me, though I thought not. Likely, it was just that the man was an impeccable servant highly keyed to everything that happened in the small estate. 

"My Lady," he began. 

"Is the Count still awake?" I asked, understanding the late hour. 

"Yes, Your Grace," he said, giving a bow of just the perfect degree before leading the way up to the second floor and the Count's office. After knocking and then opening the door, he bowed at just the perfect position while gesturing with his arm for me to enter. 

"Ah, there you are," the Count said as I walked in. 

"Indeed," I said, pulling everything out of the small satchel I had on my back and tossing it on his desk. 

"I say! What's all this, then?" he asked, but immediately started paging through the materials at a very high rate of speed. 

"Nice little smuggling ring a few ambitions barons were running," I said, sitting down and crossing my legs with a sigh. "Not exactly what I was looking for, but their information has some value. I was thinking, what was the name of that guard captain person that came up for the prior business? The one with the Royal Guard. We could throw this on her desk." 

"Not a bad plan," the Count said distractedly, scanning more of the papers. "I say! So, that's what happened to those shipments? The little rascals, they've been messing with good from the Eastern Empire! Strange that they haven't been stomped out before now. This bears further looking into." 

"Well, I have one wayward Knight Errant holding Baron Manfred hostage currently, so we might want to move," I said lazily. 

"By my beard!" the Count exclaimed, hopping up from his chair. "Dufraine! My coat!" 

The butler appeared silently before the Count had even finished with his name, presenting the Count with his heavy overcoat. The Count donned it and gestured to me impatiently, and I got up with a sigh and followed him downstairs and out of the house. The man took a sharp turn and then moved quickly, far faster than a normal person could hope to keep up with, but I trailed him easily, using just a bit of Gravity, Time, and Lightning of Heaven's Great Abyss to increase my speed. I didn't need to go all-out, but the Count was a Y-ranker, and he wasn't being polite about his speed, so we ate up the ground. 

It took us only ten minutes to arrive outside a very large building at the edge of the central district, one with plenty of lights on even at this late hour. There were guards stationed out front, and not just any lackeys, but two people wearing distinctive, white-and-gold uniforms that indicated their membership in the Royal Guard. They weren't armored, and they were junior members, unless I was misremembering my insignia, but few would willingly mess with them. The Count barely even acknowledged them, just sweeping into the lobby of the building, though the two guards didn't even react. Either the Count was well-known here or he wasn't presenting a threat profile to them. I would be a bit curious which it was.  

The lobby was a massive hall with multiple different desks that workers sat at even at this hour, and there were some dozen doors that led out into various parts of the first floor of the building. The Count seemed to know where he was going very well, marching to one of the doors and entering it, much to one of the desk worker's chagrin. I simply followed along behind him, watching as he navigated to a room on the second floor of the section we had entered, walking into what proved to be an office. There were a half dozen people at various desks in the room, all of whom focused on the Count and I when we entered, though nobody moved to intercept us. The Count walked up to the last desk in the room, behind which sat a hard-faced woman with a row of medals on her chest and two stars on her collar.  

"Commander," the Count said warmly, though that only produced a narrowing of the eyes in the woman.  

"Emmanuel," she ground out, though her voice was rather pleasant even when upset. "This better be good." 

"I should think so," he replied, dropping two papers on the woman's desk. "We seem to be having some unusually large problems with smugglers lately. I was wondering if, considering the utter ineptitude displayed by the city inspectors, the Royal Guard might want to take a look?" 

The woman sighed and picked up the two papers, scanning through both of them in just a few seconds. Her face became even more stony, if that were possible, and she said, "While it is not our business to police trade, we can handle such matters." 

"Excellent! Why, I even had in mind a young lady just perfect for the job," the Count exclaimed. "There was a particular captain that helped with, what was it? A smuggling investigation, of all things! She would be just perfect for the job. I believe her name was Emily, is that correct?" 

The Count had looked at me when he said that, but I just shrugged, raising a single eyebrow. "She was not particularly exceptional," I replied coldly. "I can't remember the names of all the riffraff I bump into every day." 

"And who is this that you've brought into the heart of our operations?" the woman snapped. 

"The youngest daughter of those two," the Count said with a very pleasant smile. "I'm sure you are aware that I have been doing tutoring duties, lately." 

"Tutoring?" I asked. "Is that what we're calling it, these days?" 

"I say!" the Count exclaimed, swatting at me with his cane, which I deftly avoided while continuing to watch the woman.  

"Yes, just your luck," the commander said. "Emily and her team are currently in, though they will likely be asleep at this hour." 

"Well, wake them up," I said. "I have a rather unreliable Knight Errant holding a baron prisoner right now. It would be nice to nab them before they hash out an agreement to abscond with whatever evidence I didn't manage to secure." 

"Gods dammit!" the commander exclaimed before she started shouting orders. The place exploded into motion, like a four-alarm fire had just been declared in the city. In just a few minutes, Emily and her team were standing nervously in front of the commander's desk, throwing the Count and I suspicious looks. Emmanuel waved at them with a smile, but I remained deadpan, simply waiting for things to move forward.  

It didn't take long for the commander to issue orders, also commanding the Count and I to lead the way. The Count just looked at me since he had no idea where the house was, or he did and was just playing dumb. I rolled my eyes and turned and started to move, going only slightly faster than when we had walked over here. It was, apparently, quite fast, as I heard exclamation from both the staff in the room and Emily's squad as they followed us. We picked up another group in the lobby that fell in behind Emily's squad, likely to contain the situation, and headed out of the building. I knew roughly where I was going and so didn't retrace my steps to the Count's but simply went right to the baron's estate first. I saw that both the guards were still knocked out on the ground and were generally fine. 

"Might want to check them for concussions," I said as I walked by. "I hit them rather hard." 

I led most of the party into the house, where Lester was still watching the baron, who immediately started pouring sweat and turned a very sickly shade when he recognized the Royal Guard. They ignored his protests, arresting him and the staff immediately, though I told them to hold off on Lester. I then led part of the group, including the Count and Emily, to the warehouse I had subdued the gang in. We found a few vultures picking the area over, but they hurriedly ran off at the first sight of our group. Not that they would escape. Emily sent several people after them and the power difference was stark; there was no way for those handful of scavengers to make it anywhere now that the Guard were locked onto them. Emily and her group proceeded to arrest everyone still in the warehouse and start documenting everything. In the scramble, I motioned to Lester and led him out, leaving the cleanup for the night's operation to the Royal Guard. I had a different set of questions for the man, and I didn’t want him to be arrested, or not yet, anyway. 

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