A New Star Chapter 49

Alexandra 

"Now," I said, facing the man I had left up during the brawl. "What say you and I have an honest conversation." 

"There's only so much I can tell you," he replied, crossing his hands behind his back as he straightened, standing in something very close to an at-ease position. "As much as it hurts my pride as a knight errant, I am merely muscle in this operation. I'm here to keep these thugs in line and deal with them if they go off orders." 

"The fact that you are here as muscle, by its very nature, means that you were assigned to be here," I said, casually flipping up a table with a flick of my foot before repeating the action with a chair. I sat in the chair, leaning back and propping my feet on the table as I stared at the man before me.  

"I can tell you a bit, but I'm here to keep order and earn coin. They don't pay me enough to know enough that I would be able to reveal the secrets of the organization," he said. 

"Then why am I keeping you alive?" I asked coldly. He tried to stay calm, but I clearly noticed the tells of his nervousness kicking in; the twitch in his hands, the facial tick, the sudden tightening of the shoulders. 

"I do have valuable information," the man said nervously. "I would also discourage casual murder as a policy, if I am being honest." 

"First, let's start off with who you are," I said, rocking the chair a little as I stared at him. 

"My name is Lester, and I am a Knight Errant of Adonaria," the man said, the recitation calming him a bit. 

"A knight errant? What's that?" I asked, though I knew of the rank from the Count's tutelage. I was both fishing for information and beginning to use a few interrogation tactics that I would continue to apply during the course of our following conversations. 

"Knight errant is an official rank of knighthood recognized by the crown," Lester repeated as if by rote. "They are knights that are not currently sworn into formal service with a liege, nor do they have any landed holdings which to manage. The original idea is that of a knight that has had position in a chivalric order, including the order of the royal family, that roams the land in an attempt to prove their valor." 

"Much valor to be found here?" I asked a bit snidely, slowly glancing around the rundown warehouse. 

"Well, there are circumstances," Lester replied a bit hotly, though he winced slightly and straightened up when I shot him a cold glare. "Anyway, the position as a knight, in the modern sense, gives one the ability to command common guardsmen in the cities and to requisition assistance from a mayor or local administrator. In return, we are expected to maintain the peace and guard the citizenry." 

"And your taking up of residence in this warehouse with these thugs was guarding the common citizenry? Thugs whom I witnessed beating and extorting regular working men and women and engaged in racketeering and petty larceny? Is that your stance?" I asked mildly, though it was rather clear he could sense the undercurrents in my questions. 

"A knight errant has many duties," he replied rather lamely.  

"And what are those duties here, exactly?" I asked, casually flicking a bolt of abyssal lightning between my fingers. 

"Monitoring the…personnel to make sure they aren't getting up to anything…excessive," he began. 

"You seem to be having some trouble enumerating your duties. Is this a common problem?" I interrupted him to ask.  

"Come on, we both know how this goes," he said with a said, flinching slightly again when I glared at him. "Fine, I'll explain. I was here to make sure these thugs didn't kill anyone, didn't use too many drugs, and paid up to the organization I represent. I wracked up a few debts in my time as a knight errant and was convinced to work for this, uhm, organization as part of the repayment." 

"There are better ways to make money, and certainly with your skills you could participate in some of them," I said idly. 

"Ah, except my debts are bonds held by the organization," Lester replied. "I am quite literally paying off my bonds by doing this work. Any extra money I can make goes to the bonds." 

"How much more do you owe?" I asked, rocking my chair a little more.  

"My original bonds were for two platinum," he said slowly. 

I whistled, "That's quite a bit to owe for some random bonds." 

"It's a long story," Lester said a bit coldly.  

"Right, well, of course I would not dream of inquiring more deeply," I said sarcastically. 

"Point taken," he replied. 

"What can you tell me about this organization that holds your bonds?" I asked. 

"A smalltime cabal of barons and baronesses unsatisfied with their current lot in life and looking to advance their interests, or at least their financial interests. The buying of titles is not something that is really encouraged in Adonaria right now, but wealth can increase status. The group that…purchased my debt isn't the only such, but they are likely the most unscrupulous of the little cliques of nobility that are, how shall we say, investing in criminal enterprises," he said. 

"Well, now we're getting somewhere," I said, setting my chair down with a thump. "What say we raid the offices back there and then have a little chat with your sponsors?" 

"At this time of night?" he asked, raising a brow. 

"They're just going to have to deal with it," I said, standing and moving to the back of the warehouse. 

When I approached the rear wall where I had embedded the gang leader, or vice leader, whatever the case was, the man was on the ground. I tell immediately that he was conscious and that he wasn't going to let me pass without issue, but I pretended not to notice. It was also a good time for Lester to launch a sneak attack from behind, and I planned to test him a bit to see if he was willing to go down with this obviously sinking ship. When the thug launched himself off the ground and made to grab me, Lester stopped but didn't draw his sword or attack in any way. Smart man.  

I hit the gang vice leader again, but this time I put enough into it to let him know that I really meant business. In hindsight, that might have been a bit too much, as there were some rather concerning snapping and crunching noises when my fist impacted his torso, but I was little concerned. He was lucky I still was pulling my punches, as if I had thrown in even one affinity to add force to the attack instead of just using pure physical strength, they would have had to find a coffin for the man. As it was, he wasn't going to last very long without medical attention, but that wasn't my problem, and I doubted I was going to accrue any more sympathy for the petty thugs when I went in and accessed what of their records they kept on-site.  

That proved true in spades as I quickly and methodically searched the offices, finding two accounting books, a coded book that likely spoke to suppliers, and several books documenting prices and goods sold. I grabbed the several books and ledgers, as well as a few rather interesting, and very incriminating, papers and shoved them all in a sack that had likely been used to transport some of the goods in the warehouse. Hoisting the sack over a shoulder, I gestured magnanimously at Lester to lead the way, seeing the pained expression that briefly flitted across his face before he turned and started leaving the warehouse. I noted that two of the thugs that I had hit the softest, or maybe I should say the least hard, were already starting to stir and try to pull themselves up to their hands and knees. I didn't do anything as Lester walked over the destruction I had created and out the front door; these men just were not a concern to me in any way, shape, or form, other than if I found out they were involved in things that were more serious than first hinted at. They would then become my concern, but only for the amount of time it took to line them all up to be paired off with coffins of their very own.  

Lester led the way through the brightly lit streets, the capital employing some form of cut mana stone in regularly spaced street lamps. The effect was a gentle light, though one that still illuminated the entirety of the street without any problem. Lester strode boldly forward and I followed a few paces behind, keeping my cloak up and observing my surroundings as we left the warehouse district. Unsurprisingly, the neighborhoods we walked through became of an increasingly nicer and more affluent bent, the streets wider, better paved, and better cleaned. The houses were set further back, larger, and had their own private yard that included plants, statues, and even fountains. The wealth became more obvious, and more than a touch excessive, as we walked, until Lester stopped before a manor that was quite large, three stories of richly decorated stone with a massive surrounding it. There were two guards at the front who had taken up a wary stance when we stopped before them, though from their expressions I got the impression they recognized Lester and weren't happy to see him. 

"Knight. What are you doing here?" the one on the right spat. 

"Really? This chump who isn't even part of an Order is talking to you like that? And you're working for these people?" I asked incredulously before Lester could respond.  

"Lester, who is this bitch-" the same man said, his sentence cutting off when I punched him in the face. Hard. 

"I think we'll not use that kind of language," I said, calmly backhanding the second guard as he tried to draw his sword, which he should have already done. Sloppy. 

"Attacking the baron's guards isn't going to make this go any better," Lester said in a slightly pleading voice. 

"Oh, my dear Lester, you seem to be misapprehending quite a few things," I said amusedly. The first guard was trying to get up, but I had a tier seven body, one far beyond Grade A, and that punched had done some serious damage to something important. The second guard might have been luckier, or really unlucky, depending on one's perspective, as I had knocked him out cold with the backhand. I stepped up to the gate, giving the struggling guard a swift jab to the temple as I passed, knocking him out cold, before sliding the gate open. I gestured for Lester to proceed me, not wanting the knight at my back, though the bigger reason was that the personnel on the grounds would recognize him and hesitate for a moment in a way they wouldn't upon seeing me.  

We walked across the front yard, treading upon pavers of some type of beautiful stone that likely cost a fortune to import into the city, walking up a front stair made entirely of the same. The baron that lived here was clearly trying to impress, and trying more than a bit too hard, if anyone asked me, which they hadn't. There was a very fine line between tasteful and gaudy and the manor's owner didn't appear to be aware of where that line was, exactly, and had trampled over it rather egregiously. Lester walked up to the front door and knocked, looking back at me in time to catch my deep frown, at which he had the good sense to look abashed. He corrected his mistake by turning and opening the door, which was not locked; why would one lock the door when the estate was guarded and had servants awake at all hours? Well, for reasons such as this one, but a petty lock wouldn't be enough to stop me, so I supposed the point still stood. 

We entered into a foyer that was made of nothing but marble; again, the whole trampling over the line of good taste into gaudy was on full display. A servant was quickly hurrying forward to answer the door, stopping when he saw who it was that had intruded into the foyer at such a time. He tried to block Lester, but it proved unnecessary, for just a moment later the baron himself, whose name even yet I didn't know, stormed down the sweeping stairs just beyond the foyer, fastening a nightrobe and demanding to know what all the racket was about so late. He was rather put off to see Lester there, though his tirade died as soon as it started when he noticed me standing behind the man. If anything, other than greatly confusing him, my presence incensed the man, his complexion turning most choleric at the sight of me. 

"Lester," he hissed. "What is this? You intrude into my manor at such an hour and bring a child with you. What foolish game are you playing now?"  

"I assure you, this is no game," Lester replied calmly. A great act, if I couldn't see the drop of sweat rolling down the back of his neck. Poor man, caught between such a rock and a hard place.  

"Guards!" the baron yelled, Lester moving to the side and giving me a rather resigned look. 

"Well, earlier was just a warmup," I said with a vicious grin, cracking my knuckles and twisting my neck to produce some satisfying popping sounds.  

Guards flooded the place, which I found greatly amusing, as where the hell had they been early when I breached the gate so easily? Well, no matter, I was little more impressed with this gang of hoodlums than I had been with the actual gangsters earlier, and they offered little more resistance. Oh, sure, they had some of the forms down, thrusting and slicing with their blades like good little automatons, even if their moves were rather sloppy, but these men and women had not seen blood. None of them had tread even a single battlefield, unless I totally missed my guess, and that was rather a disadvantage when facing someone who had tread more than a hundred thousand. Suffice it to say, I made very quick work of the baron's guard, much to the servant's terror and the baron's chagrin. Chagrin, or indigestion, perhaps? I wasn't entirely sure, as the baron had now turned an even more interesting color after witnessing me destroy his entire guard cadre within thirty seconds. 

"Now, my dear baron, why don't we have a nice, productive conversation?" I asked. 

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