Supreme Magus

Chapter 4467: Deep Roots (Part 1)

"We need the evidence you collected to start the investigation and our share of the Isharas’ spoils to keep the Royal Court from accusing you of repeating the mistakes of the past. Once you’re done with that, consider yourself dismissed. Meron out."

"Wait, what about me?" Faluel asked to empty air. "What about my share?"

"What about mine?" Tista whined.

"I called you here, Faluel. The Royals just seconded my request. They didn’t order or ask you to do anything. As for you, Tista, you’re House Verhen as well. You can bet your shares will come out of mine." Lith groaned.

"Which means that we got half of what we expected. Tista, you’re not out of debt. Faluel, screw you from the bottom of my heart. You’re filthy rich, but I’ll give you a third of the loot nonetheless."

"Spoken like a true leader." Faluel chuckled. "If you need me, you know where to find me."

A sudden cough drew everyone’s attention to the holograms that were still there. Only the Royals had hung up the call.

"I wanted to thank you for your hard work before saying goodbye, everyone." Brinja needed sheer willpower to stifle a laugh. "I guess it can wait. Feel free to keep cursing the Royals once I’m gone. Brinja out."

"Same. Keyla out."

"I’ll wait for you at home. Jirni out."

***

"What about you, Kamila?" Jirni asked, cutting off the creative streak of expletives Lith was using to refer to the current Royal family. "Are you going to go back to work as well?"

"Part time, maybe." She scratched her head in embarrassment. "I can help you as much as you need while at home, but I can’t make any promise about the field work. Ral is just a few months old, and he’s going to have only so many first times.

"If I miss his first step, his first word that’s not mom or dad, or his first flight, I’d never forgive myself."

"That’s fair." Jirni smiled. "Yet I could have used your help. Especially with the Gernoffs."

"We’ll see about that." Kamila replied. "I like you, Jirni, but feelings won’t bring me back home in one piece at the end of the day."

"Your feelings for me, no. Yet those of Lith for you sure can." Jirni said with a casual tone. "After all..."

"No!" Kamila replied. "Not again! At least not so soon, dammit. I have yet to get a single full night’s sleep!"

***

Even though the coup in Ghishal had been averted, life for Jirni, Kamila, and Lith remained hectic. Many counties of the Distar Region were in the same situation as Ghishal if not worse, and Lith had lost the advantage of surprise.

The investigation teams moved swiftly and discreetly, and the Royals replaced every influential clerk in the county with someone of proven loyalty until the constables cleared the local personnel of any suspicions, but it didn’t help much.

The nobles helped by the Isharas had destroyed any incriminating evidence right after learning of Ankhuta’s death, and the Blood of Selkis had helped the bandits move to a safe location in exchange for their "insurance" material.

Jirni found many clues and weird coincidences in every county that pointed to a specific noble who would benefit from the fall of the current count, and a specific bandit group that seemed to always be at the right time and place, but no evidence.

’I can’t interrogate a noble with no substantial proof of my suspicions, let alone so many loyal retainers of the Crown.’ Jirni pondered in frustration. ’I can torture their bandit associates since they are murderous scum, but only if they get caught in the act, and Lith can’t find a single one of them.

’If even he, with all his secrets and his absurd powers, can’t find those criminals, regular investigators have no chance of success. Still, I’ll have them keep looking. Maybe numbers and luck can beat the odds.’

While Kamila and Jirni worked from home, Lith and Solus moved across Ghishal, using the tower and dimensional magic to deliver everything Keyla’s citizens needed to the poorest and most isolated villages.

The farmers and small merchants reacted to his arrival with fear, thinking only the presence of a deadly monster could bring the Supreme Magus of the Kingdom to such remote places.

Once he distributed the food and the supplies the villagers had missed for so long and healed their ailments for free, however, their attitude changed. The people of Ghishal treated Lith like a god descended among mortals, throwing themselves at his feet and pledging their eternal gratitude to him.

"Thanks. Much obliged. Sorry, I have a lot more villages I have to visit before the end of the day." Lith said as soon as he was done, and then Warped away.

Things only got worse once he left and the local village head had time to read Keyla’s message attached to the additional emergency supplies that they were entrusted with.

"Gods, we truly have been blessed." Each village head used different words, but their spirit was the same. "Magus Verhen did more than personally deliver the goods to ensure our survival. He paid for them out of his own pockets!"

He pointed at the specific line in the message for all his fellow villagers to read.

"Every morsel of food and iron nail we’ve received is a gift of the Supreme Magus." The second part of the speech came out much colder than the first. "If any of you bastards so much as steal a piece of bread from their neighbors, it would be like stealing from Magus Verhen himself and spitting on his face!

"Anyone caught in the act or with more supplies than they are supposed to have will be chained at the pillory during the next snowstorm. Is that clear?"

The village head always glared at the troublemakers and those of ill repute, to let them know their words were no empty threat.

’That was very generous of you.’ Solus smiled at Lith as they Warped to their next destination. ’Basic necessities don’t cost much, but for someone as stingy as you are, even this is a huge leap forward.’

’I’m sorry, Solus, but I’m not generous.’ Lith replied. ’I feel bad for Keyla for not receiving any reward for the mission. Her treasury is already almost depleted, and I don’t want her to spend what little she has left.

’Besides, this isn’t really my money. I’m just spending my share of the non-magical treasures we’ve recovered. I have no use for a few gold bars and coins, whereas they can make a big difference for these people.’

’Still, the old you wouldn’t have even considered doing something like this.’ Solus gave him a warm smile. ’Especially since after helping Keyla, you have to help all the other counts.’

’Excuse you?’ Lith stopped in his tracks. ’Why should I do that? I don’t know nor give a damn about those pompous fools.’

’You won’t do it for them, but for their people.’ Solus replied. ’If you don’t, the rest of the citizens of Distar will believe that you only care about Lustria and Ghishal. They will feel rightfully hurt and offended, and become envious of the people of those two counties.’