King

As Aaron James was being dragged through Hawk city, he finally got the opportunity to see what there is behind these 10 meter tall walls surrounding the domain.

From first sight, it was clear to see that the King doesn't bother maintaining quality on all his rented houses.

The quality sounds bad enough now does it? Well, it can get worse. Aaron heard one of the Guards talking about paying his own 3 silver coins tax.

Now Aaron has no idea how the economy here is, but 3 silver coins doesn't sound so corrupt.

This is the base form of getting profit from civilians in medieval times, it is a rather smart technique.

Spending no coin more after a house is rented is too a smart technique, although cheap. How the house is maintained, is completely the responsibility of the renter from that point.

Some houses were close to falling down, while the newest ones seem to be 10 years old which is not considered new but not old either.

Most of the houses have simple cheap structures. They were made from wooden planks mascarating as walls and flooring, hay is often used as a roof, while some houses were completely made out of wooden planks.

Only businesses were made out of quality stones or the houses of the business owners as well, so there isn't such a thing as equal fates here.

The types of houses here are good to keep most of the rain out maybe in the first year, but its quality goes down afterwards. Causing more maintenance expenses yearly, not to mention the durability against cold will decline if they fail to maintain the houses properly.

Speaking of what he saw, there were businesses in the city no doubt. But Aaron was only able to see a couple of shops and a blacksmith's forge so far.

The city likely has more businesses, it has 18,000 people after all. That means it has somewhere around 4,000 houses.

There are likely at least 50 businesses. In this case population aids the budget in several ways even though the King couldn't give a damn about their livelihood, which indirectly is a bad investment.

Imagine how many dedicated employees he could recruit if the overall morale towards the castle governing was high?

Income would become enough to battle any threat. But the first thing Kings in this medieval times think, is any method that's brutal and easy.

The castle however is unique, it seemed to have been built over a higher elevation.

As if a little hill was specifically designed so the castle can be built over it, giving the King an even greater view from above where he can gaze down upon the civilians with his 100 room castle.

If a training yard was attached to the castle, it would take away too much space where housing can instead be built, which is generally a bad idea so the training yard is somewhere else.

The castle Guards, patrol Guards and Soldiers too are given free food without lowering the salary as an aftermath, so that of course means more expenses for Hawk city but a better life for the men on duty.

Aaron also saw a lot of people working, doing various tasks. When he passed by the forge, he saw apprentices providing leather straps for the experienced blacksmiths.

Most of the weapons and armour are put together with leather straps, it is a valuable item for blacksmiths but they simply don't have time to get them, considering they hammer Iron most of the day and that's where apprentices come in.

Shopkeepers however were usually inside while their workers carried items from the storage area to the shop when necessary.

Bargaining is something they need to master bit by bit before they try it unsupervised.

The odds of these people working up to 12 hours a day for survival is heavily possible, alot of them gazed upon Aaron as a lost cause, unfortunately we can't call them friends.

They all could predict where he will end up. In the dungeon, 10 feet under the dirt or down the river.

Reaching the castle which is located almost in the very middle of the city, first thing that caught his eyes after the patrol Guards had to walk uphill in order to reach the castle, are these abnormally large entrance doors.

They stand around 12 feet tall, 26 feet across and require the strength of two men to push one of the two doors open.

Of course the patrol Guards can't risk losing order to open the door, so the two castle Guards put in work for that as they are more able bodied too so it's a lot easier for them.

When they entered the castle, the first thing he saw is what appeared to be a throne room and not a small one either.

With 3 feet wide stone columns holding the ceiling up, accurately placed 10 feet away from each other who all are close to the main walkway located in the middle of the room [There are columns on both sides of the walkway.]

A flooring made from planks of quality good enough that it seems like the floor is dark but yet sparkling and well polished.

And torches hanging on the walls, on the columns too. Those hanging on the walls were 10 feet away from each other illuminating the place.

But when seen from the main walkway, the torches on the walls prove located precisely in the middle of the columns.

It is clear to see that the King spared no expense designing this throne room.

It is a 50 feet wide and 80 feet long throne room after all and from head to toe the throne room is filled with decorations. Where there weren't torches, there were shields, swords, battle axes and even ore.

Some decorative and some with a story behind them, there's even a large bookshelf 15 feet away from the throne, standing 10 feet tall, almost reaching the ceiling which is 20 feet away from the floor.

There are doubts that the King reads them though.

"My King, I am very sorry to interrupt, please don't punish me. We got a new one!" Explained one of the patrol Guards in a low tone, hoping not to alarm the King and hoping there aren't any consequences.

The King has all the power to ruin the patrol Guard's life for any reason possible. Such as not liking the Guard's shoes or face, he has the power to do it!

"Give me a moment sweet thing, I need to handle this." As the King was flirting with a maid who was almost sitting on his lap, he was considerably in a mood good enough to not take a life today.

"What do we have here, what power does he linger with?" Asks King Mendebal in curiosity instead of much expected rage.

"He... he is an Earth quaker sir, I mean your high... highness. He caused an earthquake in the mine just a while ago. We still are digging out victims." Weighs in the other patrol Guard while trembling on his own combat Iron boots, hoping to flatter the King well enough to live longer.

"Hmm, give me a moment maid." The King demands in a bit of an angry tone when the maid kept invading his personal space.

"Hmm, a small price to pay for another valued tool. He will bring more gold than we can count." Explained the King in a low thick tone as he stroked his own beardless chin.

"What do you mean I will bring more gold than you can count?" Exclaimed Aaron James, feeling like an item to filthy plans of his majesty.

"Why are you allowing this tool to talk to me? Do you two want to die?" Exclaimed the King in a loud agitated tone as he banged his fist on the arm support of his throne, but isn't nearly strong enough to damage it and he even hurt his hand.

"We apologize Sire, shut your mouth Slave." Yelled one of the patrol Guards as he punched Aaron on the face.

"You sons of bitches!" Hollers Aaron back, triggered by any pain brought upon him.

How much will he be able to tolerate? Ever since he arrived, physical abuse doesn't seem to stop!

Liking the sight in front of him, King Mendebal cites. "He is a temperamental one, I like it. Send the jackass to the dungeon!"