80. The Manor House 16

The bandits were so surprised by the treatment that they were not sure what to do but a couple of the young men could not resist the smell of the soup they had for dinner and moved forward to get a bowl. Novum had Crystal check over the men he hurt and stripped the boss of everything that he had and then stored his body in spatial storage so that he he would not rot and stink. He was fortunate enough to be one of the wealthy that could take advantage of this magic.

"They are all fine Novum. You restrained yourself very well and they will be waking up very soon."

"Thanks Crystal. I am going to have a little one on one conversation with this one here. Could you have someone bring over a bowl of soup for him?"

"Of course Baron. You know if you keep taking in strays like this you are going to have an overpopulation issue and not be able to feed them all?"

"I will not run out of food anytime soon. We have expanded enough that after this winter we are going to be in a a lot better shape. Plus with more workers we can expand the area again. We will have to deal with the old druid on the topic and we are going to have to plant a lot of things to appease her but that will be a small cost compared to a lot of lives."

"She really worries you doesn't she?"

"Outside of the upper echelons of the capitol she is the most powerful being in the area. If I made her mad a quick death is the best that I could hope for."

"But...." Crystal was completely shocked by the words that she heard.

"Yeah, I know right." Crystal wanted to say more but she remembered the soup and headed to get a bowl for the boy. She also had a few of the guards to go over and pull all but the one unconscious guard over to the rest of the group. She brought over the soup and sent a little divine energy into the boy and woke him up. Once she saw his eyes flutter she headed to do the same with the other seven men.

Novum waited for the boy to come fully awake and handed him the soup. "Eat this and then we will have a nice talk."

The boy took a huge gulp of the soup. "Why did you spare me and not the others?"

Novum pointed behind the boy and saw that everyone but the leader was safe and sound.

"I don't understand?"

"That is expected. I saw that when you attacked there was no fear for your life only fear that drove you to do what you did. I wanted to figure out what was going on before I killed someone with your bravery. Eat your soup and then answer a few questions for me."

The boy sucked the soup down in just a few more gulps. There was no telling when the last time that he ate was. "I am ready to answer whatever you ask."

"Why are you with the bandits?"

"They are only pretending to be bandits. Well in a way."

"Elaborate please?"

"What does that mean?"

"Give me more details."

"Oh, the leader is the little cousin of the baron that is in charge of our town. Apparently he is trying to expand his area of control and sending crew like this one to a few places in the area to promote unrest so that he can try to convince the towns that they would be better protected by him."

"Then why in the hell is he attacking so close to the capitol?"

"They were after you specifically. You disrespected one of the men he sent try and trick the village leader. We are staying around the gates and sending reports on people and things in order to pick the best targets. When he saw you he was ready to fight you before he even got out of the capitol. The man was his little brother."

"So back to why you are working for them."

"Well when this started they sent quite a few guards to the slum area where I lived and said that they were here for the protection of the elderly and crippled. Then he sent out a notice that a few of us young and healthy men needed to come and do the jobs that a few of the guards that were sent to the area would normally do. One guy who was a little older than men refused and was very vocal about it."

"That night his parents were killed by 'robbers' and when he asked why the guards were not here to protect them when it was there job, the boss simply said that they were out doing the job that they asked for help with and could not be in two places at once."

Novum shook his head. "So he is holding your family hostage. That is pretty disgusting thing to do. So, do you want out?"

"I can't leave my mom and sister. She is just coming to an age where they might be interested in her." The boy started to tear up. "I am sorry."

"Don't me. Family is important. If I could get them out would you want out?"

"I will serve you the rest of my life as a guard or even a poison checker if that was what you requested."

"Okay. That will not be necessary. I will talk to a few of the others and see their standing on it. Are there any guys that I should be worried about?"

"Almost all of us have killed someone."

"Let me rephrase that. Any of these guys not live in the slums?"

"Those four over there in a group well three of them with the unconscious guy. They only come and go with the boss. I think they worked for him directly."

"Thanks. You got and get something else to eat." He waited for the man to walk away. "How honest was he being?"

Topaz seemed to step out of a shadow. "He is being as honest as he can be. He might not be telling you everything but that is simply because he does not know what you want to know or that it might be important."

"Looks like your next job is going to be human smuggling."

"I have started taking notes and I will be ready by the time we reach your manor to go and take a look."

"Thank you Topaz."

Novum called the young men over one at a time until he talked to all of them but the last four. Out of all of them there was one besides the first one that stuck out a lot.

"So, the person that they are trying to hold over you is nothing to you and your would have preferred that they were dead already?"

"He beat me each and every day of his life until I was big enough to fight back. If he dropped dead right now it would not hurt my feelings at all. I would probably do a little dance."

"So, why?" He did not need to elaborate on the question since he was a lot smarter than the rest of the young men.

"Well, if they know that he has no use they will try to find another way to control me or kill me. I would rather not die and...." Novum could tell that he was debating internally with something. "I am engaged to a nice girl that does not live in the slums but just out of it. She is safe enough but does not have a background that would protect her if they found out."

"Oh, got it."

"Sir, I know that most of these guys are idiots, well lets say that they are not educated. I taught myself to read and write and do basic math and learned a lot by listening. So, if there is one person outside of the boss and his lackeys that needs to take the blame put it on me. They are good guys and had no choice in the matter. I am smart enough to know the truth of the matter and took the east wrong over the hard right."

"You are fine. So, if I can get her and her family if necessary out would you want me to?"

"Absolutely. I notice that you did not mention my dad."

"I figured that if you wanted him to come along you would mention it to me."

"Yeah he can stay."

"I have some stuff in the works so just pretend that you are still out on mission and come to the manor with me and I will deal with it as soon as I can. Damn, I learned about this at a horrible time with the weather moving in."

The last young man walked away and Novum motioned Crystal and the knight over. "Restrain those four. The rest are going to come with us voluntarily but those four willingly worked for the man that I killed the rest as being ransomed into working for them." He held up his hand. "I already have something in the works. But those four could be trouble. Grab them up and bring them by force."

The knight gave a bow of his head and grabbed a few guards and quickly tied the four men up. "Okay the sun is up lets get packed and on the way. I want to push as far as we can today."