10: An end to the banquet

"What's taking you two wenches so long?!" Came the clumsy voice of Irathmus getting impatient while waiting for his plate of golden boar.

The two girls jerked nervously at the sound of his voice as if they had been conditioned to fear it. Before leaving to deliver his meat to him, the stronger of the girls curtseyed to me and whispered a 'thank you' under her breath.

As soon as they walked down the side of the table back to Irathmus, I felt my mother place a gentle hand on my shoulder.

"Rory..." She murmured with a questioning look in her eye. "You're trying to set those two girls free...?" She asked with concern in her voice.

I nodded warily, wondering if she would be happy or upset with me.

My mother reached down over my father's lap and wrapped her arms around me tightly. She was so warm and smelt nice. A mother's affection was so great.

"What in the world did they feed my Rory in that forest to make him so kind and brave?" She thought out loud.

I heard my father chuckled from above us as he placed his large heavy hand on my head and gave me a few pats.

"AHHHH!" The sound of the two girls shrieking from the other side of the table frightened me. My mother gasped at the horrible scream while my father's head shot up in alarm.

One of the girls was on the floor cradling her face, it was obvious that she had just been struck. The other girl ran to her and wrapped her arms around her injured friend.

"You wretched whore!" Irathmus's face was boiling red with his forehead creased into so many angry frown lines. He was drunk and angry, a terrible combination for an already hostile person.

"How dare you try to escape me!" He shouted with such violent passion and so loudly that I wondered if he was a little louder than the announcers. Irathmus turned and picked up the sacks of gold and threw them on the floor furiously. The sacks broke open on the impact and the gold spilt out onto the marble floor. The nobles seated next to him had looks of terror on their faces.

Irathmus stomped towards the two girls with hatred in his eyes. He violently grabbed hold of one of the girl's hair and hauled her up by it, causing her to screech out in pain and try and claw her way out of his grip. This was all happening so fast and I was still so shocked at his outburst that I found myself unable to react in time.

"You damned whores! How dare you disgrace me at this banquet!" Irathmus didn't even look human anymore, he had been completely taken over by rage and was unable to think rationally.

"I'll kill you for this, I'll kill you right now." In an instant, Irathmus had reached into his sheath and had drawn his sword. He swung it back in a great swing and was about to bring the blade down against the girl's neck. Finally, my senses had kicked in and I realised that I had to act immediately. I raised my palm and aimed at the duke, planning to send a blast of wind that would knock him off balance. However, the cold searing voice of my father stopped me in my tracks.

He called out a simple command. It was so quiet that I thought he could only have been talking to me because no one else would be able to hear it, but only when I saw a sharp metal arrow whizzing through the air did I realise that my father had commanded a knight to act. The fearsome arrow pierced Irathmus's elbow just before his blade was about to connect to the girl's body.

Irathmus let out a pained howl as he dropped his sword and staggered backwards. I looked with horrified eyes at the arrow that had managed to cut right through the bone of Irathmus's elbow. Blood gushed from the wound and painted the floor red. While the two girls quickly scuttled to my end of the table, away from him.

The pain was too much for Irathmus to bare as he fell to his knees while cradling his arm. Judging from the wound, I wondered if he would ever be able to use that arm again.

"Who did this?" Irathmus screeched. All his dignity was gone, he sounded more like an animal than a human as he half shrieked, half cried on the floor. It was hard to watch actually. I didn't want to look anymore but I forced myself to carry on looking because I knew that this was partly my fault. By giving the girls money I had been the catalyst for the duke's mental breakdown.

The duke's crazed eyes finally settled on my father.

"You!" He spat out venomously. "You did this!" He pointed to the disturbing sight of the arrow lodged halfway through his elbow and the blood that was still flowing freely from the wound.

"How dare you do this to me you ungrateful brat! I'll kill you for this!" Irathmus screamed his words out with such anger that his whole body was shaking. However, he suddenly froze. his body stopped shaking and his eyes went wide with realisation. I was confused because I thought this enraged rant would go on for an hour at least but he just suddenly froze.

I looked around the table trying to get an answer for what was going on. I was surprised to see that everybody's faces were calm, not at all what I had expected them to look like. I had imagined they were be outraged by Irathmus's rudeness or sunken back in fear from his violent outburst. Instead, they were all calm, a few of them even had smiles on their faces.

I was about to ask my mother what was going on but then a nobleman who had been seated next to Irathmus started talking.

"Oh Duke Irathmus, you've really done it now..." the man's voice was sly and laced with hidden meaning as he snickered cruelly at the Duke.

"Minister of justice, pray do tell us, what are the punishments for the crimes committed by the duke?" The nobleman looked positively giddy as he asked the question.

I watched curiously as all the noblewomen and noblemen seated around the table suddenly had wicked smiled on their faces. Something I didn't understand was going on...

A tall broad-shouldered old man stood up from the other side of the table. He had a long grey beard with long grey hair that was tied in a ponytail.

"As well all witnessed, the duke broke the law by refusing to free his slaves after they had given him sufficient money to free themselves..." The man's voice was so low it reminded me of a bass drum's deep beats.

A lady from beside him commented enthusiastically, "We most certainly witnessed it!"

"Here, here! We are all witnesses!" Called out another.

From the corner of my eye, I saw Cassian grin as he took a drink of his wine.

"The Abolishment of Slavery Act is one of the newest laws of Azlantean but has been given the status of a First Tier Law. Being a minister of the law, I can inform you all that, if found guilty, the minimum sentence for a First-tier crime is to be sent off to the mines to do hard labour until his/her death."

I felt my jaw drop. Having to do hard labour for the rest of his life! And that was just a minimum sentence, what were the maximum sentences?!

"Furthermore, Duke Irathmus committed an even graver sin. A sin that would find him guilty of a Holy Tier crime..."

From the way he said 'Holy tier crime' he made it sound like it was much worse than first-tier crimes. I glanced over at Irathmus who was frozen in his spot, maybe he knew what was coming and was regretting his actions. I could practically see him sobering up as the minister of justice was speaking.

"The crime committed by Duke Irathmus is classified as a crime against the sovereignty of Azlantean. A crime that goes against the very foundation of this great kingdom." The minister of justice's tone was so cold when he spoke but his eyes were so bright and alive and I could sense his passion beneath his stone face. The minister was thoroughly enjoying this, passing down judgement on the duke.

"The duke's crime is, threatening to kill the King of Azlantean." I thought back to a few moments ago when Irathmus had been screaming that he would kill my dad. It was kind of crazy to think that a crime like that was a holy tier crime and probably came with serious punishment.

"As everyone seated here knows, a Holy tier crime is only punishable by death."

The death sentence?!

I had not expected to hear the minister say the death sentence. I had thought maybe a hard labour crime something where he could experience what it was like to be a slave. As harsh as the punishment was, I couldn't help but feel satisfaction at the fact that Irathmus would pay for what he had done. This was a strange sensation for me, back on Earth I had always been pretty liberal and had thought the death sentence was wrong, but for some reason when the minister read out the verdict, I wasn't very disturbed by the thought of Irathmus being out to death. I was changing I guess. I suppose I was bound to change a little after being reincarnated.

I turned to look at the pathetic duke laying on the floor. He began to nervously chuckle as beads of anxious sweat came dripping down his forehead.

"Haha... Ahah... Just wait for a moment. I-I wasn't serious!" Irathmus began quickly crawling on the floor, making his way to my father's side. I was still sitting in my father's lap and the idea of Irathmus approaching us made me really uncomfortable. I wanted to move away from him, I didn't want to be close to that crazed man.

Before Irathmus could move any further, Sir Amren and Sir Jabari stepped in front of him in a flash. Sir Amren blocked the duke's path with his long silver sword while Jabari blocked the path with his long spear.

I could see the fear in the duke's eyes now. I think he had finally realised that he had messed up.

"Brother please!" Irahtmus called out. I felt a little bit bad looking at him now. He looked so desperate and pathetic, nothing like the proud and arrogant man I had met before. It made me feel a bit sorry for him. He had sunken so low in the space of an hour and soon everything would be stripped from him. Even if that was the law, I doubted that he would be sentenced to death because he was a duke, my father would probably want to keep up the reputation of the Royal family and would end up sentencing him to some jail time or the Azlantean equivalent of community service.

"Take him away." My father seemed indifferent to his older brother's pleas.

It was pitiful watching the duke being dragged out by the palace guards while he was begging the king to save him. It was hard for me to watch actually, but while I looked around the table at the noblemen and noblewomen I saw that they still had grins on their faces. They were quite pleased with his humiliation. I guessed that they had experienced much more of his bad behaviour than I had and were able to fully enjoy his demise.

As soon as the Duke had been dragged out of the hall, the nobles carried on eating as if nothing had happened. In fact, it looked like they were enjoying their meal better than before. I, on the other hand, had lost my appetite, but out of respect for my family and the chef that had prepared the amazing golden boar, I carried on eating what my father fed me.

My father eventually let me go back to my seat where I had a small piece of the large four-tier white frosted cake that we had for dessert. Although I had mostly lost my appetite I was comforted by the sweetness that the cake had to offer.

Soon after that, the banquet was over and I was allowed to leave while everyone else chatted because I had a bedtime my mother insisted that I kept.

Nanny Zelda walked me back to my wing, while Amren and Jabari escorted us from the front and the back.

"Well done, Your Highness." Zelda smiled own at me. "Tonight was a success. Not only did you free those girls but now the Duke will be rightfully punished." Zelda seemed very pleased but I couldn't manage to fake a smile.

She immediately picked up on my mood and gently asked, "Is anything the matter, Your Highness?"

I felt kind of torn at the moment. On one hand, I felt happy that Duke Irathmus was getting his just dessert, but on the other hand, after seeing his terrified face as he was being dragged out of the hall I wondered if I had done the right thing. I felt like a villainous hero and a heroic villain at the same time. Even in my previous life, I had prided myself on always doing what I believed was right, but in this world, I was shovelling out justice on a larger scale and I hadn't been prepared to face the fact that I would be hurting people. Even if the person I had hurt was a malicious duke, I felt bad. I couldn't enjoy what I had done. I felt like his face would haunt me forever.

"I thought I would feel better about doing this, that's all." I managed to plaster a smile onto my face so she would be reassured.

After a bath and a glass of milk, I was sitting lying in bed with the small book Lord Leopold gave me. My maids and Nanny Zelda said goodnight to me and left the room while I stayed up to read. Although I was tired, the book was interesting and kept me engaged from start to finish about the history of Azlantean. This kingdom was founded on the blood, sweat and tears of my ancestors and their loyal advisors and companions. This kingdom was revolutionary to this world in the way that it conducted its business and how the Royal family governed its people. Azlantean had managed to inspire the loyalty of its citizens and the fear of its rivals. One day this kingdom would be mine to handle and all its people would be under my rule.

An exciting yet terrifying prospect. Starting from tomorrow I would work hard to be a prince worthy of this Kingdom.