122 The stolen books

It did not take long for Emp to figure out exactly what had happened to all the books he sent once he found one of them in the viscount's bookshelf.

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He shook from fury inside his armor once and then calmed down. He felt cold rather than burning in anger, his voice reflected this perfectly, there was no warmth in it anymore.

"When I came here, I had the genuine intention of just paying and be done with this but I found something truly interesting here."

The viscount did not know how to react to these words. He would have believed Emp was simply interested by the book but his tone was so cold, there might be something he didn't understand hidden behind his words.

"Is something the matter?" He ended up asking simply.

The guards close to the door had felt the change in atmosphere too and they all stiffened, they did not know at all what was about to happen.

Palonia was close enough by Emp's side to see inside the book and simply froze at the sight of his name inside. Having been told about how the books he had sent were lost, she too could only come to a single conclusion. If Emp didn't do something about it right now, she would explode in anger in his stead in a moment.

Emp kept the book open and asked the viscount where he had found that book.

"It was gifted to me by my son about two years ago, why?"

"I see, your son again, do you know were 'he' got it?"

"No..."

The viscount was certain something was wrong but he was ignorant of the reasons behind this swift change of attitude.

"I apologize for your confusion viscount but this is one of the books I lost." Emp told him flatly.

"So you had a copy of this one too, I see." The viscount seemed relieved. "I could gift it to you if you wish, it would be/"

"No, this is not what I meant. This book in particular is one of those I lost, my name is in it, see?"

After interrupting him, Emp turned the book over to him and the Viscount saw that indeed, his name was written inside. His fat shook in surprise and he hurriedly attempted to find an excuse for his son.

"Then I will return it to you in goodwill, my son must have bought it from a shady merchant. He his keen on making good deals you see, he might have found it at a cheap price from some small street stall."

"Possible." Emp admitted.

He scanned the wall of books again and picked another one, directly flipping to the last page, again, his name was on it.

"One might be a coincidence but the more instances I find, the less likely it gets."

He Placed both books in the hands of Palonia and picked a third one, again, his name was in it.

The viscount got paler and paler as Emp retrieved books from his shelf, all signed by his hand.

"B-but... How is this possible?"

"One does not need to be a genius to understand viscount. I told you earlier about my friend right? She had a dept towards your son so I sent her books in order for her to be able to repay it, all the books went missing on the way and found themselves into the shelf of the father of the man she owed money too. What sort of conclusion do you think I will reach from that? I came back to this city when I learned about the missing books because I wanted to simply pay and be done with it. I never expected instead I would find proof of thievery and foul play when I stepped in here."

The viscount started to sweat profusely.

"What has he done?" He muttered to himself under his breath.

He reached for a bell on top of his desk and rang strongly twice. Emp wondered whether it would be guards or servants that showed up and was a bit disappointed to see servants.

"Maurice, wherever he his, find him and drag him here this instant! I don't care what he his doing or with whom he might be, he must run back here in the minute if he doesn't want his head to fall."

The servants all bowed lightly and ran off after the one he sent earlier.

Meanwhile, Emp picked up the stack of letter he was sent back from his bag and untied it to look at them. He continued to speak to the viscount with the same cold tone.

"You see, my friend had the presence of mind to send me back all my letters before she ended up enslaved. In them, I always told her in details about the books I was sending her, along with how much I had paid for them. The thorny wall, five red dragons. This book of poesy, ninety five gold crowns. This one, three dragons and forty crowns."

He continued on and on with the list, every time he flipped to a new letter, he named three or four more books. He would point at the shelf and one of the guards following him would go pick up a book, flip to the last page and see his name written. By the end, he had named fifty-three books and more than forty of them were in the shelf.

"Since so many of them are here, I suppose your son took the remaining ones too, I wonder what he did with them. They were books to study magic, they were the basics of many elements, I myself studied magic using them. I wonder what he did with them."

Even without the books on magic, the price was exorbitant already. There was nothing the viscount could do for now but to gulp down his own worry and wait for his son to show up in front of the cold frown of the Muracie standing there.

The man was doing his best trying to find a way out of this mess. A few dozen plans ranging from trying to kill Emp and the guards right then and there all the way down to simple negotiation came rushing through his mind while he waited for his cursed son to show up.

At this moment, Emp was glad he had the urge to bring the guards with him. He was not afraid of the viscount or his son but since he was now gathering so much evidence in the form of his lost books, he felt that having them here with him already was very practical.

The guards all had a grim face, if Emp had not been there, they would never have dared to accuse the son of the viscount of theft so brazenly. Now they were here however and it was their duty to see this whole story through.

On the other hand, Palonia was jubilant. She felt that justice would soon be served and maybe the city would be rid of the annoying son of Balpoisson sooner than what the citizenry would have believed.

Emp waited patiently, for the arrival of Maurice Balpoisson. He was boiling inside but his face remained frozen in a cold frown and a straight lined mouth. He was eager to see who that devil might be and more importantly, to turn the tables on him.

The door opened behind the guards and the awaited Maurice showed up.

"Father, I heard you were requesting my presence in urgency. I was busy with something so I hope this is... Who are they?"

Everyone in the room was now staring at him. He was far from being as fat as his father but despite his age, he was still short and pudgy. His hair were greased slick in a wave to his right and his cheeks were inflated like a stuffed poultry. Galana had described him as ugly but even though she was right, Emp would have probably found him more ordinary than ugly if not for his deep anger towards him.

The face of the viscount was cramped in rage and worry in equal part. Maurice stared at it a second and then at the guards holding dozens of books and the intimidating man in dark armor standing in the middle of it all, his face as cold as a dead fish.

The door closed behind him and he felt trapped right away. He had no idea what was happening yet but Emp and his lord father didn't leave him in the dark for long.

"Son, this man here is a Muracier, the son of the great general, I hear. He is here because/"

"I'm here to have you pay your debt Maurice." Emp interrupted him.

"A... A debt? What debt?"

"Lets not play silly games and run around the facts. You've done a lot of bad things, you should confess right now."

"C-confess what? I-I haven't done anything! Father, what's the meaning of this? What are they here for?"

"The books idiot! What sort of insanity was driving you!" His father yelled with the power of a giant.

Emp almost felt the room shake. The son quivered but feigned ignorance with a hesitant question.

"What about them?"

Emp didn't even bother to answer his question.

"Maurice Balpoisson, I hereby accuse you of fraud, unlawful enslavement, two murders, and the theft of over fifty of my books."

His eyes shot wide and he opened his mouth so wide he could have swallowed a toad whole.

"What! Where does that come from! You can't even prove none of it! Why am I being accused of so many crimes?"

"You are accused because you committed them. I might not have all the proofs in hands yet for the murders and the fraud but I have more than enough in this room to prove you are guilty of theft."

Maurice seemed like he wanted to scream "What theft?". The only thing that stopped him was how intimidated he felt in front of an actual Muracier.

"I don't understand." He meekly said instead.

He clearly didn't see the extent of the troubles he was in so Emp had to tell him more clearly about his own situation. He waved the book he was currently holding in front of the noble's face.

"Like your father said, it's about all those books you stole from me."

Maurice made another confused frown.

"That's wrong, those all belonged to a book merchant."

"Was that book merchant named Galana by chance?"

The viscount raised his arm in panic in an attempt to stop his son from talking but it was already too late.

"Yes! Exactly, she's the one to blame if anything!"

Having just been told that this woman was a close friend of him and all those books were meant as gifts to her, he knew his son had just thrown himself in the jaws of the beast. His father clutched his own forehead at the idiocy of his son while Emp laughed loudly.

"I was once told that criminals aren't usually the brightest people around and I'm witnessing it again today." He told Maurice, shooting a glance at Bonver.

The guard smiled wryly at how Emp used his pleasantry to insult a noble.

The noble son gulped down in fear hearing this sinister laughter and seeing his dispirited father. Still, he had to ask, his voice came almost trembling.

"What's so funny?"

"You picked up all the books as they came but you didn't bother taking the letters too because you felt they were worthless I presume. This is the stupidest mistake you made. Not only it made you blind to what was happening but it also gave me plenty more proof of your wrongdoings. If you had read those letters, you would have known that all those books came from me, Galana is a good friend of mine."

Maurice shook from head to toe and gasped "Impossible!" before quickly defending himself with something idiotic.

"I took all those book as part of her debt repayment!"

"Wrong, that debt was only of fifteen red-dragons, we have enough value in the books here to repay it five times over. She couldn't have failed to repay her debt if you had taken them for repayment. On top of that, if you did, they would all have been taken together when you went to enslave her but your father confirmed that some of them were gifted to him by you two years ago so you took them as they came in. We're getting to the best part now. Since they never reached Galana, all those books were still my property when they were stolen, according to our laws, they would only have changed ownership once the delivery was completed. This means you didn't steal from a poor shop owner but from a high noble instead."

For Emp, stealing from a commoner or a noble didn't make a difference but it did for mostly any other nobles. This wasn't simple theft anymore, it was an act of aggression, a desire to go to war with another noble house to gain power over them.

Maurice didn't seem that quick to understand in general but even him could see where this was going.

"How can you be sure they are truly yours?" He attempted again.

"You didn't bother opening any of them, did you? My name is in all of them."

Emp gestured towards one of the guards and pointed at Maurice, a book was then opened at random and turned towards the noble son to expose the name.

"It's only written Emp?"

"Yes, Emp Muracier is my name, do you have something against it?"

"No, no, I wouldn't dare!"

"Then how did more then fifty of my books end up in the office of your father rather than on the shelves of my friend?"

"I-I... Why was there no seals on the letters?"

"No seals? Do you think I will use the official seal of my house to send casual letters to a friend? And By saying that, aren't you admitting that you knew the books came in with letters and thus, that you were the one who took them?"

The truth was that he didn't have any seal but it wasn't wrong to say he probably wouldn't have used any for these letters anyway.

Maurice didn't know what to say about that and just kept his mouth shut this time. It seemed every time he said something, things got worse for him. His lips shook a bit as he thought about a proper answer but Emp proceeded onward anyway, cutting him off.

"Speaking of my friend, I have a lot more to complain about still. You lent them money to hire guards and supplies for a single expedition, how did the amount owed reach fifteen red-dragons? This is clearly excessive! The guards, people that you chose yourself by the way, even came back from what I heard meaning this is a fraud. Then, you arranged for her parents death and strangled her shop to bankruptcy by stealing all the books she should have received. I would have played fair and simply helped her pay the dragons she should not have owed you but you had to steal from me as well and enslave my friend."

Emp pointed the corner of a book right at his nose, anger filling his eyes.

"It is like you made everything in your power to anger me and so here I am. You achieved your goal."

The noble son was now sweating profusely, and finally had the bright idea of keeping his mouth shut under the hardest glare his father ever gave him.

"I know my son sometimes does stupid things, especially when women are involved but I'm sure there must be a more reasonable explanation. He would never dare harm a family with such a name as Muracier for a woman. What would you like us to do to atone for his mistake? What would you want?"

Emp turned his head towards the viscount and answered his question with a flat tone.

"I want three things."

The mouth of the man began to rise into a relieved smile. Emp could be reasoned with! Palonia and the guards felt rather dejected by Emp's answer however. It was a typical noble thing to do to sweep everything under a rug and make as if it never hapenned.

Balpoisson would be sorely disappointed when he'd hear the last demand however.

"First, obviously, I want my friend back, her debt must be erased and she will be handed over to me. What happened to her, where is she?"

Of course, for the viscount, the answer to that demand was obvious. He didn't care about Galana at all so handing her over was an evidence. He probably didn't even know who she was before Emp started talking about her in his office.

He barked the order at his son.

"Have her brought here this instant!"

"But father..." Maurice started saying with a disgusted face.

"Don't you dare complain now after what you've done!"

In exasperation, the viscount rang the bell again and summoned the servants.

"Find me this Galana and have her brought here as fast as humanly possible."

While they waited for Galana to join them, the viscount listened intently to Emp's second demand.

"My second demand should also be obvious, I will get all my books back. I have a full list of them in those letters and I want none of them missing. Most are here in this room but there are still some that aren't, here are the names of the missing books."

Emp named each in turn and the viscount hurriedly wrote down the names on a paper of his own.

"I will have servants search for them in the mansion. Unless my son here decides to be of help and tell them were they are so we can gain some time?"

It was formulated like an interrogation but the glare that went along with it made it clear it was an order instead.

"In my room." Maurice mumbled.

Another batch of servants shuffled out of the room to go fetch the requested items.

Everyone else remained quiet in the room. Emp was in no mood to talk about anything, the two noble felt pressured by him and kept their mouths shut, the guards were just silent observers and Palonia felt that Emp had everything in hand and didn't need her input.

The viscount wanted to know the last demand of Emp but he refused to say it until the first two were fulfilled.

After ten long minutes of waiting, the door opened and a woman was dragged inside. It was obviously Galana but she was barely recognizable. She seemed almost lifeless, she was so thin her bones could be seen all across her body through her skin. She was naked, dirty and her hair was disheveled. Because she had no strength left, or maybe because she was left hopeless, she didn't stand on her own and was dragged across the floor instead by the two servants. She was facing downward and her head was hung low so Emp couldn't see her face.

He felt stunned by her appearance and his mouth half opened in shock. She had clearly been starved, to him, she seemed broken.

Palonia dropped all the books she was holding, not caring for their great value and rushed to Galana's side as she was lowered to the ground in the room.

"Galana! By the ancestors!"

She knelt at her side and cradled her head onto her lap.

"Palonia? Is that really you?"

"Yes, it's me, we came to help you."

"Sorry, its too late, I'm sorry, I-I-I..."

Galana then started sobbing weakly. Emp didn't say a word and didn't move a hair while they talked. He did not know how to interact with the current Galana.

The viscount's face turned even paler before turning back to dark red in anger.

"Maurice! What's the meaning of this! Were you tired of living?!"

"No, it's not my fault! I swear! When we came to take her, she killed one of my men and ended up rotting in jail under the castle for the past two weeks. I only managed to get her out of there today at the condition of making her a branded slave. I had to pay for the whole procedure myself too! I was coming back from there when you called for me."

So she had been spared the company of Maurice for all this time but in exchange, she had to starve in a damp cell underground. Emp had no doubt she would have rather stayed there than accepted following him out, even though she had clearly suffered in the dark.

The point that attracted his attention the most however was when he mentioned turning her into a sealed slave. He couldn't see the seal anywhere on her. At first, he thought that Maurice didn't have the time to seal her yet but it wouldn't fit his story.

"Where is the seal?" He asked dryly.

Maurice flinched and pointed his own forehead. At this point, it was obvious to him that Galana was important to Emp and he knew really well how he would react to the placement of the seal but he had no choice other than to answer the question.

Palonia Made a disgusted face and brushed Galana's hair away, raising her head slightly to expose a large fish with puffed cheeks wearing a gallant hat right in the center of her forehead.

Galana sobbed some more with her eyes closed and tried to hide it with her hands unsuccessfully. She didn't have the necessary strength to push away Palonia's hand anymore.

Emp drew a deep breath through his teeth. He felt even more angry than before. The location of a seal like that couldn't be changed once placed. Even if it was removed properly, there would still be a scar remaining. Maurice could have requested it being made anywhere at all but of course, he had to place it at the most obvious spot for all to see like some sick trophy.

Emp gave him a dark disgusted look and Maurice shrunk on the spot, stepping back in an attempt to escape the anger radiating from him.

His books hadn't all been returned to him yet but Emp didn't feel like waiting anymore and spat out his last demand.

"Here's my third request, I want him to be judged and sentenced according to the gravity of his crimes along with all his mercenary collaborator. Usually, a clear value must be attributed to the allegedly stolen goods but this part will have to wait because my book specialist is clearly in no shape to do the job and has been tied to the accused."

"This is excessive! That is heavy handed and not how nobles around here usually proceeds. Could we not come to a less damaging agreement?" The viscount complained hurriedly.

"No, I will deal with your corrupted son as I please, just like in a war, decisively and heavily. Two murders, theft, fraud, unlawful enslavement and personal sleight against a high noble The mercenaries will be charged of murder and fraud as well unless they admit participating in the theft of those books as well."

"But I'm the heir of the third biggest family in the city." Maurice defended himself in a rather pointless and unsightly way.

"And I am the Muracier heir, second strongest family in the empire. I am not convinced you can but if you use your head, you should understand the difference between second of an empire and third of a city."

"Emp?" Galana whispered weakly.

She had still not raised her head so she had not seen him yet but his voice and the mention of the name Muracier made her understand he had come along with Palonia. She buried herself further into the embrace of her friend in reaction.

"You can't! You can't prove anything and you'll cause unnecessary unrest!"

The cheeks of Maurice bounced crazily as he spit out the words in a panic along with globs of saliva.

"I can and I will. Between her and the books, I will have more than enough proofs to bring you down. You are worth nothing to me, you are a thieving pile of rot who harassed the good citizens of Red-water for too long already. Submit yourself to the judgment of a lawful court or try your luck in a trial by combat."

Emp stared at him menacingly until the young noble flinched and looked away. He wasn't stupid enough to challenge a Muracier in a trial by combat, he had better chances of getting out of this with a trial.

Emp then turned his head towards the viscount and added a few words.

"Sacrifice your corrupted son to cleanse your house or I bring the whole thing down."

The fat viscount shifted his weight left and right as he thought some more about his options.

Currently he had lost the books so he couldn't go against the accusations of theft but his son still held the girl in slavery with a seal. He could potentially use her as leverage, if he refused to hand her over and something happened to his son, the girl would die as well. No one could force the transference of a sealed slave, his son had to be willing in order for it to work, as long as they had that card, they might be able to get out of this mess.

If they weren't able to however and his son refused to transfer ownership of the girl until his last breath just to spite the Muracier, his reckless action might spell the end of their entire house.

The question was, was it worth the risk of angering the strongest noble house of the empire over a common girl? The Muracier heir might be fond of her but the viscount didn't feel that anyone with a similar standing would bow in front of him just to save the life of a common girl. He might only anger him more by taking her hostage.

Alternatively, his first son was the root cause of this problem. If he got rid of him, his other children and his entire legacy would be fine for sure. Emp had been very clear on that.

If he let go of his son just like that however, the rest of the nobility might take him for a coward and worse, Maurice might feel that he was doomed and do something stupid to bring the rest of them down with him.

He dearly wished to test the waters with Emp and attempt to find out how he would react to him refusing to hand over the girl but if he did, the chances of Maurice picking up on his idea was high. If it turned out that keeping the girl hostage was too dangerous, he would not be able to convince his son to hand her over anymore.

The viscount weighed many possibilities in his head until he came to the conclusion that his son wasn't fit to hold on to the important piece that was the girl. She was the only way to save him yes, but she was also the greatest risk of destroying his whole house.

He released a heavy sigh and slumped down onto his chair.

"I understand, we will accept this trial and I will do my best to prove his innocence. In the meantime, Maurice, you will hand over the ownership of that girl to me."

"What! Why?"

"Because I don't trust you with it after what you've done. Can you even explain why she is naked?" The viscount shouted in anger.

Galana curled on herself some more to hide her nakedness but it was mostly ineffective. Emp kept looking away to not shame her further.

"I-I was about to/"

"Do not speak a word further." His father hurriedly interrupted him with disdain. "Someone find her some clothes so that we can all go change the seal. Then, we'll go talk this all out with count Staedler. Would this satisfy you?" He asked Emp.

The count Staedler was the lord of Red-water city, if there was a trial to be had, he would be the one to preside it. He was fine with that part but not on who the ownership of Galana would be transferred to.

"I'd rather she was given to the care of an impartial third party."

The viscount stood his ground, braving the Muracier's wrath.

"I cannot allow it for now, I'm sure you understand."

Emp's eyes scanned his face for a good ten seconds of tense silence before he agreed reluctantly.

"She will be treated well." He stated just like an order instead.

The viscount approved vigorously and shouted in relief inside his own head. Now, he would be in control of the most important piece of this whole puzzle. He would be able to hand it over, sacrifice it or use it at this own convenience without the interference of his son.