Chapter 294: The Tribunal “Opens for Business”

As for the other loot, there was plenty, but neither the quality nor the rarity of the items could compare to that Black Silk Robe. The most valuable among them was probably a Ring of Four Winds!

This simple wooden ring was carved with four clouds in different shapes—blue, green, white, and orange. On the side, four old men’s faces were carved, their cheeks puffed out as if blowing air. The ring seemed to be unfinished, and the wood grain looked like the cross-section of marble, giving it a heavy sense of age.

Although putting this ring on directly did not produce any special effects, after a full 24-hour attunement process, the owner wearing the ring could activate its special effects with their mind.

One of the effects was that after activating the Ring of Four Winds, the ring would generate a strong gust of wind, providing the user with a certain deflection defense against a single attack. The second effect was that the user could activate the ring to cast a Feather Fall spell on themselves.

Of course, activating these effects was not without limits. The ring’s abilities could be used a total of four times per day, and these could be freely distributed between the two effects.

Naturally, when George learned that the deflection defense effect of this ring could stack with the Blessing of Order on his body and his armor, he had the idea of acquiring this item for himself.

After all, George’s life safety was still facing quite serious threats; the recent assassination attempt, in particular, had left him with lingering fear. After several rounds of internal bidding, George finally bought it for 3,000 Gold Coins.

‘I wonder if Knight Ahuatan brought this thing back as loot specifically for this moment, counting on me, the big patron, to pay a high price,’ George thought as he held the Ring of Four Winds in his palm.

This price was not only higher than the internal auction price but also slightly higher than the market price. You have to know that the general market price was at least 30% to 50% higher than the internal price within Mage organizations. It was no wonder such a thought popped into George’s mind.

‘Forget it! Anyway, getting a suitable Magic Item isn’t an easy task. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have gone so long without finding a suitable Magic Item. I’ll just pretend I didn’t notice his little scheme!’ George changed his mind and smoothly slipped the ring onto his middle finger.

Actually, if this had been a Ring of Protection, Knight Ahuatan might not have given it up so easily! That was a platinum ring engraved with a small shield. It would also provide the user with a deflection-based protection effect.

Of course, unlike the Ring of Four Winds, the Ring of Protection provided less protection than the Ring of Four Winds when their general values were roughly equal. And it had no way to protect against the danger of falling from heights like the Ring of Four Winds.

But it had two huge advantages. One was that its protection ability had multiple different stages, from high to low, and if enough materials were invested and a qualified Spellcaster was hired for Enchantment, it could be strengthened. At its highest level, it was more than double that of the Ring of Four Winds! However, the price for that would truly be jaw-dropping. The second advantage was that this protection effect was constant, unlike the Ring of Four Winds which had a limited number of uses per day.

To be fair, the Ring of Protection was more suitable for battlefields, environments where danger accompanied every moment and one fought amidst a storm of bullets and arrows. After all, once on the battlefield, the four daily chances of the Ring of Four Winds would absolutely not be enough, even if all used for deflection.

But the Ring of Four Winds was more suitable for defending against assassination-like attacks. Because in those life-and-death moments, the enemy often only had one or two chances to strike. If George still hadn’t resolved the crisis by then, the protection provided by that little deflection wouldn’t be very necessary anyway. Moreover, the Feather Fall spell could also serve as a response to quite a few sudden situations.

What is suitable is best; George, who deeply understood this, threw himself back into the construction of his Territory with a good mood. During this time, the busiest tasks were the establishment of the Tribunal and the promotion of the judicial system. As a key step in the policy of keeping the people ignorant and an important part of shifting the focus of conflicts, George could not be sloppy in this regard!

Fortunately, after three months of construction, especially with the addition of Dwarf Craftsmen, George was able to complete the main structure of the building in an environment full of business opportunities but short on man power .

This was a building with a sloped roof, a base made of gray granite, and walls made of clay bricks. The highest point was about 30 feet, and from the air, it looked like a rectangular building about 30 feet long and 12 feet wide. In front of the door was a specially built lawn, surrounded by lush woods.

Above the main entrance of the cafeteria, there was a scale representing justice. In fact, the Church of the Just Lord had always wanted to hang their holy symbol on it. George had tried his best to organize against this matter.

“If the holy symbol of the Lord of Justice is hung up, some people might think this is part of the Church of the Just Lord organization. If believers of other faiths break the law, they would have a reason not to enter here to stand trial. Although most people are willing to believe in the fairness of the Lord of Justice and his Clergy, you should also be clear that in the secular world, the Lord’s authority is more universal and broad, and more easily accepted by groups of different faiths. After all, in terms of psychological endurance, this is a difficult threshold to cross.” George used this sentence to shut the other party up.

However, don’t let the appearance of this Tribunal building fool you; it wasn’t very big. Inside, there was one large Court and two small Courts, but there were no juvenile courts or mediation rooms. The former was because no one in this world had proposed a law for the protection of minors yet. As for the latter, disputes among neighbors were usually resolved on the spot by arbitrators and guards responsible for maintaining order, so there was no need to arrange a special room for them. In fact, that kind of mediation method was closer to the lives of Commoners and had more human touch, and of course, it was more easily accepted by Commoners.

Among other supporting facilities, in addition to office rooms and conference rooms, the legal culture room, the archives display room, and the file storage room were all built Underground. This not only effectively utilized space but also prevented, to a certain extent, the risk of intrusion by outsiders. At the same time, newly made compact shelves were installed in these document storage rooms.

The so-called compact shelves were replicas made by Craftsmen based on drawings George drew from his memory. Axle wheels were installed on the base of double-sided fixed shelves with multiple columns, allowing the shelves to move in a straight line along small tracks laid on the ground, and multiple shelves could be brought together or separated as needed. If it weren’t for the arrival of those Dwarves and Gnomes, the price of just those qualified axle wheels and fitting tracks would have been enough to drive George crazy.

This allowed the scholars and Church members who had started preparatory work long before the Tribunal was completed to officially bid farewell to the cramped, dark inn rooms and the working environment that was dusty on sunny days and muddy on rainy days.

Actually, there was no shortage of suitable houses in the Territory, but George had truly experienced the stubbornness of certain ‘Paladins’. This forced the few other Church members who went along to suffer with someone. Fortunately, they did not require the bureaucrats in the Territory to work with them, otherwise George’s ears would have been buzzed off.

In addition to these necessary building sections, construction of anti-collision and anti-impact facilities was also essential. Although George did not think that the Commoners of this era had the guts to challenge the Lord’s majesty, if some heinous prisoners broke out during trial, or if external accomplices came to rescue them, this place needed to be able to resist for at least some time, as it was impossible to station a large number of Guards in the Tribunal for a long time.

The key to this was setting up anti-break-in facilities at the entrances and passages. In addition to several oak doors studded with metal, the entrances and corridors were specially made in a zigzag shape. Furthermore, there were special sentry posts at the corners, staffed by Guards armed with weapons.

However, to ensure safety for going out to handle cases, arraignments, and escorts, what was needed was not just facilities and tools, but reasonable arrangements of personnel and the establishment of strict systems.

In fact, George prepared to strictly regulate entrance management and strengthen the duty and patrol systems. He established strict systems for gatekeeping, inspection, and registration, recording the basic information and visiting times of visitors to facilitate control over personnel entry and exit and for future reference; he insisted on a rotating duty system for nights and major festivals, strengthening the inspection of on-duty Guards, with both scheduled and random checks.

In addition to the daily patrol and prevention by Guards, visitors were questioned and strictly registered, and any suspicious items were checked to maintain normal office and trial order. Especially for publicly tried cases, those entering the Tribunal to watch were strictly checked to not give any potential dangerous elements an opportunity to take advantage of.

And a strict reception system was to be established. The diversion management of foreign personnel entering the court was strictly regulated. The requirement for relative isolation between the office area and the trial area was strictly implemented, with reception rooms set up in both the trial area and the office area, and receptions for parties and agents were conducted in designated unified areas according to regulations.

Of course, the above points were just what George had thought of now; the rules and regulations in this regard could be said to be extremely imperfect. They had to be constantly modified and improved by pooling ideas during future use.

Of course, even just the current state had already caused quite a bit of trouble. The problem with Guards was easy to solve because Bolerum Territory did not lack loyal soldiers. But the personnel responsible for registration were a trouble, after all, there were not many literate people in this world. Fortunately, after years of special training, George was able to send a few scribes who knew some writing to be responsible for this task.

The reason for not using the Inspectorate, which was actually equivalent to the police of later generations, as the guard force here, but instead selecting Guards from the army, was to completely separate the judicial power and the law enforcement power here. After all, there were a certain number of members of the Church of the Just Lord in both the Tribunal and the Inspectorate. This made George somewhat uneasy; after all, it never hurt to be on guard!

At the front of the courtroom were the judges’ seats. In the middle of the front were the seats for three professional judges, higher than other seats. To the lower left of the professional judges were the seats for the lay judges, and to the lower right were the seats for the lay judges and the prosecutor. These seats were all located on a platform, in a higher position.

In front of the professional judges’ seats, on the lower left and right sides, were the recorder’s seat and the witness seat from front to back. To the left of the judges’ seats was the jury box, where 15 chairs were set up for 13 formal jurors and 2 alternate jurors. The existence of an odd number of seats was to prevent the jury’s opinions from reaching a deadlock. Of course, most of the time, these jury seats were mostly for show.

Usually, ordinary people were arranged opposite the judges’ seats, also divided into two parts: one part for the plaintiff and their family, and the other for the defendant and their defense counsel. Behind the plaintiff and defendant seats were the public gallery. Of course, there would be special Guards near the defendant to prevent the defendant from escaping or to stop their violent behavior.

The setup reflected an obvious concept of authority, meaning the judge occupied a dominant position in the trial and was not a passive arbitrator; the prosecutor represented the ruler in initiating the lawsuit and was not an ordinary party, and the status of the prosecution and defense was not completely equal. Similar to the judges, their seats were set up on the platform, higher than the seats for the recorder, defendant, victim, and witness, which not only symbolized that the prosecutor had the same status as the judge in the trial, both being judicial officers.

Of course, this was the arrangement when existing laws could be applied, and everything was decided according to existing legal provisions. However, when encountering cases that existing legal provisions could not solve, those jurors would have the chance to take the stage.

At that time, the arrangement would change. The suspect was arranged on the right side in front of the judges, directly facing the jury. At that time, opposite the judges’ seats would be the public gallery. Of course, this was also the scenario George least wanted to see, because it meant that the heavy work of legal revision had to be restarted.

After busy preparations, the Bolerum Tribunal officially “opened for business”! However, the only thing that made George quite happy was that after being open for quite a few days, there was still not a single case tried here. In a certain sense, this reflected the good performance of the security environment and the social atmosphere of the people in Bolerum Territory.

Of course, at this time, something happened that surprised George quite a bit. Sword Master Carlton Salvin said such an opening line during an afternoon meeting: “For so long, the improvements I can help you with in your movements have been pretty much completed. If you want to go further, it won’t be something I can do with my current strength.”

Hearing this, George frowned and asked: “Sword Master Salvin, are you preparing to resign?”

“No! If I, who was hired as your instructor, just left like this, I’m afraid I wouldn’t be able to establish myself in the Swordsman Guild in the future. That would obviously be a violation of the rules. However, since I can no longer help you with the basics, according to custom, I must teach you part of the inheritance of my school. Otherwise, it wouldn’t be worth the price you paid.” Sword Master Salvin said primly.

‘This is the benefit of being generous!’ George, feeling moved, relaxed his brows and said: “The school’s inheritance? If you are willing, of course I would be more than happy!”

“Although I cannot teach the high-level parts, the basic parts should still be of some help to you in integrating your own system.” Sword Master Salvin’s words showed immense confidence. This confidence even made George look at him sideways.

Sword Master Salvin said with a glowing face: “My school is called the Male Falcon, a martial arts school that emphasizes actual combat and killing enemies. The content is easy to learn but difficult to master, and the postures are somewhat inelegant, emphasizing fighting spirit and instinct. Its entire essence can be summarized in two words: ‘seize the attack’. Striking first is always the basic principle that any practitioner must keep in mind.”

After some explanation, George finally had his own understanding of the “Male Falcon” school. The key to this school was using the ability of muscle memory and trying to actively transform it into the user’s physical instinct. The user’s body would begin to spontaneously respond to external stimuli, reflexes and movement checks would align with their own perception, and the body’s coordination would be further strengthened.

“If the enemy doesn’t move, I move first; if the enemy moves first, I move faster; if the enemy moves slightly, I move wildly; if the enemy moves once, I move multiple times; if the enemy moves continuously, I interrupt; if the enemy stops moving, I continue…” This series of three-character mantras was George’s summary of the entire style of the school. Seizing the attack to kill quickly was their combat principle. Using more and faster attacks to suppress the opponent’s action space and disrupt their rhythm. For this reason, they used swift light weapons, such as Scimitars, short swords, or rapiers. Of course, there were also highly skilled people who used Longswords.

In short, in the understanding of this school, only actions that were unthinking, fast as the wind, and natural could not be targeted and cracked. This had the same wondrous effect as “in this world, only speed is unbreakable” and “no move beats having a move.”

“Actually, if you reach my current level of strength, a Hand-and-a-Half Sword can also be used in line with the school’s style.” Sword Master Salvin’s words were full of pride.

But after looking at the other party a few more times, George complained in his heart: ‘For someone of your build, a Hand-and-a-Half Sword is actually about the same as a regular Longsword!’

The Hand-and-a-Half Sword was a heavy sword specially customized according to the user’s characteristics. It combined the lightness of a broadsword, the thrusting of a knight’s sword, the chopping and slashing of a two-handed sword, and the classic style of a Longsword. It could play a role whether used with both hands or with a shield. It could be said to be the most perfect sword, about 1 to 1.2 meters long, with a handle for two-handed gripping, a pommel, a blood groove on the blade, and a sharp tip.

It could be said that the Hand-and-a-Half Sword was the illegitimate child of a one-handed sword and a Greatsword, but compared to a one-handed sword, it had advantages in length and attack power, and compared to a two-handed sword, it was easier to carry and had good versatility. However, its blade was too thin and easy to break after long-term use. And it required a certain amount of training to use flexibly. Therefore, few Adventurers used it, let alone in the army.

The Hand-and-a-Half Sword that left the deepest impression in George’s mind was the one Aragorn held in The Lord of the Rings.