"Can you tell me more about this city lord of yours?" I asked. I figured I might as well know exactly what this city lord and his guards have been doing.
"Not here. Follow us." The young man said after a moment of hesitation as he waved me over. I nodded and followed them down a side alley to a small run down house. The house was only one room which also had a kitchen and the bathroom (a small pot) in the same place.
"I am sorry for our home. It is not the best of places to be." The young man said as he quickly cleaned a spot on the floor for me. I smiled and sat down.
"It is a cozy place. I can see that you have spent a good amount of time in setting things up with what little you have." I said with a smile.
"We are only living on a few copper per day. The ones who live lavishly in this town are those who are part of the city lord's men. They are unruly and even forcefully snatch daughters of the people they are supposed to protect. If anyone goes against them, they will kill them. The city lord is no better. He has a thing for both girls and pretty boys. If the guards spot one, they will drag them off to the city lord's castle. Taxes are high, and wages are low. We are lucky to be able to survive." The young man began talking about the hardships of the people.
"I see…. Why did you not take your family and leave the town?" I asked. If things were this bad most would just get up and move.
"It's not like we do not want to, but we can't. To leave the city, you need a pass which costs one gold. Only merchants can afford it! Us citizens are stuck here. If we try to leave, we will be killed." After hearing what the young man said, my eyes turned cold. He was basically keeping the people here hostage and forcing them to live in poverty so they couldn't leave.
"Don't worry. I will fix this city up in an hour, so for now, stay here and do not leave the house. I will be setting up a barrier here to protect you from anyone trying to harm you while I take care of things." I took out a few bits of food and placed them in the young man's hands before standing up and walking to the door. "I will change this city for you."
After saying this, I walked out of the house and set up a barrier around it to protect it. It was a barrier that blocked people from leaving and entering. I could hear the young man calling after me, but I did not turn around. I flapped my wings and flew off towards the castle. I hovered above it just in time to see a group of guards dragging some girls through the castle gates. I snorted and landed in front of the guards. "Who are you!?"
"Your worst nightmare!" I said in a cold voice as I slapped the three men to the ground, knocking them out cold. The girls were close to my age, maybe a year or two older. Their eyes were red with tears. They looked at me in surprise and shock and a bit of hope. "Go. Go back to your families."
"Thank you!" One of the girls mustered up before grabbing the hand of a girl that closely resembled her and running back through the gates. I waved my hands, causing the guards in the area to fall asleep. I did not wish for them to be harmed after being rescued.
I turned and looked up at the six floor castle and raised my hand. The whole castle began to shake as I used earth magic to rip off the entire outer wall and roof of the castle and turned it into dust before setting it to the side. I could hear the screams and yells of the guards.
I then flapped my wings and stood in the air in front of the castle near the one room that looked the gaudiest and yelled out: "City Lord! Show yourself!"
"Who are you!?" A man wrapped in a blanket made his way to the opening of the wall and glared at me with hatred in his eyes.
"I am the one who will soon rule this entire kingdom. I am here to dispose of those who abuse their status and power. City lord, you are deemed unfit to rule under my new reign. You will be imprisoned for your crimes against the people of this city and sentenced to death three days later. The same goes for each one of your guards. But only if you surrender now. Otherwise, face death." I answered in a commanding voice. I was once more back in my demon lord role!
"Do you really think you can do as you please!? Men kill this demon! Whoever kills the demon will get ten women and one thousand gold!" The city lord yelled out but sadly for him, no one dared to move. I mean, who would? I just ripped the walls and roof off the castle. And there were only like ten guards inside the castle while the rest were passed out on the ground.
"It looks like no one is willing to risk their lives for a bastard like you. Now then. Let's deal with you properly." I raised my hand, causing the city lord to be wrapped in wind magic.
"You!? How are you doing this!? Let go of me! Do you know who I am!?" The city lord yelled out as he tried to struggle to escape my wind magic, but this expression soon changed to that of fear when he arrived in front of me and was forced to look me in the eye.
"You abused the people you are supposed to protect. You snatched their children from their homes for your own sick tendencies. For this, I hereby sentence you to death." I did not care who this man was, but from what I was seeing, the things he was doing to the people of this city were already worthy of him dying. I waved my hand and set his body ablaze, causing him to scream out in pain before dropping him to the ground.
"Awake!" I yelled out using my dragon speak. All the guards stood up in a dazed fashion. I planned to deal with everything in one single easy swoop. "Anyone here who has killed innocent civilians, abducted and forced themselves onto innocent girls and boys need to take their own life now."
I was hoping for one or two good people…. But sadly…. Every guard that I could see in front of me took their own life. They were all scum to the very last one.
