Jack checked into a local inn under his disguise to spend the night there.
That night, he received messages from Jeanny. It was the reports on both cases in his Affair Overview.
"This is fast! Only three days had passed," Jack remarked. "Professional investigators sure are dependable."
Jack reviewed the reports. For the case of the land dispute in Theboldiere, after asking the locals, it was found out that Olmond had been neglecting his ancestral lands, especially the ones by the suburbs. This disputed land was one of those neglected ones. That's why Olmond only responded after half a year had passed. He just found out after he heard the news about Ehos' successful business.
Olmond was both envious and tempted after receiving the news. He immediately took action which resulted in a dispute.
"This Olmond is quite a detestable fellow," Jack said.
"So, you want to pick the choice of supporting Ethos?" Peniel asked.
Jack gave the matter some thought.
"Even though I very much want to teach that greedy noble a lesson, I have to think of the bigger picture," Jack said. "That Olmond was still an influential lord in that town. Directly antagonizing him is not good for the kingdom. Additionally, Ethos was also negligent for not properly checking if his land transaction was legal or not."
"Hm… I can't picture you as a king before, even if you are already one. But you look more like one now," Peniel said.
Jack rolled his eyes at her. He then opened his status window and go to the Affair Overview page.
"Have you decided what to do?" Peniel asked.
"Yes," Jack replied.
He opened the affair with the title, Dispute of two landlords over a plot of land in Theboldiere. After that, he clicked the Response button. He ignored all four available options and fill inside the text box available as the fifth option.
Jack wrote that Olmond was at fault since he had neglected the land for a long time. But the court would partially honor his claim. Ethos was to pay Olmond fifty percent of the coins from what he used to buy the land through the faulty minister. After this transaction, Ethos will fully own the land and the court will legalize his deed.
The system asked if Jack was sure of his decision. Jack clicked yes and the case was closed. The two landlords would receive the court's decision soon.
On Jack's side, he received a notification that he had received 100,000 merit points and 5 ruling points. He only needed 12,196 merit points to reach the next sovereign level. Hence, with this notification, his sovereign level increased to level 4. He also received 10 ruling points from the level-up.
From Sovereign level 4 to level 5 needed 200,000 merit points. His king badge held 87,804 merit points at that moment.
"Yes! You said before if it was considered a perfect solution by the system if I receive ruling points for a reward, didn't you?" Jack asked Peniel.
"Yes. Apparently, this is considered perfect, or almost," Peniel replied.
"Awesome. Let's check the next case," Jack said and studied Jeanny's report on the second case, the inheritance of Lord Edmond.
It was the case where four people fought for the inheritance. One of them was originally a personal maid to lord Edmond but claimed to be his daughter. She also had a hand-written will of Lord Edmond, granting all his fortune to her.
After the players, whom Jeanny sent to investigate the matters, snooped around the case. They found something surprising about this case.
The maid, who claimed to be Lord Edmond's secret daughter, was not a level 1 commoner as she claimed to be nor did she have any blood relation to Lord Edmond. She learned witchcraft in secret and used it to disguise her level.
She regularly used charm spells on Lord Edmond, bewitching him into thinking she was his secret daughter. That's how she gained Lord Edmond's will.
The players whom Jeanny sent even suspected that Lord Edmond's death had something to do with her. They needed to dig deeper if they wanted to find the evidence but they were afraid it might cause the maid to become aware of their snooping. Hence, they gave their current report and asked Jeanny if she wanted them to proceed.
Jack thought this report was enough already. He opened the affair screen and clicked the response button. He also filled in the fifth option for this case instead of picking one of the available ones.
He typed in that new information had been found that the maid was false in her claim and use faulty means to trick her claims. Authority was to arrest her and investigate her further. The will on her hand was not sanctioned. Lord Edmond's fortunes were to be divided equally among his three descendants.
Jack then sent a message to Jeanny to have the players in the city continue cooperating with the authority, who was about to apprehend the maid. They could then continue their investigation to find out if the maid was indeed at fault for Lord Edmond's death.
For this case, Jack received 110,000 merit points and another 5 ruling points, signifying another perfect resolution.
His merit points were now 197,804. Just a tiny bit from Sovereign level 5. His available ruling points were 65. With the ruling points he received every month based on his sovereign level, it would be enough to make another round of Call to Arms and Mass Drill the next month.
He looked at the Affair Overview and was disappointed to find it empty.
"Don't worry," Peniel said to him. "The news will spread about you perfectly resolving two affairs so swiftly after you were crowned. More affairs will come your way. You might even find it overwhelming in the future."
Jack grinned and said, "I hope they will come soon. The more the merrier. With Jeanny's troops of investigators, I'm not worried about getting a good solution to each of these cases."
