The Red Hand

Chapter 216 – Lawyers are Scary.

After romping around in the woods for a couple more days, and enjoying the warm lake waters, Hishya and Akagi decided to head home before the girls started missing them too much. The trip back to Omara was relatively boring, with few interesting creatures appearing but was otherwise uneventful. As they returned under the protective barrier that encased Omara, the two decided to stop in and see how things were in the city.

"Well, I'd say that was a nice outing." Hishya smiled as they walked towards Omara. She'd enjoyed herself greatly and was happy to have spent this time with Akagi.

{See, you can be normal and nice. So why aren't you like this all the time?!?} (Hishya)

"Yeah, it was good." Akagi nodded. "We should try to do more things like that in the future, but unfortunately, I don't foresee the girls wanting to rough it with us." She laughed. Kana had never liked camping as a kid, and always complained about it being too hot and filled with bugs.

"Yeah, Kana is a fucking Princess, and there's no way in hell her spoiled ass would do camping in anything less than an RV!" Hishya giggled. She recalled the time she tried to get Kana to go out hiking with her for the day, and the glare she received in return.

"She always hated going with Shima and Taichi as a kid, but they'd always drag her around regardless." Akagi chuckled. “She'd come home and complain that it wasn't fair that I always got out of going with.”

"That girl really is a bookworm and a couch potato through and through. The outdoors is an anathema to her, and its honestly surprising how much work she's put into her training." Hishya replied.

{I kinda figured she'd just half ass it, but she's actually been pretty serious. I guess she finds it enjoyable.} (Hishya)

"Mika might be ok with going on a little outdoor adventure." Akagi thought for a moment. "Though I suspect she'd take far too many pictures and post on social media the entire time, so that's one downside to bringing her."

{She always wants to see me do silly thing, and even got me to dress up for her that one time. Though its kinda fun.} (Akagi)

"Yes!" Hishya exclaimed. "She loves posting pictures! Her timeline is crazy full, and I'm constantly seeing new pictures from her! I swear she takes way too many!" She was partially impressed with the quality of the pictures, and was floored by how many she could take.

"I'll give her credit where it's due, she's good at marketing and is a fantastic photographer." Akagi smiled. “Perhaps she's got a future in photography.”

"You're just saying that because she has an entire channel dedicated to you and your cat antics!" Hishya rolled her eyes. "I still can't believe you got inside the washing machine while it was on and road around like you were on an amusement park ride."

{That was funny as hell though...} (Hishya)

"In my defense, it was fun." Akagi laughed. "And also, don't act like you wouldn't do stuff like that if you could too. I know you would, Hishya."

"No comment." Hishya looked away, knowing darn well she would.

{The way Mika encourages and participates in your shenanigans makes me think she's your second younger sister. At this point she might as well just call you Onee-chan like Kana does and solidify things!} (Hishya)

After a bit more walking and talking, the two girls reached one of the entrances of Omara, where the guards on duty stopped them.

"Apologize mam, but Lady Mizumi wishes to speak with you. She instructed us to inform you upon your return from beyond the barrier." The guard looked a bit tense. Akagi's takeover had gone mostly without issue, but there was still a feeling of fear and unease within Omara.

"I wonder what that's about?" Hishya thought out loud.

"Probably something to do with the former Council members." Akagi shrugged. "Thanks for informing me." She looked back at Hishya. "I can send you back right now if you want, or do you want to come with me for a bit?"

"I'll head back. Kana is probably going through Dragon withdrawal after being separated for this many days." Hishya laughed.

{I wonder if that was a joke or not? I can't tell.} (Akagi)

"Alright." Akagi snapped her fingers and opened a portal back to the estate. "I'll see you later, and do me a favor and tell Yumi and the others that I'll be back once I deal with Mizumi."

"Will do." Hishya gave a two-finger salute before stepping through the portal and disappearing.

Once Hishya was away, and the portal was closed, Akagi took her time walking towards the Council building. Ever since the coup, Mizumi and Shinlua had been hard at work implementing Akagi's proposed reforms as well as dealing with unrest and other events within Omara. This caused a massive workload to be dropped on them, but so far things had been proceeding roughly as planned.

Once the Demon arrived at the former Council Hall, she went up to Mizumi's office where the water Spirit was hard at work going over documents at her desk.

"There you are." Mizumi looked up from the papers, and the bags under her eyes gave Akagi the idea that she hadn't slept in days. "I was wondering when you'd be back from your little adventure, but I didn't expect you to be gone for nearly five days!" She sighed.

{Jesus, Mizumi. Maybe you should go take a nap? Either that or I can get some bitter tea for you so you stay awake.} (Akagi)

"We took our time and enjoyed ourselves. I didn't really have any plans for how long we'd be gone." Akagi walked over to her, taking a flask out of her inventory. "Drink this, it's an herbal tea made by Kaori to help with exhaustion." She put it on the desk, and Mizumi happily drank it.

"It's actually not that bad, and its certainly leagues better than that healing drink she gave me." Mizumi shivered as she recalled its bitter taste. "Thank you for the drink."

"So what did you need anyway?" Akagi asked. She wasn't sure what the Spirit called for her, but figured it was important.

"A few things actually." Mizumi stood up and walked around the desk, handing Akagi a folder with documents in it. "Here are the final drafts of all the proposed industrial, financial, agricultural, and infrastructural policy changes as per your request." She explained as took another drink of the tea. "We're ready to start implementing some of these changes, mostly the policy ones, and just need your go-ahead for some of the more intricate projects."

"That was fast." Akagi said as she looked through the pages. "I assume that's because you and your staff killed yourselves getting all this done?" She sighed.

{You really didn't need to move this fast, you know? I bet you've run everyone into the ground getting this done that quickly.} (Akagi)

"Yeah..." Mizumi gave a dry laugh. "I've never seen so much paperwork in my life..." She hung her body, defeated. "Please don't ever give me that much work to do at once again... Otherwise, I really might just die..."

"You do realize that I never needed this all done as quickly as you did it, right?" Akagi put the folder in her inventory. "Why the hell did you burn both ends like that? I expected such a revamp of this level to take months." She had no reason to rush things, and wasn't about to tell people to overwork themselves for no reason.

{What is this, some kind of black company? I guess I am the fucking Demon Lord, but I don't think I'll take on THAT aspect of rule.} (Akagi)

"I did it because these were desperately needed changes." Mizumi sighed. "You read over all the documents I provided. This city was a mess, and I never imagined just how much money and resources were being wasted by the Council and their factions..." Mizumi and Shinlua had conducted raids and made arrests of many of the highly influential factions and their members. It turned out that the Council was also siphoning off funds that they used to provide kickbacks to their factions and supporters. This had been going on for a very long time, both in Omara and in the other world, but with much more limited resources here, it was an even more grievous misuse of power.

{Damn fools. How could they take what little we had and squander it when our people were suffering?!? If it wasn't for Akagi's aid, so many of us would be destitute!} (Mizumi)

"Also... Dear dark god of doom, what kind of man did the Americans send to help us with the legal proceedings against the Council?!?" Mizumi looked up at her, her eyes looking like a dead fish.

"What do you mean? Has he been causing any problems?" Akagi hadn't heard any issues about him.

"NO!" Mizumi shook her head vigorously. "It's just the opposite. That lawyer is mega SCARY! I've never seen someone maneuver through legal proceedings as fluidly as he does, and at this point, it's looking like the Council members and their faction members are going to get SLAMMED." She pulled a massive document off her desk. "This is the indictment and all the paperwork he drafted to back it up! IT'S TWO HUNDRED FUCKING PAGES!" She handed it to Akagi. "He somehow read our legal code, understood it, then mixed in your world's international law in such a way that he drafted THIS behemoth of a document." She put her head in her hands. "When he handed this thing to Judge Musharna, he nearly fell out of his chair in surprise!"

Akagi looked through the massive document for a moment. She didn't understand the legal jargon but could tell it was an incredibly well-made piece of legal text.

{Jesus Rosewood, who the hell did you send? He did all this in like a month! Was this man an actual fucking Demon?} Akagi noted that lawyers were scary.

"Well, good to hear things are going well on that front." Akagi handed it back to her. "So then, what's going to happen to them?" She knew this was going to be the most contentious point of all, since the Spirits might not want any heads to roll.

"To be honest, we've got them dead to rights with that crazy document." Mizumi put it back on her desk with a thud. "We could easily get the death penalty for the three Council members and as for the rest, we could put them away for life."

{However...} (Mizumi)

"But you don't want to see them executed, do you?" Akagi figured that she didn't want them dead.

"I have no love for those idiots, but killing them... that will cause issues. But at the same time, NOT killing them will also leave loose ends, ones that might come back to bite us later." Mizumi bit her thumb in irritation. "That was the reason I asked you here. I need your advice, Akagi. Should we request the death penalty for the three of them? Or should we put them away for life? Just for context, that will be centuries due to how long our kind live."

{She could probably just seal them away somewhere so that it would be unlikely for them to cause trouble. But still...} (Mizumi)

"Do you actually have somewhere to hold them for that long?" Akagi asked.

"We do, but it's not them escaping I'm worried about." Mizumi replied, and Akagi could figure out the rest on her own.

"They still have supporters and influence. That's what's got you worried." Akagi figured that this would be an issue. "So someone might spring them, or at least start causing issues on their behalf.”

“Yup.” Mizumi nodded. “That's the real crux of our problem.” She couldn't arrest or remove all their supporters, since that was fraught with issues of its own.

"Hmmmm." Akagi thought for a moment before answering. "What do the citizens think? Have you asked around?" She figured it might be best to determine public support before making a decision.

"Yes, I've had a few members of my staff do some snooping around the city." Mizumi leaned back and sat on the edge of the desk. "It seems that most people want them punished. Though the number who wish to see them executed is rather small."

{Most people weren't comfortable with that path. Not that I blame them.} (Mizumi)

"I suppose that's not surprising given the former Councilor's reputations and how your people's hierarchical structure work." Akagi nodded.

"Not to mention, we as a people generally don't like to take lives." Mizumi sighed. "We're not pacifists or anything. But generally, Spirits respect life and ending one is usually considered a last resort. It's part of why I was so adamant that we brought them in alive for trial, rather than just killing them on the spot."

"So then I suppose that the next question is what do you think?" Akagi asked her. "You are my Governor, the one who represents me in this matter, but you're also the de facto leader of Omara. What do you want to do in this situation?"

{You essentially hold all the power here, and I'm not going to start sticking my nose in and second guessing your decisions. The whole point of making you my Governor in the first place was to leave running Omara to someone else.} (Akagi)

"To be honest.... I want them dead." Mizumi bit her lip. "Those idiots... On more than one occasion they've put our entire people in danger." She continued. "Back on Enoris, before those stupid heroes were summoned and we had a chance to broker peace, the Council was split 3:1 with those three against any kind of settlement with the other races." She sighed. "They wanted to get revenge upon the other races, and Daruma was hell-bent on bloodshed after his family was killed." Mizumi shook her head. "We might have been able to end the conflict right then if we'd sent peace envoys, but the Council got greedy, eyeing up the surrounding lands."

{I nearly strangled Sizix after I heard about that whole debacle. What fools would risk everything for a few measly pieces of material wealth?!?} (Mizumi)

"What about that other Council member? I assume the one you are referring to was the one before Shinlua was appointed?" Akagi asked.

"He... Councilor Hymone was a good man, and he was basically my adoptive grandfather." Mizumi gave a warm smile as she spoke about him. "He tried to reform the Council during his time in office, but unfortunately factional politics and corruption didn't allow for him to make much headway." She continued. "When my status as a High Spirit was discovered, and I was taken from my parents for training, he was the man who taught me everything. From how to cast magic to how to be a leader."

"He sounds like a good man." Akagi continued listening.

"He was... He was a very good man." Mizumi started to tear up a bit. "I never understood why he taught me everything he did, and he once told me that I'd come to understand what my role would be... but... I wonder if this was what he meant." She wiped her tears with a small cloth. "When he finally passed, it was devastating. We lost one of our best and brightest in the middle of our darkest hour, and I lost someone so important to me." Mizumi looked up at Akagi, eyes filled with sorrow. "On his deathbed, it was he who told me to protect our people, and looking back, I think Hymone was the reason I was chosen to live while the other High Spirits gave themselves to the ritual. I think he used his influence with them to save me..."

"And that's why protecting your people is so important to you, because you want to make sure the faith he placed in you wasn't misplaced." Akagi nodded.

"Indeed. I do genuinely love my people, but this was a task given to me by him, and I will never let anyone get in my way of fulfilling it." Mizumi's eyes turned fierce. "So, to answer your question..." She took a deep breath. "I want them gone. I believe their crimes are of such a degree that the only acceptable punishment is death."

“Then I think you have your answer.” Akagi said.

“Yeah... I suppose I do...” Mizumi turned away from Akagi as she looked out the window behind her desk.

{Hymone. I don't know if this is the future you would have wanted for our people, but is the one we have, and I'll do everything I can to make sure we survive and prosper. So please forgive me for taking such extreme measures...} (Mizumi)