Chapter 9 - Resolution
Li Peng had pondered over the matter, yet could not determine which party was speaking the truth. The small horn in the boy’s hand meant that he was not lying and was intending to sell it, but the horn would not have enough value to be sold alone. In the matter of Yuan Tu, he had been wrong when he said the boy had nothing to sell. However, considering the value of the horn, he may have had ill intentions; as Yuan Tu was implying.
The only other way he could determine the truth would be to have a witness verify their claims. But looking at the peasants, they all seemed like they would side with Yuan Tu. Li Peng had looked around and the only other people that would have witnessed the incident would be the mercenaries.
He knew they were mercenaries from Zhou Hua city. The mayor had employed three mercenary companies last month for completing some secret tasks that he was not informed about. This was probably the first group coming back after completing their task.
Snapping out of his thoughts, Li Peng spoke,
"Guards, call the mercenaries over here. They will testify about who is telling the truth."
Hearing the decision the supervisor made, Yuan Tu felt uneasy.
’If the mercenaries really witnessed everything and told the truth, I would be in much, much greater trouble. NO! I cannot be punished! All us peasants know Li Peng is an impartial man, and if he found out that I deliberately accused Lin Mu of theft... the consequence would not be as simple as flogging.’
Even though the Supervisor had confiscated Lin Mu’s property and thrown him out of the town, Lin Mu was not legally exiled from the town. Rather, it was Li Peng’s method of ensuring that the other peasants would vent their displeasure from losing all their wages onto Lin Mu.
Li Peng had thought the boy would stay away from the town long enough for the peasants’ anger to fade or move to Eastern town. Eastern town was 8 hours away from Northern town if one walked there. The boy could have easily found work in its grain fields, since the peasants in Northern town would most likely avoid him. Yet, the boy had come back after 3 days and had even been noticed by the peasants. If the peasants had not seen him it would be fine, but now he had this problem to solve which was taking up the already limited harvest time they had left.
Lin Mu was a little relieved that his method had worked, and the supervisor had not directly declared him guilty. He was still unsure whether the mercenaries would help him or not, though. Observing the mercenaries, one could tell they were unsociable kinds of people. He saw three mercenaries being brought over by the guards; one of them being the mercenary he had talked to before.
The mercenary leading the trio spoke first,
"We saw the boy walking on the road towards the town when this man standing opposite him started yelling at him. The boy said something to the man before turning away when the man held his shoulder."
"The boy struggled and got free, but soon the other peasants gathered and started hurling abuses at him and then started chasing him around."
Li Peng, still having a poker face, answered,
"Hmm, is that so?"
"Did anyone see what the boy was doing before this?"
The mercenary who had spoken to Lin Mu before said,
"The boy had approached our carriage before I stopped him. He asked us whether we were hunters and I told him we were from the crimson fang mercenary company. I told the boy to stay away as he had no business being near the carriage."
"This boy then walked behind us for about twenty minutes before we reached here, when the incident started."
The supervisor nodded his head, thinking that his guess earlier may have been right.
"So, you mean to say this man attacked the boy unprovoked?"
"We could not clearly hear what he said, but it did look like the man attacked him unprovoked."
Hearing the whole conversation, Yuan Tu’s forehead was covered in a cold sweat from fear of what was about to come. Li Peng looked at Lin Mu for a moment before glaring at Yuan Tu with a hint of anger in his eyes before declaring....