Chapter 137 - Laying Down the Law
The days since our return picked up in pace after that. It was odd not to have to prepare to fight constantly and it gave us all time to recover. Needed time.
When Jonathan returned, he came with nearly 20 people in tow which almost doubled the population of our little camp. The area his family returned to was higher in mana and the monsters near them were stronger.
E-ranks were common there making it a more dangerous place to the unprepared. Since most weren't that strong and couldn't handle them, more elected to choose the unknown and travel back with Jonathan rather than stay where they were.
After informing them of our planned trip, most broke off to stay in the nearby city, even when they knew of the two guilds' current conflicts and the ongoing fight there. It was understandable, not many would agree to join on a months-long trip into unknown lands with strangers.
Still, some stayed. Most who did had ties to someone in our group already but others who agreed to stay didn't have anything binding them to us. I was skeptical of their motives but they seemed honest enough.
Security would become an issue as we grew and was something I had to start considering now. It was best to be prepared for something to happen now rather than try and fix an issue after it occurred.
Lay down the Law so that no one could claim ignorance.
Which was the sort of thing better done in the beginning, which was what I did.
While telling them of our plans, I also told them of the Laws I had come up with and their subsequent punishments. My aim to build a city made me form them a while ago. After long talks with my father and nights spent thinking about it.
It was hard not to think back on the punishment I carried out for the thieves while conveying them or the talks with my father about this subject. The former for its unpleasantness and the latter... that just made me sad.
The response to what I said was mostly shock and surprise. I laid it out plainly and bluntly so there would be no confusion.
Most of what I had come up with was common sense. Little things that everyone knew not to do but required to be said anyway. Those were normally punished by fines or manual labor.