Family Business 45

Family Business
Chapter 45

-VB-

Vayne stared at the stupid pirate in front of her.

“So… you thought that you were macho enough to deal with a corrupting magic,” she drawled while her now triple sized team went on to formulate their own plans on how they were going to take the fight against Viego.

“You talk like you could have done better than I did,” Gangplank, captain of the Leviathan and her crew, spat back while bound in ropes.

“Well, no, I certainly couldn’t. I hated magic too much before to even entertain the thought of using a cursed magical artifact to advance my goals. It would have been counterintuitive, you see.”

“So what is a landlubber like you doing here? I know who you are, Shauna Vayne. You hunt and kill magicians, and yet you’re here using magical weapons and others who use similar weapons,” he spat. “What are you even doing, involving yourself in Bilgewater’s affairs?”

“Because it’s no longer just your little pirate haven’s affair,” she glared at him. “The Black Mist attacked all major cities across the world. Demacia suffered and I just learned that it was because of you.”

“HA!” the pirate captain dared to laugh. “Like I give a shit, girlie!”

“Oh,” she muttered. “But I certainly do.”

Someone noticed her hands moving. “Wait, Vayn-!”

Thunk.

Gangplank lurched. His eyes widened in shock before he slowly looked down.

There was now a crossbow bolt sticking out of his chest, right over where his heart was. Blood stained his dirty clothes and stained it quickly.

“Oh,” he muttered as he looked back up. He looked at her in the eyes and then grinned. “I… guess this is the end of my story, then.”

“If anyone remembers you,” she replied as she walked away amidst the people shouting at her and trying to keep Gangplank alive.

-VB-

“What was that?!” Lucian demanded, followed by Miss Fortune who had been one of the original people fighting against him and now someone who swore to fight against the Black Mist in Bilgewater.

“Pest control,” she replied easily while looking out to the see from the balcony of the small house that their group had found themselves in.

“You can’t just murder someone like that, Vayne!” he rebuked. “It is not our job to act as executioner!”

“Then whose is it?”

“The people!”

“The people?” she scoffed as she turned around, leaning on the balcony railing with the sun behind her. “The people are sheep. They can’t decide what they want, when they want something, or how they want it. My lord always tells me that the people are a mob composed of a single undifferentiated demand: satisfy me,” she replied. “The people who live in Bilgewater may want their justice, but I must ask you in turn: if that man escapes, then would yu take responsibility for the hundreds who would have died before he is brought to justice again?”

“The whole is Bilgewater is not our responsibility!”

“But you raised your weapon,” she replied. “You acted upon the city. You changed its course. It may not be your responsibility, but you certainly acted to save it. Responsibility, Lucian,” she retorted. “Is nothing but an ill-defined narrative. Responsibilities are proclaimed and denied by nobles and kings, by parents and children, and by gods and demons. It is a method of control, and what I have done today is to impose that control not at the behest of a mob that doesn’t even know what it wants, a mob of Bilgewater that once praised Gangplank for the jobs, food, and wealth he brought them after robbing them from other people, and put an end to an ambitious man who didn’t know when to stop.”

She pushed off of the railing and walked up to him. She looked at him in the eyes.

“Are you powerful enough to take on the responsibility of all of Bilgewater?” she asked quietly.

“I am.”

She glanced at Miss Fortune before scoffing. “What do you have that gives you power?” she asked instead.

“I have my crew, my pistols, and my history.”

“Good for you,” she crooned. “Too bad that’s not enough.”

“What?!” the irate ginger snapped.

“Bilgewater is a island-city with an approximate population of ten thousand,” she replied, recalling a few facts she knew about the city and then applying what her master did every day as his city and duchy’s highest administrator. “It is a city without a centralized bureaucracy or governance. Its primary source of income are whaling and piracy. Do you have a crew of a thousand members who can impose their will upon the city?”

Miss Fortune blinked at the stream of facts Vayne just tossed out there.

“Even if you did have a thousand or so people who will enforce your rule over the city, how will you pay them once piracy is banned? Will you turn a blind eye to it? Become mercenaries for other great powers of the world? Did you even have a plan beyond throwing him to the crowd?”

When the ginger captain couldn’t respond, Vayne scoffed. “For all of your martial and tactical prowess, you seemed to have forgotten that no one can do everything. You are, Miss Fortune, a bounty hunter. You are no noble lady, certainly not a governor, or even educated in governance. The people? That is an idealistic thought, but they are where they are for a reason. Only individuals with discipline, will, and resources can rise. That is a fact of life, and do not confuse your rise to power as something that is inherent to the people.” She turned ot Lucian. “That goes to you as well. The moment you picked up that gun of yours, you have made yourself the jury, judge, and executioner. Do not disillusion yourself with lies. A weapon exists to end lives, no matter how innocent or justified. A weapon cares not for how it ends lives, only you do.”

Seeing as the balcony was now a little crowded, she walked back into the house.

“Peace, prosperity, and happiness. Those are all things that are kept protected by might. Nothing more, nothing less. I have merely given Bilgewater a brief peace by executing Gangplank,” she drawled before giving them one last parting shot. “If Bilgewater even wants peace, that is.”