Aliyah was kind of bored.

She wasn't particularly attached to her tutor, but working on skills by herself was kind of boring. It had been 4 weeks since her tutor was last at their estate, and in the meantime the number of servants started to dwindle. She didn't directly know how many maids and attendands they had before, but over the weeks she saw fewer and fewer maids in the halls and even dinner was noticeably lower in quality. Choosing to keep her silence about that topic seemed like a good idea on behalf of her father's mood. He wouldn't directly punish her for something like that, but she'd rather not incur his displeasure.

Currently she was seated in the garden with her favourite maid, and the stick she found weeks prior. The stoc

Aliyah was kind of bored. She wasn't particularly attached to her tutor, but working on skills by herself was kind of boring. It had been 4 weeks since her tutor was last at their estate, and in the meantime the number of servants started to dwindle. She didn't directly know how many maids and attendands they had before, but over the weeks she saw fewer and fewer maids in the halls and even dinner was noticeably lower in quality. Choosing to keep her silence about that topic seemed like a good idea on behalf of her father's and mood. He wouldn't directly punish her for something like that, but she'd rather not incur his displeasure.

Currently she was seated in the garden with her favourite maid, and the stick she found weeks prior. The stick itself had long since expired. Even though she only had the strength of a 7 year old, 4 weeks of rigorous training, wore the stick out. And even though she couldn't yet check, she was sure that she had at least acquired the first level of [Spear fighting] .

 "Milady may I have a word?" Her maid asked tentatively. Aliyah was startled out of her contemplation and looked towards the woman. It wasn't often that her maids would speak up by themselves and it was usually about her father or her tutor.

 "What is it? Is the demon back? Or does father require something of me?" She asked. She was looking at the maid intently, waiting for her to answer, when a commotion broke out in the other side of the mansion. She couldn't make out what was said, but she could hear multiple voices, probably some sort of group.

The maid, still somewhat nervous started to elaborate "Milady, I just wanted to make sure that you are going to be fine, and that I will make sure that nothing is going to happen to you."

 Aliyah was flabbergasted. She didn't know what her maid was talking about, but before she could ask for clarification, the sounds from the front of the manor became more audible. She could make out a lot of curse words, and many unintelligible angry voices, yet before she could pay any more attention to the commotion, her maid again spoke up

"Milady if you would please follow me to your room, I think you will be safest there."

"What do you mean safest? Are we in some of danger?" She asked. Slowly she started to panic, the voices on the other side of the mansion got louder and louder, and soon she could hear the first signs of conflict.in

"Not me, but you milady" came the answer. Before she could start panicking further, she was dragged into and through the mansion. Any protests fell on deaf ears and before long they arrived in her room.

"Milady I have prepared for your safety an well being, so when the time comes please let me do all the talking" at this point Aliyah was panicking. Outwards she fell back on the limited training that her etiquette lessons had imparted and adopted an impressive face. The maid handed her a small satchel to hold on to, and a second small leather bag which was strapped to her thigh under her skirt.
"The first satchel is full of stuff you may need, and the second one is for when you are older. It's a bag of holding which you will be able to open once you unlock the system fully."

Shortly afterwards the door to her room was kicked in. In the hallway stood about 20 armored men, pointing a variety of weapons at the door. From within the group a single man stepped forward. He wore similar armor to the others, with the addition of a green cloak and a decorated helmet. His face was covered by a visor but the eyes that looked on from within the helmet seemed to glow a slight silver light. The piercing gaze of the man made Aliyah extremely uncomfortable.

"Under royal decree I am here to apprehend the members of the cowlhof family! Please step forward so we may take you into custody in a manner befitting your noble status!"

Aliyah was frozen on the spot. The words "royal decree" and "custody" bounced around inside her head, and she started hyperventilating. Before she could force any kind of answer out of her mouth, her maid stepped in for the 3rd time today. With two sharp steps and a crisp salute the woman stepped in front of Aliyah and saluted towards the cloaked man.
"Captain!" She spoke, with an entirely different demeanor. Where before she seemed like a warm and caring person, now she radiated the cold aura of a professional soldier.

"I have prepared Lady Aliyah as best as I can, and she is ready to leave at this moment. As I have observed over the years she has no involvement in her father's dealings and has in no way benefited from his actions. Thus I implore you to treat her with respect as you would any girl her age."

The cloaked man swept his gaze from the ' maid' over to Aliyah. For a second she could see that his eyes shone brighter, and then the feeling came. It wasn't something she could place, but the man's gaze seemed to see through everything she was. Every time she broke a teacup and threw it into the pond so her father wouldn't know. Every time she snuck into the study to touch the weapons of her ancestors, every time she spent time in the garden to play with sticks to level the [spear fighting] skill.

Just as quick as the feeling came, it went again.
"Very well. Take her with you, and the courts shall decide what to do with her."

The next few hours passed in a blur and Aliyah had trouble keeping up with the happenings around her. She was lead out of the mansion through the front entrance and seated in a guarded carriage. She saw a glimpse of her father with his arms bound and a gag over his mouth, likely to avoid the casting of any spells, being dragged into another carriage.

After a while the carriages took off along with a group of heavily armed guards.

After what felt like hours, but was probably no less than 30 minutes they arrived in a somewhat larger town. Aliyah had yet to leave the mansion and as such had no direct idea of where they were.
The carriages, headed by the cloaked man her maid called "captain", rode through the city gates without anyone stopping them.

Usually Aliyah would be glued to the window, but currently she was in no mood to take in the sights. Her head was still swimming from the days events, and the only person that could have some answers, namely her 'maid' was currently outside the carriage.

Not long after they entered the city, the procession came to a halt in front of a giant building. The entrance to the building was preceded by wide stairs and the door seemed truly massive. It was at least 20 meters tall and about half a meter thick. The two halves were wide open, and seemed like they couldn't be moved.

The walkway towards the massive door was flanked by two equally enormous statues. On the right side was a woman dressed in a toga that went all the way to her ankles. In her right hand she held a book and in the left she held a massive warhammer, which was almost as tall as she was. Her face was beautiful and seemed to radiate kindness. Opposite stood a statue of the same woman, this time depicted in a different manner. Where the first statue held a book, this statue held the severed head of a man, and where the other statue seemed to radiate kindness, this one seemed to ooze palpable disdain.

Even if Aliyah had never seen depictions of the gods themselves she knew who those statues depicted, namely the goddess of goodwill and justice pravda. She was in front of a courthouse.