"Arche!" Both father and mother alike gasped and looked at the sea of faces, utterly scandalized by her words, it appeared for a moment that the girl's mother might very well faint, but Momonga cleared his throat to cut off any retort, after brief instruction, he accepted a copper from Arche, and then a gold coin from her father who sneeringly said…
"A gold coin is the lowest denomination I know." It wasn't lost on Momonga that Arche winced visibly when she saw the large coin placed at Momonga's side on top of her little crude copper.
"Go on, state your case." He said to the short, older man with his garish clothes and neat little beard that ran from above his lips to beneath his chin.
"My daughter is refusing to sign off on any more loans! She has always done so before, but now she refuses! She is not only my child, she serves her household, that is what all children do, they serve the interests of their house!" He said it with such sanctimonious imperiousness that Momonga shifted with discomfort from his seat on the fountain rim, but he didn't get a chance to ask anything, nor did the father get a chance to finish.
"Over a lamp!" Arche shouted, "You were borrowing gold and spending it on frivolous things expecting me to keep paying it back and I-"
"Wait your turn." Momonga said, and her bright blue eyes looked at him anew, every bit of the curious looking judge filled her with reverential awe. She felt the presence of a monarch, a true King, and wanted to snap to attention and beg for orders… it was like the air of her party leader, but magnified many times over.
So instead she only said, "Yes, honored sir." And closed her mouth again.
"I am of noble birth, spending of this sort is necessary for us, it's how we show our status. Cost or no cost, it must be done, and it is her job as a member of the house to help with that. More importantly, I am her father, it is my right to command her. Her and all my children! I raise them, I provide for them, I paid for their education, they owe me their very existence, earning money is the least they can do to repay me for the trouble!"
Momonga nodded as he understood. "Now, you… Arche, was it? State your case."
"We are not nobles anymore." She crossed her arms in defiance. "I'm not a slave, and I've been repaying him for my existence since our title was stripped from us. I left my spot at the academy and began adventuring, using my natural talent with magic to earn a spot on Foresight. I've risked my life so many times, and I've repaid all his debts!" She leveled her hand accusingly at her father and mother. "But this was the final straw! I just paid down the last one and he borrowed another hundred gold, buying perfume, a lamp, and some stupid painting we don't need! I can't keep doing it! I can't! If I were going to be used like this, I'm not grateful for existing! I'd rather I'd never been born!" She cried out and stared at the older pair with absolute loathing.
"You both publicly agree to abide by my judgment?" Momonga asked.
"We do." The trio said at once. Though it wasn't lost on Momonga that all three stared at the gold coin sitting beside him on the fountain.
First, Momonga asked questions of the pair… "What happens if the debt goes unpaid?"
To which Arche's mother answered, "Our things will be taken and sold to pay for it, including our home, then if that is not enough, our children, starting with the youngest, will be sold into slavery, and if they are not enough, then it will be the same fate for us."
"And if Arche were to pay the debt now, it is your intent to take out more debt?" Momonga asked.
"We have no income, so we must live by debt until our status is restored to us!" Arche's father quickly snapped back.
"Then it is my judgment that Arche should be emancipated from her parents at once. She cannot be held liable for your actions. You said that a child is to serve the interests of her house. But your actions are in opposition to those interests, as hers brings benefit, and yours do not. You may not compel her to pay another penny."
"But I made her! I paid for her education, her clothing, everything!" The old man turned purple in the face and shouted, "I paid you in gold to her worthless copper!" He screeched while the middle aged mother swayed unsteady on her feet as if she might faint.
"Yes. But this was not a service asked for. You cannot charge anyone a fee for something they did not ask you to do. You accepted that burden yourself, and from where I sit, you were well compensated for it." Momonga replied, then added, "As for this?" He held up the coins and tossed both over his shoulder into the fountain. "You paid for judgment, a service, not justice, which cannot be bought. Justice is free."
"Then I want to take custody of my sisters!" Arche suddenly protested, "They're in the carriage! I want to take them away from my father and mother!"
"My daughters?!" Arche's mother shouted, but Arche moved with shocking swiftness before the words were even uttered all the way.
'Definitely an adventurer, superhuman feats seem, if not common, at least not 'uncommon' in this world.' Momonga reflected and while the father of the household sputtered objections, Momonga raised a hand to stop them.
"This is fairly simple to resolve. Does anyone have any chalk?" He asked of the watching crowd, and it did not take long for someone to hold up a broken piece.
"Draw a circle there in front of the aggrieved. One large enough for two children to fit." He said, and under the curious eyes of the crowd, this was done. When Arche returned with two small innocent faced girls with pretty blonde hair and clothes to match, he said, "Place them in the circle."
Arche guided them gently into the middle, and then looked at Momonga with confusion etched on her face.
"You, their father and mother, each take one by the hand." Momonga commanded, "And you, Arche, grasp them both."
Confused as they were, they followed his directions, and he said, "A contest of strength will decide this. Whoever pulls them from the circle, will have them. Be careful though, you might hurt them badly." He said, and Arche was briefly shocked, but could not protest as her father and mother immediately began to pull. Their faces strained, they dug in their heels, and they pulled as hard as they could on the little arms in their grasp.
They were pampered, soft people, nothing compared to the young Arche who was hardened by her work, and the twin girls began to scream as the pain suddenly shot through their bodies.
"Don't hurt them!" Arche screamed once, and realizing her parents were not going to stop pulling, she let go of both, and the two girls tumbled out of the circle and into the parents arms.
She fell to her knees, looking in disbelief at the pair that wailed and wept, their little bodies already trembling from the confusion and pain brought to them by the sudden cruel pull on their delicate little limbs.
Before she could object however, Momonga said, "I rule that Arche will take custody of the pair. She, after all, cared for what was happening to them, where they," he pointed to the parents, "only wanted their way, even if it ends in their children being sold and worked to death. A parent's duty is to look out for their child's best interests. And there is only one person doing that today. Arche, you take custody of them both."
Arche shot to her feet faster than she'd collapsed to her knees while the elder couple looked at Momonga in absolute horror. Arche leveled her staff at the pair and slid one foot behind her. "Release them, or find out how strong my magic is." She hissed, "Urerika, Kuuderika, come get behind me." Arche said calmly, and the fallen noble parents let slip their briefly triumphant grip.
"Get in your carriage, go back to your house, and settle your own debts from now on." She said, "I'm free of you, we are all free of you, and if I ever see you again, I'll kill you."
Her staff remained leveled on the two until they were back to the carriage, and only when the butt of the staff touched the stone ground again did her father shake a fist her way from within and shout, "I won't forget this! I won't! You ungrateful brat! You never should have been born!"
He might have shouted worse, but when the staff was leveled at him again, the carriage quickly rode away, three people lighter than before.
Arche approached Momonga and bowed deeply. "I am no noble, I have no name worth mentioning anymore, but I will not forget what you did today. You are the wisest judge I've ever seen."
Momonga inclined his head with courtesy toward her, "I do what I can, no more, no less. Though now, I think I'll be going…"
"Will you come back here?" Arche asked.
Momonga looked around, the crowd of admiring faces were so simple, delighted, it was almost like the performances of role playing in the tomb in the heydays of the guild.
"Tomorrow." He said.
And thus began a habit.