Hallen was doing his best to ignore Mordecai.
The man was capable of spewing forth his monologue at speeds that no human should be capable of. And he was able to do it non-stop, never ceasing to even draw air long enough to let someone interrupt him. The easiest way to deal with the man was to pretend that he didn't exist unless you had something that you absolutely had to tell him. Until you needed him, he may as well be a rock.
A talkative, annoying rock with an inflated opinion of himself.
The walk back to town wasn't truly all that long, even though they had both set out in the evening they could probably make it to the town before night-fall. Then Hallen would use some of the reward money that he would obtain to sleep in an inn for the night, and then be on his way. It would all be simple, low-risk, and high reward: the best type of plan.
How the noble had even been caught was beyond Hallen's understanding. Most noblemen rode horses, and chances were that Mordecai had been riding his when he had been mugged. The only way that could have been accomplished was if the thieves were on horseback, which seemed unlikely. Only the richest of the rich could afford horses, and the chances that there were unknown thieves rich enough to buy the valuable commodity were slim. Was it a roving band then? A group that travelled from town to town, generally to avoid angered lords and peasantry after successful heists?
Hallen supposed it was possible, but it still seemed unlikely. Mordecai really didn't have much about him that made him look rich - besides the horse he had been riding. For an average person, that would have been enough to prompt the theft. For the truly rich, however, there would have been more enticing targets. None of the events that he had encountered made sense - and that made Hallen nervous.
Logic always prevails. If things don't make sense, it means there's something you don't know about, and not knowing about things was probably the number one way to die in Rhal.
The town's gates were luckily still open when the duo arrived; the journey had taken longer than Hallen anticipated and it was nearing complete darkness - when the town's gates would be shut for the safety of the citizens inside. The gates were actually shut for the noblemen inside the town, but it made all of the townspeople feel a little better about their lives and put up with a bit more abuse if they thought that the walls were actually made to protect them. Besides - the walls were yet another excuse to tax the merchants who came. The more protected the city, Lord Dule claimed, the more you should have to pay to sell your wares in it. Hallen scoffed at this reasoning - the only thing you had to fear in this city would be the criminal element hired by Lord Dule himself to rob the richest traders, and larger walls weren't going to save you from that.
The guards knew Hallen by face and were quick enough to realize that the man behind him was noble. One of them nodded apologetically at him, apparently thinking that Hallen had been caught for some crime and was off to receive punishment. Hallen was deeply insulted - not at the thought that he committed a crime, but the thought that he had been caught doing it! He was smarter than that, as Guardsman Oros should very well know. Unless he hadn't deduced who had stolen his purse twice - it was probably best not to bring that up in a conversation.
The town was fairly empty, with most of the townspeople inside to avoid any unsavory characters that came out in the night. This was generally a good practice, one that Hallen was disregarding and thus putting himself at risk. But even some reward that the Dule family believed was a pittance would be worth all of the trouble that he had put himself through to get Mordecai back to the mansion. Why the man had even tried leaving in the first place was a mystery to Hallen - but, he supposed, the idiots of the world didn't really need reasons for what they did, did they? The inability to think ahead or reason properly was part of the definition of the word.
The Dule mansion was located near the center of the city, which made it both easy to find and more impressive. It was obvious from all of the ornamentation strewn out along the walls of the keep that the impressive location had really been the deciding factor in the decision making; it looked like virtually any assault would run into very few difficulties if they were to actually try attacking the keep. None of the turret placements had any practical reason whatsoever, the whole defense was just for show and grandeur.
On the bright side, however, show-offs tended to tip well - hopefully a practice that held true with the more impressive and wealthy variety.
Just to make sure that Mordecai was indeed with him, Hallen quit ignoring him for a few seconds. Silence probably meant that Mordecai was missing or dying, or, with his intelligence, both at the same time.
"... and that was the reason that my great Uncle Bernard won the siege of Habernathy in his youth at the tender age of twenty three and a half! It was about at this time that my Aunt Dorothy Dule saw what effects this had on the peasantry, and, the smart woman she was, stepped forth and took decisive action! I remember the time that..."
And back to tuning the man out. At least he was alive and worth money.
Upon seeing Mordecai, entrance to the castle was granted, and Mordecai took the lead as they strode towards where he claimed his family and the reward was surely waiting.
"...I'm worth quite a lot of money, I'm sure! The prized heir to the Dule line of Rhal's great kings, progressive and brilliant mind value throughout the city, renowned, logical, and magnanimous! Kind, empathetic, humble, able to cut to the heart of any argument! My clear thinking, rational judgment, and vast repositories of knowledge built on ..... because of the rebellion of 1034 A.C., the family.... and that led to the War of Augur in 1207 A.C. .... and that's why he's here, ready and awaiting reward!"
Hallen shook himself awake - apparently they had arrived at their destination. To avoid spoiling his chances of being rewarded, Hallen tried to nod his head in response to everything Lord Dule said even if he didn't understand exactly what the man meant. Mordecai picked his oddities up from his father, he was sure.
"And to reward you for returning our heir to the house of Dule, Mordecai Lavinian Dule III, I thus bestow upon you, worthy example of the common peasantry, 50 crowns, for use as you see fit, where you see fit, in this non-refundable transaction. 15 of these crowns are thus deducted for taxation purposes as this is considered a gift charge, and another 5 are due to the treasury as a transfer fee - leaving you with 30 crowns..."
Hallen would have choked if he had anything to choke on at hand. 30 crowns? That was a small fortune! Was Lord Dule trying to get Hallen killed? If word of this amount of money got out to the public, Hallen wouldn't survive leaving the city! It would be best to get home immediately, stash this where no one would find it, and never return to this city for business purposes ever again. He could afford to lay low for years on the sum he had just been given, he thought as he took the small pouch of gold in a daze, so he wouldn't even have to maintain his mushroom farm as long as he managed to spend his wealth cautiously.
He turned for the door to escape before any spying eyes outside deduced what had happened and nearly missed the stipulation at the end of the sentence.
"... upon your attendance to the celebratory banquet hosted in my son's honor this night this sum will be considered yours. Failure to attend will result in a voiding of the transaction and the immediate re-acquisition of the funds, by force if necessary."
Hallen did choke this time, a spectacular feat considering he had nothing in or around his mouth at the time. A feast? He was being forced to attend a gods forsaken feast?! This meant he would have to spend the night in town, at least, and almost guaranteed that any roving criminal band would slit his throat in the middle of the night! News travelled fast in any city, and news this big travelled faster than most.
"You'll come won't you, Hallen? It will be splendid! Hundreds of nobles from across the city, food from every corner of Rhal, and a room in the imperial keep until you can be set on your way the next day! How can you refuse such a kindhearted, wise, and generous offer?" Mordecai had resumed his monlogue once more, so Hallen took the opportunity to watch Lord Dule. His eyes narrowed in suspicion.
Even nobles knew that this was like signing the death-warrant of a peasant - and Lord Dule was a cunning noble in comparison to the rest of his kind. Why did Dule want him dead?
These thoughts were all that Hallen could keep his mind on as he was led by a servant back to his temporary chamber to refresh before the feast. This was conscious malicious intent - a rarity, even from nobles. What had he accidentally stumbled into?