NOVEL SIMPLE [Vol.5] Ch.14 Troublemaker(s)
"I need you to come up with a fitting punishment for what Tiberius has done." I plainly state to Zaka. I had to position myself between Tiberius and the door, as he kept trying to sneak out.
Zaka watches the situation and chuckles, "Well, he's certainly acting like he's guilty of something. What did he do?"
"He lied to some fishergoblins and said that I was going to pay them a significant sum of money to help him acquire certain fish."
Tiberius winces like a child despite his age at hearing my statement.
Zaka chuckles again, "Need he be punished? That does seem like something you'd do. Perhaps he simply assumed he had permission?"
"See, I needn't be punished! I've done nothing wrong!" Tiberius testifies as soon as he hears what Zaka says.
"Given the price you said you'd pay them, which is double what I've brought them down to, and that is already 50% more than I would have offered, I think you know that you've done a bad thing, which is why you're acting this way!"
"I only did what I needed to in order to continue my research. My research that YOU encouraged." He says, like he's trying to shift the blame onto me.
"Calm down, both of you. This doesn't seem as severe as you made it sound, Zak, but that doesn't mean it's nothing. I'm going to go talk to the two fishergoblins to hear their side of the story." Zaka rose from his throne, his figure standing at nearly twice our height. He strode past us, and out the door that I was previously blocking, but hastily moved away from as Zaka approached.
After almost an hour, Zaka returned.
"Though they both seemed disgruntled, both of the fishergoblins seemed to think the deal was 'too good to be true'. Some of the fault lies with them for falling for an obvious falsehood, though their punishment is already served, having worked for reduced pay." Zaka says, striding back to his overly large chair, which looks more like a throne to me right now.
"And what of Tiberius? We can't just have people telling other people we've promised things we haven't. There needs to be a punishment."
"Yes, well I suspect, to some degree, Tiberius did think he had freedom to use your money. At least I believe that is the case, based on the conversation I had with the fishergoblins." Zaka looks at Tiberius sternly, "Though make no mistake, in the future, you aren't to do this again. The punishment will be much more severe if you do."
Tiberius audibly gulps before responding quietly, "Yes, I understand."
"Though, yes, there will be a punishment, albeit a light one. Tiberius is going to work with the fishergoblins in the tide pools until he's earned the difference between what you paid the goblins, and what you would have liked to pay the goblins, so he can more accurately understand the value of labor in our country."
I have difficulty imagining Tiberius doing physical labor after how he hauled water to the lab, but if that's all that Zaka wants him to do, I suppose that's fine, though Tiberius himself looks like he's just been sentenced to death, rather than labor for about a month. He slinks out of Zaka's house, and I have a feeling that I'll have to drag him to the tide pools to actually complete his punishment.
As I thought about my previous plan to make a coin or seal, I realized that without literacy, there isn't even a good way to ensure that the correct message gets relayed, and the same situation would have probably occurred anyway. I did have another question to ask Zaka though. "What did the fishergoblins say that made you assume it was some kind of misunderstanding?"
"They said that he talked a lot about how he was doing research for the noble, Zak, for starters. I suspect where he came from, this was the norm for him, and he could just get funding as needed with no concerns, and that he has no concept of the value of work given that history. If you weren't so insistent that this was a problem, I probably would have only had him work for a week at the tide pools."
"I'm surprised you're as lax about this. I feel like this could be a major problem. Our society currently runs on trust. We live in a somewhat small community, so it's understandable, but as the population grows more and more, we're going to have issues relying on trust only."
"Well, a society without trust isn't a very good one to live in either. I don't think this was a particularly major incident, though it did highlight that goblins should recall that official jobs will be posted at the job board, not a random messenger. Even if it is one of the leaders who comes to ask."
As I thought about it somewhat, I suppose I understand what he means. The fishergoblins did sort of just let this happen to them, we do have official channels for these requests. Though it does beg another question. "Did it not seem that odd to them? The fishergoblins I mean?"
"Well, they had suspected the pay was really high comparatively, but let me ask you something instead. Was it any more odd than being asked to spend weeks away on a boat diving in the ocean to recover metal? Or perhaps breaking rock to build a pit, then hauling that rock to build a path into the sea? These seem more odd to me than being asked to catch a particular fish. Odd is the norm, and I recall we fought together a few years ago over the idea of allowing more such odd events to occur, rather than banishing you from our village." Zaka pauses and he lets out a bit of a sigh, "Though I do understand better now the concern that Kurg had all those years ago. I'd say many of his concerns have come to fruition even. We chose our path though, and we best stick to it, because straying from it now seems more dangerous than not."
After Zaka's speech, I felt somewhat foolish for thinking that Tiberius needed to be heavily punished. Sure, he's an outsider from another country, but in a way, so am I. As long as he doesn't do something like that again, it should be fine. Perhaps he honestly should be given a budget to work with already, so he knows what sort of funds he can use. I think it's reasonable to be watchful of any new individuals coming to our country, but I think that Zaka has a point too.
"Alright, I get your point, as long as we're being watchful of any problems I don't have any more complaints." I say, before trudging out of Zaka's house.
I did, in fact, have to drag Tiberius to the tide pools when it was time for him to start working the next day. Though I think he was surprised when he only had to work for a few hours. I'm sure he thought he'd be working out here all day with a fishing rod. The tide pool work is actually quite easy, so it's not that much of a punishment, though you do get quite a bit of leg work in because of the amount of stairs you have to use. Ultimately, the fishing time is limited to low tide for a few hours, and we get all the work done then.
After that, Tiberius was free to go work on what he wanted for a few hours until the second low tide late in the evening. I told him that he only needs to be at the tide pool once a day, but he can show up for both low tides if he wants, to reduce the amount of days he needs to work.
I've decided that I'll help Tiberius for a little bit when his punishment is finished. I may have been a bit too quick-tempered on the matter. I also feel partially responsible, since I didn't clearly tell Tiberius what his standing was, and I never did assign a goblin to function as a lab assistant to him.
While he works in the tide pools though, I've got a few projects I'd like to work on that I think could be valuable, though they're somewhat mundane. They also let me keep an eye on him, to make sure he doesn't slack off or try to get out of the work. Regardless of the situation, he does need to finish his punishment. I plan on continuing to expand the jetty, while also occasionally using pulverize to try to improve soil quality in more of the fields.