The Mayor of Lake-town was bald on the crown with a fringe of hair around the sides, his brown hair and beard tangled together in a wild mess. Large water stains marked his collar and sleeves, and the thick stench of wine rolled off him from a considerable distance away.
Bella had no interest in even asking his name. As far as she was concerned, this mayor was illegitimate — and anything illegitimate had to be torn down.
There was no need for Jason to step in. The Snake Eyes clan knocked down every last one of the soldiers — who were only good at bullying common folk — one by one.
The great bell at the center of town tolled twelve times, and most of the townspeople still at home came rushing to gather.
Bella's voice wasn't loud, but everyone could hear her clearly.
She raised a document in her hand. "This is the land-grant deed issued by His Majesty Thorin, King of Erebor, King Under the Mountain, of the line of Durin. From this day forward, the area from the Lonely Mountain in the north to the Long Lake in the south is the territory of the Kingdom of Arendelle, and I am your sovereign. Every previous ruler was illegitimate, a trampling upon the sovereign rights of the Kingdom of Erebor and the Kingdom of Arendelle! I have the right to confiscate the entirety of their personal property, and to deliver fair judgment upon them under the laws of the new kingdom!"
The townsfolk looked at one another, dumbfounded. What in the world was going on?
When they saw the once-imposing Mayor and his henchman Alfrid both kneeling off to the side like terrified quails, for a moment they could only feel as though they were still dreaming.
A tall, middle-aged man with a small mustache pushed through the crowd and strode angrily up to Bella.
"This land belongs to Lake-town, to Men! It has nothing to do with any dwarven kingdom! Please take your people and leave! You are not welcome here!"
Bella crooked a finger, and Bai Qiu of the Snake Eyes clan dragged the former Mayor, shaking like a leaf, in front of her.
After confirming the middle-aged man's name and identity, Bella had a clear picture.
She looked him in the eye. "Mr. Bard, I'm not sure if you're aware of this... so I'll say it again in front of everyone. Your great-great-great-grandfather, Lord Girion of Dale, signed a contract with the Kingdom of Erebor. The contract stipulates that Dale, and the Lake-town you now stand upon, that this entire region, belongs to the Kingdom of Erebor by right of ownership. In exchange for the privilege of living here, Dale and Lake-town were to pay sixty percent of their annual income to the Kingdom of Erebor as compensation."
Bella pointed at the crowd. "Mr. Bard, did you know any of this? Every one of them has standing to oppose me, to oppose the decision the dwarven king made. You alone do not."
Bard retreated in frustration. There was no way around it. Unless he disavowed his ancestors, he had no choice but to acknowledge the dwarven king's ownership of this land. He could keep arguing, of course, but in this world, disowning one's ancestors was a worse sin than swearing loyalty to the Dark Lord Sauron himself.
Having struck down the mightiest faction in Lake-town — the Mayor — and silenced the most respected man in town, Bard, Bella clapped her hands lightly.
The Snake Eyes clan emerged from inside the Mayor's chambers behind her. Each of them carried an enormous chest, and every chest was packed with gold, silver, and treasure.
This was the wealth the Mayor had pilfered for himself over the years.
Gold coins from the kingdoms of the North, statues, necklaces, rings, golden goblets, suits of armor, ornate ceremonial swords, robes, bolts of fine cloth, rare medicinal herbs — twenty enormous chests filled with a dazzling array of treasures.
These goods couldn't begin to compare with the riches inside the Lonely Mountain, but in Bella's eyes they were more than enough.
And in fact they were. The people of Lake-town had never seen so many wonders in their lives. Even many of the Mayor's own guards lay sprawled on the ground, craning their necks to gawk. The sight of gold, silver, and jewels piled across an entire open square was simply too spectacular to look away from.
Bella raised her staff. A simple light spell drew every eye in the crowd.
"The diligence and resilience of Lake-town deserve recognition. Now, I am offering you two choices, and you may decide freely. One: I take my followers and my people and move north to live in Dale. Today's events can be forgotten, and this fellow kneeling beside me can go on being your Mayor. Two: you accept my rule, and in return, I will generously distribute all of these treasures among you, every one of you! Please, choose freely!"
For all her talk of free choice, there wasn't really much of a choice to make. In the eyes of most townspeople, the former Mayor and Bella were much of a muchness. And with hard coin on offer, what was there to hesitate about?
The first thing Bella did as ruler of Lake-town was publicly announce the crimes of the former Mayor and his pack of cronies. She had the townsfolk lodge their grievances against them, then held public trials, running through the whole "down with the landlords, redistribute the fields" routine. By the end of it, the townspeople had warmed considerably to Bella and her companions.
The methods were crude, but history had proven they worked beautifully in this kind of environment.
Jason's great blade rose and fell. The Mayor and his henchmen lost their heads one by one, and the heads were hung from the flagpole in the town center as a warning. Then the townsfolk began joyfully dividing up the wealth.
Women rolled up their sleeves, bundled apronfuls of gold coins in their skirts, and ran home.
Withered old folk who looked ready to drop dead at any moment clutched golden statues to their chests, oblivious to the chill of the metal, eager only to find a quiet corner to admire them.
Children dragged heavy, ornate bolts of cloth inch by inch toward home.
Even Bard, who had argued against Bella earlier, accepted a small chest of gold coins and a beautiful suit of half-plate armor.
His three children each carried two bolts of cloth, a saddle, and two pairs of leather boots. The family made its way home in high spirits.
Whatever objections Bard had voiced earlier had long since been flung to the winds. The previous Mayor had treated him, the descendant of the old lord, like a thorn in his side, and their conflict had been irreconcilable. Now the former Mayor's head dangled from the flagpole and his fortune had been redistributed. Bard still didn't fully approve of Bella's rule, but he wasn't quite so opposed to it either.
Families as pragmatic and level-headed as Bard's were, in the end, a minority. Most of the townsfolk had grabbed gold, diamonds, and jewels; only a handful chose cloth, clothing, or daily goods.
Bella didn't mind. She hadn't kept a single piece of the Mayor's hoard for herself. She had given it all away.
The next day, she gathered the most respected figures in town to discuss how Lake-town should be governed going forward.
A trembling old man worked up his nerve and made a suggestion. "Earlier we had been planning to form a... a governing council... to exercise, to exercise, to exercise the mayoral powers on... on his behalf—"
"Wonderful! I think a governing council is an excellent idea. I support it!" Bella endorsed the townspeople's proposal to establish a council. A council was perfect. Installing another mayor or town lord would only have undermined her own rule.
The old men exchanged glances. They felt things were going almost suspiciously well.
Bella reaffirmed her position. "I'm not lying, and there's no reason for me to lie. I really do think the governing council is an excellent idea. Does anyone object?"