James had to point out.
"Now, let's talk about the husband and wife aspect of this law. How are you going to enforce this? Most beating of spouses will be done in the privately of their home. Commoners will have no witnesses and nobles will not be willingly ratted out by their servants."
"I believe that is where me being the captain of the Royal mages will come into play. My plan is, since we are in peace time, to create a group of Royal mages, who's daily job is to patrol in public and anyone can come to them and report that they have been assaulted.
Do you think the members of the Royal mages are loyal enough to follow my orders and enforce this law?"
"There are a lot of Royal mages that are loyal to you because they worked with you during the war. Also, there are some Royal mages that have a strong sense of justice, who are loyal to whatever the law of the land is. I will start working on making a list of the most loyal Royal mages to comprise the team."
James was a very competent administrator.
"That sounds good, once this squad has been enforcing the law for a month or two, people will see that the punishment for assault is real and stop doing it so often. Then, we can reduce the number of Royal mages needed actively patrolling.
Bystanders will eventually not be scared to report someone, since they will learn they can do it anonymously and the perpetrator will be punished no matter their noble rank."
"You really plan to punish even the highest ranking nobles?"
"At least in my Duchy, criminals will not get away with crimes just because of their title."
James was understandably skeptical.
"Even if you say so, it will be hard to enforce the law on high ranking nobles. They have their own personal knights that will oppose any threat to their Lord.
They will claim that the accusations are lies. It's possible to punish commoners with circumstantial evidence, but nobles can only be punished if there is concrete evidence."
I already had an idea of how to solve the problem James brought up, but it had one big assumption.
"Is there an advanced wind mage in the Royal mages?"
"Yes, one of the 5 vice captains is an advanced wind mage. The structure of the Royal mages is made in such a way that the strongest Royal mage is the captain and the strongest of the rest of the magic elements take up the 5 vice captain positions. Currently, the Royal mages have an advanced mage in all of the elements."
"Is the wind vice captain busy? I would like him to help us"
"The Kingdom has a spy squad, who's job it is to stay in other Kingdoms and collect intel. The wind vice captain, Damian, usually works on spying on underground criminal organizations throughout the Kingdom. Crime isn't too prominent at the moment, so he should have some free time to help."
"Awesome, whenever the normal Royal mage squad gets a report that a noble is assaulting either their servants or their spouse, we will ask Damian to do a stake out and catch them in the act of assaulting someone. The proof will be concrete, since Damian will see it happening with his own eyes.
We need to made a statement and set an example, so I believe the appropriate punishment for any intentional assault that results in bruises should be: the first incident is 1 month in prison, the second incident is 1 year, the third is 5 years, and anymore after that is 10 years."
The frown that formed on James' face let me know he had problems with my plan.
"I think using Damian is a smart idea, but your punishment times are far too extreme. The current noble assaulting another noble punishment is a week or two max in prison if a higher noble assaults a lesser noble. It is really only meant to be a slap on the wrist."
I shook my head at this nonsense. "The punishment is meant to be a true deterrent to any future criminals. I cannot allow it to be a slap on the wrist for something as important as assaulting another human being."
I took a second to gather my thoughts. One week was far to little, but I can see how going to prison for 1 year after the second offense of a brand new law might be hard to accept.
"Here is my compromise and it will also apply to a noble assaulting another noble from now on as well.
The punishment plan will be 1 month, 3 months, 6 months, 1 year, 5 years, and then 10 years max. I will give people 3 chances before they get to a full year in prison since this is a new change in the laws, but it won't be as simple as a slap on the wrist."
"I understand. You are the highest power in this land, so any noble complaining will have no right to argue. On another note, how are you going to train this Royal mage squad?"
"My plan is for there to be two duties of the Royal mage squad. The first is for some of them to standby at designated report stations, so that people know that they can go there at any time of the day and get instant help.
However, I expect that initially, people will be reluctant to self report since there will be no trust in the law. They will believe they will get caught trying to report their abuser and get hurt even worse.
So, the second duty will be for some of the Royal mage squad to actively look for signs of people that may have been assaulted. We will train them to look for bruises on people. Once they find a lead, they should keep them in mind and question them in private where no one can see them, so they won't get reprimanded for telling the truth.
I will also have them come to tea parties that noble women will attend without men, so they can reveal anything they normally would be too scared to. I think that the patrols will be a lot of work for the first month or two, but once people understand the seriousness of assaulting others, I believe the number of incidents will drop drastically.
Obviously, we will not catch everything and some people will still be abused in secret. However, we can at least try our best to make the laws help as much people as possible.
With this law, I want to help all the people currently being assaulted that think there is no way out as well as all the people that would have been assaulted in the future.
In time, people will realize losing the ability to hit someone without consequence will not negatively effect them at all. While at the same time, greatly improving the lives of people that would have been abused. I envision it being so popular the rest of the Kingdom will learn about the law and demand it be implemented for them too."
Becca chimed in, "this law is a great first step for our plans to make the Duchy better for everyone!"
James also smiled after thinking things through.
"I also agree that making the current assault laws extend to all people will positively impact a lot of people. Anyone complaining are just people who want to hurt others with no consequences."