The God of Jesters
Chapter 486 - 8.00.4 The conspiracy.

Chapter 486: 8.00.4 The conspiracy.

Coming out of the meeting place, Heroth was a few Dirium richer than before. However, this money didn’t make him one bit happy, as there might be some trouble coming his way. He is sure about this as well because no matter how hard he tries to hide it, the White Tiger family will expose this matter to the Vermilion on their own, just to create some chaos.

This extra money was proof on their end, making it appear that they had bought Heroth under his command.

Though for situations like this, Heroth was all the more experienced to deal with. Although he couldn’t predict if the other party would be reasonable enough, he still chose to follow his instinct and went on to inform the little exchange he had with the White Tiger Family, along with the money that he had in his hand.

"They really are getting too much, using you like this." Though from the expression of the enforcer sitting in the meeting room, he seemed to have expected this to some extent. Laughing and saying that it’s good what Heroth did. "You don’t know, but this is White Tiger’s old tactic, let something of their’s stolen and then that stolen thing would appear in shops under us, you can imagine the rest."

"What?" Heroth was surprised by this revelation for a bit, which made him wonder why him. "It doesn’t have anything to do with you, recently there had been some issues with the mining rights close to Rudrain East, it’s just their way of acquiring some leverage over the Vermilion family and nothing more."

Four years ago the war with Yethel brought great shame to the Cynark Empire and to take back their honor, the Cynark Empire did think up to bring the War Fortress and show what real power looks like to Yethel.

However, it was then that the accident happened. Sumire and Langfurt, two nations backed by two different superpowers attacked the eastern front of Cynark while the War Fortress was on its way to Yethel.

Their defeat at the hands of Cynark brought intense confidence in the other two small nations. The once strong and unmovable country was defeated once, and they can be defeated again. And that’s what would have happened until the Cynark finally did the unthinkable and ordered the Noble Families to join the war directly.

If the War Fortress that arrived at a later date was all on its own, not much would have changed and the status quo was the most that could be maintained. But Cynark in order to scare away others who might be eying them, used all the force their country was capable of harnessing.

Causing carnage on the battlefield as the Adept were treated as cannon fodder and many died during the war.

It also caused heavy damage to the vitality of Sumire and Langfurt, and if not for the drained vitality of their own nation, they would have razed the two small nations to the ground.

"It’s a gift from the Royal family to us Nobles who made sacrifices in the war, though there is only so much they can give, which is the reason for this conflict... but don’t think too much." The Enforcer spoke while taking a bit of money from Heroth’s bag. "With this, you don’t have anything to worry about. Just operate as usual and instead of going to the police, come to us if you find something odd again."

When coming here, Heroth had thought that he might lose all the money and then some, but it seems that was not the case. Even if he had chosen the Vermilion family due to the beautiful woman who led it, it would seem their operation method was that of self-sufficiency.

’They can’t destroy their own business due to White Tiger’s little games.’ And for businesses like Heroth’s which makes loads of money, they still have to keep a certain level of professionalism to not make this money bag.

They had checked his shop before, though they didn’t know where he carried all those trinkets from, what they did know was that this man was going to make a bank if he could self all of those things.

Including the little eye, the enforcer got as a reward, whose actual price turned out to be much more expensive than he thought. And from the words of the appraiser, he even said that there was a peculiar magic in the eye, so the actual price was still up for debate.

However, that glass eye was not even that special compared to the dagger a young mistress from the family bought from Heroth’s shop.

A dagger that was definitely a magic artifact capable of cutting the low-level magic itself. Which surprised the Vermilion family enough that they had to give Heroth some special treatment.

Which was displayed during this small event.

However, it was not the end of this small conflict.

"Put three people around the Pawnshop, note down everyone who goes and out of it." This event showed that the White Tigers were already eyeing the Pawn Shop, or they considered it important enough to mess with it.

"As you order sir." With those words, the office was three people short as they followed Heroth from a distance.

And Heroth who noticed their arrival thought that it was those fools again, trying to harm him after months of waiting. But then he shook his head. If anything, it would be that girl who is sent by those people. While these three, considering the time they started following him, and the conflict he just heard about, he can somewhat ascertain that these people were mostly just helpers sent by the Vermilion family.

’Well, it’s never wrong to be careful.’ He disappeared for a bit, disappearing from the sight of these men, who truly appeared a bit confused at first, looking around, and then, they started to move again, their direction never changing.

’Their skills are only so-so.’ If it were those people, they would have noticed where he was hiding and come after him like they have done so many times before.

This was confirmation enough, and he appeared back on their part almost naturally as if he never went away, to begin with. Of course, there was an additional bottle of alcohol in his hands. Making the three think that the old man just went away to buy some alcohol.

*****

Back in his shop, he looked around and checked if anything was missing. "Nothing is. Good." He nodded and looked at the girl who was setting up her room in the old kitchen. "Girl come here for a second."

He asked her and she did, coming to him almost in a hurry. "No need to rush, it’s nothing important.’

He said, before sitting on the chair and asking. "I had forgotten this before, but what is your name?"

"Oh?" It was only then that the girl recalled that she had never spoken her name since the start before she nodded with some pain and said. "Arahi Hafsa, daughter to Asha Hafsa, as for my father, my mother never told me."

"Your bloodline, which side of the family does it come from?"

"My mother, she herself used to be an apprentice Knight, though during the war she lost her arm and had to retire early on. My father on the other hand was a wandering Musician from what I can tell, mortal." Heroth nodded for a bit, forming up the life that Arahi had lived till now in his head, which also gave him a certain level of understanding of what kind of woman she was.

"Good then, I am Heroth, just Heroth the pawnbroker."

"It’s a pleasure to work with you, Heroth the Pawnbroker."

"The pleasure’s all mine, as my workload just decreased with your arrival." After that, they spoke about some payments where Arahi would receive around 10% of the profits made on any item she sells and additional money on her nose services. Which Heroth didn’t look down on? As it has helped him get rid of a big problem off his back.

*****

While the duo was having their own conversation where Heroth handed Arahi some books to study and taught her about the common signs of forged items.

In a distance, in the White Tiger house, Jannat the man operating the family businesses in the Southern civilian district suddenly smiled after hearing the report. "The old man is not much of a fool than I thought."

The failure of this plan was expected the moment Heroth brought the Coin to his house. A coin he had given to his men to sell to that old man. "He is sharp."

Others in his position would have denied taking the money, fearing the Vermilion family’s retaliation. But the old man just took the money with shame and went away without saying much of anything. Giving Jannat a false sense of hope that this old man would turn greedy and pocket all the money, which would be even better.

This can be used as a good excuse to start a relationship based on fear. If the old man tried to deny any of the jobs, they could expose the fact that he took money as a threat. Which failed as well.

But the old man did nothing, he even went directly to the Vermilion family and gave all the money to show that he had no desire to work with the White Tigers. "Sir, should we use some force?"

"Force? The moment the word gets out that it was us who did it, the business we get will probably decrease... we can’t afford to play in the open, not when the mine is on the line." The Mine, oh how much Jannat hated that mine.