Chapter 753: Raul's Troubles

Meanwhile, in the commoner district on the north side of Duoen Town, at the 【Fake Hand Tavern】.

Raul Binte was leaning against a secluded corner of the tavern, drinking his sorrows away alone.

The excitement from having extorted several Gold Coins from the visiting Knight earlier had long since vanished from him. This was the sort of thing he could usually brag about in the tavern for years, and indeed, at this time yesterday, that had been the case.

But after he woke up from his drunken stupor this morning and went to the 【Abundant Pod】 shop for his shift as usual, he was cornered by Ms. Feiniya, who had been waiting there, along with her female assistant and other thugs and Shop Assistants she had persuaded.

He was informed of one thing: "Mountain Wolf" Bani had been killed and wiped out by that visiting Knight several days ago.

"Then you should be seeking revenge, shouldn't you? Why stay so close to that young Knight? And why so generously give all the grain in the shop to that %￥ Knight?"

Raul put on a look of indignation, acting the part of a loyal man seeking justice for the dead "Mountain Wolf" Bani.

In truth, his relationship with "Mountain Wolf" Bani was very weak; he had only worked for a time as a black-market merchant fencing stolen goods for that Bandit Group leader in the early days. Furthermore, he had been abandoned after his old flame—Ms. Feiniya—opened her own Shanglu inn. It was only because Ms. Feiniya took pity on him and wanted to keep him under her thumb—to prevent him from telling others about "Mountain Wolf" Bani—that she had placed him in Duoen Town to manage this grain shop.

"That is a matter between Bani and me; it has nothing to do with an outsider like you."

With several thugs standing behind her with their arms crossed, Ms. Feiniya's tone was now vastly different from before.

"Besides, the key to the problem is not that Bani and his gang were defeated and killed by a Knight. You are a smart man, Raul. Can you tell me what the key is now?"

As Ms. Feiniya spoke, the thugs and Shop Assistants stared fixedly at the shop Steward, Raul, each of them wearing an expression of excitement and the anticipation of making a fortune.

"Uh, yes." Just as he was about to speak, Steward Raul realized something; he clamped his mouth shut and frowned in thought. His experience as a black-market merchant dealing with bandits in his early years quickly gave him the answer.

His eyes lit up, and he said loudly: "It's 'Mountain Wolf' Bani's wealth!"

But then he frowned again, staring at Ms. Feiniya and questioning her: "But wasn't he defeated by that foreign ￥% Knight? I saw him and his men outside the town processing various goods and merchandise seized from the bandit lair with my own eyes."

"You're planning to make a fortune off this, aren't you? I know you, Raul."

Ms. Feiniya flicked her fingers, and a subordinate immediately brought over a wooden chair so the lady could sit while she spoke.

The empty shop echoed with the lady's confident words: "But sometimes, eyes can be deceiving, my friends. When you are blocked by superficial things, the true secrets and treasures inside will regretfully miss you, and miss all of you."

The uncultured thugs and Shop Assistants could only scratch their heads at these words, putting on expressions as if they understood, but not entirely.

And Steward Raul, standing at the shop entrance, rolled his eyes: "What do you mean?"

"I mean that as a party involved, I know clearly that the Knight failed to find Bani's lair. In fact, he was killed by the Knight at a plundering Shandong Jiedian near the Shanglu. That idiot gathered a group of bandits who had held out until now, thinking they could defeat the Knight's team, wanting to sell those people off."

The lady shook her head; the final result was naturally a crushing defeat for the bandits.

"However, Bani's true lair is in the mountains, not like other bandits who build their lairs near the Shanglu. And that Knight didn't have the time to take people into the mountains to carry away the goods that filled the entire Shandong. Since he killed all of Bani's men, as well as Bani himself, he has no idea where that place is."

At this point, there was no need for further explanation between smart people. Ms. Feiniya lifted her chin and said with a smile: "Raul, you and I have known each other for years, and Bani owed you a bit as well, so it is time for everyone to enjoy the wealth he left behind."

The words were very clear, and the thugs and Shop Assistants who had already been persuaded were all full of confidence, unable to wait to set off.

Steward Raul was tempted; he could roughly estimate how great a fortune that was. The name of "Mountain Wolf" Bani, and his cunning methods of plundering, had always been famous around Duoen Town.

But he hadn't ventured out or taken risks in years; the settled town life seemed to have quietly taken away his Yongqi at some point.

"Uh, would you allow me to consider it? I guarantee I will give you an answer in a few days, how about that?"

Steward Raul said hesitantly.

As if she hadn't expected Raul to back down in the end, Ms. Feiniya, who had been full of confidence, was a bit surprised. But she liked surprises; surprises were good, because if it weren't for a surprise, she would probably still be suffering abuse in a cave right now.

The lady didn't waste words on Raul's request for time to consider; she simply waved her hand.

Immediately, seeing her action, the shop thugs lunged forward, pinning the fleeing Raul to the ground. At the same time, the Shop Assistants hurried around from both sides and slammed the shop door shut, cutting off any possibility of anyone escaping.

Looking at the middle-aged Steward being held down by several people—the shop thugs didn't use any less force just because Raul was their former Steward and leader—Ms. Feiniya leaned forward slightly: "Although I was asking you, the news cannot leak out in advance. So, you have no choice but to join in. Either get rich with everyone else, or you can only become a corpse."

Steward Raul's eyes widened.

"After all, only corpses don't speak and expose secrets."

Ms. Feiniya said with a smile.

Steward Raul was no iron-willed hero. Upon hearing this, he immediately agreed. He lay on the ground, looked up, and shouted: "I agree, I won't consider it anymore, let's go right now!!!"

"Hahahaha, we can't go right now. After all, we can't rely on the shoulders of just us to carry back the plundered goods from a whole Shandong, right? Food and water for the round trip, horse-drawn carriages and donkey carts for transport, fodder, camping tents for the night, Torches, and the swords and Hunting Bows that must be brought into the mountain forest. All these things must be prepared before we can set off."

Having said this, Ms. Feiniya extended a milky-white hand and beckoned to Steward Raul: "I heard you made a contract with that Knight yesterday and earned three Gold Coins? I'm sure you'd be willing to offer up this money to provide a little firewood for everyone's future wealthy life?"

Making him risk his life, Steward Raul had barely agreed while being pinned down, but asking for the money in his pocket was a matter of principle; he absolutely could not agree to that.

"No! That is money I earned legally yesterday! That is my wealth, I don't agree! The shop! Right, there's also the shop! If we're short on money, we can mortgage this shop for cash; it will definitely be enough for the various supplies and expenses for our departure."

Ms. Feiniya's expression changed slightly; she had already mortgaged the shop, so of course, it was impossible to find someone to mortgage it again. After all, there weren't many Merchant Guilds that accepted shop mortgages, and they exchanged information with each other at all times precisely to avoid the rogue tactic of people mortgaging for money multiple times.

So she immediately made up a story: "Impossible, the 【Abundant Pod】 is the important factor for why we are all gathered here today. Without it, you and I and everyone else would be nothing but strangers seen everywhere on the street. To prevent the team from breaking up and fighting internally later, the shop cannot be sold. Mortgaging it won't work either!"

This explanation seemed to have some logic to it. Whether Raul believed it or not, at least the uncultured thugs and Shop Assistants were convinced.

Seeing that Steward Raul was unwilling to pay, they didn't stand on ceremony. Several thugs who had previously been bandits immediately used the frisking skills they hadn't used in a long time, turning out all the coins from the body of Steward Raul, who was being pinned to the ground.

"Lady, we only found this."

A thug handed the money over, and the girl who had been following Ms. Feiniya stepped forward as a Maid to receive the scattered handful of coins.

She counted them nimbly: "Big Sister, there are only two Gold Coins, eight silver, and thirty-three copper coins."

Ms. Feiniya snorted coldly: "Had a good time playing last night, didn't you? A thing that can't hold onto its money." Steward Raul's face flushed red, and he lowered his head. The others were quite envious, also wanting to play as freely and happily in town as the Steward had last night, but they had no money.

However, the lady changed her tone: "But it doesn't matter. I guarantee that after the deed is done, everyone present will be able to spend every night in town just as happily as our Steward did last night. Isn't that right, Mr. Binte?"

The middle-aged Steward gave a sheepish smile: "Yes, yes, it will definitely succeed."

But he watched in pain as Ms. Feiniya put his money into her purse.

"Let him go. Mr. Binte, now that you've paid your money, and quite a lot of it, I am going to take people out to purchase supplies now. If you don't want your investment property to disappear without a trace like a Shitou thrown into water, you had best keep your mouth shut, understand?"

"Yes, Lady, I understand."

Steward Raul was released, but he was dejected. Losing the money felt even more exhausting than the battle he had fought with the two girls from the Red House last night.

To ensure safety, Ms. Feiniya spoke to one of the thugs in front of Steward Raul: "To ensure our Steward stays completely focused on this matter, you, take a Short Knife from the shop and go guard the door of Mr. Raul's house. If he betrays us, you go up and kill his family. Can you do it?"

The thug who was pointed at licked the corner of his mouth and said with a grim smile that it was no problem.

Steward Raul trembled with his head lowered. When he finally looked up, his face wore a very forced smile: "I won't snitch."

"You had better not."

Ms. Feiniya said with a cold face, looking into Steward Raul's eyes, word for word.

Recalling everything that happened this morning, Lao'er drank his ale with a bitter expression.

Having no money in his pocket could not stop his desire to come out and drink to relieve his misery, and so he did; in any case, the tavern owner would either put it on his tab or give him a beating. Hey, a beating would be for the best—perhaps, because of the injury, he could avoid a dangerous adventure.

Although a bit drunk, he was a man who could hold his liquor. Sitting in a dim corner of the tavern, he unconsciously heard the voices of people talking around him.

Up ahead, two shabbily dressed shop assistants from some store were talking.

"Did you hear? A famous Hunter from the North has come here to provoke us! He claims that when it comes to the skill of shooting eagles, he is the best in the entire Kingdom!"

"Really? I've never heard of such a person."

"It's true, everyone is spreading it, it can't be wrong. And I also heard from our Steward that the people above are indignant and are preparing to choose someone to defeat him. Even if they can't win in a skill competition, they can't let that guy brag in the town, *%￥￥, it's best to find a place and break his hand, let him dare to spout such words."

"It's useless, won't he just find some Priest to heal him? After all, a famous Hunter probably isn't short on money. Unlike us little people, my father was fixing the roof at home and broke his leg last year; he's still waiting for notice from the Priest's side, waiting for when they notify him to go and treat his leg."

Elsewhere, several people were playing cards in the best-lit area of the tavern; they were playing a folk card game called Monster Cards.

They used small wooden tiles dyed in solid colors, standing them in grooves on the tabletop, or laying them face down if conditions didn't allow. Each person had ten random Monster Cards of different styles, comparing sizes by the order of big eating small, with Magic Beasts eating monsters.

Although it was called Monster Cards, it didn't just contain monsters; among the dozens of wooden tiles, at least twenty were Farmer Cards and Merchant Cards mixed in. The Farmer Card was the smallest, but if one had at least two in their hand, they could combine them to compete against the lowest-level Monster Card.

However, since everyone could only play one wooden tile at a time, to combine Farmer Cards, one had to keep playing them, counting the Farmer Cards already played together with the one currently being played.

Therefore, as long as there were many Farmer Cards, one would be weak at the start, but would become increasingly stronger later.

Once reaching five Farmer Cards, no matter what Monster Card other players played, they could not defeat the five Farmer Cards.

There were fewer Merchant Cards; each time one was played, one could exchange it for a Monster Card from the tiles everyone had already played and add it to one's own hand.

Of course, the Merchant Card was then discarded. One wondered if this was mocking the merchants who ran trade, using their lives to trade for money with the monsters on the Shanglu.

As for the Monster Cards, they were several types of monster cards of different sizes. The power of the Monster Cards was divided according to their size relative to a Human: the one-man-sized monster was the weakest, the two-man-sized monster was slightly stronger, and the three-man-sized monster was quite powerful.

There were also four-man-sized monsters, and the Magic Beast cards that were larger than all other Monster Cards.

In a set of Magic Beast cards, there were only four fixed Magic Beast cards, and there might be additions or subtractions in other places. These four types of Magic Beasts were all relatively famous in folklore and were Magic Beasts that had caused heavy casualties among the people in a region.

Interestingly, a type of Magic Beast card recently added in the Southern Province was the Magic Beast mount of a brave Knight in the invading army of the southern neighboring country: a giant fire salamander covered in flames.

According to some deserters who fled back after losing the war last year, the southern neighboring country had an elite army that could breathe fire and walk in flames, and the leading Knight rode a giant fire salamander.

These tavern patrons playing Monster Cards were talking while they played, chatting about the news they had just heard.

"Hey! I heard that if you keep different birds at home, your luck at the gambling table or card table will be different? Have you heard this news?"

One person played a Farmer Card in pain; as the weakest card, it did not calculate combat power directly, but calculated power according to the number of Farmer Cards one had played.

Another person played an Undead Zombie as a probe: "I heard it. I also heard that keeping a parrot at home makes the house noisy. And keeping a bluebird makes the cooking taste better?"

Another person directly played a Withered Wood Crocodile, ate the former's Undead Zombie, and covered the card: "Then do you know which one can increase card luck? Or gambling luck?"

"Even if I knew, I wouldn't say it, right? After all, if everyone at the card table increased their luck, wouldn't that be the same as not increasing it at all?"

"That's true." The last person to speak played a Giant Worm and ate the former's Withered Wood Crocodile.

"Who plays cards like you? You know you should save big cards for later, right? I think even if you kept birds, you'd always lose at cards."

"Mind your own business, I like it that way!"

In a daze, Steward Lao'er smiled at these words and picked up a small fried fish from the plate in front of him, putting it into his mouth to chew. He heard the bartender and the tavern owner chatting not far away.

"I finally know today what it is that's been making a soft wailing sound under my window every night, disturbing my sleep and causing trouble!"

The tavern owner leaned against a wine barrel, fuming, and slapped the barrel to complain to the bartender.

"Isn't it the cats in spring? They're usually in heat and looking for mates, right?"

The bartender scooped up a Mujiupei from a wooden basin of water and wiped the inside and outside of the cup with a dry cloth.

The tavern owner waved his hand: "It can't be cats. It's not like I don't have cats at home; I can still tell the difference in that sound. You know?" He lowered his voice.

Steward Lao'er had to cup his hand to his ear to hear the tavern owner's voice.

"Do you know, I only heard today that it's not actually my own child crying, nor is it some cat in heat; actually, it's..."

The voice behind that became soft again, and Steward Lao'er could not hear it at all.

He gave a self-deprecating smile; he had enough trouble of his own, why was he curious about this?

So he shook his head and took a sip of ale.

At this moment, a young man entered through the main door of the tavern. This person walked straight to the bar, first ordered a drink, and then said to the bartender in a voice slightly louder than normal: "Hey, have you heard? A group of upright-walking long-tailed cat demi-humans recently came to our town, right?"

The bartender poured the drink and followed the guest's words: "I've heard of it. Also, the latest news is that these demi-human guys originally intended to make some money in the gambling Fighting Arena, since they seem quite capable. But they got involved in some trouble last night and have already been kicked out of the Fighting Arena."

A drunk patron nearby also said dissatisfiedly: "And the Fighting Arena is closed too; I don't know when it will open again. It's boring as hell."

The young man shrugged: "That's not what I'm talking about. You know, I heard that those upright-walking cats that can talk and curse are actually messengers of the wilderness. If you meet them in the wild, you can seek their protection and survive."

"That's possible." The drunk patron said: "I saw them perform in the Fighting Arena last time; they were really *%￥ powerful. I reckon ten of me couldn't beat one of those damn demi-human cats; they are too agile! And their tails are very long."

The speaker had no intention, but the listener did. Steward Lao'er felt a stir in his heart, thinking that since those demi-humans kicked out of the Fighting Arena were so powerful, could he have Ms. Feiniya hire some of them? And because they were demi-humans, not only would the cost be low, but there would also be no danger of them double-crossing.

After all, how could those demi-human cats judge the value of Human goods and merchandise?

Thinking of this, Steward Lao'er stopped drinking his ale, shouted to the tavern owner to put the cost on his tab, and without caring whether he knew the tavern owner or not, he walked straight out of the tavern.

It could only be said that he was lucky; the tavern owner had happened to go to the same Red House as Steward Lao'er last night to relax, recognized Lao'er, and knew he was quite wealthy. So he didn't chase after him for payment, but waved his hand and recorded Lao'er's food and drink expenses in his ledger.

【'Abundant Pod' Steward, not familiar, wealthy, evening of x month x day, owes 7 copper and 6 Iron Coins.】