"Come, come, come. Freshly picked fish from the sea are here! Buy now while there's a discount!"
"Armor made by a thick rhino monster! Limited-time offer! Buy this and you'll be safe on your Ruins explorations!"
"Piecework that solely relates to the strength of the person is here! Don't worry, this is all legal. I have valid proof that these goods are safe to use! So, what are you waiting for? Pick this beauty of mine!"
The road was bustling with vendors and merchants convincing customers to buy their products. Adventurers and Ruiners and even normal people are obviously interested as they gathered around those shops.
"Let's stop at the Aragon shop as we've discussed. We'll rest there for today and go aboard to ship tomorrow. I'll handle the paperwork since I didn't do much on our exploration," Talking to Klein and Valen in my front, I moved my head towards the window of the driver and continued, "Any objections?"
"No objections."
"Nah,"
"No,"
Since there are no objections from the three, we relaxed and wait for Isaac to follow the plans we four talked about for a week.
With the carriage casually moving, my eyes darted to the window, looking at the busy road, making my mind wander around.
Minu city, Hall City, Lockwerk City… In this world, particularly on this continent, there are countless cities. It doesn't matter if it's a city that is the same as a village or almost as big as a kingdom, if they are called a City then that's it.
In Fordent Kingdom, they owned at least hundreds or maybe much more than that as the expansion of lands keeps happening on a daily basis.
The same could be said about the different kingdoms.
One thing I liked about cities is that the king himself didn't manage or hold the cities but the powers below him.
That's how the bestowment of land works. You give nobles powers and what they receive is lands, properties, and assistance of the king himself.
An example of that is Verl, my father. He didn't acknowledge it but he actually owns Duke's land up to the Fordent Shore. That's how powerful he is. Yet, the thing is, he only cared about his very own land which is called to be his home.
That's why many people are trying to get good graces on him. I mean, that's almost a quarter of the land that the Fordent Kingdom owns.
Becoming partners or establishing connections with Verl means having access to his land and they could do anything they want from it since they have word from the owner.
Sadly, those greedy nobles wouldn't be successful since Verl knows what he's doing. He wouldn't get the position of the Duke in the first place if he doesn't have the skills.
Other than that, I know a few cities which some nobles own. Well, it really doesn't matter if I know them or not now that major changes are happening throughout the kingdom after the incident.
In a few months or so, some cities might be put on sale at some auctions if certain nobles don't want themselves to be bankrupted.
"We're here."
Hearing Isaac's voice from the driver's seat, everyone began rummaging through their baggage to see if anything are missing from their things.
The moment everyone was done, we got down and moved inside the shop to accommodate some rooms to stay which was my job.
"I'll take these rooms. Three days stay and large enough for each one to stay."
"You don't like to stay together, young master?" Klein asked, seemingly wanting to have us all together since not only it will save us some time but also money.
I sincerely shake my head as I answered softly, "No, that won't do. As I said, everyone is exhausted from the exploration. We should have some alone time to ourselves to recuperate."
Hearing my reasoning, Klein finally gave up and moved back and the receptionist in our front handed me four keys to me.
"That'll be forty gold coins. Have a safe stay, everyone."
Although this is indeed a shop, some places are too big for just a shop to be established. They could earn a lot more profit by adding accommodation of rooms like motels on Earth.
Of course, the only difference is that the shop and rooms didn't mix which makes this shop and other establishments that used the same strategy earn more money than they should have.
Receiving the keys from the receptionist, I smiled and answered, "Thanks,"
…
Bringing down my luggage to my room, I swiftly made my way toward the bathroom to wash. Although I didn't smell bad, it's just a habit of mine that I kept doing before I even came here in this world.
Five whole minutes passed and I freshly wiped my hair, wore some clothes, and opened the luggage which contains some necessities and Pieces that I brought with me.
Placing a box on a desk that contains Pieces inside, I carefully opened it and saw three Pieces lying and neatly placed. One had a color of red, the other is blue, and the last is green.
'This is very a convenient store item for Piece…' Musing that thought inwardly, I closed the box, carrying it with my hand as I left my room to go to the receptionist's desk once more.
"What can I do for you, sir?"
Remembering what Freya had told me about, I let out a cough and said, "Is the room zero-zero- one available for accommodation?"
The woman receptionist silently stared at me for a moment before she stood, giving the same gentle smile, and said, "No, but there are many rooms we could recommend. How about you come with me and I'll lead you to it?"
Nodding my head, the woman receptionist gestured for another worker to replace her for a moment before she signal her head to follow her.
With silence, the business continued as it as another customer wanted to accommodate some rooms to stay in while I followed the woman, knowing fully where she would go.
After a minute or so, we came up to this room that had a sign says 'cleaning area. Allowed personnel only'
Nobody would even want to go in this place since one had to go through to a very dark place and it's not like they aren't any guards present since when we came to that room, someone ask the receptionist with their brief conversation going like this.
"What?"
"Zero-zero-one,"
When we entered the room, the receptionist woman lead me inside towards the underground stairs, and to my surprise, it was quiet and only a few people are present at the moment.
"Ma'am Freya will be here any moment. Sit wherever you want down, esteemed guest. I'll get going now."
"Thank you."
The receptionist smiled and nodded gently before exiting the underground area. Sitting down on my seat, I placed the box on the desk as I wait for Freya to come.
After a few minutes, from the corner of my eyes, I saw the same figurine I had seen weeks ago, smiling in my direction while slightly waving her hand.
Sitting in the opposite direction, Freya brought her hat down and began exchanging pleasantries.
"Good morning, young master."
"Good morning, ma'am."
Freya's eyes glance at the box which was placed on the table before moving her attention to me, "I know that you have a lot to ask but let me tell you first. The killers of the Garod and Lorance family heads still weren't found."
Freya grabbed one of the envelopes she had brought and slid it in my direction. Receiving the envelope, I opened it and saw some letters and pictures while she continued explaining the incident.
"What caught our attention was that when we started investigating these families, we acquired that they have been involved in illegal smugglings and slavery. And… they were smuggling people. Mainly, children."
My eyes formed a frown as I saw the pictures of dead people in one place. It could be seen that they weren't properly fed as their arms looks thin, lips dry, and tireless eyes.
'This was just recently taken… There's no way they could see dead bodies with flesh intact…' Musing that thought inwardly, I replied, "What happened to these families?"
"They were taken to custody. Most are proven guilty as they knew this action was operating." She paused, "We're currently tracking their smuggling operation. Maybe, we could find the killer. And speaking of the killer… He's just gone in the instant."
"They were tracing on the ropes that he had hanged those people but after that, gone. We are trying to see if wanted murderers are the ones who did this but do you know what's weird? Those wanted murderers which had been hiding from underground started disappearing like bubbles."
"You are saying that the killer of the incident is hunting down these people?"
"Sort of." Freya answered flatly, as she revealed, "We have an anti-villain roaming around here. As far as we knew, he still isn't killing innocents. Some of our informants from underground places even started acquiring that a new organization is being born that goes by the name The Sinners."
'Anti-villain… that's a major change, isn't it?' Thinking that thought inwardly, I brought the envelopes down and said, "Any news about The Saviours?"
"Heh, I knew you would ask that." Freya touched another envelope at the desk, seemingly knowing what to pick as she slid down the paper once more and said, "Me and my friends found that the victims of the Meery Incident are part of the group."
Looking at the image of the victims that I vaguely saw at that scene, I continued to listen to Freya.
"At the same time, we discovered that some unofficial organizations, gatherings, and establishments were also theirs. We subjugate already ten at this point but we knew they were still many."
"That's how large this organization is?"
Freya nodded, "Yes. And regarding what happened to the capital, I've also included it in that envelope which mostly involves the nobles. You can take a look at it later."
Putting the papers down on the envelope, I place them beside the thanks and smiled, "This is very plentiful information. I'll work hard on finding the killer and getting the task you will be giving in the future done,"
"That's nice to hear," Freya replied before she get right on the topic, "We have another task to give you. If you are going to the Eleyah kingdom, it's better to say to them that the humans didn't mean no harm to them."
"Uh—"
I was about to say that I wasn't exactly going to the continent directly but just one of its territories but Freya beat me out of it as she continued, not minding my also objection.
"Give them our regards, The Fordent Kingdom. You'll receive a reward far as you would imagine this time. Another thing is, you need to deliver goods to that kingdom also. You will have to go to our informant to retrieve something from him. It's a piece of information.
"Doing this, you can acquire a wish. As long as it's within our powers, we'll do it."
There's no need to beat around the bush.
"I'm in,"
Hearing those rewards, who wouldn't go towards the elven continent?