Quickly, a whole day passed...
As dusk fell in Cusca, Tenur, Amir, and the 15 slaves of Mero's store closed up store, leaving behind only Sati, who would be responsible for guarding the place during the night.
The rest of Mero's servants and slaves had finally left Cusca earlier in the day, starting the return trip to the capital, from where they would pick up more resources to make deliveries throughout Noskain.
As such, those men and women at Tenur's side returned to their usual routine, with the only exception being the absence of Shui.
In any case, those men did not perform crucial functions in this store, so the day was relatively quiet, with many sales of materials as well as the higher value-added products of this establishment.
After all the changes in Mero's store, with new products and better decorated and organized surroundings, even the clothes and tools sold in this store were selling more easily.
The price Tenur was charging for these items was lower than that of Shui, but the difference was small for such differences to arise.
As he had expected, this was because of a greater attractiveness of the store for consumers, but not only this, an identification between consumers and products.
Now the customer who bought something there was not just buying an ordinary item, but an experience!
The item would be just as useful as if it were bought elsewhere. But no other store had the ambiance, organization, and distinctiveness that Mero's store had.
The status of someone buying there differed from that of people buying in other places in Cusca!
As a result, even for products he had hardly changed, Tenur was already doing better than his predecessor!
...
While Mero's servant and slaves were resting in the warehouse next to the store, a group of men approached from the outskirts of the store, sneaking around.
These individuals had weapons in their hands and, unlike those in Nail's group, had their faces covered by fabric pierced at eye level.
"Hey, Sati is around here..." One of the more advanced identified the mercenary's position inside that store. "What are we going to do?"
The leader of the group said seriously. "It will be a problem to have his brother against us, but if we get a fraction of Khaa's wealth, we will never have to work again!"
"Yes, we should kill him if he stands in our way." Another of them agreed with the idea of ignoring whoever would stand in their way to get what they were after.
This group of bandits, in normal situations, would not dare attack the Touma family store or even act against one of the two brothers. But many coins were at stake, enough for them to split and still live good lives.
Khaa wanted to become a noblewoman, but neither of them had that need or desire. Their needs were naturally less, so her fortune should be enough for them!
With that in mind, the six agreed after a brief conversation before preparing to raid Mero's store.
Unlike the warehouse, where Mero's slaves and servants were somewhat unprotected and had various vulnerabilities, the store had good security, considering its circumstances.
So instead of simply breaking in, planning to sneak in all the way, this group of thieves had to act more decisively if they wanted to get in!
When they all decided what to do, they attacked the main door of that place, with three of them using their axes to break the door in their way.
The other three had no weapons capable of breaking down doors. Still, given how fragile the wooden doors of this place were, they were there to help their companions by kicking in the weak points of the wood.
With these attitudes, Sati, inside that store, realized that someone was acting against the place under his protection.
He was watching across the street when the first noises startled him. 'Are they trying to break into the store?' He tightened his fingers on his sword, running to the front of the store.
Seeing that parts of the entrance doors were already destroyed and he would not have much time to prepare, this man frowned and ran to the bottom of the store.
He may have been the security guard on guard, but there was no point in him waiting there for the enemies, who were far more numerous than he could handle alone.
Sati's primary skill was not his battle strength but his analytical combat ability. So he promptly went towards one of his and his brother's pigeons, which would carry a message to Sefu.
If he could hold off his opponents for a while, he would have a chance of surviving with the help of his older brother!
So after quickly writing a 'help' on a small note and making that pigeon leave, he turned his attention to his possibilities.
'Now I can only try to make some noise to get the attention of the folks in the warehouse nearby!' He concluded as he ran around that store, looking for items to make noise.
Various tools useful in farming and the like were available in Mero's store. Since these items were metallic, they could produce louder sounds, which was Sati's goal.
He then took some of these items and went to the side of the store closest to the warehouse.
Then this man began to bang two of those metal items against each other, generating an even louder sound than the men outside the store destroying the wooden door.
"Damn it! The damned Sati is arming against us!" One of the bandits shouted, feeling that their time was not much.
But just after those words, they managed to break the door in front of them and gain access to the inside of Mero's store!
Sati realized this and kept making noise, knowing he could not stop those men from looting if that were their goal.
If they were going to seek his death, he couldn't do much to prevent it, so he stuck to his attempt to get the attention of Amir and the others.
"Kill that bastard while we search for the coins!" The group leader asked four of them to take care of Sati while he and his right hand searched that store.
The four obeyed and immediately ran toward where the noises generated by Sati were coming from, ignoring the many resources in the surroundings.
"Damn it!" Sati cursed these people, putting aside his plan to draw his sword and fight for his life. "I hope you people are sure of what you are doing. My brother will have no mercy on your souls when he kills you!"
"Don't listen to the cursed one. He wants to buy time!" As he stepped forward, one of the four said, initiating the fight inside that store.
Amidst the movements of Sati and those four men, the two other bandits were tearing the place apart, breaking furniture in search of hiding places for the coins in that store.
There was no better place than this to hide Mero's wealth, so they were focused on finding what they wanted there!
...