[Minutes prior]
Barret found himself on the verge of an outrage, veins bulging on his forehead as he looked over the paperwork of the losses his otherwise illegal business had sustained.
The first problem was that the weapons and drugs that he had in stock, they were confiscated by the princess, and the drugs were burned.
She also took the slaves and quite literally set them free, and she would be leaving the city with them to the capital.
Thanks to the warning from the prince, he managed to disassociate himself from most of the illegal business, every one of his associates were told to do the same, however while he managed to hide under the guise of being just a loan shark, the others weren't able to do the same.
Despite being the boss of the criminal underworld of the city he didn't have anything to hide, or rather hiding the gold was easier than hiding things like slaves and drugs and weapons although he supposed the guy in charge of weapon's trafficking should have had an easier time than the other two.
"Hiding slaves would be much more difficult, so it makes sense that they were found out"
The only thing he had to worry about now, was one of his associates spilling the beans but that was fine because the very knights that did the Princess's bidding would aid him in silencing any would be traitors.
The knights were not allowed to disobey the words of any member of the royal Family, of course to a reasonable extent, as long as they kill someone before the Princess can issue the order not to, they're in the clear.
Despite knowing all this, he could not help but be enraged by the princess disrupting his business and causing him to lose money.
*knock knock*
"Get in"
A woman entered, there was a look of panic on her face, and she was panting.
"What is it?"
"Boss I have two things to tell you. First, the princess is on her way here!"
"What?!
Barret nearly stood as he heard her words, there was slight panic that showed itself in his eyes, the only reason he could think of that would make the princess come to him is if she suspects something or she thinks he's the demon she's looking for, however Barrett quickly calmed himself.
"The second thing, Al is pissed off because some woman slapped him into a wall, and he will probably try and kill her"
" By Hes'ia's ass!!!, can't I catch a break?!!"
He exclaimed as he slammed his fist on the table. He knew that everyone in this city knew not to mess with Alexander, regardless of how they felt.
Both him and Al were practically kings of this city so anyone laying hands on him at this time meant they either heve a death wish or they're trying to have Al captured by the princess and the fact that the princess was on her way to him right now, meant that he could not go out to try and calm Alexander down.
This means that Al will kill someone, get captured by the princess, or killed since he'll probably fight back against her, and if that happens, Barrett will lose significant fighting power.
"Boss, what do we do?!"
"When the princess gets here, stall her, I'll go try and calm down Al, can't have him killing people while the princess is still around"
He informed his subordinate and quickly got out of his office and descended down the stairs. Unfortunately, someone was already waiting for him.
"Oh Mr. Barret, I'm glad you're here. My name is Reniella Aquais De Hendrix, and I have some things I wish to discuss with you"
Reniella introduced herself and Barrett couldn't help but curse himself inwardly for his luck but now he was certain someone planned all this, and if Al gets captured, he'll do everything in his power to find out who planned all this.
"Your Highness, welcome. I am honored by your presence. Please forgive the lack of reception, I was unaware you were coming"
He displayed the brightest smile he could muster at the moment, doing his best to hide his true feelings as he slowly descended the stairs and reached the bottom.
"Think nothing of it, this was an unplanned visit"
She informed as she freely took a seat on one of the couches in the room. She displayed a neutral facial expression however inwardly she felt a sense of guilt.
The amount of criminal activity that had been going in this city was appalling. How could the noble court let the city get to that degree? How could the royal family be blind to all of it.
Her main objective in coming to this city was to find and destroy the possible demons or demons that might be hiding in this city but now that objective has changed, there's a whole slew of problems she needs to solve first.
"Even so, your Highness, I must apologise for it"
Barret said as he took his own seat, he felt a great sense of nervousness as he did so, did she know about his involvement in the crimes or was she here purely because she was suspicious of him.
"Very well, moving on from that, as you know, I have confiscated approximately a hundred slaves from my investigation and raids with the knights."
"Indeed I'm aware of it, your highness, your work is admirable. I had no idea such criminal acts were happening right under my nose."
He could practically feel the tension leaving his body as he said all that. It seemed she was unaware of his involvement in all that, and he could relax.
"Do not lie to me, Mr. Barret, I'm sure you were keenly aware of them, loan sharks like you are morally bankrupt individuals caring only for the money, so I'm certain you've had deals with the slave traders in this city at some point"
Barret once again clenched his rear-ended cheeks and remained silent, waiting for her to continue speaking. He did not wish to speak and somehow ended up incriminating himself
"Regardless, I'm not here for that, although a thorough investigation will be held later with forces from the capital. Right now, I want to talk business, I heard from Philemon that you are known to be a much more forgiving loan shark that lends exuberant amounts of money"
"Of course your Highness, how may I help you today"
He gave her a wide smile, showing her his clean white teeth, an oddity among his type, but Reniella thought nothing of it.
"It is related to the people who were enslaved, I would do this myself, but I did not bring much money with me, so I need a couple thousand ixe in gold to help them"
She informed and Berret could not help but smile wider. This was certainly an interesting development for him and a great opportunity. It seems his luck wasn't as bad as he thought