Chapter 108
"I'll go greet Jasmine and the others. You three go get some rest, and please change Clarissa from that outfit before her face gets stuck in that position." As adorable as her grumpy face was, Gren preferred her normal happy face. After separating with the others, Gren could hear bits and pieces of a conversation between the returning mercenaries. Luna didn't seem too worried about the stove missing but Midna was freaking out along with Jasmine. Gren was pretty sure that he heard Ahk say that she'd chop up the person that moved the stove which only made Gren nervous since he was the one that did it.
It would be a good idea to hurry up and tell them about the situation so Gren ran up the rest of the stairs. The sight that greeted him was a group of roughed-up women that were all familiar to him. Jasmine was holding her battered breastplate over her shoulder with some bruises on her stomach that was exposed due to her s.h.i.+rt being in pieces tied around her body and being used to cover her b.r.e.a.s.t.s. "What happened?" Gren was curious about how they all ended up looking like they were beaten badly. Even Ahk was missing some pieces of her armor.
"That's what I want to know. Someone took our stuff!" There was an instant confusion over what the topic was about when Jasmine answered Gren. "How could someone just come in here and take our stove? AH! Even the water device is missing!"
"Nothing was stolen, Jasmine. We rearranged everything and moved all of the furniture downstairs." Gren wanted to get them quickly caught up on what was going on since they would be necessary if fights broke out. "The guild is going through some changes right now. Let's get you four fixed up before we head downstairs to talk about what's going on." It was already getting dark so Gren was able to explain things over a nice warm meal.
Gren explained that he had been long sick of what was going on in Adierton. Guilds were getting away with terrible things since the soldiers had abandoned the southeast district which was better known as the slums. They were already somewhat aware of the problem and the Golden Summer incident with them targeting the FMC only helped to make Gren realize that the slums were worse off than he had originally expected. The problem wasn't contained, however, as Gren soon found out that even the commoner districts had been targeted by the criminal guilds and soldiers weren't able to deal with the problem.
Right now they had already started to move against the southwest district; the commoner district that had one of the two large markets in the city and the Cathedral in it. It would be some time before there was any action from the Happy Homes Guild but Ahk would be especially important when they needed to intimidate them. The next target would be the slums themselves or, more specifically, Old Town; a part of the slums characterized by having more stone structures that had existed for hundreds of years.
The shantytown's problems weren't as severe as there wasn't much for the guild to exploit there and there were many independent mercenaries living there; especially now after the disastrous winter that took out many homes. Selling their plot of land in Old Town and buying a small hut in Shantytown was cheaper so many mercenaries moved. It's not like being further away from the markets would have much of an impact on the lives of the mercenaries since they were used to being active and they were often off on requests anyways. The Shantytown still had problems that would need to be dealt with but they could afford to wait.
Talking about problems, the request that the women just returned from was nothing but problems. A simple request to protect a group of people as they explored an underground structure turned into a fight for survival when the statues came to life and attacked them. Weapons were lost--including Ahk's second axe--and many pieces of armor would need to be replaced since they were beyond repair. None of the people died but the only treasure found was a single copper coin that had been wedged in a tight spot. The place that they were describing was most likely the same one that Gren had cleared out already but he couldn't just tell them that he was the reason why their request went terribly.
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The next morning was nice and peaceful which was a nice change from the chaos that occurred when Jasmine found out that Gren took two more wives. Even though the injuries were already healed, Gren still felt like his ribs were broken. It was all in his mind now but she really did a number on his body when she treated him like a pinball. The rage was apparently a dracanoid thing and Gren didn't want to be on the receiving end of it again so he decided not to take any other wives without her approval.
Thankfully, Gren didn't have to worry about being glared at by his angry wife for long since he had work to do. Of the eight criminal guilds left in Adierton that Gren hadn't been through, Old Town had five of them. The other half of the slums--Shantytown--had two criminal guilds while the Northeast District only had one. Right now, Old Town's largest guild was gone and, with the Scarlett Guild not taking care of the streets, crime was becoming more common.
The problem became more apparent as Gren entered
Annie had come along again but this time with the optional Mimi attachment. Jasmine was donning her new armor that looked ornate because Gren wanted to suck up to her; even her wings had armor that would fit over them when they were tucked in. Ahk just looked the same as always with her plain armor but that was plenty intimidating already. Rodge was in his high performance l.u.s.terous magic armor from the Church. It was a very intimidating group already with just those members but there were dozens of armored people behind him.
Nearly every single active guild member and even a few previously inactive guild members were marching with Gren, albeit in a slightly disorganized fas.h.i.+on. Along with them were the independent mercenaries that Jessica had hired. The closest guild to the southern market street was the Bloodletter Guild and they were one of the more openly terrible guilds. After the Golden Summer Guild was destroyed, they embraced the lawlessness and began to act out more openly than they had before. Gren felt responsible for this as it was largely his fault that the slums had reached this state. While it was true that the final straw for the Golden Summer Guild's destruction was the group of mercenaries being killed in front of the FMC, Gren was the one that set that event in motion by taking the key to their vault.
Gren gave the signal to stop and, after a bit of b.u.mping, his little army stopped moving. "I'll go in ahead. Those that surrender will be checked by Mimi. The criminals will be tied up while those that are innocent will just be kept under watch until we're sure that we've cleared the guild. I doubt that every person in there will surrender so have everybody create a perimeter." Gren was taking command on this mission and giving instructions to Annie.
The Bloodletter Guild was located in a butcher's shop. Compared to the guilds that Gren was used to, it was pretty small. Even if you counted the two that Gren killed, their numbers only reached a baker's dozen. They wouldn't pose a risk to Gren's group but it was enough to harm the locals in the slums. Gren was enough to deal with them with his own magic armor but the point of bringing the entire group was to act as a show of force to intimidate other groups into behaving. As Gren entered the butcher's shop, the other mercenaries were following Annie's instructions and moving into position.
The inside of the butcher's shop was clean. Unlike the butchers on Earth, these ones needed to do all of their work in the bas.e.m.e.nt where it was cool. The storefront would be too warm for storing meat and a shop in the slums that sells meat sourced from average hunters and poor ranches wouldn't be able to make a profit if they used a magic device capable of cooling things. "Can I help you?" The store clerk seemed nervous but managed to speak to Gren like he was a normal customer.
"I'm here to shut down the Bloodletter Guild." Gren didn't want to risk his own safety so he was wearing the golden armor. It was extremely easy for people to mistake him for someone important. "If you're not guilty of any crimes then I suggest you turn yourself in to the people waiting outside. They won't harm you." The clerk seemed like a peaceful woman but Gren wasn't going to treat her differently than the men in the guild. Ahk and Jasmine had proven that women in this world were more than capable of fighting back and the fact that the women from the Elven fort had helped the men destroy the lives of others meant that he couldn't drop his guard against them.
Gren had already thought about the fact that his gun wouldn't be intimidating to people that didn't know what it could do so he put a bayonet on it. At least with the bayonet it would seem like an odd spear. With Gren pointing it at the clerk, she listened to his instructions and left the shop; he could see Annie grabbing her when looking outside of the window so he could turn his attention to the door leading back.
This was Gren's first time in this shop so he didn't know the layout; the hallway behind the storefront led to two different doors and an opening that seemed to lead into a storage room since Gren could see crates stacked up. Each of the doors opened out into the hallway so Gren grabbed some of the crates from his pocket dimension and barricaded them before going into the storage room. Inside of the crates in the storage room were seemingly random things; clothes, silverware, pots and pans, dishes, and cheap jewelry. Stolen goods, no doubt; they had tried, unsuccessfully, to sell similar goods to the Scarlett Guild in the past. Gren would do his best to return the goods to the people but he wasn't even sure if their original owners were still alive.
Beneath the crates was a hatch that led into a crawls.p.a.ce. The crates wouldn't fit so they had everything piled into sacks instead. Unlike the goods in the storeroom above, these ones seemed to be valuable; some of them being suspiciously expensive products like gold jewelry, silk clothes, and even a black iron slave collar with traces of blood on it. These weren't mentioned in the report so they must not have tried selling them yet.
The storeroom and its crawls.p.a.ce's contents were now in Gren's possession so there was nothing left to do there. Going back through the hall, Gren removed the barricade from in front of the closest door and entered it. There was a simple kitchen in the same room as a small living s.p.a.ce and a man was asleep in there; his body laying half on and half off of the bench on the other side of the room. Judging by the bottles around him, the guy was most likely sleeping off his inebriation. A few pokes from the b.u.t.t of Gren's gun didn't wake him up so he decided to just drag him outside of the guild by hand.
There was n.o.body else in the living s.p.a.ce so Gren moved on to the final area of the first floor which turned out to be the door leading to the bas.e.m.e.nt. It would be annoying to have to search the first floor again so Gren barricaded the door by placing the crates on the other side of the door after entering the staircase. Although the staircase didn't go as deep as the one that the FMC had, it still led to the ruins that Gren was familiar with. There was the unique patterns on the large stones that the structure was made out of which helped to circulate magic somehow according to the system. Even with the system's explanation, Gren didn't fully understand it.
At the bottom of the stairs was a man sitting down while eating an apple with a knife. There was an awkward pause as the man and Gren locked eyes. Although the man said something illegible with his mouth full, Gren was pretty sure that the guy said something along the lines of 'who the f.u.c.k are you' or 'what the f.u.c.k are you doing here'. Gren wasn't going to let the guy go without a proper answer. "Due to the actions of the members of your guild, the Bloodletter Guild is being shut down. If you don't resist then you won't be harmed. Those of you that have committed no crimes will be allowed to go free."
Gren could understand the guy's response. If someone entered the FMC and gave a speech like that then Gren would probably attack him in a similar manner. The criminal guilds were full of unskilled warriors that could only challenge people with no formal training, however, so Gren was able to wrestle the knife out of the man's hand. "What did I just say about resisting?" After grabbing the man's arm, Gren swept his leg out from underneath him and twisted the arm behind his back. Using some reinforced handcuffs, Gren made sure that the guy couldn't get loose. There was nothing built into the ground to attach him to so Gren created a large solid steel block with some bars attached to it. Not even Ahk would be able to move that block... probably.
The noise of the guy's yells attracted other people which made Gren's job easier. The only person that was even slightly difficult to take down was a large man with one eye that was using a large two-handed mace. Taking away the mace with his pocket dimension made it easy for Gren to distract him and get in his blind spot. Using a large shackle to attach his legs together caused him to trip and Gren didn't need to do much else. There was one person missing from their group but Gren couldn't find them after searching the entire bas.e.m.e.nt so he decided to just head up and get some of the other mercenaries to help him bring the guys up.
The Bloodletter Guild was in a butcher's shop but Gren didn't want to take any of the meat home with him. They cut the meat into small strips and mixed it together so people didn't know where they got it from but the system was able to use scans from Gren's past kills to determine where the meat came from. Besides the animals they had hunted and bought in order to slaughter them, there were rats and other pests mixed in. Not only was it dangerous to mix raw meats like that but many of the rats carried diseases and anybody that bought from this shop was at risk of catching something terrible. Even if they weren't violating other laws, just by their practices they should have been shut down by the authorities if they were aware of it.
The fact that the Flours bakery was shut down while these guys were allowed to keep operating under these conditions made Gren question why that was the case. It's not like they didn't actually sell meat; Gren found a ledger that showed their shop's transactions and with Mimi there they were able to confirm that the ledgers were accurate. Mimi's look into their memories ended up revealing that people had complained about them but nothing was done. There wasn't much evidence to prove why that was the case since he'd need to have Mimi look into the memories of the people in charge but right now it seemed that it was due to them being in the slums. n.o.body cared about the people that lived here and Gren was hoping to change that.