112 Chapter 112 - Investigation: Old Town Remnants Part 1 (1/2)
The visit from the Duke caused some things to become confusing; after a small conversation to get their minds in order, Gren began to walk downstairs with the women(and baby).After maybe one or two flights of stairs, a loud voice could be heard from where they had just left.”Where's the stove!?Did we get robbed!?”The voice was unmistakably that of Jasmine; the only one of Gren's wives to be completely in the dark about the guild's changes.
”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 shirt being in pieces tied around her body and being used to cover her breasts.”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 the slums and looked around.He hadn't really been back to the slums for a while except during the brothel incident but that was at night and there weren't many people present.There were emaciated men and women begging for coins, children sneaking food from the already poor food stalls, and even a dead body that was sitting partially in an alley that others just ignored.The people seemed afraid when Gren's armored group entered Old Town but Gren had already expected that.
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 lusterous 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 fashion.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.