113 Chapter 113 - Investigation: Old Town Remnants Part 2 (1/2)

The ten members of the Bloodletter Guild that Gren was able to capture were all guilty of various crimes.The least of which was the clerk that knowingly sold tainted meat and ignored the other criminal activities in the group.Besides the clerk, the rest of them were responsible for a number of thefts in the city and it wasn't just the two dead men that had assaulted women.When Mimi told Gren that their decision to go on a crime spree was the result of the the lack of a large guild overseeing their district, it made him realize just how much he had ruined things for others.If he could turn back time then he'd hire the independent mercenaries to patrol the slums after the destruction of the Golden Summer Guild; there was no option to let them live due to their plan to raid the FMC.

In Gren's mind, this was his chance to make things right.If the FMC could get rid of the cancer plaguing the slums then Gren could begin to rebuild it.The low quality homes could slowly be replaced with high quality homes built by the system.With him being the owner of the properties, Gren would be able to offer them the lowest prices possible.

”So, which guild are we going after next?You're the leader on this mission.”Gren hadn't thought of who to go after next and Annie could tell.”If I were in charge I would head south with our group and deal with the Head Crushers.They're the only group with the numbers to threaten us and it would be better to confront them before our group becomes tired.There's”

The Head Crushers were mostly demihumans which was rare for a mercenary guild but they started off as bad as the rest.The guild master had a taste for beautiful women but he was a poor and ugly orc so nobody wanted to be with him.It was an almost sad story if you ignored him robbing people in the past to hire a disgraced alchemist to create potions for him to distribute.Regular citizens couldn't afford to go to a healer and his healing potions used addictive ingredients that got people hooked on them.He ended up getting people hooked on his addictive potions and then spent the money in brothels or to buy sex slaves so his guild never grew to compete with the larger ones even though he had been operating for the last twenty five years.

”Alright.The Head Crushers it is.”Gren wasn't so worried about them because their profile didn't show anything serious lately beyond the addictive potions.”So, which way do we go to get there?”Gren knew it was to the south but the road they were on went from east to west.

Annie was annoyed by Gren's lack of preparation but decided to help him out anyways.She also wanted to clear the slums so going against him now would be pointless.”Follow me.Next time try to read the documents that Jessica prepared for us before heading out to the mission.”Gren did skim through the documents but they referenced the names of shops and Gren didn't know the place well enough to know where those shops were.

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Gren was surprised to see that the guild manufacturing illegal potions used an inn as its headquarters.The name wasn't even close to being related to crushing heads and was instead a very boring name: Old Town Inn.There were no symbols that showed that it was related to the Head Crushers like how the homes owned by the Happy Homes Guild had their logos on them.”Are you sure that this is the right place?”Gren felt it was odd that an orc ran an inn; pure-blooded orcs weren't exactly hospitable according to the stories he had heard.There were even groups of them still in the wild taming goblins to fight for them and they hadn't accepted the treaties with kingdoms like the goblin tribes run by hobgoblins did.

”Yeah, this is the place.The guild wasn't earning enough money with his potions to keep them going so his favorite sex slave convinced him to create a different business.It's entirely run by his sex slaves so don't try flirting with anybody in there.”Annie needed to add one more jab in so that she'd be satisfied.”You know, none of this would be new to you if just read the documents.”Gren thought that perhaps skimming through them wasn't enough if he missed something so important.

It'd be bad if he continued to keep making a fool of himself so Gren did something that was unexpected for him; he thought about the best course of action for their group to take.”You know more about the mission than I do.I think it'd be better if you took control from here so that we don't make any mistakes.”

Annie was a bit surprised at Gren's words but quickly got started on giving commands to the others.Gren was told to stay outside and that he'd be given more to do later if negotiations fell through.In reality, Annie was probably just keeping him away from the inn to prevent him from meeting the women that work there.Gren wouldn't do anything to them but it's not like he had the best of reputations when it came to women.

The group going in consisted of only women, including Jasmine.Annie had the idea of using the guild master's obsession to get him to agree to a temporary treaty; he wouldn't interfere with them in exchange for them ignoring his business.Gren wasn't so comfortable with Annie's plan but Jasmine was more than capable of beating up an orc if anything went wrong.

During the wait, Gren looked around at the people that were gathering to watch their group.The only people that didn't seem frightened by their presence were the children that had not yet learned to fear their fellow man.Gren could spot some people with injuries in the crowd and wondered if any of them were his fault.”Let Jasmine know that I'll be just over there when she comes back.”Even if the injuries weren't Gren's fault, offering to heal the people for free might improve the FMC's image.

As Gren approached the crowd, they backed away and made space for him to pass by.His destination was the crowd itself so their act of courtesy towards him wasn't appreciated.He couldn't heal anybody if they didn't let him get near them.There was one child, however, that failed to move.They seemed to be looking... searching for someone or something and was in a bit of a panic.”Are you alright?”Gren got down on one knee and talked to the child at their level.”You seem lost.Do you need help?”

”My brother's gone.”The child was on the verge of tears but was holding them back.It would be difficult for the child to find their own brother with eyes that didn't work.”He said that he was going to be wearing a brown hat today.Do you see him?”

”No, I don't think I see him around here.”There were two people with brown hats but one was a woman and the other was an old man.Neither of which looked like they'd be this child's brother.”Did you move from where you were with him last?”

”I think so.Some people kept bumping into me.”That might have been the crowd that was gathered by Gren's group.Either way, it wasn't good for the child to be alone.”I'm not sure where I am now.”

”You're near the Old Town Inn.”The child didn't seem to know where that was located so Gren ran into a dead end.”Give me a moment.I'll make something real quick that should help him find you.”There were a few things that Gren wanted to make and one of them would come in handy now.Most megaphones used a circuit board so the stingy system wouldn't let Gren build them; however, it did have old radios, microphones, and speakers which could be modified into something like those megaphones while being somewhat portable.To power it, Gren used a square battery pack that could be easily removed.The child couldn't see the device appear from nowhere so he wasn't shocked like the onlookers were.

”Alright.Just give me a moment to test it out and I'll let you use it next, okay?”Gren flipped the switch on the main body of the radio and set it down before holding up the megaphone part of it.”Testing.Testing.”The audio was a bit loud so Gren turned down the volume slightly before handing the megaphone to the child.”Just hold this part and call out for your brother.”