Godfather's System

097. Establishment - 41

Even as I sneaked the sneaky assassin from behind, I couldn't help but criticize his technique. He moved through the roof carelessly, relying more on his Agility than care to keep himself from making some noise. He clearly had Perception as well, but he was over-reliant on it, just glancing to the roof once before he moved to the edge, trusting his Perception to handle it.

Which was a big mistake, as even without using Concealment or Speed, I avoided his gaze.

Worse, I couldn't even assume he was an amateur by the standards of this world, not when everyone relied on their Skills and Stats to the point of ignoring some common sense tactics that would enhance the effectiveness incredibly.

For example, if the nameless assassin bothered to circle the building first before stepping, he would have a much higher chance of noticing me, forcing me to hide in a location that would restrict my movements.

I wasn't particularly torn up about having incompetent enemies, of course but still, professional respect.

I didn't target the assassin immediately, even though he was already moving to his position. Instead, I looked around, trying to identify if he had anyone to protect him. Unfortunately, I identified two observers, each about half an elatriss away, on different roofs, watching the commotion.

Which left me limited. I could capture and interrogate him. At this point, such a move was not above me, but the interrogation was a different matter. He either didn't know anything important, which would mean the effort that would go to that was wasteful, or he did, and the organization behind him would work hard to get him.

And, considering he was already on the roof of my building, it was extremely hard to convince anyone that his potential disappearance was not about me.

Of course, letting him go with his plan was not an option either. With the dungeon about to go into effect ahead of schedule, the casino was about to enter a time of profitability, and at the same time, the guild expenses would go through the roof.

I couldn't afford to keep the casino closed even a day.

With those two constraints, I had to force myself to a compromise. I slid back to the roof entrance, using Concealment to make sure I was not caught by the distant observers. Then, I moved forward once more, acting as if I had just stepped into the roof, not bothering to hide as I rushed forward, just suppressing the sound of my footsteps.

The observers were too distant to notice the silence, just seeing my reckless rush, meaning they had to assume that it was the distraction of the assassin that prevented him from reacting.

Before he could fire his bow, I was already behind him. Not even bothering to give a warning, I kicked him off the roof, and, as he flew, I grabbed his bow, tugging him off his fingers, even swiping his quiver filled with magical arrows.

No need to waste such a beautiful gift, especially when I didn't need to work to explain its origin.

"It seems that our honored opponents are not that honorable," I declared as I stood at the roof, and pointed at the assassin. "Catch him, and beat them all," I ordered from the roof. As I shouted, I did my best to catch a glimpse of his face.

I wasn't surprised to note that he had belonged to the Greens as well.

The sudden shift was enough to shock the attacking gangs, and a little flash of Charisma further robbed them of their words and their courage, so, they buckled quickly when my employees smashed against their formation.

First, a few from the back of the formation started running away, which soon turned into a chaotic retreat.

However, the assassin proved too agile for them to retreat, succeeding in slipping away. I watched as the developments, tempted to catch the assassin ... but at a distance, I could see a guard commander already stepping out of a building, accompanied by several other guards.

They were prepared.

With a sigh, I jumped down, ready to stop my employees from stepping out of our borders. But, that turned out to be unnecessary. "Stop!" Mahruss ordered before the first man could step out of the border, showing he was also aware of the risk.

"Nice," I murmured as I stood at the entrance of the casino. As a leader, Mahruss was slowly coming to his own, his blunder with the assassin withstanding.

Only after making sure none of our employees were stepping out of the line despite the elation of victory, Mahruss walk toward me. Another benefit to his side. "My apologies for the assassin, sir," he explained. "We didn't think they would target us like that."

I shook my head. "Do you think he was targeting you?" I asked. Mahruss nodded, but it was a hesitant nod, smart enough to understand that I was implying something different. "What would have happened if an archer killed our opponent from the rooftop of our casino?"

With that, Mahruss' face lost all color. "We would be humiliated all around the town," he murmured.

"Exactly, not to mention we would have an even more difficult talk with the guards," I said, and pointed toward the distance, where the guard commander was still walking toward our territory unhurriedly, and as he walked, more and more guards joined him.

I doubted they were here to help us fix the area.

"Should we lead them into the private room for some entertainment?" Mahruss asked, talking about the private gambling room that was set up for high-stakes games, which also used to entertain some of the guards they were bribing.

"Look at the guards. Does any of them belong to the usual guards that we're bribing?"

He looked at them more carefully, his expression shifting as the realization hit him. "None of them!"

"Exactly," I said. "It seems that they have finally realized just how much money we're making, and decided to intervene. Naturally, the ones that are benefiting from it don't dare to interfere."

"But that's " Mahruss started.

"How things go when you don't have enough power," I completed. "The only reason we had such smooth progress until now was Artmiss' fury after his charge had been insulted, and since then, enough time had passed to make that invalid."

"What should we do?" he asked. "Maybe if we increase the bribes we can convince them to stay their hand."

"No, if they wanted more, they would have visited us first. They are playing for a bigger prize," I said. "Let me handle it. Just gather everyone behind me, with their weapons drawn. It's time to remind them that, as a guild, we're not something they could just order around."

"As you wish, sir," he said and walked away, following my orders. Meanwhile, I walked forward, standing right at the border of our official territory, the employees lining up behind me.

Soon, the guard commander and the rest of the guards that belonged to the Night Blades stood in front of us. I recognized most of them, but the two that were standing right behind the guard grabbed my attention more. Both belonged to the Greens.

It was the reason that I was pushing that hard. I still had no idea what the Greens were trying to do, but one thing was clear, they were trying to slowly increase the pressure on us, first by targeting our suppliers, now by targeting the casino; both in a way that would position Night Blades as the responsible party.

However, from the confused expression on their faces subtle, but not subtle enough to avoid my gaze they were clearly caught flatfooted by my move.

The fact that the Greens were distressed rather than excited by my excessive reaction of blocking the path of the guards contrary to the usual tactic of bribing and convincing meant that we were in the right direction.

Admittedly, it was not my preferred way of dealing with them, but the way the Greens operated by infiltrating the Night Blades and manipulating their officers suggested some nefarious strategies.

What better way to deal with the situation than escalating it and letting Night Blades deal with them while Jertann and the rest used the dungeon access to strengthen themselves.

"How dare you block our path when we're on duty," the guard commander declared.

"I didn't know that his grace Duke Yoentia changed his mind about our rights in our own quarters," I declared loudly. "Or the fact that you're his emissary."

The guard commander froze at that declaration, smart enough to recognize the exact trap I had used during my arrival. Unlike that guard, he wasn't drunk with his new power to the point that a subtle emotional push would be enough to make him rain insults.

While he was thinking about it, one of the undercover Greens behind him leaned forward and whispered something to his ear accompanied by the familiar pressure of Charisma to influence his decision.

"As the town guard, we still have the responsibility to investigate gang warfare, no matter the situation," he said, and took a step forward.

Only for me to draw my magical dagger and press it to his throat the moment he took the step, far faster than they could react. And, suddenly, they froze. After all, for all the new reputation for weakness, I had been developing as a merchant, quite a few still remembered my 'erratic' behavior.

"W-what are you doing?" the officer stammered. "Do you know what are you doing? It will mean war!"

"So be it," I said tightly, acting like that escalation was not the thing I wanted exactly. I wanted to rest the Greens based on the sudden change of their operative principles, and blowing up the situation was the best way. "You think I will let you lot into my casino, when I have seen him paying the assassin," I said, pointing at the green who had just used Charisma on him. "Never!"

Of course, I didn't see him paying the assassin, but I had no doubt that, if Night Blades started digging around his recruitment, they would find many difficult issues. And, since I had shouted it publicly, the Greens didn't even have a chance of suppressing that acquisition.

The shock at the face of the Greens was simply spectacular, the small scene they had arranged probably to subtly pressure me and make some kind of deal to make the said pressure go away as leverage grew to an unmanageable mess.

I looked at the rest of the guards as I pushed the dagger slightly to the throat of the officer, drawing blood. "Anyone wants to step forward," I asked, not even bothering to use Charisma to intimidate them. The state of their commander did that well enough.

"J-just surround the area and arrest anyone that dares to walk out, we don't want to risk the life of the commander," the other Green declared, trying to prevent the collapse of the situation further, confirming my earlier guess that whatever they were trying to do, the escalation was not something they wanted.

I considered killing the guard commander that I was holding on my grip, to escalate the situation even further but that would turn the heat to me.

Instead, I turned my attention to the Green I had blamed for assassination, and hit him with a subtle yet sudden burst of Charisma, enhancing the panic he was already feeling. His eyes widened as he looked around then turned and dashed away, much to the shock of his partner.

"As you can see, guilty conscience," I said as I pushed the guard commander toward his team. "Either make sure your members don't try to assassinate us, or I start to retaliate."

With that, the guard commander looked like he was ready to argue, but looking at my vicious expression, he decided to take a step back.

I didn't even wait for them to depart completely to start giving orders. "Set up a palisade in our territory, we're under siege by Night Blades," I shouted, further escalating the situation. Mahruss and the rest rushed in, while I walked back to the casino, daring them to attack.

None of them dared to.