Chapter 105: All goes well.

They saw a young man in a plain grey shirt, a woman in a red dress holding flowers, and a terrified merchant standing behind them.

The leader blinked.

“Who the hell are you?”

Kai took his hands out of his pockets.

“Good evening, gentlemen. Sorry for the unannounced visit. I could not help but overhear your plans for my company.”

The leader squinted.

“Your company? You mean the Undead Market Company?”

“That would be the one.”

The leader burst out laughing. He slapped the table with one meaty hand, and the men around him followed suit, some of them already reaching for their weapons with confident grins.

“You have got to be kidding me. You walked into my base, outnumbered and outmatched, to confront me? Do you have a death wish, boy?”

Kai tilted his head slightly.

“I was on a date, actually. You are the one interrupting it. Funny, it just so happens I am here during your meeting to take on my business. Strange, wouldn’t you say?”

The laughter died, as moment later, thhe room was filled with aura leaking from Kai’s body.

It was subtle at first. A heaviness in the air, like the pressure before a storm. Then it grew, pressing against the walls, the ceiling, and the very bones of every man in the chamber.

Carlotta set her flowers down on a nearby crate, placing the floating lantern gently beside them.

Then she turned her focus towards the men, her eyes dim and deadly.

“Shall I, my Lord?”

Kai raised a hand.

“Leave the leader alive. The rest are yours.”

Carlotta smiled. It was not a kind smile.

“With pleasure.”

In the blink of an eye, she made her move.

Carlotta moved through the room like a shadow given form. She did not need to use any grand spells or flashy techniques.

She simply closed the distance between herself and each man before they could draw their weapons and rendered them unconscious with precise, devastating strikes.

One man swung a sword at her. She caught the blade between two fingers, snapped it in half, and drove her palm into his chest, sending him crashing through a stack of crates.

Another tried to cast a spell. Carlotta appeared behind him before the incantation left his lips and pressed two fingers against the back of his neck.

He dropped like a puppet with its strings cut.

The entire ordeal lasted less than fifteen seconds.

When the dust settled, seven men lay scattered across the floor, unconscious and broken.

Only the leader remained, still seated in his chair, though his legs had given out and he was now trembling so violently that the gold rings on his fingers were clinking together.

Kai walked up to the table and looked down at him.

“Now then. Let us discuss your future.”

The leader’s face was the color of old parchment. His eyes were wide, his lips trembling as he tried to force words out.

“W-what… what are you?”

“Someone who does not appreciate people threatening his investments.”

Kai pulled out one of the chairs at the table and sat down across from the leader, crossing one leg over the other as though this were a business meeting and not an interrogation.

He glanced at the scattered ledgers and maps on the table.

Merchant routes.

Supply schedules.

Names and addresses of rival businesses. The amount of information the Crimson Ledger had gathered on the local market was thorough.

Including, Kai noticed, a detailed breakdown of the Undead Market Company’s sales figures, warehouse locations, and delivery schedules.

’They have been watching us for a while. This was not a spontaneous raid. They must have been planning this for weeks. Aw man, I know guilds we’ll be after the business, but in another town? What are the chances of that happening.’

He looked back at the leader.

“Let me tell you what is going to happen. You are going to disband your operations in Gatevally. Every smuggling route and every shady deal you have running through this city, all of it ends tonight.”

The leader opened his mouth to protest.

Kai continued before he could.

“You will then take what remains of your men and leave this city. I do not care where you go, so long as it is far from here. You will not return. You will not send anyone on your behalf. And you will never target any business affiliated with me or my people again.”

“You… you cannot just–”

“I believe I can.”

Kai leaned forward slightly, resting his elbow on the table. His red eyes caught the flickering lamplight, and for a brief moment, the shadow behind him seemed to stretch and expand, filling the far wall like a living thing.

“But if you need further convincing, I can have her explain it to you in a way that is far less pleasant.”

He gestured toward Carlotta, who was standing among the wreckage of seven unconscious men, casually picking up her bouquet of flowers and sniffing them as though nothing had happened.

She looked at the leader and waved with her free hand, her smile reaching her ears.

The leader’s resistance crumbled.

“F-fine! I will leave! I will disband everything! Just let me go!”

“Good. But before you leave, there is one more thing.”

Kai picked up one of the blank parchments from the table and slid it in front of the leader, along with a quill that had rolled to the edge during Carlotta’s rampage.

“You are going to write a full confession about every operation you have tried to pull in against my company and any other that might be linked to Rambosa.”

The leader stared at him, horrified.

“If I write that down, I am finished! No guild in any city would ever—”

“That is precisely the point. Consider it insurance. If you keep your word and disappear, this confession stays buried. But if I ever hear the name Crimson Ledger near my business again…”

He did not need to finish the sentence.

The leader grabbed the quill with shaking hands and began to write. The scratching of ink on parchment was the only sound in the chamber for the next several minutes.

When he was done, Kai took the confession, scanned it briefly, and folded it into his pocket.

“Leo.”

Leo, who had been standing near the entrance trying to process everything he had just witnessed, flinched at the sound of his name.

“Y-yes, sir?”

“Come here.”

Leo walked forward on legs that felt like jelly.

Kai stood from the chair and looked at him.

“With the Crimson Ledger gone, there will be a power vacuum in Gatevally’s merchant district. The businesses they were extorting will need a new face to rally behind. Someone legitimate. Someone with an established company and a clean reputation.”

Leo’s eyes slowly widened as the meaning of those words settled in.

“You mean…”

“The Merchant Guild seat in this city will be open before long. I want you to claim it. Use the Undead Market Company’s reputation. Use our sales record and our reach. Build relationships with the local merchants who were under the Crimson Ledger’s thumb. They will be grateful to anyone who fills that void with honest business instead of threats.”

Leo stared at him, his mouth opening and closing several times before he could form a coherent response.

“Sir, the Merchant Guild seat… that is not something you just walk into. There are applications, sponsorships, votes from the existing council members–”

“Then start tonight. The merchants this man was extorting are your allies now. Win their trust, and their votes will follow. You have already proven you can build something from nothing, Leo. This is no different.”

Kai placed a hand on Leo’s shoulder.

“Should you doubt yourself any further than you are have, then I would have no choice but to look at you are incapable of walking by my side.”

Leo’s expression shifted. The shock drained from his face, replaced by something firmer. Something that looked remarkably like resolve.

“I understand, sir. I will not let you down.”

“I know you will not. Go back to Sophia, secure the warehouse, and begin making connections with the local merchants first thing in the morning. I expect a full report within the week.”

“Yes, sir!”

Leo gave one final bow and then turned, walking out of the chamber with a pace that was noticeably steadier than when he had walked in.

Kai watched him go, then turned to look at the leader, who was still sitting in his chair, drenched in sweat.

“Leave. If I see you again, there will not be a conversation.”

The man scrambled to his feet and bolted for the exit, tripping over the bodies of his own men in the process.

…

[A/N]

Thank you for following my work this far, had an editor handle the rest of the work since the fourth arc. That said, seeing as the book’s growth has reduced, i can only thank you all for reading this far.

Money-wise, I might end this book next months given the circumstances. I hope you’d stick around till then.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep