"Who is it?"
Although it wasn't late at night yet, it certainly wasn't early. Tang Qi couldn't think of anyone who would come looking for him at this hour.
Fortunately, Chuck didn't leave him wondering for long and answered directly:
"Your friend, that chubby young nobleman—
And someone else, uh, an even bulkier gentleman."
In Dragon Gold City, "slandering a noble" wasn't a punishable offense.
The law protected nobles' private property, but it didn't favor their interests.
Still, getting on a noble's bad side, especially one of those rich, vindictive gentlemen, was like stepping in dog shit—they would absolutely trip you up somewhere you weren't looking.
For instance, they might hire adventurers or thugs from the [Red Scarf Gang] to make trouble at your shop.
Ten minutes after those people were hauled off to jail, the nobles would use their status to pay their bail, then turn them loose to stir up trouble again.
Being a "noble" was itself a guarantee of credibility, one of their few privileges.
So Chuck didn't dare speak too loudly, his voice growing steadily softer:
"I can't tell what they're after, but they've brought a bunch of scary-looking mercenaries and asked for you by name—
Anyway, perhaps you should come downstairs and take a look?"
It just went to show that being ugly wasn't the problem; being forgettable was.
Tang Qi almost instinctively realized that the only person bulkier than the little white pig could be Star Plum Town's lord, [Mel Barry].
"So there's no avoiding a meeting after all..."
Since he'd brought the man's subjects all the way to Dragon Gold City, there was no way the man would overlook him.
He simply hadn't expected him to arrive so quickly:
"Why was he able to leave Dragon Gold City? Has martial law been lifted?"