Tom walked up to Ye Wei'an without a care in the world, ready to go collect the money with him.
Fourteen hundred gold coins was no small sum. They weighed a full twelve kilograms.
As they walked, he suddenly said, "Hey, Gray Crow, what got into Buck and Cress tonight? Why are they wearing those iron pots in the middle of the night? Don't they think their necks are heavy enough?"
The men behind them tensed at once.
Only Ye Wei'an among them could use Alter Self, and Ailian wasn't skilled at disguise the way A-Zhu was. To avoid giving themselves away, they had no choice but to make Cain and the other man wear helmets.
But wearing helmets was suspicious in itself.
Fortunately, Ye Wei'an had already planned for this. He waved impatiently. "The wind's howling outside tonight. They had a few drinks at the tavern earlier, and the wind gave them headaches. So spare us the nonsense."
"The wind?" Todd was about to make a couple of sarcastic remarks when "Gray Crow" casually flicked his robe.
[Four Symbols Method: Wind]
A bone-chilling gust swept through the door without warning, making the rawhide on the walls snap and the oil lamp on the table nearly go out.
"See? Why would I lie to you?" Ye Wei'an said, playing along as he pulled his cloak tighter and put on a convincing shiver. "Enough talk. Settle the bill so I can get some sleep."
Todd hunched his shoulders against the wind, and his suspicion immediately faded. "Fine, fine. Damn this weather."
Muttering to himself, he walked toward the fake Buck, intending to clap him on the shoulder as he always did. It was how they greeted each other.
But the moment Todd's gaze passed over the fake Buck's right hand, his drowsiness vanished.
Something was wrong!
He suddenly remembered that one day last year, Buck had fought with someone over a woman at the tavern, and a Halfling had cut off part of his right pinky finger.
But this Buck's right pinky was intact!
He sprang back two steps, his hand already reaching for the greatsword on his back. He pointed at Cain and shouted, "You're not Buck! Who are you?!"
No wonder he was a veteran of the Amarisk Family. His reaction was impressively fast.
But the three hired thugs were still completely baffled.
"How could Lord Buck be a fake?"
"Why is Todd shouting that we're under attack?"
"Isn't Lord Gray Crow standing right there?"
Ye Wei'an was the first to react.
(Everyone, move.)
Ye Wei'an's voice rang out in his companions' minds.
The moment Todd drew his sword, Ailian—who had kept her head down and pretended to be meek—made her move.
She suddenly strained against the ropes binding her hands behind her back, and the seemingly secure knots snapped apart. The little maid slid behind one of the thugs, fingers held together like a blade, and struck precisely at his throat.
Cain didn't even draw his sword. He simply clamped his heavy gauntlet over the second thug's face.
Renn and Harold moved like a pair of iron pincers, one on either side. Before the third thug could even call for help, they had neatly snapped his neck.
The three thugs collapsed without managing to utter a single word.
"Gray Crow! Get back! There's something wrong with these people!" Todd shouted as he backed away, shielding his "companion" behind him.
This was the perfect opening Ye Wei'an had been waiting for.
True Strike!
The moment Todd drew near, Gray Crow's "panicked" expression changed. The Fine Steel dagger concealed in his sleeve plunged at a vicious angle into the bodyguard's lower back.
"...You?" Todd's eyes bulged.
The pain and absurdity of being stabbed in the back by one of his own left him almost unable to think.
He staggered around, staring at "Gray Crow" in disbelief, intent on subduing him before doing anything else.
Silver Light Sharp Tongue!
Ye Wei'an gave him no chance.
"Look at me, Todd. Look at the sort of scum you've been following."
Magic lent Ye Wei'an's voice a strange, doubled quality. To Todd, it sounded like a divine pronouncement.
Todd's mind went hazy. The greatsword he had swung at Ye Wei'an slowed by half a beat.
Taking advantage of the opening, Ye Wei'an let go of the dagger and reached out with his right hand. A blazing mass of Spellfire took shape in his palm.
Spellfire Bolt!
Arcane flame erupted at close range and struck the bodyguard square in the chest, blasting it into a bloody mess. The blaze also dazzled him.
"My eyes! Aaaah!"
Todd let out a shrill scream and was blinded, blindly swinging his greatsword.
His powerful slashes smashed the wooden stools and leather goods around him into flying splinters, but they never even brushed Ye Wei'an's clothes.
Ye Wei'an calmly put some distance between them.
Spellfire Flame.
Spellfire Flame.
Spellfire Flame.
Blue-white flames flared over Todd again and again. In between, Ye Wei'an landed another Spellfire Bolt to refresh the blindness.
Todd's struggling grew weaker and weaker. At one point, he even tried to use a Fighter's Second Wind to recover his strength, but in the end, he couldn't outlast the seemingly endless cantrips.
Two minutes later, the Fighter fell. Not a patch of his body was left uninjured.
[You killed Todd, Lv. 3 Fighter. Experience gained: 450.]
A Lv. 3 Fighter had been controlled to death by Ye Wei'an without ever managing to touch him.
Ye Wei'an didn't spare him another glance. He brushed nonexistent dust from his cloak.
"Renn, gather the bodies. The rest of you, come with me and help find the cellar entrance."
"Now let's see what 'surprises' Lady Selina has prepared for us."
The cellar wasn't hard to find. Ailian soon discovered a trapdoor in the kitchen.
They filed down the wooden ladder. As the glow of [Light] spread, the underground storeroom came into view.
The storeroom was larger than the shop above. It was less a cellar than a miniature smuggling hub.
"My goodness..." Ailian carried the light orb over to inspect the oilcloth-wrapped wooden crates stacked against the wall.
No wonder Lady Selina had run this business for years. Every item in the storeroom was something special.
If any of it reached the market, it would cause an uproar:
Three sacks of Blue Stone Powder mined from Thunder Mountain—this material could be made into healing and antidote potions with only simple magical processing, and its sale was restricted by Cormyr;
Five crates of Thunder Tobacco without tax stamps, evidently smuggled to avoid the hefty taxes owed to the royal family;
Barrels of Shadowdale Red Ale, along with enough Battledale Warhorse Harnesses to outfit a cavalry unit—all smuggled from the Dalelands.
Finally, they found a huge sack of Gold Lion Coins in an iron chest. When counted, it held more than eighteen hundred coins. They also found several heavy Dalelands Trade Bars. Together, the wealth was worth at least two thousand four hundred gold coins.
"She's set up an underground smuggling station here," Ye Wei'an said, gazing at the goods, tempted by the possibilities.
If they reported these goods to the royal family of Cormyr, it would surely cause Lady Selina and the Amarisk Family behind her a great deal of trouble.
And even if he simply sold them himself, they would bring him a fortune.
"Young master, what should we do with all this?" Cain asked as they left the cellar.
"Leave it here for now." Ye Wei'an sighed. "Find some furniture to put over the trapdoor and hide it. We'll deal with it once the main force arrives in Firefall Town."
On this trip, he took only the gold coins and Trade Bars.
The goods were actually worth far more than the coins and Trade Bars. Unfortunately, the system inventory had limited capacity, and the handful of them couldn't possibly carry everything away. They could only leave it here for now and hope no one broke into the Leather Shop before they returned.
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