After several days of travel, Aaron finally returned to Suzail.
When he had left Suzail, he had been empty-handed.
When he returned, his belongings filled two large carts, and he had even hired several people specifically to transport them. At the foot of the mountain, he had found a Cormyr border patrol and requisitioned a few soldiers in his capacity as an Inner Court Knight. Then he had found several able-bodied farmers in a nearby village who had just finished harvesting and entered their slack season, and had them help haul all the heavy cargo back to Suzail.
Clearly, at least in Cormyr, Aaron's title of Viscount and position as an Inner Court Knight were still quite useful.
Normally, in the Realms, a lone adventurer carrying such rich spoils would be seen as easy pickings.
When traveling through the Realms, apart from monsters in the wilderness and tribes of other races such as Kobolds, Gnolls, Goblins, and Orks, the most common bandits were actually noble bandits, followed by military bandits and bureaucratic bandits.
Yes, that was right. Contrary to what most people imagined, noble bandits, rather than the "professional bandits" people usually pictured, were the mainstream in the Realms.
There had once been a knight of noble birth named Vincent, who obtained a tax collector's position by bribing a higher-ranking noble. This fellow sat beside a bridge and collected a five-percent "bridge toll" from every passing caravan.
He soon made a fortune from it, because this clever noble knight knew how to select his targets. He always let large groups pass without trouble, then focused his attention on travelers with few people and plenty of goods. He arranged for them to undergo "special inspections" in a roadside house, then he and his attendants tied stones to their corpses and sank