"Slander! This is definitely slander!" Yu Lin Bloodhawk cried. "Steven, you're a very clever goblin. How could you believe rumors so easily? Willyx is a crooked merchant, but I, the esteemed City Lord of Quel'Danil City, am a noble of impeccable character. How could a noble possibly be a crooked merchant? This is nothing but blatant slander!" he declared indignantly.
"Impossible! If people say you are, then you must be! You and Willyx are both crooked merchants!" Steven shouted. "Plenty of goblin nobles are crooked merchants too!"
Yu Lin Bloodhawk thought about it and realized that was true. Being a noble did not mean someone could not be a crooked merchant. Goblin nobles were mostly the heads of major financial conglomerates, making them the crookedest merchants of all.
People like Willyx and the Lyk Brothers could already be considered among the most conscientious goblins. At least, although they were greedy and stingy, they did not swindle and cheat others.
So, no matter how he looked at it, they were somewhat more trustworthy than a crooked merchant like Yu Lin Bloodhawk. After all, to obtain a few gryphons, he had once shamelessly deceived his own business partner, Marquis Diritis. That alone firmly established his credentials as a crooked merchant.
Yu Lin Bloodhawk therefore decided not to keep arguing with the stubborn Steven about whether he was a crooked merchant. Instead, he changed the subject. "Speaking of Willyx, I haven't seen him in quite a while. I heard he moved to the goblin village in The Hinterlands too. Is that right?"
"Of course he did! That greedy fellow lives right next door to me!" Steven said. "That irritating miser won't move even when I ask him to live farther away!"
"Do you really find him that annoying?" Yu Lin Bloodhawk did not