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‘He knows me then.’

The merchant didn’t seem like some regular small merchant, and all his acting only meant one thing.

‘He’s pretty good.’

He did not feel bad about him. The man just wanted to take a chance with the luck he had encountered.

“Do you know how much those tea sets cost? 100 gold coins for just one tea set! It takes commoners a month to earn maybe four to five gold coins. But 100! Even so, it’s still increasing! All the merchants know this and they want some too.”

‘I like him.’

Joonbum nodded as he had come to like the guy.

“I’ll join you. But you should keep quiet about me…”

“I know. Thank you for joining,” Ress nodded as he understood what Joonbum was trying to say. It seemed like he had half-guessed Joonbum’s identity, but his words proved it to be true.

“A drink?”

“I would like it very much!”

Ress nodded eagerly at Joonbum’s offer.

“Daryl! Bring the liquor.”

“OH!”

Ress shouted in astonishment and the mercenary captain Henderson also seemed to be intrigued from the back.

“We’ll all enjoy it together.”

Joonbum ordered Daryl to share the cup with Ress and Henderson. The scent made them focus on the cup.

“You can smell it then start drinking it by…”

*

The horses neighed as the long march continued.

“Sir! There is another group of merchants requesting to join us. Twenty-four carriages and fifty men. There are no mercenaries protecting them.”

Daryl rode his horse up to Joonbum to report to him. A lot of merchants had been requesting to join the group after he teamed up with Ress. They were scared of the thieves that lurked on the roads and they were now just before the mountain range where the thieves were known to attack.

‘Butterfly effect.’

It was the butterfly effect. The incident with Joonbum caused a chain reaction of various other problems. Everything that happened to the Ainos while he was at the mountain stayed within the Ainos because of their secluded nature. But once he got out to the world, it spread quickly.

What was funny was that thieves and merchants alike wanted to take chances because of the turmoil caused by Joonbum. The merchants wanted to take a chance where the Donian had strongly dominated. The news of thieves lurking along the road did not stop them from heading to Khaloda Village.

‘This will make us slower.’

Increasing numbers also increased safety, but it made their movement much slower. Joonbum wanted to return as quickly as possible, but he couldn’t. Two days after he joined the group, there were messages that merchants who were ahead of them had been attacked and lost over 120 men and 40 carriages. Only 30 men survived. The thieves that attacked numbered over 200 and half of them were on horses.

‘100 thieves on horses.’

These were not just some small thieves. They were also growing in numbers to fight against bigger merchant groups.

‘Someone must be behind them.’

That was the first thought that came to Joonbum’s mind. There had to be someone providing them a way to sell all the goods.

‘I believe it should be a noble. Only they can ahold of goods for a while before selling them.’

That was the only possibility. The only merchant group strong enough do such a thing used to be the Donians.

‘Who could it be? Lower ranking aristocrats can’t do that. It would have to be at least at the rank of a marquis.’

One name popped up after he narrowed it down to the rank of a marquis. There was only one.

‘Marquis Beneth.’

“Sir, we will have to camp here because of the newly joined group.”

“Alright.”

Giggs, the mercenary from the Ress Merchant Group, reported to Joonbum and bowed.

“They will try to buy time, saying that we need to be careful and all that.”

“We’re moving like a turtle! Dammit, I just want to have a good fight against those thieves and be done with it!”

Louise and Daryl ranted at the news. They knew the situation, but their young, hot blood could not stop them from blurting things out. Yet they seemed to be concerned as well.

‘It’s a problem.’

New groups that joined them brought new information. The problem was that the known number of thieves ahead was impossible to fight with their current group strength. That’s why they were dragging along. They needed at least twice the number of thieves.

‘They will be able to do it.’

Joonbum thought about the Black Brotherhood and their strong mercenaries. Those people were the only possible way to defend against such a huge number of thieves.

‘The biggest problem is…’

“Let’s set up camp! Park the carriages at their designated places!”

“Put it there!”

“Move! Don’t overlap with each other!”

“Are we resting already?”

“We got more people.”

“Dammit. I hope we will get our share with all these people.”

“Don’t worry. The thieves cut off lots of other supplies too. We can profit off of other stuff also.”

“What’s the lord of this land doing?”

“I just want to fight them once and for all.”

“Don’t even joke about it! You don’t know who will die when we fight!”

Workers chatted as they stopped the carriages and began creating a perimeter. Horses and Durans neighed as they freely grazed within the wall of carriages. About 200 people began preparing to rest. Some started fires to prepare tea. Most of them just ate hardened bread and some jerky.

Joonbum and his two servants, however, ate a nicely prepared dinner. They had cooked a chunk of cheese, fresh white bread that they bought from a farming house nearby, and Kuku eggs. They also had some summer fruit named Karoween. They ate and drank in full.

“Sir, everyone has gathered for the meeting.”

“Let’s go!”

Joonbum rose up, stopping in the middle of his tea.

‘If the marquis is backing them, the real problem is…’

Joonbum looked coldly to the front.

“We should go! We can’t just kill time here.”

“But the Cutton Merchant Group were ambushed and were wiped out instantly!”

People were discussing in loud voices. All these people were nobles representing their own merchant groups.

‘The same stories again.’

Joonbum frowned as he had joined these talks multiple times already.

‘The chance of spies among these people…’

Joonbum examined all the merchants gathered. The possibility of spies hidden among these people was very high. There was also a chance that there were spies among the workers.

‘I would have a spy hide in this group for sure,’ Joonbum thought. A spy would allow the thieves to gain knowledge of what was going on within the group and strike when it was most vulnerable. It would also allow them to target important figures withinthe group. Taking down the leaders would mean an easy victory.

‘Then I must be a target also.’

Joonbum grinned