71 Old Acquaintance

While wandering around having a fun time, the occasional passerby gave some weird looks. But this was after all a huge fantasy world, everyone had long accepted that many intelligent races exist, seeing someone with different skin color and extra limbs wasn't too strange.

Jim noticed a disturbance happening nearby. Several men were shouting at each other, he happened to recognize one of them. Jim headed over with Celes to investigate. A smashed wagon stood in the street, the goods spilled out. Several tall muscular men surrounded a fat man, the leader of the tall guys was bald and looked intimidating.

Bald Man: "We'll report you to the guards, don't think you can get away with this!"

'Huh? That's the opposite of what I thought he'd say.'

Armand: "There's nothing wrong with it! Why are you being so unreasonable?"

Yes, it was Armand, the first man Jim had met in this world.

Jim: "Hold on, what's going on here?"

Bald Man: "This guy promised a shipment of White Poison Stone and showed off samples. We gave him half of the payment up front, but the delivered goods are useless rocks!"

Armand: "I personally expected all of my goods, they are legitimate White Poison Stone!"

Jim: "Could someone explain what White Poison Stone is, first?"

Bystander: "You don't know? They can be dug up in quarries across the land, and are easily filed down into a powder. The powder is slightly poisonous, but can be made into a highly effective all-purpose antidote. Hunters often use this to counter particularly nasty beasts."

Jim: "And you guys are hunters?"

Bald Man: "No, we run an alchemy shop!"

Jim felt it was weird, these guys had builds that wouldn't be out of place in seasoned veterans, but his Divinity senses were telling him they were truthful.

Jim: "You said your goods are legit?"

Armand: "Yes! Personally inspected!"

Jim walked over to the wagon and picked up some of the stones. 'Appraise.'

[White Poison Stone - Quality: Low]

[White Poison Stone - Quality: Low]

[White Poison Stone - Fake]

[Useless Stone, Illusion Magic Wearing Off Soon]

Inspecting further, a lot of the stones had traces of illusion magic that had recently worn off, approximately 80% of them were useless.

Jim: "Where did you get these stones from?"

Armand: "That's a trade secret, I can't just give it away.'

Jim: "Sir, only 20% of your goods are actual White Poison Stone, the rest are or were under illusion magic."

Armand's face paled, he just realized what had happened.

Bald Man: "You see? He's running a scam!"

Armand: "No! I..."

Jim could tell Armand was innocent in this, he had been scammed by his supplier. It was going to be hard to prove this, though, Armand had facilitated the entire deal and was the only face the buyers had seen. He showed up with fake goods and insisted they were real.

Jim: "I believe your supplier set you up. You really need to tell us who they are."

Armand: "...The Vientan Group."

Bald Man: "What!?"

Jim: "Who are they?"

Bald Man: "I-I need to go..."

The large men turned to leave, they had been completely frightened.

Jim: "Hold up, I can tell you guys are scared so I won't involve you further. But first, 20% of the stones are legit, you should at least take them."

Bald Man: "I...You're right."

A few minutes later, the large men had lugged away the stones and were going to sort them at their shop. Armand came over to express his thanks.

Armand: "Thank you, sir! May I ask, have we met before? You seem somewhat familiar, but I haven't seen someone of your race before."

Jim: "We have, yes. About 10 years ago."

Taking a second, Jim used his divinity to take his original appearance for a moment.

Armand: "Oh, it's you! Um..."

Jim: "Jim. So, tell me what the deal with this Vientan Group is."

Armand: "They have a somewhat bad reputation."

Celes: "Somewhat? They're bandits! How can you have dealings with them!?"

Armand's head was lowered in guilt, he didn't want to admit he had been associating with criminals.

Jim: "Alright, tell me everything you know about them."

Jim couldn't really call Armand a friend, they only knew each other for a short time several years ago. He had some sympathy for getting scammed, but Armand working with these bandits had likely fueled their expansion. Any favorable impression was basically gone now, but the bandits needed to be removed.

A few minutes later, Jim had a rough idea of their organization setup. They had flourished due to Amgula's reduced military force. Based to the southwest, they claimed to be simple merchants, but it was well-known their goods were stained with blood. They had a sizeable force, too much to handle with a small dispatch of soldiers.

'Monsters to the east, bandits to the west. Looks like I need to put off my break time.'