A Step Backwards

Hearing the shouting from outside the store, Tenur immediately stopped what he was doing to go and see what it was all about.

Shui and Amir did the same, going to the store entrance, where a well-dressed young man shouted next to two women and a man.

To Tenur's surprise, these people were shouting against Mero's store, not the place across the street!

'What is going on here? Who are these people?' He wondered as his eyes narrowed.

"Senior, what's going on?" He tried to ask, but as he did so, he immediately suffered a wave of curses from the women beside the young nobleman.

"Shut up, you filthy slave! Can't you see that the young master is trying to speak?"

"People of your kind deserve the worst! Acknowledge your place and be quiet!"

Amir saw Tenur taking a step back, not out of cowardice, but because he knew enough about arrogant people and how not to attract more trouble by trying to talk to people like that.

In Tenur's view, some people did not deserve the gift of learning, of having a second chance. Instead, some elements deserved to suffer for their idiocy and personality.

When he met someone like this, he preferred to let this person sink into their own mistakes, even if he could rescue them.

Amir had already realized that this foreigner was not the type to waste time and stepped forward to take charge of the matter. "Gentleman, I must warn you that this is Mero Touma's store, not someone that allows women to shout at the door."

"Tsk!"

The young nobleman then said, stopping his handmaidens from speaking further. "Servant of the Touma family, I know well whose store this belongs to. I dare not come here to disrespect young master Mero gratuitously.

But my servants have identified men from this store stealing resources from me!

What are we going to do about it? I will not accept my losses quietly!"

"Stealing?" Tenur meaningfully looked at Amir as one who signals something relevant.

Amir frowned as he saw the look on that captive's face, then looked at Shui, who seemed surprised by all this.

But Shui was not shocked at all!

'Hehe, it looks like your troubles will start here, slave!' Shui thought to himself, but without failing to use his above-average acting skills.

Amir then said. "Gentleman, what exactly are you talking about? The slaves from lord Mero's store only left this place once this day and only brought items we bought earlier from the Amari family store."

The Amari family was one of the four noble houses of Cusca, a relevant power in the vicinity, specializing in agriculture and animal husbandry.

In the Amari family store, Tenur, Shui, Amir, and the four slave women bought resources essential for producing the loaves in this Mero store.

Earlier, after opening the store, Tenur had sent some unoccupied slaves to follow him to that store to pick up the purchased items since it was no small matter.

He would never expect that this simple action would bring trouble to his group.

The young master then said. "For they robbed me at the Amari store!

I also shopped at that place earlier, and my packages were to be delivered along with yours...

But what do you know, your slave probably ordered the others to steal part of my orders sneakily!"

'That's impossible!' Tenur pondered. 'If these slaves stole something like that, they would be punished by death at worst or lose a hand at best.

So how would they do that if their lives were so good compared to other captives?

Besides, if it was to steal something, they might as well run away too, they would have almost the same level of trouble already, but they could still profit from the theft and the escape...'

Tenur then silently looked at that nobleman, who appeared 1.8 meters tall, slim, and well-dressed, marking him as an enemy. 'You want to play games with me, uh?'

He then approached Amir and said something in that servant's ear.

Amir opened his eyes in surprise upon hearing Tenur's words but decided to trust this slave. He then said. "Gentleman, how much did you say you lost to our slaves?"

"Uh? How much?" That man from the Gaber family, another local noble power, exclaimed in surprise, not expecting such a question.

He expected that these people would argue with him and create a bigger commotion in this place, which would give him a justification for his men in the surrounding area to act and deal with Tenur.

But with Amir's question, the onlookers on the outskirts soon did not back down, feeling that everything would be resolved peacefully.

With so many relevant people in the surroundings, nobles already waiting for the portions of bread of Tenur to come out, the group of the man from the Gaber family could do nothing. Otherwise, they would run the risk of hurting these people and attracting many opponents to themselves.

After seeing her leader look at her, one of that man's servants said. "That, I think it was 50 silver coins..."

Amir then took a bag of coins from his pocket and took the silver coins from there, throwing them in the direction of that servant. "Take it. We will deal with lord Mero's slaves.

Thanks for the warning."

Everyone in that group was shocked by this development, while Shui had his mouth open in shock, not expecting Amir to do such a dumb thing.

But after that attitude, the customers in the vicinity saw Amir and Tenur return inside the store and paid no more attention to the matter, putting it aside.

Young master Gaber had no choice but to stand silently with his mouth open and eyes wide open, not knowing what to do in that situation.

"Young master, what do we do now? Of course, that is not what we wanted, but we have 50 coins..." One of the women said in a low voice.

...

Meanwhile, Shui returned inside the store with his face as red as a red bell pepper, not believing how Tenur had escaped an accidental death so easily.

At the same time, as much as he had managed to give the store a considerable loss, he didn't feel good since Tenur seemed to be able to reverse it quickly.

'Damn it! Hey, why did you do that, Amir? It was 50 damn silver coins!

That's not a small amount to be handed over without even debating the matter!" He shouted as he reached the side of those two.

Amir looked at this man and wondered if Shui regretted Mero's loss or if something else had not happened.

But he did not explain himself to this servant. "Shui, I don't owe you any explanations. As long as lord Mero leaves me as your superior, you must obey and not question me!"

"But what you did was stupid!"

"Be very careful, Shui, or I will rip off one of your fingers..." Amir stepped forward, speaking in a threatening manner while having one of his daggers ready to do the job if necessary.

Shui was not a warrior, as was Amir. So upon sensing this warrior's tone laden with murderous intent, that middle-aged man backed away, frightened.

"Tsk!"

That was the only sound Shui made as he turned away from those two, making room for Tenur to speak to Amir about what he had in mind.

A few moments ago, this foreigner had told Amir that he had a plan and for this servant to agree to pay for the loss of that young master who had 'been' robbed.

Amir accepted the risks of this move by Tenur and wanted to hear what this captive had in mind.

They then went to the area where the women were finishing cooking along with some male slaves, and Tenur began to explain in a low voice.

"This person was trying to arm against us. He or whoever he represents wants to cause chaos or damage lord Mero's store. So we must act against them decisively." Tenur said, attracting Amir's attention.

"How?"

"Since they have time to cause trouble for us, let's steal their family business," Tenur said. "Nothing is better than forcing a man to lose everything he has to make him reflect better on life's issues...

Let's make them bitterly regret trying to harm lord Mero!"

...