Trouble (1)

The beggars were setting bonfires.

"Boss!" Stephany shouted as she ran towards Nolan.

Everyone turned toward Nolan, and in the blink of an eye, they surrounded him.

He and Kelton placed the bags on the ground.

"Boss, who's this?" Stephany pointed at Kelton.

"He is my friend. Also, an excellent mason." Nolan smiled.

Without wasting any time, straight away, with a dead serious expression, Alfred asked: "Boss, can I speak to you alone?"

Nolan nodded. "Can I trouble everyone to take the bags?" He said and then turned to Stephany. "Stephany, please cook."

Stephany nodded happily and took a bag of grain. A few of the large group of people surrounding him took the other bags from the ground.

Nolan and Alfred then distanced themselves from the group.

"What happened?" Nolan asked, looking at the troubled Alfred.

"Boss, they are persuading me to betray you." Alfred said hurriedly and a little anxiously." They are forcing me to make my decision by tonight."

Seeing Alfred's behavior, a slight smile spread across Nolan's face. At least it showed that he was loyal and not someone who would turn his back on him as soon as trouble arrived. "Calm down. Tell me what happened."

"Boss, after you left yesterday, we crossed the mountain and arrived here. Then we had a chat. They never wanted to follow you. They follow you because I follow you. Now they are suggesting that we betray you and kill you. After that, we could turn the forest on the other side of the river into farmland and build a village on this side." Alfred made a little pause before asking. "What do we do?"

'I knew they followed me because of Alfred. But I never expected them to be this daring. Is it that easy to build a village?' Nolan thought. He was furious and started considering whether he could trust those people in the future.

"Alfred, you are a smart person. Why are you asking me such questions? I am sure you could have thought of a way to solve this." Nolan said, curious about what would Alfred say on this. After all, if he couldn't solve this situation, he would be unworthy of being a tactician, and the system recognizing him as a clever man.

"You are right, boss. I could think of something and temporally resolve the situation, but since I don't know your plans yet, I didn't want to say anything to them." Alfred spoke with confidence. He believed his decision not to say anything to them was correct. "However, boss, I must warn you. They already have a leader, in case..."

"Alright, alright, it's enough. You just need to buy me a few days. With the mason I brought and the manpower we have, there would already be a few finished houses in a few days. When they see that if they follow me, they would not have to worry about a roof over their heads and food, many will change their mind. However..."

By the time they finished their talk, the night had already fallen. It was pitch black. Only the bonfires produced light, illuminating the area in ten meters (33 feet) radius around the bonfire. Surprisingly, coming from the direction where Nolan and Alfred were, the first bonfire was surrounded by a lot of people. Almost everyone surrounded the first bonfire. Around the second bonfire, twenty-five to thirty meters(82-98 feet) away from the first bonfire, were only Kelton and Stephany.

Nolan walked away first and headed directly to the second bonfire where Kelton and Stephany were. After a minute or two, Alfred walked to the first bonfire with a slight smile.

Unlike previously, when the people around the bonfire saw Alfred coming, no one stood up, nor did they show him any respect.

Alfred noticed this change in their behavior, but he didn't care. He had only one thought on his mind as he sat down: 'With him, we might succeed in developing this village.'

At the second bonfire...

Stephany and Kelton chatted enthusiastically as Kelton was eating porridge. However, Stephany's face turned serious, and she stopped chatting when Nolan arrived and sat next to Kelton.

"Boss, they ate before we arrived here, so sister Stephany prepared very little porridge, which I ate. Sorry, I left nothing for you." Kelton said with a wide smile as he took another spoon of the porridge from the wooden bowl.

"Boss, If you want. I can cook for you more. I tried to stop him and save something for you, but he still ate it all." Stephany bowed her head apologetically.

If any other day, Nolan would probably have said a few unpleasant words to Kelton, but now he couldn't care less about food. And how could he? He has too many problems to think about.

"Hahaha. Don't worry about it. Your cooking is too good, so you can't blame him. I will eat tomorrow morning. It's not like I will die tonight." Saying this, Nolan secretly examined Stephany's reaction.

Stephany's whole body shook when she heard Nolan say: 'It's not like I will die tonight.'

"Boss, you need to be careful." She said anxiously.

A slight smile spread across Nolan's face as he heard her. He knew she must know about the beggars' plan, so he was worried whether she would tell him. He didn't want to destroy the image he had of her in his head.

He hid his smile, and with a fake worried voice, he asked: "What happened?"

"Two hours before you arrived, I cooked a porridge on a campfire. As I was serving the porridge, I unintentionally overheard their conversation. They plan to betray, and hurt you." She started shivering as she explained. Tears filled her beautiful blue eyes. "Boss, please be careful. You are not a bad person. If you can, please try to be more cooperative with them. I don't want them to hurt you."

Seeing her beautiful blue eyes filled with tears, Nolan felt heartache. Because of bastards like those greedy beggars, Nolan made the kindest person in the world cry. "Don't worry." He said in a gentle, comforting voice. "Don't cry. After a few days, everything will be fine again."

"Mmm." Stephany nodded, and a bright smile spread across her face.

Nolan smiled back and turned towards Kelton, who was looking at him with a weird smile. It took Nolan a minute to understand what Kelton meant. His eyes widened.

'I know that look...' With this thought in mind, he immediately shifted his gaze back to Stephany.

She was staring at the fire.

Nolan looked at her beautiful face for a minute. The only sound that prevented the dead silence was the distant voices of the people from the first bonfire and the crackling sound of the fire.

He placed his right hand on his heart, feeling his heartbeat through the clothes. His heart was not racing, but its beating was not normal either. It was just slightly faster than normal. He clenched his clothes. "Am...Am I developing feelings for her?" He muttered to himself in a low voice. A voice that only he could hear. "This is impossible. How could I develop feelings? It must be that I am too excited because of the things happening lately. Yeah, that's it. It's because of those almost impossible missions and the possibility of so many beggars killing me in my sleep. Yeah, that is the case."

"Boss, are you alright?" Kelton asked. "What are you mumbling?"

Stephany also turned to look at him.

"I-It's alright." He replied hurriedly. "Anyway, where will we sleep?"

"Ah! About that, we decided before you arrived. We built fifteen temporary houses. Uncle Alfred decided when you come back, me, him, you and the mason you brought back would sleep in one house." As she spoke with a gentle smile on her face, the red light from the fire shone and was lightening her beautiful face, adding to her face fiery beauty.

"Please show me our house." Nolan stood up, and Stephany followed immediately after him.

"Alright, follow me." She took the lead and walked forward while Nolan followed behind. They passed by a few houses before arriving at the destination. "Boss, you can go ahead and sleep first."

"Stephany, can you see in the dark?" This weird question of Nolan's was like thunder from a clear sky. "I mean, how can you lead me to this house in this dark? This is probably the darkest night I have ever seen, I could barely see a finger before my nose, but you can walk around like it's daylight.

Stephany giggled. "Boss, most of the time, you look so serious and smart, yet you asked such a foolish question. Of course that I can't see in the dark. I just remember the exact location of the house."

Nolan was speechless and embarrassed. He didn't know what to do in such a situation. Thus he entered the house.

"Good night. See you tomorrow." Stephany uttered and walked back toward the second bonfire where Kelton sat alone.

Nolan knelt on the ground. Crawlingly, he found his way to the wall where he lay and closed his eyes.

...

Around the first bonfire...

The children were already asleep in some of the houses, so the people around the bonfire chatted happily without worrying whether the kids would go too close to the fire. Everyone chatted about casual themes like politics or their life before. So, Alfred stood up to leave.

"Brother Alfred, have you thought about what we discussed yesterday?" A man with short dark hair appearing to be in his middle forties said. He wore dirty clothes like everyone else and had very average facial features. He was not ugly, but neither was he handsome.

As the man spoke, the chatter stopped immediately, and the atmosphere became tense. Be it a man or a woman, everyone stood up and surrounded Alfred. The man also stood up and stood in the circle together with Alfred.

Alfred froze for a moment. The smile he had on his face when he stood up slowly dimmed as his face turned deadly serious.

Alfred was facing the man with his back, so he turned back and looked into his eyes. "You were serious about that? Fox, have you thought it through? Once you do it, there is no coming back."

"It's not like we could trust him. It's better to take things in our hands," Fox said while the beggars nodded in approval.

"It's better to wait a few more days to see how things turn out." Alfred turned to leave, but a few beggars stopped him. He turned back at Fox again.

"Brother Alfred, we respect you. However, don't think we wouldn't have the heart to end you." Fox pointed his thumb at his throat and made a motion like cutting his throat.

A dead silence followed, accompanied only by the crackling sound of the burning fire. Lightened by the fire, the beggars didn't look as beautiful as Stephany. Instead, they looked like hungry beasts ready to devour Alfred at any moment.

"Everyone, listen carefully." Alfred broke the silence. "Is the current situation bad? Is it bad not to have to worry about food? Is it bad that we don't have to beg anymore? I admit that we currently don't have a steady roof over our heads, but it's still better than those ruins we previously stayed in. Do you know why? Because what we have now is ours. And I believe that things will become even better in a few days.

Your leader might have said that building a village is easy, but can he provide tens of silver taels a month only for food, not to mention clothes and other necessities? Can he hire a peerless mason to build the houses? He can't.

You all saw how long it took us to save one tael of silver. We begged for weeks. He doesn't care whether you remain a beggar for life. What he cares about is being the boss of the hundred beggars that are here."

A quarrel emerged between the beggars immediately after Alfred finished his speech. With just a few words, he divided the beggars into factions,

those who turned against Fox and those who protected him.

The sudden turn of events shocked Fox. Never did he expect nor believed that this could happen. Those brainless beggars turned against him. A sense of crisis enveloped him, and he started panicking.

He went through so much trouble to make them believe that Alfred was not a suitable leader, and now everything will get ruined if he doesn't say anything. All his efforts will be in vain.

"Enough!" Before Fox could say anything, Alfred shouted from the bottom of his lungs.

The beggars immediately stopped quarreling, and all, including Fox, turned towards Alfred.

"Those who are willing to follow Nolan, stand beside me. Those who oppose him, stand beside Fox and... prepare to die."