Tying Olivia to the Kingdom

Marquis Freud and his family were finished, although they are still waiting for their turn, but my people have already taken them to the casemates of the palace, where I will visit this fucking family tonight.

Alex and Almeria separated from our group and got busy with their goal, and I with the team of adventurers Olivia and Karina headed to mine. The next target was Viscount Ogush, Marquis Freud's right—hand man. He was smuggling various luxury goods into the kingdom of Jorgen, and not that the transportation of these goods was prohibited by law, he did it just to avoid the 20% tax at the border. It is because of such people that the kingdom is impoverished, the quality of life is falling and discontent is rising among the people. But I will repay them for everything!

None of the things we encountered there caused much surprise. The Viscount did not lead such an extravagant life as the Marquis, and did not torture children. I could even call him relatively sane, he gave up as soon as he found out the reason for our arrival. He did not repent at all for what he had done, he in fact only improved the well-being of his family and they could afford a life without worries. Did this cause me sympathy? Who do you take me for? He will go to the block. But, as it turned out, most of his family was out of business, and I will let them go, forcing them to pay huge fines, they will probably have to sell almost all their luxury items to pay the bills, but this is better than the complete collapse of their house. On the other hand, I was a little disappointed, I planned to show off in front of the mercenaries and use the powers of the title a little, but the opportunity did not present itself.

Well, the small aristocrats will be taken care of by the royal guard with Almeria and Alex at the head, I decided to go after the first of the criminal groups — the Snake Band. They were sponsored by Kyle, their leader was named Snakinson, a short, about 150 cm tall, man with black hair, he was reputed to be a good killer in the neighboring kingdom before fleeing and forming his gang. Quite experienced in working with poisons, a coward in a word. There were about 50 people in the gang. And the base was located in the very center of the city, hiding behind a regular store selling all sorts of junk, buying and selling everything.

Approaching the destination, we cordoned off the area around. Karina, Olivia and I moved forward, entering the store. There were no visitors now, we took care of this in advance. Only behind the counter sat a fat man in his forties with a scar on his right cheek. I went up to him and said.

-Bring your master here!

The man with the bored look turned around, intending to tell me to get lost, since the owner is not there, but when he saw Karina and Olivia, and his eyes lit up. Following some perverse logical chain, he replied.

- I'll call him now.

With these words, he went inside the shop, continuing to stare at Karina and Olivia. He paid more attention to the adventurer, otherwise I would have already cut out his eyes, since I was already thinking about Karina as my woman, yet she was completely to my taste: beautiful, talented and innocent. As for Olivia, at least let every man in the kingdom fuck her, I don't care. But she clicked her tongue anyway. Soon the fat man returned, accompanied by a short, black-haired man.

- I'm telling you, boss, this time the pimp brought a nice product!

The runt, as I had already nicknamed in my mind, Snakinson for his height, suddenly stopped, as if crushed, when he saw me. He thought that once again the girls were brought to him, but he, unlike the fat man, recognized me, and realized that problems were waiting for him.

- Will you give up yourself or decide to compete with us?

I asked, realizing that the runt realized his position. But, apparently, he did not fully realize what was happening, so he tried to get out of it.

- I don't understand what you mean, Your Majesty…

My stats rose along with the level, and the same set of acceleration skills that I used earlier increased my speed to a much higher indicator, in an instant I was next to the gang leader and knocked him down with a blow to the windpipe. There was a crash.

[You killed a Level 3 fighter! Received 1000 XP of a fighter, the amount of the contribution is 100%.]

I wasn't going to kill him now!

Honestly!

Yes, I hit a vulnerable spot, but... he was too weak! Apparently, nature has deprived him not only of growth, but also of endurance.

Well, for that matter, then... [Ice Manipulation].

[You killed a Level 1 fighter! Received 50 XP of the magician, the amount of the contribution is 100%, the amount of XP is reduced due to the difference in 2 levels.]

Yes, that's the effect of the level difference, but it also works in the opposite direction — if the opponent is 2 levels higher than me, the amount of XP will double, if 4 levels, it will increase 3 times, and with a difference of 8 levels it will increase 5 times, this is the final buff. And in the same way, if the opponent's level is 2 lower than mine, then XP will decrease by 2 times, decrease by 3 times with 4 levels of difference, 5 times with 8 levels of my superiority, but with a difference of 16 levels, I will not get XP at all.

We quickly grabbed the remaining bandits, and went to the second gang. This gang didn't have a name, just a gang. Unlike the Snake Gang, they were located on the outskirts of the capital, you could say in the slums. However, due to the size of the kingdom, we arrived quickly. The number of gang members, however, was much higher than in the Snake Gang. They recruited the poor, orphans and other vulnerable groups of the population to steal, beg, etc. for them.

We were the first to meet these very groups on the gang's territory. I couldn't help but sigh when I saw children between the ages of 6 and 12 who were engaged in theft and other things. Olivia sighed, too, and I noticed a flicker of compassion in her eyes. This noticeably surprised me, my brain, with the speed of a falling meteorite, began to connect the dots. And I was able to outline a certain picture in my imagination. A little orphan girl worked for bandits to survive. After that, she noticed her talent and broke out of criminal circles. But in order to earn money, she had to use her skills, and all she knew how to do was fight, rob and steal, so she became a mercenary. Being deprived of love in childhood and seeing the cruelty of the world, she tried to plug the emptiness in her heart, but she plugged her other emptiness, many men plugged her emptiness…

I began to feel sympathy for Olivia, but quickly dismissed these thoughts, I was a misophobe in this regard, fallen women, regardless of the reasons for their behavior, did not interest me. However, if she ever changes and begs on her knees to accept her, taking advantage of her tearful story, then my heart might tremble and accept her.

Perhaps.

Unlikely.

Although…

Don't know. Still, it's all just my guesses, fuck knows how it really is. But the pity and empathy for these orphans in her gaze were noticeable. And I will use this. I will help the orphans to influence Olivia instead of her squad.

The gang was finished without any problems, a couple of bandits died, the rest were captured. I planned to interrogate all this pack and among the lower level of the gang, spare those who did not put their hand to something serious, such as murder, rape, kidnapping, etc.