In the last couple of days, Ismael had been feeling a bit of pressure. His youngest son had shown off his diplomatic and trading skills as he developed his wealth and invested in other corporations.
However, he heard that the Governor's son, Minos Zaraki, led a group of bounty hunters to capture a vicious criminal.
Ismael wanted his sons to accomplish something even greater. And today, Ruben Kari informed him that he had found the hideout of the Crimson Rats Mercenary Group.
Ismael was beyond excited to hear that news. This Mercenary Group was accused of all sorts of crimes.
For their arrest, the Kingdom has established a special prize. Aside from the monetary prize, that individual would be entitled to a portion of the area around Vlashire City.
This was what Ismael was after. He wanted that piece of land.
Even though he possessed a very high official position in Vlashire City, he didn't have a lot of private lands.
If he had a large amount of private land, the Kari family would have overtaken the Zaraki Family by now.
Ruben Kari was leading a large group of his father's subordinates who belonged to the special forces of Vlashire City's security agency.
The mercenaries he was going to kill were the same ones he had hired earlier.
Since he would kill them all, no one of them could mention anything about Minos Zaraki's death.
After that, only a couple of individuals would remain who would know the truth about Minos Zaraki's death. Ruben believed he had handled all of them.
Sargan wasn't going to betray him. So, Ruben expected that Sargan's comrade wouldn't betray him as well.
As for the Array Master, Ruben held his lifeline in his hands. Ruben held too many of his secrets. So, there was no way the Array Master would even think of going against Ruben.
When the mercenaries' hideout was attacked by these warriors, the mercenaries fought with all their might.
But how could they resist the might of trained warriors? Before the sun rose, the entire mercenaries hideout had been purged by Ruben and his warriors.
Soon, they cut off the heads of all the members of his mercenary group and brought them to the bounty office.
The rumors about this began to spread in the entire city.
Ruben's prestige increased immensely because of this event.
Through this event, Ruben didn't just manage to increase his prestige. He had purged the group that could reveal the information regarding Minos Zaraki's death. And lastly, he had recovered the handsome reward he promised these individuals.
He could now loan this amount back to the individuals and ask them to pay him when they could.
The people who had taken a loan from him were surprised when they suddenly heard that he required a large sum. But they were happy that they had helped him at that moment.
Now, Ruben was loaning them this amount without charging any rate of interest on his end.
This was an unexpected boon for them, and they were extremely excited. However, Ruben asked them to keep this clause a secret. If another person was told about it, this clause would be terminated immediately.
The Governor was growing worried for his child, who, according to him, was on his way to the nearby village and arrest that vicious criminal.
A week passed. Yet, there was no news from his son.
He then asked some of his guards to contact their friends. However, it turned out to be a fruitless endeavor as well.
He knew that something wrong must have happened to his child. There was no way his child wouldn't contact him after reaching the village.
He decided to talk to some of his contacts in that village. And from them, he found out that his child, Minos, and his guards never reached the village.
'Someone must have got to him on the way. But who can it be?' He wondered while thinking deeply about it.
'Their motive isn't to gain money. Otherwise, they would have blackmailed me by now. Since the assailants have remained silent, that means their target was Minos all along.' The Governor thought as he had a headache.
His son has made several errors. And figuring out who this assailant was based on the fact that he had a grudge against Minos was not narrowing the screen in the slightest.
'They didn't kill him, right?' The Governor wondered as he clenched his fist. He was most afraid of this possibility.
However, he slowly reassured himself by thinking 'No. They won't dare to kill him. I need to figure out where they captured him.'
His subordinates were now searching if there was something weird on the way. However, they found nothing.
Naturally, this was all because Sargan and Ruben had been prepared for this situation and cleaned all pieces of true evidence.
And the shreds of evidence that remained behind would lead these individuals to some other person's house.
These individuals were, in reality, some close allies of the Governor.
Even though the Governor wouldn't tear the treaties with these families, their relationship was bound to turn frosty.
The Governor would be investigating them since he would be suspicious of them for his son's death.
It would be impossible to persuade the Governor unless they could offer alibis of every member of their family.
There was also the Misty Flower Pavilion and Sargan's informants to fan the flames. Thus, the Zaraki Family's power was decreasing.
Since the other families were breaking contact with the Zaraki Family, they chose the other family with similar prestige and power as the Zaraki Family, the Kari Family.
Ismael was smiling from ear to ear as he invited these individuals inside. Their talks continued for nearly 4 hours. But the basic terms had been decided.
The detailed conditions would be decided later. At the least, a foundation of their cooperation had been planted.
This all occurred due to Ruben Kari. Ismael was much more relieved to leave the Kari family to Ruben.
As for Yrellea and Sargan, now that Minos Zaraki was out of the picture. The Governor's focus would be diverted to figuring out his son's perpetrator.
Sargan had already prepared those false leads. While the Governor was investigating them, he asked Yrellea to set up another branch of Misty Flower Pavilion in another city.
The next time, she had to do something similar. However, it would be a lot simpler. They might now point to Vlashire City's Misty Flower Pavilion as an example.
Vlashire City's Misty Flower Pavilion had worked wonderfully. It could definitely work in other cities as well.
Meanwhile, Sargan also had to expand his scope of information. Just Vlashire City was too small as compared to the Glerian Kingdom.
Thus, Sargan decided to leave Vlashire City as well.
The next city Yrellea chose to set up the Misty Flower Pavilion was Veninza City.
She heard from Laura that her master Azaroth was in this city. Azaroth also mentioned that it would be best if she set up her next branch in this city.
Noah, Laura, and Ralph possessed great prestige in this city. It would be extremely easy to make the Misty Flower Pavilion famous. The three just had to visit it every day with their followers.
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