The situation was tense yet both sides were somewhat mirroring each other. Ajax and the less experienced of the two guards were both on the edge of turning the situation physical, the tense atmosphere getting to them a little. The more experienced guard and Hatchet were determined to talk it out peacefully.
The differences came from who was doing the talking for each side, and the power they had, the experienced guard’s eyes had not left Ajax despite paying close attention to the conversation.
“We aren’t here as hired guards.” Hatchet calmly stated, though he couldn’t hide the smile that crept on his face at the wary look the guard was giving his student. “We are here as passengers, these are our provisions and the order your captain read only appropriate goods from merchants.”
Hatchet had also pulled out the two tickets from one of the bags and extended them to the guards. Both tickets were rather odd as they stated a charge of zero coins paid to gain them.
“Both of these say you are traveling for free.” the guard accused.
“Where did this caravan start?” his partner cut him off, though more guards started closing in on their position.
“We started in Lessis.” Hatchet answered as he awkwardly twisted the tickets in his hands to point where the name was written.
“And you expect us to believe they let you come along free of charge?” he asked, though in a much calmer tone, than the first guard whose face was getting red.
“A common practice for strong adventurers, at least out in the backwaters.” The captain's voice sounded from behind two of the other guards who closed in on the commotion and parted once they heard his voice. “What is the problem here?”
“They are refusing to unload the supplies, sir!” the guard answered.
“As I was telling your subordinates, as we are not merchants the order does not compel us to give any of our supplies.” Hatchet stated.
The captain barely gave Hatchet a second look before he took a glance inside the cart. This was also the most likely reason why the guards weren’t just letting this go. Inside the cart Hatchet and Ajax had enough provisions to last the entire caravan a week if not more. He had argued the need for such preparations but his mother and sister would hear none of it.
“So you claim you brought all this food for the two of you?” even the captain raised an eyebrow at the statement, he would have been more aggressive had it not been for his truth sensing skill indicating no deception. “ How do you explain that?”
Hatchet’s grin turned a little teasing and without saying anything he just turned to Ajax and nodded at him.
“This is my first time heading on such a long trip.” Ajax rambled on with some embarrassment. “My mother and sister are both merchants by trade, they saw to it that we were fully stocked when we left.”
The captain was now in an awkward position. He was pretty sure that what they were saying was the truth. The problem was they also really needed the food supplies, supplies that the one armed adventurer was correct in stating they had no right to take.
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After a couple of minutes of silently thinking the matter over, the captain finally decided on a course of action.
“Alright.” He nodded to Hatchet. “ The order does indeed not cover their supplies, let them go.”
Despite the flabbergasted looks on some of the guards they all backed away obediently. “Make sure to take more from the merchants, with that supply in their midst we don’t have to worry about starving them. Not only that but it might also displace some of their anger from us to them just because they got to keep it.”
The captain whispered his new plan of action in a quiet voice but it wasn’t enough for Ajax to not pick it up. He frowned and was about to say something about the shady practice but Hatchet motioned to him to let it go.
“But why?” he asked.
“The food is most likely not for the city.” Hatchet explained. “We haven’t heard anything about this situation, this means that it has been going on for at most a month. That is not enough to even get close to emptying the food stores of a city like Lordin.”
“If they still have food why are they taking it like this?”
“Best guess?” Hatchet paused to order his thoughts. “This plague is not natural, most likely it has someone behind it. With skills amplifying it and a bad actor it might not be safe for the healthy guards who are needed to keep what remains of the peace to eat anything from storage.”
The explanation was not something Ajax expected. His experience from Earth had given him a certain base understanding of plague and disease but he hadn’t thought of how magic could affect that. Unlike on Earth here skills and magic could be used to enhance the plague, not just cure it.
During their discussion almost all of the remaining supplies the merchants had were taken off the carts and split into two piles. One was taken off to the side towards the outside of the city and a small makeshift camp, the other was taken halfway to the city gates before being stacked up neatly and then backed away from.
Once the guards had backed away from the second pile, six guards approached from the city gate and moved to collect the food. These guards looked better than the ones who had been standing outside. Their armor was polished and neat, yet despite that their faces looked haggard.
The quiet tense atmosphere went to hell when one of the new six guards broke out in a coughing fit. Contrary to what he had seen the guards always do up until now when one of their own was in trouble they all quickly backed away fear etched on their faces.
“And that all but confirms my theory.” Hatchet said as the soldier slowly got his coughing under control and headed back towards the city without stepping one foot closer to the food.
“We thank you for your understanding.” the captain's voice resounded just like it did when he stopped the caravan. “We wish you safe travels as you move forward towards the capital.”
The captain had quite a few scrolls he was giving out to each merchant, Ajax assumed that it was a receipt of sorts for the goods they had each given up. He was surprised however to see Jones also be given a scroll.
With this the caravan got moving again though everyone was in poor spirits after the whole fiasco. With morale this low and the sun coming down a decision was made to make a camp instead of pushing through the night. They happened across a good spot with maybe an hour or so of light still left as they started making a fire.
“Is it that big a deal that they lost these contracts?” Ajax asked Hatchet as they were getting ready to eat. “Nobody can blame them for not fulfilling them because of what happened and they technically sold everything.”
“The problem is who they sold it to.” Jones said as he and the caravan leader approached Ajax and Hatchet. “You see, the scrolls given indicate what the items were but there is no set price. That would have to be bartered for whoever the representative they go to collect from is, he will definitely have much stronger skills and would mean a much lower profit.”
“Not only that, but without the item present certain comments about the quality can be made with no proof backing them and we can’t really walk away from the deal.” the caravan leader added on though it looked more like he was complaining to himself rather than explaining to Ajax. “That’s under usual circumstances. With Duke Axebane looking to take over as the new house Steelblade they are going to be even stingier than usual.”
“Anyway.” Jones quickly changed the topic before the caravan leader could go on another rant like the one he had to hear ever since departing from Lordin. “Can we discuss sharing some of your supplies? They took quite a lot more than we expected.”
As usual Ajax wasn’t about to handle this discussion. Despite some merchant skill that he had this was all best left to Hatchet while he would observe and learn. Hatchet didn’t have a chance to answer, however, before Donny approached Jones.
“Boss we got a group approaching, at least twenty maybe more.” he reported. “Most of them wear the mark of the Healing Union but the one in the front bears the sigil of house Axebane.”
“Looks like we have to deal with that first” Jones sighed as his hand went to the scroll he was given and he started leading the caravan leader away from Ajax and Hatchet.