Arthur was very conflicted, while he had no problems with killing and hiding the dead bodies of the previous gang members that tried taking ‘protection’ money from him, these one hadn’t actually done anything to him yet. At worse they are just being creepy by watching him and that isn’t quite enough to kill them for.

‘They should still have several of their members within that tavern, I could go there and find someone to tell me about the gang. The bartender did tell me where the gangs leadership was meeting, if he is also the owner he should also know when their next meeting is or at least who they are.’

Now Arthur had a proper plan, but the problem was he could go straight to the tavern without risking giving away his intentions to those who were watching. He usually went up north to one of the other three districts of the city, if he were to suddenly go the opposite direction it wouldn’t require a genius to understand what he is doing. That would leave him with walking up north and turning around on another street and walking to the tavern that way, but that assumes that he won't be followed.

‘Screw it, I don’t necessarily need to go there today or right now. I can just walk to the guild and stay there for a bit before walking back and see if they have moved to follow me. If they have then I will need to think of another plan, if not then I can enact my plan when I have an opportunity.’

Arthur quickly gathered everything magically related into his back and locked as well as barred each of the doors before he left and started on his way towards the mages guild. For a while Arthur didn’t look behind him to see if he was being followed to sell the illusion that he was unaware, but thankfully there was a sharp turn that had a building blocking the view and allowed Arthur to stand there and wait to see if the gang member that watched his house would walk by. About ten minutes passed and the gang member did no pass by, to be certain Arthur looked around the corner and only found normal people without any gang insignia.

Arthur smiled at this revelation, he now had a working plan to eradicate the leadership of this gang and this time he wouldn’t be spooked by someone suddenly walking up the stairs behind him. But one problem that remained was that Arthur didn’t really know the area all that well. Despite living there for quite some time Arthur didn’t know the layout of the neighborhood aside from the streets he took to and from his home everyday. This left him with little information regarding what roads connect and how he could navigate himself to the tavern without being spotted.

‘That isn’t my only problem, I should also have a disguise of some sort. Last time I didn’t bother hiding who I was because I didn’t think I needed to, now I just need to properly scout the place out and find out when the next meeting would be or if they were still having their meetings there.’

Arthur's mind immediately turned to the tailor that he bought all his casual and alchemist attire from with the fashion expertise of his former teacher. ‘He didn’t just have real expensive stuff in there, he could also give me something that could help me disguise myself as a regular commoner who just is around for a drink.’

At the moment finding a disguise was a more pressing and easier concern to alleviate given that he had some money with him that could easily be used to buy something convincing. So Arthur retraced his steps to the tailor shop and passed The Elder Nymph. The top floor still had several black spots where the explosion wrecked it and even the rain that happened just a few days ago wasn’t able to wash those black spots away.

Arthur stood there for a while wondering what happened as a swirl of emotions returned that he had been keeping locked up. He didn’t cry, but he felt as if he was catching a cold and he tried to hold back the emotions from showing on his face. Quickly he left the area and walked double time towards the tailor to take his mind off his former teacher.

Like he remembered the tailor shop was a small yet beautiful building, at least compared to the other stores and buildings in the area. It had clean and pristine windows displaying clothes on mannequins in various poses. At the front counter was an older human man who Arthur suspected was the owner of the store based on the last time he was here with Georgius.

“Good afternoon, wait I remember you. You are Georgius’s apprentice aren’t you?” The older man asked as he was working on a piece of clothing with a sewing needle, he wasn’t even looking at what he was doing yet he didn’t not hurt himself.

“I was, but he decided that I was good enough to ‘graduate’ and work on my own now.” Arthur smiled recalling what Georgius said and how he trusted him to continue on with the golem. “But that was a while ago, since then I have just been selling my potions to the mages guild.”

“That's good to hear, but you wouldn’t happen to know where he is or what he is doing right now would you? We usually meet up every so often somewhere nearby and have something to eat, but he hasn't shown up in a while.” Arthur flinched slightly at hearing Georgius not showing up, somehow this friend of Georgius managed to miss the news of the disaster and death in his store.

“I'm not exactly sure how to say this, but he died.” The tailor looked at Arthur with wide eyes at that sentence and he even stopped sewing. He looked as if he was about to ask how before Arthur continued. “There was an explosion at his workstation when he was working and the detectives that were assigned believed it to be just an experiment gone wrong.”

“Oh dear, I'm sorry to hear that. How long ago was this?” The tailor placed the clothing he was working on along with the needle on the table as he listened to Arthur.

“A few weeks ago, if you go look at his store you can still see the damage from the explosion.”

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The two remained silent for a moment as the tailor sat on his chair thinking. Suddenly he turned to Arthur and said “Thank you for telling me, I likely wouldn’t have found out until much later if you haven't. I am also assuming that his funeral has already happened.”

“Yeah, it was just his family that was invited to it. So neither I nor his other apprentice Aurelio were invited either.”

The two continued to speak for a while mostly about how Arthur was doing since he was no longer an apprentice and was working on his own. Arthur answered truthfully about his new home and all the equipment he has bought and how he has learned a few tier two spells from his time within the mages guild. But eventually the conversation turned back to why Arthur was there. “As much fun as it is to have a casual conversation with you, I assume you have a reason for coming here. Do you need another set of clothes like you bought the last time you were here?”

“Close, I do need clothes just not like the ones I am currently wearing. I need an outfit that would make me look like a regular commoner, someone that would normally go unnoticed in a cheap tavern and could walk around without drawing anyone's attention.” Arthur explained to the tailor what he needed.

“Hmm… I am assuming you are doing something that isn’t entirely legal and need a disguise so you are not caught by the authorities.” He crossed his arms and leaned back in his chair as he waited for Arthur to explain himself.

“You are half right, I need a disguise so I can avoid a criminal gang. I've killed a few of their collection groups that came to harass me for ‘protection’ money and now they have a few of their members posted outside my house to keep watch of me.”

The tailor sighed and began rubbing his temples and sighed. “I’ll see if I can find something that would work as a simple disguise for you, but it might take a bit as most of what I have in here is a bit expensive.” The tailor then left the front counter and walked into the back of his store while Arthur waited. A few minutes later he returned with a brown cloak, grey pants, and a dark grey shirt.

“Now these might feel a little big on you, but that should help sell the disguise. But I would also recommend buying some cheaper boots as very few commoners would have boots quite as nice as the ones you currently are wearing. Unfortunately I am not a cobbler, so I cannot help you in that endeavor.”

“Thank you for your help and your advice, I will see if I can find someone selling some simple boots. How much do I owe you?” Arthur reached into his bag and pulled out a small pouch full of copper coins.

“5 copper pieces.” Arthur happily paid the tailor five copper coins and left to find someone selling boots. Several of the small vendors would sometimes sell things like shoes and boots and all sorts of things in the nearby market as anyone can sell just about anything as long as it is legal to do so.

Most of them were clearly merchants by trade based on their clothes and the amount of merchandise they had and that they kept it in nearby crates that their laborer's would occasionally open up and replace the depleted merchandise that was displayed.

Many of those merchants sold clothing from basic shoes to boots, but what Arthur saw was mostly on the higher end of the price range for a commoner to afford and to keep the disguise consistent he would need something a little cheaper. Eventually Arthur found a young human man standing at a stall off to the side and out of the way from everything and everyone else. The young man looked saddened by something and no one was buying anything he was selling.

But this young man did catch his attention for one reason, he had an old pair of slightly worn boots on display that would complete the disguise. So Arthur slowly walked up to the stall this young man was at and inquired about the boots.

“Wait, you want these boots Mr.?” The young man looked Arthur up and down as he asked. Clearly Arthur was not the customer he had in mind.

“Yes I do, I need a pair of boots like these for a… personal reason. How much do you want for them?” The young man still looked at Arthur with skepticism, but he lowered his guard a bit and gave Arthur a price. “3 copper pieces, I bought them for 5 pieces when they were new and now they are a little worn down.”

Arthur quickly reached into his bag and pulled out three copper coins and handed them to the young man, upon receiving all his coins he handed Arthur the boots looking a little bit happier than before. “Uh, thanks Mr.”

*********

With his disguise in hand Arthur returned to the tailor shop where he changed into it with the permission of the tailor there. Since it was a tailor shop there were a few changing rooms towards the back of the store, and Arthur made use of one and left the store fully disguised.

Arthur was practically unrecognizable as the plain and simple clothes were not something he made use of since he bought something nicer, and the hooded cloak covered his head and face making him far harder to recognize. Only someone who was quite familiar with who he was could be able to recognize him and even then it would likely not be from a distance.

Arthur slowly walked back towards his house but as his home street drew close he went down another that was close enough to the tavern this mysterious gang liked. Although it took him a lot longer and backtracking several times he did eventually find it and entered through the front door.

This time there were two guards waiting by the door and they were both wearing better equipment than the previous guard in the form of a proper gambeson and a leather cap. They both wielded a spear and gave him a funny look before they ignored him completely.

Inside was pretty much the same as last time with several tables and chairs full of gang members of various ranks based on the armor they wore along with the occasional common folk. At the bar located off to the side was the very same bartender as the last time washing a cup.

Arthur walked up and took a seat at the bar and watched the bartender until he said “Want something to drink?”

“I’ll have a light beer.” Arthur responded.

“Sure thing, it'll cost you 2 copper pieces.” The bartender said as he walked off to the side to bring Arthur a mug of beer. When he came close Arthur pulled his hood back just enough for the bartender to get a good look at his face and handed him the two copper coins.

The bartender chuckled as he received the coins. “Don’t like to rack up a tab do you?” He said with a slight grin on his face as he looked up and paused, the man who ordered the beer looked quite familiar and now that he thought of it so did his voice.

“That is correct, I’ve heard many stories about people who drink more than they can pay for.” Arthur smiled at the man as he kept eye contact and began drinking a bit of his beer, it wasn’t quite as strong as he figured it would be and the taste reminded him of bread or porridge and not exactly the good tasting ones.