After our victory over the alley crooks, we headed back to another inn and just hung around for the rest of the day. Chatting with Pepper about various things. The next morning I woke up to the sounds of the bird.

Stupid bird. I guess I can look at the bright side though it's a pretty good alarm clock.

Wanting to get on with the next mission I decided to just get the next mission from the pile that I brought to Blackbridge with me. I set the mission we'd just completed into a separate pile off to the side and picked up the next mission. Bringing it up to my face I squinted at it. Trying to get the drowsiness out of my eyes so I could read it easier.

After wiping my eyes I read the mission. "Someone has been pressuring store owners to sell their stores to them with unlawful tactics. Expose them. Say they're from Whitebridge."

Hmm doesn't seem too hard. Lying about them being from Whitebridge is a bit sketchy but I'm fine with it since it's to save so many people. A little lying never hurt anyone right?

So now informed about the mission we'd be doing I woke up Dob and Lob and we headed down to have some breakfast.

I can almost taste the delicious granola already.

We got to the main room and I saw Pepper at the counter. Giving out bowls of granola to the hungry people who crowded around her. I went to the back of the clump of bodies and just stood there until I was able to move to the front.

"Hey Pepper. Some granola for me and Dob and Lob please!", I asked politely while smiling.

"Sure thing you guys! Here you go!", said Pepper while handing us our three bowls of scrumptious granola.

We wolfed down our breakfast quickly, not because we were in a hurry but because it just tasted so good!

We thanked Pepper and headed outside the Fierce Boar inn. As we got outside I started walking around randomly while explaining the mission to Dob and Lob.

"Okay, guys. I checked the next mission. There's apparently this guy that's pressuring shop owners to sell their businesses to them. We need to expose them and say they're from Whitebridge regardless of whether they're from Whitebridge, Blackbridge, or somewhere else entirely. You guys got that?"

Dob and Lob digested what I'd said for a moment before nodding and giving me a thumbs up.

"Okay great! Now I think we should start by going around to shop owners and asking if they've heard anything about this person or have interacted with him at all. After all, they're probably the most informed since they're shop owners and shop owners are the ones that need to look out."

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Dob and Lob gave me another thumbs-up, supporting my decision.

I decided that we should stop by the sweets store first since I was familiar with it and it was pretty close. So walking in the direction of the town square we quickly arrived at the door of the shop.

This reminds me I was going to get Dob and Lob some candy. Guess we can do that while we're here.

So we entered the shop and walked up to the counter where the old woman who ran the store was standing.

"Hello, again Ma'am! Could we have 3 normal-sized lollipops please?"

"Sure. Anything else?", said the woman with a warm smile.

"Yes, I've been hearing stuff about someone pressuring store owners to sell their store to them? I was wondering if you've heard anything about that?"

"No, I'm sorry. I'll let you know if I hear anything though. Enjoy your day!"

"Ok well, thanks anyway, Ma'am. Have a great day too!"

Feeling slightly dejected I walked out of the store before perking up as I licked the lollipop I'd bought.

Wow! This is better than the ones on Earth!

I noticed Dob and Lob staring at me as I licked my lollipop so I handed them theirs. They didn't have time to give me a thumbs up or a smile as they immediately started licking their lollipops. I smiled at their eagerness to taste the delicious lollipop.

Feeling great and in high spirits, I decided to continue searching. I looked around and saw a clothing store which I started walking towards. Dob and Lob noticed my departure and started following me, not sure where I was going but uncaring due to the lollipop.

I entered the store and saw rows of clothing in all sizes, colors, and shapes. There were pants, shirts, belts, jackets, basically everything I could think of.

Wow. Now, this is a clothing store. Maradith should take some pointers from this store. It would probably improve her profits a lot!

Turning my eyes away from the impressive array of garments I looked around for the person or people who ran the store. I saw an employee walking toward me. A very tall middle-aged-looking woman.

"Hello! Can I help you with anything?", said the employee smiling brightly at me.

"Yes actually. I've been hearing rumors about store owners getting pressure to sell their stores. I've just been going around trying to figure out if it's real and what the deal is regarding it."

"Well, we did have these three people come around the store recently. They were very aggressive. They might be who you're looking for. I don't think they'll be coming back that soon though because I just started throwing underwear at them whenever I saw them."

I chuckled.

"Ah, that's hilarious. Well, thanks for the info."

So we left the store. We hadn't really gained any information since we already knew that the person existed due to there being a mission for it. I just didn't want to appear that suspicious.

I can't help but think that Scorpion's intelligence collection thing or whatever he has could've found out more information. They must be focusing their efforts on something else.

After the clothing store, we went around to a few more establishments. Most of them looked confused and the ones that had interacted with them didn't seem to have any good information regarding them. I figured we'd just try again tomorrow so I started walking back to the Fierce Boar inn. We'd finished our lollipops long ago and Blackbridge didn't seem to have any public trash cans so we had to secretly dump them into one of the trash cans in the stores that we'd visited.

Coming up to the inn I noticed some shouting going on from inside the inn.

I wonder... Could it be the guys I'm looking for?

So I started rushing towards the inn with Dob and Lob hot on my tail.

Hopefully, Pepper is alright.