The profit he’d raked was nice, but it felt even better to invest into his employees. Percy wasn’t sure why he felt like that, but the sensation of supporting Bert and helping the siblings did something to him. It allowed him to give back the help he’d received in Raewood and find a perfect balance to the bloody life he’d lived after gaining access to mana.

The peace of being in the capital, where he could train without getting bothered while also having the means to help someone, felt great.

Percy had momentarily considered spreading the eggs of his fortune to nurture multiple smiths, or maybe some smiths and alchemists, but decided against it since Bert was the perfect target to start with. He was friendly, hard-working, and incredibly loyal.

These characteristics were great and essential, but his talent was equally important.

His first products made from silvron couldn’t be considered exceptional from an experienced blacksmith’s point of view, but for someone who had only experienced to forge with iron, the results were extraordinary!

Bert deserved as much investment as needed to grow as a blacksmith. That was also why he had given Bert enough gold, a spatial ring, and the enchanted forging hammer. The investment would be returned as a big bag of gold coins soon enough. That was even more true now that Bert had brought a few goods made from Silvron. Percy could create his first Elite Artifacts!

Though the first Elite Artifacts would be cheaper because the Low and Average Quality armaments would never be stable enough to contain two runic enchantments, Percy was happy.

What would be the best enchantments to put on the Elite Artifacts? [Sharpness] is good, but it’s nothing special. It will be cheap, though. Then again, [Lacerate] and [Bleeding] shouldn’t cost much more. If I invest one or two gold coins worth of Prosperity into the Low and Average silvron armaments, I should be able to create ‘something’ of decent value.

Percy licked his lips while retrieving the bed from his spatial ring to sleep.

My next move should be careful. Once I start selling Elite Artifacts, people will pay more attention to me. But do I really have to be careful? It shouldn’t be easy to tarnish my reputation now. No. Nevermind. I can think of multiple ways to tarnish my shop’s reputation. Let’s forget about that.

He sighed deeply, hoping nothing bad would happen in the next few weeks. The merchants should stay in their shops and work harder than him to retain customers instead of doing something shady.

Percy went to sleep, ready to wake up early. However, he didn’t expect to be woken up this early.

…

The eveewood door’s [Alarm] didn’t trigger, but it wasn’t necessary to hear the commotion from outside. The first rays of sunlight were about to emerge behind the horizon, yet nobody seemed to care about that.

Are you serious now?!

Percy thundered when he woke up. He shot up from the bed, reached for the Silvron Sword in his spatial ring, and charged outside.

Louis stumbled down the flight of stairs, his hands tightly clutching a pair of Iron Artifacts – daggers with [Sharpness] which Percy gifted Louis. The Demi glanced at Percy in confusion for a moment but followed his boss as he charged outside.

“What is going on here?” Percy thundered, ready to go wild and taste some blood, when he saw that the situation had already been resolved.

Five men wielding bats and brass knuckles were lying on the ground. Their writhing bodies were sprawled all around two familiar faces.

“Eren?” Percy looked at his friend in confusion and turned to the brother, “And Tarlek? What are you guys doing here?”

Erik waved excitedly in his direction while Tarlek was ready to answer. But they were interrupted by clanking armor resounding through the street. A group of city guards emerged from the main streets and slowed down when they found five writhing men sprawled around two Gifted.

Stolen novel; please report.

“What is going on here?!” One of the guards bellowed, tightly clutching his weapon. He was ready to attack at once.

“Are they the culprits?” Another guard asked, pointing at Erik and Tarlek instead of the five ruffians lying on the ground.

“Capture them!” A third guard ushered, only for the man leading the guards to squint his eyes. He took a second to take the picture before him and glanced at the other guards, “Are you sure they’re the culprits of the noise complaint? This looks much more than ‘some problems with noises’ to me.”

“Does the noise complaint matter right now, captain? We’ve located multiple perpetrators attacking defenseless Normies. We have to help them!”

Percy’s hearing sense was good enough to hear the guards’ comments from tens of meters away.

Noise complaint? The commotion started less than ten seconds ago.

Percy’s eyes widened when he heard the impatience in the voice of three guards. They cast uncertain glances at each other, almost like the three guards didn’t expect a certain turn of events.

“Stop right there!” One of them shouted, but it wasn’t like anyone was moving. Other than the writhing ruffians, of course.

“How have you been?” Erik asked lightly, ignoring the guards charging in their direction.

Percy responded with a groan. “Do you think that’s the right time to ask me how I’ve been doing?”

Erik shrugged in an uncaring manner, “We will be fine. I might have broken a bunch of bones, but nobody was killed. That should be enough.”

Percy wasn’t so sure about that, but Tarlek was also relaxed.

“You look nice. The last few weeks have been good to you,” Tarlek commented while retrieving something from his tunic’s inner pockets.

One of the three guards who had been oddly impatient was about to shout something but the word stuck in his throat when he saw the ruby emblem Tarlek showed the guards.

“We are Imperial prospects and stopped these ruffians from breaking into this shop. I vow on the royal constitution and my sacred position as a future Imperial that everything I’ve said is nothing but the truth!” Tarlek shouted loud enough to wake some residents in the neighborhood.

Right. Imperials have a higher status than most Viscounts. Even their prospects are treated like barons following the constitution’s clauses.

Percy had used [Hawk Eyes] when he noticed something was off about…the entire scene. The hurried and angsty looked cast between the trio of odd guards didn’t escape his attention.

After ensuring the ruby symbol was official, the guard captain hinted a polite bow to Tarlek and apologized for the unpleasantries. Erik retrieved his emblem, indicating him as another Imperial prospect, when the guards studied him, only for Percy to again store his sword in the spatial ring.

“I heard the commotion from the inside of my shop and thought one of the merchants dropped me an unwelcome gift,” Percy said lightheartedly, but his eyes flicked to the odd trio and turned as cold as ice as he added, “And I was wondering how to return it.”

The odd guards burst into cold sweat, but the guard captain spoke first.

“I understand your worries, but you shouldn’t accuse other merchants of this. They might bring you to court if you tarnish their reputation without hard evidence.”

Percy nodded understandingly, but his fury had been unleashed. All he wanted was to keep his business open and work hard. Why was it necessary for some idiots to conduct something shady to harm him? Was that necessary? Of course, it wasn’t.

He approached the odd trio and stepped on one of the ruffians’ heads. The ruffian groaned, but Percy didn’t step back.

“I need hard proof, otherwise, I will be sent to court and punished? Is that so?” Percy murmured, “I wonder what would happen to the accomplices if I ask my friends and the Reeze Duke for a little help. I traveled around a lot with Melissa Reeze and the Glacia Knights. I’m sure they would help me find the culprits and their accomplices. But I’m curious…”

His eyes turned even colder, almost like [Frostbite] started mixing with [Hawk Eyes]. At the same time, Percy increased the weight on his foot. He was about to crush the ruffian’s head.

“Will the culprits save their hide by putting all blame on their accomplices, or will they kill their accomplices to destroy all evidence?” He asked before again increasing the force applied to the ruffian’s head.

Silence filled the streets for a second before the ruffian underneath Percy groaned in pain. The guards could have sworn a cracking noise rang through the vicinity at this very moment.

Finally, one of the odd guards couldn’t keep his mouth shut anymore. He breathed heavily and pointed at one of the ruffians.

“Isn’t that one of the kids working for the Golden Koi?”