Anair, a town roughly 15 kilometers away from Tellier.

The sun had only just begun to rise in the sky.

Inside a certain pub, a pair of bleary-eyed servers were leaning against the glass, yawning with weary expressions, and the manager of the pub, who was standing behind the bar, also had a rather absentminded look on his face, looking at the ray of sunlight passing through the entrance with a blank expression. It was clear that getting up so early had been quite a painful experience for all three of them.

Right at this moment, Bracken and a few of his subordinates swaggered into the pub, then dropped the wooden crates that they were carrying on their shoulders onto the floor with a string of dull thumps, snapping the two weary servers out of their half-asleep state.

Having already managed the pub for quite a few years, the manager was naturally able to identify that Bracken and his men were nothing but trouble, and he couldn't help but gulp nervously as he lamented his own ill fortune. The pub had only just opened for business for the day, and it was already being visited by a group of uncouth mercenaries. This was clearly not a good start.

"What can I help you with?" the manager asked as he hurriedly emerged from behind the bar with a fawning smile.

"We have a business proposal for you. Are you interested?" Bracken asked with a serious expression.

"That'll depend on what you're proposing. I'm afraid my pub isn't a big business, so we won't be able to do any extravagant deals," the manager replied with an apologetic smile.

Bracken pointed at the crates of wine on the ground with his chin as he said, "Take a look."

The manager took a wary glance at Bracken, then squatted down before opening the wooden crates to find that all of them were filled with unopened bottles of Farody brand red wine. The crates were filled with different types of wine at different qualities and price points. Some were quite inexpensive, but there were also some that were relatively aged and higher in quality. Of course, no matter how high-end the red wine produced in Tellier was, it was still somewhat lackluster compared with the wine produced in Joffen in the south.

"What's this?" the manager asked as he turned to Bracken with a surprised expression.

"We just seized this wine earlier, and there's too much for us to drink, so we brought some here to sell for Loonies," Bracken said in a casual manner.

The manager's eyes immediately widened upon hearing this, and he couldn't believe what he was hearing.

He was stunned to hear that there were people who dared to rob the Farody Family's stock, and the robbery appeared to have taken place very close to Tellier!

The manager couldn't bring himself to believe that there were such bold and brazen mercenaries in this world.

"What? You don't believe me?" Bracken asked as he raised an eyebrow.

The manager was still yet to recover from his astonishment, and he had no idea how to respond.

"Would you like to have a taste?" Bracken asked as a hint of disdain appeared on his face toward the manager's skeptical expression.

After that, he picked out a random bottle of red wine from one of the crates, and with a flick of his thumb, the cork and the lip of the wine bottle were sent flying off together.

The manager accepted the bottle of wine from Bracken in an unsteady manner. Due to the way that it had been opened, the opening of the bottle was surrounded by serrated glass, so there was no way that he was going to take a sip unless his lips were made from iron and steel. However, having managed this pub for half his life, he could tell if this was the real deal just from taking a whiff.

Thus, after a quick smell, the manager immediately identified this as authentic Tellier red wine.

"It... It really is the Farody Family's wine," the manager said, and his eyes were filled with fear and alarm as he turned to Bracken and his men.

"We have a few crates of wine here, some of which are rather ordinary, while others are a bit more high-end. I can't be bothered bartering with you so early in the morning, so how about I sell the wine to you by the crate?" Bracken asked with a smile.

"H-how much per crate?" the manager asked with a careful expression. He was terrified that Bracken would state an astronomical price, then force him to buy the crates of wine. After all, these mercenaries dared to rob even the Farody Family's stock, the manager was struggling to think of anything that they wouldn't dare to do. With that in mind, the manager couldn't help but curse his own ill fortune again. He had been praying to the Universal Lord every day, but it seemed that his prayers had fallen upon deaf ears.

"How about this? I'm selling this stuff to you on pretty short notice, so I'll give you a good deal. How does 10 Loonies per crate sound to you?" Byron asked as he turned to the manager.

The manager was immediately rooted to the spot upon hearing this. Never did he think that the mercenaries would offer him such a favorable price. He had thought that he was suffering from some terrible misfortune, but it seemed that he was on the receiving end of some charity work instead!

Even the cheapest of the Farody Family's wines cost more than 10 Loonies per crate.

"So?" Bracken was still waiting for a response from the manager.

"The price is definitely not an issue," the manager said as he hurriedly nodded in response. "I'll just open a couple more bottles for verification, and if there are no issues, I'll bring you the money right away."

Bracken made an inviting hand gesture.

The manager gave the two servers a subtle look, and the two of them hurriedly brought a bottle opener over to him.

The manager pulled out a few more bottles from the other crates for verification, and not only were all of the bottles filled with authentic Farody Family wine, one of the crates was filled with the Farody Family's latest high-end wine, "Fuyu". 

Just that crate alone was worth over 100 Loonies.

"There are a total of six crates here. I'll go get the money right away!" the manager was ecstatic, and he hurriedly rushed back to the counter to fetch the Loonies, wanting to complete the deal as soon as possible for fear of the mercenaries changing their mind. At the same time, he promised himself that he was never going to denounce the Universal Lord again. Instead, he was going to praise the Universal Lord with all his might from now on for blessing him with such outrageous fortune.

Bracken looked on with an indifferent expression, feeling quite pleased that everything was progressing smoothly.

After that, Bracken and his men left the pub with pleased expressions, 60 Loonies richer than when they had walked in.

The manager of the pub watched as Bracken's group faded into the distance, and the elation on his face gradually faded as he thought to himself that he most likely wasn't going to see these people ever again.

However, to his surprise, Bracken and his subordinates returned again a few days later, selling a few more crates of the Farody brand red wine to him for a low price.

During the past few days, the manager had heard that the Farody Family's stock was frequently being robbed. However, he didn't think that the robbers would appear in his pub so blatantly. However, he didn't care about where the wine was coming from. As long as there was money to be made for him, he was happy to buy all of the wine that Bracken brought to himself. He didn't know how much longer the robberies were going to continue for, so he had to capitalize on this opportunity while it was still around.

As Bracken continued to visit the pub, the manager naturally became familiar with him over time.

On one occasion, after a drinking session, he drunkenly revealed to the manager that he and his men had been hired by Count Onen specifically for the purpose of robbing the Farody Family's stock around Tellier, and he also urged the manager to keep this a secret.

However, things that were said in a pub always had a way of spreading, and this was no exception.

Furthermore, Erwin had instructed Shiba to distribute his eggs over multiple baskets, so the same thing wasn't just happening in this pub alone. Instead, all of the pubs in the towns near Tellier had received Farody brand red wine at ridiculously low prices recently.

Thus, rumors began to spread, and everyone gradually developed the false impression that Count Onen was playing a role behind the recent robberies. Of course, this was a role that had been fabricated for him by Erwin. As for Count Onen himself, he was still waiting like an idiot in Zans for Erwin to come and serve him.

...

Tellier, Farody Manor.

The rowdy conference room was already full of people. Aside from direct lineal descendants of the Farody Family, even many of the side branch members of the family were also in attendance.

It seemed that the Monge Riders mercenary legion had been carrying out the order assigned to them by Erwin very effectively.

The fact that there were so many people gathered here to complain was a clear indication of just how heavy the losses they had suffered recently were.

"What do we do? I've had dozens of crates of wine robbed from me in just the past seven or eight days," a wealthy merchant from a side branch of the family said with a concerned expression.

"That's nothing, I've already had close to 200 crates robbed from me!" another man countered in a disdainful voice, and he seemed to be a direct lineal descendant of the family. Of course, his voice was also tinged with hatred and resentment, which was directed toward these mysterious robbers.

"My stock has always been looked after by the guards looking after my courtyard, but they're no match for those robbers. Many of them have already been killed or wounded, and I switched between three groups of them, but they weren't even able to deliver a single batch of stock," another wealthy merchant sighed with a wry smile.

"I wonder where these bastards came from. It feels like they're specifically targeting our stock," someone chimed in in a furious voice.

"The most infuriating thing about them is that they've sold all of the stock they've robbed at extremely low prices, forcing us to lower our prices as well, to the point that we're having to sell at below cost price!"

"We're all in the same boat. We're getting far fewer orders than before now, and I've heard that many of our clients are fighting over the stock being sold by those bandits. The prices are so low that we're about to be driven out of business!"

"We can't let things continue like this, Boss. You have to think of a way to address the situation," someone in the crowd suddenly said.

Everyone immediately chimed in in agreement with this sentiment.

The "Boss" that they were referring to was none other than Mackney Farody, who was seated on the main chair and had remained silent this entire time.

He had been playing with a goblet that he was holding in his hand with tightly furrowed brows ever since the meeting began, offering no comments to contribute to everyone's discussion. The goblet was a new product that had been recently released by the Farody Family, and it was specifically designed to hold the high-end Fuyu wine. After the wine was poured into the cup, an array would be triggered within the glacial icestone embedded into the base of the goblet, quickly freezing the wine into a cone that was aimed directly upward. Furthermore, there was a conical glass mold inside the goblet, and once the wine was frozen solid, one would be able to flip the glass mold over, flipping the frozen cone of wine to the top to wait for it to melt over time. It was said that the drops of Fuyu wine that slid down from the cone were extremely delectable.

Seeing as the table full of people was gradually falling silent, Mackney gently cleared his throat, putting an end to the completely pointless round of complaints.

As the head of the Farody Family, Mackney had naturally had more stock robbed from him than anyone else, so he was more aware than anyone else present of the situation that everyone had just described. If they were to be made aware of the fact that over 1,000 crates of red wine had already been robbed from him, they would most likely fall off their chairs in astonishment.

Most frustrating of all, Mackney had sent out the mercenary legion under his command to strike at the robbers on several occasions, but for some reason, the robbers were always able to vacate the scene just in time before his mercenaries arrived.

Thus, no one here was more frustrated than Mackney himself.

"Have we found out who it is that's behind all of this?" Mackney asked in a cold voice. His face was quite square, and as a result, the space within his mouth was quite large compared with the average person. Thus, whenever he spoke, it sounded as if he had a pair of cotton balls stuffed into his mouth, making his voice rather low and slurred, but he was still just as authoritative nonetheless.

The question wasn't directed toward the merchants at the table. Instead, he was asking his two sons, who were standing behind him.

His eldest son, Lucidy, stepped forward, emerging from the shadows as he replied with a grim expression, "Our sources suggest that these people were most likely arranged by Onen."

It seemed as if he were answering his father's question, but his voice was clearly audible across the entire conference room.

"Are you sure about that?" Mackney asked as he cocked his head toward Lucidy, but didn't turn his face around.

Lucidy leaned down beside his father before whispering something into his ear, in response to which Mackney gave a grim nod.

"It looks like Onen has made a move on us," Mackney said as he turned to everyone at the table with an indifferent expression.

Mackney wasn't the only one who had unearthed this information, some of the wealthy merchants present had already discovered this, but in this setting, Mackney was the only one worthy of making this declaration, because once this declaration was made, they would essentially be declaring war on the nobles of Zans.

Thus, the entire conference room immediately erupted into a frenzy.