In the capital city, two shadows moved quickly, until they stopped in a dark alley.
"Let's go to the next one."
"Audrey, just how many stores does that old man have? we've already been to twenty!" Alexander was already exasperated, On this night since they started, they had already robbed twenty stores, he always thought they were finished but Audrey was always saying that there was one more, he could not believe that a single man had so many stores in one city, one simply cannot own everything and monopolize the system.
"Walter Dunham, has 154 sub stores and three main stores in the capital city but if we count the businesses he has all over the kingdom, I couldn't give you an exact number," Now it was Alexander's turn to be surprised "How can that be possible, Even if he is a good businessman, he would have to have his peers when we talk about business, besides other merchant families and powerful families competing in the market it should be impossible for a man to have so many stores".
Audrey immediately proceeded to report: "He was an oligarch so he had sway on many of the government officials in addition to many connections with the n.o.bles of the Alba Kingdom. for him there were only two kinds of people, people he bought and the dead if someone dared to compete with him or enter their territory normally their goods never arrived or their premises were vandalized there were even cases of homicide but there was no evidence to hold him responsible Because of this he used to have a monopoly over the market in the Alba Kingdom."
"Why did you say it in past tense?" Alexander found this interesting.
"Because in the purge a few years ago he lost a lot of his partners and n.o.bles who were bribed by him he even lost many of his people he had within the government ultimately weakening his power which gave an opportunity for many merchants from the neighboring countries to do business in the Alba kingdom, Currently they only do business in the cities outside the territory of the capital but they are expanding if everything goes on as it is in a couple of years they will reach the capital, when that happens Walter Dunham commercial empire will slowly crumble or at least it would be no longer be a complete monopoly like before," In this last month Audrey had investigated about how the market was along with Mrs. Anna, therefore, she knew a lot about it.
"But why didn't the royal family do anything about it?" (Alexander)
"He was an oligarch before the Sail empire was divided and the Dawn Kingdom was founded and he apparently helped your grandparents with some things in the past. Without his help, the kingdom would not have been stabilized so quickly and most of all the current king and his daughter were childhood friends having had mutual feelings for each other they are married. Now do you understand, he won the favor from two generations of kings, one through help and the other through his daughter so as long as he does not exaggeratedly raise market prices seeing that the plebeians can continue to eat and having no evidence over his crimes they cannot say or do anything against." (Audrey)
"If my trash of a father really loved her then why is she not the queen...", Alexander was somewhat confused about it, he knew his trash father had only two women inside his harem who he truly loved one being the queen and the other the third concubine but he didn't understand why did they have different status if he loved them both. (Alexander)
seeing his confusion Audrey replied "As far as I know, in her childhood both the Queen and the third concubine were the childhood friends of the king, but if I had to guess it was with the help of General Keer that she won the position of queen because although the father of the third concubine has a lot of money but then the father of the queen commanded the army of the kingdom If the king made the wrong move he could have created a rebellion, while the father of the third could only raise the prices or cut the food supplies which he know is much easier to solve than a rebellion. the power they held was leagues apart so the king knew who he had to make happy." Alexander couldn't believe what he witnessed, this woman can sometimes be so smart but other times she is so stupid, it was almost as if they were two different people. but when he was thinking about it he felt a blow in his head, when he reacted he could only ask with indignation: "Why did you hit me?".
"Weren't you thinking badly of me?" Audrey said while she had a smirk in her eyes as she stared at him. when Alexander felt the sight of this woman he dripped with cold sweat on his back, Clearing his voice he said: "Of course not, It would be impossible for me to think badly of you".
"oh really?" (Audrey)
"Yeah," When Alexander heard her voice he was afraid of the consequences, So he changed the subject "Let's not worry about these little things, You know tonight we don't have enough time to rob all his stores, so let's focus on his main stores, If we rob these main stores we should affect him more than robbing a few sub-stores," Saying this he grabbed the map, memorised the nearest store and ran away from Audrey.
Audrey didn't want to leave things at that, but she had no choice but to follow her young master in silence.
Returning to Anna's shop
Tiberius and his gang tried all their means to break into the store but with nothing to show, having been fed up and fearing the consequences he had to bear for failing his mission, Tiberius decided to contact the middle-aged man and ask for a spare key to complete his mission.
The capitals richest residential street for commoners inside a mansion
"Levi was very annoyed right now, a few moments ago he was with his wife having their sweet time, when a subordinate of his interrupted him, at first he wanted to refuse but when he was told that it was super important and could not wait until tomorrow he had no choice but to comply and go towards the said location.
When Levi arrived at the said location along with the subordinate he was greeted by the sight of Tiberius waiting for him. Just when he was going to reproach him, Tiberius waved his hand sending the subordinate away. Having seen his enormity Levi suppressed his annoyance and waited for him to explain.
"Manager Levi, I'm sorry for having you come here personally, it's very urgent and but I can't be seen with you at your place so I can only opt for this, I wonder if you have an extra key for the store which I can borrow?" Asked Tiberius nervously.