My 2 knights carry the young master and his guard down the alleyway, before we head into a more desolate alleyway, and I instruct them to put them down.

They fling them both to the ground, with the burly man fainting from the impact. They have less concern for the guard afterall.

“Urk! Please, spare my life! I’m sorry, I’ll do anything!”, he cries, ignoring his pitiful appearance.

If his parents saw him begging for his life so easily I wonder what they’ll say. He doesn’t seem to have caught on to the fact that it was premeditated, he’s slow, this one.

“It’s such a coincidence that I bumped into you and you dropped your chips, isn’t it? I’m very sorry for that.”, I say contemptuously, looking down at him.

“Y-you set m-me up?!”, he screams.

No shit sherlock.

“Of course not, you made the first move. Now, you’ll have to pay the price, how much do you think your life is worth?”, I threaten him, motioning for a knight to step forward.

“My Father will pay anything for me! Please, just don’t kill me!”,

His straightforwardness in this is really the only good thing about him. His agreeing to anything makes this so much easier. I’m glad I picked out this house to extort instead of just finding any random house.

“Good. That makes things easier, I’ll just have you bring me to your Father so we can talk about this ‘business deal’ of ours.”, I laugh for a bit, motioning the knights to prop him upright so he can lead the way.

He seems to still have some reservations about bringing me to meet his father, but when I instruct the guards to break one of the burly man’s legs, he quickly succumbs to the pressure.

He leads the way fearfully towards a fancy looking building. It’s coloured mostly in orange, which seems like an alloy of some kind. The big entrance has the name, “Bao” written on the large signboard, adorned with rubies.

“Fancy.”, I let out unknowingly.

The young master twitches at my remark. At least he’s aware he brought a disaster into his family. He hasn’t tried to run away because he’s afraid of my nobility, 2 Rank 3 knights are just too rarely seen, much less as simple guards.

“Father, I need your help.”, he calls out politely as he reach the main hall.

I take a seat without invitation, aggressively propping my leg up against my other thigh. My entourage stay standing to prevent anything untoward from happening to me.

Soon after, an exasperated voice sounds out, “What have you done this time?” as a slightly chubby middle aged man walks in. He doesn’t seem too sloppy, having the bearings of a reputable merchant.

As he sees me, he bows quickly in shock, “To what do I owe honour of welcoming the young lord of the Duke?”

Upon seeing this, the Bao young master’s face turns even paler in fright.

I’m slightly surprised too. I was quite sure that most people didn’t know of my existence, since the previous me was overtly low-key, and couldn’t possibly have attracted any attention. I reevaluate this seemingly simple middle aged man silently in my head.

“There’s something of course. Your son, assaulted me for bumping into him after I apologised, look at the bruises on my face! I demand compensation for this.”

The man cast a glance at my guards, before replying, “Of course we compensate if he truly did it, how could we not? But there’s no way young lord could have gotten hurt with those 2 knights around, right?”, he says in an awkward fashion.

“But the matter of the fact is, I did. Your good son also wanted me to bring him to the Duke to settle the debt of bumping into him. You tell me, how should the matter be settled?”, I declare self-righteously. They’s no need to talk too much reason with him, especially what our statuses differ so much.

He looks at his son, who doesn’t deny it, but looks away. He sighs in resignation.

The offense of assaulting me is negligible when compared to the possible insult to a Duke that protects the Kingdom as one of it’s reigning Generals. This is a crime that could result in the confiscation of all his property and jail time.

He seems to have lost his vigor, uttering slowly, “Just name what you want.”