"I don't think you want to do that." The fat man raised his hand, and several paladins of the second order came out of the shadows.
"You'd be hunted down in every territory from here to the capital." He said with a smug grin.
So that's how he was getting away with slavery here. There's no way the dragon church wouldn't hunt them down once they knew about this but if the second order was blocking information that changed things a bit.
As strong as the church was, being pressured by multiple nobles at once would put them in a difficult position.
Without the Matriarch stepping in they wouldn't be able to resist or deal with them very well and Chronos didn't think she wanted to reveal her presence right now.
"Hahaha, you've really overestimated your backing if you think the Beklaedning clan cares about noble relations. The moment you show up they'll kill you for taking part in slavery regardless of who you have with you." Gregory laughed like he had heard the best joke in the world.
"I don't care about the Beklaedning's, they're just some backwater clan. I only need to convince the noble Ulv family that it's not worth going to war with me and I'm confident I can do that." He creepily smiled as he continued. "All I need is to capture that dog friend of yours and that won't be hard, after all he has several enemies amongst the nobility."
"Pft hahahahahaha." As hard as he tried Gregory couldn't imagine any attempt to capture Chronos as anything but a failure. Even if they succeeded his mother would break him out then retrain Chronos for being so weak that he got caught.
But for some reason no matter how much he laughed, the fat man's smile never disappeared.
After several minutes Gregory finally calmed down enough to talk again. "Just for arguments sake how exactly did you plan to capture him? These guys certainly aren't strong enough to do that."
Waving his hand, the fat man called out to the next room, "Come in and introduce yourself."
The man that entered was someone familiar to Chronos but for some reason he couldn't remember why.
"And who are you?" Gregory asked.
The man's face turned red in anger. "I'm Roland Malric, you and that dog ruined my chances of advancement within the dragon paladins so now I'm going to take my revenge. Some of my men are currently following that girl you were with before, unless you want her to suffer in prison you'll do as we say."
"That's right, the halfwit that tried to have me arrested for outwitting him when he tried to force his way into Smith's forge in the past. This is going to be fun." An eager grin split Chronos's face while he waited for Gregory to make a move.
"Right, the man that was taken away after losing to me and Chronos. Are you sure you want to work with this fool?" Gregory lazily asked the fat man.
"I didn't lose, you two cheated!" Roland roared at him, his eyes narrowed as he continued. "While I might not be able to stop that dog on my own, I still have connections in the second order, and the first order isn't here right now. All it would take to stop you or your girl from ever seeing him again is one command then both of you would spend the rest of your lives in a cell."
He smiled like he had won but Gregory just shook his head.
"You really underestimate how far the Beklaedning clan would go for this. No, forget the Beklaedning clan, Chronos alone would turn this entire city upside down. Are you really sure you want that level of destruction on your hands?" Gregory was clearly becoming bored of dealing with these men.
"If he dares to do that his clan will be fighting every noble in the eastern plains!" Roland declared in victory.
The thread touching Chronos's hand twitched, pulling him towards the skylight. Recognizing it as a signal Chronos jumped through the skylight.
Crash!
"What the..."
"Huh..."
Bang! Bang!
Both of the guards behind the fat man were slammed into the ground before they could react. Standing on their bodies Chronos stretched while the fat man jumped up and moved behind Roland.
"YOU!" Roland screamed as he yanked his sword out.
The rest of the paladins from the second order also pulled out their blades as the two rogues outside burst into the room.
"No, I'm not you, I'm Chronos." He mocked them while ignoring the swords that were now pointed at his face.
Looking at the men of the second order, he noticed that many of them had scars from bar fights or signs of drug use on their bodies. Despite being nobles, they were probably the failures of the second Dragon Paladin order.
"Now what is all this about a dead man wanting to move into Gra Ulv's underworld? Oh, excuse me, slave merchant." He gave them a cruel smile.
The fat man felt a chill run down his spine when he saw that smile, having both of his guards taken out so easily had shaken him. But mustering up his courage he tried to respond with what he hoped was a calm controlled voice.
"Now, now, I won't be doing that Young Master Ulv,"
Roland's eye twitched, the fat man had never referred to him as a young master before.
"Just black-market weapons and armo..."
"But you do use slavery in other areas, right? That's no good, no good at all. My clan will kill you just for setting foot near Gra Ulv and even if you send your subordinates we'll still track you down and dispose of you." Chronos stated.
"I don't care about the wolf clan. The nobles are the ones controlling this kingdom, as long as I have you or your fathers backing, they can't touch me." He really didn't seem to understand how the Ulv territory worked so Chronos decided to explain it to him.
"That might be true for city nobles, but the Ulv territory is a landed noble. And even the landed nobles greatly struggle to block a beast tide. But the Beklaedning clan has never allowed a single beast tide through.
The only reason they let the Ulv family control that territory is because the elders don't like dealing with nobles. Rather both the Ulv family and the Beklaedning clan will work together to declare war on the eastern nobles the moment you show up." Chronos chuckled.
Hearing the Young Master of the Ulv family saying this, the fat man finally realized that he might have bitten off more than he could chew. But he couldn't give up now that he had come this far, the earl's son definitely wouldn't allow that.
But no matter how much he thought about it he couldn't find a way out of this deal.
Either he cuts his losses and makes an enemy of the earl and other nobles behind these young men, or he goes through with it and gets killed by the Beklaedning's.
Seeing the fat man panicking Chronos decided to give him a way out.
"Hm, looking around I notice that most of these men weren't with you the last time we fought. I see second and third sons but none of the first sons that used to follow you, don't tell me they abandoned you already? It's barely been more than a month." Chronos incredulously asked.
"Those cowards are trying to save their own skin by distancing themselves from me, but they'll get what's coming to them soon enough, just you wait." He snarled.
Chronos sneered at him, "Perhaps but I'd be surprised if the families behind these men are willing to fight with mine over a few second and third sons. It's much more likely that they will cut them off the moment they find out about this. Are you fellows really sure you want to do this?"
Chronos could see the fat man's mind working as fast as it could. If he could help these young men out of this situation without angering the Beklaedning's then they would owe him at least a little bit, yes that might work.
"Well perhaps we were a bit overeager. We'll need to take this new information back and discuss it." He said acting like a real merchant, but Roland wasn't having any of it.
"NO! We have him surrounded, capture him and we'll force his family to bend to us." He screamed as his face turned red.
"You had me surrounded with men stronger than this before and look how that turned out. Several of them were sent to the priests and all of you were disciplined by your commander, you even fell to the point where you're barely better than a knight." Chronos mocked him.
The men glanced at each other before putting their swords away, siding with the fat man instead of Roland.