Chapter 9

  Drakkel and Drion arrived at the inn first. Later, they were joined by Shia, then Fargos. As they all stood around Drakkel who sat on the bed, Drakkel ordered them to tell him what they had found out.

  Shia stepped forward. “Young Master, I was made to take an embroidery qualification test to see if I was worthy of joining Hidden Treasures. When work was finished, they inspected it and accepted my application. Then, I was told the terms of my employment and informed that I would start in two days time. They want me to meet them in a specified location.”

  “Good.” Drakkel replied. “Go ahead and leave. I’ll have Fargos follow you from a distance. If he sees something odd, we’ll be notified and follow up later.”

  Shia nodded.

  Afterwards, Fargos had debriefed everyone on what he had learned. “Young Master, the Emperor has been trying to rid the court of corrupt officials but has found it difficult due to their dealings with rich merchants who manipulate most of the business in the capital. Because of this relationship, the merchants had quickly gained power over the years so that even their corrupt acts were difficult to prosecute.

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  To combat this, he recently took a woman from one of the wealthiest merchant families, the Lita Family, as a consort and granted her family power among the merchants.

  Her family is known for being fair and just and only uses their power to suppress corrupt merchants. If they find any evidence of corruption, they are able to gather the evidence and report it directly to the Emperor. However, it isn’t easy to get their attention, so only merchants of the Gold class with a vast background of doing business in the capital can easily gain their audience.

  As for Hidden Treasures, not many of the common people are aware of the abuse of their power since they only target lower class individuals and smaller businesses. The owner of the place is also a businessman of the Gold class."

  “I see.” Drakkel replied. “What about the last thing?”

  Fargos nodded. He went up to Drakkel and whispered in his ear.

  After learning the information, Drakkel’s eyebrows shot up. Soon afterwards, he couldn't help but smile.

  “Good work, Fargos.” He said.

  Fargos bowed his head.

  Drakkel continued. “We’ll proceed with what I said. For the next week, let's gather as much information about the capital as we can.”

  The demons answered in unison, “Yes, Young Master.”