The lady was hiding behind those two men and was saying something to them. The two men slowly slammed their rollers on their hands threateningly.
"Come on guys, there's no need for violence. I just want your guys to own up to the truth and that will be all," Ning said.
"What truth?" one of the men asked.
"That you guys were behind the bad bread incident today at Golden Flour," Ning said. "Look, I already know that this lady dressed up as a man and went to the mill at the riverbank to ask them to poison their flour supply for the day."
"I also know that you were all in on it, so you can't make a single person a scapegoat here either," Ning said. "So, put down the rollers, and let's just talk."
The 2 men's eyes shook from learning that their secret had gone out. If others found out, they would be in a lot of trouble.
"What do we do?" one of the men asked.
"I don't know," the other man said. He thought for a while and asked, "Who else knows about this?"
"Right now? It's only me. But I'll soon tell the people from the Golden Flour, and hopefully, more people in the city will come to realize that it wasn't their fault for today's happening," Ning said. "Speaking of which, were you guys behind the rumors too? The information about the bread being the culprit for the illness spread real fast. Faster than it normally should."
"He knows too much," the man said. He looked around to see if there were any customers in the store yet. Unfortunately, there were still some.
"What? Looking to see if you can find me while I'm alone? Sure, let's go to your kitchen. We can talk there privately," Ning said with a smile.
The two men felt lost at the suggestion. Why would anyone want to be out of public vision at a time like this?
"Okay, come," one of the men said and showed the way. Ning nodded and walked in without any care in the world.
He saw the other bakers in the kitchen and nodded towards them. The other 2 men walked in and closed off his exit. The other bakers seemed to have realized what had happened and came surrounding him too.
"Tell us what you want? Money? We can pay you handsomely if you will stay quiet," the man said.
"Hmm, how much?" Ning asked.
The man thought for a bit and said, "how about 300 Sils? That should be enough right?"
Ning chuckled a bit when he heard that. "You can't be serious right? You paid the miller fellow 10 Gols, and you are going to skimp out on money right now?" he asked.
The men's eyes went wide in surprise. "That miller guy actually ratted us out? Wait, how did he even know it was us?" the man asked.
"He didn't. I just found out on my own," Ning said. "Also, I was just joking with you all. I'm not going to accept any payment to keep quiet or anything. You will have to just suffer the consequences of your own action."
"You… are you sure that's what you want to do?" the man asked, with the others slowly converging towards Ning.
"Oh, absolutely," Ning said as he brought a single finger forward and moved it a little. Before anyone knew what had happened, all the various weapons in their hands flew out of their hand.
"Huh?"
"Oh my god!"
"Careful, he's an Enchanter."
Ning slowly walked up to the girl that was the face of this whole operation. The others tried to move but they couldn't do anything at all. Their bodies were frozen solid as they couldn't move at all.
Ning patted the girl on the shoulder and said, "they will come to ask you some questions. Answer all of them truthfully."
"Yes," the girl said.
"Alright, I'm leaving now," Ning said and left the kitchen. Only then could the people begin to move.
"No, we're finished," one of the men said.
"Not yet. He needs to be able to prove that it was us. As long as we deny all accusations, it will be fine," another man said.
"Ok, let's do that. Everyone, make sure to keep your mouths quiet okay?"
The people there didn't know that no matter how much they planned, they had already lost the fight.
Ning left the bakery and went over the Golden Flour. He walked in to see the empty place with the few women in their finishing their cleanup for the day. The bakery was going to close very early today.
"Hello, do you know where brother Reever and Lisa are?" Ning asked.
"I'm afraid they're not here, sir. Madam and Sir already left for the day. Was there something you needed?" she asked.
"Hmm, here's the thing."
Ning went on to explain the whole thing to the girl there. "Tell them when they come tomorrow morning what I just said to you. They can talk to the miller guy or the girl at the bakery, both of them will answer them," Ning said.
The girl looked dumbfounded at the information Ning had brought back. She couldn't believe that what happened today was a targeted attack by another bakery to destroy their business and enhance their own.
"I will let them know the first thing, sir. If you don't mind, can you tell me how you found out this information? What should I tell my Madam?" the girl asked.
"I have my ways. You can tell her that," Ning said. "I will leave now, goodbye."
Ning left the Golden Flour and went back to his hotel. Along the way, he could see that the theater sign had changed to next week's performance instead of today's.
'Using something popular like a theater to piggyback on the disaster and use that to ruin another bakery's business. These people sure are shrewd with how they can come up with ideas,' Ning thought.
Finally, he reached the hotel, and with nothing else to do, he directly went to his room to rest for the day.
