"Ugh!" Ezra groaned as he felt his fractured ribs, before looking to the side to see the gang members quivering with faces full of dread. Their hands were both used to cover their baby maker.
When they met Ezra's gaze, they subconsciously shrunk their neck trying their best not to be noticed.
Even the two boys that acted like the boss's bodyguards carefully concealed their existence by staying completely still.
What? They were just a rag tag group of thugs that their boss gathered. Now said boss was lying face-flat on the ground without moving, and it didn't seem like he was getting up anytime soon.
Ezra nodded inwardly at this sight, because their pride was destroyed and their morale had shattered to pieces.
He didn't want to kill too many of them because they might prove useful later on.
Especially the boss. Ezra wanted to kill him at first, but after seeing that he was a man with enough brain cells to control a gang, he changed his mind.
Getting the members in order would be a waste of time if he did it himself, so he needed to bring the boss to his side and turn him into a subordinate to do his bidding.
And he already formulated a plan on how he would convince him to do so.
For now though, Ezra left the boss on the floor as he called out to the gang members who looked as if they wanted to enter the ground.
"Oi, where are the two guys following the boss?" Ezra asked, and the gang members immediately parted to reveal the two men who were sweating buckets.
But what could they do? They had just seen him knock out the boss. There was no running away, otherwise their heads might just fly off.
"S-Sir, here w-we are" the bald one said, stuttering immensely before Ezra calmed him down.
"Stop fidgeting, I'm not going to kill you. I just want to ask a few questions" Ezra said as the two men made audible sighs of relief.
"You two are the closest to the boss, am I right?" Ezra said as the two hastily nodded to confirm it.
"Then, you should know where the money is stashed?" Ezra asked as the eyes of the two men widened in disbelief.
Ezra chuckled seeing their expression before asking…
"What, did you think I was some sort of white knight trying to play hero?"
The expression of the two men turned to shock as Ezra had correctly guessed what they were thinking.
"Well, what are you waiting for? Take me to the storage" Ezra urged them, pulling the two out of their reverie as they hurriedly directed him.
"I-It's right here sir" they said, before moving a little and stopping as they bent down to pick something up, or rather push it open.
A large separated piece of wood reinforced with a hardening liquid to make sure it didn't break when walked on.
The removed wood gave way for a small staircase with only four steps, after which I saw a door made of iron with four locks on it. It was neither big nor small, just enough for one person to go through at a time.
I was silent for a few seconds, but the two men scratched their heads before the one with low black hair told me what was up.
"Well, you see, the boss never let anyone other than himself go in, and only he knows where the keys are"
"Oh, so we have to ask the boss for the keys?" I asked with my gaze still on the door.
"Y-Yes that's right, I could go and-"
The black haired one replied nervously-
"There's no need for all that"
-but I cut him off mercilessly.
Nevertheless, he didn't show any hint of displeasure, only choosing to keep mute. It seemed my earlier fight had more effect than I thought.
"Move back, I'll be breaking those locks" Ezra said as he moved an arm's length away before stopping.
The two men did as they were told and moved back a little, inwardly looking forward to seeing what was behind that door.
'Concentrate' Ezra thought as he closed his eyes and extended his mana to his sword.
The sword's edges began to glow in a dark hue, it was…
'Sword Aura' thought the two boys as their eyes widened and they held their breaths.
They once again breathe a sigh of relief while wiping non-existent sweat from their foreheads, thanking their star they hadn't tried on pulling a fast one.
Meanwhile, the boy pulling off the crazy skill was…disappointed.
'It's severely lacking compared to before but it's enough to do the trick' thought Ezra as looked at the (in his opinion) weak glow emanating from the sword.
It was part of his trade skills that came with the moniker of the dark knight.
Of course, the effectiveness of his past sword aura couldn't be compared.
Nevertheless, the fact that an adept knight was even able to feel a glimpse of it, let alone manifest it, was something almost deemed impossible.
Except in the case of Ezra, that is.
Normally speaking, Ezra could destroy the door a lot more easily, but he needed to show these two, the boss's men, his prowess and potential.
The effects of such a thing would be that these two would spread the information to the rest of the gang and especially the boss, causing him to think twice before rejecting Ezra's future proposal.
Seeing he had achieved his first aim, Ezra lightly swung the sword on his right hand. And then…
*Zeeehinng* *BAMM!*
The door split in two and started falling slowly, scratching the ground, before hitting the floor.
Ezra and the two men easily avoided the falling door as the two looked to see how much treasure the boss had stashed away.
They weren't disappointed with what they saw, but one couldn't say the same for Ezra whose face had scrunched up in an unsightly manner.
It was a small hill made of coins. And before you ask, no, it wasn't gold. It was mostly copper and a little bit of silver, along with a lot of copper artifacts and a few bronze ones. There was also a substantial amount of low quality potions and very few mana techniques of copper rank.
Basically, to Ezra who was given one hundred gold as pocket change, these guys were dirt poor, no they were beyond even that.
But when Ezra reminisced about his past life, he acknowledged them as rich.
One had to know the market values to accurately make sense of this topic.
Of all things in the Niton Empire, food was abundant because of the large amounts of fertile lands and a large population to farm.
A loaf of bread at the cheapest rates cost five copper. This loaf was enough for one to use as breakfast too.
Naturally, as this was the capital, the prices were inflated, so the cheapest bread would go for fifteen coppers.
The cheapest bag of wheat was usually sold for twenty-two copper, while being thirty copper in the capital. It was enough to last a man an entire month if rationed.
Capital being as it is, also meant that the amount of money passing through the city was immense, through both legal and illegal means.
A beggar sitting by the side-walk could at least fork out the minimum of ten copper each day.
But all this is about the food.
Clothes, shoes, weapons and armor were pricier the farther they were sold from the capital.
The production of all the items mentioned above varied greatly. Their source channels were controlled by either High to Mid-level merchants or nobles of varying statuses, whose ambitions was their topmost priority.
Looking at this, one could easily begin to guess why the items were expensive.
The nobles had made it so.
Peasants becoming farmers, butchers or cobblers was relatively easy, while becoming a tailor, blacksmith or carpenter had almost become an insurmountable task and might be if not for the new era setting in.
In fact, becoming a soldier was far easier than these things.
Peasants who did become one, either did it through luck or sold themselves to a noble to gain sponsorship as we call it.
But it was in most cases daylight robbery, extortion to no end.
The peasant would have to sign a very one-sided agreement, sometimes willingly, most times forcefully. If he is indeed able to learn the profession of his choice, he would pay for it by working for said noble family according to the agreement, which might be a set of years or till he could pay back the money he was 'borrowed', while the noble made sure he couldn't pay up and become a dog on a leash.
At times, the person's descendent would have to continue working for the same noble family under the excuse of paying debt.
Most peasants didn't even have the opportunity to learn how to write, but reading was fairly common due to the influx of books in the past century, but illiteracy was definitely there.
These days, mana techniques were becoming more and more common to the public, something which the nobles were trying their very best to stop. When they realized they couldn't do so, they began releasing multiple defective mana techniques that would eventually cripple peoples cultivation, while making sure to price it at least several silvers.
'Those guys were so arrogant yet so scared of peasants at the same time' Ezra thought before he suddenly became angry.
'And I worked for them and trusted their words like a dog. Man, how was I so stupid?'
Ezra found himself questioning all he had done in his past-life. He was trying to be righteous, but was that what he actually did? He stood for the weak when necessary, while giving utmost loyalty to his superiors, but now that he thought about it…
'I was a bigger fool than I thought, huh?'
Ezra breathed a depressing sigh, wondering how he had gone so wrong, before shaking his head.
'I never went wrong, I was just taken advantage of by those smarter than me. I only followed things to the letter because I thought I was doing good and I never questioned myself…and that was my mistake!'
He subconsciously remembered a lot of faces from his past-life, those who plotted his deaths as his resolve was once again ignited.
'They will all die, that I promise myself' he said inwardly before his thoughts came back to the coin pile in front of him.
He looked behind him, only to see a yellow puddle form below the two men who had completely frozen, their eyes gone blank.
Ezra immediately understood.
'How much killing intent did I release to put them in such a state?'
He must have unintentionally released killing intent while thinking of the bastards who betrayed him, but that was that and Ezra made a mental note to have someone come to clean up their mess.
Examining the above situation of the Empire, the fact one of the weakest gangs could acquire this much meant...
'How much were those top dogs earning daily?' Ezra couldn't help but be curious as a dangerous thought came to mind.
'Should I pay them a visit too?' Ezra thought but immediately shook his head.
He had to maintain a very-low profile till he accumulated enough strength and spread his influence.
So, that meant…
'I just have to wait a few years while their treasury increases in size before claiming it'
And like so, Ezra assigned himself another objective as a plan was already being formed.
'It's only a matter of time, let's hope they keep it safely till then'
Ezra concluded.
