Four days went by, and we made sure to hit a different place every night. Normal Bandits only thought about pure monetary gains, but we hit everything from a textile mill to food. Of course, every heist ended up getting exposed publicly, always with that strange symbol which everyone in town came to know as Reign’s End. They were now the talk of the town.
Lord Reign had to respond to it, and his response was the standard boilerplate that Bandits would not be stood for. He told his citizens that these thieves were not to be tolerated and that everything they stole was taking away from the comfort and lives of the people. This campaign might have been effective if the people hadn’t already felt like their comfort had been robbed from them by Lord Reign years ago.
His mandates were left all over town, and they quickly became a joke. This was because the day after, a mysterious merchant opened up in town and started selling stuff at an affordable rate. The people were eating better and living more comfortably than they had in years. Lord Reign couldn’t manage to convince the population that things were worse because of the Bandits, so they only started to ignore him even more.
The store was endorsed by the top fifty gladiator Carmine and was worked by several beautiful women of various types. The reputation of the place exploded and grew very popular in a surprisingly short period. Two nights later, some mysterious men tried to start stuff with the store, but they were sent on their way pretty brutally, and it became known that the girls were also not to be messed with.
After that, taxers came in trying to force them to collect money, hoping that would demotivate the store or cause the elusive merchant to increase his prices, but they paid everything asked without complaint and even included some nice bribes for the taxmen, which left them leaving with good feelings. When Lord Reign asked about it, they spread lies that they were about to crumble at any moment and how they were turning up the heat on them.
If we sold the supplies we just stole, it would be found out. Thankfully, I had my city to back me up. It was exceptionally easy to send all the food to Chalm and then swap with their food. So, we were selling goods we stole from Alerith at a cheap rate to the citizens of Alerith and then paying the taxes with money also stolen from Alerith. In the end, we were making a profit, considering none of my own money was being put into the business.
I had the profits go to an orphanage in the city, which only started to increase my reputation even more. Yet, no one knew what name to call me. Unlike Reign’s End, the band, I had kept my identity as a merchant hidden.
I finally decided to just register under my true name, Deacon Williams.
“That’s a clever name, Master. It sounds like a lowly merchant!” Miki gave a thumbs up.
“I think it’s a rather silly name, but it’s made up, so who cares?” Ruby added.
Shao, the only one from my world, who had seen my history and knew my name, patted my head in sympathy. No one else suspected a thing.