[D'sP] And Catches Them - Chapter 499

It took Ace a few weeks to finally narrow down who it was that was scamming the town. They had been clever about it. Which, in the end was actually the final piece of the puzzle.

As while the group had made it quite hard on Ace and his people to find out exactly who was costing the town multiple gold pieces a week. The sophistication also limited the number of people it could be. Even a person who fell down a rabbit hole before the system came, wouldn’t have been able to set up this operation. It requires the people running it to have been actual merchants in some capacity.

Though once Ace figured out who it was, he didn’t shut them down right away. After all, when you find one cockroach, that just means there are nine more you didn’t see. So Ace and his people let things simmer as they watched who talked to who and did what.

This revealed a bunch of things. Most of which weren’t too big. A gate guard who could be paid to not pay as much attention to those leaving town. Some store that would buy “hot” equipment. An adventuring team that under-reported their meat to make a few copper more.

And if it has stopped at that? Well, Ace wouldn’t have been happy, but he also would have understood. If there are rules, someone will break them, even if they’re rules put in place purely for safety. So, when breaking the rules could provide a benefit? No question about it, people will break them.

Most of the people found weren’t ever going to even know the town knew about their activities. Well, the corrupt guards would, but only because Ace wasn’t going to have a police force like what was seen pre-system. When a few trips to the town dungeon is enough to give you superhuman strength, Ace needed his people to be trusted.

Though eventually, Ace was satisfied with what had been dug up. Sure, if they kept watching, chances are more corruption would be found. But you get to a point where you have to ask if the corruption has always been there or if the money going into such things has caused more corruption.

So early in the morning, Ace gives the order and his officials move. Now, this would have been easy if he had used those from the inner circle. To be honest, all this investigation was likely unnecessary! Ace could have asked the Barrais and he would have had the answer on his desk by the end of the day.

Except, a part of this was to let the town officials stretch their wings. A chance for them to prove themselves. Well, mostly. Ace did have the Barrais on standby for the actual operation. If any of the core targets get away, it would be their job to make sure they don’t ever return. Not to anywhere.

Such actions would be a shame. After all, it would steal away the opportunity for the town officials to track someone who has left the town. However, Ace wasn’t going to leave any loose ends.

Only the second year in and there are already people like this? Ace wasn’t going to let these scum escape, only to grow elsewhere. This was Wolf’s Rest’s problem and he wasn’t going to slough it off onto someone else! Especially when something like this inevitably would come back to bite him.

So as the market comes to life, guards led by town officials are capturing people. Many of whom are “respected” merchants. Though it doesn’t escape the public’s attention that a few guards are receiving the same attention.

Of course, news of this spreads quicker than the guards can move, and so some targets hear about their accomplices being caught. So, of course, they try to run! Just as the plan called for.

Even with all the time spent observing them, the town officials weren’t 100% sure that they had found everything of importance. So instead of capturing everyone at once, they decided to give a few a bit of rope to hang themselves with. Because even though they weren’t being caught at the same time, that doesn’t mean people weren’t already in place.

So, as those select few attempt to escape, people are watching. Ready to catch a few more fish with this bait.

And this part of the plan mostly works. A few more guards are found to be corrupt, some hidden stockpiles are uncovered, and a few more people are implicated. However, two of the targets react differently from expected.

The leader doesn’t even try to run. In fact, despite hearing the news even earlier than planned because of a corrupt guard leaking information to him, he stays at home. Then, when the guards and officials show up, he acts as if this wasn’t important! As if despite being taken away, it didn’t really mean anything to him.

The other person who acted differently from expected was the only “escape”. The man has always seemed nervous and it seems this went deeper than anyone expected. As soon as the news reached him? He bolted.

The man didn’t try to grab anything. There was no attempt to contact others or pass on the news. With just the clothes on his back and what he was carrying, he ran.

Now, just running shouldn’t have been enough to escape those set to watch him. Except the guy must have had some kind of stealth ability because he simply ducked into his house and vanished. Later searches of the man’s house found nothing to explain this. There were no secret tunnels or hidden exits.

The best guess by the officials was that he had some kind of skill that instead of hiding, made it so people simply didn’t notice him. This actually wasn’t the rarest of abilities, but guards and such gained skills to counter such things. After all, it would be pretty stupid if a guard couldn’t spot someone trying to sneak into town.

Of course, Ace gets a much more complete report from Jeremy on what actually happened.

The town’s officials’ guess wasn’t completely off base. There was magic meant to bend people’s perception away from the man. However, the actual method used to get out of sight the first time was quite different.

What actually happened was the man never even entered his house. When he received news of what was happening, the man threw up a quick illusion on himself. Which no one noticed because it didn’t change anything.

Rather, the illusion was a replica of what he looked like. Then as he rushed home, the man used the time to layer on two more spells. The perception-bending spell and a simple transparency spell. Not quite invisibility, but you could see through them.

With that set up, the man arrived at his house and opened the door. But instead of entering? He simply had his illusion enter and played at closing the door.

Now normally, the transparency wouldn’t be enough to trick anyone watching the scene carefully. Except the perception-bending spell was more than enough to handle the minor visual effects. So separately, the two spells wouldn’t have been enough to hide the man, but together they had enough synergy to do it.

Not that the man stayed transparent. With the door closed, they walked off into the crowded streets. Which even with the perception bending, would have given away that someone was sneaking around. After all, even if you and the crowd don’t notice him. Those watching could still notice the “empty” space where the man is standing, even if they can’t see the man himself. It’s like that classic solution of tossing flour on someone who is invisible, except a bit more technically difficult to pull off.

So once in the crowd, the man pulled off a few tricks. He used a spells to shave off his beard, pulled out the lifts he had in his shoes to look taller, and pulled dirt from the road to make his clothes look cheaper. Jeremy had been honestly impressed while watching this all go down.

With a mind like that? Jeremy would have gladly hired the man if he had only asked. Instead, the man chose to cheat the town, and so now wouldn’t get the chance. Jeremy didn’t say it straight out, but he assured that the man was taken care of.

Not that Ace had much time to listen to what Jeremy had to say. While his regular officials could do the capture of those criminals. It was now his time to take the stage. And given how important the town saw these merchants as, especially with how a couple were technically from out of town, Ace couldn’t let them cool their heels in a cell for too long.

Not that they were going straight to the trial. Ace knew he couldn’t ignore public opinion and so needed to address them first. And so he finds himself standing in front of a crowd, about to give a speech.

“Citizens and visitors of Wolf’s Rest! Just now you will have seen town guards arrest more than a few high-profile merchants and a number of their own. These people were business partners, friends, and even sometimes, family. So, I’m not going to beat around the bush. They’ve been stealing from the town! Accepting bribes! And committing fraud!”

From there, Ace guides the crowd through what they are accused of and how the trial will go. In particular, Ace made sure to connect them not paying taxes directly to the various services provided by the town and what could have been accomplished.

Maybe in later years, such a direct connection would no longer be possible. For now, though? Ace could easily point out exactly what still needed to be done in town. And not just maintenance, but actually new services and construction.

Once the speech was done though, Ace did have one last thing. Till now, they had mostly avoided the purchase of system buildings in favor of making their own. This time though, they needed something only the system could provide them at the moment.

So with a carefully managed sad face, Ace steps off the magical stocks left by that off-world Guild and gets the crowd’s attention for one last thing.

“Now, to handle this there is one last step. And once again these people are going to cost us because I’m having to buy a building from the system. You see, we don’t actually have a good way to hold criminals!

“This won’t be a long-term thing. I hate the prison system and the slavery it hid. However, we do need a jail that can hold people who can crush a stone like a dirt clod.

“So I’ll be spending gold pieces to get such a place from the system itself. While we might be able to keep the current batch of criminals in check by stationing guards on them 24/7. We can’t rely on that method as the world has more people looking to do us wrong than we have guards to watch them. Especially if we still want to have patrols, not just of the town, but the nearby roads.”

So Ace finalized a purchase that had honestly been decided a long time ago, simply waiting for the first people to force him into buying it.

Once purchased, the crowd watches on as a modest building comes into being next to the stocks. While the style does match the town’s general theme. That of wood and bones. Ace had been careful to make sure there wasn’t any skull or body motifs.

The bone accents were used to highlight the building and the decorations skewed towards plants. This would be a jail, but Ace didn’t want it to look macabre. They already had that in spades with the damn stocks.

Ace Finds Some Scum - Chapter 498

3aa - Chapter 500