Divine Luck: SSS-Rank Battle Maid Harem

The intel hadn't been wrong, per se. It had just pointed them in the wrong direction. There was a sale, and it was the alchemist guild's potions being sold. However, it wasn't the guild doing the selling.

The Coalition's men stationed around the city at the branch stores and known retailers were in the wrong place. They had come out in great numbers with enough money on them to make sure no one else could get their hands on the potions.

Naturally, they were unable to respond properly to Derot's trick.

Even if there was someone with enough authority to order around the men from the different merchants of the Coalition, there was no way they could organize the people spread out all over the capital city in a short time. There was no way they could split up the men and the money to go to the different stores and try to go through with the plan anyway.

There were a couple of groups who were smart enough to do that on their own. They divided the money they had received, taking careful note of who got how much, before splitting up and going to different stores selling the famous potions.

However, the individual groups had no way of communicating until they arrived at the same store. They wasted a lot of time going to different stores and trying to communicate with the other groups.

An hour passed in a flash, and even ordinary commoners who hadn't even heard of the potions before had bought a couple before the last group of the Coalition's workers found a store none of the other groups had tried to seize.

The next issue was whether they still could go through with their plan.

Many potions were already sold off, thanks to their fame and potency. But that was only a small part. As long as they could secure some and prevent the rest from being sold, it would be a success for the Coalition.

However, could they afford it? They had the money, but could they afford to offend all the stores in the capital?

Not all the stores had agreed to Derot's deal. But there were enough to make it seem like someone was selling potions in every corner. It was enough to overwhelm the Coalition.

So, if the Coalition tried to strong-arm the stores and their customers, they would offend not just those stores but also the rest of the business world in the capital. There were already many stores that weren't fans of the Coalition due to their actions when dealing with Derot and the guild.

Many thought they had crossed a line, especially when they forbade other smaller stores from cooperating with the guild. If there was a chance to make a stand against the Coalition, they would take it.

And that was without mentioning the stores that had powerful backings, either from other big-name merchants or nobles. If they accidentally offended those stores, even the Coalition would lose what ground they had to stand on in the capital.

Of course, not all of the Coalition's men were wise enough to think about all of this. They received their orders early this morning, and while the circumstances had changed, their orders hadn't. It was up to them to carry out their orders to the best of their abilities, even if that meant splitting up and using less manpower to overpower the stores.

But there were also a couple of smart ones in the pack. One of them was even smart enough to ignore Kadricke's order not to disturb them during their meeting with Derot.

"Boss!" Someone shouted from outside the restaurant. It put a momentary halt to the conversation at the table, which had been flowing smoothly until now. But they ignored it as they heard the guard on the other side of the door act.

"No, you don't understand! I have to talk to him!"

Derot glanced at the door to help him control and hide his expression. He then turned to Kadricke with a calm look as if saying that it was fine if he wanted to hear him out.

"Let him in!" Kadricke shouted, irritated. If it wasn't something important, this subordinate of his wouldn't live to see the sunset.

A man in a dark blue, dishevled suit with his face flushed from exertion and a blow from the guard stumbled through the door and hurried over to Kadricke's side, where he half-whispered into the man's ear just too low for Derot to hear what he was saying.

But Derot didn't need to hear what he was saying. He knew what he had come to report.

After all, he had orchestrated it. He was confident his plan had succeeded. That was the only explanation for Kadricke's man's behavior. Well, it wasn't the only explanation. Zach could have done something like blow up their headquarters, or another merchant could have seized the opportunity to devour the Coalition's business while all of its heads were preoccupied.

But the way Kadricke looked at Derot while his subordinate spoke confirmed Derot's thoughts.

Kadricke had figured out what was going from just a few sentences. His subordinate had barely needed to say anything before he immediately turned to Derot with suspicion.

The timing, the plan, and the precision meant it could only be one person.

Kadricke stopped listening for a moment as he looked at Derot, the only other person in a blank world. The person who had stopped hiding his smirk.

"...You won't get away with this," Kadricke eventually said as he put both hands on the table and slowly stood up, his anger slowly igniting.
Continue your adventure at empire

"Oh?" Derot asked playfully.

Kadricke ignored Derot's question and turned to his subordinate.

"Have everyone pull back. This is our loss. Make them give everything back and drop the money we gave them."

"Kadricke!" Ror also stood up. He didn't know what was going on. But it wasn't just Kadricke's money in this operation. He wouldn't agree to this.

Kadricke turned to Ror with a stern face.

"I'll explain later. For now, this is what need to do to survive."

"..." Ror stared at Kadricke for several long and stiff moments.

"Well, if you put it like that…" Ror sighed and threw his hands into the air.

Kadricke then turned to Derot.

"Was it worth it? You might have gotten one over us, but you won't be walking out of here."