The Runesmith Chapter 177 Eviction notice

‘What is that idiot doing this ti...’

Roland stood there not knowing what to do. Normally he would just wait until Armand and the person he was up against argued it out, not like it was any of his business, to begin with. The biggest problem here was his relation to Elodia, she was right next to him and he could see the concern in her eyes.

In the three years that had passed Armand didn’t remain stagnant. He had actually improved significantly and beca a proper gold rank adventurer. The only thing that he didn’t like, was the choice of class that Armand went with.

Na :

Armand L 111

Classes:

T2 Fist Berserker L 11 [ Primary ]

T2 Pugilist L 50 [ Secondary ]

T1 Warrior L 25 [ X ]

T1 Brawler L 25 [ X ]

Just like the na implied, the class caused so anger managent issues. Armand was already prone to mood swings, this was apparent during the interactions he had with him three years ago. The only reason he took the class was probably due to how overpowered the berserk skill actually was.

While this skill had many faults, the boost it gave its users was truly imnse. At higher levels, this skill could actually be offset by other ones and be controlled. It was not such a bad choice for a close-quarters fighter as long as the people from their party kept their distance.

As the na implied the skill user would go into a sort of berserked state. During this state, he or she would focus on the enemies before them. As long as the user-focused their anger on a specific target before the skill activation it would be pointed towards it.

The biggest drawback was probably not that there was a possibility of attacking their allies but the fact that they would abandon all defensive asures. The boost in stats would bloat up the muscles and turn the user’s body into sothing close to steel.

But even then, if the opponent’s attacking power was high, they would just be rushing to their deaths. If Armand actually managed to master this skill and keep a sowhat clear head, he could easily go against other warrior types that were even ten levels above his.

“Wait.”

“But...”

While he was trying to examine the situation, Elodia started moving forward. He had to place his hand in the way to make her stop. While his girlfriend normally managed to keep a cool head, it was only when it ca to business-related situations. When it ca to her loved ones and family, she didn’t always think things through.

“I know, I’ll step in if it gets out of hand but if we do it now, we could escalate the situation.”

Roland feared that there could be more of those guards around. From his first impression, it looked like the n were just hired, thugs. In this case Armand punching them out could just be attributed to self defense. A problem would only arise if they were actual city guards hired by the city or noble lord. If a person raised a hand against them, they would be placed in prison where they would remain until bail was posted or they were sentenced.

“See that man.”

Roland pointed to who looked to be the leader. The two remaining guards had their shields and swords out and defended him while he was glaring at Armand.

“Isn’t that...”

“He is part of the rchant guild... but you seem to know that already?”

Elodia’s reaction to the man was a bit strange as he could see her flinch slightly. While he noticed this in his mind, it wouldn’t be surprising for her to know him. The man was one of the mbers of the rchant guild in Albrook. It wouldn’t be surprising that Elodia ca in contact with him through her previous work at the Adventurer guild.

“Also I wouldn’t worry about Armand if I were you, that rchant is in more danger than anyone...”

It was clear that the small group of guards that the rchant brought over were no match for this Fist Berserker. They were all around level ninety which put them at a big disadvantage against soone that went through their second tier 2 class change.

The guards were probably retired adventurers that could not push themselves past the silver rank. This wasn’t anything strange as not everyone wanted to risk their lives by fighting scary monsters in tight corridors of a dungeon.

Working as a guard for a rchant was mostly a lot easier and the only thing they needed to worry about was bandits. Then during transporting goods the rchant would also hire more adventurers for protection.

The guards would mostly just surround their boss while the adventurers did the dangerous part of fighting off monsters and bandits. This didn’t an that it wasn’t dangerous at all like now the guards found themselves against a person that they couldn’t handle. If Armand wanted, he could probably kill all four of them here.

“How barbaric, I ca here to pass on the information. If you want to bla soone, bla the person that signed that contract.”

The rchant that was standing there pulled out a handkerchief that was made from so costly fabric and covered his mouth with it. It was as if this place filled with orphans was below soone like him.

“You’re still spouting that nonsense!”

In response, Armand just shook his fist at the rchant that shrunk back. The difference in strength between these two was night and day.

“Blasted ungrateful savages, I have given you the notice, if you don’t comply with it, I will inform the city lord. I’d like to see you act the sa when you get thrown into prison! We are done here, take those two idiots.”

The rchant started shouting back at Armand that remained standing in place. When so kind of contract and then notice was ntioned Roland was a bit confused. Soon though he discovered that there was so kind of large parchnt thrown to the side. It was mangled up but it was there.

Luckily this was when it ended, the other guards grabbed their passed-out colleagues before walking away. When they did, Elodia finally snapped out of it and decided to move towards Armand to ask so questions. On the other hand, Roland hod in on the paper that was to the side.

‘What is this... You are hereby required to vacate the premises, failure to vacate will result in...’

After getting the dirt out he started to read through it. There wasn’t much, it was clearly an eviction notice. It stated that the contract that they previously signed would be annulled and it would go per so clause that was in the previous contract.

‘Are they just willing to pay the penalty for annulling the contract or did they find a loophole to evade it?’

Roland wasn’t really sure about how Elodia ca to own this house. She did tell him that the price was quite low as it was a building in an unfavorable location and there were many things to fix.

This unfavorable location was probably due to it being close to the Albrook slums that had ford close by. After three years had passed though a lot of the bad elents of the city had been pushed back into another location. There were even so shops and restaurants opening up close by. If this was the true reason, he would need to investigate further.

“Hey, give that!”

As he was approaching Elodia, Armand took it upon himself to quickly swipe the eviction notice from his hand. He never saw anyone crumble up a piece of paper so fast.

“Hey, what was that?”

Asked Elodia while Armand just shrugged.

“Don’t worry about it, I’ll figure it out...”

“Oh, I really hope you aren’t planning on storming the rchant guild or sothing?”

Roland chid in as he clearly knew what was down on that paper. Armand was sowhat protective of his older sister. The two almost had a third confrontation with each other when it ca out that he was dating Elodia.

Luckily Lobelia was there and managed to talk him out of it. In reality, he attributed this to Armand knowing that he wouldn’t stand a chance in a one-on-one battle with him anyway. Even now after three years, Roland had managed to overtake Armand in levels. Everything ended in a contest of strength, which was just a simple arm-wrestling contest, which he won.

“Elodia, do you have a copy of your house’s ownership contract?”

“Of course I do, but why would you want to...then that parchnt...”

“Yes, it was an...”

Before he could reply he could see Armand’s hand move towards his face. His ‘ brother-in-law’ was clearly trying to cover his mouth before he babbled out the secret. Before Armand could silence him, Roland intercepted his wrist with his own hand. He had already proven that his raw stats were superior, so he didn’t have much trouble in blocking this approach.

“Armand, what are you doing? Did you go crazy?”

Elodia shouted out from the side as she was taken back by what her younger brother was doing.

Roland didn’t bla Armand for acting this way. He was just trying to solve problems their problems by himself. He wouldn’t be surprised if Lobelia got involved along with the thieves guild to try to force the rchant to capitulate. This would be quite the risky maneuver though if they ever got caught they would lose more than a building.

“Give it a rest, this is not sothing you can solve with brute strength.”

Roland let go of Armand’s wrist as the two started struggling with each other. While he was stronger than the muscle brain, there wasn’t such a big gap between them.

“Let’s go inside before everyone from Albrook finds out...”

He looked to the side, people started gathering as they clearly heard Armand shouting. If they continued to cause a scene, even guards could shop up.

Elodia had sowhat figured out the aning behind Roland’s previous words. Thus she bolted into the orphanage to go to the safe where the contract was. Armand and Roland on the other hand just headed in slowly behind her.

“Could you stop glaring at , not like I had anything to do with that eviction notice.”

“No, but if you kept quiet then Elodia would have gotten involved.”

“Is there a problem if she gets involved?”

Roland replied quickly while Armand never let up with the glare. He understood the sentint behind the white lie but it was better to have soone that actually knew a thing or two about contracts help out.

Three years had passed and this place did start looking a bit better. Even though Armand had a falling out with the guild master, he was now a gold rank adventurer. So was Lobelia, who managed to get through the test a few months ago. With The rise in status ca the rise in pay and they could finally start repairing.

Elodia also had much more ti to spend with the kids so she made sure that the money was well spent. The number of orphans also didn’t increase and a few of them were actually old enough to get their first classes and start working. It did seem like this place was on the rise but apparently, the rchants didn’t see it that way.

It was still quite loud inside but even the youngest child was past five and didn’t need to be spoon-fed. Roland didn’t really pry into Elodia’s past too much as it did seem that she was running away from sothing.

“Is this it?”

“Yes, will you look through it?”

“If you want.”

Both Roland and Elodia knew the pros and cons of contracts like this. While it might have been written down well, there were always certain ways to go around it. Roland started looking over the contract together with Elodia as they tried to figure out the reason for the eviction notice.

“Would have been easier if soone didn’t throw away the eviction notice...”

Elodia grumbled while Armand removed himself from the room, luckily Roland was fast enough to go through it.

“It said sothing about poor living conditions... I think they are trying to go with that angle to get back the house...”

There were certain laws in the city that were put on places like an orphanage. One of them was decent living conditions. It was a sowhat obscure law that no one really followed though as most people were already living in poor conditions. In this case, though, it could be a potential reason to break the contract.

“What we can do is go to the city hall and have soone inspect the orphanage, only then should the eviction notice go through... but it seems...”

“Did they already sign off on it?”

Roland nodded at Elodia’s question as the inspector should have been sent to the house prior to the eviction notice. But the rchants had deep pockets and they could potentially bribe such an official to quickly sign off on it.

“I knew those bast...”

“You be quiet, don’t you even think about doing anything stupid!”

Armand peeked his head back into the room where Elodia and Roland were discussing the current situation. It was clear that if they left it in the hands of this muscle brain, he could get himself in a big ss. Now that there was no guild master backing him, it could go south quite fast.

“Elodia is right, if you touch a proper city official you might actually beco a wanted man, but if you want to start a new career as a bandit, then go ahead.”

Roland shrugged while getting glared down by the large man.

“Then what are we supposed to do? Just pack our bags and leave?”

“I didn’t say that... we must first see who this inspector is that signed off on that fake inspection. We still have so ti, no need to rush things.”

Roland gave out a sigh as this was not what he expected when this day had started. Instead of spending so quality ti with Elodia he would need to pay a visit to the city hall. Even worse, if all things failed the new noble lord might have to get involved as he might be the only person that wasn’t on the rchant guild’s payroll...

.......

“Hm... where did it go... oh there it is, that man sure can throw them.”

A certain cloaked figure looked down at a rolled-up ball of paper. The person was of average build and height but after closer inspection, there was sothing off with the hood. There were two lumps protruding from the hood, making it seem that there was sothing pointy there.

A few monts ago the person witnessed quite the spectacle. Two armored guards went flying before their eyes. It was quite magnificent to watch, it only took one punch and one kick from the person nad Armand to quickly disarm the two opponents.

Regretfully that was when the battle ended, the two parties just continued to shout at each other before the rchant and his guards left. This left this hooded person in a state of disappointnt as they wanted to see if the brawler was soone that they could hire.

But as they continued to watch there was more to it, another interesting person showed up next to a woman wearing glasses. The person was quite big and radiated sothing to what this hooded person was well attuned to. It told them that it would be wise to not get involved with that person.

This got them interested, who was he? and why was he involved with the man that easily dispatched the guards. Were they just a strong party of adventurers or was there more to it?

“Hope this answers so questions... hmm, an eviction notice?”

It beca apparent that the people there were being evicted for one reason or another.

“Hm... this is getting more interesting but could this really aid my lord?”

The hooded person decided to take the eviction notice as there was more information about the involved party there. If this was sothing that they could use later was up to debate but that man was sowhat intriguing.

“His class was special but he is hiding behind so tricks, I need to gather more information!”

The person laughed to themselves before sinking back into the crowded street.