"How do you know?"
Hearing this, Baron Baren was briefly confused before immediately putting on a haughty air.
"It seems you've heard of my name before, kid."
"You should know that everyone attending this assembly is of noble status. Lowlifes like you shouldn't even dream of peeking at the contents of the meeting. Just meeting me is a blessing from the Goddess of Luck!"
Green nodded with a smile; he had confirmed it now.
The Baron Baren before him was identical in appearance to the mean-spirited minor noble in his memories.
He was a piece of trash who would be the first to stand up and discriminate against Emilia's Half-Elf heritage at the Royal Selection Meeting.
A noble like him, who was qualified to attend the Royal Selection Meeting but was of a particularly low rank...
...needed to disparage Half-Elves even more to show off his own sense of bloodline superiority. He was nothing but a clown.
It really is a small world.
"I say, Lord Baron Baren, have you heard of me?"
Baren sized Green up with disdain and said shrilly, "I have no interest in the identities of commoners."
The excitement in Green's eyes grew, and he pushed Rachins and the other two forward, continuing to press him.
"Then have you heard of them?"
Baren was a bit confused, and his expression became impatient.
"One or two of them, they're all just ants scraping by at the bottom of the Royal Capital."
"You don't know any of them? Then this will be easy."
Green's expression changed instantly. He shot a look at his three newly recruited lackeys and pointed at Baren, giving the order:
"Beat him up. It's on me."
Rachins's eyes lit up. He let his tongue, pierced with a tongue ring, hang out and walked to the front with a fierce look.
"When Big Brother Green said he'd introduce us to a job, I was worried I wouldn't be able to do it."
The other two chimed in:
"Exactly! So this is the job!"
"This makes things easy. Big Brother Green, how badly should we beat him?"
Green toyed with a shiny gold coin and said, "Just don't kill him. One silver per punch, five silvers for knocking him down, and fifty if he coughs up blood! Keep count yourselves! Otto, stop hiding and come over to get a few kicks in to vent your anger."
Adon clenched his fists, which were as big as sandbags, and excitedly sped up, fearing Rachins would beat him to it.
"Great! Now I've got the money for my daughter's formula!"
"Ah! Stop it, you commoners!"
Thud! A single punch landed squarely on Baren's nose.
It sent blood spraying everywhere. His nose was knocked to one side, looking like a grocery store had been overturned—salty, sour, and spicy flavors all bursting out at once.
After being injured, Baren's speech became slurred.
"You bunch of bastards! Daring to strike a noble... none of you will escape!"
"You motherless thief, you still dare to talk back! One silver coin, two silver coins! This money is too easy to earn, hahaha!"
The group ignored Baren's shouting; after all, Green was backing them up.
Besides, this guy didn't even know who they were, so what was there to fear?
Baren's two retainers also received a few slaps and were howling on the ground.
In the end, they fled in a panic, leaving the Baron behind to run for their lives.
Seeing that Green finally had the situation under control, Otto couldn't wait any longer and pushed open the door, running toward Green.
"Green-kun, I knew you would come!"
When he was just a few steps away from Green, he suddenly leaped and lunged toward him.
"Holy crap!"
Green was startled and hastily took a step back.
Otto overshot and plunged into a bush.
"Pah! Pah!"
Otto poked his head out of the bush and spat out a few leaves.
"No way, Green! Why didn't you catch me?"
"You're not a beautiful girl, why the hell would I catch you? It's only been a few days, and you've gotten even more ridiculous."
Green was a bit scared. If your best friend is suspected of being gay, you'd be in a constant state of anxiety.
If you want to get busy, go find that femboy Felix, alright?
"Dammit! And here I was, having prepared a surprise for you!"
"That was a complete shock, not a surprise!"
Green retorted, then slowly pushed open the warehouse door.
Mountains of high-grade fodder blocks were neatly stacked inside the warehouse, and countless rats were working diligently.
"Holy crap, why are you raising so many rats?"
"They are the most efficient sorters in the Royal Capital, and they don't require a salary—just some cheap cheese."
Otto followed and explained, his expression looking a bit smug, as if saying "hurry up and praise me."
Green clicked his tongue in amazement. "You're a terrible capitalist! You won't even let rodents off the hook! You have to arrange insurance and a housing fund for them!"
"insurance and housing fund? What's that? Oh, are you asking how many gold coins we can earn?"
Otto had been waiting for Green to ask this. He quickly pulled out a small notebook and handed it to Green.
"Look at this. If we can sell all the requiem grass and the remaining fodder, we'll have at least 5,000 gold coins coming in."
"Since you provided the vital information, just leave me twenty percent when the time comes. This time, I, Otto, can finally bring honor to my ancestors!"
Green pushed the ledger back to Otto.
"You handle it; I'm not very sensitive to numbers. As for the split, I don't need that much. Half each."
"This... this is too much! I think twenty percent is enough."
Otto wanted to refuse.
Green reached out and pressed down, effectively muting him manually.
"I don't care what you think; I care what I think. If you understand, nod."
Otto was stunned for a moment, then nodded, moved.
Green-kun really is a forceful man.
After soothing Otto, Green finally handed him a stack of documents he had been carrying.
"Right, I brought you the merchant authorization documents and travel permits issued by Roswaal."
"Find some time to embroider a Mejereis Household insignia and hang it up. It'll save you a lot of trouble."
Otto was overjoyed and quickly took them to check, his two shrewd eyes sparkling.
"Great! This is exactly what I needed, Green-kun!"
Squeak~
The warehouse door was pushed open again, and Rachins poked his head in sneakily.
"Big Brother Green, that old geezer has been beaten unconscious."
Green nodded, put his arm around Otto's shoulder, and walked out.
"This is Otto. Just settle the bill with him. From now on, you're his employees."
The three hoodlums gathered around excitedly.
"Boss Otto, I punched him over a hundred times! Just give me one gold coin! The extra punches are on the house."
"That's amazing, Adon! I only landed thirty-some punches."
"Do kicks count? You can count the footprints."
Since it was Green's instruction, Otto didn't refuse.
He still had over ten gold coins on him, which was more than enough to pay the three of them.
"Alright Green, I see it's getting late. Why don't we find a place to have lunch first?"
"Yeah, sounds good."
Green nodded, then suddenly froze, as if struck by lightning.
"Wait, no! What did you just say? Lunch? What time is it?"
Otto was a bit dazed. He looked up at the sun and replied, "It's about five-sixths of the Fire Hour."
"Holy crap, isn't that almost 11 o'clock?! Quick, get your dragon carriage out!"
Green panicked a bit; the Royal Selection Meeting was supposed to start at 12:00.
As a knight, he couldn't break his promise to Emilia regarding the time.
"Okay, Green-kun, follow me quickly."
Otto saw that Green was in a real hurry and didn't ask for the reason.
After walking a few steps with Otto, Green turned back and stomped on the unconscious Baron Baren a few more times.
"Damn it, it's all your fault!"