Reincarnation Of Audemars - Chapter 141

“From this day, your robbing days are over. Do you hear me? I don’t want to see any of you robbing others for your own sake or livelihood. Don’t tell me that’s the only way for you to survive?” I quipped as I took a long stick and prodded one of the robber’s chest like a cattle.

“Boo Hoo Hoo… My cutlass has been cut in two pieces. What can I do right now? There’s no such thing as compensation if our weapons got lost or damaged… The recruitment form does not state anything like that.” cried the newly recruited highway robber.

I glanced at the road and saw that there are two roads that separate the path, one is heading towards the town and one was coming from it. The distance between towns was clearly marked out as 5 km between one another.

“How many of you were stationed on each border? You mentioned there 145 of you and that makes up a total of 435 highway robbers and not including those who were deployed as snatch thieves, burglars and extortionist right?” I inquired and took out my notepad. This notepad is going to be my ultimate weapon and a solution provider for these highway robbers.

“I want all of you to turn face towards me. It is just too bad that you had robbed the wrong person right now. Do you know who I am? For your knowledge, I am called ‘Night Ryder’ and these are my finest who are with me now and we are called ‘Booty Whirl’.

“Let me tell you if you turn the face towards me and my cause and save your flat assets right now. Are you interested or not? The Army of Aermagh would not touch you one bit of you listened to me and follow my direct instructions.” I used Bluff, Insight and Diplomacy with them and it worked perfectly just as I thought it would be.

“First of all, I want all 400+ to disband from the ‘Rusty Blades’ and pledge your allegiance to ‘Booty Whirl’. Not only you won’t be captured and tortured, but you would love a more luxurious and relaxed living from this moment on.”

I continued and one of the robbers raised his hands and asked me, “I like the idea of not being captured and tortured. What are the benefits because the 20% we earned and shared among the 5 of us would not be sufficient even to buy bread for three meals a day.”

“Now you know where you stand right? If you pledge your allegiance to me, ‘Night Ryder’ and to ‘Booty Whirl’ you not only gain 100% profit but you would also earn a steady livelihood and good reputations. Not only that, you would get a new set of uniforms and weapons to fight against your old ‘Rusty Blade’ gang.”

“Joining ‘Booty Whirl’ is not without a cause or smooth sailing. You’d expect storms and trouble brewing from your old gang. Are you going to put up with it?” I enticed them with some bluff and diplomacy and these words really sank into these poor sods.

“What should we be doing sir, to enjoy the full benefits? I have never heard of ‘Night Ryder’ or ‘Booty Whirl’ before but an organisation is able to provide arms and uniforms and a new livelihood would sound too good to be true.” replied another as I’ve finished prodding him and prodded another one.

“Simple, first, I want you to fill up those potholes that you had dug up before. Then set up two barriers here on both sides of the roads. Each passing caravan would be allowed to pass and they need to pay 20 credits for using this road, that you are going to refer to as ‘Road Tax’.”

“Identify yourself as ‘Booty Whirl’ that repairs the roads and ensure a smooth journey and collect 20 credits per caravan that ply on both sides of the roads. I am sure that there are more than 20 caravans that would be passing through here every day, right? 20 on each road is already 40 trips. Each day all of you would have a share of 800 credits and 160 shares equally between the 5 of you.”

The robbers were looking at each other and were thinking it was the sweetest deal they had hard in several months. 100% profit and no cuts.

Just a mere 20 credits to be collected per caravan and ensure the roads are useable and had no potholes et cetera.

Sounds like Land Traffic Authorities to them but hell yeah, no one ones these roads and merely maintaining them would be nothing to it.

The robbers were busy chatting with one another and Patricia pulled me aside and pointed out, “Dear, your Bluff, Diplomacy and Insight are the tops right now. You could even ask them to turn face and pledge allegiance to a non-existent group and our company name do sound alike to the group you had mentioned earlier.”

“No one would take notice and they thought that it’s just another branch of our company but under a different name that’s all,” I replied quickly and turned back to the robbers.

“What say you? It is a nay or an aye? It’s its a nay, I’d get my two Assassins here to kill you right here and now so that you won’t need to worry about your next meal. If it’s an aye, raise your hands and we’d untie you and get to work as soon as possible.”

“Aye Night Ryder… We pledge our lives and allegiances to Booty Whirl and would do as per instructed and no more than that. Please untie us sir and we get back to work as soon as possible.” I used Insight on the robber that had pledged his allegiance and saw that he was talking the truth and I got the two adventurers to untie them.

Soon the 5 robbers were busy hoisting the stuck wheel inside the pothole and replacing the pothole back with dirt to smoothen it out again. A few caravans passed us and saw the robbers were filling up the hole and exchanged pleasantries and information.

I explained to them that these are the new men from Booty Whirl and they would be tasked to collect 20 credits for every caravan moving in and out of towns.

“20 credits? That’s a reasonable amount. And they are maintaining the roads too? What happened to the ‘Rusty Blade’ highway robbers now?” asked a passing merchant.

“Oh, they are now transitioned into Booty Whirl and right now the main task is ensuring a safe and smooth journey. They would be wearing a pair of uniform and be recognised through the coat of arms here.” I showed the merchants the tunic with the coat of arms emblazed on the left-hand side and acknowledged while he dropped 20 credits in a small pouch to the nearest ex-robber who had now become our latest gang member.

“Look, 20 credits even without asking or even harassing them. This is a dream come true, guys. Money does drop from the Heaven’s and it has just dropped into my hands.” exclaimed an ex-robber excitedly as he placed the pouch of coins inside an empty old wicker basket.

A few more caravans passed through and they paid up as they overtook us and heads to the next town. Within the time we were there, they had been paid a total of 120 credits and this was collected in 6 small pouches.

Next, I told them to strip except for their arming gear and changed into the tunic and hands them a longsword each. “If I ever hear anyone if you rob once more, I will decorate the road with you intestines from this point until to the next town in one single line.” I sternly warned them as I made a cutting gesture with my thumb across my neck.

“I want you to send word to all your friends to face and pledge allegiance to our new Gang. All 4 of you, go and send the word to all the rest and I would meet them at the next checkpoint.” I instructed as I want them to convince the whole Eastern Border highway robbers to bow down on us, change their livelihood and save their assess from being captured, tortured and killed”

“You, the oldest member here. Link up all the checkpoints with me and we would be able to teleport there instead of relying on the caravan itself.” I asserted to new members of the Booty Whirl and he quickly linked up and send me all the coordinates of the checkpoints to me.

“Now, that was easy… You better delegate a junior member to be here and all 4 of you go and spread the good news now. Return to me soonest possible and we would be able to meet them personally to hand them the instruction, their allegiances, the new tunic and weapon.”

All the new members of Booty Whirl quickly teleported to each checkpoint in the Eastern Border and came nearly 2 hours later.

During that time I had gone to the back of the caravan and had told the adventurers I need some time alone as I meditated and went to the Realm of Mind.

I duplicated 450 longsword and 450 tunics to be handed to these Highway Robbers after they were chastised and convert their faith towards Booty Whirl instead.

*Ding* You had earned 23 points for your base levels and 1 points for each of your professions. Congratulations, you had unlocked another profession. Negotiator.

“Heh… In times like this enables me to unlock a new profession? Hmm, that would be 6 professions and any points earned would be divided equally. Haisshh… Well, you win some and lose some I guess.” I shrugged my shoulders and logged off my meditative state and heads back to the real world.

Merchants heading out from Ingmery and heads to Oxborough paid their 20 credits willingly as the dropped the pouches of credits inside the wicker basket and the youngest member thanked their merchants and bowed slightly.

I smiled as my crude idea worked and when the 4 of them arrived, they said that the others had agreed to the terms and conditions and were not filling up the potholes and waiting for our arrival.

That night alone we had settled all the checkpoints in the Eastern Borders and each of them was told to spread the word to stop robbing with effect and to fill up the potholes in the roads. 145 ex-robbers were turned to road marshals by the company name of Booty Whirl to ensure safe passage for all merchants and traveller for a small fee of 20 credits.

Road Tax, Manual Road Pricing or whatever you would name it, to me it’s a subtle way of day and night time robbery for road users and it became worldwide attention as each governing country adopts this way to collect revenue for their fat stomachs. The rich get richer and the poor get poorer. This the case of Booty Whirl, all benefits goes to them 100%.

After we had done settling all the checkpoints in the Eastern Border, we intend to settle the Western Borders on the next following day.