Kaijin Fighter: So I Have to Make Monsters, So What?-Chapter 1480: The Redoxa’s Problem

[Oi, look alive, you louts. It appears our zakos have finally arrived at their destination: the source of these assholes,] Hurricroak declared to her fellow Ragnarocker kaijin. [Man, why do bad guys always spend so much money on gaudy shit?]

[Probably because they're trying to fill some sort of hole in their hearts?] Nepherage suggested. [Remember that de Howlite guy?]

[Ugh, don't remind me,] Hurricroak grumbled at the name. [Anyways, as suspected, the guys causing trouble for Lady Alicia and her friend Axer appear to be the same guys he was paying protection from.]

[The...Redoxa...Family?]

[Yup.]

[I'm going to guess that they're doing this because they want him as a slave or something dumb like that,] Nepherage suggested. [But I ain't taking bets this time around.]

[Aww, why not?]

[I've been losing them more often than not, lately. Its not a fun feeling.]

[Oh come on, 99% of gamblers give up before they win…]

[...stop that.]

...Alright, switching back to the zakos…

"That little apprentice somehow got his hands on all of those materials?! How?!"

"From what the report says, an old family friend of the late forge master arrived in town with some friends of theirs. Friends that were both sympathetic and wealthy."

"Fuck!"

Not all of the clandestine organizations had their bases located in Rainbowden's underground.

In fact, several of them presented themselves as fully honorable factions or families of good standing.

After all, who would suspect the family that regularly maintains the finest hospitals and hospices in all the land to be the instigators of a plague?

Who would suggest that the farms that produce the fattest livestock and crops are the ones causing a famine and a drought?

And who would suspect that the family who would provide loans and protection to the poor, needy, and ambitious, be also in charge of human trafficking?

The Redoxa family was one such organization, but that wasn't always the case.

Once upon a time, about several weeks ago, they were an upright family that provided security services for the people of Rainbowden at reasonable prices.

The amount of artisans and businesses that owed the Redoxa family their livelihoods couldn't be counted on one's hands unless they had about a hundred of them.

Alas, such an honorable family with such a sterling reputation had a tendency to hide a couple bad apples.

The previous leadership of the Redoxa Family was a man named Callum Redoxa. An upright gentleman, an Aether King, and a believer in the balance of karma, that doing good would lead to good fortune.

Unfortunately, this didn't mean that others in his family believed the same thing.

His successor, half-brother, and guy who definitely killed him via a hunting trip gone horribly wrong, Balen Redoxa, did not believe in such things.

Whether it was due to innate personality differences or the fact that Balen was technically raised in an environment that encouraged selfishness and cruelty and where the value of human life was cheaper than spit was unclear to the wider world.

What was clear to the world, though, was that after he took over the Redoxa family, their business and reputation went in a wildly different direction.

A string of unexplained deaths, the replacement of key figures, and a sudden uptick in revenue, transformed the Redoxa family from an upright family of warriors, into a vicious and exploitative one that made whomever failed to pay of their debts into indentured servants.

Then again, this transformation couldn't occur without the assistance of a certain mysterious newcomer to the city, but nobody with a sense of survivability would bring this fact up to the new head of the Redoxa Family.

Regardless, Balen wasn't in the greatest of moods once he learned that one of the biggest targets for his new indenture servitude plans had figured out a way to avoid his inevitable fate.

And all because of some random ass outsiders sticking their noses where they didn't belong.

"Do you have any information on who these people are? Can we just pay them off?"

The subordinate warrior delivering this report had a flat expression as he shook his head.

"The friend in question has been identified as Alicia Goldshire, an auctioneer's daughter from Stampeding Bison. From what we can gather, the Goldshire family has a reputation of being loyal friends to those who have done right by them."

"Ugh, just like my brother," Balen sneered. "Wait, you said she's from the dirteater continent? What the hell are they doing here?"

"She and her friends had come to Rainbowden in order to commission Lowblade for help in restoring a Gold-tiered aether treasure. Well, it was a Gold-tiered treasure. Our spies estimate the weapon to be only Bronze-tiered at the moment."

"Hmmm."

Hearing this information, two plans began to form in Balen's mind.

Option one: play this out in a magnanimous manner.

Lowblade and his apprentice weren't the only artisan's in the city, and Balen even had a couple of people under his thumb that could easily match or even exceed their skills.

He could pull a couple of strings, send a couple of messages and spend a little cash to have one of these superior artisans offer their services and have Axer lose their support from under them.

Additionally, there was a possibility that he could establish relations with whomever owned this broken aether treasure.

A Gold-tiered aether treasure wasn't anything to sneeze at, and anyone who owned such an item surely didn't have an ordinary identity in the slightest.

"Do we have an identity on who the owner of this treasure is?"

"I believe someone mentioned the name Alice Dunkelkrieg."

Bam!

"What?!"

Or option two: good old-fashioned violence.

"Master Balem, is something the matter?" the subordinate asked in a clearly shocked tone, as they weren't expecting such a violent reaction.

"Did you just say that the owner of that treasure, the friend that had been brought to this city by the Goldshire girl, was named Alice Dunkelkrieg?" Balem asked.

"Yes…"

Snapping his fingers, Balem summoned forth a document from thin air that carried the symbol of the Shadow Garden organization, one of the many allies that Balem had cultivated over the years.

The document in question was a wanted list for people of interest to the Shadow Garden.

The names on this list included people that needed to be "taken care of" and people that needed to be delivered to headquarters for…other reasons.

Quickly scanning through the list, Balem saw the name he was looking for: Alice Dunkelkrieg.

"Well, ain't this a hoot and a holler," Balem said with sinister joy plain on his lips. "On the day that one of my prospects proved to be a problem, a brand new one suddenly landed in my lap. Aiden, how many warriors are currently at Axer's forge?"

"Aside from Axer, the report details that there were approximately three Aether Masters at their peak, a pair of Aether Grandmasters, and Alicia Goldshire has been clocked to be an Aether Lord," Aiden replied. "I believe if we send Master Calderon, they'll be more than enough to handle them."

"No," Balem shook his head. "That would be too…quiet. Are the Calamity Triplets back from that other assignment?"

At the mention of this name, Aiden's eyes went wider than saucer plates.

"The Calamity Triplets?! My lord, please reconsider. If you send them, then there's a good chance that—"

"I am aware of the collateral, which is why I am sending them," Balem interrupted with a sadistic smile. "The fact that you failed to mention Alice's presence means that she is elsewhere in the city. Now, this means that we could simply kidnap her friends and use them as hostages while we look for her all over the city. Which would take time and possibly scare her away. But if we were to cause a ruckus, get people running towards the place where her friends are being attacked..."

"Then that would encourage her to come and assist," Aiden finished as he realized what his master had in mind.

"Exactly."

Now on the same page as his superior, Aiden left the room in order to get the Calamity Triplets prepped for battle. 𝑓𝓇𝘦ℯ𝘸𝘦𝑏𝓃𝑜𝘷ℯ𝑙.𝑐𝑜𝓂

"Should we bring anything extra, milord?"

"Perhaps...call it a feeling, but perhaps it would be a good idea to bring the [Crane's Slumbering Bell]. It might not knock them out, but it'll definitely slow them down."

"Of course."

...Well, that's not good...

Clank, clank.

Clatter.

Clatter

Thud...

Hiding in the rafters of the Redoxa mansion, a copper knight figure, a wooden shieldmaiden figure, and a pair of bony Bloodliner figures were watching the movement of the people below like they were ants scuttling about a picnic.

Thanks to their abilities, they were able to sneak into the mansion without being detected, and had even wound up in the room where the leader of the Redoxa Family was planning to attack their master's master's friends, family, and lovers.

Clank.

Thud.

Clatter.

After hearing everything, they realized that they had two plans of action.

They didn't have to worry about their masters being uninformed, thanks to their connection, but they did have to worry about what to do in this moment.

They could do the smart thing, which would be to retreat and help to reinforce the main base from attack.

Or...