Chương 103: Chapter 102: The Protection Racket of an Impersonator

The border town of Oakhaven was as packed today as a festival day. Rows of wooden souvenir stalls lined the stone alleyways, selling every kind of hollow-circle [⭕] badge, black-painted wooden swords, and bottled spring water labeled "The Knight's Purification Water."

At the head of the famous stone alley — the very site of Lucian's old battle against the Frost Iron Blood assassins — a hulking man over two meters tall, draped in a black cloak trailing the ground, wearing a warped wooden mask painted with the [⭕] emblem, stood on a raised wooden platform. He slapped a leather pouch bulging with gold coins at his hip, shouting through an arcane megaphone.

"One hundred gold a ticket! Come tour the sacred site where I — the Nameless Knight — single-handedly wiped out the entire Frost Iron Blood cell! Limited tickets available today only!" Around the platform, more than twenty burly mercenaries of the "True Guard Association," blades in hand, stood in a line, collecting ticket fees and shooing away poor refugees who couldn't afford one.

Lucian, in a simple uniform coat, held three tickets he'd just bought for three hundred gold, leading Sylvia and Astra into the alley at an unhurried pace. The impostor, leading his tour group, stopped in front of a cracked stone wall, throwing up a dramatic sweeping gesture.

"Behold! Right here, on a stormy, rain-soaked night, I stood face to face with twelve national-tier assassins! I didn't even bother drawing my sword — I simply channeled sword-intent powerful enough to shake heaven and earth, gave a single flick of my finger, and blew the entire alley apart, wiping out all twelve villains in exactly zero point one seconds!" The noble tour group around him erupted into applause, eyes shining with admiration. Lucian, standing at the back, raised his hand casually.

"Hey, buddy." The impostor glared down at the ten-year-old boy.

"You got a question about my unrivaled swordsmanship, kid?" Lucian scratched his chin and spoke flatly.

"I heard from an eyewitness that... he just walked around behind the guy, tapped his knee tendon, and sat down to collect a debt on some armor? No sword-intent shaking heaven and earth involved?" The impostor froze for a beat, his wooden mask twitching slightly. He drew the iron sword at his hip, pointing it straight at Lucian's face, roaring.

"What the hell would a brat like you know about my supreme swordsmanship?! Slandering the honor of the Nameless Knight, are you? Get out of here before I bust your face!" Two of the burly guards immediately stepped forward, blades raised, ready to grab Lucian by the collar. If you come across this story on Amazon, it's taken without permission from the author. Report it. Astra stood half a step behind Lucian.

She didn't say a word — her right hand rested on the hilt of the Sun-Slaying Dragon Sword, her thumb nudging the sheath open by exactly one centimeter. CLING. A thin sword-ring, faint as a mosquito's buzz. A thread-thin streak of platinum blade-force leaked out through the gap in the sheath, grazing past the impostor's shoulder and streaking toward an uninhabited granite escarpment far beyond the town. SLASH.

A narrow section of the distant escarpment split cleanly from peak to base along a surface as smooth and flat as a mirror. The cut held without a collapse; no stone came anywhere near Oakhaven. Thud. The impostor dropped his sword, both knees buckling onto the muddy stone, a large wet patch spreading across the seat of his pants. The twenty guards around him all dropped their weapons at once, flattening themselves against the ground, trembling like tailless lizards. Ting! A Unified System V2.

0 notification appeared before Lucian. ['VALUE ASSESSMENT' SKILL ACTIVATED] Potential annual revenue of Oakhaven Heritage Tourism: 2, 000, 000 gold/year. Recommended action: OFFER A LICENSED SETTLEMENT. [SYSTEM ASSESSMENT:] Impostor's kneeling speed upon seeing Astra's blade-force: reached the speed of sound. Lucian stepped up onto the wooden platform, sat down in the impostor's armchair, reached into his spatial ring, and pulled out a fresh employment contract, setting it on the table.

He tapped a finger on the document, looking down at the man trembling on his knees.

"Name?"

"I— it's Marcus... former Rank C adventurer..."

"Good," Lucian slid the contract across.

"Vance Commerce holds the licensed Nameless Knight merchandising and heritage-tour rights through the publishing agreements. Your operation is committing trademark fraud and unauthorized commercial use. Here is the settlement option."

"You surrender the fraudulent operation, its customer list, and its counterfeit stock. Vance Commerce will petition Oakhaven's civic council for the public-site operating permit and manage the heritage tour under that permit."

"You and your guard crew become official licensed Tour Guides, base salary twenty gold a month."

"Forty percent of ticket revenue goes into my account after the town's site fee and your regulated revenue share."

"You'll wear the official, fire-resistant [⭕]-branded black cloak from House Vance, follow the approved script exactly, and no more inventing dragon-slaying and mountain-splitting techniques." Lucian looked Marcus straight in the eye.

"Sign the settlement, and I recommend a light fine instead of prosecution. Refuse, and Vance Commerce gives the fraud evidence to the town watch. Astra's contribution is strictly visual." Marcus, trembling, snatched up the quill and scrawled his signature onto the contract like a drowning man grabbing a life preserver.

"I'll sign! I swear I'll memorize your debt-collection script word for word!" The tourists and townspeople watching the scene burst into applause, cheering across the whole street.

"The Nameless Knight sent an envoy to clean up the fraud!"

"Standardizing the heritage site and creating jobs for the poor! Truly magnificent!" Sylvia stood beside him, stamping the settlement contract with a firm click, then began sorting the seized ledgers with a small, professional smile. Sylvia's private calculation was simple: Lucian had converted a scam operation into a regulated revenue stream for the family without letting Marcus keep the public land.

Lucian stood and walked around behind the cracked stone wall of the alley — the one just rattled by Astra's blade-force. Behind the rubble, a rusted metal hatch, buried for hundreds of years, had cracked open into a pitch-black gap, breathing out a freezing arcane wind. Sylvia stepped closer, her silver ears twitching sharply twice. She crouched down, peering into the crack, her voice turning serious.

"Lucian, this hidden passage leads straight down to Floor 5 of the World Tower." She pointed to the dust on the ground at the base of the hatch.

"A heavily armed legion moved through here less than an hour ago. The boot-nails use House Valois's fire-eagle pattern. I've already sent the evidence to the palace; Princess Eleanor confirmed their field camp outside Solaris."