Chapter 558: A Thing Or Two

Just as Eris was about to suggest they go back and report the situation to the Guild as ’suspicious’ and request an investigation into the business which issued the request, a clatter arose from nearby, drawing all of their attention.

Swiftly pushing the younger girls behind her, Eris stepped forward and placed her left hand on her sword as she called out sternly, "Come out!"

"Ah, ah! Wait wait wait!" A male voice pleaded.

A moment later, a dishevelled man wearing tattered clothes rushed out of the warehouse, a cloud of dust following in his wake.

After coughing a few times to clear his throat, the lanky man offered a rather frightening smile to the girls as he said, "Sorry about that, I was busy inside and didn’t notice the help I hired had arrived."

"And you are..." Eris asked, not dropping her guard just yet.

Smacking his head, the man bowed once more before searching through his pockets, eventually pulling out a scroll of paper and unfurling it to reveal a land-deed from the Misty City’s administrative office, "I’m Burt, the new owner of this old place."

Checking the deed quickly, Eris confirmed it was real before finally loosening her grip on her sword.

She didn’t relax completely, as her instincts were telling her that this ’Burt’ was actually quite strong despite his rather sickly appearance, but she was willing to at least hear him out for now.

Seemingly not noticing the wariness in Eris’ eyes, Burt continued smiling awkwardly as he explained, "My buddies and I had an idea to start up a charcoal business around here, as it seems that a lot of it is being used in the big, uh... factories, I think they were called, nearby, but... even after pooling all our funds, this was the only place we could buy."

"I see," Eris muttered, sweeping eyes around for a bit before fully releasing her grip on her sword and smiling, "So, you all chose this place because you couldn’t afford anything better, right?"

Scratching the back of his head awkwardly, Burt nodded, "Pretty much."

"En," Eris nodded back, "In that case, how can the Rising Phoenix Guild help you today?"

"Ah, yes," rubbing his hands together, Burt replied, "Today, we were just hoping to clear out all the leftover junk from the warehouse. You know, remove broken tables, rotten crates, and so on, but..."

"Oh, don’t worry," Eris, seemingly understanding his hesitation, declared cheerfully, "We may be small, but we can handle some simple clean-up work. Just tell us where you’d like us to dump the garbage; there doesn’t seem to be much of a yard here, after all."

"Hahaha, right right," Burt laughed and nodded, "Just leave the trash here next to the road, we’ll have it hauled away later."

"Got it," Eris smiled, extending her left hand for a handshake.

Burt returned the gesture, gripping the young girl’s hand tightly before saying, "I have to run off now, to, you know, meet with some of my partners, so can I leave things here to you girls?"

"Sure," Eris beamed and patted her chest, "We’ll get the job done."

"Great!" Burt nodded again before turning on his heels and running off, seemingly in quite a rush.

.....

"Becky, girls, can you start cleaning up the path from the road to the warehouse?" Eris asked with her usual cheerful smile.

"Sure!" Becky, the leader of the orphan girl group, nodded before tilting her head, "What about you, Big Sister Eris?"

"Me? I’m going to take a look around the area and see if there’s a better spot to dump all the garbage," Eris replied in a nonchalant manner.

"Okay!" The girls accepted the answer and then grabbed their tools from the back of the cart.

Truth be told, they were still feeling a bit uneasy about this job as something about it just didn’t seem right, but if their Big Sister Eris was telling them everything was alright, they figured things were fine.

A minute later, when she was certain she was alone, the smile on Eris’ face vanished as she swiftly moved, together with Yuki, to a somewhat secluded corner and called out, "I know you’re there, please come out."

In a gust of wind, a middle-aged man dressed in plain clothing appeared and saluted, "You called, Young Lady Eris?"

"En," Eris nodded, "Can you follow that man named Burt? Something’s... wrong, with him."

"We already sent someone to track him," the leader of Eris’ current bodyguard squad replied.

Eris still found it a bit awkward to constantly have people watching her when she was out in town, but she had mostly gotten used to it as she understood that it was necessary not only for her protection, but also for instances like this.

Burt, as he called himself, was at least a Core Formation Practitioner, that much Eris was certain of. She might not have had access to her Soul Sense like Lucas or Christina, but her natural instincts were even sharper than her fellow Disciples, especially when it came to danger.

Yuki’s wary reaction to Burt when he first appeared only served to further reinforce Eris’ belief that he was hiding his strength.

Core Formation Practitioners weren’t exactly rare in Misty City, but they also weren’t common, and a group of such individuals would certainly never be ’poor’, especially if they had significant combat skills which Eris knew Burt had.

How did she know that?

From the callouses on his hands.

The handshake she had asked for wasn’t just a business formality, it was a test, one that Burt couldn’t avoid or fake.

Burt, if that was really his name, had fully withdrawn his aura and hadn’t used any of his enhanced strength, making it difficult to read his Realm, but the rough patches on his hands from holding a sword were unmistakable to the young red-head.

If all of that wasn’t enough, the story Burt had told her about wanting to set up a charcoal business here didn’t make any sense.

Eris wasn’t as smart as Lucas, as informed as Christina, or as wise as her mother and Master; however, you don’t spend all day around incredibly intelligent and insightful people without picking up a thing or two.

Charcoal was made by burning firewood, and if you wanted to make lots of it, enough to run a business, special kilns were an absolute necessity.

The thing about these kilns, though, was that they needed lots of open space to build; so, unless Burt and his friends were planning on knocking down the old warehouse here, there was nowhere in this crowded lot where they could even make charcoal.

That might indeed have been their plan, as this location was not only close to the southern forests and to the river, both necessities for a charcoal business, but then why put in a request to the Rising Pheonix Guild to help clean up the warehouse?

Why tidy up a building you were going to demolish?

No, something wasn’t right here, Eris’ instincts were practically screaming that to her.