Kotori was currently outside a large merchant’s guildhall. It was a white-domed stone building much like the stone that made up the castle of the capital city.

The inside was paved with Marble, and there were several wealthy-looking merchants walking about. The guild was where the sea lords would converse and meet, and the building was even more decorated than the Merchants guild in the capital.

It was a city of merchants after all it wouldn’t make sense for their guild to be even worse.

Kotori was flanked by Shu and Umi with Layla and Amelie on the other side.

They strode with a purpose and several of the merchants in the guild were look at Kotori with wonder. It seemed like quite a few of the merchants here were Kotori stans.

It was uncomfortable but she endured it while they strode to the meeting room.

Fawks was waiting at the grand doors with them. He was wearing traditional Eris robes and a large amount of gold jewelry. Apparently, he avoided dressing like this normally because it helped him make business deals with other merchants, but today he was representing the Eris Merchants as their prince and Sea Lord and thus had to play the part.

Kotori noted he was still wearing the slave bracelet. She had never actually given Fawks an order and she wondered why he never asks her to take it off. She honestly didn’t need it anymore to trust him.

[Maybe he likes it?] Kotori thought

Fawks pushed open the large oaken double doors with both his hands and the doors opened into a large circular room. The middle of the room was a large stone table which was surrounded by 8 seats.

Each of the seats was labeled. Kotori could see the 4 Faramouth Merchants huddled next to each other. And Gerard and Bellmont in another side of the table with their Atlean merchant underling. Standing behind Gerard was Hatake who adopted a stern pose.

All the factions appeared to be whispering amongst themselves and Kotori could see that even Bellmont was hiding his emotions.

One of the Atlean Merchants spoke.

“Sea Lord Fawks, you’re late”

The old man who spoke appeared to be disgruntled and unamused.

Fawks had a lax smile on his face.

“Sorry Sorry! A thing came up!”

The Faramouth Merchants looked at Kotori and her group

“Who are they?”

“Oh they’re my bodyguards,” Fawks said

The Faramouth Merchant raised an eyebrow but didn’t comment on it. Out of Kotori’s group the only person who even looked like a bodyguard was Shu, and maybe Yukio the rest of them looked like a bunch of women.

The Faramouth merchant must’ve thought that Kotori’s group was Fawk’s mistresses.

The retinue behind the Faramouth Merchants was a group of imposing-looking soldiers. Kotori didn’t bother using [Status] because Fawks had told her that it was unlikely Gerard would lash out.

The Faramouth Merchant sighed

“Now, that all the Sea Lords are here we will begin the business, of assessing Market shares and addressing complaints—” He began to say until Fawks cut him off

“Actually, if I might interrupt, May we start with complaints first?” Fawks said

The Faramouth Merchant vein seemed to bulge in his head.

“Sea lord Fawks, I’m sure you have some pressing drivel you want to talk about but there is an order to these meetings and I must ask you to follow them or I will hold a vote to expel you from this session” The merchant said gritting his teeth. It seemed like Fawks and this Merchant didn’t get along.

Fawks smiled,

“Oh, then I guess I won’t talk about the Sweet Leaf cartel in the city”

Mr. Gerard seemed to twitch slightly after hearing Fawk’s statement

The Atlean merchant seemed mildly shocked but was hiding his emotions

“I see, then we can skip with formalities for now, do you have evidence to share?” The merchant said.

“Yep!” Fawks said cheerfully

“Bring him up!” He said gesturing to Kotori.

Kotori brought Yukio forward. Yukio seemed to nervously shuffle his feet. She gave him a slight shove and he walked forward.

For a moment, Yukio didn’t speak until Fawks put a hand on his shoulder and whispered in his ear.

A fire seemed to flare in Yukio’s eyes and he regained confidence.

“Sweet Leaf is being sold in the city… By Mr. Gerard”

After Yukio made the statement none of the merchants in the room seemed to respond. It seemed like it was already known that Mr. Gerard dealt in illicit goods.

Fawks had always told Kotori the issue wasn’t knowing that Gerard was doing Illegal activities, but rather proving causality.

Mr. Gerard was cool as a cucumber and was also unperturbed.

[Merchants are quite good at hiding emotions] Kotori noted, it didn’t feel as if the mood in the room had changed at all.