Tang Shaoyang and Carlos went down to the lobby together. While they walked down from the second floor, they could see a big crowd gathered around the counter.
Sera was following closely, she was paled at the sight of the big crowd. The mixture of murmurs and yells blended, creating a tense atmosphere in the hall. When Tang Shaoyang and the Guild Master came down, a voice dominated the commotion rang, the voice was loud enough that all the people in the hall could hear it.
"Him! It's him, he refused to do the quest that caused the Dire Wolf to attack our village! My father, my mother, and the villagers died because of him!" Artou, the son of Gulin Village pointed his finger toward Tang Shaoyang.
Everyone in the hall looked toward the stairs, Carlos stopped Tang with his hand and whispered, "Is it true you canceled the quest?"
"Nope, I did not cancel the quest, it was him. As you know, it was a quest for the Bronze Rank Party, at least you people thought only the Bronze Rank Party was capable of taking the task. When I showed him our badge, he cursed at us, accused us that we wanted to scam their money, and he even offered 20 copper to sleep with my woman. If he was not your guild's client, I would have killed him already," Tang Shaoyang told the old man what happened back then.
"Y-yes, s-sir. T-the Tarrior Party completed the same quest that was issued from Durin Village and Ropina Village. I have received the quest paper, and the two Village Chiefs signed the paper," Sera followed to fill the gap.
"I see, but this is really interesting, is it?" The old man smiled mischievously, "From your story, the guy should know that you are the one who killed the Dire Wolf King. He should have known you are someone he should not have messed with, but he dares to accuse you. Did you offend someone? There must be someone to instigate him to accuse you, and that person should be someone strong as well."
Carlos was completely trusting Tang after a quick simple question. He had his reason to trust Tang as well, his institution. His institution was never wrong, after all.
"There's one, and it was Tigre Party. I beat the shit out of their two Silver Ranks. Maybe it was them," this was his second day, and he spent most of his time outside the city. The only possibility was the Tigre Party who blocked him yesterday.
"Ah, I see. So it's Deril, you have to be careful, Deril is one of thirty-one Platinum Ranks in our city. His influence is quite strong in this city," the old man reminded Tang Shaoyang.
Tang Shaoyang shrugged, it would be better this Deril could come up. He wanted to gauge the strength of people in this world. Both then walked down together, the other adventurers moved aside to make a path for the Guild Master.
"You said I canceled the quest? Do you have any proof that I canceled the quest?" Tang Shaoyang looked down at Artou with his cold glare.
Artou of course had witnessed how the man in front of him single-handedly killed the Dire Wolf King. It was only a glimpse of it, but it was enough to instill fear in him. He flinched slightly at the cold glare, but he remembered the man who backed him up. He regained his composure, "My father's death! My mother's death! And my destroyed village! Those are proof of your sloppiness! You asked us to raise the reward money, we don't have enough, we only have two silvers to pay you. You refused to do the quest because the pay is too low!" Artou yelled and pointed his finger toward Tang Shaoyang's face, "I have three survivors of my village who could give testimony to my claim!"
Three guards who were with Artou yesterday came forward. They pointed their finger toward Tang Shaoyang as well, confirming their friend's claim.
"That's him! He asked for the village to increase the reward!"
"He even cursed us, telling us to not hire adventurers if we don't have the money!"
"Not only that, his party member even asked our village chief for women if we don't have the money to pay them!"
The three men were dancing with their mouths, accusation after accusation directed toward Tang Shaoyang and his party.
Tang Shaoyang let out a small laugh when he heard the barrage of accusations, "If you want to falsely accuse me, you have to come with a logical accusation. You are throwing a barrage of accusations that make everything seem fake."
For some reasons, he managed to control his emotion and got amused instead of annoyed, "First of all, you need to come up with reliable proof," it was as if he was teaching the four idiots to make a false accusation, "Sera, can you get my quest paper," Sera was quick with her action as she handed the three quest papers in her hand.
"Here, three same quests, three different requesters, and three different rewards. You are from the Gulin Village, right?" Artou kept his mouth shut but the other three nodded their heads.
"This is the quest from your village with 2 silver as a reward to complete the quest." The crowd broke into murmurs as 2 silver was too low to hunt a big pack of Dire Wolf.
"And here, the quest issued by your neighborhood villages, Ropina Village and Durin Village," he raised two quest papers high, "The two Village Chiefs signed their name on these two papers. That means I have completed the quest, and the reward is 1 silver and 1 silver 50 copper. I took and finished the quest, and their reward is lower than your village. Here you are accusing me that I canceled the quest because the pay is too low? Does that even make sense?"
Artou's countenance paled instantly. The color drained from his face as he saw the two quest papers.
"Second, I remembered that it was you, and your friends here," this time it was Tang Shaoyang's turn to point his finger at each one of them, "You, you, you, and you who canceled the quest the moment we showed you our badge," Tang Shaoyang showed his badge which was a wooden badge.
"You accused me and my party that we wanted to scam your 2 silver. You canceled the quest on your own because you thought of us as a scammer. And you!" He pointed at Artou, "You even offered my woman party member 20 copper to have a night with her."
"Your father's death, your mother's death, and your destroyed village are proof of your stupidity, not my misconduct as an adventurer."
Tang Shaoyang's tone was calm, he was not angry as he kept telling them a logical retort. After those two facts were shown to the public for them to hear, even a dumb could tell that Artou and his friends were falsely accusing Tang Shaoyang and his party.
The adventurers were not going to take this lightly as their fellow adventurers were accused by the clients. If they succeeded in accusing Tang Shaoyang and his party, maybe it was the next time.
Artou and his friends realized the wave had turned toward them now. They could feel that by the chilling gazes directed toward them. They were paled as the three men looked toward Artou, these three were following his lead.
However, Artou himself did not know what to do. The opposite party had concrete proof with the quest paper, his reasoning of low pay backfired since Tang Shaoyang and his party completed the same quest with lower pay.
Artou panicked, he glanced around to find a backup, but everyone's gaze was unfriendly, and even some of them were hostile.
'I am done for! I am done for!'
"I can be their witness in this regard," a voice rang, and everyone around looked toward the voice. A man that looked in his early thirties with blue plate armor with a great sword on his back came forward.
The man walked toward Artou and his friends, standing in front of them, and faced Tang Shaoyang.
"Not only you were neglecting your duty as an adventurer, but you also stole my party's kill of the Dire Wolf King!" The man then turned toward the Guild Master, "Guild Master Carlos, I wish to hold a trial to judge him with Quest Fraud and Kill Steal!"