A beef with a fisherman~

Job Info:

Clover town was most notable for the guild that called it home, Blue Pegasus. That was not why he was here, sadly. Apparently a butcher and fishmonger, with stalls across from each other, were not getting along. Not at all. Reports said it had started off as small insults and such from their stalls, but was now evolving into much worse. It had gotten bad enough that the people going to that part of the marketplace had been making reports to the Rune Knights to do something about it. While he was part of the Special Operations part of the military, Rasparov had no current missions to accomplish currently. This allowed him the leisure of taking care of this petty argument among the common classes, and prove that people could get along when helped with help.

He was almost to where the stalls were located when he heard the sounds of a scuffle. The sounds of destruction, and people yelling, were what he ran towards at that moment. What he found were the two men that were part of what he was supposed to be taking care of, although it seemed to have escalated to a lot more than verbal banter and arguments. He ran up to the two, avoiding a punch that came too close to him, before he got in between the two and kept them at arm's length away from each other. They were both shorter than him by at least five inches, making it easy to also get their attention at the same time.

”Cease this fight at once! Or both of you will find yourselves in separate cells awaiting a judges verdict!”

The declaration brought both men into their senses enough to realize they should stop, but just barely. The two breaking out into argument with him standing there, arm's holding them both at chest level.

”You stupid fisherman! Look what you've done now! You got the Rune Knights involved! I TOLD you to leave and get over it!”

”HOW AM I THE STUPID ONE! I LEASED this spot, it's not yours to decide what I can and can not do here! I am within my rights to sell whatever I want!

The argument seemed like one that they had been through enough times to make it seem like some kind of scripted prank. Bruises and cuts, both on hands and faces, proved it to be very real.

”Enough! I'm going to give you two a chance to work this out peacefully, with me as a mediator during it. If you can't come to an agreement I'll see both of you end up finding a new spots to set up shop, ones you won't like.”

The two men were inclined to believe the Rune Knight standing between them as he spoke, the words being very much serious as he stepped back away from them. He pointed to a table nearby, three chairs available for them to sit down so they could hold a civilized discussion. After the two sat down, facing each other from opposite sides of the table, the tall man sat down so he would be in the middle of them. He cleared his throat before speaking up.

”Okay butcher, I want to hear your side of the story first. After that I'll hear the fishmonger's. I don't want interruptions while you speak, so don't try to talk out of turn. That will just make you the guilty party here.”

With that said the crystal souled mage nodded to the meat handling man to begin his side of the story, receiving an affirmative nod in response before the first story was started.

”It started a few weeks ago, when he leased out the spot across from my stand. He was quiet at first, only saying good morning and setting up his fish he was selling before getting to work. After a few days, he seemed to be putting out fish that were rank smelling. More so than what it would normally smell like. I asked him about it, and he says it's perfectly normal and to 'not worry about it.' Some customers of mine were complaining about the smell, which seemed to get worse after about a week of him being there. I started to say it must be him smelling like that, since no fish smelled that bad. It was hurting sales for god's sake! After a while I couldn't take it, and it led us to this madness!”

The man started to turn red, remembering everything all to vividly from his perspective as he finished his turn to talk. He made it obvious he was done speaking by leaning back in his chair, an aggravated sigh leaving his lips as he did so. In response, the Rune Knight looked to the fisher and nodded to him. Too upset to nod back, the man just started speaking as soon as possible.

”The first part of his story is correct. I had started selling a type of fish that had a unique smell, but it wasn't rank as he says. It has a sour smell to it, which means that fish is fresh. Unfortunately, this man tried to accuse me of using foul smelling fish to drive off his customers to try and put him out of business. He started to try and antagonize me into fighting him, which didn't work until he made fun of my wife today! You don't make fun of the fisher's wife and get away with it!”

He was done, a finger pointed at the butcher in silence; the butcher who's face was now blanched.

”Is this true, butcher? You harassed him to this point?”

Seeing no point in lying to a Rune Knight, as it would just get him in more trouble as it would just end up with a judge getting involved, the man nodded an affirmative before gulping loudly.

”In that case, I want you two to get along. Now that we know what the smell is, you can both explain what it is and not worry about customers leaving over it. It may have been the rude remarks between you two driving them away, and not the smells of the fish.”

Standing up, he motioned for the other two to do so as well. The men slowly got out of their seats, almost pouting at being told to just get along. They nodded to each other, walking slowly away and to their stands after it. 'Hopefully no one else will have to come back to deal with them after today. If they just get along everything will go just fine.' With his one thought to himself, the man with a crystal eye walked away from the scene. Doing his duty, that's all this was. He was okay with that though, so long as nothing stopped him from doing such.