Help! I don't want to NTR the protagonist!

"Well, Lucius, we can't offer much, but we'll offer everything we have. We'll offer all our life savings."

Hearing this, Lucius's heart was a little excited. He had seen the wealth these two brothers had and couldn't wait to get his hands on the scrolls and other magic artifacts of the two brothers, not to mention the countless training resources available.

But despite this, Lucius knew he couldn't get too excited.

"How am I supposed to believe what you say?"

"The gang we were going to call to ask for help wasn't just any gang; they were people that followed us from the Montford family estate. In other words, they were..."

"You're private soldiers," said Lucius with a look of realization.

Even though Lucius was the one saying it, he almost couldn't believe it himself.

"Are you crazy, or are you just bored?"

But Tyler just responded with a helpless look on his face.

"It's not because I wanted to, but because I was really forced to! You have no idea how bloody and fierce the competition of the Heroic families can be. Think about how long the Heroic families have been around. Even if they spread out and became nobles of different surnames, the link still exists. And this is just the nobles with lands and titles.

If you include those without any of these things, the number balloons even further. All these people are relying on and competing in the main family for magic artifacts and training resources. Although we have Heroic blood, we're nothing compared to the truly talented children in the family, so there's no chance for any resources to fall to us."

"All this is good and all, but what does that have to do with you giving me your entire resources?"

"Lucius, think about it. Don't you find it strange that such an outer city exists in the first place? The empire has strength that spans across the entire world, but they allow for such shanty towns and slums and even the generally dangerous outer city to exist on their front doorstep?"

"It's not that they couldn't do it, but more that they didn't want to. To be more specific, they were the ones who created it themselves!"

When Lucius heard this, he was truly shocked.

He wasn't naive; he already knew that these gangs had to have some sort of relationship with the nobles. If they didn't, they would be obliterated the second they tried to form. Even in the novel, it was stated that the gangs had ties to nobles.

But Lucius always thought that it was some small nobles or, at the most, some nobles with links to the major families.

Who could have thought that it was descendants of the Heroic families themselves directly behind all of this?

Who would believe it?

Descendants of the five great heroes, the saviours and protectors of all of humanity, would be behind the gangs that were viciously exploiting and taking advantage of the people.

Even Lucius, who was hearing it straight from the horse's mouth, still had trouble accepting it.

But after thinking about it for a while, he realized it was not too surprising.

Maybe they might have been true heroes at one point, but now they were just a bunch of extremely powerful nobles.

A social class that exists with no threat of change will inevitably become corrupt.

As the saying goes, absolute power corrupts absolutely.

But Lucius still had one question.

"What was the benefit to even doing such a thing?"

Tyler just shook his head.

"This is the capital of the greatest empire in the world. Siphoning off just a fraction of the trade would be enough to create an enormous profit that could easily provide a lot of training resources, magic scrolls, and even magic artifacts.

Of course, the truly important trade and trade routes would all be concentrated in the hands of the major nobles and Heroic families, but we can get involved in other things. If you wanted to, you could even act as highwaymen and collect tolls on the weaker caravans as they pass through on both land trade routes and the waterways."

"The Heroic families don't eat alone either; children of other major families are also allowed to get involved if they are capable enough."

Lucius heard this and didn't take it to heart too much.

Although he couldn't say for sure that there were no talented people outside of the Heroic families, he had already dealt with some branch families of the Heroic families, so he had his confidence. There was just one question on his mind.

"What if the children from the main family want to get involved?"

"There's no need to worry about that. For the children of the main family with heroic talents, these resources are nothing but chump change. The stuff they have at their disposal is not something you can imagine."

Hearing this, Lucius breathed a sigh of relief. But even though there were no main family descendants, Lucius couldn't be too arrogant, at least not yet. He was fortunate that he didn't act too suddenly on his plans to secretly develop a gang to take over the underworld near the capital as a springboard for the revolutionary army.

The fact that Tyler described this almost like a game was an obvious warning sign.

It was impossible for there to be a game without rules, and rules could only be enforced by a more powerful referee. If Lucius acted recklessly, even if he brought Albert or even the entire Revolutionary Army, it wouldn't be enough to save him!

Lucius decided to put his future plans on hold for now. Right now, the most important thing was to get the benefits.

"So, your gang that you raised privately, how are you going to give it to me?" asked Lucius.

Hearing this, Tyler quickly spoke up.

"The people that followed us here formed a gang called the Black Viper Gang when they followed us here. The strongest amongst them is a man named Van.