112 – Again, the adventure of an empty house (6)
In the days immediately after the attack on Mycroft Holmes’ mansion, London was as peaceful as a lie. Of course, many people in London were busy with different thoughts.
There were no people in the cafe that was on the verge of collapse, and even the unfriendly employees disappeared into the depths of the kitchen to do other things, leaving Fred Forrock to have the large space all to himself.
He set his finger on fire as usual to pay for his secret use of magic, then took out his pipe and lit it.
Like street thugs, they only used cheap and strong cigarettes, so strong cigarette smoke immediately polluted the cafe.
I have never felt that cigarettes taste good in my life. It always tasted like dog, but like smokers, I used to seek out cigarettes just to survive.
But this time my appetite was really bitter. The strong cigarette smoke was so bitter that he even cleared his throat, which was unusual for him, and as if he was getting on his nerves, Porok put his cigarette pipe down on the table.
A little bit of burning cigarette ashes bounced into the air, and soon Porok realized his mistake and let out an expletive.
“f*ck you!”
His short words represented his feelings. He quickly lifted the pipe and looked at the bottom. He even put a little saliva on his finger and rubbed it, just to be sure, but soon discovered that his stupid mistake had cracked the cigarette holder.
It was a minor crack, but it meant a death sentence for his first companion living on the streets.
With a bitter look on his face, Porok secretly sucked on the smoke once more, then quietly put down the pipe and started twisting his mustache with his fingers.
Unlike the days when people wandered the streets, you can now buy as many cigarette pipes as that. In addition to wooden pipes that were crudely carved with a carving knife, pipes made of meerschaum or amber, which rich guys with oily stomachs would use, were now readily available.
If I wanted to be extravagant, I could have replaced my pipe with a new one every day and, as the professor always pointed out, I could have smoked cigarettes or Cuban cigars without the cheap pipes.
But money was not the problem. It was definitely bittersweet to let go of someone who had been with me for a long time and who was like a trustworthy friend. It was a matter of emotion, not reason, and even Porok was a guy who couldn’t give up easily.
Obviously the professor may not understand.
I have never once complained about the compensation given by the professor. Clearly, Fred Forlock himself was one of the highest paid men in the organization. It was clear that even the wolf cub that the professor always walked around with and wanted to become a part of Professor Hosh*tamtam and his family did not receive as much as Porok himself.
So it was a truly strange thing.
It was certainly rich, but at the same time, Porok felt that it was not rich. It wasn’t because he was greedy. Like those who survive on the streets, he knew his way around and knew how to stick to his own boundaries.
Those who didn’t do that in the first place would have been eliminated long ago.
Compared to the days when I lived as a wandering wizard on the streets, it was literally no different from gaining a kingdom. Of course he was not a king. He had never sought such a position.
There was always only one king, and Porok knew that it was a math professor, not an old widow.
And the king was not stingy, unlike the rich thieves that Porok and others knew. The professor was always generous to those he considered useful.
Even if a guy at the bottom of the organization was stupidly taken to Scotland Yard on criminal charges, he would be released soon after.
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Everything was handled elaborately and secretly. Porok himself was still not very smart, so he was far from paperwork, but he could hear the story of how the lowest-ranking guy under him had been caught and released.
Funds are invested through a channel that no one knows about, and a talented lawyer is released after providing free defense in ‘good faith.’
Sometimes, there were cases where the court case was a little more complicated, but as always, Britain’s proud juries did not recognize the crime, and even if a minor guilty verdict was decided, someone would pay the bail on their behalf.
In that sense, the professor was definitely a good leader and superior.
But at the same time, Porok already knew that this was not the case.
Porok knew very well why he, the people in the organization, and those who knew the professor’s true face were afraid of him. From almost the beginning of the organization until now, it was he who had been watching everything from the side, sometimes participating in crimes and following the professor’s orders.
Idiots who don’t know anything sometimes looked down on professors. Even though his brains were a little crazy, he was young, and on the outside, he was a weakling who looked like a gentleman from a rich family.
The professor was a man who was as tall as a mantle, but was so thin that anyone could see him without any sense of dignity.
When they first met, Porok himself laughed at him for a moment. Of course he was damn handsome, but I had no interest in a man who looked like Sannim in the first place.
However, if one could properly look at the professor’s gaze towards people, those with a normal way of thinking could not help but feel something strange first.
Porok met and dealt with many villains in his life, and knew vicious and low-life scum, selfish and vicious people who would have booked a first-class train if there was such a thing as hell, and cold-blooded people.
But even those people have never met anyone who views people like professors.
I knew long ago that if it was really necessary, if it was really for efficiency, I could throw away even Porok, no, even the professor himself, without any hesitation.
But it was Porok himself who knew this and participated in this matter.
At the time, it was a minor problem. He lived a life where he never knew when he would die miserably on the streets. He was confident that the Saenim who appeared in front of him would definitely lead him to a higher place, so Porok took his hand.
“Si-pal, are you old?” …. Why am I worried about that wolf whore…….”
He was a villain anyway. He didn’t really want to make excuses or repent in this regard. It was scary to be afraid, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t do anything more, and he didn’t have any intention of doing it.
Perhaps the professor knew this and entrusted this task to Porok himself?
I’m afraid. Of course I’m afraid. At any time, if he was unlucky, he could end up in the same situation as that poor wolf, who whispered love just a moment ago and then was immediately disposed of.
He had no idea that he would be an exception just because he had followed old Sweeney under the professor almost from the beginning.
But Porok thought that was a good thing.
Because I was born on the streets, life was literally like life in Paris. Since he lived a life where he could die from a sword or starvation, it didn’t make much difference if he was discarded because he was of no use to the professor.
More than anything, he knew. That there is no alternative.
Do you harbor impure thoughts or act out of fear?
Porok hated traitors, but he did not know that such betrayal was only possible when an alternative existed.
Is there an alternative to the professor?
When Porok thought of this, he laughed.
Does that man have the ability to overthrow the king of this London, or rather, the European crime kingdom?
It was more plausible that the unlucky hairball gave birth to several successors to the professor, leading to internal strife over the position of successor. When he unconsciously imagined Moran, the wolf cub, becoming his wife and holding countless wolf cubs, Porok spat on the floor as if he had seen something unfortunate.
But at the same time, I thought that such a future might really be possible. Because he had stopped that horny wolf cub from attacking the professor in the first place.
Of course, Porok himself was planning on retiring somehow before something like that really happened. Still, in this case, he thought that the terrible future might be less terrible than dealing with that wolf farmer.
“Damn, I can’t even share my worries with anyone.”
There was no need to ask for a solution. Although he needed someone to talk about his mixed feelings over a drink, Porok realized that he had lived his life in vain.
There were only untrustworthy people, and there were also people who did not know what he was doing.
I suddenly thought of Sweeney, but that guy was crazy. He used to be less crazy when we were friends before going under the professor’s tutelage, but now he was a poor guy who had completely turned around and I didn’t think about him anymore.
Porok got up from his seat again with a cigarette in his mouth and went outside to work.
Unless someone appears to knock the professor down, he will always do his best in the current situation to survive. He was on the side of those who won, on the side of the strong, and on the side of those who survived.
Even if it means working for someone who can dispose of you at any time.
