76 – Queen of the Backstreets – 2
“What’s your brother’s name?”
“none.”
“Ah, where is there a nameless person in the world? Don’t be like that, let me know. I won’t talk about it.”
“Shouldn’t the one asking the question have to tell you first?”
“Me? Hmm, my name is expensive.”
“Then I’ll have to go with something as expensive as that.”
“Hey, I’m not going to lose a word on this. I like it.”
About 20 minutes after we started walking while having these silly conversations, the scenery around us changed.
Instead of well-built buildings, there were rundown shantytowns, and the roads were covered with bumpy mud instead of well-polished stones.
At a glance, I could see that the clothes of the people walking down the street were also cheap. Most of them were so messed up that I couldn’t even guess when I last washed them.
A strange smell wafted up everywhere. It smelled like a mixture of various things based on the familiar smell of blood.
Because the city is so large, the difference between the rich and the poor is significant.
Looking around, I met the eyes of an old man wearing dirty matting over his head. He was limping on one leg.
The old man tried to stretch out his hand with the most pitiful expression on his face, but when I tapped the sword with my finger, he spat out a low curse and ran away.
I knew it would be like that. my legs are fine
There’s nothing good about going to a place like this wearing clean clothes. He fiddled with the sword tied to his waist. The man who saw my actions grinned.
“Wow. Calm down, hyung. You’ll get hurt if you take out your weapon here.”
“It’ll hurt if I don’t take it off. I’m not stupid enough to not know what it means to be dressed up in the slums.”
“You’ll never get hurt. What are you worried about when I’m by your side?”
The expression on the man’s face when he said that was self-confidence itself.
Perhaps noticing the suspicion mixed in the gaze he was looking at, the man put his chin on my shoulder.
“My sister and I are quite famous. You’re our ‘guest’ when you’re with me, and there’s no one here who doesn’t know that we never leave anyone who touches a customer. So relax, brother.”
“You mean the entire ghetto is your territory?”
“It’s almost like that. There are a few small guys left, but they can’t compare to us in terms of power or number of people. This place is practically our territory.”
“Yes, it would be nice to dominate the place where the poor are all falling down.”
“Something seems to be misunderstood, but this is just a neighborhood where beggars live. Actually, I have to go further here. What kind of idiot is content to rule a place where these beggars live? This is just people with no money taking care of themselves. It’s a place to put it.”
As if those words were not bluffing, the man widened his eyes and people hurriedly left the road. Some even hid inside the house or behind a wall.
“Did you see? So straighten your face and put your weapon in. Why are you so wary?”
The man continued to chatter after that. It was mostly small talk. Where did you come from, what did you do, etc. Of course, I roughly ignored or overlooked it.
I don’t know if his affability is a great personality or if he’s acting like that, but if it’s acting, there’s nothing wrong with it.
To the point where I thought I would just say something to shut up.
After going inside for a while, the surrounding scenery changed once again.
My first impression was that it was gorgeous. Even though the sun was still in the sky, the candle inside the red cloth was burning.
The appearance of the building was similar to the roadside where the Adventurer’s Guild was located, or cleaner. The contrast was even more stark, perhaps because the place I had just passed was a slum.
The outer walls of the building are white or gray. Most are built of bricks, not wood. Tiles were also laid on the roads, so there was no difference from the city center.
The clothes of the people passing by the streets were also completely different.
If the clothes of the people in the shantytown I just passed by were like torn mats, the clothes of the people here were very extreme even though they seemed to have something.
All naked, or all wrapped up.
Of course, it was the women who were all naked, and the men who were all wrapped up. It was not difficult to imagine for what purpose those people might be dressed like that.
Voices of solicitation could be heard from here and there. They mainly sold armaments such as weapons and armor, but there were also stores that sold people.
Disorder, violence, and exploitation, which are often associated with back alleys or areas facing the shadows, were nowhere to be found.
At least on the surface.
The blond man spread his arms wide and looked at me with a proud expression.
“Looks like there’s enough here, right? How is it?”
It was not an unfounded confidence. Certainly, if this entire place was the territory of this man and a woman named Sister, I could understand why he was so confident.
It was quite large for a back alley crime syndicate.
Although there is a restriction that it only works in the dark, on the contrary, it means that you can wield power comparable to that of the lord of this city.
In some ways, it was better than the lord.
It’s impossible for the lord to immediately dispose of the guys he doesn’t like, or to do something more than that, but it’s not for these guys.
“It’s worth watching. It’s such an honor that the human who rules a place like this is helping me personally.”
“Your voice doesn’t sound like that at all, brother? Is it really like this?”
“You’ve lived too long to be surprised by something like this.”
The man must have taken my words as a joke and burst into laughter. It was a familiar reaction.
On the surface, no matter how many times you catch it, if a boy who is less than 20 says something like that, everyone will react like that. It was abnormal to believe this straight away.
“Yes, yes. I bet you do. You look quite young, otherwise at that age you wouldn’t need an identity-cleaning. You must be very talented this way?”
“Okay, where can I meet that sister? Do I still have to walk a long way?”
“Oh, I don’t know about that.”
“What? Then—”
“Then we should find out now.”
The blonde man walked without hesitation to one of the red-lit shops. A naked woman sitting on a wooden chair by the door waved gladly.
The man chattered in front of the woman and suddenly grabbed her face and started kissing her. It was a pretty intense kiss that went all the way to the tongue.
A minute passed, and even after two minutes, the two seemed to have no intention of opening their mouths. Rather, the woman hugged the man tightly. The man naturally put his hand on the woman’s chest.
I was thinking of kicking it away, telling my sister to guide me quickly, but I decided to wait patiently since the only thing left was time.
Maybe a week at most.
I, who had suddenly been left alone in the middle of the road, was looking around, when I saw people sneaking towards me, perhaps trying to solicit customers.
I just hate annoying things. In my experience, those guys aren’t very good.
I quickly browsed the nearby shops. Weapon pass. Armor is just a piece of metal that is of no use to me. There… … It looks fine.
I decided on a destination and walked towards the store. It was a plain brick house, almost like the others, without a sign, but there was a bottle of grass hanging by the door.
As soon as I opened the door, there was a strong smell of grass. A large cauldron in the corner of the store was bubbling with an unknown liquid.
All kinds of plants were hung on the walls. Most of them were poisonous, but there were some plants that were occasionally used as medicines.
herbal shop. Or a poison weed shop. Or a potion shop. In general, a store in the shadows tended to serve as a store of several kinds.
The store owner, wearing a robe over his head and even a mask, welcomed me.
“So, what did you need?”
His voice cracked here and there, as if he mistook poisonous herbs for medicinal herbs and ate them by mistake.
First of all, I didn’t need something, but I came in to avoid trouble, but there was no reason to take those words out of my mouth and scratch them to make a boil.
Now that I’m here, let’s try a poison weed tasting after a long time. I don’t know if there are poisonous weeds here that I haven’t eaten.
In order to fulfill other purposes together. Looking at the items for sale, it seemed that it wouldn’t matter if I did it here. It’s nice to not have to go around here and there.
I deliberately answered in the most blunt voice.
“poison.”
“Hmm, it’s poison… which one do you want? Instantaneous? Or delayed?”
“The one that works immediately after eating.”
“Aha, that’s something I specialize in again. Let’s see…”
The masked man opened the door to what appeared to be a warehouse and went in, and soon returned with both hands full of plant roots.
The man poured the roots he had brought onto the counter and picked up one of them.
“This means that the effect is also very direct. With just three drops, even an A-class adventurer can be sent to the goal. What is this guy’s name?”
“Cosmo.”
When I hit the ball, the man in the mask stopped moving and cleared his throat.
“Oops, this is a pretty knowledgeable guest. Then there’s no need for a painful explanation. What are you looking for?”
“With the strongest one.”
The man fell silent at my short answer. He looked me up and down, then held out his thick-gloved right hand.
“……Four gold coins. You must have this much money, right?”
They only talk about things and don’t ask what purpose they will be used for. That was the unwritten rule between a merchant selling goods in the dark and a customer.
However, that is just an unwritten rule, and in some cases, it is custom-made to fit a little more specific purpose.
Therefore, the reason why this man suddenly mentioned four gold coins was also an indirect expression of his intention not to get involved with me anymore.
He meant that he would not ask me where to use it, so he asked me to get the goods and leave quietly.
I don’t know what kind of misunderstanding I was alone, but it seemed that I was looking at me as someone who would cause something serious with this poison.
Actually, it’s just suicide.
He took four gold coins from his pocket and placed them in his hand. The man quietly put it in his pocket, then went back into the storage room and rummaged for a while.
When the man came out again, he was holding a potion bottle the size of a finger in his right hand. The liquid inside was a deep purple color.
I took it and held it up to the light. The pale light from the lamp did not pass through the purple liquid and disappeared.
“What is it made of?”
“Processing Tene’s leaves and roots—”
“I’ve already written it.”
Tsk, I clicked my tongue and put the potion bottle in my bag.
It was a leaf of Tene, so it was a poisonous plant worth four gold coins. Even if you drop just one drop into a huge wooden bucket, it turns the water in the entire bucket into poison.
Even so, it didn’t work for me.
“……Have you tried it?”
“uh.”
Leaving behind the shocked owner, I left the store. The smell of grass disappeared and plain air took its place.
A blonde man saw me and waved his hand as he walked towards me, as if the dragon had finished his work in such a short time.
“Brother, where have you been? I’ve been looking for you for a while.”
“It seemed like it would take quite a while, so I looked around the store. Seeing that it ended sooner than I thought, it must have been my mistake.”
“Ugh, it came out so quickly because it didn’t go into the main story. Doubts like that are very troubling.”
I answered my words kindly, but did not lose sight of the store I had just left. Maybe that store owner will get some background checks later.
Mainly about what I bought, for what purpose I bought it, and what conversations I had with it.
If the shop owner answered well, there would not be a violent interrogation, but judging from the last reaction, there was a good chance that he would answer the question as it was asked.
So, other than having to suffer a little, the store owner had nothing to lose.
He is the man who rules this whole city. Of course, I’m going to do some background research like this. I don’t know where they’re watching me, but they’re probably still following me.
“So, did you find out where it is?”
“Sure. Who am I?”
The man pointed to a huge building in the distance.
“Hey there. Let’s go quickly.”
