Chapter 40 – Port City (16)
There is still some time to spare before the members of the organization who will be on the ground come down here. Roden calmed down the prostitutes who were stabbing or kicking the corpse of a completely dismembered pig.
The total number is nine. Six of them are women who started to mess around with drugs that the members of the Petrog faction sold cheaply or gave away for free at first, and eventually became debtors and sold themselves to this brothel.
The remaining three, including the prison prostitute, were slaves that Petrog carefully selected and bought in their own way. Slave-only engravings were engraved on their bodies, but now that the owner died, the effect completely disappeared.
They had to satisfy the sadistic desires of the guests who came to Petrog and Changgwan, and in some cases, there were moments when they were hugged by something other than human.
In the end, the moment the value of the product fell, it was destined to be disposed of or to become a lump of meat to satisfy the sexual desire of the members.
The prostitutes, who were obediently following Roden’s instructions without any explanation, looked down at the corpses of members of the organization, including Petrog, scattered around them, and felt quite relieved, thinking that they too might die like that at the hands of a man wearing a mask. I was afraid.
“Hey… Are you raiding for the money and drugs stored in this warehouse?”
The prostitute who has been here the longest among them carefully said that to Roden. If the other person gave them what they wanted, their chances of surviving would increase even a little bit.
Thinking it was an appropriate excuse, Roden nodded his head.
“…Well, that’s right. Do you know where it is kept?”
“I know where the raw materials are kept because I’ve secretly seen someone opening a secret space by accident… But I don’t know where the money is kept.”
“That’s enough. Take the lead.”
Roden, who was interested in her as a person who handles her medicinal materials while continuing her conversation with her prostitute, thought to check what her raw material would be, so she guided her on her way.
“Here.”
The prostitute, who stopped in the middle of her hallway, fumbled for a brick and gently pressed the two sticking out at the same time.
Then, the trembling wall cracked open on both sides, revealing a secret space.
“Thank you for letting me know. You, along with the women who can move, gather up as much money as possible in the window and wait in the lobby. There are gang members upstairs, so don’t think about going up alone.”
“Yes.”
Left alone after giving instructions to her courtesan, Roden immediately checked the contents of the storage room.
In total, there are seven large and small sacks filled with mysterious flowers, stems, and seeds with white and red leaves intersecting.
This is clear… It’s the ashas flower, a plant that’s often abused as a drug ingredient, and its cultivation and trade are strictly prohibited in the general market. How did these guys get it… ，It won’t make much sense to come and find out now.
If the items here were drugs that had already been prepared, they would have been burned, but the story is completely different if they were raw materials, flowers.
The problem with these plants is that they only seek immediate pleasure in the shade, and the flower parts are used to make drugs. It can also create an aphrodisiac.
… As a bonus, it is also useful for making delicious liquor, and seeds without narcotic substances can be used to extract high-quality oil or as high-quality ingredients.
Roden had the knowledge to use this sufficiently usefully, so he put the bags containing the flowers, stems, and seeds of Ashas into the inventory one by one.
After shaking off all the sacks in the storage room, I went back to the lobby. As Roden instructed, prostitutes who had gathered money bags, jewelry, petrog, and wallets from the corpses of the gangsters were waiting quietly at the counter.
As an aside, in addition to the prostitute who was dealing with Petrog, the three people who were dealing with the customers earlier had regained their sanity to some extent.
In particular, beast prostitutes are in a fairly lively state, as if they were drunk with drugs, befitting a species whose average physical ability and regenerative power are far superior to humans.
“Just finished preparing the sack. Since we are going up to the ground from now on, the two of you should carry these items appropriately and follow, and the rest should follow while helping the person who is unable to move. Can you hear the rejection?”
The person Roden’s finger is pointing to is the still fainting Shah Bart.
“…No. He was the only human in this building who didn’t hit us or curse at us, and didn’t even look at us like trash. I’ll take him with us.”
In that way, when the prostitute, a prisoner wrapped around Shahbat, finished preparing to move, I felt the presence of the gang members coming down from the other side of the stairs toward this place.
“Huh?!! Hey! Everyone gather!! Downstairs has been attacked!!!!”
The guys who had almost all come down were startled as soon as they saw the bloody scene, and hurriedly called the rest of the gang members upstairs and rushed in.
“It’s just the right timing. You guys follow me from a distance so you don’t get caught up in a fight.”
Roden, who took out his bastard sword again and grabbed the hilt, jumped directly at the gang members without using the sword wind this time.
Chow!
The members of the organization, who were going down the stairs with their tools, startled and swung their weapons at the approaching enemy.
“Ghaaaaagh!”
“Ahhhhh!!”
“Huh…!”
Like a scythe wielded by a farmer during the harvest season, every time Roden swung his sword, he slashed the throats and chests of the gang members, slicing their way up, as if cutting through ripe rice.
“Hey Ii!!”
Tadadat!
“You, you cowardly bastards!! Don’t run away! There is only one enemy!!!”
As Roden made a bloody path and went up more than half of the stairs, the gang members who had been coming from afar got scared and got busy running away.
In the end, even the executive who shouted not to run away turned his back and hurriedly left the hideout as soon as he met eyes with Roden wearing a mask.
Climbing up like this from the underground means that the main base has been wiped out. It was natural for gangsters who lost their boss, who had no such thing as chivalry or loyalty, to give up the fight easily.
Roden showed his back and did not bother to pursue the guys who ran away.
The purpose of killing Petrog, who tried to mislead his party, and disintegrating his organization was achieved a long time ago. Some people are following right behind.
Outside, heavy rain was still pouring down. Like ducklings, the prostitutes who followed Roden took on the clothes that the members of the organization were wearing. A wallet is a bonus.
After a while, Roden, who had escaped to the outskirts of the back alley with the mobilization of women who had been prostitutes, looked at the beast woman who had become their representative.
“From now on, you guys act by yourself. I’ll go separately.”
“Ah… Yes, wait a minute. I’ll hand it to you right away.”
Then, the beast woman looked at the two who had shared the bag containing the money and jewels a while ago, and they nodded and hurriedly put the bag in front of Roden.
Roden rummaged through her contents for a while, and she only took the amount of money she had paid for entering the window a little while ago.
“…You guys take care of the rest. Drop the mercenary on your back in an appropriately safe place, or take it with you, whatever you want.”
Roden, who wasn’t desperate enough to get his hands on the filthy money he made from drugs, heard the unexpected words and walked away slowly from the back alley without listening to the women with dumbfounded faces.
At this point, they did enough goodwill in their own way. From now on, whether they fall back into drugs and live as drug addicts or prostitutes, or start their lives over with that money, is completely up to them.
“Ugh, thanks for the favor!!”
“Thank you for saving us from hell…”
The women who figured out the situation belatedly bowed their heads toward the road where Roden was leaving, and some even bowed to her.
They continued to look at Roden’s back until he was no longer visible.
* * *
The last day of vacation.
As soon as they woke up, the Roden party, who packed their bags and emptied the room, visited the market one last time, walked along the surrounding shoreline, and left the port city without regret after re-engraving the special scenery of the seaside.
Unlike when they moved to the port city by moving wagons with the upper ranks, when returning to Barmela’s territory, they decided to go back relatively quickly by changing wagons several times to move to small cities or villages in the middle.
They were much more eager to return home as soon as possible, even if they gave up a stable ride.
When I went to play, it took a little longer, but I was able to tolerate it, but it was terrible to spend time like that when I went home.
“Hufu ~! At the end, it was a bit bad, but it was a good week anyway.
“It was a fun week…”
The carriage heading to the nearby village began to speed up slowly, and Marill, who was sitting side by side with her twin sister Merim, was busy glancing at Roden as the four of them acted together.
-This is well written. After using it for a long time, my ears were a bit tight.
-Everything sold at the night market is like that.
-The blood that was splashed on the mask was wiped clean.
-Ugh… ．
Remembering the stories Roden and Merim had exchanged the previous day after returning from work, her older sister guessed that she knew more about her Roden than she did.
“Hey, how much does Merim know about Mr. Roden, since when did she know?”
“Ah… You’re asking in the end. Where should I start talking about this…”
Merim, who was scratching her cheeks as if she was awkward at her sister’s question, as she had talked with Roden beforehand last night, in order to tell her a part of the truth rather than a clumsy lie, brought her face closer to her and her little I started to raise my voice.
“To be honest, when we almost died in the dungeon half a year ago, it was Mr. Roden who saved us.”
“…Mr. Roden is Rust?”
“Yeah. I’m sorry I’ve been hiding it from you all this time.”
With her eyes wide open, Merim, sitting close to her sister, looked at her and the two people sitting across from her, then continued her words.
“I don’t know too much, but Mr. Roden wanted to live quietly with that boy in the outskirts of the estate, so I promised not to brag about it. At that time, I also did my own research and found out. But…”
“You mean to keep it a secret?”
“Yes. I decided to inform you as well on that condition.”
“…Okay.”
Of course, Merim didn’t bother to talk about her physical relationship with Roden, because it would be embarrassing to talk about that.
On the other hand, while Marill could not hide her surprise, as she witnessed Roden wielding a sword in her alley, she was convinced of the truth that Rust, a swordsman who had once been a hot topic in the Varmela estate, and he were the same person.
Then, she compared her self, who was helpless at the moment of crisis, with Roden, who defeated enemies with a single sword at every moment of crisis.
Like in the dungeon, the day before yesterday, I was too weak to properly protect Merim and Roxia… Maybe I can learn swordsmanship from him… ．
In the swaying carriage, Marill continued to stare at Roden without realizing it.
