Ch.124Request Log #012 – Night of the Mafia (5)

“Do you know anything about places he frequents? I doubt someone like you wouldn’t remember names that came up during phone conversations.”

I needed to extract everything I could here. The noll named Silvia seemed to consider helping me, pondering before finally spitting out some useful information.

“Ah. Even though he’s the type to use noise-canceling magic when making calls, I think I remember some names I overheard before… Just wait a moment.”

The woman pulled out a small notebook from her desk and began flipping through it. She was the type who needed to record everything. Not a bad trait. Quite useful at the moment.

After a while, the noll made her distinctive cackling sound and put the notebook away. She spoke again with a smug expression.

“When he called at 11:16 PM, he mentioned Lucy and Tiffany were waiting for him. I couldn’t hear any background noise because of the silencing magic. And… next week, same day around the same time, it would be Jenny and Sally… Some kind of code?”

All names ending with the same sound. Aliases. And I knew exactly where women using such aliases could be found. I sighed, relieved that things might get a little easier.

“No, those are real names. That unpleasant personality of his is actually helpful. Now that I have a lead, I’ll call you again when I find that goblin. Do whatever you want with Giuseppina now, sweet-talk her or whatever.”

My need for Giuseppina ended there. I needed to alert the Italian nolls about the situation, and I needed someone to testify and information to gather.

And for something obtained incidentally, it was quite good information. Those names the gambler Arnold mentioned were all aliases used by hostesses at Pandemonium.

The establishment had not only hostesses but also ordinary succubi who came to satisfy their inevitable demonic nature. Those hostesses used such aliases.

Though cheaper than the hostesses, the difference in skill was greater than the difference in price, so I didn’t frequent them. I earned enough to splurge, at least. Though I usually lived having splurged it all.

Anyway, some people occasionally said they liked these women because they didn’t feel like hostesses, and gambler Arnold seemed to be one of those. Fortunately, I was well-liked at Pandemonium.

I took a taxi home and then came back with my car. I would need to follow him. Goblins were cowardly. Cowards tended to spend excessively on bodyguards.

So rather than charging in headfirst, beating all the bodyguards, and extracting information from the goblin, it would be better to choose a time when those bodyguards put down their guns.

Heading to the red-light district during daylight hours wasn’t particularly unusual for me. Even if I hadn’t gone for about a month, I used to visit Iris during the day.

The red-light district didn’t actually glow red during the day. In fact, it didn’t glow that much even at night. The people who created Prohibition hated places like this too. Until they received services there themselves.

The entrance to the street was lined with clothing and perfume shops, and the atmosphere wasn’t different from any ordinary street, but as you went deeper, fewer establishments displayed their business types on their signs.

Iris was Iris, Pandemonium was Pandemonium… and the Amber Room was the Amber Room. Other shops were more honest than the Amber Room.

The Amber Room was located at the front of the street. It was a desperate attempt to appear more like an upscale bar at the front than a brothel at the back. Just a desperate attempt. Moving the building didn’t change its essence.

With a cigarette in my mouth, I approached Pandemonium’s door and knocked lightly. The peephole in the door opened, and as soon as my face was confirmed, the door opened.

Succubi were a race with appearances not much different from humans. Like demons, they had horns, but unlike demons, their hands and feet didn’t roughen when they got angry, and their body temperature was just right.

Since it was still early, Pandemonium’s madam opened the door herself. Being able to see the madam’s face without makeup was almost a privilege reserved for regulars.

The madam was a woman who didn’t follow trends. Her hair curled nicely with its natural waves, and her horns weren’t visible. I’d heard she cut and trimmed them because they ruined her hairstyle.

She was also a woman who didn’t need to follow trends. She looked good without trying. With a cigarette holder in her mouth and dressed casually, she extended her holder toward me.

It was a request for a sign of friendship, and I was always willing to oblige the madam. I also had a favor to ask today, so I gathered mana at my fingertips and created a flame half the size of a fingernail.

She lightly singed the end of her cigarette over it to light it and took a puff. Only then did she speak in her rather pleasant voice.

“If you’re coming at this hour, you should at least call ahead, darling. If you’d said you were coming, the girls would have started work from this hour. That’s about the only way they’ll ever become diligent.”

She meant she would call someone for me now if I wanted. The cursed double batch isn’t treated as ominous and cursed everywhere. Sadly, that wasn’t my purpose for coming.

“I’m here on business. I think there’s someone among Pandemonium’s customers that I’m looking for.”

Of course, even as a regular, she wouldn’t give out customer information. Both she and I knew this fact, so she was curious why I was asking despite knowing this.

“If he were just a customer here, I wouldn’t need to worry. Some goblin got caught stirring up trouble between Italian nolls and Irish half-bloods. Even though demons provide protection to Pandemonium, I’m sure you wouldn’t want things to get uncomfortable.”

Demons are a race more attached to their compatriots and homeland than one might think. It was demons who poured money into Hell’s Kitchen, disliking that a street with “hell” in its name was a slum, and transformed it. And it was demons who, like proper businessmen, protected places like Pandemonium with money and services.

Hearing my words, the madam swayed her long hair and turned around like a cat turning in place. She gestured for me to follow and entered Pandemonium.

After closing the door myself, I followed her into the back room where the ledgers would be. The madam placed a customer register in front of me and exhaled another puff of cigarette smoke.

“Since you haven’t told me who you’re working for, I’ll help, but not actively. Giving you the ledger is definitely helping, so I hope this won’t cause trouble with our sponsors?”

I nodded briefly. The madam was also making efforts to protect this establishment. She was quite a decent woman among the madams in this district.

“Right. And since I’m not directly involving your girls, whoever didn’t hire me won’t be entangled deeply enough to cause trouble. I guarantee it.”

She wasn’t the type to miss that this was a job from the mafia. I opened the ledger she handed over and began looking for the man who had bought the services of the hostesses Silvia D’Aquila mentioned.

There was no way the goblin would have written his name here. While I visited Iris under my real name, I used several names at Pandemonium. It wasn’t exactly a place I wanted to advertise visiting.

As expected, there was no name like Arnold Rossstein. Instead, someone named Jerome Winters, possibly one of the bodyguards, was recorded as the buyer. There was more to discover than from Silvia D’Aquila’s memory.

He visits twice a week. Once on Tuesday and once on Friday. Each time, he buys two ordinary succubi. He usually seems to arrive around 10 PM. After that, there were records of drink orders until 11:30 PM, but no drink orders from 11 PM until just past midnight. He didn’t seem to be doing drugs.

So was he making calls to Silvia D’Aquila with women by his side? Bravado. He just wanted to appear as one of the gangsters, and a particularly meticulous one at that.

He would bring bodyguards here too. Since the red-light district wasn’t particularly safe, his bodyguards would be carrying guns while here. It would be better to follow him from here.

I closed the ledger. Fortunately, today was Tuesday. First, I had a mafia boss waiting for my answer, and a godmother who would soon discover I was poking around in her organization, so I needed to finish this quickly. I didn’t have time to follow him all week; at most, I could spare two days.

And that’s only if nothing else happened in the meantime. If those working with this goblin caused more trouble during that time, I would immediately be summoned by The Morrígan.

I asked one last thing and made one request. With this much information, following him wouldn’t be difficult.

“It seems he arrives at 10 and leaves just before 1. Does he use the front door when leaving too?”

This wasn’t a burdensome question for the madam to answer. She nodded briefly.

“I don’t know his face, and asking you to describe him would be silly. You don’t need to do much. When the goblin arrives, just open and close the peephole one more time. You can grant me that small favor, right?”

This level of favor shouldn’t be burdensome. Though she had cut her horns for beauty, the madam could still show the frenzied look characteristic of succubi.

“I can answer questions for free, but favors require payment. Next time, a separate job… No, never mind. I can leave that to our sponsors… Next time, I’ll expect you to call for me by name, darling.”

“Taking on a job isn’t even payment. A job is a job. And if I don’t request the madam, it’s my loss, isn’t it? Do I seem like the type who lives at a loss?”

Only after hearing my confirmation did the madam smile her usual pleasant smile. I didn’t need to worry about the job she almost assigned. What mattered more was that I was now ready to follow him.

I parked my car near an alley with a view of Pandemonium’s parking lot. It was a spot where I could see the parking lot and both sides of the street, making it easy to follow naturally.

It was time for the double batch’s vitality to work again. It wasn’t difficult to continue following someone for two or three days without sleep. I spent half the day in the car, waiting for the goblin to visit Pandemonium.

I could have walked around and rested nearby, but I had no other evidence, and since some people in this district recognized my face, I might waste time unnecessarily.

Shortly after 10 PM, cars began entering Pandemonium’s parking lot one by one. Most were middle-aged humans. Most of them hurried to the back door with quick steps. Amusing.

As I watched these people making a show of propriety despite coming here, two cars lined up front and back approached Pandemonium.

The goblin was said to travel with many bodyguards. I raised my binoculars to examine the cars. Between the two cars, there was one goblin, three ogres, and four orcs.

I might have a chance in a fistfight, but once they drew guns, I’d have no chance. Seven bodyguards, huh. Still, at least the goblin knocked on the front door confidently.

The peephole opened once, and after checking the invitation the goblin held up, it closed. Then, the door opened and closed once… and after the door was completely closed again, the peephole opened and closed once more, letting light leak through.

The madam had done her job well. Now it was time to wait again. I sat there for another three hours or so, hiding my body where even the streetlight couldn’t reach, waiting for the goblin.

The goblin emerged completely drunk, half-carried by his bodyguards. Seeing how he trusted his employees to take care of his drunken self, he must be paying them well.

The cars they arrived in departed in the same front-back formation, and I naturally followed behind them. The roads at 1 AM were relatively quiet, but not completely empty.

Moreover, most people don’t drive expecting to be followed. Even the bodyguards hired for such suspicions generally didn’t.

Following them, I entered the wealthy neighborhood where I had previously dealt with the congressman who kidnapped a child. The streets were still beautiful and full of happiness and affluence, but their inner contents weren’t so beautiful.

Gambler Arnold’s car stopped at a house that wasn’t small even for this wealthy area. Though smaller than the congressman’s house, it was slickly decorated with white marble, showing no intention of yielding in prestige.

I now had the address. I didn’t need to take a short nap in the car. It would also be strange for a car to circle around a building at this hour, so I got out briefly and walked around the wall, avoiding the streetlight, to look inside.

There wouldn’t be any meetings at this hour, but now was the optimal time to check if any suspicious people were coming and going in the mansion. There weren’t. Soon all the lights in the mansion went out.

That was all I could find out that night. I greeted the next morning without sleep. I wasn’t tired.

Gambler Arnold woke up at 6:30 AM and became his own gardener. Quite an early hobby. After eleven, he left the house again accompanied by his bodyguards.

At this hour, it wouldn’t be a gambling den. As expected, the two cars headed to a gym downtown. It seemed amusing to watch someone pay money to exercise.

He exercised with his bodyguards for about two hours at the gym. More precisely, most of the bodyguards were sticking close to him, instructing him on how to use dumbbells or barbells.

He was a goblin with a complex about wanting to be a strong man. That’s why he pretended to be a big shot businessman from the underworld in front of hostesses, and during the day, he exercised with species larger than himself.

I raised my binoculars to get a better look inside. The bodyguards, changed into workout clothes, didn’t seem to be carrying guns. Since the goblin was serious about exercise, guns would only get in the way.

I would need to observe the bodyguards more today. Still, if he came to exercise at this time tomorrow and willingly created an opening, I wouldn’t complain.

The ogre bodyguards, with their protruding bellies, seemed to be ordinary ogres of lower quality than Mrs. Gremory’s bodyguards. It’s incredibly difficult for ogres to become muscular in the first place.

Seeing how the orcs stuck closer to him, he seemed to trust the orcs more. The one giving orders to the other bodyguards was an orc with a broken tusk. It would be better to target him first.

Fortunately, the day passed without incident. On days he didn’t go to Pandemonium, he went to bars and stayed there until two or three in the morning.

Since I didn’t have an invitation, I couldn’t enter, but he seemed to be involved in gambling. Every nickname has its reason.

Having observed his daily routine on days he didn’t visit Pandemonium, my surveillance purpose was fulfilled. If tomorrow’s schedule was the same as today’s, I would strike, though it might be somewhat premature.