Ch.206Episode 11 – All Quiet on the Northern Front

The discovery of fire led humanity to civilization, and the invention of gunpowder guided humans to the top of the food chain.

In that sense, the natural predator of humans was neither beasts, monsters, nor demons, but humans themselves.

And from my experience working in intelligence agencies for over ten years, nothing was more frightening than people.

Who knows what they might do when pushed to the edge?

“…Wait a moment.”

“What’s wrong?”

“Let’s make a plan first. A plan first.”

I stopped the three people who were about to enter the black market.

“Have any of you used a black market before?”

Ferretti and Francesca answered that they had used black markets before. Despite my question, Camilla didn’t answer. There was no need for words between us; we knew each other well enough.

I nodded and continued.

“Since you’ve used black markets before, I believe you all know how they operate. But black markets in conflict zones are different, so please follow my instructions carefully.”

A black market is an underground marketplace outside the established system. All kinds of illegal and legal goods are traded there in ways that circumvent the law.

Naturally, there’s nothing that could be called law in a black market. There might be rules, but no laws.

In that sense, black markets in conflict zones are more dangerous than any other.

“When you enter the black market, be careful of people. Pickpockets and fights are problematic, but you never know what desperate people might do.”

People killing people isn’t particularly special. When cornered, nothing is more important than one’s own safety. Therefore, those who make a living stirring up all kinds of trouble have certain principles.

And I had spent half my life in such places.

“The people gathered in there have come this far just trying to survive. That means many of them have nothing to lose. Since we don’t know the structure here, we need to help each other if problems arise inside the black market.”

“…We need to prepare countermeasures.”

“Never get separated.”

I caressed the pistol sleeping peacefully inside my coat.

“And just follow what I do for now.”

Episode 11 – All Quiet on the Northern Front

The northern black market, despite its name, wasn’t actually a market.

There were no stalls filled with goods, no dazzling lights to attract passersby, no merchants calling out to customers.

There were only desperate people struggling to survive another day.

“I have some canned goods. Could I trade them for those candles over there?”

“Magic charging service here. Whether it’s household appliances or ignition stones, come here if you need charging.”

“Meat for sale! Meat!”

People selling their talents for food, people selling food for warmth. Mysterious meat and goods of unknown origin.

Light unable to escape from rags, and shadows cast over faces full of worry.

“Mister! One strip of meat for a basket of vegetables? Do you think that’s fair?”

“If you don’t like it, don’t buy it. Get lost!”

“You fucking…! Young punk…!”

Two men grabbed each other by the collar. The man whose collar was grabbed tried to twist his wrist free, while the other threw a punch. They rolled in the mud that had repeatedly thawed and frozen, choking each other, while onlookers ignored them and walked away.

In the desolate back alleys of a city where not even starlight reached. The bright full moon silently gazed down upon the city.

The collapsed gray city seemed like a place where all the gloom in the world had flowed and pooled.

The alchemist looked at the collapsed gray city, then turned her head and smiled faintly.

“What a mess.”

“That’s how black markets are. What did you expect?”

Ferretti, who was walking beside me matching my pace, spoke up.

“So many people gathered despite martial law. People with great courage.”

It wasn’t courage but desperation. Even if they feared guns and swords, they feared starvation and disease killing themselves and those around them many times more.

No one here failed to understand that.

As we passed through the alley cautiously watching for people, Camilla, who had been sniffing, furrowed her brow.

“…What is this smell anyway?”

“Smells like dog urine.”

“Ugh.”

As is typical in isolated conflict zones, public health in the north had hit rock bottom. Waste was scattered on the streets, hospitals lacked medicine, and refugees crowded every shelter.

In this situation, the hygiene in the black market was the worst. And the condition of the people gathered in the black market was equally terrible.

Clothes that hadn’t been washed for days. Lice fell off whenever shoulders bumped, and dandruff hung from shoulders and hair tips. Teeth were yellowed and discolored, and foul odors emanated from the mouths of those conversing. No, even without opening their mouths, indescribable strange body odors assaulted one’s nose just by passing by.

Of course, this was familiar to both Camilla and me.

Camilla, who had accompanied her sister on medical volunteer work with Doctors Without Borders, had been to Syria where bullets flew, and I had been on business trips to Central Africa, Latin America, and Southwest Asian countries I’d never heard of before, on orders from the Intelligence Command.

Traveling around such regions, one naturally encounters all kinds of smells. The exotic spice scents from unfamiliar foods, the stench of decomposing corpses, the body odor of people who can’t wash because they don’t even have drinking water.

Things that aren’t familiar but must become familiar, and eventually do become familiar.

Nevertheless, the reason Camilla couldn’t help but frown was because that stench was coming from her own body.

“…Ugh!”

Camilla, who had been walking unsteadily, bent over deeply. Hunched over, she vomited onto the mud.

“I can’t do this. The smell is too strong.”

“Bear with it. Can people only do things they like in life?”

“But still…!”

Camilla raised her head and shouted. Her bright blue eyes were already filled with tears.

“Smearing filth on our bodies is too much…!”

“……”

That was true.

Before entering the black market, I had asked the three of them to roll in the mud. And in that process, unfortunately, traces of a dog had gotten on Camilla’s clothes.

“Why do we have to do this…?”

“There’s no other way. No other way.”

Exhaling a light sigh, I soothed Camilla in a gentle tone.

“What do you think would happen if we walked around here in clean, neat clothes? Don’t you see how everyone looks?”

Public health and sanitation in the north were already shattered. If we wore new-looking clothes and smelled of shampoo and soap in the black market, how would people react?

We would immediately become targets for looting.

“If we had just walked in from there, we would have been robbed long ago.”

Francesca, who had been listening quietly, smiled precariously. Her upturned corners of her mouth trembled.

“Sir, couldn’t we just fight in that case…? We have two mages.”

“Can’t mages get stabbed in the stomach? And what are we supposed to do, start brawling when we’re here to gather information? We should be trying to blend in as much as possible.”

“That’s right.”

Ferretti, who joined the conversation, nodded.

“Unlike you and Officer Nostrim, the appearance of those two stood out too much. They looked like people with wealth. As the officer said, we can’t rule out the possibility of getting involved with ill-intentioned individuals as soon as we entered the black market.”

“But still….”

Francesca lifted her arm and smelled it. Sniff, sniff.

She had only smelled it twice, but Francesca’s face instantly soured. For her, who had grown up as a member of a noble family, albeit fallen, and become a high-ranking official, the smell emanating from her body was too intense.

“An indescribable stench… Even the smell of alchemical potions in the workshop would be more fragrant…”

“Haha! Whatever the smell, it’s better than the stench of sewers!”

“…Sir Ferretti.”

I shook my head as I patted Camilla’s back. A sigh escaped involuntarily.

Of course, since the same foul odor was emanating from my body, I could fully understand Camilla and Francesca’s feelings. Just a few hours ago, we were lying in a hotel. Now we’re covered in filth.

What kind of wealth and glory am I supposed to be enjoying? Damn it….

Ferretti, who had been laughing heartily, looked up at the sky for a moment and then urged us in a low voice.

“We don’t have time to delay any further. We need to finish our business before the black market ends.”

“Yes… let’s go.”

We moved deeper into the black market.

*

At the entrance of the black market, we made a plan to use our time efficiently. With martial law in effect, military police could appear and raid the place at any moment, so we intended to quickly do our business and leave.

But finding information about merchants who sold black magic items in an unfamiliar black market was difficult. Instead, we decided to postpone information gathering and do what we could do immediately.

In that sense, the first up was Ferretti, the Holy Knight Commander.

“We need to find supplies.”

“You could just say you want to buy alcohol and tobacco first…”

“Gah! Don’t disparage the items that soothe the hardships of those performing sacred duties!”

“Why can’t you just call tobacco tobacco and alcohol alcohol? Where does this culture come from?”

Ferretti, who had visited the black market to find “supplies” for his knights, set out to find merchants dealing in alcohol and tobacco.

In truth, it was hardly appropriate to call them merchants, but no better word came to mind.

“Could you tell me what you’re selling here?”

“Ah, I sell alcohol. Would you like to take a look?”

We finally found a merchant selling alcohol. Ferretti, who looked rough, spoke to the merchant in a surprisingly gentle voice.

“Show me.”

The merchant took out a bottle from an old, worn bag. The bottle, with traces where the label had been scratched off, was a famous cheap vodka product from the Empire.

However, instead of clear vodka, a turbid crimson liquid with sediment sloshed inside the bottle.

“This is homemade raspberry wine.”

“Raspberry wine?”

“Yes. Wild raspberries gathered from the mountains, made according to a family recipe passed down for generations. I guarantee the taste. I made more than ten bottles, but only two are left now.”

“…Wild raspberries, you say. May I examine it for a moment?”

Suspicion mixed in the merchant’s eyes, wondering if Ferretti might be trying to steal the goods, but seeing Ferretti’s large frame, he didn’t seem to have any way to stop him.

Finally, after much deliberation, the merchant took out some of the sediment from the bottle and held it out to Ferretti.

As the sweet alcoholic aroma wafted on the winter wind, Ferretti, who had been staring at the sediment in his hand for a long time, suddenly turned away.

He strode over to me, who had been watching him from a distance.

“What’s wrong? Aren’t you buying the raspberry wine?”

“That’s not raspberry. It’s blackberry.”

Blackberry. At first glance, it’s indistinguishable from raspberry, but upon closer inspection, differences can be seen. Like azaleas and rhododendrons.

And similar to azaleas, blackberries are known to be toxic.

Just as people die from mistaking rhododendrons for azaleas when making flower pancakes, in this area, many people died after mistaking blackberries for raspberries.

In the Empire, selling such carelessly brewed alcohol would get you arrested by the police,

But this is a black market.

In a place beyond the reach of public authority and outside the established system, how could one check for safety? Most of the items circulating here were probably made in such a way. Officials from the Empire’s Food and Drug Administration would weep if they knew.

“I cannot buy alcohol brewed by someone who cannot distinguish between raspberries and poisonous blackberries.”

“…Wouldn’t it be better not to buy alcohol at all?”

Anyway, sensing that finding alcohol in the black market today was a lost cause, Ferretti set out to find a merchant selling tobacco.

But finding tobacco wasn’t easy either.

“Tobacco? How can you find such a thing in the north?”

The old merchant pointed to the items spread out on the ground. Crudely made hand-rolled tobacco was scattered on the unfolded old bundle.

“This is all you can find here. Factory-made tobacco has completely dried up, and you can barely find handmade tobacco like this.”

“What do you mean factory-made tobacco has dried up?”

“Tsk… It means exactly what I said. Where would there be a tobacco factory in this barren land? Huh? And the central government doesn’t send tobacco either. They fill the space for tobacco with ammunition instead…”

According to the merchant, finding quality factory-made tobacco in the north was like catching a star from the sky.

The army conducting the war needed supplies, and the imperial government controlled resources for the northern army. Tobacco was no exception. How could civilians get tobacco?

So the only tobacco available in the northern black market now was either a small amount distributed by the government or roughly made homemade tobacco.

“So there’s no way to get factory-made tobacco?”

“If you’re desperate, you could try finding work at the military government headquarters. They sometimes distribute tobacco as rations. But this is quite good too. Want to try it?”

Of course, even that homemade tobacco wasn’t a proper product.

I slowly examined the tobacco the merchant offered. While I was uncertain looking at the contents, as soon as I smelled it, my brow furrowed involuntarily.

“This doesn’t seem like tobacco leaf at all. What did you put in it?”

“Tea leaves.”

“Tea leaves…?”

What was inside the roll was not tobacco leaf but tea leaves.

“We call it ‘chars.’ It’s bitter and tasteless, but it gives you the feeling of smoking tobacco.”

“……”

This wasn’t even something that could be called tobacco. In the end, Ferretti had to turn away without acquiring either alcohol or tobacco.

In this situation, finding cigars was impossible. After experiencing the harshness of the northern Empire firsthand, we trudged back empty-handed to rejoin Camilla and Francesca who were waiting.

“From your face, it seems things didn’t go well, Sir Ferretti.”

“…Hmm. It certainly wasn’t easy. Today might not be the day.”

“Don’t be disheartened.”

Francesca, who had pulled down her cape, smiled brightly.

“Is it my turn now?”

Francesca, leaning against a quiet alley, shared the information she had gathered.

“It seems there’s a money changer in this black market.”

The information Francesca had collected was about a money changer.

According to imperial law, foreigners visiting the Kien Empire must declare the amount of currency they possess to the authorities. In other words, if funds are brought in legally from abroad, the imperial government can easily track Francesca’s financial situation.

So Francesca wanted to exchange alchemical gems she had brought from the magic tower for imperial tackrons, and her purpose for visiting the black market was also to secure funds.

I looked at Francesca leaning against the wall and asked a question.

“Did you find the money changer?”

“Yes.”

“Where is it?”

Francesca, who had been wearing an expression full of amusement, shook her head with eyes filled with regret.

“I don’t know the location. People wouldn’t tell me that much. Everyone seemed on edge and wary, so it was awkward to ask.”

“Hmm….”

Indeed, even I would be wary if a woman covered in filth approached me. Of course, Francesca’s beauty wouldn’t disappear even if she rolled in mud, but first impressions matter to everyone. Seeing Francesca in her current beggar-like state, no one would readily step forward to help.

But gathering information in such situations was my job.

Francesca pointed out the people who had told her about the money changer, and I approached them and struck up a conversation.

Offering a cigarette.

“Why are you suddenly giving me this precious thing…?”

“I want to ask you something. Would you like to smoke a cigarette while we talk?”

“Oh, well. Let’s do that.”

From what I had just experienced walking around with Ferretti, the situation in the north was very dire. It was hard to find even common factory-made tobacco in the black market.

In other words, even a single cigarette was an extremely valuable item in the north right now.

People were wary of me when I suddenly approached them, but when I offered a cigarette along with fluent imperial language, they soon opened up and began sharing what they knew.

“There’s a money changer at every black market. They exchange valuable items for tackrons, and sometimes they get decent items for tackrons. Of course, they slash prices so not many people use them. I’ve never seen anyone actually buying from them.”

“They slash prices?”

“Before the demons came down, you could get a can of food at the mart for 3 tackrons. The money changer sells it for at least twenty times that price. That’s about 60 tackrons. They’re worse than demons…”

From seemingly useless grumbling information…

“What do they do with all that money? Is there anywhere to spend money in the north?”

“I don’t know for sure… but there’s talk that they have connections abroad. They send the money they make here to foreign countries. Whether it’s true or not, I don’t know.”

“What’s this person’s name?”

“I’ve never heard their name. In fact, I’ve never even seen their face or heard their voice. We’ve only seen the greenskins they employ as subordinates. No one has ever seen the money changer directly.”

To somewhat valuable information.

“Why are you looking for the money changer?”

“Ah, my family is sick, and I was wondering if there’s a way to get medicine. If you have enough money, you can get anything, right?”

“Medicine… In that case, it might not be bad to visit the money changer. But you’ll need to bring a lot of money. No, how is your family’s condition? Perhaps it might be better to use that money to send your family south.”

“…South?”

“As I said earlier, that money changer. Sometimes they take people and send them somewhere. At first, everyone thought they were in debt to that person and were taken away to be killed, but later we found out they had gone down to relatives in the east.”

“…Is that true?”

“That’s what I’m saying. If you have relatives in the east or west, you might want to try. Whether they’re friendly with someone high up, or they’ve greased the military, they manage to get one or two people out of the north.”

“Where can I meet this money changer?”

To highly valuable information.

Although I couldn’t verify the reliability, quite good information poured out. I met a few more people as I roamed the black market, and when I had gathered enough information, I rejoined my companions.

And so.

“…Is this the right place?”

“If what people told me is correct.”

“……”

We arrived at the building where the money changer stayed.

*

A dilapidated building located 10 minutes from the black market. One wall had completely collapsed, perhaps due to bombardment, but what we felt from inside was clearly someone’s presence.

We stood in front of the building in the collapsed gray city.

The scorched and fallen exterior walls were utterly miserable. At first glance, it was impossible to guess the building’s purpose, but the paint that hadn’t yet peeled off and the sign precariously hanging from the magic lines and framework revealed that this had been a hotel.

Holy Knight Commander Ferretti surveyed the surroundings with a cold gaze.

“It doesn’t seem dangerous.”

“……”

I took out my pistol from my mud-covered coat.

Click, the slide was pulled back, the hammer was cocked, and a brass bullet was chambered. Watching this from the side, Camilla gulped.

After checking the condition of our party, Francesca took a deep breath privately before entering.

“……”

A shabby building in the city where the black market was located.

The bitter northern wind blew in through the open door, but none of us felt the cold due to the warm heat enveloping our bodies.

“…Hmm?”

Small stature with pointed ears. Green skin and wrinkled face.

The goblin sitting at the reception desk looked at us as we opened the door and entered.

After slowly examining us, the goblin revealed sharp teeth in a smile.

“Customers have arrived.”