Ch.78Queen of the Back Alley – 4

“It’ll take about three days. Do you have a place to stay until then?”

“I don’t have anywhere specific in mind, but I can certainly find something if I need to. It’s not like I don’t have money.”

The woman, who was called “big sister” by the blond man and who was indeed his actual older sister, glanced sideways at the boy sitting across from her, sipping tea beyond the documents.

‘His eyes are calm. His gaze is natural. No change in expression either.’

Above all, he showed no sign of being flustered.

She pretended to flip through documents while subtly nudging her breast with her elbow. Her enormous bosom rippled, threatening to spill out of her dress.

The thin dress straps swayed precariously, digging into her skin and leaving faint marks on her white flesh.

At the peaks of her massive breasts, separated from view by only a thin layer of fabric, the subtle contours of what lay beneath traced gentle curves.

The woman set the documents aside and casually rested her breasts on the desk. The two hills of flesh spread softly to the sides.

Despite this, the boy continued drinking his tea. Just as before, without the slightest hint of agitation.

At first glance, one might think he was simply a man with good self-control, skilled at hiding his emotions. To avoid giving any ground in negotiations.

In this situation, if a man’s gaze toward a woman contained unnecessary emotion, it could potentially become leverage at the negotiation table.

If he was acting this way to eliminate that possibility entirely, she could only commend him for his excellence.

It meant he could exercise such self-control even after drinking tea laced with stimulants.

Marietta.

Or, the Queen of the Back Alleys.

A nickname that would likely result in the entire city being massacred if the real kingdom’s Queen Charlotte were to hear it, so it was kept as quiet as possible.

She was someone who never made deals that put her at a disadvantage.

Favor for favor, revenge fourfold. This adage perfectly captured her character. Marietta adhered to it strictly.

She had crushed rival organizations over trivial matters and settled grudges so harshly that even her own subordinates carrying out the orders would tilt their heads in bewilderment.

Some criticized Marietta as immoral, calling her actions garbage.

However, for those who lived in the shadows, such criticism was practically praise. After all, those doing the criticizing were also stuck in the same dark world.

That’s why Marietta decided to recruit the boy the moment he pulled out more than twenty pouches of gold coins from his bag and poured them onto the floor in an eccentric display.

To remain so composed while practically throwing away over 2,000 gold coins on the ground—he was clearly no ordinary person.

Moreover, the fact that so many pouches fit into a small handbag meant that the bag itself was enchanted with spatial compression magic.

How could she not be tempted?

When Marietta heard that her brother was bringing a guest, the first thing she did was investigate.

It seemed he had come from quite far away, making it difficult to discover what he had been doing before arriving in this city, but she had collected information on all his actions since his arrival.

‘The first thing he did upon arriving here was to apply for a new adventurer’s certificate.’

That wasn’t typical behavior for common criminals.

Usually, people who committed crimes in other cities and fled to distant places would blend into the shadows and work to obtain a new identity, not boldly apply for certification at the Adventurers’ Guild.

If there happened to be a wanted poster at the guild, they’d be arrested on the spot as a criminal caught in the act.

So, the boy’s actions meant one of two things:

Either he was confident he would never be discovered, or he was a fool who didn’t understand what he was doing.

The latter was definitely not the case. It would be impossible for someone who didn’t understand their own actions to handle such large sums of money.

This meant he was confident that crimes committed in other cities would never be traced back to him.

‘He knows about Cosmo’s Root and has experience using Tene’s Leaf.’

Her informant had added that the shop owner the boy had visited had freely volunteered information beyond what was asked in simple questions.

Particularly when describing the boy’s reaction after being handed Tene’s Leaf, the shop owner had apparently shuddered.

‘How did he handle the aftermath?’

Tene’s Leaf was the most vicious poison in the entire continent. Even in a city of this size, there were only a few places that sold it.

Not because it was difficult to obtain, but because there was little use for it otherwise. More than anything, it left behind too much obvious evidence.

The moment someone drank water mixed with its juice, they would bleed from every orifice and die within 30 seconds.

Even Marietta had never heard of anyone recovering after drinking poison made from Tene’s Leaf.

Considering that poison was typically used for quiet assassinations, its performance was too obvious to be practical.

Because using Tene’s Leaf was too apparent.

Moreover, it was harmless to monsters and other animals. Being a deadly poison that only affected humans, merely possessing it made one likely to become a subject of investigation.

He had used it, and even casually admitted to it. And he had taken measures to prevent rumors from spreading after using Tene’s Leaf.

Marietta wasn’t stupid enough not to understand what that implied.

‘I want him.’

Marietta licked her lips.

That was why she had put stimulants in the tea. If his body state changed too drastically, it might arouse suspicion, and using healing or recovery magic to calm excitement would be like handing over leverage.

So just enough to fill his eyes with a hint of sexual excitement when looking at the woman before him. The stimulant in the tea the boy was drinking now was the perfect golden ratio.

Plus, he was quite handsome.

She would have done the same even if he weren’t, but his face did elevate Marietta’s mood.

‘Since it doesn’t seem to be working, should I add a bit more?’

Seeing that the boy’s teacup was empty, Marietta called someone in. This time, the tea had an even lower ratio of water.

‘Ah, there’s something besides tea in this.’

As soon as I swallowed a sip of the tea, my body immediately reacted.

My blood circulated faster, with blood flow concentrating in a particular area. I felt my cheeks flush.

It was a very mild stimulant, but not mild enough to ignore—an exquisitely precise amount. This didn’t seem like amateur work.

The excitement subsided immediately.

My hyper-regeneration ability wasn’t weak enough to be penetrated by something like this.

My body defined the warming sensation from the unknown substance as damage and reversed it completely.

For the record, this doesn’t mean I’m impotent. I’m just forcibly reversing states that are artificially altered.

While I was experiencing the strange sensation of my body heating up and cooling down in real-time with each sip of tea, the woman in front of me suddenly nudged her breast with her elbow.

The heavy mass of fat rippled impressively. It was a very seductive sight. To other people, not me.

Until recently, I had Christine by my side—did she think I couldn’t maintain proper eye contact after seeing something like that?

When I just leisurely continued sipping my tea, she next placed her breasts on the desk while pretending to set aside some documents.

In that position, she pressed down slightly, putting weight on her chest. Her breast tissue spread to the sides, softly flattening.

‘She’s more aggressive than I expected.’

I’ve done my share of eccentric things, but even considering that, such a direct display of interest in our first meeting was unexpected.

I don’t know what misconception she had, but at least I didn’t appear to be an easy mark to be taken advantage of.

After scrutinizing me with her golden eyes for a while, the woman put the rest of the stack of papers down on the desk.

“Where are you planning to stay?”

“Why do you need to know?”

A long pipe had somehow appeared in the woman’s hand. A magic circle drawn on her palm briefly glowed, and smoke rose from the end of the pipe.

She inhaled and then exhaled with a “whoosh,” gray smoke flowing from her mouth toward the ceiling. The smoke gradually disappeared as it reached the ceiling.

“If you don’t have a place, we could provide accommodations. It won’t be free, of course, but it would be much better than most lodgings. You won’t be able to find high-end accommodations until your new identity is processed, even with money, so it’s not a bad offer, is it?”

“I’m not particularly picky about where I sleep.”

“Is that so? That’s unfortunate.”

“You don’t look particularly disappointed.”

“Why should I be genuinely disappointed? It’s fine if it works out, and fine if it doesn’t.”

Wasn’t she just subtly trying to seduce me with her breasts? I watched this woman lie without changing her expression as I picked up my teacup and took the last sip.

“Excuse me.”

Just then, there was a polite knock at the door. The door unlocked automatically at the woman’s gesture.

She seemed to have packed quite a few functions into the magic circle on her palm. That would likely limit her when casting large-scale magic.

She probably couldn’t do much more than throw a few fireballs the size of a human face.

The person who opened the door and entered was a maid in the same attire I had seen downstairs earlier. On the tray she carried was an antique-looking porcelain teapot.

“What’s this?”

“The same tea you were drinking earlier.”

The maid refilled my empty teacup. She also poured tea into the cup on the woman’s desk, then bowed deeply before closing the door and leaving.

Click. The door locked.

“You’re giving another cup to someone who’s about to leave?”

“Is there any reason I shouldn’t?”

She probably added something extra again. Under her subtle gaze, I picked up the newly filled teacup.