Chapter 60

Chapter 60

Chapter 61: Blood Born Investigations, in the end, are half-solved by plastering a steel plate on your face and barging in headfirst. Since we had no connections and barely any money, our options were limited. We got some rough information about Blate from Tailon’s organization, so Emily and I headed straight to the bar he ran.

-Creeeak.

As I opened the old wooden door and entered the bar, I saw a few tables where drinking was already in full swing. Even though the sun was still high in the sky, the fact that there were customers meant business was good, right? All the customers at the tables were men. It was a slum, so that was to be expected. As Emily and I entered the bar filled only with men, blatant gazes rained down on us. “Hoo!?” “Kyaa, she’s a killer!” “Hey, little girl over there! Flash your tits!”

-Pwahahaha!!

Hmm, this is a bit surprising. To be sexually harassed within three seconds of entering the bar. Well, that was normal for a dark alley bar. In a way, these people lived the most primal lives. And from their point of view, we were just two seemingly weak girls, even if we had weapons. It was only natural that they looked down on us. “Ugh…” Emily seemed frightened by the sudden attention and shrank back, but her reaction only fueled the men’s excitement. Of course, even if she acted aloof and ignored them, they would get excited on their own. They were probably already gleefully gang-raping Emily and me in their heads. In the end, no matter what choice we made, these guys would get excited on their own. …Isn’t this a complete no-win situation? I stroked Emily’s back as she cowered and whispered softly in her ear. “It’s okay. Nothing will happen to you, so don’t worry.” “Saying that doesn’t really reassure me…” “We can always fight if we have to.” When I said that, Emily nodded with a slightly relieved expression and touched the hilt of her sword at her waist. That’s not what I meant. I gave her a playful smile and whispered again. “There are fifteen of them, so I’ll take nine, and you take six. If we just fight them each three or four times, they’ll get tired on their own.” “I-Is that what you meant?” Emily was startled, and I chuckled and shook my head. “I’m just kidding. That will probably never happen to you, so don’t worry.” Still, perhaps because she had been educated on the pleasures of being pierced by Tsarka, Emily was clearly more accustomed to sex jokes than she would have been before, when she wouldn’t have even opened her mouth. To be honest, there was a chance it could happen. The Adventurer’s Guild was a public institution, and the underworld wouldn’t gain anything by causing trouble and clashing with them, but these people had the concept of “it’s okay if we don’t get caught” ingrained in their minds, so I couldn’t be sure. Especially if they found out we weren’t adventurers from Mesatria. Due to the underworld’s characteristic of being weak to the strong and very strong to the weak, it was common for them to pick fights with seemingly weak adventurers like us. Even if they belonged to the Adventurer’s Guild. “Hey, Blondie! How much!?” Sure enough, a man drinking at a nearby table approached us with a grinning face. He seemed to prefer Emily to me, as he reached out his arm towards her.

-Thwack.

When I grabbed his arm, a strange look appeared on the man’s face. Even if I was weakened by Quaidon’s poison, I could still subdue guys like this. It would be even easier if I used internal energy, but that might spread the poison even more, so I should refrain from that. I deliberately narrowed my eyes and looked up at the man who was trying to cause trouble, and he chuckled and opened his mouth. “Heh heh, I like that look in your eyes. You’re quite haughty, aren’t you?” There was no need to answer that, so I decided to get straight to the point. “I’m here to talk about the Adventurer’s Guild’s investigation. I’d like to speak to the person in charge.” “What are you saying? You little runt.” Yeah, I figured I’d get this kind of reaction. It seemed like the guy from Tailon’s organization earlier was quite a gentleman. I sighed softly and pushed the man away.

-Thud.

I didn’t draw on my internal energy, but the movement to push him had proper form. The man stumbled back a few steps and looked at me with surprised eyes. “Ha, I was going to let it go easy. You damn whore…” He immediately contorted his face and walked towards me as if he was about to pounce on me. I was admiring the personality of an underworld member who would call someone a whore right off the bat and was about to take a stance when a low voice echoed from inside the bar. “Stop.” // It was the bartender who stopped him, sitting at the counter. He didn’t look that old, but judging by the fact that he had just given an order, he was at least higher in rank than the others in this bar. “Are you adventurers?” “You know that already, so there’s no need to ask, right?” “Well, I’ve never seen your faces before.” “I guess that’s possible. We haven’t been registered for very long, actually.” There was no reason to save the lies since we wouldn’t be seeing each other for long anyway. Besides, it wasn’t exactly a lie. “You’re just greenhorns, but you’re not afraid. What did you come here for?” “We’re looking for someone named Erzebet. We heard she’s with this organization.” When that name came up, the man frowned as if he was displeased. “Why is some adventurer scum looking for that woman?” Even though he pretended not to know, his expression clearly showed that he was hiding something. I smiled slightly and immediately got to the point. “The guild received a tip. It’s related to vampires. So, I’d like to talk to her.” It wasn’t a big deal that a demon was involved in the underworld. But if that demon was an unregistered illegal intruder, it would be a problem. The bartender stared at me for a while, then opened his mouth with a bitter expression. “…I guess we’ll have to talk about the rest inside. Piol, keep an eye on things for a while.” He gestured towards one of the tables in the bar and opened the door inside. “Yes, boss.” Then the man who had just picked a fight with me nodded and approached the counter. Piol, was it? He approached me and grumbled, looking at me with an unpleasant gaze. “Just a little bitch…” At those words, I grinned and retorted. “Just a bitch who got pushed back.” Piol’s face twisted. But he couldn’t do anything to me. // The bartender opened the door and went inside the bar. Inside the bar, which looked like a kitchen, sat a man with a large build. To put it simply, he didn’t have a face that would give a good impression. He had a scar on one side of his face and a tattoo on his arm. “What is it?” He frowned as soon as he saw us. But as soon as his gaze turned to our faces, he put on a lewd smile as if he had never frowned. “Hoo, they’re quite pretty, aren’t they? Are you giving them to me to eat?” As always, we were treated like whores as soon as we were seen. The fact that he said that even though he knew we were armed could be seen as a way to take the initiative in some ways. It was hard to expect a gentlemanly response in the underworld. Unless we beat them up first.

-Clench.

Emily seemed upset by those words and clenched her fists tightly, but I didn’t pay much attention to it. I had too much experience to get angry at such words now. “That’s not it, we’re looking for Erzebet.” “Ha? Why that bitch?” “It seems like things are complicated. It seems like other guys are playing tricks.” Listening to their conversation, I sighed inwardly. It seemed like we came to the wrong place. Judging from what I heard, they didn’t seem to have any good feelings towards Erzebet. At this rate, smooth information gathering was out of the question. Even if it was a small organization in the underworld, there were factions and lines in that small world. If they were in the opposite faction to Erzebet, it was questionable whether they would cooperate with us. Now that things had come to this, I had no choice but to change my plan a little. “Listening to you, it doesn’t seem like you have any good feelings about Erzebet either?” When I said that, the man with the scar on his face frowned and growled lowly. “You’re an impudent bitch. Don’t you dare lower your words to me, you brat.” Of course, I knew very well that if I was intimidated here and lowered my words, I would only be looked down on even more. In the underworld, it was better to be hated than to be looked down on. Besides, since we weren’t going to live in Mesatria in the future, there was no need to bow down. I put on a slight sneer and retorted. “You’re not that impressive either, saying that.” “You’re talking a lot with that hole you call a mouth. I wonder if you’ll be able to babble even if your lower hole is that open?” Emily’s complexion changed slightly at the man’s retort. But I didn’t have the luxury to pay attention to that right now. I expected him to be uncooperative, but I didn’t expect him to be so uncommunicative. I sighed softly and asked him again. “Think again. If it gets out that you secretly brought a demon into the city, your organization will be destroyed in an instant, right?” The request form from the Adventurer’s Guild and the report on the circumstances when the case was solved would be valid as sufficient evidence when an investigation was conducted. If the target was the underworld, it would be easy to destroy them without a detailed investigation. But the man smiled coldly and retorted. “That’s a funny joke. The guild wouldn’t entrust such an investigation to snot-nosed brats, and at most, you’d be doing a preliminary investigation with a light heart. Do you think Blate looks that easy, you bitch?” Hmm, I’ve been found out. I had been completely seen through, but there was still a chance. In this case, the best thing to do was to be brazen. I could easily prove my skills and shut his mouth. It was a bit of a petty method, but the underworld was originally petty, so it would be okay. “It’s not us who are looking down on you, it’s you. And you keep calling me a brat, but who are you calling a brat?” I deliberately made an unpleasant expression and raised my hand to strike the table next to me.

-Bang!

Because I struck it with internal energy, the thick wooden table split in half and collapsed. The scarred man and the bartender looked at the collapsed table with slightly surprised expressions. They seemed to have noticed that I had some skills, unlike my seemingly weak appearance. Of course, if they didn’t know even after seeing this scene, they would be the biggest fools in the world. “Puhah, so you’re a bitch who can fight pretty well.” The scarred man finally softened his attitude slightly. With this one move, he would reconsider the fact that I had received a request from the Adventurer’s Guild in Mesatria. No matter how young I looked, if I had broken a thick table with my bare hands in one go, it meant that my skills weren’t fake. He couldn’t be completely sure, but he couldn’t completely doubt it either. To be half-convinced meant to believe it to some extent. And that much trust was enough for us. “So, what business do adventurers have with our organization?” It was a change of attitude that could be seen as cowardly at first glance, but the underworld’s experience was to digest it naturally. There was no need to make a fuss, so I didn’t bother to point out his attitude. I smiled again and opened my mouth. “As I said before, I want to meet Erzebet.” However, the man laughed and retorted as if it was impossible. “Puhahahaha. Do you think that’s possible without a bribe?” There was something strange about his attitude.

In this situation, if they were sure we were the adventurers who had received the request, there would be no reason not to cooperate with the investigation. It was a request about a demon who had illegally entered Mesatria, of all things. With that alone, an investigation might come crashing down on them based on suspicion alone. Despite that, it was hard to understand why they were putting on such a bluff. “I don’t understand. Your organization is in danger right now-” “Listen here, kid.” The man said that, then looked straight into my eyes and continued. “Believe it or not, we’re merchants. We don’t sell anything without a price. Even if it’s just simple information.”