Chapter 34
#034
1.
Ceres's daughter introduced herself as Ines.
“I didn't know you had a daughter.”
I knew Ceres was a widow, but this was my first time seeing her daughter.
I hadn't even known she had a daughter before this.
Wait. So Ceres Mommy really was a mommy.
She didn't look like the type who'd have a child at all.
“My mother said she needed help.”
“Oh, then….”
“I heard the rough details. It's a situation where we have to stop Project Z, and you're an ally who brought us information. Right?”
And here's your new dad.
Ceres must not have told her that much, judging by her casual reaction.
Anyway, I got why Ines had shown up out of nowhere.
In specialist terms, that was the butterfly effect.
This run, Ceres and I had formed a united front to stop Project Z.
Maybe Ceres, desperate to break the taboo, had asked her daughter for support?
Come to think of it, this house had two bedrooms.
One of them had a normal queen-size bed instead of Ceres's extra-large specialty bed.
That made sense if it was for Ines, who sometimes came by to visit.
“Sit here. Look my way. How long ago did you get hurt?”
“About an hour, I think.”
“Hold still.”
She cupped my face with both hands and turned it this way and that, checking the wound.
It hurt, but more than that, my mind was going hazy.
Wow, she's even prettier up close.
Ines definitely had some similarities to Ceres, but she was a beauty with a completely different vibe.
If Ceres was a queen who ruled with lofty majesty, Ines gave off the feeling of a princess.
She had such a refined look that I could picture her doing a great job competing with Arbel in a bunny girl outfit.
Every time her hair shifted a little, a pleasant scent drifted out.
“Hmm….”
But where did the dad's genes go?
With those mysterious silver eyes that were almost white, and her height aside, she looked so much like her mother I could have believed she was a petite Ceres.
So Ceres Mommy really did have powerful DNA?
“Can this be treated?”
“Yes. It'll take some time. There's a shard stuck inside your eye socket, so it'll take a while.”
“Ah, no wonder it hurt like hell.”
Ines was, of course, a mage.
All mages have their starting point set by bloodline privilege, so nothing strange about that.
Even in this world, Rock Lee couldn't be happy.
“I'll heal it.”
A warm glow seeped in, and the inside of my eye socket started to tingle.
“I heard you took on a 7th-rank fixer. Was he really that strong?”
“Not at all. That bastard Sunming was just a cowardly druggie.”
“A druggie?”
I showed her the ampoule I'd taken from Sunming.
After glancing at the seed mark engraved on the side of the glass ampoule, Ines said,
“That's Exseed. And it's pretty high-purity, too.”
“Exseed?”
“It's a doping agent handled by the Gold Carp House.”
According to her explanation, it was a doping drug that boosts augmentation.
The downside is that, as with all doping, the fallout is the user's own responsibility.
But the effects were strong enough to raise augmentation levels by almost a full tier.
No wonder that fight was such a close win.
Sunming's hulking body twisting and writhing so nimbly was still vivid before my eyes.
“That 7th-rank fixer took that?”
“Yes.”
“And you still killed him?”
“The director taught me magic. Thanks to that, I survived.”
“Hmm….”
Ines looked at me closely, then let out an unreadable little hum through her nose.
Feeling oddly pressured, I changed the subject.
“By the way, where did Director Ceres go?”
“She isn't coming today.”
What? Ceres Mommy isn't coming today?
The moment I heard those casually tossed-out words from Ines.
I felt a chill run down my spine.
“That's done. You're good now.”
“Thank you. I can see clearly now.”
“This time there was nothing we could do, but next time, don't come unless it's on the scheduled date. If you make careless contact, they might catch your trail.”
“I'll keep that in mind.”
“Wait here a moment. I'll bring the materials I promised, so take them in advance.”
I followed Ines with my eyes as she left, then let out the breath I'd been holding.
“Hoo….”
Right, I had wondered why this fifth run was going so smoothly and easily.
But no, it wasn't.
“Hah, I'm so fucking done for….”
Ines.
The biggest obstacle of this run.
A terrifying trap laid out before me by God was waiting.
“Hah, what do I do?”
A dangerous impulse rose up.
Ceres Mommy isn't coming today?
What if I tried seducing her a little? Since they're mother and daughter, wouldn't their tastes in looks be similar?
If I could seduce Ines....
I'd be drenched in the forbidden, the thrill, and the betrayal—the unholy trinity that felt like it would melt my brain.
Of course, the risk here was extremely high.
What if Ceres Mommy found out I'd become secret friends with Ines?
Even the benevolent Ceres Mommy would have me julienned.
But if I thought about it calmly, I still had two more anti-curse talismans left.
In other words, even if this run went up in smoke, I still had two more chances.
Gulp.
Cold sweat dripped down my chin.
“No, there's no guarantee I'll fail.”
“I can seduce Ines and fully conquer Ceres too, can't I?”
“I can just make it a legal mother-daughter combo set!”
“A route where I take on both mother and daughter! If you've been reincarnated in another world, isn't this the kind of challenge you have to try at least once?”
“Since it's materials, take them.”
When Ines returned, she handed me a thick document envelope and tilted one eyebrow.
“Hmm? Why the cold sweat?”
“It's a little hot in here.”
“……?”
Even that expression is exactly like Ceres Mommy's.
Damn it!!!!
I want to know!!!
I'm dying to know which parts are the same and which parts are different between her and Mommy!!!
“Hoo….”
I somehow calmed my mind by imagining Arbel smiling at me in a bunny-girl outfit.
Arbel.
You owe me big.
“Um, before I go, I have one favor to ask.”
“What?”
“Could you give me some of Director Ceres's stockings? The warm, freshly worn kind.”
“……?”
After staring blankly as if her brain had stalled for a moment, Ines furrowed her brows in disgust.
“Are you messing with me?”
“Stop! Stop! Cease fire! It's something we need for the plan! Really!”
I begged and pleaded with the daughter until I managed to get Ceres's stockings.
2.
There is no daylight in this Necropolis.
That's because of the smog that stretches across the canyon like a sea of clouds, and the towering cliffs on both sides of the city.
But even in this dark city, there is a district where night never falls.
C-6 Ward, the Necropolis's largest red-light district, Night Blossom Garden.
Run 5, Day 4.
I set foot in the famous Night Blossom Garden for the first time.
“Damn… it's fucking huge.”
First of all, the scale was astonishing.
I know that the more broken a city is, the more naturally its pleasure district develops.
Because the money a rich man spends for a single night of pleasure becomes a poor man's month's worth of daily bread.
Put elegantly, it's the crossroads of pleasure and survival.
But Night Blossom Garden was overwhelming just by its scale.
The entire five-story building, with its horribly tangled interior, is all lumped together under the name Night Blossom Garden.
The overall atmosphere was basically the distillation of decadence and indulgence.
“I love stuff like this!”
Lanterns with characters like 夢 and 樂 written on them leaked a sticky red glow.
Beyond the thin paper screens of the brothels, the tangled shadows of men and women kept writhing endlessly under the lamplight.
Cannabis, opium, and other drug smells. The reek of stale cigarettes, perfume, and face powder, too.
If you want a rough estimate, my nose goes numb in three seconds.
Men with bulges in their pants walked around.
Courtesans in sheer qipao, woven from thin gauze so you could see right through them, immediately started soliciting customers.
Anyway, I must have looked loaded.
The courtesans clung to me like leeches.
“Big bro, you're super handsome. Come play with us. We'll take good care of you, okay?”
“How much?”
“We'll do it for half.”
“How much is it, then?”
“Aigoo, I promise it's cheaper than anywhere else.”
“Get lost.”
“What the hell, are you a fucking male prostitute? If you're a male prostitute, don't act like I'd buy you—get lost.”
“No, how did they know?!”
I savored the fish-market vibe and headed upstairs.
For the record, I don't do prostitution.
I wouldn't even buy fish at the fish market, but I'd still stop and browse, right? Same thing.
The higher up you go in Night Blossom Garden, the less chaotic it gets.
The first floor is the tavern district.
The 2nd and 3rd floors are the brothel district for cheap hookers.
The 4th and 5th floors house upscale taverns and pleasure houses.
Today my destination was 'Drunken Crimson Hall' on the 4th floor, the bar run by Xian Yiming.
Overnuus Pharmaceuticals had a bit of a triad vibe, so unlike Twilight Resource Development, which just minded its own business like a big corporation, they had their fingers in all kinds of C-sector industries like this.
“How may I help you?”
“I have an appointment.”
When I showed the burly guard the card Ceres had prepared in advance,
“This way.”
I received a respectful escort.
The card I'd just shown him was called a Hyun-gap card.
Xian Yiming seems to like martial-arts novels, and whenever he does someone a favor, he hands these cards out and says, 'Hey, I won't forget this kindness—I'll buy you a drink sometime.'
Even a corpse fetishist was a bit much….
Starting with the fact that he tried to settle a favor with a drink at his own place, you could tell what kind of guy he was.
Still, the place itself looked good.
The black-wood interior and purple lighting gave it a mysterious vibe, and there was even the faint sound of strings in the background.
It had a pretty upscale feel.
“Boss, a customer is here.”
“A customer? You little shit. Didn't I tell you not to bother me when I'm busy?”
“Th, that's... the person carrying a Hyun-gap card.”
“A Hyun-gap card? Bring him in after three minutes.”
Wait.
“Come in.”
When I stepped through the door the guard opened, a much larger interior than I expected greeted me.
Wine bottles were rolling around on the floor, and silk robes had been tossed off.
On one side was a table for drinks, and on the other a huge bed with several women sprawled across it.
…They're alive, right?
“So who are you again?”
A flushed, drunken Yiming came out wearing a robe and smoking a cigarette.
Okay.
That's definitely the same face from back then.
As promised, Ceres had laid out the contact route, so from here on out it was my show.
“Hello, Boss. Long time no see. You remember me, right?”
“Huh? Uh, uh... th, that...”
Yiming narrowed his eyes and scratched his chin.
I smiled as meekly as I could.
“I'm Roen, a 7th-rank fixer. Roen. I hope I'm not interrupting you when you're busy?”
“Ah, ah, you! Right, right! I remember you. Good to see you.”
Yeah, right, he remembers.
The fact that he'd handed them out so often he didn't even know who he'd given a Hyun-gap card to.
Confirmed.
“Have a drink. I was in the middle of drinking anyway, so this works out.”
“Yes, sir! I'm honored! I'll gladly accept it!”
I downed the strong liquor Yiming handed me in one fierce gulp.
“Aaaah!!!!”
“Wow, brother. You sure drink hard.”
Yiming grinned and patted my shoulder.
Anyway.
The reason I went out of my way to ignore the mahjong parlor and come all the way here was
to become a fixer who handles Yiming's backdoor requests in place of Sunming, whose bones were probably already melting away by now.
“But I'm kind of busy right now. I'll make sure the girls down below can have a blast, so let's meet again next time.”
“Boss, there's something I'd like to ask you about.”
But there was no way a mere 7th-rank fixer could get on good terms with the proprietor of Hyeongwi House just by bringing a Hyun-gap card.
And according to Ceres's information.
Yiming was a small-minded bastard who wanted to look like a big-hearted man.
In other words, trying to cling to him half-heartedly was just asking to get blown off.
“A request? What is it? Keep it short, okay?”
Look at this guy.
“First of all, since I was coming to see the Boss, I thought it'd be rude to come empty-handed, so I prepared a small token of goodwill.”
“Ahem, well... let's hear it.”
With Yiming acting all prickly, I opened the briefcase.
Yiming's eyes, which had been faintly expectant, twisted into something fierce.
“You damn turtle bastard. Did you come here to mess with me?”
Fair enough.
Because what was inside wasn't a golden turtle or expensive liquor, but just a pair of stockings.
“These aren't ordinary stockings, Boss Yiming.”
I whispered sweetly into Yiming's plump earlobe.
“These are the stockings Ceres Cassian wore.”
“!!!!!!!”
Yiming has a foot fetish.
Confirmed.
Xian Yiming is just fetish incarnate.