Chapter 35
"Business?"
Normally, I wouldn't have asked back.
Whether he had business nearby or not, there was no reason to take unnecessary interest in someone else's professional life.
But if the subject was the Ladam in front of me, the story changed a bit.
His name was Ravin Haywood.
He had an angular mechanical exterior, with gentle facial features between the metal joints of his face. He held a large briefcase in one hand.
This android, with a model-student appearance that would look good in glasses, wasn't just an ordinary office worker.
Even if this was Dusk City, there was no way an ordinary Salaryman would carry around a strictly regulated smart gun.
He was an agent for a famous agency, a professional mercenary broker.
Mercenaries were the contract killers who worked for money, commonly called Ronin.
They were the city's outlaws, becoming bodyguards, assassins, or gang members depending on the situation.
And the Ladam in front of me was someone whose professional career was dealing with such Ronin.
He had a neat and sophisticated impression on the outside, but he too was someone deeply involved in the violent underbelly of the city.
Furthermore, though not certain, from what I heard, he wasn't an ordinary Agent but an executive-level figure in a fairly high position within his company.
I heard he was at least a Team Leader or a Department Head. If someone like that said 'business came up,' didn't it give you the premonition that it wouldn't be ordinary business?
I didn't know what it was, but it was definitely an incident related to the mercenary industry.
Since the other party was a Ladam, I couldn't figure out much just from his appearance, but from a quick glance just in case, his exterior was unusual too.
His shirt collar, which had been neatly pressed the last time he came, was disheveled, and the end of his tie looked slightly crumpled.
It meant something had happened on his way here, or he had come here in a hurry.
Either way, it didn't seem like a trivial incident. Hearing that it happened nearby made me feel uneasy for no reason.
It would be nice if it were just my groundless fear, but...
"Ah, it seems you haven't heard the news yet. Our company has a non-disclosure clause, so I can't give you the details, but it might get noisy around here for a while. Not just here, but all of East Monica."
"East Monica?"
I made an appalled expression.
It seemed it wasn't a groundless fear after all.
East Monica was one of Dusk City's Eight Districts, the East Asian Autonomous District where the Asian Town I lived in was located.
Because the Lawless Zone, Sprawlfield, was right next to it, I couldn't say the security was good even as an empty pleasantry, but it was still a decent enough area for people to live in.
Prices were on the lower side compared to other districts, transportation was convenient, and the major gangs were guys like the Yakuza and Triad who had their own rules and discipline.
This much was strictly above the Dusk City average.
Just take our bar, Dragon's Lair, for example. Wasn't it located in the Intermediate Zone between East Monica and Sprawlfield?
It was only because it straddled East Monica that normal Customers like this came by.
If it had crossed entirely over into Sprawlfield, we would have had to serve crazy psychopaths all day long.
And East Monica was going to get so noisy.
Since both where I lived and where I worked were in this district/sector, I couldn't help but be worried.
If he had said Sprawlfield was getting noisy, I wouldn't have cared. That place being noisy was normal.
Besides, it was called a district/sector, but considering the massive size of Dusk City, the East Monica autonomous district was almost the size of a small city.
If it was something that would put that entire region in an uproar, just how big of a problem had broken out?
Did the noticeably frequent Stop-and-Frisks lately have something to do with this?
Even after thinking back to the original work's setting, nothing in particular came to mind.
It was largely because I had played the game without paying much attention to the story in the first place.
While I was racking my brain like that, Ravin nodded and said.
"Yes. East Monica. You'll probably suffer for a few days. Since this place happens to be located on the border of the Intermediate Zone, it seems a lot of people will flock here."
…A lot of people will flock here?
From my perspective, it wasn't very welcome news.
What did business coming up and the surroundings getting noisy have to do with that in the first place?
I wanted to ask for a detailed explanation, but Ravin Haywood didn't seem to have any intention of talking further.
"Hmm, I was planning to drink what Tony served today, but since he doesn't look well, it would be better to sit in front of Sey. May I sit there?"
"Ah, yes. Of course."
He immediately changed the subject without caring about someone else's curiosity.
Saying any more would violate that company clause or whatever, is that it? True to a Ladam with a mechanical heart, he was incredibly cold-hearted.
He just strode away like that.
I scratched my cheek, glaring at the glossy back of his head and artificial fiber hair as he sat at Sey's side and familiarly ordered a cocktail.
I didn't know what had happened, but I just hoped the sparks wouldn't fly my way.
* * *
You'll probably suffer. It seems a lot of people will flock here.
It was something I heard just a few hours ago.
…Was he a prophet?
Was this the power of Big Data? Were these the analytical skills worthy of an AI android?
There were so many people.
Since I started working at Dragon's Lair, I don't think I've ever seen it packed with this many customers.
It wasn't to the extent that the bar was completely full and swarming with people, or that a crowd was lining up outside, but still.
For starters, there was at least one customer sitting at every table. There were no empty tables left.
If another customer came in now, we'd have to suggest the customer share a table.
Fine. Let's say having a lot of Customers is one thing.
Usually, the normal scene was about five or six regular customers taking up a lot of space and leisurely drinking cocktails, but whatever.
There could be days when a lot of Customers come like this occasionally.
The workload increases, sales increase, and Dragon President will give a bonus for the hard work, so it's not entirely a bad thing.
But the problem was, the appearances of the customers all looked extraordinary.
They weren't just tough-looking neighborhood thugs or gangsters. Every single person sitting in the bar right now was the 'real deal.'
I wondered if gathering all the villains from a hero movie would look like this.
A hulking man whose skin was entirely covered in bumpy crocodile scales, regardless of what kind of bio-implant surgery he had received,
a Crazy Chainsaw Man who brought a jet engine saw the size of his own body and made the absurd excuse that it wasn't a weapon but his dining knife, only to eventually surrender it,
and a combat cyborg with a destructive appearance, having replaced one arm not with a prosthetic, but with a buster cannon like something out of the Mega Man series.
Just pointing out the three most conspicuous ones was enough to show this level.
Besides them, there were large people full of all sorts of cyberware modifications and Artificial Muscles.
There were tons of Ronin giving off an aura that screamed, 'I'm dangerous. Don't mess with me.'
At this point, I almost suspected they had collectively received a commission to attack Dragon's Lair.
One of the places the Dusk mercenary industry had expanded into the most was the Lawless Zone, Sprawlfield; therefore, Ronin often stopped by Dragon's Lair since it straddled Sprawlfield, but...
Still, it was never to this extent.
It wasn't just a few customers being Ronin; every single one of them practically had 'I'm an Assassin/Hitman' written on their faces.
Except for the Ladam Company Employee who came in first, Mr. Haywood, there wasn't a single Normal Person. , not even one.
Damn it, getting an Excellent Customer right from the start meant I was damn lucky.
I shouldn't have even thought such a thing in my heart.
Anyway, it was a very chaotic situation.
With Mercenaries who each threw their weight around in their own neighborhoods gathered in one place, they started picking fights and engaging in battles of nerves, and I had to break them up...
Only when I said I'd kick them out immediately if they started one more fight did they quiet down a bit...
Just when I thought it had gotten a bit quieter, it was incredibly noisy with their placing orders.
About half of them seemed to have been to our bar before, or even if it wasn't our bar, they had drunk enough to have some cocktail experience.
The other half were the problem.
Wow... what should I do with these troublemakers?
I went over because they hadn't placed a single order even after sitting for tens of minutes, and with innocent eyes that clearly showed they had no idea what was what, they asked for just anything.
Figuring they were someone who clearly didn't know much about cocktails, I put in an order for a safe cocktail for beginners and brought it over,
but seeing them get angry, asking what kind of alcohol this was and if it wasn't something only gays or bitches drank, I had to hold back my rising anger once.
So when I asked if they would like to order a different drink, they told me to give them a strong and tough drink fit for real men.
Okay. I immediately asked Sey to mix up a strong liquor, something so strong it would burn their throats to death while drinking.
When I presented the finished drink, only then were they satisfied, saying I had finally brought a proper one that suited them.
When I looked again a few minutes later, they had passed out and collapsed without even drinking much.
Was the alcohol that strong, or was that phony bastard's liver weak?
They had received a flashy number of combat modifications, but it seemed they had neglected alcohol decomposition bioware.
It was a good thing I had taken a prepayment just in case. I immediately dragged that heavy brute outside and threw him out.
The number of Brutes I had dragged outside like this was already a dozen.
Haa... I'm already tired.
And this was only just the beginning.