Chapter 23
The VIP room of Fleischhof, the finest restaurant (and inn) in D Sector.
Inside the inn, with its flickering red lanterns, an out-of-place sound rang out.
Slurp-!
Kyaaah!
The Boss was devouring pasta drenched in broth with chopsticks.
I had a lot I wanted to say after seeing that, but I decided to just hold it in.
'If only you'd at least change the noodles to noodles... please....'
If I kept looking at the Boss any longer, I felt like I'd go into qi deviation, so I turned my head away.
There was Eri, dozing against my shoulder.
Looking at the girl sleeping so soundly, I reviewed everything that had happened today.
'It really had been a day full of things.'
I was mentally at least in my forties by now, so I was fine, but it had been a rather rough day for young Eri.
'Poor kid, having to act so grown-up when she's just a child.'
From firing her gun without hesitation to protect me to actually using magic.
It had been a cruel day for a child.
Then Tao Chen, having finished the pasta, said as he picked at his fangs with a toothpick,
“Teacher. Did the people upstairs send someone?”
“Yes. Mr. Otto said that the family is sending someone to take us back because of this.”
Limbus Pit and Sanctum Hill are not within walking distance of each other.
That said, taking public transportation in this situation would be insane, so we decided to wait quietly in the restaurant until someone from the family arrived.
However, it seemed the Boss interpreted the talk of the family sending someone differently.
“Um... may I ask what sort of standing you have within the family, teacher?”
“Hmm. Let's just say I cured the head of the family when he was hovering between life and death with a fever.”
“Hiiik...!”
The Boss still didn't know my real face, let alone the family or my identity.
At this point, I was curious how long this misunderstanding would last, so I wasn't bothering to explain it.
'Strictly speaking, it's not even really a misunderstanding.'
Am I a noble? YES.
Am I the attending physician? YES.
Am I deeply connected to the family? YES.
So aside from the young master part, most of it wasn't even a misunderstanding.
As long as you leave out the part about it being a ducal house, almost all the rumors were true.
“Uh... umm...”
The Boss rolled his eyes.
It was because of the weight carried by the word noble.
Even a baronial house—the weakest among nobles—is a disaster in Limbus Pit.
In a world where ranks determined titles, a baron meant at least Tier 2.
In this back alley, where one Tier-1 Boss could run everything, there was no point in counting anything above Tier 2.
It's like how a nuclear bomb and a gun both kill you if you take them head-on, so from a civilian's point of view there's no need to distinguish between them.
“Uh... are there things like etiquette I should observe in front of him...?”
Before the Boss could finish,
Ding-dong-.
along with the cheap doorbell, the air inside the inn changed.
An old man in a neatly combed-back white head of hair and a wrinkle-free tailcoat stepped into the inn.
It was Wilhelm, our family's head butler.
The dignified butler transformed the restaurant's still somewhat barbaric atmosphere the moment he arrived.
“It's the head butler.”
“Eh?!”
“Etiquette... well, as long as you don't swear, I think that'll do.”
The Wilhelm I knew wasn't a stern man.
He was strict during Eri's etiquette lessons, but only then.
Normally, he would even let it slide if Eri spoke casually to me.
...Though he sometimes got misty-eyed, saying he'd finally gotten a friend, so it seemed he was harboring a slightly unpleasant misunderstanding.
Anyway.
“And unlike the scary old man cliché from some other story, he's not that kind of grandpa either.”
At first I thought Wilhelm was one of those hidden-power old men.
He looked like he'd swung a sword a few times back in the day.
Or maybe handled wire well.
But after asking Father, I found out the head butler hadn't risen to that position through brute strength.
He'd originally been a kid delivering newspapers in the slums, and apparently he'd risen all the way to that position by helping my father with all sorts of work.
He wasn't some silver-haired prodigy from a story—just a pure, hands-on practical expert.
So there was nothing for the Boss to worry about.
If anything, the head butler was probably more likely to take a liking to the friendly Boss.
“You don't need to be too scared, so let's go.”
I supported Eri and headed toward the head butler.
***
As Julian supported Eri and approached the head butler, the old man's eyes went wide.
But only for a moment.
The head butler smiled and led Julian to the car.
“Teacher Schnabel. Please get in the car first. I'll have a quick word with this gentleman before we depart.”
Wink.
The head butler winked where the Boss couldn't see.
It meant he would play along with Julian's act.
Seeing him match Julian's cue without a word,
Julian clicked his tongue, impressed that decades of butler savvy were nothing to scoff at.
And so Julian and Eri got into the car.
“Mr. Otto. You worked hard. First, let's have you go upstairs and call for a healer. As for the scar... hmm.”
The head butler marveled at the wound on Otto's face.
“...Is this treatment your work, Teacher? You pulled flesh from another area.”
“Can you tell just by looking?”
“Haha. A modest talent. Still, the treatment is artistic. At this level, even a low-grade heal wouldn't leave a scar.”
Hmph.
At the butler's praise, Julian puffed up inwardly.
As expected, you only see what you know.
'I almost felt sorry nobody had recognized it until now.'
While Julian was getting into the car in a good mood thanks to the head butler's praise,
the head butler also helped Otto into the passenger seat.
Then he turned to face the Boss.
The head butler called out to the boss of the red-light district in a friendly tone.
“You must be Tao Chen, the boss of D Sector?”
“...Yes, sir.”
The Boss quickly sized up the head butler.
It was a skill ingrained in him from surviving this cesspool.
'Rank-wise, Tier 0. Around Tier 1, and no enhancement procedures... none.'
He was probably just a harmless old man whom the Boss could snap the neck of in five seconds if it came to a fight.
An ordinary old man—just a little too healthy for his age, with muscles that were basically nonexistent under the tailcoat.
But the Boss wouldn't make the mistake of judging Wilhelm by appearances.
'He's the family head's butler, so I guess you could treat him as the family head's spokesperson.'
The world isn't ruled by brute strength alone.
Wealth, power, connections, political clout, intelligence....
The world wasn't so easy that someone with the strength of a Tier-1 transcendent could go around acting as though they owned the place.
So the Boss ranked the head butler just a little above Teacher Schnabel.
Unless Teacher Schnabel was some blood relative of the family head, there was no way he outranked the head butler, no matter how much of a guest he was.
“It's an honor that someone like me is known to you, sir. I don't know what to do with myself.”
“Hmm.”
The head butler looked Tao Chen over.
After examining Tao Chen for a few minutes, the head butler took an envelope from his coat and handed it over.
“This is a small token of appreciation for protecting an honored guest of our family.”
Thud.
For a supposed thank-you, the envelope was far too thin.
Maybe there's even a single gold coin in here.
Thinking it stingy for a noble, the Boss glanced at the contents.
And then his eyes widened at the number of zeroes on the check inside the envelope.
“…!”
Goddamn it.
This is a small thank-you? We really do live in different worlds.
...The words rose to the very base of his throat.
Of course, his throat was precious, so he didn't say them.
“Th-thank you.”
“Splendid. Normally, people in this region would first suspect something when offered a favor like this and refuse it. Seeing you accept it right away without refusing tells me you're a friend who knows manners.”
Of course.
That word rose to the Boss's throat.
It was etiquette he'd learned after getting lectured once while trading with Teacher Schnabel's merchant caravan.
What was it again?
If you suspect something like this, it's actually an insult to the other party, and depending on who you're dealing with, you may even need to be ready to lose your head.
“Please continue taking good care of the teacher for me.”
The head butler left those words behind and turned away.
Then Tao Chen swallowed and asked toward the head butler's back,
“Uh, for this matter, will you noble lords be making a move yourselves? Or are you sending the knight order?”
At that, the head butler's steps toward the driver's seat came to a halt.
Then he slightly turned his head and met the Boss's eyes.
A faint, somehow affectionate smile touched the old butler's lips.
“Have you ever seen a noble send knights because he got bitten by a rat?”
“T-then are you going to let this go...?”
“A noble's sword and honor aren't things to take lightly. But if the rat keeps getting on one's nerves, one can't just sit still either. When it comes to catching rats, you leave it to the cleaners.”
The old butler looked up at the sky.
Snow was beginning to fall in small flakes.
A sign of a blizzard to come.
The head butler wiped away the sleet settling on his glasses and said,
“Ah, come to think of it, this old man has taken on such work after a long time that I've mishandled the arrangements. I should have prepared someone to guide the cleaners originally, but I forgot.”
After wiping his glasses clean, the old butler pointed at the envelope Tao Chen was holding and said,
“Could I ask you to guide those cleaners? If you successfully finish the job, I'll give you the same amount.”
Damn it. I got baited. Was that the plan from the start?
That sentence completely took over Tao Chen's mind.
That old man had not made a mistake in the arrangements at all.
He had planned it from the very beginning.
But by now, there was no way to refuse.
“Ah, understood.”
“Much appreciated.”
Clack.
The head butler closed the driver's door.
The Boss stared blankly as their vehicle pulled away.
And one hour later.
The 'cleaners' arrived,
“Haaah... this is why they say you shouldn't mess with nobles...”
The moment Tao Chen saw the cleaners who had arrived, he let out a deep sigh.
***
Clack-clack-
The sound of combat boots crunching through snow spread across H Sector.
Tao Chen glanced sideways at the black mass following behind him.
'The Mercur Trading Company's Special Operations Department— the Ironclad Special Response Team... was it?'
They were an alien presence that didn't fit at all with the disorderly streets of H Sector.
Black leather trench coats reaching down to the knees.
Top hats and goggles pulled down low to shield them from the blizzard.
Gas masks connected to the bags on their backs.
And the uniquely styled magical-engineering weapons and firearms they carried in their arms.
'How much are all those pieces of gear?'
Tao Chen found himself sniffing without realizing it.
It was a habit of his that showed up whenever expensive things were in front of him.
Maybe because the expensive gear was maintained with expensive oil, a pleasant scent tickled his nose.
The more he calculated the value of those smells, the more Tao Chen could feel this world's unfairness.
'It's been a while. Seeing company soldiers tear through Limbus Pit.'
In this country, military force is the exclusive domain of nobles and the imperial family.
Those who knew all too well that power comes from the blade's edge would never let anyone other than themselves hold the hilt.
But in truth, the nobles themselves couldn't freely make use of knights and retainers either.
Because swords and armor bearing the family crest weren't things you could just send anywhere.
This was the problem that arose if you sent a knight after being bitten by a stray dog, lowering the knight's stature to that level.
And the cost-benefit simply didn't add up.
And if you left it to mercenaries who knew nothing of honor or loyalty, you couldn't trust them.
To scratch that itch, capitalists had begun offering nobles a gray-zone 'service.'
'I remember some H Sector bastard once messed with a noble and caused that whole fiasco... Hah. Did those bastards learn nothing back then?'
Hitmen, special task forces, security departments, outside special operations teams....
The names vary wildly depending on the company.
But their essence as the hunting dogs of a company never changes, no matter where you go.
Their role is basically two things.
One is to handle the dirty jobs too filthy for knights and too dangerous for mercenaries—basically, taking care of the parts nobles are touchy about.
The second is to clean up the company's dirty laundry while the noble in question covers for them in return.
And the reason the retainers were dispatched this time belonged to the first.
'This is why I'm begging you to stop messing with nobles already... Seriously, these gutter rats.'
Tao Chen looked up at the sky.
Huge flakes were falling from the heavens as if to cover all the filth in the world.
But despite that white sky, the black procession was advancing ahead, trampling the snow beneath it.
'Come to think of it, Mercur Trading Company only became big enough to hire retainers not too long ago, right? And they made monsters like this in just two years?'
Building a retainer organization with both loyalty and training takes a lot of time and money.
Of course.
They'd learn the company's dirty secrets while carrying out all sorts of filthy work, and if their loyalty was low, those secrets would leak out.
That's why only grade-two-or-higher companies—those with both capital and infrastructure to spare—keep retainers.
Most of those companies are old, established firms with decades of tradition behind them.
And yet Mercur Trading Company, despite being a rising company, had cultivated retainers that didn't lose to them.
All in just two years.
'Teacher... what on earth did you raise? Did you brainwash them or something?'
The Boss recalled the murderous intent that had been poured onto him just before leaving the restaurant entrance.
The instant they heard that Teacher Schnabel had been attacked, the goggles that had been crimson turned blood-red.
Thanks to that, the Boss got a chill down his spine for the first time in a long while.
'If I add in the fact that, although none of them are Tier 1 individually, they also had that magitech gear and training...'
If it were one of them, the Boss might eke out a hard-fought victory.
But if there were two of them, they could slit his throat.
And those monsters were now sweeping through H Sector as a unit.
“Uh... aren't you cold?”
Tao Chen muttered, his breath coming out white.
But the men following behind him didn't even answer.
There was no small talk, no tension before battle, no excitement before a kill.
They simply watched ahead through their goggles with dry, emotionless eyes.
On the armor over their chests, spare magazines and grenades rattled now and then, the only sound breaking the silence.
“Hold.”
Then, all at once, the squad leader at the front signaled with his hand.
The twelve men following behind him all stopped in unison.
Without taking his eyes off the front, the squad leader asked into the air,
“Security?”
“Handled.”
The answer came from an alley beside them.
'Whoa, that startled me.'
The special detachment, which had appeared without a sound, came dragging along two limp red-nosed clowns.
In their other hands, they held bloodstained daggers in a reverse grip.
“Then let's keep moving.”
The unit, now expanded to twenty with the special detachment joining them, continued advancing through the snow.
As they headed toward the theater, the curtains in the street windows were drawn.
Before long, they reached the target.
“We've arrived. That's the theater of the crazy bastards desperate not to laugh.”
Tao Chen said, readjusting the hand axe slung over his shoulder.
Though he was acting as guide, that didn't mean the Boss intended to just sit still.
He'd been wronged, so if he didn't get some payback, how would he set an example?
Since the deal and the talk with the unit were already finished, the squad leader didn't say anything about it.
“21:58. Two minutes ahead of schedule. The guidance was clean, too. I'll report it to headquarters. There'll be extra compensation.”
“Ah, thanks...”
Clack-.
As if on cue, the sound of the magitech shotgun's pump action rang out simultaneously, cutting through the blizzard.
At the end of their line of sight stood a huge, dilapidated building.
[Lahenden Grand Guignol]
It was a theater said to have been provided by a noble who liked the artworks delivered by the old Lahenden Carnival.
The squad leader silently stared at the faded theater sign.
“...”
“Squad leader?”
“...Nothing. The target is to be exterminated. We take no prisoners.”
The squad leader's voice echoed inside his gas mask.
The two people standing side by side with the squad leader nodded and headed for the entrance.
Bang!
There were no warning shots, and no call to surrender.
The heads of the two clowns trembling at the entrance were crushed like tomatoes.
“Drop stealth and move in.”
Hiss-!
At that signal, the magic reactors they were carrying on their backs began spewing fierce steam.
Powerful magical inscriptions are generally very bad when it comes to fuel efficiency.
The Ironclad special task force solved that drawback by strapping mana reactors to their backs.
Steam poured from their backs through pipes and into their breathing apparatus.
Leading the way, the squad leader advanced, venting thick steam through the exhaust ports around his mouth.
“Eisen vergisst nicht. (Iron never forgets.)”
“Eisen vergisst nicht.”
With that chant, countless red lenses surged into the dark theater.