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第三十七回：兔女賭坊皆娛樂也，水軍造謠預爭兗州
As the girls were goofing off on the mountains...
... the other girls were goofing off in the Red Hare Loft.
"That it! Clench in that coooore!"
At the center of the bunnygirl club, Annalie is hung in reverse hangman on the dance pole, her ankles crossed over the top of the pole in a figure four. The only thing that supported her whole weight as she does mid-air crunches are those educated feet of hers. Sweat dripping downwards off her blunt bangs from the extreme workout, she pushes herself to rise upwards once more, mad glint in her eyes!
"Goooood! Good! That was the last set, 【Taishi】!
You are truly talented and well suited to the path of destruction!"
Acting as the crazed coach next to her is Ying-onee, now reverted back to her 【Jishi】 attire off club hours, she cheers on this impossible display of core (real) strength, applauding as Annalie grabs the bottom of the pole with both hands, and rights her self once again by releasing her locked legs into a handstand. Falling backwards into a reverse cartwheel with her legs, the last few steps almost trip her up, as she unsteadily finishes in a poise with both arms outstretched!
"So this is how it feels to be like Madison... Just for a little while!"
"The purple-haired ooooone is far advanced in her cultivatioooooon, it is not shameful to be catching up from behind!"
"... these formation plans need to the sent to the east gatehouse."
Upon hearing the c-word, black-haired catears twitch nearby. Neko-chan, who had been writing with a brush on the tabletop nearby passes her last note to the 【Forward Scout】, a small white cat carrying a round bamboo message holder on its back. Leaping off the table, it rushes off for the club's entrance to deliver its message. Looking up at this bizarre training session, the catgirl's face expresses a million concerns and doubts, all which coalesce into a single sentence,
"How in the abyss is pole dancing in any way related to 'cultivation'...?"
Those yellow eyes of her narrow as a small disbelieving breath escapes her lips.
"This pole, drenched in a ryuu's blood, touched by otherworldly lightning, and forged in the spirit of EEEEEEntertainmento...
... is the perfect vehicle for raising one's aptitude! Why in the last two days alone, this one has---"
That last one definitely sounded like something that Madi-san would say. Neko-chan must have realized it too, since her eyes went even narrower such that they resembled the slits on a bat crusader's cowl. These two madwomen must have shared some bit of their respective secret daemonic sect manuals of crazy to each other!
The second night of the bunnygirl club's opening had gone smoothly. While some patrons expressed disappointment they missed 【Puyengman's】 one-time special performance; coin still flowed unabated in the bunnygirl club, with large thanks to her main performer, now handing our dye-tipped 【Taishi】 a towel and strawed drink.
"You should try it too, Neko-mii! I feel stronger already!"
"M-maybe after work. Magick doesn't really suit [Arcadians]."
Bluntly cutting off any route for her to be stuffed in a bunnysuit, Neko-chan glances over at the small note passed to her last night by a scout; adorned with Ou Nygai's strong and firm brush strokes,
Troop movement in 【Ji City】.
Beware of internal threats.
Keeping watch on 【Ding'tao】.
Leave Daju's safety to you.
Stolen novel; please report.
These internal threats could only refer to the Duck Clan.
Ever since Tu Shubei was humiliated on opening night, it did not show its bills on the second night. Daju's dinner with the various merchant houses of 【Sili】 was a much happier affair, but Neko-chan's old [GLOYW] instincts went on high alert ever since hearing the trouble-making attempt on the first night...
This was merely the calm before the storm.
Aside from this there was Val's message.
Neko-chan was sure of it now, regardless of what the [Exposer] says...
This place is V---
"Oi...! What are you doing on stage?!"
Serious thoughts have no place in the bunnygirl club! Entering from behind the stage curtains, Ying-onee now directs a perfect nine-line of bunnygirl NPCs wearing dyes of all colors; on Ying-onee's command, they all dropped to the ground in a perfect split, hips square and forward like the eyes of the stone guardian cats which adorn the club's interior. Their back knees locked to the floor, and front heel tucked in, they slowly followed Ying-onee's lead and outstretched their arms while maintaining the poise to wide-eyed applause and laughter from Annalie.
The bunnygirls... have multiplied...!
"Ying, where did you find all these people?!"
"Hmmm? These are all my followers from 【The Cult of Black Bandanna】. The ooooones who qualified after my rigorous selection of cooooourse! We have very high standards!"
While Neko-chan places an open palm over both her eyes, Ying-onee directs the NPCs to perform a simple choreography on the pole one after another. Clearly this was rehearsal for tonight's show. Not satisfied with mere minor success on the stage, this woman had already taken it up on herself to raise the show to greater heights!
"You cultists... should just have become entertainers instead!"
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"Is it that bad, Cousin? You could try it out if you so want to."
Just as the NPCs extras break into their third set of rehearsals, Daju comes walking down the stairs, papers in hand.
"Heeeyo, Neko-mii's orange twin!"
"【Taisho】..."
Waving at Annalie with a smile, she sidles up next to the two and places her head and arms on the table. Eyes closed, she rocks her head enticingly in front of Neko-chan, who sighs and rubs the hair between those orange cat ears of hers. An orange tail flits behind her stool happily, Annalie peeking at the hand-drawn diagrams in [Vespanola] script. A day earlier before Oracion and I left with Madi-san, she shoved these papers into Daju's hands.
"Eh...? Isn't that a slot machine?"
"A ...what?" Neko-chan's head-scratching stops. Now fully upright in horror, she realizes that the author of these diagrams could only be...
"Is that what you call this back in your world? What an intriguing concept that Sister Madison has drawn!"
"These are plans for a casino! A... real, live, honest-to-Sherlyn casino!"
A casino! A place of EEEEEEEEntertainmento where patrons tilt pachinko machines, chase after the elusive 777s and sit around green-felted tables while throwing down chips on the table! While the gaming aspect is one part of it, the real value of a casino is its networking power! If you spend long hours at a table with another person a certain understanding is reached! You too, are a fellow degen! Casinos are also definite money makers, we already have bunnygirls, the natural extension to the bunnygirl club is of course...!
"I... Sigh, there's no way to talk you out of this, is there, 【Taisho】?"
"None, cousin!"
"..."
Neko-chan wanted to blurt out some [Arcadian] zoning law that explicitly forbids this, but quickly realizes that there probably are none in isekai. What next? A monument dedicated to watersports? Shush, Neko-chan! Don't give Madi-san any funny ideas!
Just then, a distraught girl wearing a long white braid behind her back bursts into the bunnygirl club.
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Her movements harried and robes loose, it appears that Zhangji had run all the way here.
"Daju, have you heard what people are talking about in the teahouse...?"
"【Puyengman】?" Our resident fake priestess chimes in but that was not the right answer.
"Yes, there's that... but strange people are spreading rumors about you, Daju!"
Hearing this, Daju's eyelids flicker.
It had finally begun.
In the exact same way that they got to Bian too.
Except that this time, Daju wasn't the wide-eyed girl who had just come in from the north anymore.
"... pray tell what these rumors are about? Something about being a 【Traitor to the Kingdom】[1] no doubt."
Not only that, far worse things were said in that teahouse. Things that were so blatantly untrue, yet stuck in Zhangji's throat like a lump of cat hair!
"... that's noooooot vicious enough, Zhangji! If it were the 【Water Brigade】[2], they would link the 【Taisho】 with her partner's death and call her an 'ungrateful, friendless whorecat'!"
This voice came from the currently hiding-behind-a-circular-seating Ying-onee, who had seen through the Duck Clan's tricks. What Annalie and Neko-chan had no context of was why the originally bursting with energy Ying-onee was suddenly hiding from view and reduced to a waving, trembling finger, dipping out of view once more behind the cushions. There were far more important questions to ask, so nobody questioned it.
Zhangji's gulping only confirms Ying-onee's prediction.
"Gishishishi! So it has begun, 【Dusi Kuodo's】 way of silently removing internal threats: raids and rumors!"
The struggle for 【Yan Province】, begins now!
Act One:【兗州之爭】 STARTO!
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NEXT: Rumors And Legends Could Always Be True, If You Get Called Flying General You Are Literally Lu Bu!
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TERMINOLOGY
[1] 【Traitor to the Kingdom】, 【賣國賊】, or 'one who would sell the country out' is commonly used as an insult for anyone who criticizes 【Dusi Kuodo】. For most people it is a difficult label to wash off. But for a merchant who has removed her shackles of morality...
[2]【Water Brigade】- I mentioned that there were three uses to this term, the third and last one is relevant here: 【水軍】 also refers to the act of internet brigading, where anonymous users flood the comments of a vidya for example to, I dunno, retexture the Nxtlan characters? Other parts of the internet call it 'brigading', hence the translation. - Author-kun