CHAPTER 19

[Pelica, Terror of the Night Sky, Witch]

[Demon Territory, De Gracia—Slums]

“Young lord, where are we going?”

I curled my body forward to look at him.

“To the slums.”

“Eh? Slums? For the young lord to go to the slums without guards......”

“There’s a witch with me. That’s all the protection I need.”

He grinned.

Oho~ so he does know how powerful witches are. While most people would disregard a witch’s capabilities because of their youthful appearance, a few, like knights and mages, have respect towards us, unlike the common folk and nobles. Well, witches are outliers in the Demon Territory after all. It isn’t common for people to interact with us, moreover to even learn and give a witch a ride on a shoulder. Utterly unusual.

This is a truly one-of-a-kind situation.

“The young lord flatters me too much~”

“Am I wrong?”

“Not necessarily. But, since this tiny witch is already with you, then I’ll gladly take the position of granting the young lord some protection. I’ll swear that on my title!”

“Much appreciated.”

I was riding on the young lord’s shoulder as we went through the slums. The inhabitants in it were rather shabby. Unlike those you see in the upper regions of the city, the slums were mostly a neglected part, existing just to occupy those who cannot afford the luxury of the city.

We passed by scrawny slum dwellers of any type, a child wearing tattered clothes, an old man drinking suspicious substances, and those whose eyes gave nothing other than a pitch-black void when looking into them. They’re pitiable, not that I disregard them as such, but to live in a place with nothing other than scraps to go by every day is one dreary life.

The young lord passed through them with indifference, not even looking at them with a good amount of looking, and only gave them, at best, a gaze with little emotion.

“......”

“......”

It was a quiet walk.

Things are certainly different from when we were walking in the marketplace. To put it bluntly, the young lord seemed abhorred by the slums. Yet, why did he want to go here in the first place? That’s another topic. I wanted to ask why, and when I did, he only said that we’d be meeting with someone named Leiche without much explanation.

Well, this isn’t necessarily my business, so I’ll just tag along.

The young lord, Scylla, and I strolled through the reeking slums, taking turns here and there until we stopped at a well-disguised tavern dressed up as an old house on the outside.

Upon arriving at a hidden tavern, the young lord presented a card to the guards and let us in.

“There,” the guard that the young lord asked pointed. “He’s doing some business with some shitass noble about some carriages.”

“Is this about the festival?”

“Most probably. I don’t know any details. You’ll have to ask him that. For all I know, they’re getting a ton of them.”

The young lord appeared to be mildly interested and only continued to meet the certain person he asked for.

“Those are our last carriages. We aren’t going to be letting them go. Ever since the past few days of them being bought out by some other nobles. These are the only ones left, and we need them for our own sake.”

A man with pouches on his hips said to the person in front of him.

“Agnh? If you’re going to raise the price, then just say it. Don’t make excuses and take a roundabout way of telling me. How much do you want? 10 gold per carriage? I’m being considerate here.”

The other rebutted.

“No matter how much money you put in my face, it’s already been settled. There’s no chance for you to take them since they’re not even here anymore. There’s none. Trying to get one as of now is simply impossible. We’re even getting a low amount of goods because of this whole damn thing.”

“My business could get ransacked by how much the customers’ merchandise isn’t in stock. They’re like ravaged animals looking for food here. Is there any way to go with this? Don’t you have something? Anything?”

The man with pouches shook his head.

Both parties became silent.

Hmmm.

Loss of carriages? That’s never happened before. Though there were times when carriages were at a certain low because of wars, natural calamities, or internal strife and such, the usual carriage count would still be functioning. But by the sound of it, the carriages are lower than before. I heard about the carriage problems a few days ago, but I didn’t realize they were this problematic. Coming from someone who’s lived for more than a hundred years, this is quite concerning.

If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

Merchants, and by extension the people, rely on these carriages for travel, goods, and personal needs. For them to suddenly vanish, it would mean that there is going to be an uproar by the masses regarding this sudden loss. Though the carriages in this city are more on small firms and merchants, they all serve under the city’s noble court.

Hmmm.

Hmmm.

While I was trying to interpret what was going on, the young lord chuckled as he saw the man with pouches made a distorted face mixed with annoyance and stress. Once the other party had left with a tongue click, leaving the man with a pouch by himself, the young lord approached him and spoke.

“Seems like you’re in a pinch.”

“Huh? You!”

When his voice cut through the sudden silence of the moment, the man with a pouch turned to him and had an exasperated look.

“It is me, Leiche.”

“Young man, what are you doing here?”

“Cut the formalities. When did you even address me in such a way? Does seeing me in this attire provoke something in you to uphold me? I do inquire you to treat me casually like before.”

“Tsk. Even your speech pattern changed. Hah. The last time you went here, you enthusiastically bought a random dog with a silver coin. In all my days of trading, I don’t know if you’re an idiot or if the dog was something rare that we haven’t seen yet. What do you want now? I’m quite busy, you know.”

“Looking at how your forehead is sweating like it has rained already says that. There’s no need to elaborate on it.”

The man named Leiche grumbled something, sighed, and fixed his gaze.

“Well, other than making fun of me. What brings you here?”

“A proposal. I have a proposal to give you.”

“Proposal?”

“This.”

The young lord grabbed something from his pocket and presented it.

From the young lord’s hand, a pendant with elaborate markings dangled. From my point of view, the pendant was quite beautiful. It had a golden chain and small flowers made of skulls.

Have I seen this kind of pendant before?

While I’m not someone who does jewelry that much, this pendant was particularly familiar, but I couldn’t bring myself to point out what it was.

“I’m willing to lend you this for some gold.”

Leiche raised an eyebrow.

The young lord gave him the pendant.

After getting a hold of the item, Leiche inspected it, looking at the pendant like some snake coiling up a rodent it sneaked up on. Just like a snake, he carefully studied it, his eyes getting narrower as he did.

“This......”

Leiche had a perplexed expression.

“A Demon Lord’s pendant?”

“That is correct.”

Eh? A Demon Lord’s pendant?

From all I know, those pendants are only given to the most important personnel of Demon Lords, be it a knight, an attendant, or a close noble. Depending on whose pendant it is from the 72 Demon Lords, even the lesser ranking ones, it still holds high value. It can be used as some sort of pass for nearly everything, whether it’s a mansion, a restricted area, or even a secret pub. Granted, the reason is appropriate and within the authority of the Demon Lord of the pendant in the first place.

Though the pendant is quite a powerful item to have, the repercussions of using it haphazardly are quite severe. If you used it unauthorized, like a personnel just entering because of personal business and not because of an order of a Demon Lord, or just because they wanted to without any justification whatsoever, then even the usage of the pendant can be annulled and can even lead to punishment.

One such instance was when a high-ranking knight was caught using a Demon Lord pendant in the Kingdom of Serene, within the Demon Territory, just so he could snag some money from peasants under the pretext of taxing. It’s unfortunate to say that that knight was hanged in a capitol.

For the young lord to give it out to a black market merchant......

I looked at Scylla. She didn't seem fazed by the young lord's decision, and only stood behind us as if she were never part of the conversation in the first place.

“Seeing that there’s quite a handful of problems happening in the market as of now, I went to check up on you to see how you’re faring. The vendors, civilians, and even merchants are ripping their hair off because of this. Well, suppose my nightmares have come true.”

“Kid, what are you getting at?”

“You can have that for a while. How does that sound? Since there’s currently a drop in carriages, it’s only appropriate that the firms holding them are a bit uncooperative when handing them out, while holding a high price for each of them, no? Seeing how you’re quite troubled, it seems like the firm you’re working for is doing the same as everyone else. That is, unless you’re working for a Demon Lord.”

“You’re telling me to use this......?”

Leiche looked at the young lord confusedly.

“I can’t tell if you’re fooling me or giving me a genuine offer here. First of all, I’m not affiliated with this Demon Lord. This wouldn’t work. Only those affiliated with Demon Lords can use it. Even if this truly was a Demon Lord’s pendant, there’s no way it’s going to be accepted by a merchant like me. Though the firm I work with does use this to deal with the Demon Lords or nobles, it’s rather sudden for someone like me to use it. I’m only a middle class within the firm. I simply don’t have that much influence.”

“That’s not a problem. Even if the merchant with the said pendant was illegitimate, they could still use the pendant if we were given a more ‘cooperative’ approach with the firm. That cooperation can be bought if you’d like.”

The young lord is proposing a bribe.

Though bribing isn’t necessarily a good thing to do, in this context, it’s necessary. Morality isn’t the deal with merchants and firms—it’s about efficiency. While it is a scummy way to do things, bribing is a necessity for making things go more smoothly for both parties.

If you’re holding a secretive item and you wouldn’t want the gate guard to look into it, then you buy that entrance. If you don’t have an entrance to a pub, buy it. Gold, entrances, and information are basically the same. They are bargaining chips for both parties to benefit from. That’s the world of merchants and firms.

“But that isn’t the case with this.”

“Huh?”

“Look around. There’s something shady going on with the carriages, and you can’t do anything about it. No one, even if you’re a higher class member of the firm, can escape this. The higher class, despite being well known, despite being competent, despite being a demon who had lived a hundred years, would also be conditioned with the same constraints as the lower class. However……”

The young lord made a confident look.

“……If you were to have a slightly higher authority to take you in, a higher authority than the firm or even the nobles, then this wouldn’t be a difficult thing to maneuver around with. We can bypass all the bullshittery around this whole nonsense.”

He paused and looked at Leiche with an intense gaze.

“Leiche, would you like to work under a Demon Lord? No, would you like to cooperate with me in taking care of this unsavory situation?”

. . .

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