Chapter 11 Part1 (1/2)
Chapter 11 – The underground sewer’s ghost
The underground sewers—
The sewers extends everywhere throughout the capital and is rarely visited by people because of the monsters that live in it. Its entrance is normally closed and monitored by guards to prevent the monsters from leaving. For that reason, people only enter when the Adventurer’s Guild receives requests to undertake the subjugation of the monsters within, or when cleaning is necessary.
But if there are other reasons to enter the sewers other than the above, then it would be those whom people do not speak of—
The groups who have fallen. (TL: to become sinners.)
This is an excellent place for them because people rarely enter the sewers. There are no monsters who are at the extreme end of power and they also know the regular intervals when people enter, and they hide themselves and do not divulge their presence during then.
It is supposed to be that way. As long as there are no irregular events.
[d.a.m.n it. Today’s the day when the adventurers are coming in! Watch your surroundings well!]
A man appear beside the unconscious girl with chestnut hair and shouts angrily.
The men who captured another shabby-looking girl apologize with embarra.s.sed faces.
[Aniki, what exactly are you going to do with this one?] (TL: To be exact, that person called him Aniki, common yakuza slang for older/senior ranks, or older brother. Also there are 2 girls here, one is their kidnapped slave, the other is the girl from the guild.)
The leader who is addressed by them as Aniki think for a while.
[It’s fortunate that no one else is with her, but we can’t leave her behind when she saw us, yeah. We’re bringing her along boys. If we stay here any longer we’re gonna get discovered by the adventurers. Don’t expose yourself when we return to the hideout, got it?]
[Got it…… Since we already got exposed to this girl can we get to enjoy ourselves with her?]
[Well—, do whatever you wish.]
[Hehe boss, I knew you would agree!]
The men cheered with vulgar smiles.
In order to prevent the girl from moving two men use ropes to bind and gag her. They then carry her off with glee.
It is fortunate that they have a complete selection of ‘goods’. Virgins are included as part of the goods as many customers desire for them, and the subordinates would lower the prices of such goods if they are sullied, so the leader denied them from laying their hands on the goods.
Therefore they are more or less dissatisfied.
The leader even judged that it will be good to let them vent their frustration by killing someone.
The girl with shabby looking clothes — Because she escaped from the hideout earlier the troublesome things have increased, but it is still in a state where they can recover from.
(We should get back to the hideout as soon as possible.) — He thought.
She is part of the goods kidnapped from the slums. In this particular era where the monsters are running rampant, there are quite a lot of children left behind because their guardians or parents died.
There are always children who have no relatives and are unemployed. While the orphanages accepts such children, there is a limit to how many they could take in. They are unable to save all of them because of limited budget and the number of children they can receive.
So what happens to the leftover children?
The bigger half was mostly hanging on by a thin thread and dying, while the others did bad things by getting involved with stealing. These orphans who had nowhere to go, would grow up in the slums and stay there. Hence — The kingdom which did not have a perfect management, was not able to detect if one or two child went missing.
In that sense, orphans are kidnapped and sold to customers as slaves— This is the work that these men were doing.
In order to ban slavery, the kingdom has deemed this trade illegal.
But demand exists.
There are those who used them as pure workers, those who used them as outlets for s.e.x, and those who used them as sacrifices for evil rites or even alchemy materials…… And all sorts of gruesome things that are not meant for public eyes.
As long as there are customers, the business for these men is established and the children that are unknown in the slums are kidnapped and sold.
This time they are stockpiling and confining their goods in the hideout because their delivery date is getting closer.
They had gathered information earlier and knew the adventurers are going to the sewers, so they hid in their hideout obediently in order not to be found.
However, the confined children went on a rampage and a few of them escaped from the confusion. They quickly caught their goods back, but there was one girl who evaded their capture.
Finally they caught and restrained the girl near the spot where the girl with chestnut hair was — And now things had arrived to this point.
[Hold on, stop.]
The leader commanded his men and listened carefully. Apart from the water flowing into the sewers, there seemed to be something abnormal mixed into it, like someone’s footsteps approaching towards them.
(Perhaps comrades of the girl with chestnut hair? Or adventurers?) — The leader wondered.
They heard the footsteps clearly now from the insides of the narrow crossroads. It was still a distance to notice his men. It was a bad situation as they did not not know whether to catch that person or to let that person go past them. He decide to extinguish his lantern and hide in the dark, hoping for the person to leave in the other direction, but if he did not it would be good to attack him in the dark.
He makes that judgment and sent signs to his subordinates who understood his intentions and extinguish the lights and hide their presence.
The footsteps became closer and they waited with bated breaths.
Once the lights are extinguished, their eyes gradually got used to the dark and the leader focus his eyes. He is able to see the contours of their enemy slightly, and when he considered the footsteps as well, he thought it was only one person out there.
(Then it will be good if we attacked him —) The leader scoffed in his mind.
(…… Wait, something is wrong.) There was a question that rose in the leader’s mind.
The enemy only had a blurred outline but no appearance on him. It was difficult for them to move in the sewers for long distances without the aid of the lantern’s light. In this near darkness, his appearance was completely unreadable, meaning that he did not carry a lantern along with him.
(Impossible—) It was difficult for adventurers to enter so deeply without the use of a lantern.
It was normal to prepare to prepare a light in order to do their quest.
(Who’s this person? Why did he come here for? Or is it a monster?)
There were many humanoid-like monsters, but they have never heard something like that appearing in the sewers. The leader becomes confused at this strange figure. The subordinates also have uneasy looks with this atmosphere. The unknown figure came to the crossroads.
(Are you going to come to us or move off—) The men thought.
But their desires were in vain because the footsteps stopped. It seems like the figure stood there and did not move.
(d.a.m.n you, b.a.s.t.a.r.d! Did you lose your way or something? Quickly get lost now!) The leader shouted in his heart.
But the unknown figure is not even moving a little.
(Did you realize something is over here? Then why don’t you do something?) The leader had the color of impatience on him. He had no idea what that figure was thinking when he stopped there.