Chapter 38 - Volume 2 (2/2)

The three of them discussed with each other as they walked up the stairs leading to the bridge when a shadow peaked out of the alleyway. The shadow watched the three, and then mumbled to itself.

“What do you mean Isaac’s found out. It’s clearly obvious that he’s just abusing you lot to make it easier to order you guys around. Tsk tsk. This is why new graduates aren’t as smart as they think.”

The shadow sighed deeply at the ground as it looked at the bridge.

“Sigh. What am I saying. I’m in no position to say any of this. I almost got myself involved because I felt so bad for my Hubaes.”

“We’re in trouble!”

As usual, Isaac irresponsibly pushed all duties to others and spent his time slacking around on the rooftop of the city hall when Cordnell hurriedly rushed over hurriedly. Isaac looked at him with a blank look.

“I’m starting to get really tired of hearing those words. What is it now?”

“The Department of Law! The Department of Law has made an announcement.”

“Huh? Were there any taxes we missed?”

“Tax isn’t the problem right now!”

Cordnell frustratingly showed a paper to Isaac. Isaac read the paper without much interest at first, but his eyes began to widen as he read on.

“During the reforms of punishment regarding crimes, the Department of Law has determined that an open and active trade regarding s.e.x could lead to the worsening of morality and cause disorder in societies. Therefore, the Department of Law has determined it is right to change the category of prost.i.tution from Misdemeanour to Felony and that its punishment can no longer be adjusted by the Lord? What the h.e.l.l is this?”

“What else! We’re screwed!”

“Hm, no matter how I see it, I think they’ve changed this law to target us.”

“I’ve asked some of my friends in the capital. Even the Seven Grand Merchant Guilds have been stabbed in the back! Someone forced the Department of Law to ban the legalisation of prost.i.tution. Now, anyone who has been caught regarding prost.i.tution must be punished by what has been set by the Department of Law!”

Rivolden Merchant Guild had already built three hotels in New Port City on top of the many investments it made. If this project were to fail, it will be a devastating blow to the guild itself, and Goldman would need to take responsibility and step down from his position as the Guild Master.

The rest of the guild employees in New Port City weren’t too concerned since they accepted the job with the expectation that it was going to fail; their pay already took that into account. But Cordnell was now at risk of being cut off from his guild along with Goldman, putting his livelihood in jeopardy.

“Ahahahaha!”

Isaac suddenly burst out in laughter, and Cordnell looked to him as if he had gone insane after his plan was destroyed even before it began.

After a long time snickering and chuckling, Isaac took out a cigarette and asked to himself.

“Ah, now this is something I haven’t even thought of. They got me good. Is this what they call a ‘difference in perspective’?”

When it came to hara.s.sing and sabotaging someone else, all Isaac could come up with was terrorism or a.s.sa.s.sination. Violence aimed directly at the target. He did so because it was quick and efficient, and it was his preferred method.

But those people came up with a completely different solution unlike everything Isaac had been thinking about. They would use the law to entangle their foe, pinning them into an endless struggle against the law until their foe withered to death.

It was not a barbaric method where a man could be injured or killed, but an elegant, bloodless method that was both cunning and slimy – befitting of n.o.bles. Isaac felt refreshed by this unexpected turn of events.

“What do we do now?”

“Why are you even asking that? Just continue as we always have.”

“We have no way to win! We should immediately negotiate with Port City to at least earn back part of the investment…”

“Are you telling me to die?”

“It’s not like you are guaranteed to die after three years.”

“Would you keep me alive if you were them?”

“But there’s no other way…”

“What do you mean there’s no other way? Who monitors and enforces the law in New Port City?”

“Are you going to just turn a blind eye at it?”

“Can I not?”

Cordnell hesitated for a moment and then replied.

“Well… the reason we could do business like that until now was because Port City had been protecting us. But now that Port City has become hostile, they’ll get the Department of Law involved instead of defending us.”

“Why’s the Department of Law a problem?”

“Because the Department of Law has an investigative branch that will monitor and a.s.sess whether the Law is being upheld and punished fairly! If you were to turn a blind eye to a crime that is now considered a felony, you will give the Department of Law the right to remove the police force in the city and replace it with men from the Department of Law itself!”

“Tsk. How thorough of them. Doesn’t matter. It’s not easy to convict someone for prost.i.tution. I’ve also read up on some of the law books myself. In order to prove prost.i.tution was happening, they must catch it at the scene red handed. Do you think that’s going to be easy?”

“What can you possibly do if they catch them while they’re discussing about the price!”

“That’s why the city will set the price instead. All the guest has to do is just choose the girl and head straight to the hotel without discussing about money. Can the government stop a man and a woman who have decided to spend a pa.s.sionate night together in a hotel? Can they?”

“With the power the Department of Law’s investigation branch holds, they can a.s.sault the hotels and immediately investigate for their identification. An excuse like that will never work when the two of them don’t even know each other’s names.”

Isaac went into thought with Cordnell’s refute.

“Huh? That is a problem. Hm… Fine, let’s do this instead. Cordnell, go see my Hubaes and tell them to issue a work identification for our working girls.

“What is this ‘work identification’?”

“Identification you use for work. What else? For their names, hm, let’s make it fancy and make it ‘Blue Rose’ for all of them.”

“That’s not even a name.”

“Did we ever take that as an issue before? This problem is a lot more sensitive than you think right now. Imagine if we unified it under the name of Milena instead. How would a commoner girl who has the name Milena feel if they ever found out?”

“They would be extremely displeased.”

“If she’s a n.o.ble?”

“I’d imagine she’d have a seizure.”

“I don’t want to see that happen.”

“But why do we have to give the same name to all of them?”

“Because it’s for work. When someone falls into a panic, they can’t even think of the simplest things. But when everyone has the same name, you don’t even have to worry.”

“What about age? Even if you unified the name, you can’t lie about your age.”

“Just print the ages that seems to be the best fit. If it’s right, you go over it without a problem. If it’s wrong, then they can just argue with each other for lying about their age. It will be confusing at first to our male guests, so make sure you explain it thoroughly whenever they visit.”

“This is just a childish prank where we cover each other’s eyes!”

Cordnell shouted out with a befuddled look at Isaac, and Isaac replied with an expression that seemed to speak ‘so what?’

“Does it have any legal issues?”

“…”

Isaac came from a world where all kinds of prost.i.tution and s.e.x trafficking took place. There were many methods to abuse the loopholes regarding prost.i.tution.

Cordnell dropped both his head and shoulders, when suddenly Isaac spoke out as if he’d just had an epiphany.

“Ah! Make sure you tell Crazy b.i.t.c.h this too. If she ever finds a guest who abuses our working girls, they are to be arrested regardless of their status, whether commoner or n.o.ble.”

“That’s going to be a problem on our end.”

“How dare they treat the citizens of New Port City like a target for s.e.xual relief? They must be punished according to the Empire’s law for attempting prost.i.tution.”

Cordnell dropped his jaw in astonishment. For once, he found Isaac’s shameless behaviour to be almost awe-inspiring.

The employees were skeptical about the orders Isaac had given out even as they worked on it, but Isaac was confident. It is a man’s instinct to look at anything that resembles women. Buying s.e.x with material had always been present. In truth, it wasn’t just New Port City that was turning a blind eye to it, but most of the cities had brothels in secret where these acts happened commonly.

“I see that most of the work is done now.”

Isaac peered over the rooftop of City Hall. The view showed the Sky Bridge and the long pathway that led to the centre of Ceta District.

Back when Isaac first came, even this place, which was supposedly the most furnished region, was in an abhorrent condition because there wasn’t any administrative body in the city. This is why Isaac had to invest not only on the casinos but the city’s infrastructure as well.

The road, which was once just a long straight lane made of uneven gravel, was now polished to the point where a race could be held on the road. It was made possible by the extremely expensive road work material which once again made Cordnell whinge.

The only thing was that the road showed no distinction between pedestrian walking and driveways since New Port City was already designed in a way that made it difficult for carriages or automobiles to enter.

Many businesses lined the streets on the sides of the road, brought in by not just the Seven Grand Merchant Guilds but other private businesses as well. The road was also decorated with outdoor cafes, fountains, colonnades, and benches for the guests to rest at.

“Now, all we need are some guests.”

Alcohol, gambling, women.

These were the three things all the wise men in the past had warned against. It was because of how attractive they were to men, and when all three of them gathered to one spot, it was bound to bring in the people.

Isaac looked at the empty street with a smoke in his mouth, and then looked to Rizzly who stood at his side.

“Aren’t you bored of just following me around all day? Don’t you feel like you’re being cheated? It seems the rest of your men are enjoying their time playing right now.”

Rizzly showed a somewhat lukewarm reaction and scratched his cheek.

“It’s common sense that the strongest man protects the employer, who is the most important person to us. I’ve also been threatened to do this too.”

“Threatened?”

“You don’t know how scary Kunette is, do you?”

“Kunette? Scary?”

Rizzly quickly shut his mouth, sporting an expression that screamed ‘I made a big mistake’ when Isaac spoke those words. Isaac narrowed his eyes and began to pressure Rizzly with silence. Cold sweat rose from Rizzly, but he was saved by someone who barged up onto the roof.

“We’re in big trouble!”

“Is there any small trouble instead?”

“Huh?”

Cordnell’s head blanked out at Isaac’s horrible joke, but he quickly regained his posture and began stomping around in frustration.

“Now is not the time to make horrible jokes!”

“Hm, that hurt. I actually put some thought into that joke.”

Isaac complained at Cordnell’s reaction, when the rest of the guild employees, Isaac’s Hubaes, and Lanburton rushed over to the rooftop as well, demonstrating how critical the situation was.

“I guess we really are in big trouble if all of you came out like that. So, what’s the problem?”

Everyone shouted in unison at Isaac’s apathetic reaction.

“Port City has opened a casino!”

This marks the end of Volume 2.

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