Chapter 147: Methods To Collect Debt (1/2)

Alpha suddenly turned towards the direction of the door into the room, Akira noticed that and followed suit, there he saw Carol and Viola coming in.

Other people also noticed Carol and Viola. Both of them scanned the room, talked to each other for a bit and separated off, Carol went to Akira while Viola went to Katsuragi. Carol walked all the way next to Akira and smiled at him.

“I’m happy to see you again! What a coincidence, Akira!”

“You’re right, so, why are you here?”

“I just thought of killing some time talking with you, are you busy right now?”

“Nah, I’m not busy.”

“That’s good to hear.”

Akira was sitting on top of one of the displays originally used for the relics. Carol casually sat next to him.

Carol was wearing a bodysuit for fighting, it had a more tame design compared to the old-world design augmented suit that she wore back in the Mihazono ruin. But even so, it still pronounced her body lines, so for those who were not used to it, she looked rather seductive.

The fastener on her bodysuit was lowered so her cleavage was visible. The other people who were working there could not help but peek at that cleavage, but Carol did not mind them at all.

Akira then warned Carol.

“I don’t mind you sitting there, just make sure not to break the display.”

“Geez, I’m not that heavy!”

“It’s just that I had a fight here so the display might be damaged.”

“I see, I’ll be careful, by the way, my weight is a secret. If you want to know no matter what, I recommend holding me up while I have nothing on my body.”

Carol was smiling teasingly while Akira replied with a wry smile.

“No thanks.”

“You’re no fun.”

Carol smiled but seemed slightly disappointed.

The room was painted here and there with blood, empty cartridges were also scattered all over the floor complete with scorch marks from the bullets too, it only showed how fierce the fight was. Carol looked one more time around the room, she then smiled as if the scene did not bother her at all and said.

“But still, it seems that you had a pretty hard fight here.”

Akira awkwardly replied.

“It’s not my fault.”

Carol was a bit surprised by Akira’s reaction, she thought that he was someone who was not bothered by something like that. Although she did not mean to blame him at all, her wordings there might have somehow triggered him. So in order to not worsen his mood even more, she tried to defend Akira.

“Well, it’s true that it’s the attackers’ fault and not yours.”

Akira turned his face to Carol and looked slightly weirded out. He then noticed that she misunderstood his words, so he shook his head and said.

“That’s not what I meant, the room was cleaner after the fights. It’s because those people who came with Katsuragi dragged the dead bodies around and spread the blood, and used the sheets to mop the blood in the corridor which made the fight seem gorier than it originally was. That’s why it’s not my fault that the room looks like this. But well, it’s not like I was being careful to keep this room clean when I fought them either.”

Carol nodded.

“Ohh, I see, these guys are pretty naughty.”

“Naughty?”

“Yep, it’s just a small stupid trick, but it’s enough to trick some people.”

Akira tilted his head in confusion, he still did not understand what Carol was referring to.

When Carol noticed that, she smiled mischievously and asked Akira.

“Hmm, your face is saying that you don’t understand. If you want to know, I can explain it to you, of course, that is if you don’t mind me adding my guess there.”

“Oh, please do.”

Akira was interested, so he nodded without much thinking.

He was waiting for Carol to start explaining, but she did not say anything, she was only staring at Akira while smiling. Akira, who found that weird, frowned, that was when she said.

“If I ask for an information fee… What would you do?”

“Information fee…?”

“Information is not free, you at least know that much, right?”

“…Well, yeah, I do.”

Akira only replied awkwardly, Carol who saw that enjoyed his reaction.

From others point of view, it might look like Carol was teasing Akira and enjoying his reaction. But Carol tried her best not to show her real intention out on her face as she was observing his reaction closely.

Carol was trying to judge Akira’s personality and his way of thinking from how he reacted to that, whether he took that seriously, or he took that as a joke, or if he just laughed it off, or if he replied back trying to be considerate to her.

If Akira seemed offended or angered or anything similar to that, she would immediately apologize and carefully start her explanation to make sure not to worsen his mood.

Akira seemed to be thinking for a bit. Carol kept her eyes on him while waiting for his reaction.

Akira hesitated for a bit but he then said.

“…Well, it’s not like I want to know it that much anyway, so I’m okay not knowing it.”

Carol smiled bitterly.

“I was just joking, you’re a pretty serious guy.”

“…I just don’t like that kind of joke.”

Akira’s reply was rather brusque. Carol understood Akira’s character a bit more, she then smiled and apologetically said.

“I’m sorry, please don’t be angry. But I’m really happy to know that you’re that interested in me. As an apology, I’ll properly explain it to you, so cheer up, okay?”

“…Alright.”

Akira reluctantly nodded, it must be because he was interested in that subject and he thought that Carol was only teasing him.

Carol was able to infer a lot of things from Akira’s reaction, she then thought to herself.

[Akira doesn’t seem to joke that much, huh, or maybe is it that he doesn’t like to joke around money. Judging from his reaction, it might be both. I need to be extra careful not to make bad jokes when I’m trying to seduce him.]

Carol did not show her thoughts on her face, she was still smiling like usual as she started her explanation.

Katsuragi was trying to sell the attackers regardless of whether they were dead or alive, and he did not care whether they would be dead or alive in the near future. He wanted more than the peace money, so he planned to have them pay for the ‘damages’.

As for the attackers that were still alive, they would be put on a huge debt and made to work for a long time to pay for that debt. But in the eastern district, their contract would be invalid if they were forced to sign the contract at gunpoint. After all, that kind of contract was not allowed by the biggest authority power in the eastern district, the Corporate Government.

The Corporate Government had declared in the past that they would not allow any kinds of activity that might bring harm or disrupt the order and the peace in the eastern district. Regardless of whether they really put that into action or not, it was properly written in the rule. Rather than for the sake of anyone else, it was for their very own sake.

The definition of criminal in the eastern district was simply those who were against the Corporate Government. The Corporate Government would not do much when Hunters kill each other outside the wall, but if merchants or scammers started doing something suspicious, they would not show any mercy. That kind of bias was normal in the eastern district.

So, forcing someone into a debt without a good reason would disrupt the economy, thus, such actions were seen as an act against the Corporate Government of the eastern district.

Because of that, Katsuragi and his men needed to show the attackers that they had enough reason to force the attackers into debt which included the peace money. After all, they could not demand trillion Aurum peace money just because they tried to kill Akira and Sheryl’s men.

And if their reasoning was good enough, they could get help from the Corporate Government to seize the attacker’s properties. They could also ask for help from the Hunter Office that was handling their bank account. They could even sell the bond to the Hunter Office if all of the above things were not enough to pay for the debt.

The reason why Katsuragi and his men were making the room messier than before was simply to give a good reason to get the attackers on that debt contract. They were trying to pull up the debt nominal by taking a record of how bad the damages were.

After listening closely to Carol’s explanation, Akira looked around the room one more time.

“…I see, so in that case, the worse it looks here, the better the profit that they could get, huh.”

“The attempted robbery that caused the current situation, the criminals over there, the peace money, the reimbursement for the damages, and any other excuses that they could use to gain more money. I bet they are trying to squeeze as much money as they can from those attackers, both from the alive ones and the dead ones.”

“But is that really going to work?”

“Maybe. Some of them are really experienced in this kind of thing after all.”

When Carol said that, she pointed her finger at Viola who was talking with Katsuragi and some other people.

“That girl is Viola, and she… well, what can I say… She’s an expert in under-the-table deals like human trafficking and ‘resolving disputes’. I’m here because I was simply following Viola since I’m her bodyguard at the moment, I bet she got the news of this incident from her personal information web. I myself only know it since I heard about the incident from her.”

“Oh, it’s not like she’s one of the people that Katsuragi called to come here?”

“I’m pretty sure she came here uninvited, and they know well that Viola is powerful enough so that they could not just shoo her off. I don’t know what they’re talking about, but I’m pretty sure it’s nothing good. I know it’s strange for me to say this since I’m her bodyguard, but she’s a bad girl. It might be better if you keep your distance from her, you know? And that’s doubly true since you’re bad with negotiation.”

Carol was talking while giggling as if she was joking with Akira. But Akira understood that she was being serious there.

“Well, if you say so, I’ll be careful with her.”

“Yup, you should do that.”

Carol smiled satisfied seeing Akira nod firmly.

She was indeed being honest when she warned Akira. One of the reasons why she said that to him was to make sure that Viola would not mess with him.

Carol was in the middle of trying to seduce Akira, so it would be troublesome for her if Viola tried to mess with him.

The discussion was still going on between Katsuragi, Tomejima, Sheryl and Viola. They had different expressions as they were talking to each other.

Tomejima looked like he knew he was talking to a difficult opponent as he desperately refused to back down.

“…No! You came so suddenly and now, you want to buy all the attackers? That’s just too suspicious!!”

Viola smiled at Tomejima, there was a trace of confidence and intimidation in her smile that was adorning her beautiful face.

“Oh my, I only said that I can increase the profit by 50%, you know. I’m just giving a better offer here, it’s so rude of you to call me suspicious.”

“You bought that debt bond for 60% of the face value back then, like hell I’ll let you take this one away from me too.”

“That value was the price that both parties agreed to, right? If you really want it that much, I don’t mind selling it to you with a discount, you know?”

“…T-that is…”

Tomejima reeled back. He was talking about the debt bond for Kadol who tried to kill Akira. In order to avoid getting targeted by Akira, he sold that troublesome bond to Viola. Now that Akira just defeated 8 armed Hunters alone, that bond had become more troublesome than before.

Viola smiled and said to Katsuragi.

“So, what do you think? If you sell them to me, it’ll bring you more profit, yes?”

Katsuragi sounded slightly hesitant as he said.