Chapter 157: People Who Sow Conflicts (1/2)

The lower district of the Kugamayama city was vast, the public order was more or less as bad as the wasteland. And in the area that had even worse public order, there were some organizations with strong economic power doing illegal businesses. They employed powerful military power to control the other smaller organizations within that area. Ezont Family was one such organization, its territory expanded from the slum city all the way to the lower district.

Ezont family’s base was located in a certain mansion that was in the boundary between the slum city and the wasteland. That mansion demonstrated the power of the organization and the most important thing was not the size of the mansion.

There was no shortage of land in the eastern district, and with the advancement of technology, people could build mansions relatively cheap. But it was a whole different problem whether it was safe or not for them to do so. The main reason why the land inside the inner wall was expensive, was simply because it was safer. Having a mansion right next to the wasteland meant exposing it to monster’s attacks, it showed that they had enough money to pay for the people to guard that mansion, unlike those countless small gangs scattered inside the city.

In a large guest room inside that mansion, the boss of the Ezont family, Rogelt, was sitting while thinking hard. On the other side of the table, in front of him, Viola was smiling like usual.

Rogelt had his men standing guard behind him, while Viola had Carol standing guard behind her. They were all armed.

Rogelt looked at the four pictures on top of the tables while immersed in his thoughts, his gaze then returned to Viola.

Viola tried to analyze his gaze; if it was saying that there was a chance for negotiation or not as she happily said.

“So then, what do you think?”

“It’s not a bad offer.”

Two of the pictures were of Akira and Katsuya. Akira looked slightly annoyed in that picture, while Katsuya was smiling as if that picture was taken for publicity.

“We also did some investigation about those two. That Katsuya boy has his past record properly written in the report from Drankam, so it’s easy to compare it with the information that you brought in. His Hunter Rank is also pretty high. Well, basically, I’m sure he’s indeed a strong Hunter. While that Akira boy, he has a rather low Hunter Rank. But I heard that he was able to fight against eight robbers all by himself recently, and if I add the information about him that you just brought in, well, I’m sure he’s pretty strong too. If I can get both of them working for me, our battle against Haurias would definitely be easier. We’re thankful that you even prepared a way to make them work under us.”

“I’m glad that you found it interesting.”

Viola said that with a bright smile, but Rogelt suddenly put some intimidation in his voice.

“So then, how much of it was your plan?”

Viola tilted her head and looked confused, but she looked rather exaggerating.

“What do you mean?”

“Don’t play fool with me. Even I at least know that you’re not a decent human. It’s your usual modus operandi to spread information that doesn’t seem connected to one another at a glance in order to manipulate the situation for your own benefit, right?”

“That’s a big misunderstanding. It’s just that those people who bought information from me made a blunder and pinned the blame on me. They’re really giving me a lot of trouble.”

“Misunderstanding?”

Rogelt snorted.

“The method to control these Katsuya and Akira that you offered is basically taking hostage the girls they love. It’s all good up to there, they’re guys, after all. It’s not strange for them to go that far for the girls they love.”

The other two pictures on the table were of Alna and Sheryl. According to Viola, Akira was emotionally invested in Sheryl, whereas Katsuya was in Alna.

“But, I highly doubt that everything is a coincidence.”

Rogelt started questioning Viola. He was suspicious about the information she brought in, it was hard for him to believe that it was all out of pure coincidence.

It took an unnaturally short time for people to misunderstand that Sheryl’s relic shop was selling expensive relics, and the robbers even misjudged Akira to be a small fry. Sheryl wanted to take her chance with her relics shop, so she wanted to eventually reopen it, but now that Akira was going to return back to his Hunter work, she needed other people to guard her shop. If Sheryl joined Ezont Family, she could have the gang guard her shop, and Rogelt would be able to use Akira through Sheryl. After all, Akira was so invested in Sheryl to the point that he had bought an expensive dress for her and made her the boss of a gang.

As for Katsuya, he seemed to be abnormally interested in Alna who should have been just a common pickpocket. He even used the power of Drankam to protect Alna who was being hunted by Akira, but of course, that could not stay for long. If the Ezont Family gave shelter to Alna, they could make a deal with Katsuya, or if they took Alna hostage, they could use it to control him.

With all of these things mixed together, Rogelt found himself in a situation where he could easily manipulate both Katsuya and Akira. But Rogelt could not ignore the feeling that someone was setting this up.

“I admit that the information from you is accurate. But, the reason why those robbers aimed for Sheryl’s shop as well as them mistaking that Akira as a weak Hunter, they’re all because of the information that you spread. You manipulated them into attacking Sheryl’s shop, didn’t you?”

“It’s just a coincidence. Another relic shop asked me to gather information about Sheryl’s shop, and Shijima asked me to check Akira’s real strength. So it’s not like I did that because I wanted to.”

“Then, how do you know that Alna is staying in one of the Drankam’s mansion when it should be restricted only to Drankam members? And why have you even made some preparations to get her kicked out from there?”

“There are people inside Drankam who don’t want Katsuya to get involved with a pickpocket from the slum for the sake of keeping their reputation with their sponsors in the inner wall. You should be able to at least guess that much, right?”

“…If Akira is really as strong as you make him out to be, it’s strange that Alna could steal his wallet. If he’s really that strong, he should have been able to stop her. And even if it is because he was caught off-guard when that happened, he should still be able to get it back if Alna was somewhere near where he could still track her down. It’s also strange that Katsuya would go that far to protect that Alna. She’s just a stranger to him, right? And it’s not like Alna was wearing an expensive dress that might make people mistake her as a rich lady either. Not to mention that the person hunting for Alna is not just a common Hunter, Akira has even participated in hunting bounty monsters. Is this Katsuya really risking a fight against that Hunter just to help a mere lowly pickpocket? I know that he’s weak with girls, but it’s still unnatural, you know?”

“Even if you ask me so, I’m sure that there are times when Akira makes mistakes. His money might have gotten stolen because of that. As for that Katsuya, maybe he is just really kind and really weak to girls, you know. Even in the reports for Drankam’s sponsor from the inner wall, they are highly praising Katsuya for his kindness. I also heard that he has so many girls around him that people even mock his group as the harem squad. So he might just be someone who would casually risk his life for girls.”

Rogelt then continued pointing out contradictions and abnormalities in Viola’s story while checking for a reaction from her. But Viola always replied casually and calmly just like usual. Eventually, Rogelt ran out of materials and found himself with nothing more to say.

“…Seriously now, can you really say that you didn’t do anything else other than just gathering information?”

“If I really have to say something here, I just sent someone to check how far Katsuya would go for Alna to help me find a plan to get him to give up on her. I was also surprised when I found out that Katsuya would not give up Alna even after offering him 20 million Aurum, and when I was content that I could get some information on him, the people that I sent got killed, you know. Thanks to that, I can’t collect the rest of their debts, it was a huge loss. The reason why I came here to sell this information is to make up for that loss. And since you’re a reputable person, I agreed to give you the information first before you pay for it, right? I really hope that you would pay me a lot for it afterwards.”

Rogelt smiled wickedly.

“I don’t know about that. It’s true that it’s rather valuable information, but there are a lot of things that I can’t just accept. So I can’t really say if I would give you the amount of money that you’re hoping for…”

Viola looked rather surprised, she then smiled confidently.

“Oh my, are you really going to go that far? Geez, it can’t be helped then. It doesn’t feel right to demand money for information that you don’t find to your liking. Carol, let’s leave.”

Seeing how Viola was really about to leave, Rogelt suspiciously said.

“You sure you don’t need the money? You suffered a big loss, right? But you don’t seem desperate at all there.”

Viola smiled.

“But of course, it takes a lot of money to gather information, you know. That’s why, if you don’t take this offer, I think I’ll go bankrupt, so I’m planning to sell the same information to Haurias.”

Haurias was another gang that was more or less as powerful as Ezont Family and they were in a feud against each other. They were very close to starting a full-blown war for territories. If Haurias got the same information, they might get the upper hand against the Ezont family.

“Y-you fox!”

Rogelt could not help but to raise his voice in anger, his men behind him readied their rifles in reflex. But Carol already aimed her rifle at Rogelt faster than anyone present. Rogelt frowned and made a stern face as he signalled his men to lower their rifles.

Viola smiled at Rogelt and asked.

“So then, should I leave now?”

“…Alright.”

Rogelt seemed to have given up and took out his information terminal.

“There, I sent it. Go ahead and confirm it.”

Viola opened her information terminal and checked her bank account, she then lightly shook her head.

“That’s not enough.”

“What!? Are you kidding me!? Shouldn’t that be enough!?”

“That’s true if it’s just to pay for that information. But that’s not enough to stop me from selling that information to Haurias. And also, since you even made some extra work for Carol here, I’ll need to pay for her extra wage too. It’s your fault, so you have to pay for that too. So with all included, let’s see, you’ll need to pay me 50% more than what you just transferred.”

In contrast to Rogelt who looked pretty angry, Viola was smiling as if she just confirmed her victory.

“That’s your fault for doing something that you shouldn’t have back there. Or is it that you want me to demand more money?”

Rogelt clicked his tongue and sent the demanded amount of money.

“Yup, I’ve received it. Don’t worry, as an information broker, I won’t sell it to other places. I can promise you that.”

“…Humph, I bet that you made the same offers to the other people too. You won’t live for long, you know.”

“I’m already used to hearing that from other people, but for some reason, they always die first. So you better be careful, okay?”

Viola only left that threat and smiled wickedly before she left that place with Carol.

Rogelt immediately yelled at his men as if he was venting his anger.

“Get moving!! Now!”

While he saw his men flusteredly scurrying to get on with their jobs, he promised himself to vent his anger on Haurias first before venting it on Viola.

—*—*—*—

Akira finally finished choosing modification parts for his rifle with some help from Sara and Elena. Akira, who took a long time deciding which one to choose, was able to finish choosing relatively fast with the help from Elena and Sara. He even finished installing the modifications there. Now that his new rifle was modified to the point that he had to use special types of bullets, plus the modification parts too, he had to pay 60 million Aurum in total. Although he ended up spending a little more money than his original budget, he was satisfied with the result.

Akira packed everything he bought into his vehicle and thanked Shizuka, Elena and Sara who saw him off, especially to Shizuka.

“Thank you very much for everything.”

Shizuka noticed that Akira directed his thanks mostly at her, she then smiled and said.

“I’m a merchant after all. It’s my job to serve customers. If you want to thank someone, you should thank Elena and Sara. They helped you although they’re not obliged to do that.”

“That’s true. I’m sorry for taking your time.”

Akira lightly bowed to Sara and Elena. Elena noticed the same thing that Shizuka also noticed, but she didn’t show that on her face as she smiled at Akira and said.

“Don’t worry, it’s not like we have something else to do anyway, not to mention that you helped us a lot too in the past, we can at least help you that much.”

Sara also smiled as if to dispel something that was worrying her.

“Although I’m sure that they’ll work just fine, if you have any trouble with the parts that we picked for you, please tell us. I might have picked some parts based on my strength, you see. So the kickback might be rather strong, though I think it should be okay with that augmented suit.”

“I’m sure it’ll be okay, I’ll take my leave then.”

Akira hopped onto his vehicle and left the shop. Elena and Sara were lightly waving at Akira as he drove off, but the moment Akira was no longer in their views, their expression turned stern.

Elena understood that Shizuka interjected back then for their sake.

“Did we say something that we shouldn’t have back there? Shizuka, what do you think would have happened if I went and told Akira that we wanted him to stop hunting for that pickpocket no matter what?”

“I think he’ll really stop hunting for that pickpocket for real. But in exchange for that, I bet he’ll stop maintaining the close relationship that he has with both of you until now. In the worst-case scenario, he might even cut any relationship with both of you…”

The word ‘severance money’ came up in the back of Elena’s mind. That time, if she had told Akira that she wanted him to stop no matter what, Akira would have really stopped hunting for that Alna. But she would have had to pay it with the relationship that they had built up until now as the severance money. Considering that Shizuka even interjected there, Elena thought that her guess might as well be true.

Elena tried to remember what she had said while making a grim face. But she could not think that she said anything that bad.

“Did I say something that really angered him…? Sara, I’m sorry, it seems that I really soured our relationship with Akira because of something I said.”

Sara looked rather dispirited as she shook her head.

“It’s not your fault. I didn’t notice that I said something pretty bad back there as well.”

Sara lightly sighed.

“…If you hadn’t cut in, our relationship with Akira might have ended then and there. Shizuka, thank you, you really saved us.”

Sara smiled and thanked Shizuka, but this time, it was Shizuka who made a stern face.