Chapter 166: Those Who Work Under The Shadows (1/2)

The battle between two large gangs—Ezont Family and Haurias—had, of course, affected the slum city. Sounds of gunshots filled the slums. Erio and the other children in the gang made use of the portable walls they got from Katsuragi to barricade themselves inside their base and were able to get through the night. But even so, it still caused a huge ruckus within the gang that Erio and Alicia were barely able to calm everyone down since they were officers in the gang, but everyone in the gang were still anxious even right now.

They were unable to contact neither Akira nor Sheryl, and that fact really caused chaos inside the gang. They went through the night reminded of just how large both Akira and Sheryl’s presence was inside the gang.

It was then that Akira and Sheryl suddenly appeared. Akira was weirded out at how big the welcoming cheer was, as the children gathered around him. Sheryl tried her best to calm everyone down to no avail.

Akira was planning to head straight back home after getting Sheryl back to her base. But Sheryl thought that it would cause even more chaos inside the gang if Akira left, so she asked him to stay for the night. She then told the supervisors to give her their reports of what had happened while she was gone.

The other children had a lot of questions they wanted to ask Sheryl, but after she reprimanded them, and looking at how Akira was slightly annoyed by the ruckus, they regained some of their composure and eventually returned to their respective jobs.

“Sheryl, couldn’t you at least contact these guys?”

“Carol-san told me not to. She said that since the request from you was to get me to safety, it was just to be safe in case someone else other than you used that call to locate me. Of course, I tried to call you too, but I wasn’t able to. “

“Sorry about that, I was a bit preoccupied during that time.”

Akira felt bad saying that he was so tired that he slept for the whole day, so he came up with another excuse. But that was no lie, he was indeed rather busy after leaving Sheryl to Carol.

“Please don’t be, I’m really happy that you came to rescue me… And also, uhhh, about Viola, thank you for making her help run the gang.”

Sheryl tried her best not to show her insecurity or displeasure on her face.

At the moment, Sheryl’s gang had not given any benefit to Akira. It did not even have the prospect of giving any profit to him. Sheryl herself understood that very well. That was why, if Akira told her that Viola would lead the gang in order to turn the gang profitable for him, then she could not refuse.

Sheryl could no longer live without Akira. So in order not to get abandoned by him, she planned to do everything she could to make the gang useful to him. She felt really insecure about the matter regarding Viola.

Akira then spoke to Sheryl with a rather serious face.

“Ahh, by the way, I’m sorry for asking you this after deciding it without even consulting with you, but, Sheryl, can you keep an eye on that Viola?”

“Keep an eye on her?”

“Yeah, tell me if she tries anything funny. I’m sure it’ll be easier to watch over her if she’s close. And also, if you don’t find her useful at all, you can go ahead and kill her. After all, that is the condition she accepted for sparing her life. If you find it hard to kill her, just tell me the reason why you need me to kill her and I’ll do it.”

“O-Okay!!”

“Hm? I’ll be relying on you for that one.”

Akira was a bit weirded out at how Sheryl replied with such vigour. But he did not think too much about it after that.

Sheryl was so elated that Akira actually had no plans to replace her position in the gang and she resolved herself not to disappoint him as she replied firmly to his request.

Alpha had another question that was different from Sheryl about Viola.

“Akira, are you sure that you’re okay with that matter in regards to Viola?”

“Eh? Do you think I should have killed her instead?”

Akira thought that Alpha was against it, so he was surprised when he heard that question. If Viola was telling the truth there, he would have a few billion Aurum bounty on his head. Although she might be exaggerating, it did not change the fact that a bounty would still be placed on his head. But if Viola was lying, Akira thought that Alpha should have caught that from Viola’s expression and told him about it.

“That was not what I meant, I just find it strange that you were rather lenient there. Compared to the matter with that pickpocket, you even raided into a big gang’s base just to kill her, right?”

“…Well, I did shoot her once with the intention to kill her. So, if that was not enough to keep her in check, I’ll think about something else when it comes to that.”

Akira believed that the reason why he spared Viola’s life was because he already felt better after he shot her once with the intention of killing her. Moreover, although he was manipulated by her, she did not do anything to directly kill him. But in truth, there was another reason why Akira spared her that he himself did not notice.

That reason was because Akira wanted to know if he could protect himself without increasing the body counts. He had always believed that if he spared his enemy, that person would definitely come for revenge later. Also, he was convinced that he was simply not strong enough to have the leeway to spare his opponents.

Akira wanted to find a way other than killing his opponent. Although it might be cheeky of him to have that desire, he could at least try.

Of course, it was a completely different matter whether his desire would come to fruition or not even if he tried.

—*—*—*—

Viola was lying on the hospital bed. Her wound was already treated, her life was no longer in danger. She should be fully recovered after a few days of resting on the hospital bed.

She was having a chat with Carol, who was sitting on a chair not too far from her. But Carol suddenly threw a question at her with a rather solemn expression.

“So then, Viola, what are you scheming this time?”

Viola frowned, she looked a bit offended.

“That was out of the blue.”

“You intentionally let Akira shoot you back then, didn’t you?”

Although Carol said that so casually, her tone was telling Viola that she was sure about it.

“I know you’re not that stupid, you knew well what would happen if you met him. You were the one who told me to go to your office with Sheryl, remember? Although you have many offices, that one has a hospital nearby and I know that you have an emergency kit and where to find it in that office. You intentionally said all of that in the first half of your negotiation with Akira, didn’t you? Had Akira aimed at your head back then, you would not have provoked him like that. You knew what I would do, that was why you let Akira shoot you. And by doing that, it would remove most of his grudge against you, right? Then with his grudge mostly gone, you can make an excuse to get involved in Sheryl’s gang saying that it would bring benefit for both Sheryl and Akira.”

Carol smiled rather ominously.

“In the first place, putting Akira and Sheryl aside, if you were planning to trick me too, you could have done something better than that, right? Or is it that you have dulled?”

Viola faked a surprise and smiled.

“You’re thinking too much. If you hadn’t saved me back then, I would have been dead by now.”

“I do think that you’re my friend, but let me tell you this, I don’t believe what you said there at all since I know you very well.”

Carol could easily tell that Viola was scheming something, but she could not tell what it was. Viola might actually be tricking her into thinking that she was scheming something. And if she tried to pursue her suspicion, she might find herself being manipulated by Viola without realizing it. After all, up until now, Carol had seen so many people fall for that trick up close.

Carol smiled smugly.

“Well, in the end, my potential customer did shoot you after you tried to mess with him, so I guess I’ll let that slide. Though I bet I would get shot because of that too.”

“I have no plans to do that though, but if you’re okay with that, then I won’t pursue this subject any further.”

Viola and Carol smiled at each other.

Someone suddenly knocked at the door. A few men came in without even waiting for a reply. Then the representative from that group showed his ID card and said.

“Viola Alhans, I presume? I’m Endou from Kugamayama city’s Long-term Strategy Department, Public Order Section. We have some questions regarding the huge battle yesterday.”

Endou’s men stood in front of the door as if to close Viola’s escape route. Seeing that, Viola sighed.

Carol then said to Endou.

“I have nothing to do with this though, so, can I leave?”

“Of course. In the first place, I would have asked you to leave since you’re not involved in this matter. Although it’s a simple investigation, the subject that we are going to discuss is not for the public’s ears.”

“I see, later then, Viola.”

“Oh my, that’s so cold of you.”

“You didn’t know?”

Viola said that as a joke, so Carol replied with a joke too. Carol left the room while lightly waved at Viola. Half of the men guarding the door also left the room together with Carol and guarded the door from outside.

Endou looked sharply at Viola and stood in front of her. Viola still had her usual calmness.

“So then, I just need to answer your questions, right?”

“That won’t be necessary, it was just an excuse to come here. Of course, I’ll forge a document for that too, but don’t worry, I’ll handle everything.”

“Then, why are you here?”

“I’m here to listen to your report.”

“There’s no need to come all the way here by yourself, you know? I can just send you the report later, right?”

“It’s an order from the guys in the upper echelon. Well, it’s no surprise since the battle was bigger than we expected and we heard that you got hospitalized soon after. Not to mention, we have also received a report saying that Drankam also went to check the place where that battle happened. So, we want to confirm the current situation as soon as possible.”

After he said all of that, Endou looked slightly exasperated as he said.

“But well, what can I say… To think that you can cause such a big battle just from a small rumour about a certain Hunter who got his wallet stolen by a pickpocket, you’re pretty good.”

Viola smiled smugly.

“That was nothing more than a trigger. A rather volatile boy, just like a landmine. So I would rather have you appreciate all the preparations that I’ve done to make sure that the fire would burn strongly.”

Kugamayama city usually did not bother much about the power distribution around the slum city which was next to its lower district. Even if a large battle occurred there and numerous people got killed, the City Management normally did not intervene at all.

But they could not ignore it if it had reached a certain scale. And that Ezont family and Haurias had grown too big and too strong for the City Management to ignore.

Both gangs had survived numerous conflicts, grew bigger, and attained enough money and military power to maintain the gang. To the point that their influence had even reached the commercial district in the lower district and had enough money to buy, arm, and even use powered suits. But it was all good up until that point. After all, rising high as an organization was a commendable thing even from the point of view of the Corporate Government that ruled the eastern district.

The problem was that their existence was disturbing the public order in the city. Their activities were against the law and they were doing illegal businesses. And with the rather barbaric people of the outer wall with powered suits living close to the inner wall, it was no surprise that it bothered the people from the inner wall. It would have been well and good if it increased the worth of living inside the inner wall, but unfortunately, they only lowered it. In the worst-case scenario, some people from the inner wall might even decide to move out because of them.

There were cases where such a strong organization worked together with the Nationalists. The Nationalists would then send that organization powerful augmented suits as well as sneak some of their agents in, and eventually enlist their help during a huge battle. Even if it did not go that far, buying powered suits from the Nationalists was enough to help the Nationalists to collect money. So their existence only caused worry for the people in the inner wall.

Once it reached that point, the City Management could not afford to just ignore them. Power-wise, the City Management could easily crush that kind of organization using the city’s defense squad, after all, that squad was prepared to even withstand a fight against ginormous monsters. An organization that just rose to power from the lower district was no match for that squad.

But the problem was the expense. Of course, dispatching the defense squad was no cheap thing. So if that kind of organization had become big enough trouble for the City Management to dispatch such a costly defense squad, they would look for the one who was responsible for not curbing it.

Because of that, the City Management was looking for a cheaper alternative, and that would be letting the gangs that were disturbing the public order in the city destroy each other. Of course, it would not come for free, but it was indeed cheaper than dispatching the defense squad.

So, Viola received that job from the City Management. Basically, it was outsourced to her.

Viola had manipulated various organizations and people to their own doom. Some of them were out of requests from the City Management. Such a track record earned her quite a reputation from the City Management’s point of view. Which in some cases, she was even feared for her skill.

Even the ruckus that happened recently between Ezont Family and Haurias was actually connected to the City Management, but there were only a handful of people in the City Management who knew that. So the people who sent that investigation request to Drankam were the City Management people who were unaware.

Of course, Endou was one of those who knew. But even he was listening to Viola’s report while feeling fear in his heart. After all, Viola had done some preposterous things to complete that request.

“…That aside, this might have nothing to do with this matter, but we lost 3 of our agents, do you know anything about them?”

“Is this a request to investigate from the City Management?”

“No, just a casual talk.”

“I see. Unlike in the inner wall, the lower district is a dangerous place. They might have done something stupid and got themselves involved in a fight or something.”

“Like what?”

“Let’s see. Maybe like boasting their connection with the City Management and trying to get their hands on a woman who is not interested in them. That kind of connection might be enough to help them seduce someone, but it is nowhere near enough as a threat, you know? And it seems that many people don’t understand that well enough, so there’s a good chance they got involved in a fight because of some stupid reason. I can really understand why the City Management spends money to make sure that Hunters behave well, it’s an important thing after all, right?”

Viola smiled as if she was hiding something. Seeing which Endou was barely able to keep his calm.