Chapter 178: Hunters Who Stood Out (1/2)

With the destruction of the two reigning gangs, a large chunk of slum city was immediately thrown into a vacuum of power.  Bosses of medium-sized to small-sized gangs gathered together to discuss that very matter right now. Their main focus was what to do with the territory left by the two destroyed gangs.

Of course, they could not afford to use military power to fight for that territory. But in order to keep their right over that territory, they could not afford to just back out either. Thanks to that, they could not come to a consensus even after a long and difficult discussion.

But if they kept this up without coming to any kind of conclusion anytime soon, the City Management might decide to just burn down that territory. After all, there was already a rumour spreading around saying that the mansion itself was occupied by monsters. With the time going against them, the members of that discussion could not afford to keep dilly-dallying, and the sense of pressure caused them to slowly compromise, although, it was still not enough for them to come to a consensus yet.

“Geez, let’s just decide on something. Just split that territory equally to the gangs neighbouring it, isn’t that good enough?”

“Heck no! If we go with that method, you’ll get a huge chunk of that territory. Even my gang had also lent those two gangs a lot of money and we can’t retrieve them back now. I won’t accept it unless we get enough territory to compensate for that amount.”

“Breaking that territory into pieces will only cause more trouble later.”

“Even the bases and the buildings are pretty valuable for us. Hunters might have no interest in them, but we can use them to earn more money. I’m sure you guys want them too. If we keep bickering like this, the City Management will burn them sooner or later, you know?”

“If you take the base, the area around the base will automatically become yours too. So how are you going to split that? I bet you’re planning to take that base for yourself, right? Like hell I will just let you do that!”

The bosses of each gang were debating and bickering for the sake of their own profit, loss, pride, greed, and standings. If any of them backed down, it would cause them more trouble later down the line. But if any of them forced through their own desires in this situation, it would be the same as picking a fight against the rest of the other gangs. The discussion went back and forth without making any meaningful progress.

Then one of the bosses from a medium-sized gang, who didn’t want this to go on forever, made a suggestion.

“If we only divide the territory among the gangs which participated in that battle, that would be the remnants of Ezont Family and Haurias, and that newcomer. But with no one from the Haurias nor Ezont Family here, that means everything will go to that newcomer. If we go with that method, I want to at least listen to the newcomer’s opinion first.”

Everyone in that room turned to the newcomer, and that newcomer was Sheryl.

Sheryl had come to that place with Viola and Carol. Viola and Carol stood behind Sheryl’s seat as if they were officers under Sheryl’s gang.

As the bosses from the other gangs directed their gazes at Sheryl as if they were trying to send a telepathic message to her, Sheryl just smiled and said.

“In that case, would it be okay if I take everything?”

No one expected Sheryl to say something as preposterous as that, half of the people there looked at her with widened eyes as they froze in place. The silence slowly shifted into whispers, and then whispers into chatters. While they were mumbling about those unexpected words from Sheryl, one of them shouted.

“Everything?! Are you kidding me?!”

Sheryl did not wince back at all, she only looked back at that guy with her usual smile and replied.

“I see, in that case, how much of that territory may I take?”

“W-well, even if you ask me…”

If that guy said a concrete number there, the other bosses would definitely turn at him. As he was unable to say anything, another guy interjected.

“Even if you take everything, there’s no way you can manage the whole territory all by yourself anyway. Use common sense here, will you?”

“You’re indeed right. Shijima-san, I’ll leave the territory that I get to you, so will you please manage them for us? If yes, then I’ll only take the territory that Shijima-san can manage, is that good enough for everyone? Shijima-san, we can talk about the details like how are we going to split the profit and the cost for maintaining that territory later.”

Although Shijima was already surprised when Sheryl suddenly brought up his name, he was even more shocked by her suggestion. With everyone’s attention focused on him, Shijima felt slightly overwhelmed, but of course, he did not show any of that on the outside.

One of the bosses there calculated how big the area that Shijima’s gang could manage with their current power, and his face turned grim as he realized that there was a good chance another gang would try to wrestle that territory from Shijima later if they did that.

“Wait a sec. Why did you suddenly say that? Or more like, why Shijima? If you need someone else to manage that territory, you can pick any other gang, right? Did you guys make some kind of agreement beforehand or something?”

“Not exactly. But during the discussion with Akira from the other day, we promised him to get along with Shijima-san’s gang and he hasn’t told me to abandon that agreement either.”

The moment Sheryl brought up Akira’s name, all the gang bosses there showed various reactions– fear, alert, interest, doubt, mockery–all of them had different reactions to Akira’s name.

One of them who looked down at Akira raised his voice and questioned Akira’s real strength while wording it out as if he was asking for others’ agreement.

“Akira, huh? He’s that Hunter supporting your gang, right? I’ve heard about him too. In the first place, I don’t know how much the rumour that I heard about him is true. Don’t take me wrongly though, I’m not saying that he’s weak or anything. But I bet those rumours have something to do with that girl behind you.”

Everyone looked at Viola. Although only some of them were obviously suspecting Viola, everyone could agree that the chance of her involvement was not zero.

Viola had her usual provocative smile as she pulled out her information terminal and operated it. Immediately afterwards, a notification reached the information terminal of the other people in that place. Since it was obvious that it was from Viola, everyone checked their information terminal and noticed that it was a video file.

The moment they played that video, everyone was dumbstruck. It was a video of Akira fighting a black powered suit. Murmurs started to ripple as they expressed their impression of that video.

“Damn, what the heck is wrong with this boy…”

“This guy fought a powered suit with nothing more than his body, huh? Wait, no, he’s using an augmented suit, but still…”

“Wait for a sec here, he’s winning? Are you kidding me…?”

The video was like a collage of multiple short shots, but it was enough as proof that Akira was a real maniac.

One of the bosses there could not hide his shock as he asked Viola.

“Can you prove that this video is not fake? For all that we know, you might have faked this video.”

Viola smiled at him as if to mock him and challenge him.

“If you can’t trust me, you can try to investigate it yourself. Although it’s a confidential video, it’s not a huge secret. So you should be able to get the same video with a little effort, you know?”

The guy who asked that question was convinced that it was not a fake video from that exchange. Or at least, he understood that the City Management even trusted that video too. Although he was not that convinced compared to the other people present, it was enough to shut him up.

Another guy then turned to Sheryl again, he still was not able to fully recover from the shock as he said to her.

“…Leaving that Hunter aside, I still think it’s too much for you to ask everything, no?”

Sheryl could not fully hold back her smile.

“True, but I have no reason to refuse that proposition either. Not to mention, I have some debts that I have to pay Akira too. So if I can take the whole territory, I’m planning to turn some of them into money. After I formally receive that territory, I’m thinking of selling some of them to the other gangs. After all, I did something similar with Shijima-san before.”

“Debt, huh. How much is it exactly?”

“About 4 billion Aurum.”

Murmur rippled through the room again.

“…4 Billion? Is this some kind of joke?”

“I can assure you that it’s not. The one who calculated that debt is Viola.”

After Sheryl said that, everyone sent a hostile gaze to Viola. Viola only smiled back at everyone in response to that. Judging from that reaction, everyone had the same thought, Viola must have done something dirty to get Sheryl into that debt.

One of the guys there had a really troubled look, he was surprised by the difference between the information that he had gathered beforehand and the information that he received just now. But even so, he still tried his hardest to think of a way to make this occasion into a profitable one for his gang.

Akira was strong enough to fight a powered suit and was invested enough in Sheryl that he would go to rescue her himself. Then to top it off, he was crazy enough to raid one of the biggest gang’s base just to kill a pickpocket. This opportunity was basically a good chance for Akira to get back the 4 billion Aurum that he had lent to Sheryl. So considering how much animosity they would earn from Akira if they tried to contest for that territory and preventing Sheryl from paying back her debt, it might be not a wise thing to be greedy, at least not for now.

After he made up his mind, he decided to change his method of trying to get his hands on that territory.

“I’m fine with it if you want to let the other gangs take care of that territory, but it doesn’t have to be Shijima, right? Though you said you want to get along well with Shijima’s gang, to be honest, I don’t think you can get much profit from that, am I wrong?”

“Well, that’s true.”

“Thought so!”

That guy smiled and glanced at the bosses from the other gangs that his gang was going along relatively well with. All of them immediately gave their approval when he did that. Thus an alliance was formed in order to take a part of that territory management right from Shijima’s gang.

“…In that case-”

When that guy was about to continue, Sheryl interrupted him while making a troubled face.

“But again, other than Shijima-san, I know no one else who has negotiated with Akira, forced him to compromise, and even made him pay up some money.”

Everyone present immediately turned to Shijima. Shijima was barely able to maintain his calm. With him unable to say anything back, he noticed that some of them were obviously misunderstanding him there, so he just looked away to evade that subject. But Sheryl continued.

“Ah, but I don’t mind if any of you want to discuss it with Shijima-san to manage that territory with him. That way we’ll be able to manage a wider area after all. So I would be more than happy if any of you want to do that.”

Everyone exchanged looks with each other. Though a few more people were swayed, it was not enough to conclude their discussion.

“…Let’s take a short break here.”

“…Good idea.”

Since no one objected, they took a short break from the discussion as they started leaving the meeting room. But of course, no one was actually taking a break, they only left the room since they wanted to discuss something that they could not discuss there.

Shijima was the first one to leave the room. He understood very well that it would be bad if the other gangs swamped him. He believed that he should take some distance from the other gangs for now and contact Viola, who he bet had her hands on this behind the scene.

Sheryl, Viola and Carol were the only ones left inside that room. Sheryl let out a long sigh, she looked rather tired. Viola was talking with Shijima through her information terminal not too far from Sheryl. Carol, who was also standing close to Sheryl, looked at her and smiled amusedly.

“Carol-san, is there anything wrong?”

“Hm? It’s nothing. I just thought that if Viola had a little sister, she would look just like you.”

“…Please stop with the jokes.”

Carol could not hold back her giggle seeing how Sheryl obviously hated that idea.