## Chapter 251 – Counterattack (2)
Another peaceful day in the back alley.
Of course, if you ask if it’s just quiet and calm, I’d have to say no.
“Hahaha!! Drink up, drink up!!
Hey!! Another drink here!!”
“Keuhat!! Hahaha!! I won!! I won!!”
“Damn it!! Lost again?
Is that dice rigged?”
“You brought it, you idiot!!”
Isn’t it the same everywhere people live?
Even if there are good people, it doesn’t mean there aren’t bad ones, and vice versa.
“Kyaa!! I’m sorry!!”
“Ughhh!!”
“Aha ha ha!! Taking a bath in alcohol.
What a luxurious guy!!”
“Ugh… It’s wet…
Free bath is welcome, though.”
Of course, it’s mostly filled with lowlifes, but this is also a place where you can feel the human touch.
That’s why this place keeps going in its own way, isn’t it?
So, it was only natural that those responsible for the evil axis also existed in this back alley.
They were the Cartel, the so-called illegal organizations of the back alley.
According to the Kingdom Law of Groden, commoners basically had to obtain royal permission to establish and operate any organization.
For example, even an organization like a vigilante group for maintaining security had to be reported as an organization before anything else, because it was a group wielding force.
Of course, this was partly to prevent commoners from conspiring or rebelling, but the main purpose was to monitor the element that moves when people gather, namely, the economy.
According to the Kingdom Law, which examines organizations and levies taxes accordingly, or even provides benefits in reverse, the Cartels were also treated as profit-seeking groups, and originally they should have been thoroughly reported and taxed according to their profits.
But in the vast back alley, Cartels that didn’t follow such laws were bound to be swarming.
Even in a good place to live like the original world, there are so many people who embezzle taxes, so how could this place, where people live the same way, be any different?
“Cheap, cheap!! ‘Directly imported’ Mogyakdan from Chaoxing!!”
“Whisper, whisper… So, please do me a favor…”
“But the payment might be a little short for the content…
If you add 50 nyang, I’ll take care of it for you for sure.”
There were also many people who wanted dangerous items that were hard to find even with money, and people who wanted someone to do things that were not easy for them to do.
Therefore, the back alley was providing supplies to meet the demand for mostly illegal and dirty work, as much as it could.
Rather, in this world where prostitutes are not illegal, running a brothel is considered good compared to serious crimes such as drugs, gang fights, and contract killings.
As a practical example, Laratina herself was a madam of a brothel, yet she was a somewhat famous person who frequented high society.
In the end, the complete eradication of the back alley is practically impossible.
The general opinion of the back alley was that it was better to find some useful aspects and coexist with these people, rather than completely rejecting them.
Sometimes, depending on who the person in the Cartel was, there were many things to gain by getting close to them.
Their illegal activities sometimes had negative effects such as murder and robbery, but conversely, they also had positive effects such as protecting the residents of their area and revitalizing the area’s economy through their businesses.
Moreover, as mentioned before, in order to completely destroy one Cartel, you had to put in a tremendous amount of effort to search the vast back alley like you’re catching lice.
But what if there were not just one or two such Cartels, and they kept popping up again as soon as they disappeared?
It was a problem with such a high level of eradication difficulty that it was like burning down the whole house to catch a flea, so you wouldn’t even feel motivated to do it in the first place.
In most cases, rather than trying to catch the entire Cartel, it ended with punishing those who were found and arrested at the crime scene.
Of course, there were always some who strived for the complete eradication of evil even in the midst of all this.
It was dark even in the daytime because the sunlight didn’t reach, and now that it was evening, it was so dark that you wondered if you could even see in front of you.
It was raining, so even though it was a relatively warm season, there was a man walking while shivering from the cold sensation.
“Ugh… It’s chilly…”
The man, who was walking through the alley in a familiar way, soon stopped in a corner of the alley and groped around with his hands to find the doorknob located there.
Soon, the door opened, and the light of the oil lamp leaked through the crack in the door, then disappeared again as the door closed.
“You’re late.”
“Do you think I’m not busy?
Aren’t I busy finding out the information you wanted?”
The man who opened the door and came in grumbled and pulled down the hood of the cloak he was wearing.
Then, the bald head with only a few strands of hair left was revealed, catching the eye.
The rugged wrinkles, as if he was very angry, were distorted, and a nagging voice echoed in the house.
“But even if we’re good at finding people, it’s still difficult to ask us to find someone with just this kind of information.
Why would someone who knows so much do this?”
In front of him was a table with a small oil lamp lighting up the room, and a woman sitting in a chair in front of it, quietly opening her mouth.
“The results?”
“Can’t we take it easy?
Now that it’s like this, let’s enjoy it slowly…”
At the woman’s voice urging for the results, the man relaxed his stiff face and smirked, subtly approaching the woman.
The man put his arm around the woman sitting in the chair, and just as he was about to reach out towards the cleavage that was subtly prominent from the chest of her dress.
“Execution.”
“Tch. Still no fun.”
In the end, the man whimpered and took his hand off her, and began to take out parchment from his arms and spread it out on the table.
“The investigation results are here.
First of all, to put it in a word, it’s a wild goose chase.
It’s not like there are only one or two blue-haired and blonde-haired people in this world.
You’re not looking for something like the butcher’s daughter and the seamstress’s daughter who are close to each other, are you?”
“Hmm…”
At the man’s sullen words, the woman made a humming sound instead of answering.
The material in front of her was very detailed, so she couldn’t rashly doubt the skills of the man who was famous in this field and had skills, so she was cooperating.
“If she’s so skilled that she can beat you up…
Maybe she’s making a name for herself somewhere in the back alley……?”
There’s no blue-haired and blonde-haired combo among people who are famous for that kind of thing.
Cartels, assassin groups, even female mercenaries from the front lines.
You have no idea how hard I worked to contact the front lines… Tch…”
In the end, the man pulled a chair opposite the woman and sat down, picking up one of the documents on the table and reading it roughly as he continued to speak.
“The result of gathering even what I didn’t have is this.
First of all, even among ordinary civilians, there are blue-haired and blonde-haired people who seem to be close to each other.
Well, this is the best I can do for the ‘requested content’.”
“Sounds like there’s more to it?”
“I was asked about that traffic light combo, right?
From now on, it’s a story outside of the requested content. Then, I’ll be on my way.”
As the man got up from his seat as if he was going out again and put on the hood of his cloak, the woman got up from her seat and grabbed his sleeve, glaring at him.
“You should have said so sooner. If your mind is empty, it will interfere with your work, won’t it?
And if you receive an unexpected gift, you might want to work harder.”
At the woman’s appearance, frowning as if she didn’t like it and pulling down a layer of her outerwear, the man smirked and began to caress her body, which was even more exposed.
The man’s actions of fondling the woman’s chest, which was as soft as a water balloon, over her clothes, and licking her neck.
The woman’s expression, which was close to expressionless and yet showed a flushed atmosphere as if she felt disgusted by the man’s actions, was a sight that would be felt as a reward to some people.
Then, the very moment his hand was located on the woman’s crotch and he was about to pull up the dress that was in the way.
“You’re really killing me.”
“You’re really stubborn…
But I had a good experience, so I’ll pay you the value of my chest.
I’m the man who touched Deborah’s chest. It’s a lifetime of drinking snacks.”
“Kill…”
“Geez…!! I got it…!!”
At Deborah’s urging, the woman who seemed to be running out of patience, the man reluctantly took out another parchment from his arms with a troubled expression.
“There are some guys called the Swallow Faction among the rising new forces these days.
They’re called a rising new force, but they’ve been around since the beginning.
But those guys have been gradually expanding their business lately.
Originally, they were running male brothels and stealing money from women’s pockets.”
“So, what’s the point?”
“Take a look at this.”
“Blue… Slaughtering Hee……?”
“I don’t know about the blonde, but this woman has blue hair.
I’ve visited Floras, and this is the first time I’ve seen such a charismatic madam since Laratina.
Since this woman appeared, the Swallow Faction’s brothel has started to thrive.
They’ve almost quit male prostitution, and they’re steadily increasing the number of prostitutes like ordinary brothels, and the scale is slowly growing.”
“So, what does that have to do with anything?”
“There was a time when another Cartel caused a ruckus with a turf war and stormed into the Swallow Faction’s brothel.
There’s a rumor that this woman single-handedly annihilated seventeen strong men from the rival Cartel, as naturally as breathing, without a single wound.
So maybe she’s the blue-haired woman you’re talking about.”
But the man knew that rumors were usually like that.
The man’s words, slightly raising both hands above his shoulders as if he didn’t know well, and continuing to make excuses as if he was laying down insurance.
At his words adding that he couldn’t guarantee it, Deborah’s cold eyes became sharp.
“To be honest, it could be an unreliable rumor.
The madam of a small brothel is sometimes ignored.
It could be just a rumor spread to look fierce so as not to be ignored.
Isn’t it a tough world for a woman to do anything?
I don’t know the details, so please make your own judgment.”
“The information fee is here. Then I’ll go.”
“Hehe!! If you have time, even a cozy moment…”
– Bang
Behind the sound of the door closing as if it would break, the man, who was standing with his hand outstretched in an awkward posture, sighed and began to organize the parchments left on the table.
Information is an asset in itself, so the remaining information can be used again someday.
“Come to think of it, was there a crazy blonde…?
I think there was also a woman who beat up troublemakers…
Well, drunkards can beat up the kids next door, so it probably doesn’t matter.”
Tilting his head and hugging the parchments in his arms, the man’s lips already had a swollen dream of having a drink with the information fee he received.
