## Chapter 254 – Counterattack (5)
It was dawn when she finally managed to return home.
Her body was utterly exhausted, but she only had a single day.
Whatever they were planning, it was unlikely to happen openly during the day, so she had at least until the evening.
Even in the lawless back alleys, there was a tendency to avoid being too conspicuous.
‘Still, I can’t be sure what they’ll do… Find them. And… arrest them……’
She collapsed onto her bed without even changing her clothes, not waking up until around noon.
As soon as she woke up, she checked the time, startled, and rushed out of the house after a quick tidy-up. She soon found herself standing in the alley next to the brothel she had visited yesterday.
It was now well into the afternoon.
Although it was always open, many others would be working at this time, so there were bound to be few customers.
The brothel was quiet, with hardly any visitors.
Besides, something was happening today, so all the working girls would have been pulled out.
“Where… where are they……?”
They said they would do something today, so something might be happening right now.
“Tch… do I have to search…?”
She had too little information.
She had only overheard a very brief conversation.
Trying to deduce anything from a few passing words was incredibly difficult.
‘Our girls won’t be coming to work tomorrow.’
The informant had said that the brothel had started to thrive after she appeared.
The biggest change in the brothel was the appearance of the beastkin females, which must have been the key to its success.
That meant the ‘our girls’ the blue-haired woman was talking about were likely the beastkin females.
‘What could they do with beastkin females…?
Just to keep them from getting caught up in something?’
Even though beastkin were stronger than humans, a female was still a female.
As with most animals in nature, most of the beastkin’s combat power was concentrated in the males.
Compared to human women, beastkin females might be stronger, but they were often physically limited when facing beastkin males or human men.
This was why most beastkin used as slaves were females.
Even if they had a change of heart and rebelled, they could usually be easily subdued.
And human men, in particular, could be easily manipulated, making them perfect toys for men with sadistic tastes.
“I don’t know the target, the purpose, anything.
Then what is this for……?”
First, she needed to figure out their goal.
Unfortunately, she didn’t have time for additional surveillance.
All she could rely on was her intuition.
‘After this woman showed up, the JeBi-pa’s brothel started to thrive.
They almost quit the male prostitution, and like regular brothels, they’ve been steadily increasing the number of prostitutes, and the scale has grown quite a bit.’
“The brothel’s scale has grown……?”
Remembering what she had heard from the informant a few days ago, she began to think about the usual back alley ecosystem.
‘If you’re happy with a small business, you can just trade moderately within your own area.
But if you want to grow bigger, the surrounding cartels that get in the way become obstacles…’
“Could it be……”
There were five minor cartels near the JeBi-pa.
To be precise, four minor cartels and one mid-sized cartel.
“Scarive, Hohenbier… Stangkaph, Terra…
And…… Parlocchino……”
Were they planning to take out the surrounding cartels?
But there was something the blue-haired woman didn’t seem to know.
“It’s not a scale you can handle alone……”
Even if the blue-haired woman was rumored to be skilled enough to take down 17 men on her own, the cartels didn’t get their notoriety for nothing.
They were made up of numerous organized members and connections.
And sometimes, they had overwhelming, barbaric firepower based on sheer numbers.
Besides, the moment you stepped on one, the surrounding cartels would react organically, and you could end up fighting several cartels at once.
Especially the mid-sized cartel, Sir Parlocchino’s cartel, which was based on a small group of elite, overwhelming talents.
‘Was I overreacting…?’
If the blue-haired woman wasn’t an idiot, there was no way she would do something so stupid.
Maybe they were really just going on a group vacation.
With a lingering look, Deborah turned and walked away, heading towards the ‘Scarive’ cartel’s territory, even though she thought it was unlikely.
“Ugh… save… save me……”
“What… what are you doing…… Keuk…”
But by the time she arrived, the building and surrounding streets, which were presumed to be their hideout, were completely wrecked.
Judging from the injured thugs lying around, it seemed like a surprise attack.
‘Really… from this early in the day……?’
“Hey…!! Hey!! What’s going on…!!
Tell me!! Who did this?”
Deborah rushed to one of the thugs lying on the ground and lifted him up.
“Keuheok… what… Keuek…!!
De… Deborah……!!”
“I’m asking you now!!
Who did this…!!”
The man, who seemed to recognize Deborah from his time in the back alleys, looked panicked and struggled, but she didn’t care and urgently pressed him for answers.
“Be… beastkin… bitches…!!”
“What… did you say……?”
“They suddenly showed up… and we got ambushed…!!”
The Scarive cartel, which seemed to have been ambushed in a blitzkrieg, showed no signs of life other than the injured.
They hadn’t killed them, just inflicted enough injuries to incapacitate them.
Even if they were beastkin females, if they were in a group and ambushed, it wasn’t impossible.
Deborah stood up and quickly drew her sword, rushing into the hideout.
“I’ll arrest you…!! Ugh…”
The inside of the hideout was no different from the outside.
Among the injured lying on the floor, the only dead person Deborah found was Kalkis, the boss of the Scarive cartel.
“I… can’t arrest him now.”
Perhaps he had been with a woman from this early in the day, because in the corner of the room where Kalkis was found, a human woman was wrapped in a blanket, trembling and crying.
Seeing the blood splattered on her face, Deborah roughly guessed what had happened, put her sword back in its sheath, and ran back out of the hideout.
She had already confirmed while searching that neither the blue-haired human woman nor the beastkin females were inside.
“Tch… am I too late…
To move from this early in the day…
Clearly… there’s not enough time left to start from the evening……
The plan isn’t over yet.”
But there were still options.
The fact that they were no longer in this hideout meant that they hadn’t yet taken the steps to completely conquer and absorb this cartel.
“If they were going to be satisfied here, they would have cleaned up this scene first.
So… are they planning to ambush the other cartels as well…?”
If Scarive was hit, that left Hohenbier, Stangkaph, and Terra.
However, Deborah didn’t know that Terra, which had destroyed Luna while attacking the surrounding cartels, had been quietly destroyed by Parlocchino because the information hadn’t been updated yet.
‘Hohenbier…? Stangkaph…? Which one is it this time……?’
Either way, Deborah was already one step behind.
That meant that unless she could somehow get ahead of them before they did anything more, her actions would be meaningless.
‘Now… the fact that Scarive was attacked must have been known somehow.’
The remaining Hohenbier, Stangkaph, and Terra would somehow prepare, but if they could do this much damage with a surprise attack, they would definitely take some damage even if they were prepared.
“If I move quickly, I can manage to intervene.”
She had lost last time because she was ambushed in an unexpected situation, but she was confident that she wouldn’t lose in a head-on fight, or if she ambushed them, so she decided against asking for support.
Of course, it would be easier if support came, but it would be less conspicuous to move quietly on her own.
Deborah left Scarive’s hideout again and started running down the alley, climbing over walls and running along railings and low roofs for a perfect ambush.
Hohenbier was the closest to Scarive in terms of distance.
They were likely already under attack from the blue-haired woman.
It was highly likely that she would be too late when she arrived.
So, to get ahead, what she needed to aim for this time was…
‘Stangkaph… it’s not there yet…’
But as she ran, thinking about various things, there was one thing she overlooked: the members of the cartels were barbaric fighters.
“Die!!”
As soon as she arrived at an alley, a man jumped out from the corner and swung a heavy club at her.
Deborah could tell that the news of the Scarive cartel had already reached this far.
“Stop…!! I’m…!!”
The moment she tried to reveal her identity, she suddenly realized that there was no need to reveal that Deborah was here.
“Found her!! This way!!”
“It’s an ambush!! Check that way first!!”
Amid the voices of excitement at the discovery of the enemy, Deborah, dodging the club of the man she had encountered, struck his neck with the hilt of her sword and knocked him unconscious, hiding in a secluded alley.
She frowned slightly at the current situation, where she had properly drawn aggro, and pulled her hood down even further.
“This is a mess… I’ve made a mess of things……”
“It’s a suspicious person!!
That way!! That way!!”
In the meantime, someone who had found her at the end of the alley shouted and ran towards her, so she, dressed in a suspicious, tightly wrapped cloak, calmly ran to the other side and dodged.
She didn’t want to waste her strength fighting the cartel thugs, so she only lightly cut the arms and legs of the persistently clinging Stangkaph thugs to incapacitate them as she retreated.
Deborah clicked her tongue as she saw the foolish thugs who had started to pop out from here and there because she had properly drawn aggro.
As she ran like the wind, she faced the end of the alley where she was standing.
There, as if she had become one with the sky, was the woman with the lush, blue hair fluttering in the wind.
She had a truly arrogant smile, as if the world was her own home.
She and everyone else were surrounded by a thin membrane, revealing their bodies as if they had been born that way.
The clothing, if it could be called that, didn’t seem to serve the purpose of covering the body, and the attire, which was culturally and morally too lewd, was stained with faint bloodstains in places.
‘Judging by the time…
They shouldn’t be here yet…?’
They had finished too quickly to have hit Hohenbier, and it was strangely late to say that their next target was Stangkaph, as she had arrived first.
At that moment, the blue-haired woman, the only one surrounded by a black membrane while everyone else was surrounded by a blue membrane, spoke.
“Why don’t you move?
Unless you want to get caught up in this.
We’re busy, you know?”
But listening to her relaxed voice, Deborah couldn’t help but guess that they had already destroyed Hohenbier as well.
Behind her, the beastkin females, each with their own unique charm, were smiling seductively and narrowing their eyes, each with their own unique charm.
The beastkin females, who were licking their sharp claws and making expectant expressions, reminiscent of the shallow wounds of the Scarive thugs she had just passed, were giggling and following the blue-haired woman, as if they were very pleased with today’s work.
The woman passed by her with only a word, and a subtle, sweet scent flowed from her body.
It reminded her of a fragment of the past that she couldn’t see with her face covered.
The memory of being slammed into the wall with great force, the pieces of the puzzle gradually fitting together.
Deborah turned to look at her, who had passed by without recognizing her because she had covered her face with the hood of her cloak, and narrowed her eyes, calmly taking in her appearance for a moment.
“I found you……
The culprit……”
