Chapter 78

The church festival events would apparently begin three days from now and continue for about a week.

The invitation to the banquet from the Bax Company was only for tomorrow night, but Iiria was, however imperfectly, a person who sat in the lord’s seat, and perhaps because we had borrowed the church’s ship this time, she had also been invited to the church’s events.

That meant various social obligations would come along with it, and one way or another, Kururu would be dragged along as her attendant too, so her free time would probably be surprisingly limited.

So while we had time now, we decided to finish our work.

Among those jobs, the important one was rescuing the girls who had become unable to stay on the island because of Nodon.

“We open after the evening bell rings.”

When we opened the door and went inside, a strong fragrance similar to the tobacco Gerario smoked struck my nose.

The place whose location we had asked Ostro about and come to was the largest brothel in Roran.

“We didn’t come to buy women.”

When Kururu said that, the plump brothel madam narrowed only one eye.

“What, did you come to work here?”

Even with her cloak hiding the outline of her body, she seemed to immediately realize that Kururu was a girl.

Kururu ignored her and placed the pouch we had prepared beforehand in front of the madam.

“There’s something I want to ask.”

In old pleasure quarters, apparently the madams who ran the houses were called old hags with pull, and this madam, who suited exactly such a name, snorted through her nose.

“I wondered what kind of countryside coins these were… but they’re imperial gold coins. What do you want to ask? The whereabouts of your older sister or younger sister?”

She understood quickly. Or rather, in a world where selling oneself was commonplace, people searching for others like this were probably common too.

“The location of the girls who came from Jirenu Territory.”

The madam raised her eyebrows and shrugged her thick shoulders.

“We don’t deal in country girls here. Besides, they were touched by those dull merchant types… what were they called? Right, Nodon. Those people, weren’t they? You came to the wrong shop.”

Nodon’s name was remembered even in a place like this.

If he was the owner of a company making profits equivalent to one or two billion yen in my previous world, then he certainly might have been able to indulge in that much pleasure.

“So you don’t know?”

At Kururu’s chilling words, the madam did not flinch in the slightest. It was as though she were used to receiving resentful glares from girls.

However, when I saw Kururu’s hand reaching into her robe, I tensed up all at once.

Please don’t use magic!

“I didn’t say I don’t know. Besides, I like those eyes.”

“…Huh?”

“If you worked here, you’d become popular right away. Strong-willed, devoted girls are worth tormenting, after all.”

“…”

Kururu looked as disgusted as a person could possibly look, but the poison was somewhat drawn out of her, and she moved her hand away from her robe, letting me feel relieved too.

“To tell you the truth, the political upheaval in Jirenu Territory is a bit of a headache for us too.”

“What do you mean?”

The madam beckoned Kururu over and whispered in her ear.

“Our shop’s main customers are the great masters of large companies and workshops, so we can’t hire country girls who were made to serve country merchants. But that’s more or less the same even for shops a little lower in rank. Country girls are somehow gloomy, so they don’t become popular.”

The short-tempered Kururu glared at her as if telling her to get to the point.

“In short, even if girls who can no longer earn in Jirenu Territory come to this town, the only places that’ll hire them are the awful ones. And when that happens…”

“There are people who don’t belong to the guild and illegally control this sort of business, aren’t there?”

There was a splendid sign hanging at the front of this brothel.

From our experience dealing with merchants across the island, beginning with the magic stone processors, I could guess that if a shop could put up a sign, then a guild must exist, and that it held a legitimate position within the town.

And outcasts were always troublesome beings.

“That’s exactly right. What is he, your man? He looks shabby, but… hmm, well, he’s not bad.”

When the madam grinned and said that to Kururu, Kururu snorted.

“Looks like you only have one eye for judging people.”

“Oh my.”

The two of them were having that exchange, but I felt a little nervous wondering which half would be correct if she was half right.

“So, how about it? I’ll return these gold coins to you, so won’t you give those scum interfering with our business a shock?”

The old hag with pull said that.

“You’re a magician, aren’t you?”

“!!”

When Kururu started and stepped back, the madam laughed loudly.

“H-How…”

“Being full of wariness but lacking experience is another thing that would make you popular. What a shame.”

Kururu was bewildered and looked toward me.

I thought, Good grief.

“She was bluffing you.”

“Huh?”

“Ahahaha. Unless they’re an utter fool, they wouldn’t come charging in here alone, and in cases like that, either the person herself or the one behind her is usually a magician.”

And behind this madam, there might be someone like a more ill-natured Gerario standing by.

“Hey, are you really not willing to appear in our shop?”

The madam said that to Kururu, whose face had reddened in frustration.

Gerario had said on the ship that when the place changed, people changed too, and Kururu looked a little more childish than when she was in Jirenu Territory.

Though it might simply have been because she was angry and walking with long strides.

“…Are you planning to use magic?”

What the madam had told us about was a so-called slum where the town’s thugs had settled in.

There were illegal-feeling groups everywhere, and in the first place, Marks and the others were more or less on that side too.

“Can this be solved by talking?”

Perhaps she was still irritated from the exchange earlier, so Kururu glared at me, but Kururu’s judgment in situations like this was probably correct.

“It would be difficult, I suppose.”

“Then it’s decided.”

That was true, but I had lived twice as long as Kururu, and I was a former working adult.

“I have a proposal.”

“What kind?”

“In my previous world, there was a phrase: catching everyone in one net.”

Kururu looked at me with her eyebrows twisted.

“I think you could charge into the organization’s base and blast magic spectacularly, but if that happens, we’ll ultimately have to search for the girls one by one. And if you use magic in the middle of town, I feel like there’ll be punishment for it.”

We had come here on a church ship, and the Bax Company had invited us to a banquet as representatives of the lord. We could not do anything too rough.

“If we do it, we do it certainly and efficiently.”

“…”

Kururu glared up at me, but before long, the thorns in that gaze diminished, and she looked away sulkily.

“…You really did defeat Nodon that way, after all.”

That was what one called trust born from experience.

But when Kururu returned her gaze to me, she still looked dissatisfied.

“Don’t suddenly make a face like an adult.”

Kururu, who said such a thing, was childish, and she looked strangely cute.

I secretly thought that madam’s eye for people was probably accurate.

“I have to show my working-adult side once in a while.”

When Kururu tilted her head slightly, as if wondering what a working adult was, I mimed tightening a necktie and smiled back at her.