Chapter 131 – Glasses boy and the seventh extortion

Uhn… It is here, I think?

I followed the instructions of the old man from the stall, and found a sign that looked to be the right one.

The signboard depicts a woman’s foot that is wearing high heels.

It’s probably here.

Beyond the signboard, the narrow main street becomes even narrower, leading to a less sunny, and darker alley.

It is quite the suspicious entrance.

“Hey, boy, give me some money.” I heard a boy’s voice.

There sure are a lot of extortions in this city, huh?

I turned around and saw four boys that should be around my age.

“We’re getting in the way if we stay here, so let’s talk in the alley over there.” I told them while pointing to a nearby alley.

“Huh? You have some guts, don’t you? Don’t try anything, or I’ll beat you up.” The boy replied.

… This was the sixth extortion already.

I have to wonder why they always go on ahead, believing that I’ll quietly follow them.

I’m not going.

Why didn’t they make use of their numerical advantage?

The basic rule for this kind of thing should be to not let your prey escape.

Well, I don’t really want to fight more than necessary, so I’m grateful even if I don’t say ‘thank you’ to them.

… Well, it’s not like they need to be thanked for being annoying.

In any case, as soon as they turned their backs to me, I slipped into the brothel’s alley, going away from those boys.

******

It would be troublesome if they chased me, so I ran for a while before stopping.

Until, suddenly, I arrived at a wider open road.

Oh, I see.

From here onwards, the street seemed to be filled with night shops.

Some of the larger ones seem to be luxurious places, while others seem to be fairly small and shabby.

And in this kind of place… Some men and women were walking around carefreely.

The feeling that they give off is different from what I felt from the average person though, so they must be employees of a nearby store.

… Also, for some reason, everyone here seems to have strong sex appeal and a good amount of make up on them.

They have a charm that one can’t see in the average people that I have seen so far. It’s hard to explain what exactly it is, but the feeling that they give off is definitely different.

In any case, it’s kinda quiet here.

There are some people walking around, but this area is not nearly as lively as the main streets.

“Hey, that’s dangerous!” A man shouted.

“Shut up! Die!” A woman replied.

Oh, a lively… Or actually, a murderous voice.

A naked man came out of a store a bit far from me, holding clothes that were probably his own as he tumbled forward while hiding his front.

The woman in underwear who was running after him had a kitchen knife in her hands and seemed to be having an argument with him.

Is this… No way.

I remembered something that my master once told me. A story about how he thought he was going to die, and that women were scary.

He used this story to try bragging about how popular he was, but I, of course, completely ignored him.

“Don’t come again if you don’t have money!” The woman yelled that while raising her knife to the man who was running away with his ass exposed.

Once he got out of sight, she shouted, “Go die!” then turned around and started heading back to the shop.

After that, even if people had been paying attention to those two until now, they all started moving again as if nothing had happened.

Could this be… An everyday occurrence in this place?

To think this might not feel particularly unusual…

I was quite surprised, even if I may not show it on my expression.

… Anyways-

“H-help! Help me!” I heard a woman shout.

This city is truly showing me a lot of new things.

******

Should this place really be called a lawless country? Or is it more of a city filled with many stingy little villains?

Or am I simply someone that looks too easy to extort?

A woman in her underwear was screaming as she ran towards me.

“P-please! Help me! Help me!” She exclaimed.

Oh, there are actual tears coming out of her eyes… Maybe she threw something at them in advance to make tears come out easily?

“Wait!” A big man with strong arms came running after her.

Ah, so this time it is like that?

I wish they were more straightforward and just told me to give them money. It would be faster this way.

I mean, in the first place, the flow of this story is too unreasonable.

Why would this woman ask a little boy like me for help?

Do I look like I’m strong?

I don’t think that’s the impression I give, when considering how many people tried extorting me on the way here.

There are men and women around who seem to be much stronger than me, so it’s unnatural for this woman to come crying to me for help.

“Hey kid! Hand that woman over! I’ll kill her!” The man exclaimed.

That woman, who had been clinging to me so far, was now hiding behind me, using me as a shield.

They’re truly pushing this on me, huh?

But well, I have no doubts about what my choice here should be.

“Alright, alright, go ahead. Good luck.” I told them, then stepped away.

And that’s that.

I’m curious about what will be their next action though.

I mean, the plan must have been to put me in a position where I’m forced to try protecting the woman, so after he beat me up, he’d take my belongings.

But without any resistance or hesitation, I stepped away, as I don’t really have any reason to get involved with this.

“Eh…? W-why!? Why won’t you help me!?” The woman seemed to be upset.

Was my reaction unexpected? I don’t think it was.

“Do you think I can actually beat him? Then you’re not only dumb, but also blind.

“Also, shouldn’t you be heading to the main street to ask for help already? Why are you stopping here? Don’t you think you should have decided to keep on running as soon as I gave up on you? Why haven’t you left yet?” I asked her.

“Eh-eh…?” The woman said.

I was curious, so I tried asking her many questions, but she seemed to be so troubled that she couldn’t answer anything.

“And you too. Why are you standing still? Why haven’t you caught her yet?

“You wanted to catch her, right? Now you can easily do it, so why don’t you go ahead and do it?

“You were going to kill her, weren’t you? Then shouldn’t you just do it? Why aren’t you doing anything? Why aren’t you saying anything?” I asked the man a lot of questions too, as I was quite interested on his reply.

Cases of men and women being blackmailed in this kind of circumstance must happen a lot. I’m very interested in learning about what one should do in this kind of situation if it happened for real.

It’s really rare to get caught up in this kind of scam in Nastiara, so I wanted to make good use of this opportunity and asked them plenty of questions.

This seems like a once in a lifetime opportunity, so I want to make full use of it.

I don’t know what’s coming next, but I’m eagerly waiting for the next development.

“H-how dare you!? I can’t forgive a bastard who doesn’t even try to protect a woman!” The man shouted.

Eh…? What a shoddy role reversal.

I’m disappointed.

I didn’t expect him to give up on the act this quickly.

He’s nothing like my sister, who has an unreasonably powerful persuading force. The kind of thing that makes people go along with all her nonsense, no matter how absurd it is.

“It’s not really convincing if you tell me that after chasing a half-naked woman while shouting that you’ll kill her, you know?” I told the man honestly.

“S-shut up! Shut up!” He exclaimed.

Oh, is he going to attack?

“You’re the one who should shut up!” An older woman exclaimed.

The man had just raised his fist, but then this older woman raised her voice and hit him on the head, interrupting his attack.

“The boy saw through it from the start! Don’t keep on trying to mess around after failing! It’s disgraceful!” The older woman said.

Seems like she was watching since the beginning.

This older woman must be at her thirties or so… She’s a woman with a powerful gaze for sure.

And behind her was a big man who seemed to be even bigger and stronger than the guy who tried extorting me just now.

… Ah, he is strong. Very strong.

The older woman is even stronger though.

The man’s number is 37, but the older woman’s is 22.

If it was just one of them, I might have been able to do something, but I don’t think I have a chance of winning against both.

Also, I can’t see their Gifts, so they must not be activated.

And above all else, what’s most threatening about them is that they don’t seem to have anything that resembles a weapon on them.

It’s almost unnatural.

If I had to choose something, it would probably be the metal rod that the older woman is holding… As in, her smoking pipe.

“I told you, didn’t I? Don’t do it in these parts.” The older woman scolded the two scammers.

“B-but-” The half-naked woman started replying.

“Don’t try making excuses. I’ll just kick you off if you do.” The older woman said.

Under her sharp gaze, the two people completely withered away.

Yeah… She’s scary. I want to run away too.

“Go.” The older woman stated.

The man and woman, who had been completely immobilized, like frogs stared at by a snake, immediately started running after receiving the word of forgiveness from the older woman.

And I should also run.

“You wait.” The older woman said.

… It was impossible to flee, after all.

As if anticipating my actions, the big man already caught me before I could run.