"Ms. Jane, can I come in?"
Oliver asked, standing in front of a small tent, and soon, an answer came back.
"Yes."
As soon as he heard the answer, Oliver went into the tent.
The inside of the tent could not be said to be clean as black mold spread everywhere, which could be a frightening sight for a well-bred person.
However, for some reason, Jane was not only sitting calmly there but also enjoying the porridge given by the beggars.
"……Everyone is kind here. They even gave me a meal in case I was hungry."
"I see. Does the food suit your taste?"
“Yeah, it's pretty good. More than that, the boss……”
"It's usually called the head."
"…I'll just call him boss. Anyway, do you know him?"
"Yes, we got acquainted by coincidence, but I never thought I'd be helped by him like this.”
"Ha… I guess you've sprinkled grace here and there?"
"Pardon?"
"Oh, it's just something I learned when I was young. I learned that in order to live in this world, you have to give your grace here and there, and you have to remember the grace you received."
"Did you learn it from Sisterhood?”
"……."
Jane went silent, while at the same time her emotions showed signs of agitation. But after a brief moment of silence, she said with a little resignation.
"Ah…., I guess I still have a long way to go, too. How did you know? The one who raised me was Sisterhood."
"I heard that earlier.”
"Really?"
"Yes, surprisingly, people here know a lot of things.”
"What a surp….. No, isn’t that a given? Not everyone can be a king, but anyone can be a beggar.”
Jane giggled as if she said something funny.
However, unlike her appearance of smiling, her emotions showed sadness and distress.
"…May I say something if you don't mind, Ms. Jane?"
"What is it?"
"Well, I'm sorry, but could you just speak comfortably?”
"What?"
"Um, from the first time we met it seems like you’re holding back. Every time you talk, you always think about every word, and it feels like you're holding back what you really want to say… you don't have to do that with me.”
"…what do you mean?"
" I think the reason you're doing this is to win the favor of others, but I don't really care. And… I have something to ask. It could be important, so I want you to answer honestly.”
"……."
Jane did not answer. She just calmly closed her eyes, however, it wasn’t the same on the inside.
Her emotions began to fluctuate like a boiling pot.
Frustration, irritation, anger, and anxiety fought fiercely with emotions such as hope and patience. It felt like it wouldn't be weird if everything just exploded right away
"Sh*t FU*KING SH*T!!!"
Suddenly Jane shouted as hard as she could.
"…Sh*t! Sh*t! Fu*k, Fu*k, Fu*k.! …Sh*t! Sh*t! Fu*k, Fu*k, Fu*k.!…..”
Surprisingly, Jane stood up and spat out all sorts of cuss words for three minutes, and Oliver did nothing but listen.
After letting out everything that got piled up on the inside, Jane took a deep breath and looked down at Oliver.
"Ha….. aghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.”
"……Are you all right?"
"Yeah, damn, it's so refreshing for the first time in my life….. What do you want to ask?"
Jane sat down and asked.
Unlike before when she sat modestly, she stretched out her legs and sat on both legs, and that posture seemed comfortable.
"…you said Sisterhood was the place you could ask for help, right?”
"Yes, it's a women-only organization."
Jane answered while eating the soup. She ate while taking the bowl to her mouth.
"I heard that if you ask for help, you might be in trouble, is that true?"
After gulping down the soup, Jane said.
"That's right. I'll be honest with you because you've heard about it. It's not the worst, but it's bad. I’ll be owing a big debt to Sisterhood. In other words, they will have a leash on me."
"Is that so?"
"Yes, I can pay off the small debt of taking care of me until now, but if I ask for help now I’ll be indebted until I die… If I get my father's inheritance without their help, I can pay for the small debt. The Sisterhood doesn't ask for more than that.”
"Um, I see.”
"But don't get me wrong. It's not because they're nice. It's because if they did, people like me in the organization would rebel. It's kind of like an implied agreement, a mutual agreement that satisfies both….. But if I pile my debt more here, the story changes then."
"I don't quite understand."
"It’s not something that can be explained in detail. However, if I ask for help here, I owe not only money, but also my life, and I will be caught and made to cooperate with them for the rest of my life."
Oliver nodded his head.
At least Jane wasn't lying now.
"Um……I'm just asking because I'm curious, but what happens if you just ignore it? What if you don't pay back the favor."
"…then, my disgusting past will be known to the world.”
"Disgusting past?"
"Sisterhood has a safety device for that sort of thing… I can't say more than this. I'm a shameless woman, but that doesn’t mean I don't have any shame."
Oliver didn't understand, but he didn't try to ask anymore.
It was not because he was not that curious, but because Jane seemed genuinely distressed as she spoke about that.
"…ha, but why did you ask that?”
"I wanted to ask what if there was a way to sort things without asking for help from Sisterhood.”
"…You're joking, right?"
Jane asked with a bewildered face as if she couldn't believe Oliver’s words.
"I'm sorry, I'm not good with jokes. It was hard even though I learned it.”
"What is it?"
"Three men played poker in the bar. One from the Northland, one from the Empire, and the last from the Landa. These three are.."
"… No, no, not the joke. The way to get out of this sh*t without getting help from Sisterhood. Is there any place you can ask for help? Are they powerful?"
"No, I'm just going to go up to the ground by myself and take on the one who's after you."
"…Stop joking around."
"I'm not joking this time either. Wait a minute."
Oliver took something out of his pocket. It was a newspaper.
"Would you like to read this article?”
"…We saw it together before, didn’t we? The Northland coal mine workers' suppression by Pinkman's office."
"Yes. You said Mr. Duncan was from the Pinkman office, wasn't he?”
"Yes…"
Jane frowned as if she had a vague sense of something.
"Look at this."
Oliver showed a new article. Above the article, it said, [Over-suppression hearing!].
"…This is the content of the hearing due to the over-suppression that happened in the coal mine village. Well, they did kill too many of them, even a mother along with her months-old baby. But what's wrong with this?”
Oliver said as he looked at the article.
"I don't know, but there seems to be talks of firing some of the people involved in the suppression because of this hearing."
"It's just a show. They will remove them from the fieldwork and hire them back as an office worker, or let them rest for a few months and then hire them back again. It's all just a show."
"But wouldn't that make them feel bad? The Employees?"
"That's… that's possible."
According to Kent’s words, some people think of it as humiliating because the better they are at their job, the more proud they are.
"I'm asking just in case, did Mr. Duncan quit the Pinkman office job and immediately go under Mr. Edith?"
"No, he personally set up an office before that. But things didn't work out, and then, father…… Ah!"
Jane looked surprised as if she had realized something.
"Many of the Pink Man are unemployed, so it seems like Mr. Duncan is trying to achieve the dream he once had.”
Jane's expression and emotions were in chaos.
"…Isn't it too much to make such a guess?”
"There is a bar that Pink Man often goes to, called [PinkThighs]. Not too long ago, some Pink Man talked about changing jobs while having drinks. There's more. They seem to have said about going to work for a former Pink Man who works for a Speculator."
"……."
"They said he would treat them better, and also said that they could pioneer the market since the former Pink Man had the support of an Aristocrat.”
"It's Edith's wife. I've seen her once before."
Jane smiled.
"How did you find out?”
"It’s by extracting information from newspapers, rumors, conversations and combining it. It's said to be the biggest income for PoorBrothers here."
"Ha… I knew Landa was an interesting place, but never thought it would be this much."
"Is that so? Anyway, I think Mr. Duncan is trying to get rid of you and get something like an investment, and right now probably he must be nervous, too. If you're safe, everything he built so far will fall. In other words, Mr. Duncan himself will likely come out, and if I get rid of Mr. Duncan at this time, I will be able to root out the danger for you."
"…Then, aren't you going to be in danger?”
"Um… I’m doing it knowing that."
"But there's no reason for you to do that.”
"Um? I was hired to protect you, so I thought it would be better to protect you in the best way possible. Also, you taught me a lot of things.”
Jane opened her mouth after hesitating for a while.
"…I… acted that time. Most men tend to protect a girl like that. I tried to be close with you for that reason… I learned it from Sisterhood."
"I know, but it’s true that I got help from you, and more than that…"
"…More than What?
"I like the beautiful you."
Oliver meant the beautiful conflicting emotions around her, but at that moment Jane’s face got flushed red and she couldn't say anything.
"…did I say something wrong?”
⏩ ⏩ ⏩ ⏩ ⏩ ⏩
"It's this way. He ran away this way."
"He's gone. Where the hell did he go?"
Men could be seen shouting in the night running around the maze of back streets.
As soon as Oliver came out to the ground, he started playing tag with the Pink Man searching for him.
Oliver was winning and it wasn't that hard.
As the sun went down, the only thing left on the street was a bum or Pink Men who were chasing Jane, so the restrictions on Oliver got lifted
The enemy was in large numbers, but Oliver's eyes made it easy to locate his opponent.
Based on this, Oliver ran through the complicated backstreets, attacked the enemy moderately, and fell back
In case of emergency, it was enough just by disappearing using [Erase Exit] or [Shade Cloak].
Once the Pink Man lost him, he attacked again.
"You c*nt !! Where are you…"
"Here!"
Dudududududududududududududududududududududududududududududu——!!!
But it wasn't easy.
The reaction of the Pink Man also gradually increased, and as soon as one person was hit, they covered up and shot.
The surroundings got lit up by the flash of gunfire, and Oliver fled again, defending himself with a black shield.
"Chase! Don't miss him!"
‘All right, that's enough.’ thought Oliver, while looking at the emotions in his hand.
It was the emotions he received from Kent, and he gave it to him when Oliver asked him to take Jane to Sisterhood instead of him if something went wrong with his plan.
And thanks to that, Oliver was able to make up for the lack of emotions.
When asked how he got it, Kent replied that he was once a Solver and a very talented one at that.
[Shade cloak]
Oliver made a thin, dark cloak and hid in the deepest and most shadowy darkness.
Then he made a Minion, put [Hate Bullet] on it, and after a while released it in the direction of the Pink Man approaching from both sides.
Pink Man each brought their own lanterns, so they could see things from afar, but Minion cleverly approached them and began to spit out [Hate Bullet].
Dut! Dut! Dut! Dut!
Pink Man fell down one by one after getting shot by the bullet of hate.
However, unlike the gangsters, Pink Man responded immediately, they found the Minion and shot it quickly.
Doo doo doo doo! pop! Kaaaaaaaaaa!!!
Minion screamed and disappeared.
Oliver prepared to attack in the meantime, but at that moment…
"There!"
Two Pink Man with goggles in their eyes pointed at Oliver and shouted.
The goggles they wore had mana in them, and they seemed to have some kind of search magic function.
The Pink Man shot from both sides, and Oliver deployed a black shield in both directions.
Tadadadadadadang——! Tangn! Tangn! Bang da da da da dadang———!
The sound of lead ammunition knocking the shield filled the space.
Each one was low in power, but it was threatening enough as the number increased, and it was not easy to move.
"Get out of my way!"
Suddenly, a Pink Man with an unusual gun appeared pushing his colleagues.
The gun he held was similar to a shotgun, and the difference was that a test tube was stuck in the loading handle, and the inside of the test tube contained mana.
Oliver didn't know the details, but he instinctively sensed that it was a pretty dangerous weapon.
"Burn motherfu*ker."
With those words, the Pink Man shot.
When the mana in the test tube rolled into the gun, a huge ball of fire flew from the gun and swallowed Oliver as well as the surroundings around him.
It was a pretty good strategy.
Tie his feet using a regular firearm, then finish off with a powerful weapon.
The Pink Man stopped shooting as he thought everything was over but at that moment…
Oliver broke the [Black marble] and [Black shield] as if making them explode, shook off the flames with the impact, and then stretched out [Shadow tentacles] in all directions to launch a wide-range attack on the Pink Man.
Even though it was a wide-range attack, all it did was quickly stab and slash the opponents with tentacles.
However, the effect was so excellent that dozens of Pink Man collapsed in a few seconds.
It couldn't be said that the emotions the spell consumed was small, but considering the number of opponents it took care of, it could be said it was quite efficient, and seeing that Oliver thought maybe even if Duncan appeared, he could deal with him without suffering much.
And at that moment…
Someone approached Oliver at a frighteningly fast speed and came jumping toward Oliver using the wall as a stepping stone.
It was Duncan.
BANG————!!!
A unique T-shaped tonfa stick surrounded by mana hit Oliver.
Oliver got pushed aside by the shock
Fortunately, three layers of black shields were spread at the same time, so there was no damage, although two of the three shields were horribly smashed.
As Oliver expected, like Druid Scott….. No, it was stronger than that.
Duncan, surrounding his whole body with a vast amount of mana said looking at Oliver.
"You are good"
"Thank you. I decided to pay more attention to the shield while fighting with Mr. Scott.”
Oliver replied, wearing [Black suit] on his body and holding a quarterstaff in his hand.
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