Chapter 69 - Encounter

Thinking about Ganesha Aldebaran, there was no way anyone could rate that person's skills poorly.

The unseen power broker who controlled the continent's underworld. A magnate. A merchant tycoon.

... That was merely the information available on the surface.

The more in-depth information Aiden possessed was that Ganesha was dangerous enough to need all of that as a cover.

So it was all well and good that someone like that already had an interest in him and regarded him favorably.

'... The problem is, there's nothing I can do right now, is there?'

He couldn't take the initiative and pay a visit. He had to wait for the other party to make contact first. And according to the quest window, the intentions weren't hostile, so there wasn't any particular reason to prepare for trouble.

He had ways to send that affection soaring once they met face-to-face. He just couldn't go looking for Ganesha himself.

That left him with one option for now: keep doing what needed to be done.

Hadn't it said Ganesha would come to him? He didn't know how that approach would come, either, so preparing was pointless. Better to use what little time he had as efficiently as possible.

Training made the man. Meyer might be slicing him to pieces every night, but reproducing those movements with his real body was another matter entirely.

Which meant that getting himself battered to a pulp while practicing mounted combat on Reaver first thing in the morning wasn't really anything to be ashamed of.

"... Are you all right?"

"..."

Even seeing Noel struggle to keep from laughing as she asked wasn't embarrassing.

He would just have to keep telling himself that. Scolding the person who had supported him all the way to the pharmacy for laughing at him would be pretty shameless, anyway...

"... I'm fine."

With that, he slowly opened the pharmacy door.

"Excuse m—"

"Get out, right now!"

"..."

The timing was so perfect that he could easily have mistaken the abuse as directed at him, but Aiden quickly realized it wasn't.

The scene visible through the gap in the door was ugly enough without any intervention on his part.

The first thing he saw was a girl sprawled on the floor.

She was so filthy that he couldn't begin to guess when she had last washed. Her face was pale, too, perhaps from poor nutrition.

Judging by the way she struggled to clutch her abdomen, she was clearly in pain somewhere. An obvious deduction, really; otherwise, she wouldn't have thought to visit a pharmacy in the first place.

From her position, it looked as though someone had shoved her and sent her tumbling across the floor.

It wasn't hard to find the likely culprit. Aiden shifted his gaze slightly and spotted a middle-aged man glowering behind the counter.

Probably the proprietor. Most likely the one who had just shouted at her to get out, too.

"I'll pay. I'll pay you. Please, my stomach hurts so much. Even just some painkillers..."

The girl pleaded in a trembling voice. Its pitch wavered, and the sound itself was so weak that she seemed to be dying.

Despite her desperate plea, the middle-aged proprietor who had just laid hands on her showed no sign of relenting.

Instead, when she seemed about to move closer, his expression grew several times fiercer and he shouted again.

"I told you to get out! Come any closer and I'll call the police!"

Aiden noticed Noel's expression growing increasingly twisted beside him.

To someone as inherently kind as her, the scene must have been beyond belief. Of course, it didn't look normal to him, either.

At the very least, the girl was earnestly offering to pay, and she was visibly ill.

Treating a girl in that condition so viciously went beyond bad customer service. It was despicable enough to destroy his reputation as a human being.

Why was he doing it?

Even with such incomprehensible cruelty unfolding before him, that was Aiden's first thought. One could call it a con man's virtue.

First, absorb the information that made up the situation quickly and accurately. Then arrange that information appropriately, without allowing his emotions to interfere at any stage.

So, time to take a look.

The medicines prescribed for the girl on the floor lay across the counter, along with some loose change she appeared to have set down to pay for them.

They had been scattered about by the impact when she was sent flying, though.

A useful clue.

In short, the proprietor hadn't tried to stop her before she approached the counter with her money. Something must have happened when she handed it over, or at least when she came close enough for him to get a good look.

What, then, would make him suddenly want to drive out a customer in such poor condition, even at the cost of his reputation?

The reason wasn't particularly hard to guess.

Aiden carefully examined the fallen girl. He soon found what he was looking for.

"Noel. Stop."

Aiden whispered to her as she looked ready to smash through the pharmacy door at any moment.

"Aiden, how can you possibly—"

"Her wrist."

"What?"

"Look. Near her wrist."

Taken aback by his sudden words, Noel paused and looked where he directed her.

It wasn't difficult to spot the pitch-black lump protruding through the girl's skin.

"..."

Noel bit her lip hard.

It was an unmistakable sign of infectious disease.

It didn't infect ordinary people, but it was common among slum children, who were poorly nourished and constantly exposed to contaminated surroundings.

No matter how far medicine had advanced, it was only natural that people with infectious diseases were viewed poorly. With a child from the slums, in particular, there was no telling what she might have caught.

"That doesn't mean we can just leave her—"

"Of course not."

Aiden's flat, even voice cut across her rising protest. Then a smile appeared on his face.

It was an expression she remembered. One she had seen before.

The smile that had earned this man a place in a corner of her heart.

That distinctive smile he wore when giving voice to his convictions.

A moment later, Aiden slipped smoothly through the pharmacy door.

▣

His jaunty steps were so out of place in the hostile atmosphere that both the proprietor and the girl on the floor stared at him blankly.

Paying them no mind, Aiden continued lightly toward the counter. He met the proprietor's eyes and spoke brightly.

"I'd like to buy these medicines here, please."

Snapping out of his daze, the proprietor regarded Aiden suspiciously. He glanced at the girl, wondering if they knew each other, but she was staring at the man in equal bewilderment. Apparently not.

"... These weren't prescribed for you, sir."

"No, but from a quick look, they seem to be exactly what I need."

He was so brazen that Noel, watching from behind, let out an incredulous laugh. At least that level of confidence kept even such a transparent pretense from looking pathetic.

He was practically announcing that he would buy the medicine on the girl's behalf. The proprietor seemed quite flustered himself; his eyes darted about for a moment before he finally collected his wits.

Then, apparently grasping Aiden's intent, his expression filled with resistance.

In any case, he wasn't keen on selling the medicines under these circumstances. It would be trouble if this man had the same infectious disease.

Whatever the business, rumors that an infected person had visited would drive customers away and send sales plummeting. And a record of sale was one of the surest pieces of evidence that they had been there.

Still, he couldn't simply search the man's body for stone fragments that might be growing somewhere on it. Instead, the proprietor began cautiously.

"Sir, none of these products can be purchased without a doctor's prescription—"

"We both know that's not true. Let's not pretend otherwise."

"..."

"The medicines slum kids buy are all much the same. None of them are anything fancy enough to need a prescription."

Aiden presented the proprietor with an even sunnier smile. Outwardly pleasant though it was, it carried a clear pressure: they both knew how things worked, so he should stop playing games and let this pass quietly.

The proprietor shifted his expression slightly and tried again.

"Even so, selling them to a patient who doesn't appear to have any symptoms is a little..."

Frankly, that excuse made no sense, either. The man he was addressing was covered in injuries, minor though they were.

Besides, any product for which that excuse might work would necessarily require a doctor's prescription, and Aiden had already established that the medicines on display didn't fall into that category.

At this point, most of the additional excuses available would be flimsy but effective.

The classic would be something like, "We're short on stock, so we have to save these for customers who need them more urgently."

Even if the seller had so much stock piled up in the back that it was rotting and growing mushrooms, there was little a buyer could say to counter that excuse. Simple, but powerful.

So, what should he do to break through an excuse like that?

The same thing. Present something simple and powerful.

Of all the methods available, Aiden chose one that went beyond powerful and ventured into the realm of madness.

He took a fountain pen from his pocket. Siscella had given it to him some time ago, and he treasured it enough to carry it everywhere.

He was a little reluctant to use it this way, but his decision came quickly, and his actions were just as swift. First, he rolled up his sleeves, exposing the bare skin beneath his coat and shirt.

Then, with a casual motion, he moved the pen.

Aiden drove the fountain pen into the outside of his upper arm and dragged it all the way down past his wrist.

The nib split his skin. Fresh blood welled out and mingled with the ink, running down in a dark red stream.

The gesture was so casual that everyone present needed a moment to understand exactly what he had done and react.

The proprietor stared at him as though he were insane. Behind him, Noel swallowed a groan. The girl on the floor went pale.

The metallic smell of blood filled the air, and within seconds Aiden's arm was drenched in it. The blood streaming down soon gathered into drops that fell onto the shop floor. He lifted his freely bleeding arm and planted it on the counter, deliberately putting it on display. It was rude, irrational, and barbaric.

But the process was simple, and the effect was extraordinarily powerful.

And throughout that entire sequence of actions, Aiden never stopped smiling.

"Wow, this really hurts."

With that calm voice added to the spectacle, something resembling fear began creeping into the proprietor's eyes.

"It hurts so much that I think I'll need some painkillers to settle it down. Wouldn't you agree?"

Aiden spoke brightly as he twirled the blood-soaked fountain pen in his equally bloody hand. The blood dripping onto the counter was nearly forming a puddle.

He was still smiling.

"Oh, and I'm worried about an infection, too, so I'd like some antibiotics as well, please."

To the proprietor, that polite voice could hardly have sounded more terrifying.

"... How do you keep getting worse and worse..."

"..."

Of course, Noel's voice, now thoroughly resigned, did strike a strangely painful chord in his heart.