Chapter 88 - As Much as the Vessel Had Grown (2)

A golden ball rolled.

A ball carrying a fleeting thrill for some, and the entirety of someone else's life for others.

A single ball, rolling endlessly over the ridges of black and red, sparkled under the light of the chandelier.

[*I should have come here sooner. *]

However, indifferent to the boisterous atmosphere of the gambling house, Vlad merely focused on the endlessly spinning roulette wheel before his eyes.

[*There's no place like this for training kinetic vision or reflexes. *]

The voice was right.

For even now, the ball on the endlessly spinning roulette wheel was moving continuously, displaying irregular movements.

"... Red looks good."

Thinking of the red-haired girl who would soon turn 18, Vlad placed a single chip on the number 18.

A straight bet, staking all the odds on a single number.

He hadn't placed it knowing anything, but Vlad simply followed where the symbol of his luck pointed.

[*It's starting. *]

Along with Vlad's voice, Vlad quickly closed his left eye and began to rouse his aura.

The body strengthening art he had learned from Lamund was a technique that reinforced the physical body.

The golden ball that had been spinning vigorously on the roulette wheel was gradually slowing down within Vlad's eyes.

"Hmm."

Vlad's blue eyes began to slice through split seconds that an ordinary person could not see.

Watching the golden ball that could bounce anywhere, Vlad's brow began to furrow.

"..."

There was nothing as shallow as faith.

Everyone here must have thought that roulette, at least, operated on fair luck, but to the eyes of Vlad, who possessed his own world unswayed by illusions, it didn't look that way at all.

"Cheating bastards."

To win a duel, one must control the battlefield.

But this place went beyond control and was committing outright manipulation, meaning not even a single ounce of effort would work.

That was a wrong world.

"Sir Vlad."

A voice calling out reached Vlad's ears as he chewed over the emotions quietly boiling up from within him.

"If you had told us you were coming beforehand, we would have escorted you."

A gentleman in a neat suit, unbefitting the back alley.

Hearing the words of the gambling house manager, Vlad couldn't help but let out a dry laugh.

For this was the same man who used to yell at him not to come near when Vlad was a back alley vagrant, yet now he was bowing at the waist and saying he would escort him.

"Is the boss here right now?"

"Mr. Dice is waiting for you upstairs even now, Sir Vlad."

Dice of the gambling house, one of the back alley bosses.

At the words that he was waiting for him, Vlad once again realized his own position.

His position was different from before, and his status had changed.

"But why is he just sitting and waiting for me?"

"Pardon?"

Because of that, Vlad did not move from his spot.

This place was a wrong place, and Vlad was a dignified person with legitimate justification and qualifications.

Therefore, the one who should rightfully seek the other out was the owner of the gambling house, not the knight of Soara.

"Tell the boss to come down here."

The voice had said.

Seize the initiative flashily.

Do it intensely so that everyone's jaws drop.

"Until then, the gambling house suspends its operations."

"... What do you mean."

There was a knight who stepped boldly onto the table containing the wrong world.

He was a man whose shining blond hair under the extravagant chandelier left a striking impression.

"You there, dealer. Hands off."

Pointing his sword tip at the dealer who had turned pale, Vlad strode across the table.

Everyone's eyes in the place began to gather on the sight of Vlad walking forward, ruthlessly sweeping aside the chips and glasses catching on his feet.

"Sir Vlad, Sir Vlad!"

The owner of the gambling house, having received reports that the situation had grown serious, hastily began hurrying down the stairs with a clatter, but it was too late.

For Vlad's gaze was already looking at the dark truth hidden beneath the roulette wheel.

"... You must have had a lot of fun all this time, huh?"

The boss of the back alley. Dice of the gambling house.

Looking at the man smiling fiercely at him, he was seized by a sensation of his breath catching in his throat.

'I messed with the wrong guy.'

The bouncers of the gambling house were flusteredly and slowly approaching the smiling Vlad, but they soon had no choice but to step back.

"Don't come closer. The knight is in the middle of his official duties right now."

"Mhm."

"Can we kill these guys? I think it'd be fine?"

Because before anyone knew it, three men who had stepped up behind Vlad had drawn their weapons and were pushing them away with fierce momentum.

"Damn..."

Only then did Dice realize that the new mayor of Soara had unleashed a vicious dog upon him.

And that dog was someone who could tear through every corner of the back alley just by catching a scent.

Because he was a guy who was born and raised in this place.

* * *

The day he smashed Haven's room and pulled him out. Vlad was walking down the street with a frown, holding a bottle in his hand.

"Isn't this that?"

"It is."

Haven was following behind Vlad, holding a small bundle.

The bundle contained everything Haven had gathered over his entire life, yet it was also a flimsy load that could be carried in one hand even while leaning on a cane.

"Being a knight sure is nice. Even when you smash up a room and take one of their members, they actually hand you a gift."

"... This isn't a gift."

Looking at the strangely sticky, sloshing liquor inside the bottle, Vlad smacked his lips as if troubled.

"It's Captain Q. This thing."

"Captain Q3, to be exact. It's an improved version the boss made."

Captain Hoover, one of the back alley bosses.

A man who was quite a famous sea captain in his prime, but was now old, ruined, and hiding in the darkness of Soara.

However, even in his ruin, he still had one remaining passion, which lay in recreating the mermaid's liquor he claimed to have tasted in his youth.

"Mermaids must not have tongues."

"They live in the sea, so their physical structure might be a bit different from ours."

Haven said that although Hoover's alcohol-making skills were terrible, he wasn't a bad person.

Even when Jorge was around, he wasn't a boss with a bad reputation, and although he treated him roughly, he was also the person who had taken him in despite his disability.

"The new mayor of Soara won't touch the Captain either. He's a person creating his own kind of value for the city."

"Is that so?"

"Because even among bugs, there are beneficial bugs and harmful bugs."

Haven hadn't been able to see or experience things with his own eyes all this time, but he had indirectly seen various worlds through the documents and tasks given to him.

The characteristics of a smuggling organization that reached far-off places via the river had greatly helped develop Haven's discerning eye.

"The fact that he stuck you, someone with no experience, into the back alley—the hardest district to control—probably has the meaning of a test. This is both an opportunity and a crisis."

"Hmm."

Vlad naturally matched Haven's pace and began to walk slowly.

Partially, it was out of consideration for his disability, but it was also because the stories coming from Haven's mouth were naturally capturing Vlad's steps.

"Then what should we do going forward?"

Joseph had not given detailed instructions to the inexperienced Vlad.

Because he thought that even the experience of seeking advice would be helpful to the young knight.

"We have to let the bosses know, just like today."

Looking at Rose's Smiles visible far off in the night sky, Haven smiled.

"That you've arrived."

A new mayor, a new knight.

And a new order.

Haven had accurately grasped what Joseph wanted from Vlad.

* * *

Marcella had said she would give half of the fourth floor to Vlad, and those were not empty words.

"Thank you."

"... He's a guy I know, too."

Otar, who had now become a knight's servant, was offering his thanks to Vlad for providing him with a room and a job.

"If he kept pickpocketing, it was obvious he'd die soon, so what else could I do."

"..."

Resting his chin on the fourth-floor railing, Vlad looked down at the boy diligently mopping on the first floor.

The black boy who had taken over the duties Vlad used to do back when he was a candle seller.

For Ned, who was Otar's younger brother and someone Vlad also had ties with, Vlad had arranged a position at Rose's Smiles, and Ned was now living on the fourth floor along with Otar.

"Madam is happy. She says you've cleared out all the guys who've been a nuisance."

Zemina, who had approached Vlad pretending to clean, spoke quietly in a whisper, pointing to where Haven was.

"... I didn't know Marcella hated them that much."

At the place Zemina was pointing, Haven was dealing with the people who had come looking for Vlad, with a single table placed between them.

"He looks different. I didn't know Haven had this side to him."

Vlad did not answer Zemina's words out loud.

He merely nodded, expressing his agreement.

A person must have a place to exercise their abilities in order to prove themselves.

And right now, Haven was weeding out the riffraff in his capacity as a knight's proxy, rather than in a dark room smelling of fishy water.

Once today's interviews—which were long due to the backlog built up over time—were over, he would probably come to Vlad with a list of people who might be helpful.

'It's about time they arrived.'

Chewing on the sandwich Marcella had made for him, Vlad waited for the person who was supposed to come find him.

Joseph had said he would support the wages for a total of four people, and Vlad also well knew that Haven and Otar alone were not enough to carry out the back alley security duties.

However, there was someone who had consistently made their presence known all this while, so filling up to three spots would be easy.

"Vlad! Vlad!"

"What is it."

Ned, who had been scrubbing the floor for a while, began looking for Vlad as he frantically ran up the stairs.

"Vlad!"

"I'm right here."

Seeing Ned, who was too completely different from his taciturn older brother, Vlad frowned.

"There are guests from City Hall looking for you, Vlad. One of them has a long chin..."

"Tell him to come up."

Vlad thought there was no way Got would miss this opportunity.

Even if being a stable keeper for Bayezid was a stable job, he knew that Got was not the kind of person who would be satisfied with a mere servant's position.

"But there are two of them."

"Hmm?"

However, Got was not alone; he had come here dragging along another person.

"Who is it?"

At Vlad's question, Ned quickly moistened his lips with his tongue and instead began to ask a question in return.

"A lot of tattoos, braided hair..."

In the North, the position held by black people was endlessly low and wretched.

However, there was one existence that even black people, who were discriminated against for their skin, hated to go near.

"He's not one of them, right, Vlad?"

Along with Ned's concerns, there were two people entering Rose's Smiles.

A man with an intense impression standing behind Got, who looked somewhat crestfallen.

He was someone exuding such a strong presence that even the staff preparing for business and Marcella momentarily turned their heads.

"This place is a bit big, so I like it."

The barbarian man who had followed Noir, who inherited the blood of a divine spirit, all the way down to Soara.

"The mayor said there'd be a job for me if I came here."

Age of the Budaat Tribe was grinning broadly at Vlad, who was looking down at him from the fourth floor.