Black Iron Magician

The three men, who were forced to wake up by the recovery magic, guide us to the hideout of the Midnight’s boss, Requiem. Since he’s a backstreet trader, he’s cautious and changes the location of his hiding place within the slum each time. Therefore, it’s troublesome to find him without a subordinate who can show the way. The day is going to get dark if we search for each place one by one. After all, we have an important time limit called dinner, so we can’t spend extra time here.

「H-here is the place, Danna.」

The place pointed by the knife-man was a shabby cheap inn that doesn’t look very clean. The old door is half opened and makes a creaking sound.

「……Are you sure?」

「Y-yes! Boss is currently based in the basement of this inn. D-Danna, I just want to confirm, are you really the boss’s acquaintance?」

「Well, I wonder about that?」

「N-no way…!」

I was meant to bully them a bit, but it has developed into a situation where the three of them are crying as they cling to my legs. However, it doesn’t make me happy to have rowdy me do that to me. It’s just annoying.

「Shishō, you shouldn’t lie like that, you know? We’ve given them enough punishment before, right?」

「Sorry, I’m getting carried away.」

Even though it was a punishment, Haru just knocked them out in an instant. There would be some damage, but could it really count as a punishment?

「A-Anego is so kind! Normally, we don’t get treated kindly by a cute girl like this, so it penetrates our heart even more!」

「Hehehe, s-she is an angel…」

(T/N: Anego – it’s usually used by delinquents or the likes to call their female superior. Google it for more details.)

Is this that ‘a candy and a whip’ thing? It seems that Haru has already been recognized completely as a superior person to them, they are calling her anego. Also, I’m worried whether the hehehe-man has awakened some kind of pleasure or not.

「Well then, can anyone go ahead and talk to him? I’m sure you can get through if you mention my name, Deris.」

「I’ll do it. I just need to mention Deris-danna’s name, right? Understood, please wait a bit.」

I watched the knife-man dashed into the shabby inn and waited to see if he will obediently let us through. During this time, the two remaining men are treated like hostages, but they don’t seem to think so in the slightest. As if they preferred strong girls, they are trying their best to explain the highlights of the slum to Haru.

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After a while, a large man, dressed very well that’s unsuited for a slum, came out of the inn. When I look closely, I find his face somewhat familiar. He’s probably an executive-class guy, but I’m not very good at remembering people’s faces, so I can’t remember clearly. After silencing the newcomers with a glare, the man invited me and Haru to the inn.

When we enter the shabby inn, we can see that most of the contents are as shabby as expected. It the room that seems to be a bar, there’s only a dirty round plate on top of a large barrel. There’s no waitress girl, only an old man at the counter. The air is dusty as well, perhaps due to poor ventilation.

「This way.」

The man goes his way to the back without paying attention to the old man. The destination was a room marked with ‘Unauthorized Entry Prohibited’. The old man did not seem to pay any attention to this. Maybe he is pretending that he did not see it, or maybe the old man is one of the people involved. If so, there’s no need to restraint ourselves, even though we weren’t going to do so in the first place. We followed the man to the other side of this city, the deepest part of it.

After went through a hidden door that was under the carpet, he made us continue to walk around a similar path in an underground passage with a faint light. I guess he’s trying to hide the underground structure by not going the shortest distance, but by taking a detour that makes it difficult to understand. As I recall, it was similar before.

It seems that Haru is not good with an artificial maze like this. Black smoke is coming out of her head as she desperately trying to remember the path. She’s fine with forest or mountain road which has a similar path, though. That’s Haru for you.

「Please come in.」

「Kay.」

「Thank you very much.」

We walked for about five minutes until we arrived at the last door. Haru going out of her way to bow and gives her thanks to the man that has a cold attitude. It might be her disposition as a Japanese person or might be just her habit. Anyway, I almost have no such thing since I was dyed by the color of this world.

「Yo, Requiem. How are you?」

「I sure was fine until you came, Deris.」

Even though it’s underground, the room is spacious and clearly well-maintained. The skinhead, who sat on the desk in the back center of the room and gave a stinging reply, was Requiem, the one we were looking for. He’s a nice guy who puts tattoos not only on his back, but also on his shining head to give off a sense of intimidation. By the way, I always think of wanting to be his friend since our ages are similar and he’s somewhat convenient, but he seems to hate it. He sure is a shy guy.

「What’s with that kid? You are not here to sell her, aren’t you?」

「?」

「…… Ah, no, I see. So it’s like that. I was thinking why you didn’t go out with that knight leader, but to think that you have that kind of preference――」

Requiem, who made a thinking gesture while looking at Haru, convinced on his own.

「Screw with that. I’m sorry, but I’ve done that exchange many times, so I’m just going to ignore that. She’s my disciple, okay? My disciple.」

「Hmph, I’ll leave it as that. Either way, I’m not interested. Meeting face-to-face with you like this is just a whim, a minimum of adult manners. I won’t go along with you more than this, I’m busy even if――」

「――If I don’t finish my business, Nell will come next time, you know?」

「!?」

Requiem’s uninterested face stiffened. He gradually returned his gaze to me while his body’s joints creaking like a machine that had run out of oil.

「… W-well, my friend. Let’s hear what your business is.」

For people in the slum, the word ‘Nell’ is a useful magic word that can make you befriend even with this boss with a frightening look. This was triggered by an incident that Nell once had in the slum, but that’s another story. Well, as long as you see this reaction, you can almost imagine it. Yeah, I think you’re pretty much got that right.

「Did a group of young men came to this slum quarters in the last few days? Their ages are about the same as this girl.」

「A group of five, huh… Tuds, do you know anything about it?」

Requiem asked the large man who guided us. The large man, Tuds, crossed his arms, groaned for a bit, and then spoke out.

「…… Three days ago, a girl came. I don’t have any definite information yet, but it seems that the newcomer who joined the ‘Ash Rope’ brought her as a souvenir. As I recall, there were several of them.」

「You heard him. Is that enough?」

「That’s not good enough. Where is that girl now?」

「She’s unconscious and we are keeping her safe for now. There were probably more girls being kidnapped. Well, we have a rough estimation of their number…」

Uh-oh, Tuds-san is surprisingly talented. He gave me the information I wanted right away.

「Do you mind if I take care of that girl you are keeping safe? Also, give me that estimation of yours.」

「Hmph… Originally, I was going to ask her and then send her home when she wakes up. Abducting normal people is completely crossing the line after all. Do whatever you want. But, don’t do something that makes things worse for us, okay?」

「I know. I won’t do something that will harm my friend.」

「Good… Well, the behavior of those Ash Rope guys have been too far these days. If they continue to play with fire more than this, they may need to be punished severely.」

「Right. We can’t say anything if such a hero appears conveniently.」

「Yeah, I think I can overlook some rough stuff. Damn it.」

If we keep the Ash Rope in check on behalf of Requiem, it’s not a problem if some problems occur in the slum, huh… Well, now that we’ve got Midnight’s permission, let’s get going as soon as possible.