Kapitel 58: Chapter 58: Slums
Chapter 58: Slums
After walking off the ship and onto land I was expecting to have sea legs.
"Strange, I thought my legs would feel shakier."
Makoto, who was just standing behind me just looked a little proud, "Didn't you realize that the ship we were on wasn't swaying or anything? All of my ships are enchanted to make them as comfortable as possible."
"Isn't that cheating?"
Makoto just looked at me like I was an idiot before walking away.
Anyways, now that we were on land I could feel the misery in the air more clearly. Call me crazy but the sight just made me feel even more invigorated. I can already imagine the amount of sales I'll get from people.
[CONGRATULATIONS YOU HAVE LEARNED: NEGATIVE DRAIN LVL 1]
What the?!
"Makoto, have you ever heard of a skill called Negative Drain?"
Makoto just sighed before turning his head slightly to look at me through the corner of his eye.
"It's a cultivation technique exclusive to darker elements. Particularly demon kind and practitioners of the dark arts. I'm assuming you got it?"
"Yep."
I guess the prerequisite was to be surrounded by misery? I was going to try it out on the move until Makoto flicked me on the forehead.
"Don't be stupid Jess. That technique will allow your soul to absorb all of the negative energy in your surrounding area. Think about that for a second."
Now that he said that out loud my face paled for a second.
"Thanks for the heads up."
He nodded before we continued forward. Funnily enough we were still on the pier outside the massive gates that lead to the city.
We had to wait in line behind a few other 'people.' Wait, is that offensive? I say people, but some of them come in varying shapes and sizes. I thought Rosary would have more elves but surprisingly I haven't seen any except for the receptionist up front.
Speaking of which, as soon as I got to the front of the line this was her response, "Payments first, passport second, appraisal stone third."
"Um ok."
I pulled out my paperwork and before I could say anything.
Cough.
I pulled out my wallet and submitted a couple dozen garden coins. It's the local currency for Rosary. Fortunately we managed to find a few buyers to offload some of our more basic goods.
"Passport?"
Now I can give her my passport. All it does is document my name, class, and job description.
I also had to give her other paperwork such as my inventory reports, receipts to make sure I didn't steal them. They're forged obviously. My demon shop doesn't do receipts or refunds.
Finally I had to explain my reasons for being here.
She just looked at me like I was insane when I said I was going to live here.
"We don't accept runaways or bandits. We don't care if it was 'all in the past.' This isn't your home. It's not even ours."
"No ma'am. I'm just a wandering merchant who's looking to settle down."
She gave me the stink eye for a second and without saying anything she just slid over a small stone slab.
"Hand."
I couldn't help but give a nervous smile. Fortunately this is just an ordinary appraisal stone, so it won't be able to look past my [Hide Status] skill.
I have everything written down to make me look like a normal mage with the item box skill and a few cursed art spells. If I were a criminal it would have [Bandit] or [Pirate] written down in the class description.
I soon saw her eyes open wide.
"My apologies, my lord. I hadn't realized you were such a powerful man. I suppose that means you've heard about the elven migration?"
I couldn't help but turn my head up after being called a lord. It seems they look fondly on high ranking supers.
"I have yes, and I'm looking forward to all the new experiences."
After I said that I saw her lips twitch and I could hear Makoto preventing himself from laughing from behind me.
"I see. Well, I hope you have fun."
Right before I walked away I saw her button up her shirt a little, but I just thought she was getting chilly. It's quite windy out after all.
…
Elven receptionist POV
"Great. Another pervert looking to get their disgusting hands on our kind. I can't believe we allow foreigners here at all."
Some of her non-elven coworkers just gave her a side eye before getting back to work. Nobody wanted to correct her by letting her know that she was a foreigner too.
"I'll have him marked as potentially dangerous."
…
"Why were you laughing back there?"
I asked Makoto while walking through the gate with just the three of us. Most of our goods remained on the ship or outside of it for safekeeping. First we need to find a buyer.
"Jess, you made it sound like you were here for the elven women."
"… We're not? I mean, we're here for other slightly less important things like trade and stuff, but… Elven ladies are still elven ladies."
"… I don't know why I thought otherwise with you."
I could hear Alora take a deep breath in and a deep breath out from behind me. I'm almost surprised she hasn't hit me yet. Maybe all of these negative emotions in the air are helping her stay calm. If that's the case I might as well help start a war.
"So, should we go to the bar and speak to our spy friends?"
"That's for the best. We don't know what the market looks like. We might as well ask about the situation."
"Sounds like a plan."
…
After searching around we finally got the location on the 'Flying Biscuit.'
"What kind of name is the flying biscuit anyways?"
"I've heard of way worse."
Alora and I looked at Makoto for a few seconds hoping he would enlighten us.
Fortunately he got the hint and started listing a few horrible names on the top of his head.
"The toilets dream was a good one. There was the dragon's ass, because apparently the thighs and ass are the most delicious part of a dragon. Then there was the lover's vomit. That was my favorite.
"Who the hell names a restaurant lovers vomit?"
"Apparently he named it that because he loved his wife so much that he was willing to eat her-"
"Ah ah ah. You can stop."
Alora backed me up on that one.
After we finished talking, we continued walking until we finally found the bar we were looking for.
After I opened the door up I was faced with the raw stench of alcohol and depression. Despite it being afternoon plenty of people were still drinking.
"My kind of people."
"If you were strong enough to befriend them."
Alora chose now to speak up. It's fine, I smirked at her while thinking about the things I'll do tonight as punishment. She clearly noticed this and blushed before turning away.
"Sorry."
"Jess, can you refrain from sexually harassing my daughter in public? Or around me."
Makoto looked annoyed while he looked around. So I chose to keep my mouth shut for the time being. Unfortunately it was a bit hard to get my bearings because of the large amount of people around here.
I was surprised by how empty the streets were at first but now that I'm in here I can see why.
"Everyone is at the bar drinking."
The smell of booze was strong in the air. You would've thought there would be more anarchy in a place like this but that didn't seem to be the case.
Most of the patrons looked too tired to even lift their heads from off the table. Some even just stared off into the distance with empty gazes like they were almost dead.
I half expected some of them would look our way, scowl and stir up problems like making passes at Alora, or saying cliche lines like, 'We don't take kindly to outsiders. Scram!' Then we would be forced to fight them. Show our dominance and become famous throughout town!
"Jess. Get your head out your ass. Let's go."
I jumped out of my thoughts and followed after Makoto while clearly looking disappointed at the lack of attention from the surrounding drinkers.
"I was expecting a bar fight or something."
I could tell Makoto was rolling his eyes when he began speaking, "You could expect that in a small mining town or a boisterous city where people have the energy to spare, but places like this? Good luck."
Me and Alora looked at him confused for a second. I think I understood what he meant from the bare minimum amount of information I already had so I just decided to keep my mouth shut and pretend to look smart.
Alora on the other hand did not do so, "Why?"
Makoto just sighed before shaking his head, "Let's ask our friend. I think he's got a VIP room on the second floor."
We quickly went upstairs and looked around, unlike the first floor this area was a lot less depressing.
It was no upgrade though, some guys were quietly playing pool together while others either had a woman on their lap or their friends were silently chatting with each other in a corner somewhere.
Strangely enough, Makoto started walking up to the man with the woman on his lap.
The man had a sly smile and a mischievous air to him. His greasy black hair and button up vest made him look like he was trying to be more important than what he was and he looked like he was failing at it.
The guy looked like a scam artist who was willing, capable, and downright had the desire to stab someone.
"You must be Dimitri."
The shady guy just looked at Makoto for a second before turning his eyes back to the girl.
I could see him caressing the woman's arms while he said that. Meanwhile she just silently chuckled before getting up to leave.
He spoke to us in a faint Greek accent, "Did you come to ruin my fun? Or did you need something?"
Makoto pulled up a chair and leaned back with his legs propped against the table without saying anything.
They looked at each other for a few seconds before Dimitri chuckled and spoke up, "Alright scary guy. What do you wanna know?"
Before Makoto said anything I felt like I needed to speak up.
"Are you with our mutual friends?"
Dimitri just scoffed, "I'm with the UDE yes."
I looked a bit taken aback for a second there. I was expecting more discretion.
"Don't look so surprised, the authorities are well aware of my allegiances. The UDE doesn't have much or any influence here, or any surrounding continent for that matter. So they've just ignored us for the most part." Dimitri said.
I guess it's not that surprising. It's fairly common knowledge among the ones in power that our world gets its fair share of visitors. As for the common people, most of them don't really care or pay much attention to it unless we're talking about otherworlders. Everyone hates otherworlders.
That did remind me of something, "Your accent. Where are you from?"
Dimitri just looked up at the ceiling like he was trying to remember, "The external district. Born and raised."
The external district is located on the outer periphery of UDE territory. It's not on the central continent but it's close. You could say they're mostly vassal states that follow under the jurisdiction of the highest bidder from the outer world.
On that note, the goblin empire and Grove Kingdom is located just outside of that.
"Must've been hard. The UDE has treated the natives with respect but even they aren't keen on enforcing the law to outsiders."
The outer districts were basically considered slums to the UDE. Not that they are. Every district possesses at least two or three S rank supers and each district is rich enough to buy the entire goblin empire if they wanted to.
"Enough about me. You came here because you want to know about Rosary. So ask."
"Okay, why is this place such a crap hole?"
Dimitri just smiled, "The ultimate question huh."
Wöchentlicher Energiestatus
-- Power-
Rangliste 
-- Power-
Stein