章 68: Do not trust prostitutes, please! part 5

Hiraku came closer to Rina and the others with Ayumi still in his arms. They were breathing heavily but most of them were unscathed, one of the youngest slave girls from Hiraku's group was heavily injured but after Helena healed her she was as good as new.

Helena's mana capacity was much bigger than it used to be thanks to the constant treatment she had to apply to Sera's fractured arm.

"Where's Ryu?"

Rina asked Hiraku who instead of replying pointed towards the brothel's entrance.

As soon as the battle ended Ryu hurried inside the brothel to seek for food, his mental state was completely lost on his hunger. Only after breaking in, pushing past some prostitutes that were cowering inside raiding the kitchen and eating with manners that would make a wolf lose its appetite Ryu regained his consciousness.

With both hands he lifted a sack of flour, he may have satisfied his hunger but he was still worried about Ksenia's children and the rest of the group that stayed at the tavern, so he brought the flour outside with half a bread still in his mouth.

"Ryu! are you ok!?"

Anne came to his side taking the heavy load from his hands.

"Mmm mfm gmgm"

He mumbled with the bread still on his mouth.

"Don't speak with your mouth full, that's gross!"

She said as she was about to try to take the piece of bread from his mouth, but when she saw Ryu's eyes she realized that would've been a bad move.

"Can someone please explain me what the hell just happened"

Rina was still in awe, everything happened to fast, but she still believed it was one of Ryu's schemes.

"No Idea"

Ryu shrugged after swallowing the last bit of bread.

"You really expect us to believe you had nothing to do with this?"

Anne frowned. Ever since they met Ryu they noticed that, despite him being a good guy, he was far from naive and wouldn't fall head first on someone's trap. In fact, he was so cautious and cunning that he always managed to turn bad luck into blessings for everyone.

"He really doesn't know, this was all my dear wife's plan"

Hiraku said leaving everyone astonished. Ayumi, who had just woken up from her torpor, patted Hiraku's arm asking him to leave her on the ground. She was in perfect health but exhausted and couldn't wait to go back home, but it had been so long since they met each other that she couldn't just leave without providing an explanation. So she invited everyone to the trading outpost to talk things over.

Everyone from the Silver goddess tavern was shocked to see the renewed trading outpost. It wasn't a simple square warehouse anymore but a huge house with a water mill and a small aqueduct that ran next to the house, both feeding the water deposit on the roof and discarding waste.

Sophie, who had stayed at home because she was completely useless in battle, opened the door and let everyone in.

"Welcome back master Ayumi, Master Hiraku and dear guests"

She said bowing politely and leading them to the dinning room where a wonderful hot meal was already served. Both Ryu and Ayumi jumped on top of the table wolfing down a full serving before even sitting down.

If Anne and Helena were not starving too, they may have lost their appetite at the sight, but since their condition was so bad they couldn't reject the food they were served.

Only after satisfying their hunger they started speaking as Sophie served everyone a cup of tea.

"What did you mean it was all Ayumi's plan Hiraku?"

Anne was the first to speak, her condition wasn't as bad as the rest because she had been fed properly to help her recover from her sickness.

"Just as he said Anne, it was I planned everything"

Ayumi puffed her chest out and closed her eyes striking a pose everyone knew too well. Whenever Ayumi had been helpful and expected to be praised, she would stand like that until someone complimented her or at least thanked her. But this time she was too eager to explain things.

"Before the freeze we got everything ready, bought some slaves, supplies and built this house. During the freeze I had plenty of time to think on our situation, since whenever I trained I needed some time to recover my mana. Anyway, whenever I thought on how things developed there was something that didn't add up so after the freeze, the same day you guys fed the whole town we kept busy.

We went to the brothel to eat, it was really expensive, but our objective wasn't eating, darling why don't you explain this part?"

She said taking a sip of tea, Hiraku nodded at her and continued the story.

"Yes, so my dear wife asked me to contact Taffy, Luke's favorite prostitute. At first it was difficult for me to find her because she looked nothing like she used to before the freeze. She was so thin and didn't wear any makeup. She was so youthful and pretty, but when I saw her it was as if life had been drained from her completely. She looked pitiful"

"Wait, didn't you say you bought some slaves? why didn't you just buy her?"

Rina interrupted Hiraku's recount.

"Young Luke did try to buy her, but she rejected him and he didn't want her to come unwillingly. Anyway, I asked her for an hour of her time and she obliged. When we got into a room I asked her what happened to her and she told me that, as soon as Luke left the place she told everyone that she had rejected Luke because she was close to buying herself back. When that got to her family's ears they came to the brothel and said that they could help her.

Her full price was 5 silver coins, and she was about 50 copper from buying herself back. Since it was her own family, of course she trusted them, and they paid the rest to buy her. She was blissful to finally be free from the brothel, only her family sold her back to madame Bianca immediately after buying her instead of setting her free"

"No way! how could someone do something so cruel to their own blood!?"

Helena exclaimed with tears on her eyes.

"Well, miss Helena, not everything is black and white. The freeze was coming and they were desperate to get supplies, by doing that they walked with 5 silver coins and managed to survive the freeze, even if it was at the expense of Taffy. She was starved during the freeze since there were not enough clients, only a few stayed inside the brothel instead of their own homes since this winter had been so harsh on everyone. Soon enough she didn't have enough money to pay even for her make up. Veronika, one of our slaves, usually helped the young prostitutes that couldn't afford to buy food during the freeze, but since we bought her, Taffy was left with absolutely nothing.

I'm not particularly proud of this, but Ayumi had foreseen this situation and that's why she asked me to find Taffy and turn her into our spy. All it took was a single silver coin and a promise to buy her and she was willing to even risk her life to gather information for us"

Ayumi grinned maliciously when Hiraku mentioned her.

"Well, it's her fault after all. She could've let Luke buy her and she wouldn't had been in that situation"

Ayumi's lack of scruples gave everyone the chills and made Rina realize how lucky she was that Hiraku's group didn't frequent the tavern that much, because if they did, she would've ended a slave, not by choice and certainly not for a short period.

"What does all this have to do with what happened today?"

"Isn't it obvious?"

Ayumi scoffed at Anne's question.

"Luke had made a deal with madame Bianca, we were supposed to take you guys out of business and then she would provide us with equipment, gear, materials and money. we went to the brothel claiming that you were completely out of food and that it was our fault, soon after a short man came by and informed her that you guys were, in fact, starving so she had no choice but to pay us sooner than she expected. It was then that Taffy informed us that Bianca was plotting something weird with Thomas and that she distrusted us. We only found out recently that it was Kaya's doing, she told Bianca that we were still associated. after a few days they attacked us and captured Ryu, and things went down as they did"

"That's impressive Ayumi, we wouldn't have made it without your help. Still there's something I don't understand. What was Bob's and Luke's role in all this?"

Ryu asked honestly surprised and intrigued, but Ayumi's smile turned upside down and her face turned grim.

"About that... well, they are currently missing"