CH 90

This was Masters’ Hideaway. A place for gentlemen to meet ladies.

Recently however, a sensitive problem has grown. Fights have started to occur between customers, and sometimes even the clerks end up getting involved. Whether it be a fight over men, or women, or a game, the bouncers or Margherita could break it up unless Baltis was there in which case him just looking at the offenders would be enough to get them to back down. However, this time the trouble isn’t going away, and even if they put out the fires, the embers are still roasting underneath.

“Ellis, are you in?”

It was Margherita who ended up making the visit to Ellis’s mansion. She had timed it well as Ellis had just finished lunch and was about to start thinking about what games to play next.

“Oh, how unusual. Margherita, how is the shop?”

Ellis welcomed Margherita into the living room and offered her a cup of tea before asking how things were going.

“The sales have been going well, but recently some problems have been popping up that I’m not sure how to fix. So today a consultation…..I was hoping to borrow a little bit of your wisdom.”

Margherita’s words piqued all five of the girls’ curiosity. Her story went as follows.

Recently, with the popularity of the events in the live house growing, the number of people visiting the store in order to visit Nobuhiko’s group or Ramon’s group had increased. Naturally most of those visitors are fellow fashionable gays, but a few fujoshis¹ had also mixed in.

The problem is that the two groups are starting to get assertive in various ways.

For instance, some of the gays are getting annoyed.

They call the gachihomos ‘ugly’, ‘gross’, and other such insults. There have even been some more problematic guests who have started insulting the girls working under Marilyn, calling them ‘dirty’. An insult that strikes as ignorant when they inevitably start complaining about discrimination with a lack of options for them at Dandy’s Shangri La.

Overall Ramon has taken responsibility with disciplining the more problem children while soothing the underlying tension.

The gachihomos on the other hand are usually quiet, but after a couple drinks, they become chattier than a group of housewives. They will go on about how, just like how a woman falls in love with a man’s muscles, they fell in love with men’s muscles, and how the fashionable gays are just men imitating women. This would all be annoying enough, but then they inevitably start taking off their clothes to show off their muscles and everything goes downhill from there.

Nobuhiko always steps in to ring these guys in, but it oftentimes shows just how much the gachihomos look down on the fashionable gays.

“Hmm.”

Ellis thought about it. Most of the more problematic behavior could be attributed to alcohol and explosive anger, but the gay male discrimination was a problem. Of course, having the store be filled with gachihomos would cause its own problems. Reeve wouldn’t be able to use the game room after all.

“I understand. I’ll go talk to Uncle Baltis and Auntie Maria.”

As she told Margherita so, Ellis had already jumped out of  her seat and began preparing to head out.

First off was Uncle Baltis at the Thieves’ Guild.

“That’s why, I was wondering if I could proceed like that, Uncle.”

“Ah, increasing the number of members would cause problems of its own for the guild. Still it’s quite the problem. Unfortunately I have no idea what the gachihomos or the gays are going to think about it.”

Next was Auntie Maria at the Merchant Guild.

“That’s why, could I just borrow Nicole and Ichiro for awhile?”

“The ‘Auntie’ is unnecessary. But if that’s the story, I don’t mind. But only on the condition that Reeve teaches me some tips for Warren Numbers.”

“I understand. Maria.”

From there, Maria called out the gay Nicole and the gachihomo Ichiro. After a quick explanation of the plan from Ellis, they both nodded their assent.

“Great. Next is Claire and Uncle Flint.”

Ellis returned home looking to pick up Claire, but when she arrived, she found that Claire was already at the Workshop Guild. Recently Claire has been spending an awful lot of time there. Well, Ellis could kind of guess the reason, so she already knew there was nothing to be done about it.

Turning on her heels, Ellis headed back to town and headed straight for the Workshop Guild. She found Claire in one of the metalworking stations, completely immersed over a blueprint she had most likely made herself.

“Claire, sorry to disturb you, but could you help me out with that Margherita thing from awhile ago?”

“Okay. Give me one moment to put my things away.”

Claire still had some oil smudging her cheek when she came back. Ellis thought she looked a little cute like that, so she kept the fact a secret as the two of them headed further inside the guildhouse to find Flint.

“That’s why, can I ask you for this favor?”

“I suppose. I should check the site over once.”

“That’s right Master. We should be able to get it done with just a little remodeling.”

And so the three people began exchanging their opinions while planning for the next step.

Ten days later, two abnormal groups showed up at the same time on Gentleman Street. On the one side was a group of men all wearing white loincloths, rippling muscles on full display for anyone to see. On the other side was a group of men all wearing tight, leather pants that accented their relatively slim, shirtless figures. Both groups stood across the street from each other, glaring each other down until the sun had risen high and enough people had gathered.

The white loincloth group shouted out to the gathered audience.

“From today onward, I announce the glorious gachihomo’s personal club ‘Revitalizing Home’ open for business Today’s guest will be the honorable Nobuhiko!”

Once they were done, the leather pants group shouted out as loud as they could so as to not lose.

“Today we have started the long-awaited fashionable gay hangout ‘Mercury Bar’. Join us and our special guest, Ramon from the Stone Walls!”

Yes, Ellis didn’t need any fancy plans. If the two groups were going to fight like children, she would separate them like one would fighting children. And if the end result was two lucrative new businesses, well, the more ril the better.

Nicole and Ichiro had taken care of most of the heavy lifting gathering together a group of gachihomo and gay cooks, sommeliers, and bartenders to open up their own clubs right across the street from each other. Hopefully the two groups acting as neighbors could gradually wear away at the discrimination.

All stock for the two stores would come directly from the Merchant Guild. The management of the stores would be carried out by the Thieves’ Guild like the other stores, but the management work itself would be handled by Nobuhiko and Ramon respectively as subordinates under Margherita. And additional employees can just be hired by the store directly.

Most of the individuals who had been frequenting Masters’ Hideaway had already been gathered there for the announcement. Nobuhiko and Ramon had met together beforehand and agreed to work together to avoid any future problems.²

Suddenly, Ichiro and Nicole walked up to Ellis at her spot in a cafe, overlooking the whole gathering.

“In the games room, the assistants are banned from forming a relationship with the customers. But, we don’t want to pose those type of restrictions on our workers. Ellis, what do you think we should do?”

An image suddenly popped into Ellis’s head. If she were to be honest, Ellis didn’t like men. It wasn’t at the uncomfortable fear that Claire felt nor was it at the level of physical rejection that Reeve had, but it was at the level that she really didn’t want to think about men engaging in any type of personal relationship whether that be with a woman or another man. She made sure any details on Margherita or Marilyn’s part were left unsaid, and she still felt a small chill in the back of her head whenever she saw Peach or Gray and remembered what they had shown her at Wheat Grace.

But Ellis kept such thoughts to herself and forced a smile as she answered.

“Love whoever you want. It’s free love, but just be watchful for any problems that might crop up.”

For now the discrimination incident had been settled. Or at the very least put on hold. With a little luck, Ellis hoped any future problems could be settled simply with Ramon and Nobuhiko working together.

That evening, Ellis’s group visited Gentleman Street again to see how things were going so far. They arrived to find the streets filled with more vigor than ever.

The five of them decided to head over and see the Hideaway first. Someone must have seen them coming though, because Margherita was already standing outside to greet them.

“Ellis, everyone, you really saved me this time. Plus, the sales for the whole street have grow as well. I have nothing but words have gratitude for you.”

“Ah, it’s fine. We just came by to see how things were going so far.”

Reeve took a step forward here and gave Ellis a serious look.

“Mistress, I’m sorry, but I would like to stay in the game room. I’m already feeling a little sick.”

Frau joined her and started patting Reeve’s shoulder.

“I’m also not really that interested, so I will just stay here and have a few drinks.”

“I got it. Then just the three of us will go on ahead.”

With an understanding nod, Ellis took Katie and Claire with her towards the newly established Revitalizing Home and Mercury Bar.

First off was the Revitalizing Home.

Right away a rhythmic chant of, “Osu, osu,” could be heard while walking up to it. When Ellis opened the sliding doors, the thick smell of oil and sweat mixed into the air stung her eyes, and the sight of numerous men all striking poses with their shirts off left her speechless.³

……

Ellis immediately slammed the sliding door shut. Taking a peek over at Katie and Claire, she saw that the two of them were about as pale as she felt.

“Just now, I feel like I saw something I shouldn’t have.”

“If there were any women inside there, they would definitely be seen as a pervert nya.”

It was collectively decided that they would avoid Revitalizing Home in the future.

Up next was Mercury Bar.

Walking up to it, it was a lot quieter than the last bar had been.

When Ellis pulled open the door, a cloud of tobacco smoke billowed out making her eyes sting once again followed by the sight of numerous talking with close skin-on-skin contact.

A shiver ran up Ellis’s spine as she quickly shut the door. Taking a peek over at Katie and Claire, she saw that the two of them had started rubbing their arms–trying to warm up after the sudden chill that had overcome them.

“The world sure is vast.”

“There were women in there too nya. Why were they just staring at the guys from a corner nya?”

It was collectively decided that they would try and avoid Mercury Bar in the future as well.

“Let’s go back.”

Ellis, with Katie and Claire at her side, thus finished her inspection much quicker than originally planned.

It goes without saying that the Ellis vs Claire and Ellis vs Katie activities that night were more intense than normal.

Reeve and Frau ended up feeling some intense regret, but it cannot be helped. It’s a women’s world in the mansion, and any lingering male images need to be properly forgotten.

Thus another night in Warren went by.

1. First off, in case you don’t know, fujoshis are women who like to ship men together. Secondly, did you know that the direct English translation for a fujoshi is ‘Rotten woman’? I never did, and all of the sudden so many jokes in so much anime makes sense to me.

2. Warren has the weirdest gangs.

3. I keep imagining an army of Alex Louis Armstrongs all doing poses at each other, and I can’t stop laughing.