CH 50

“I’ll go get some air.”

“Are you okay? Shall we go together?”

“No. I want to be alone.”

“Are you okay?”

“Yes. Instead, take care of Catherine.”

Iris held Ophelia’s hand as if she was worried, but Ophelia patted the back of her hand and left immediately.

.

Meanwhile, Richard, who unknowingly created an opportunity for Ophelia and Cooper to be together personally, was about to leave the palace and enter the plaza at night.

A man wrapped in a black robe passed through the light of the night.

Just hearing about a ‘black-hooded figure’ was suspicious, but strangely, no one paid attention to Richard.

Rubbing his sleepy eyes and yawning in his father’s arms, a child’s eyes met with Richard’s, leading him to open his eyes and mouth wide.

Richard pressed his index finger onto his lips with an expressionless face, and the child tugged his father’s top and nodded.

After crossing the square like that, Richard took a step into an alley much darker than that.

A back alley where even the air changed, like a completely different world with just one step difference.

In the alleyway, tangled like a spider’s web, or rather, like an anthill, a different kind of people than those who frequent the plaza were moving in the dim night.

Those who did not seem to care but constantly looked around, vigilantly and sharply, to preserve their lives.

However, even those people did not notice the existence of Richard passing right in front of them.

It would be more accurate to say that, like a ghost in the middle of the day, they couldn’t recognize him even though he was right in front of their eyes.

Not long after Richard had passed the plaza and entered the back alley, and to a backstreet darker and deeper than that.

“Oh, it’s late. It’s late.”

A hurried man caught his eye.

“Ugh, I didn’t think there’ll be anything worthwhile right before I have to leave.”

As if the man was used to talking to himself, he muttered as he walked along, repeating something uncomfortably.

“If you want to sell yourself, I have to do it since there’s money. What a big issue. Well, since the festival is near, it’s time for weird things to happen…”

His throat was choked as he muttered like he was in the rain.

A darker night descended from the pitch-black night sky.

Even on a windless night, the black robe fluttered as if absorbing all the faintly shimmering lights.

The mouth of the one who looked up at Richard with blank eyes immediately dropped open.

A while ago, someone had seemingly appeared above his head like a painting, but now all he could see was the familiar night scene he had always been to.

He rubbed his eyes and murmured.

“Huh… did I see something?”

He looked around frantically, but he couldn’t see anyone.

After a quick sneeze, he shuddered.

“Is my body weak?”

He sniffed and muttered with a confused face.

“I should go get some of that medicine, which is said to be great for the body.”

Recently, there was a drug that had been secretly spread by word of mouth, but it was difficult to obtain, so it was said that its performance was overestimated because it was rare, rather than because it was as effective as what the wandering words suggested.

“Since it’s said there are no side effects, I should get some of it and eat it, ahhhh… Let’s see, how can I get the medicine…”

The man hurried on his way to work, listing out a bunch of people who dealt in such dubious drugs.

In the place where the man left, Richard, who had been leaning in the shadows, slowly straightened his body.

“Drugs.”

If it was medicine that people like that bought, it was probably sold by scammers who tricked people with plausible words.

It was a problem that could have been taken lightly.

‘But isn’t that too coincidental?’

Human trafficking and drugs.

Of course, it might not be that rare for those two things to happen at the same time on the streets at night, especially in back alleys.

However, a drug rumored to have excellent results and no side effects became popular almost at the same time as a strange form of human trafficking in which ‘victims’ offered themselves voluntarily…

Even considering that it was before the festival, it was unusual for things that weren’t normally talked about, let alone occur, explode at the same time.

Richard gazed at the silhouette receding into the distance, then sank into the shadows again.

He was going to visit some of the informants planted here to collect the stories and stop somewhere else to put the pieces together according to what people were saying.

If he followed the lead and listened to the stories, he would be able to get a more vivid picture.

Strange human trafficking and dubious drugs.

‘Isn’t that guy dealing with both?’

A few minutes later, Richard melted into the air and disappeared, and the man hurriedly tumbled.

“Here you are.”

“Uh, yes yes. Already?”

“It hasn’t been a few minutes…”

“Oops, that’s right.”

The man quickly straightened his clothes.

“Did you bring the tea?”

“Yes? Tea? What kind of tea do you mean… ugh.”

The man who hit the head of a subordinate who didn’t understand why clicked his tongue.

“Ugh, you have a memory of a goldfish. Didn’t I tell you to serve tea as there’s a special customer?”

“Ah, you did.”

Although the man was annoyed, he didn’t have time to bruise his subordinate any more, so he moved to the room where the guest was waiting.

“Sorry. I’m a little late because something happened.”

Upon entering the room, he bowed as best he could and rubbed his palms together.

“I believe it must have been important enough to postpone the previous appointment. What was it?”

But all he got back was a cold and rude answer.

It was humiliating, but he couldn’t help but answer. Since this impudent and irritating person in front of him was his biggest customer.

“It’s just… it’s the festival, don’t a lot of people come and go?”

“Simply.”

“There were people who wanted to sell themselves due to unavoidable circumstances.”

It was a very strange statement, but the man’s biggest customer did not express any doubts.

‘If you’re going to do that, why did you ask?!’

As soon as the man vented his anger internally, the customer brought up the matter with a nonchalant face.

“My order?”

When the topic of money came up, the man quickly rubbed his palms and nodded.

“Needless to say, it’s ready. Would you like to check it?”

“But of course.”

“Yes. Then as soon as possible…”

The man quickly moved his heavy body and laid out the poison and medicine the customer had requested.

“This is… and if you mix it…”

Even though it was the first time he had come here, the customer spoke expressionlessly, unlike the proud expression of the man who completed a pretty long explanation well.

“I’m just an agent. Please enclose a note of all the things you just said.”

“Yes. Yes.”

‘If so, then why are you asking for an explanation?’

‘Besides, what is that stiff and arrogant attitude while speaking as an agent?’

‘I’ve never seen that bastard lower his head. It’s like a block of wood had been placed on his neck.’

The man cursed inwardly, but let out a servile laugh on the outside.

Eventually, when the customer left with a package containing dozens of medicines and poisons, the man quickly erased his humble smile and sighed with frustration.

“Tsk, puh! Ah, it’s really dirty.”

“Shall I sprinkle some salt?”

(TL/N: in some cultures, sprinkling salt wards off evil.)

“What kind of nonsense is that bastard? The biggest customer! The things that so-called agent bought are enough to poison every human being on this land! I don’t know which noble family it is, but it’s none of my business what the hell you’re doing.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Nevermind, you go over here and bring a woman and a man. It’s a product that needs to be sold, so don’t ever touch it.”

The man threw the crumpled paper, but the subordinate hesitated and laughed awkwardly.

“I can’t read that text.”

“Oh, right. Hmm, you know the blue house?”

“Yes.”

“Based on that…”

The man who had been criticized by the agent who left was evaluating the deal he had just concluded with his thick fingers.

“Let’s see. Uh? Was this medicine in there too?”

He found that the medicine he was going to take was available just in time, and was also included in the things he had sold today.

“Hmm? If you mix this medicine with this, you’ll get very severe symptoms of addiction? This is a complete drug… Keuk!”

Without even finishing his words, he unwittingly pressed his right cheek to the desk.

Of course, it wasn’t intentional.

The man whose cheek was stepped on by a shoe descending from the sky desperately turned his eyes to the side to see who was oppressing him, but there was no way he could.

And the moment he realized that, the man immediately lowered his eyes and stopped breathing.

—If you’re no match, you should just lay bare your stomach and obey. 

The man faithfully followed the first iron rule to survive on the back alleys.

How long had it been since the man showed submission?

Eventually, the heavy air that had been confined not only to his cheeks but also to his throat was relieved.

This time, while the man still hadn’t returned to his senses, the person who had been crushing him sat in front of him.

The man’s eyes rolled as he slipped his cheek away from the desk.

He was still wary of even breathing, desperately suppressing his instinctive curiosity to not look until the person in front of him gave permission.

Wasn’t that curiosity and the patience to suppress it the driving force behind the man’s survival?

Just how much time had passed like that?

Ame: I’m really loving this dual plot point we have now. I know it’s more likely than not that it all leads to Neir, but I just like how both the ML and FL are getting things done!

Dea: Talk about an independent power couple, honestly this novel is giving us everything, the romance, the friendship, the engaging plot