"What are we doing here?" Kaleb couldn't help but hesitate quite a lot seeing the location he was in.
"This can't be what you meant when you said you knew a place, right?" Ning asked. He too felt slightly awkward being in such a place.
"I can't help it," Tenn said. "This is the best place for what you need. Many big named figures come around to relax here and have fun, and in doing so end up talking a lot more than normal. If you want to learn about something, this is definitely the best place."
"That…" Ning couldn't deny that what Tenn said sounded plausible. "But was there no better place than a brothel house?"
"Okay, we're not exactly going to a brothel house, unless you want to, which I can't stop," Tenn said. "Not all the places here are for what you think they're here for. Some of them are just here just so you can have some female companionship while you drink and relax. There are some places where they provide males as well."
Ning sighed. "Fine, let's go get the information then. Let's see what it is all about," he said.
Tenn moved on ahead with Ning and Kaleb following behind. Kaleb had his hand over his face, trying to hide, but his fingers were wide open and he was looking right through them.
Tenn tried his best to hide his face under his hood, especially when someone not from this place passed by him. The last thing he wanted to do here was get found out by someone that recognized him.
"Brother Tenn, if you are wary of being found out, you should leave," Ning said. "Now that I'm here, I can find my own way around."
"No," Tenn said. "These people are very wary of strangers and won't answer any of your questions unless they are comfortable after knowing who you are. As such, I will have to show my face."
"Aren't you worried though?" Kaleb asked. "What if they tell your family?"
"That I won't have to worry about," Tenn said. "The last thing any of these women will want to do is reveal who their clients are. The moment such an incident is publicized, they will get no more clients at all."
"I see," Kaleb thought. "That makes sense."
The red light district was red at all. In fact, the buildings shined with lights of every color. The iridescent lights fell onto the road, mixing together, lighting the area in bright white light.
Not a single sound escaped the buildings despite the fact that there should have been a lot of sounds all over the place.
As it was evening, people were just getting done with their work and many people were visiting here. Despite that, the lack of sound told Ning that this place wasn't just a normal red-light district.
This was definitely a place that was big enough to place Sound Restricting barriers in every single building, and possibly every single room.
There were women wearing revealing clothes that hung around the windows of the buildings, luring in the men that came for exactly that. These women worked as better advertisements than any name the place could ever get.
Tenn stopped outside a building that did have a name. The Sweet Dreams Entertainment house.
Unlike the other houses, this one didn't provide any sexual entertainment, but simply companionship.
"This is the one," he said and entered. Ning and Kaleb followed behind him and entered as well.
A woman in a bright red dress and a rather revealing outfit arrived to welcome them. Tenn removed his hood and the woman's eyes widened slightly.
"Young master Tenn, welcome back," the woman smiled softly.
Ning and Kaleb looked at the man. "Welcome back? You've been here before?" Ning asked with a questioning look.
"It's not like that," Tenn said quickly. "One of my elder cousins dragged me here a week before I left for the academy to celebrate my acceptance. That's how I knew where to go exactly."
"I mean, I'm not judging or anything," Kaleb said.
Tenn looked at the woman and spoke. "Miss…"
"Jenna."
"Miss Jenna, we aren't here for what you think," he said. "My friend here is looking for information, and my cousin had mentioned that there is no better place in the city than this for gathering information. Can we acquire some?"
The woman shook her head. "Young master Tenn, you should be more tactful with your requests. You should know we can't just hand over information. We're an entertainment house, not an information house," she said.
"Then…" Tenn was stumped.
"Then what we can do is entertain you," the woman said. "And if by some chance our girls are happy enough to give you some information, then that's that."
"Ah," Tenn realized what was happening. "Then I would like to use your services."
The woman, with her unending smile, asked, "Would you like different rooms or the same one?"
"Sa—"
"Let's do with different," Ning said quickly. "At least for me."
Kaleb had no problem with either, so he let Tenn make the decision for him.
Tenn shrugged. "Two rooms please," he said.
"Please come with me."
The woman took the three of them to two rooms that were side by side. As soon as Ning entered his room, he suddenly couldn't hear anything outside at all.
There was a woman in the room already, who by the looks of it was in her early 20s. She had a string instrument in her hand that she started playing as soon as Ning entered.
"Hello, sir. How are you doing on this lovely evening?" the woman asked as Ning entered.
Ning looked around at the room once before answering, "I'm doing alright."
"Please, come sit and enjoy this song of mine," the woman said and started singing a slow, melodic song that seemed to lull Ning into getting rid of all of his worries.
He sighed and sat down, wondering how early it would be before he got to leave the place.