Chapter 69

Chapter 69: Do not trust prostitutes, please! part

“How can you be so calm!? they’re missing and you’re not doing anything!”

Anne exclaimed without giving Ayumi enough time to explain.

“There’s nothing I can do is there? also, no one has come back from the mine yet so they must be delayed. My best guess is they’re resting and taking care of the wounded. They should have enough supplies to last until spring, maybe even more so...”

Ayumi started with a poker face, but her eyes filled up with tears as she kept talking breaking her emotionless facade.

“I agree with Ayumi, there’s nothing we can do to help them, but there’s people back at the tavern waiting for us and it’s really late”

Ryu said as he stood up, Anne, Helena and Rina quickly followed him. Ayumi and Hiraku accompanied them to the exit and, after saying their goodbyes they headed to the tavern. Since the brothel was on the way they could see the aftermath of the battle.

Corpses were lying on the ground, the brothel’s guards and even madame Bianca were surrounded by people armed with spears and torches.

.....

“Ryu, aren’t you going to do anything?”

Rina poked his ribs.

“What do you mean?”

“People are going crazy and the mayor is nowhere to be seen, if you don’t do something they’ll kill everyone”

Ryu pondered for a second before replying.

“And how is that my problem? they were willing to do unspeakable things to you and...”

“That’s exactly what they’re gonna do to everyone at the brothel if no one stops them. Most of the girls are innocent and they’ll pay for Bianca’s doings”

Ryu let out a tired sigh and got closer. Madame Bianca was unconscious and being tied to a pole, she was stark naked but since Ayumi burnt her clothes, her body looked like charcoal with fleshy cracks covering her.

It was a gruesome sight and made Helena shudder, she wanted to run over there and heal her to stop her suffering but when she thought of what would’ve happen if Bianca won, she felt disgust instead of pity.

When the group finally reached the brothel all the prostitutes were inside, blocking the doors trying to keep people from entering the place. Instead of talking, people rammed at the door with all their effort, but they were too sturdy and didn’t even move.

“People of Ironwoods, calm down, I understand how you feel but you’re acting like savages!”

Ryu said in a loud voice after clearing his throat. His first impulse was to ignore what was going on and head to the tavern, he was worried for Sera and the kids, besides there was little to gain even if he did something. But when he saw the pitiful state madame Bianca was he came up with an idea.

It didn’t matter to him whatever fate awaited her, he didn’t want revenge nor did he want to forgive her for what she had done. After all she couldn’t achieve much even with all her scheming. But, he could show everyone how effective the medicine he prepared with his distiller and open the market for it.

“Why should we listen to you? you’re just as bad as she is”

A man on his thirties said, he was well built and seemed to be a hunter. He was pulling Kaya’s hair trying to lift her from the ground, she was kneeling down in front of him doing her best effort to avoid being captured. There were many hands on her body trying to undress her and keeping her from moving.

“Am I? Are we?”

Ryu said looking honestly surprised first pointing at him and then at Rina.

“For all you know we’ve been accused without any proof, you almost imparted a punishment without any grounds on innocent people. I know I’m not the mayor, but don’t you guys have laws?”

Rina facepalmed at his words, he was doing fine until he mentioned the law.

“Our law says that whenever a hunter spots a misdeed he’s able to impart justice however he sees fit. If it turns out he made a mistake, the victim or their relatives can ask for a fair compensation and the hunter would lose his status”

She said tugging on Ryu’s coat, but his voice remained confident.

“What I propose is that we form a search party to investigate the brothel with our most trusted hunters and when we find the evidence, we vote for a punishment for madame Bianca. Also, the girls inside should be considered innocent, unless we find proof that they acted as her accomplices”

“Your words are reasonable, maybe too reasonable. I bet you’re saying that because you want to steal everything and keep it to yourself”

The man replied and everyone went silent waiting for Ryu’s response. Yet, he remained calm and put his hand on his chest.

“That comment deeply offends me, didn’t we feed you all about a week ago?”

“Yeah! but we had to pay, yet you make it sound as if you were doing a charity work”

The man had a reply at the ready for whatever Ryu had said, he didn’t care at all about right and wrong, nor did he give a damn about justice. All he wanted was to get some spoils and to be able to have his way with Kaya. He knew her ever since they were little and grew together, but they were not childhood friends since she always acted high and mighty and didn’t even bother looking at him.

She was the reason why he even became a hunter, but just before she came of age she was sold to the brothel for a pretty penny. Despite all his efforts he couldn’t afford to buy her, but he dreamed of her almost every night.

Before Rina, Kaya was considered the most beautiful girl in all Ironwoods.

“Don’t speak to Ryu like that! you don’t know what we endured this week because of that. We were left without a single ration of food and even all the money we raised that day wasn’t even enough to buy enough food for us”

Rina confronted the man, but another one stepped in.

“You’re lying! we all saw the chest filled with coins!”

“We charged a single copper per serving, even before the freeze that wouldn’t have been enough to even buy the ingredients. I’ll tell you what, I’ll go inside with the group of hunters and I’ll let you decide what should we get as compensation. I won’t have anything against you even if you decide I shouldn’t take anything with me”

Ryu shrugged leaving the man completely out of words, then a heavy hand was placed on the man’s shoulder.

“Come on Norman, what he says is more than reasonable and they are entitled to compensation, after all they were directly affected by that woman’s actions”

A more reliable looking hunter stood beside him and smiled at Ryu.

After deciding who was going to go inside the brothel they knocked on the door and convinced the prostitutes to let them in peacefully, after being reassured that they won’t hold any of them responsible for madame’s actions unless they participated directly on her misdeeds.

After getting inside the first place they checked was the kitchen, then the storage. Everyone but Ryu was surprised when they noticed that it was almost empty. Still, they looked inside every single room, they moved the furniture and turned the place over.

There was no trace of any hidden stash, it didn’t matter where they looked it was almost empty. They even questioned the prostitutes and the staff, but they claimed to not know anything about a secret storage room.

It looked as if madame Bianca was innocent after all and the hunters started becoming anxious. If there wasn’t any food they wouldn’t get any spoils, not only that, they would be punished for the way they treated madame Bianca.

It was then that Ryu remembered Mochi’s liking for the mochi he prepared, and since it was prepared with the elven wheat fruit, it didn’t spoil.

“Maybe my cat can find it”

Ryu’s words would have made everyone at the search party laugh, but when they recalled what that beanbag fat cat did to the captain of the brothel’s guard they had no choice but to agree with him.

The first thing Mochi did after entering the brothel was jump right on the cleavage of a well endowed prostitute. She was scared at first but when he noticed the cat’s cute demeanor, she held the cat on her arms.

“Please excuse my cat’s behavior miss”

Ryu said embarrassed.

“I don’t mind it, it’s cute”

She replied giggling.

After trying, and failing, to pull the cat from his comfortable spot, Ryu gave up and talked at Mochi.

“Listen up you couch potato, it’s about time you earn your food. I need you to find mochi”

The cat looked at Ryu with an intrigued expression and after a couple seconds the cat seemed to have understood his mission and pointed at itself, then hurried and asked Ryu for a treat.

“No, bad cat! there’s no treat for you until you find mochi!”

The cat tried desperately to point at itself and get a reward, it didn’t understand why wasn’t Ryu complimenting him for his hard work. Ryu, on the other hand was thinking that maybe he should have attempted to tame a jackal instead.

“That’s why we only train dogs, maybe we should just give up”

One of the men at the party sighed.

“No, wait a second. Listen well Mochi, you are Mochi the cat, but I need you to find mochi the food”

He said word for word and pointing at the cat when he said its name, then he gestured as if he was squishing something mushy with its fingers when he referred to the food.

The cat darted towards the kitchen as soon as it understood its mission leaving everyone in awe, even Ryu who still couldn’t believe how intelligent it was.