Chapter 18

Chapter 18 – The Journey to the Capital (5)

He didn't die, right?

I haven't done something like killing people yet.

"Ugghhhhh—"

Fortunately, the gangster was still alive. It looked as if he wouldn’t be able to eat properly for the rest of his life, but I guess it was fine since it was not my life.

It was a relief that he was still alive since now I didn’t have to feel guilty about it.

"You dare attack us? Everyone, attack him!"

When the first gangster yelled, the remaining three lunged at me at the same time. This time, I made sure to control my power.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

I failed.

It was easy to control my power with things like holding a spoon or a pen, but it was harder to control if I was trying to hit something. Fortunately, since I knew that I wasn’t good at controlling my strength, I could try to be more careful from now on.

When the three gangsters smashed into the wall, the remaining gangster was terrified. He tried to run away.

I almost tried to use magic to catch him, but I held back and grabbed the back of his shirt with my hand.

"Ahhhh! Please have mercy!"

I felt pity looking at his frightened face that was turning blue, so I smiled in order to reassure him.

"Heeek?"

Come to think of it, my current face looked like a middle-aged man with a scar on his face. It seemed my smile had the opposite effect since he currently wasn’t talking or looking at my face.

Let's just make things simple.

"Where's your boss?"

A husky altered voice replaced my original voice, and it was a lot lower than I expected.

The gangster trembled and stammered as he spoke. "Bo-bo-boss, the boss?"

"Yes. It was your boss who ordered you to take care of me, right?"

Actually, it was I who had made the first move. However, these poor gangsters just kept trembling as if they had realized that they had messed up big time.

"Bo-boss, there's no, no such....”

"Don't tell me that you don’t have a boss. I already know everything."

"Heeek?"

Actually, I didn't know anything. This was my first time leaving my hometown, so how would I know the situation of a back alley of some random village. But now, this gangster now had to tell me where his boss was even if his boss did not exist! His other choice was to become a part of the wall just like his friends.

"Well, you see....”

"Yah?"

"Big Brother? Big Brother would know."

It seemed like the gangster had decided to sell his acquaintance in exchange for his life. It was a very smart choice.

"Lead me to him as secretly as possible."

"Yes, yes!"

The gangster shuddered as he guided me deeper into the back alley. The final destination was a fairly messy backstreet pub.

"We-well, Big Brother will be in there. I'll leave you now then—"

The gangster wanted to run away.

I didn’t think it would matter if I let him go since he probably didn't know anything more.

I shot him a glance. He was definitely much older than me. "You can go."

"Really? Thank-thank you."

"But, if you run your mouth elsewhere, you better be prepared."

Although it didn't really matter since I was wearing a disguise, I thought it would be cool to say it. Also, it felt pretty good.

With a face full of fear, the nameless gangster said okay and ran away without looking back.

I thought it would be fun to chase someone running away like that and give him a big surprise when he finally thought he was safe, but I decided to hold back this time.

When I opened the door that seemed to be out of a western drama, what greeted me was the sight of scary-looking gangsters drinking and making bets. Perhaps it was because a stranger appeared, but the clamor disappeared and a lot of gazes turned to me.

I suddenly realized that I had sent the gangster away without asking him who his big brother was. But then again, since I just needed to find a good forger, it wasn't such a huge deal.

Still, I should give the gangster a camouflage to make people unable to tell if he was a person or a wall if I encountered him again.

My current options were to either squeeze information out of people or quietly state my business. I wanted to solve the situation as smoothly as possible. I passed through some tables lined up with bottles of alcohol and went straight for a man who seemed like an owner or an employee.

I sat down in front of the man and ordered, "Cold beer, no, if you have a black beer, I will have that."

"For black beer, I have one from Bam Barrack Mountain and Golway Mountain. Which one do you want?"

Well, I didn't know where either locations were. Let's just choose something.

"I'll have the one from Bam Barrack."

"Good choice. Golway tastes better with seafood which you can't find here. Would you like frank sausage as your side dish?

"You can't find seafood here?"

The direction to the capital was inland so it was obvious that it would be far from the ocean. I was asking mainly because I honestly had no idea where I currently was. More importantly, this was my first drink in sixteen years.

No, since I stopped drinking during my past life to prepare for the public service examination, it was even longer than that. This was my first drink ever since I tried to secretly drink my father's alcohol and almost died from his punishment.

Can you please hurry up?

Come to think of it, I forgot that I didn't have any money right now.

Well, it wasn’t a big deal. This didn't seem like a nice place, so I would just drink a bit, gather some information and run away.

"It is possible to find some. Follow me."

Suddenly, the man opened a small door hidden between the bottles and gestured at me to come in. I was surprised to see what this was about, but I followed him in without revealing any expression.

He brought me down to a basement. There was magic detection magic in the middle of the passageway, so I lightly interrupted the magic.

When I waved my hand to cast some magic, the man guiding me gave me a glance asking me what I was doing.

"It's very dusty here, do you clean this place?"

It really looked as if the passageway wasn’t cleaned often. There was a lot of dust piled up.

The man guiding me looked embarrassed. "Eh-hem, I apologize."

Another small door appeared as I kept descending.

Knock, knock, knock, knock!

When the man knocked on the door with a unique beat, it began opening sideways like a sliding door.

Why did they add a door knob on it?

The man beckoned at me to go in. Inside the small room, there was a small wooden table, a chair, and a woman with a veil over her face.

The door closed when I entered and the woman sitting across the table said, "Sit down."

I sat down and examined my surroundings.

There were six magic spells cast in the room. Two were for obstructing people from identifying the woman, and two for defending her. One other was an attack aimed at me, and the last was to hide the people hidden by the right side of the wall.

There was something more important though.

"What about the beer?"

I couldn't see the beer anywhere. I had really high expectations for it.

"Hmpphh, are you saying that you somehow managed to end up here by accident? It's a rather funny excuse."

What the hell was she talking about?

"If you wanted to back out, you should have done it in the very beginning. This isn't the capital. There isn’t even a refrigeration system here so why would you look for cold beer and seafood? I don't know where you got the passcode from, but I applaud you for avoiding Big Mama's eyes and arriving all the way here."

I flinched at the woman's words but didn't reveal it.

Let's analyze the situation first.

I found this bar while trying to find a high caliber person who might know an identification card forger. I ordered a beer since I was in a bar, but somehow this Big Mama popped up?

Anyway, what I asked was actually a secret access code and that was how I ended up in this situation. Before that, asking for cold beer was the access code. What kind of access code was that?

Actually, thinking it through, this was a worn-down bar inside a back alley and not some estate of a noble. It made sense that there wouldn't be something like a refrigeration system here.

"So, you must have come all the way here because there is information you want to purchase. What is it you want?"

Ignoring the actual reason why I was here, this looked like a good opportunity to get my hands on some information I desperately needed.

So, let's take this opportunity to get everything I need.

"First of all, I want a map."

"A map of which region? And how detailed does it need to be?"

"A map of the capital and a map of the entire empire. In terms of detail... For the capital, I want the map to at least have information on towns, major roads, and important government offices. For the empire, information on locations of towns would be nice, but if that’s not possible, I want to at least have information on the major cities."

"You're asking for something quite expensive. What are you going to use it for?"

It was just for learning my current location and the geography of the area where I would live in the future.

"Is there a reason you have to know that?"

"No, there isn't. Mister, you must have a strong backing behind you," the woman said with a chuckle.

I shrugged since I didn't know what she was talking about.

"Okay. We'll have it prepared. Next?"

"I want some information on the imperial army."

"The imperial army?"

"Specifically, information on Bloody Blade. I want his current location, troops under his immediate command, and the total number of troops he can muster."

I had to prepare in advance since I had no idea when he would use that army to try to catch me.

"—This is very expensive and dangerous information you want this time. Are you asking while being aware that Marshal Bloody is from the legendary Crow Tribe of Olympus?"

I nodded. Of course I knew, he was part of my family!

"So you want to have information on the one million soldiers he commands, which is basically the entire imperial army?"

My God! I had heard that uncle was doing quite well in the imperial army, but to think that he could mobilize the entire imperial army.

That was horrifying!

"I don't need information on the entire imperial army. Just information on Bloody’s closest aides and officers above the rank of a knight and higher is sufficient."

"It remains the same that this is dangerous information.”

"Are you saying you won't sell it?"

The woman grinned and said, "That's not it. We’ll sell it, but you'll have to be prepared since it's going to be really expensive."

I wasn’t sure if I could pay since I only had platinum coins. If they said I couldn't pay with those coins, I would just take the information and run.

"Is there any other information you want? I don't know who is behind you, but the payment must come first. You better be prepared if you can't pay on the spot."

I sensed danger radiating from around me. Since I was already in danger, this was a good opportunity to just get as much information as possible.

"I want to know the market prices in the capital."

"Market prices in the capital? You're suddenly asking for cheap information. Okay, we'll just hand this over to you as a bonus if you can pay for the other information you requested."

Yay, it's free!

However, I was still split half and half on whether I should pay for the information.

"I also want information on the nobles."

If by any chance someone took a dislike to me, my future life as a public servant could become difficult. Therefore, it was vital that I had prior information on people I could encounter in the future.