Chapter 83: Dominating the Market - 10
Chapter 83: Dominating the Market - 10
KUUUNG!!
The street shuddered as Jiha dropped straight down from the third floor.
He could have slowed his fall with Wings, but he chose only to reinforce his body with Mana and drop like that.
It was always advantageous to keep abilities hidden, and right now his goal was to make a show of force.
The street fell silent as the tremor subsided.
Jiha walked forward slowly, past the scantily clad women, the men who looked like customers, and the eyes watching from windows thrown open here and there.
As the silence settled, the gnoll who'd been throwing punches paused and turned around, sensing something had changed.
"The hell? A human?"
"What do you think? You think I'm a friend of yours?"
Jiha smiled as he approached, and the gnoll bared his teeth.
The hyena-headed creature snarled low, flashing its fangs.
Gnolls were pack animals. The others who'd been laughing and watching their comrade run wild now started closing in.
Four of them total.
"This place has shit service. We were giving 'em some education."
"So mind your own business and get lo—"
THWACK!
Jiha kicked out in front of him like he was punting a trash bag.
"GYAEEK!!"
The gnoll who'd been doing all the talking went flying sideways and smashed his head against the wall.
Trickle.
Leaving a bloodstain on the wall, the gnoll slid to the ground, his head lolling forward.
"......"
The eyes of the remaining three went wide.
Didn't most people at least listen when the other side was explaining themselves?
And against a group that outnumbered him, he'd cut them off and threw the first punch?
"Ah, sorry. Got bored. Didn't even realize I did it."
Jiha let out a dry laugh, and the other three quickly reached into their clothes.
But Jiha had already roused his Mana and was throwing a light punch.
Two actions for them—draw a weapon, then attack. One action for Jiha—just hit them with his bare fist.
Who would be faster was obvious.
CRUNCH!!
The gnoll who'd just drawn his weapon screamed and crumpled as his shoulder blade shattered.
Two left. While their comrade was going down, a gnoll who'd managed to draw a dagger swung it fast.
A white arc of steel cut menacingly through the air.
'...That's a Mana weapon.'
Jiha was a little surprised.
The gnolls themselves weren't much, but the weapons they held were Mana weapons.
Mana-imbued arms were graded by quality.
They ranged from Special Grade down to Grade 3, and Jiha's own sword was Grade 3.
Its strength had been reinforced with Mana during the forging process, so it wouldn't fail easily, and it could withstand a user channeling Mana into it.
No Special Abilities, just a sword with high durability—something even a Normal Grade could buy if they had the money.
The only reason it had been somewhat difficult for Jiha to acquire was because he was a Common.
But the blade in the gnoll's hand was radiating a sharp white light.
A Grade 2 weapon—the edge itself was imbued with Mana, capable of cutting through an enemy with ease.
Even with Jiha's Mana-reinforced body, a Grade 2 weapon would slice right through him.
'Not exactly the kind of weapon street thugs should be carrying.'
Jiha was quietly assessing the situation when the gnoll grinned nastily.
He'd mistaken Jiha's stillness for fear after seeing his dagger work.
"Heh heh heh, you little human shit. Too late to regret sticking your nose in. I'll peel your hide off and hang it by the front door!"
"Ah, I'm terrified."
Contrary to his words, Jiha strode straight forward.
The gap between his words and his actions threw the gnoll off for a moment, and he thrust forward belatedly.
But that was exactly what Jiha had been aiming for. What could be easier to deal with than an opponent whose reaction was delayed?
Jiha stepped lightly into a Spin Step and smashed his brass knuckles across the gnoll's face.
CRACK!
The sound of a jawbone breaking rang out as the gnoll screamed and went tumbling across the ground.
Jiha picked up the dagger that had fallen.
'I could've just smashed everything and been done with it...'
The reason he'd deliberately shown off flashy moves, the way he had with the brass knuckles, was because of the crowd watching from all around.
He needed to leave a strong impression with a performance more spectacular than usual.
This back-alley fight was practically his official debut.
'I'll have to look into this later...'
As Jiha stowed the dagger away, the last gnoll began edging backward.
Seeing his comrades go down without even putting up a proper fight, he'd realized he stood no chance either.
"Come on. Come here. Here, boy."
Jiha beckoned with his hand like he was calling a dog as he approached, and the retreating gnoll spun around to run.
But the watching crowd had already blocked his escape route.
"What the—move! You gonna move?!"
The gnoll bared his teeth and shouted, but the motley assortment of species who lived in these back streets just stared at him in silence.
"Ah, shit..."
The gnoll frantically tried to pull a dagger from his clothes, but Jiha had already closed the distance with long strides from behind and reached out.
CRUNCH!!
His Mana-reinforced grip clamped down on the gnoll's head and squeezed, drawing screams and frantic thrashing.
Clatter!
The weapon the gnoll had been trying to draw—a dagger—rolled across the street. Jiha noticed it and stepped on it, pinning it down.
"Let go! You gonna let go?!"
The gnoll, his head caught in Jiha's grip as his feet lifted off the ground, shrieked and struggled but couldn't break free.
As the crushing force only grew stronger, the gnoll let out an ugly scream.
"Gyaek! Gyak! S-save me! Save me!!"
Crick-crack.
Hearing the sound of your own skull cracking was a truly terrifying experience.
Crushing a head with grip strength alone should normally be impossible, but with Mana reinforcement, it could be done.
Actually, even a Rare Grade would struggle with it... but Jiha, who'd been steadily building his Mana, could pull it off.
"Grrrk! GYAAAK!!"
The gnoll, shrieking pitifully and thrashing, wet himself and passed out.
The terror of feeling his head slowly being crushed while fully conscious had been too much.
Thud.
Jiha released his grip, and the last gnoll sprawled across the ground.
Jiha looked at the gnoll who'd only had his shoulder smashed—the one still in relatively decent shape—and spoke.
"Take these and get the hell out. Now."
"......"
The gnoll nodded frantically.
His broken shoulder hurt like hell, but he was grateful just to be getting out alive.
"And when you get back, deliver a message. Next time you come here, you die."
"Y-yes..."
The gnoll grunted and strained, grabbing his sprawled comrades by the scruffs of their necks.
Jiha retrieved the other dagger he'd been stepping on and straightened up.
He swept his gaze over the crowd that had been watching in silence.
Scantily clad women and men, all the different species scraping by in these back streets.
"I'm Jiha."
When Jiha gave his name, murmurs of admiration rippled through the crowd.
Some recognized his face, but most had only heard the name.
And they knew the rumors—that he was the first Common to wield Mana, the one who'd stopped the Summoning War.
A Common being in a red-light district like this wasn't strange on its own.
But why he'd stepped in and handled things personally, nobody knew.
Even the security officers were reluctant to get involved in these matters.
Blue? Purple? They were no different.
Most Rare Grades came here as customers and had no interest in getting tangled up in trouble.
The vast majority of Unique Grades either despised this district as the filth of the city, or at best pretended it didn't exist.
This was a street where those abandoned by law and society gathered.
"Anyone planning to report me for beating the shit out of those bastards?"
At Jiha's quiet question, the crowd shook their heads immediately.
As if that weren't enough, they started speaking up one by one.
"No."
"Absolutely not."
"If anyone tries, I'll tear their mouth apart myself!"
At the crowd's fervent shouts, Jiha nodded.
"From now on, if problems like this come up, tell me. I'll take care of them."
"......"
The crowd stared at him with heat in their eyes for a moment—then women rushed forward, pushing each other to get to Jiha.
"Want to come have some fun at our place?"
"No, our place is better! We'll give you the full course!"
Women grabbed at his sleeves trying to usher him away, and a few men pushed through the women, shouting too.
"I want to buy you a drink!"
"Our tavern has the best liquor! We've got top-class girls waiting too!"
As the crowd surged forward vying for his attention, Jiha shook his head and looked in one direction.
The crowd followed his gaze.
"Still have business to finish."
Iroha, who'd been sitting on the windowsill with her legs stretched out, watching the whole thing, smiled silently.
At Jiha's words—that he had matters to discuss with Iroha—everyone reluctantly backed off.
After waving off dozens of women urging him to their establishments and tavern owners insisting he drink, Jiha returned to the shabby three-story building.
Enril was still sound asleep, oblivious to the world.
Jiha bent down and gently closed the front of her robe, which had slipped slightly open.
Iroha, still perched on the windowsill, watched quietly before speaking.
"You handled that cleanly."
"That's one of my good points."
For Jiha, dealing with a pack of gnolls like that was a simple matter.
But the process—the performance—was what mattered more.
Show he was an overwhelmingly powerful figure to deter future trouble, and win the hearts of the people on the street.
Jiha had subdued enemies before, but most of those fights had been unofficial.
He'd deliberately kept them that way because there were advantages to be gained.
'It's about time I started presenting who I am to the citizens of Waris. I need them to see me as being on their side.'
He had to lay that groundwork so that when the day came for Jiha to become the ruler of this city, the citizens would welcome it.
This show of force had been the opening skirmish for that, and he'd pulled it off splendidly.
"You'll never be short on women, I see."
"Looking forward to the days ahead."
Jiha's reply was the opposite of what he felt inside.
History was littered with heroes and great men who'd ruined themselves through lust.
Jiha was quite wary that he might end up the same way.
He'd already seen it happen back on Earth.
'Still, to get this elf to trust me completely, I suppose I should drop by her place a few more times?'
Iroha tapped her long bamboo pipe against the windowsill.
"The innocent young lady's fast asleep. So what'll you do? Carry her home like this? Or stay here? I don't mind if you stay."
"This time, let's see how well you handle things. You know the maid who lives at Enril's mansion?"
"The dog beastman Mayan? I know her."
She answered like it was nothing when he tossed out a feeler.
Mayan was publicly known as a Super Rare, but Iroha didn't bother hiding that her knowledge ran deeper and more detailed than that.
"Get a message to Mayan discreetly. Tell her Enril fell asleep here and needs to be taken home. Have her do it without attracting attention."
"Fine, I'll pass it along."
If word spread that Enril had been carried out of a back alley like this while unconscious, unsavory rumors would cling to her.
No one would dare voice such speculation or insolence in front of Enril herself.
But Jiha didn't want to leave even the slightest opening for that.
That was why he'd observe Iroha's work and plan to escort Enril home himself.
Jiha changed the subject.
"Those bastards were using unusual weapons. What do you know?"
"Looks like they've gotten their hands on a large quantity of Grade 2 Mana weapons. Their boss probably told them not to use them carelessly, but they pulled them out anyway."
Iroha added more.
"I haven't found out yet where the weapons came from."
"Can you?"
"Give me a bit more time. If something turns up, I'll tell you."
Jiha nodded.
Daggers weren't exactly his preference, but Grade 2 weapons were quite rare.
An organization with that many weapons of that grade—Jiha very much wanted to break them.
'Smash every last one of those morons... and take every single one of their weapons.'
Even without Mana of your own, having a Mana weapon made your combat power leap upward.
That was exactly why every faction restricted purchase routes for Mana weapons and monitored them strictly.
With the exception of the Dirga, Mana weapons couldn't be freely bought and sold.
Jiha had actually wanted to buy Mana weapons himself—to grow stronger and to arm the Commons who followed him—but the lack of purchase routes had left him frustrated.
'An unexpected windfall...'
If he could secure Mana weapons in bulk, Jiha and the subordinates who followed him would become far stronger.
Jiha was inwardly satisfied when Iroha shifted the topic.
"Didn't you still have something to ask?"
"Right. Who's the next Unique coming here under the pretext of an inspection?"
"The demon knight, Asira Hellrunner."
He'd heard the title "demon knight" before, but the name was new to him.
Jiha nodded.
Names weren't the only thing he was after—he wanted the other information too.
"She's a demon, but they say her character is just and noble. Like one of the holy knights, or the paladins who vanished in the old days. She helps the weak who've been wronged and punishes tyrannical strongmen—a righteous nature, so the stories go."
"A knight..."
What a load of nonsense.
Jiha let out a scoff, and Iroha gave a wry smile too.
"Her public reason for visiting is to inspect Waris, but she has a separate real objective."
"The weapons, then..."
Iroha tsked.
"A large quantity of Grade 2 weapons flooding the city is a serious problem. Especially in Waris—you can't tell if it's negligence on Blue Seal's part or if something Purple did has spilled over here. Her goal is to investigate how the Mana weapons ended up on the streets and handle things in Blue Seal's favor."
"Doesn't exactly match that noble character you mentioned earlier."
"That's Legend Grade Cheonho's decision. She wants to use a Unique within her sphere of influence to turn a profit."
At this level, Iroha's information network was considerable.
Even Enril, a Unique herself—albeit from an opposing faction—didn't know these things, yet Iroha had them down to the details.
At Jiha's look, Iroha smiled coolly.
"Though I'm surprised you didn't already know this. Unexpected."
"......"
The implication was that Jiha should have known.
"I thought you'd have heard already from the Unique at the barracks—Yura Hairedeu."
"What do you mean?"
Jiha kept his answer vague, trying to figure out what Iroha was driving at.
Iroha said something unexpected.
"Asira Hellrunner and the succubus Yura are very close. They grew up together."