Chapter 14: The Port City of Quaran
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 14: The Port City of Quaran
It was the next morning. As I was preparing to leave the mansion, I quickly hid myself at the bottom of the stairs connecting the second floor to the entrance hall. There was someone already there.
“Roland! You’re going to Quaran again? Why? You said my worries were for nothing!”
Roland glanced around before grabbing Sophia’s arm and leading her into an empty storage room.
It wasn’t a pleasant sight, him grabbing a noblewoman’s body so casually. Come to think of it, Roland was always sticking particularly close to Sophia. Hadn’t he accompanied her to the last party under the pretext of being her guard?
I silenced my footsteps and cautiously followed them. Thankfully, the storage room door was slightly ajar.
“I told you yesterday. It’s because of him.”
“I heard he spent a fortune on that new Eastern prostitute. We were mistaken. He’s still the same scoundrel who’s only interested in chasing women. There’s no reason for you to go to Quaran again.”
So, Roland was Sophia’s spy. It seemed my act yesterday had worked perfectly.
“He could have been acting.”
“Or is that just what you want to believe?”
“Why would I do that?”
“Hmph, it’s obvious. You just want to go to the brothel again, don’t you? To see that Eastern prostitute. Did you think I wouldn’t know?”
“Of course not.”
I slowly let out the breath I’d been holding. For a moment, I thought I’d been found out, but Sophia didn’t seem to believe him. And it didn’t sound like Roland truly meant what he’d said either.
In any case, their relationship was far from ordinary.
Since when? Even though I only ever slept at the mansion because Sophia was difficult and I couldn’t even stand the sight of Aenya, it was still shocking that I had been living under the same roof and had no idea about this relationship.
To make an excuse for myself, who would have imagined that Sophia, a distant relative of the Baron with nothing to lose, would get into a deep relationship with a renowned womanizer like Roland?
And another thing. While it was common for noblewomen to take lovers, Sophia was merely a distant relative of a noble, not a noble herself. If my father found out, the engagement would be broken off immediately.
Not even Baron Rasino could prevent that. In fact, he might have to pay reparations for arranging such a poor match.
Anyway.
It was hard to understand either of them—Sophia for taking Roland as a lover despite knowing his womanizing ways, and Roland for shamelessly frequenting brothels while having a high-status woman as his lover.
Truthfully, I had no desire to understand.
What mattered was how I could use this. I deliberately made my presence known and spoke up.
“Sir Roland. Are you in there?”
“…!”
The voices from inside abruptly stopped. A moment later, Roland slipped out of the storage room with an awkward expression. He stood with his back to the door, blocking the view inside.
“Ah, Lord Allen. You’re out already.”
I couldn’t help but smile, imagining Sophia holding her breath inside, terrified of being discovered. A playful urge suddenly washed over me.
“The sooner we go, the longer we have to enjoy ourselves, right? But what were you doing in this corner?”
Just as I glanced at the storage room door over Roland’s shoulder, I heard a sharp gasp from within. Roland subtly took a step to the side, blocking my line of sight.
“Haha, well…”
A drop of cold sweat trickled down his forehead, trembling at the edge of his incredibly awkward smile.
“Don’t tell me you couldn’t wait and were fooling around with a maid?”
Suddenly, there was a sound of something breaking from inside. The corners of Roland’s smiling mouth twitched.
“Ah, yes? Hahaha. Well, something like that. Haha…”
“The woman inside must be quite something. Enjoying a secret tryst this early in the morning? She’d be severely punished if caught, but I guess the thrill is worth the risk? What a lewd wench she must be. And seeing as she seduced you on the very day you’re heading to the red-light district, she must be exceptionally skilled, no?”
“Ahem, even a virtuous woman has moments when her lust explodes, doesn’t she?”
“Infinitely virtuous by day, but a vixen by night? Now that’s charming. I’m really curious who she is.”
I took a step toward the storage room, moving past Roland. Startled, he quickly blocked my path again.
“Sir Roland? That’s too much. Shouldn’t you share delicious things? I even gave up Lucy for you.”
“Well, that is… Ah, she’s far too low-class for you to bother with, Lord Allen. You’d lose your appetite if you saw her face. No need for that so early in the morning.”
Roland was probably saying that to hide Sophia, but I could hear the sound of teeth grinding from beyond the door. Roland’s face turned pale as he glanced back at the door.
“True, your standards are quite broad. There isn’t a woman in the mansion or the red-light district that you haven’t touched.”
This time, I heard something shattering inside the storage room. She seemed so furious she’d forgotten she was supposed to be hiding. Roland urgently grabbed my arm and pulled me outside.
“Lord Allen. Let’s hurry. It’s already getting late.”
“You really are in a hurry! That Lucy girl truly is a beauty without rival in these parts, just as you said.”
I let him pull me along, raising my voice as if I couldn’t resist. The moment we stepped out of the mansion, Sophia’s furious voice echoed from inside. Roland’s face went white.
Seeing that, I knew instinctively. The next time I went to Quaran, I would be going alone.
#
“You’re here.”
Jin was waiting at the entrance to the bathhouse. The gazes of the men gathered around her all shot toward me.
“Lord Allen. Is that woman the one…”
Roland’s eyes widened as he turned to look at me. True, Lucy was a beauty who didn’t belong in this small city, but Jin was a goddess who far surpassed even her.
“We’ll see each other after.”
“Lord Allen! You must keep your promise!”
He was talking about my promise to hand Jin over to him in a week. Having no intention of doing so, I left him behind without a word.
“Haaah.”
“Good heavens.”
Jin casually approached and linked her arm with mine. The men watching us couldn’t hold back their sighs. They looked as if they were watching a princess being carried off by a villain. I clicked my tongue.
“You’ve drawn unnecessary attention.”
“Didn’t you say it was fine to spread rumors?”
As soon as we entered the private room, Jin immediately unlinked her arm and sat on the massage bed with a smile.
“Your attitude seems quite different from yesterday.”
“Because I now understand exactly what you meant by your ‘favor.’ Wasn’t that why you handed Lucy over to Zaken?”
“Why? Is Lucy having a hard time?”
Jin’s face scrunched up as if she didn’t even want to think about it. Though with her beauty, even that expression looked lovely.
“Everyone is saying it. She’s paying the price for her arrogance, thinking she could do anything with your favor.”
Now that the untouchable ace of the brothel was freely available, the men who had only been able to drool over her wouldn’t have left her alone. Moreover, when pent-up desires explode, they are often accompanied by violence.
Many of the scoundrels who frequented the brothels were worse than me. They just didn’t become topics of conversation because they were nobodies.
“Thanks to my protection, she never had to suffer any filth since the day she started this work. But it seems she took that for granted. She used my favor as a shield and lived in luxury with my money, all while wagging her tail at my political rival.”
“Sir Roland, you mean?”
“Let’s end this topic here. So, can I assume you’ve decided to accept my proposal?”
Jin shook her head.
“I haven’t decided yet. I just can’t seem to understand you. When I asked around, the opinions on you and Roland were starkly divided. One is a knight whose side every woman covets, and the other is a scoundrel, the heir to a small territory…”
Jin trailed off and let out a small laugh.
“A scoundrel, isn’t that funny? The man I saw yesterday was no scoundrel. He was a man whose thoughts were impossible to read, and for that reason, a frightening one.”
“That’s not what’s important here.”
“As it happens, Lucy made me a proposal. She asked me to report every single thing you say, without leaving anything out. In return, she’d watch my back. Of course, right after saying that, she was thrown to countless men by Zaken.”
“She’s a foolish woman.”
Was she regretting her choice by now? Considering she didn’t even realize her actions were wrong, she was probably blaming me instead. It was no longer worth my concern.
“Sir Roland must be behind her proposal to me.”
“Do you now admit that we both have leverage over each other?”
“Though your weakness seems greater.”
Jin gave me a meaningful smile. Trying to gain the upper hand the moment she saw an opening? As expected of the woman who would become the godmother of the underworld.
“Well, is that really so?”
Jin’s smile vanished in an instant. In the blink of an eye, she was close enough to caress my neck with her hand. It was no illusion that the hand of this peerless beauty felt like a finely honed blade.
“What else do you know?”
“And if I do? What changes? As I said before, the only thing that matters is that we both have leverage over each other.”
“That’s true, but… hah, who would ever call you a scoundrel.”
“Now, let’s talk business.”
As I took off my clothes, a startled Jin backed away again. Every time she showed her inexperience, the contrast with her sharp demeanor made me laugh.
She, however, seemed to take it as a sneer and frowned. I submerged myself in the bathtub. I’d spent a fortune, and it would be a waste to leave without at least taking a bath.
“You said I need to avoid Sir Roland’s eyes, correct?” Jin said, sitting back down on the massage bed. Her head was tilted, but she was stealing glances at my chest, which was visible above the water, and swallowing hard.
“More importantly, you need to be wary of the manager and the other prostitutes. Sir Roland won’t be coming starting tomorrow.”
Sophia, whom I had thoroughly provoked, would surely stop him.
“Are you saying you got rid of your watchdog in a single day? Really, who’s the scoundrel now? At this rate, I’m not sure you even need my help.”
“I believe I told you. You need to be more concerned about the eyes of others.”
Did I really think Roland, who had stolen the heart of the mistress I had cherished for three years, would have left the other women alone? I had to assume that every prostitute in this brothel was his eyes and ears.
“So, what is your plan?”
“I need you to act.”
“Act?”
“Yes. An act to make everyone believe that you and I are spending some very intimate time together. It should be easy if you observe the other women.”
Having washed myself while we talked, I stood up from the bath. As I got dressed again, Jin, who had covered her face with both hands, peeked at me through the gaps between her fingers.
“You’re leaving without doing anything?”
“Is there something else I should do?”
“My fee is supposed to be incredibly expensive…”
True, if I had known I could get rid of Roland this easily, I wouldn’t have prepaid for a week.
“So?”
“Could it be that you have some… problem down there?”
I couldn’t just let that slide. Even though I knew it was a provocation, I walked toward Jin. For someone who had been so bold, her face hardened rapidly with each step I took.
I gently cupped her chin and lifted it. Her hand naturally came to rest on my chest, right over my heart. I didn’t know what trick she had up her sleeve, but I was sure it would be deadly.
“Beautiful.”
“Eh…?”
The moment a flicker of light appeared in her blue-tinged eyes, I seized the opening and stole her lips. A beat later, the hand on my heart tensed, but by then, I had already pulled away.
“A bit fishy. Was it seafood stew for breakfast?”
“You…!”
“You shouldn’t have provoked me.”
“You…!”
I threw on the dark gray robe I had prepared beforehand. It had a hood that covered my eyes. Without hesitation, I walked out of the private room, but not before leaving her with a final request.
“Well then, I’ll be counting on your performance.”
Jin watched Allen’s retreating back, her body trembling.
“That was my first kiss…!”