Black Money Tastes Sweet
“Black money tastes good, you know. Very sweet.”
“I appreciate the offer, but I’ll have to pass.”
“You haven’t even heard the details yet. Must be something urgent. Can’t be helped. Good luck to you.”
Why turn it down when I’d just said I wanted to try being an adventurer? Because procedures matter. Right now I had nothing—no adventurer’s license, no gear, nothing that would let me actually play the part. So why team up with other adventurers and start something here? I’d already pulled enough cons back in the north. Better to hold back for now.
If I head to the Adventurer’s Guild and say I want to register, they’ll probably handle the rest. Might as well treat it as getting an ID made. Since I used the name Pyotr up north, I should come up with another plausible alias this time.
The adventurers who’d brought us into the city waved and disappeared down some side street.
“Master, I worked up quite an appetite after all that fighting. Let’s go eat.”
“Yeah, let’s do that. Even the finest scenery is best enjoyed on a full stomach.”
“Finest scenery?”
“It’s a saying. You hungry too, Lati? Let’s grab some food first.”
No matter what world I ended up in, some things never changed. We were Korean. Food was serious business. Soldiers needed rations to fight, and mercenaries needed meals to get anything done.
Since I couldn’t pull up restaurant reviews on a smartphone, I grabbed the first person who looked like a local and asked for a recommendation. They pointed us to a place without hesitation. When we arrived, a creaky old sign confirmed we’d found it.
“Master, are we really going in there?”
“Not everything is what it seems, Tirga. This is exactly the kind of hidden gem only the locals know about.”
“It does smell delicious.”
We stepped inside. The place was decently busy, which was usually a good sign. We took an open table, glanced at the menu, and ordered without hesitation. A true man didn’t waste time with indecision. Meat, and sides that went well with meat.
Moments later, generous portions landed on the table. The aroma and presentation were excellent. Now for the real test.
“Delicious.”
“A meal worthy of a warrior.”
“It melts in your mouth.”
The quality rivaled the food served inside Solaris. I could eat this every day and never get tired of it.
We were nearly finished when the door slammed open and three rough-looking men strode in. Their faces practically screamed “I’m a thug,” and it was obvious they were here to cause trouble. They started bellowing for the owner, voices loud enough to rattle the walls.
From what I could gather, this was gangster territory and they’d come to collect protection money. Not my problem, but they were ruining a perfectly good meal.
“Tirga, shut those idiots up.”
“As you command.”
Tirga pointed a finger. Lightning lanced out like arrows and struck the three men. They collapsed like they’d been hit with tasers, yet their mouths kept moving, so the noise didn’t stop.
“Who the hell did this to us?!”
“That’d be me, you pieces of shit. Who the fuck starts a ruckus in a sacred place where people are eating?”
“You think you can mess with the Nero Colpo Gang and walk away?”
“A gang, huh? So they exist here too.”
An idea flashed through my mind. Gangs made their living through illegal means, which meant they probably had plenty of cash to skim. With Tirga and me, taking down a gang should be easy. We’d already killed adventurers and fought in a war—what was one little gang?
“Nero Colpo Gang, was it?”
“That’s right. You don’t even know our name? Must be an outsider.”
“I came from pretty far away. Anyway, take me to your boss. Or I’ll turn you all into electric kebabs.”
“What did you just say?”
We used the three thugs as hostages and made our way to the Nero Colpo Gang’s headquarters. I’d half-expected some flashy, posturing MZ-style crew, but this looked like a proper, large-scale mafia organization.
The place we arrived at was an expensive, high-class bar. The kind of establishment ordinary people wouldn’t even dare touch the doorknob of.
“Master, why are we here?”
“If you want to make serious money in a short time, you go to the shadows, not the light. Besides, black money tastes especially sweet.”
“Master really does love money an awful lot.”
“That’s our master for you.”
The moment the underling opened the door, every gangster in the bar turned to stare. Humans, dark elves, orcs, goblins—the whole spectrum. Guess the Holy Empire was crawling with other races. Still, having a bunch of men glare at me like they wanted to kill me was unpleasant.
“Who the hell are these three?”
“This guy says he wants to meet the boss.”
“The pretty-faced one? What business do you have with our boss?”
“Looks like you’ve got money here. So I’ll be blunt—I came to collect. Lati, lock the door. Tirga, bring out the weapon.”
“Y-yes, Boss.”
A massive warhammer, bigger and more menacing than any sledgehammer, appeared in Tirga’s hands. One gangster drew a sword and charged her, only to be smashed to the floor by the hammer. She’d clearly held back; if she’d swung at full power, his head would have exploded. She didn’t even use lightning—just raw physical force.
“You think that’s enough to kill me?”
“How the hell does a woman have that kind of strength?!”
“Behind you! Aim for the other two!”
The gangsters’ blades turned toward Lati and me, but I wasn’t soft enough to go down easily. Come to think of it, did Lati even have combat ability?
“Lati, can you fight?”
“Yes, a little……”
Before she finished speaking, she grabbed an approaching gangster’s arm and threw him in one fluid motion. That kind of grappling technique wasn’t something you learned without serious training. So that’s how she survived the camp and protected her virginity. Well, former virginity.
After the brief scuffle, the man who looked like the boss finally appeared. An orc built like a heavyweight boxer, dressed in a suit and puffing on a cigar. It should have looked ridiculous, yet somehow it suited him.
“What’s all this commotion?”
“Orc. You the boss here?”
“That’s right, human. Causing trouble in someone else’s establishment for no reason—my kind wouldn’t stoop so low.”
“I may have given up on being human, but I’ll keep it simple. Hand over the money.”
“Money? Is that supposed to be a joke? You’re not even working for someone else—you’re just making a scene because you need cash? Don’t lie to me!”
“Tirga, looks like the boss doesn’t want to do business anymore. Smash the place up nice and loud.”
“Understood, Master.”
“W-wait! Calm down, let’s talk. There’s a private room in the back. Plenty of expensive liquor and snacks. How about you put the weapon down?”
The orc boss fumbled for something and tossed it to me. I opened it carefully. Inside was a pouch stuffed with gold coins—bright, gleaming gold, not silver.
I ordered Tirga to stop and warned the orc that if he tried anything stupid, I’d kill everyone in the building, not just wreck the place. A tiny lightning arrow fired from my finger-gun struck the cigar in his mouth, splitting it cleanly in half.
Nothing beat a good threat. Cigars were expensive—twenty or thirty thousand won apiece even for cheap ones. Being the boss must pay well.
“If you try to lead us into a trap or pull any tricks, you’ll regret it.”
“Just who the hell are you, human?”
“A mercenary who needs money.”
“Come on, you think I’m an idiot just because I’m an orc? Mercenaries do dirty work for cash, but they don’t walk into places like this without thinking. Different pond, different fish.”
“I’m a little unusual, so I wouldn’t know. Anyway, let’s enjoy some proper hospitality.”
The orc boss led us into a back room. Was this what they called a room salon? Never thought I’d end up in a place I wouldn’t even glance at back in the modern world, yet here I was in a fantasy setting. Fantasy really was fantasy.
We sank into plush sofas. Dark elf women in revealing outfits appeared with liquor and snacks.
“Much better to talk like this, isn’t it, human? Allow me to introduce myself. I’m Ulk, boss of the Nero Colpo Gang.”
“Marquelon. As I said, a mercenary.”
“So someone from another organization hired you. What were you ordered to do? Destroy this bar?”
“Hired? No. You lot just looked like you had money, so I came to take some.”
“You’re not just crazy—you’re completely insane. You didn’t even ask to borrow it. You came straight to a gang to extort money. Even the big shots grovel in front of our wealth and power. So you must be working for one of them.”
“No. I don’t work under anyone right now. And I’m not some lapdog that licks noble assholes.”
Ulk burst into mad laughter. Laughter really was contagious—I found myself laughing too. It reminded me of that YouTube meme.
“Crazy to match your strength. I like it. The gold pouch I gave you earlier counts as a gift. But we have our pride. Can’t have people saying we hand out money to beggars—it’d ruin the gang’s image. So how about you do a job like a proper mercenary?”
“A deal? I’m all for it.”
“That’s the spirit. Business! Bring me the file in that desk drawer.”
“Yes, Boss.”
The dark elf girl who’d been serving drinks stepped out and returned with a single document.