Chapter 129
Chapter 129
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Translator: Ace
Chapter: 129
Chapter Title: A Thief's Past
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“I’m out five gold. There’s nothing worse than someone taking back what they gave you. That woman’s going to have to pay damages.”
Falcoa lifted Jis’s face. With his chin tilted so far back it felt like his spine would snap, Jis couldn’t even breathe. A little more, and his vertebrae might just break.
“Does it hurt? It should. I’m pretty damn strong.”
“Please… spare me.”
“Want me to make the pain go away? Chew on this. Then it won’t hurt at all.”
Even in his agony, Jis managed to shift his gaze. In Falcoa’s hand was a tree root.
Having been born and raised on the island, he knew what it was. It was Loof, a stimulant used by the natives. As a drug used for divine communion, its addictive properties were beyond compare to any other narcotic. Weren’t there rumors that the Kergoin people met their end from overusing Loof?
“Please, I’m begging you. Anything but that…”
Jis pleaded desperately. Once you were addicted to Loof, your life was as good as over.
He would live a life in the gutter, and his only family, his younger sister, would eventually be thrown out onto the streets as well.
As if he expected it, Falcoa popped the Loof he had offered Jis into his own mouth.
What did he care about addiction? If he couldn’t live without Loof, he’d just use it for the rest of his life.
“What a coward. This is a divine stimulant. Anyway, what are you going to do now? Are you going to bring her?”
“What? Bring her? Who?”
“That red-haired wench. She was quite a looker. We could probably sell her for a high price, hehe. Of course, we’ll have to sell her as used goods.”
Jis was horrified. Human trafficking a noble, of all people. But for Falcoa, whose mind was addled by Loof, it was something he was more than capable of doing.
*He’s insane. He’s out of his mind.*
Falcoa was an enforcer for the Freeman organization. He was also the highest-ranking person a low-level grunt like Jis could contact.
He had never seen the leader, Freeman, in person, but he knew one of his orders was a strict ban on human trafficking.
“B-But if we do that, we’ll be kicked out of the organization. The code of conduct… Agh!”
A studded boot caught Jis on the chin. His mind went blank as the world spun around him.
Falcoa grabbed Jis’s head and lifted it. His cold voice brought Jis back to his senses.
“Or what? You wanna bring your little sister instead?”
“Th-That’s…”
Jis’s body trembled. A mix of rage and terror brewed inside him, creating an unidentifiable emotion.
His sister was more precious to him than anything. He never wanted to expose her to this filthy world.
“Oh, did I not mention it? I actually have a thing for your sister. How about you introduce us this time?”
A rotten smell emanated from Falcoa’s mouth as he chewed the Loof.
***
After running through the alleys for thirty minutes, Shirone and the woman managed to shake Gamos’s bodyguards.
As expected of trained men, they were fast, but the psychological tactic of running them in circles using blind spots had paid off.
The two leaned against a wall for a while, catching their breath. They had run so much that they could taste blood, and their legs were trembling.
The woman looked at the panting Shirone and let out a laugh.
“Hehe, you’ve got some stamina, don’t you? With that delicate face, I thought you’d give up halfway.”
“I’d get caught if I gave up. I’m exhausted. But, um… are you okay?”
“I’m Marsha. I’m so used to running away that this is nothing. Let’s find a place to rest. I’m thirsty, I could use a beer. I’ll buy you a drink as thanks.”
Shirone was puzzled. Despite being on the run, Marsha showed no signs of tension.
And if she was offering to buy beer, that meant she had money. So why had she been stealing?
“Ah, I think I should get going.”
“You can’t wander around right now anyway. Let’s wait at a place I know. Gamos is vicious but stupid, so he’ll forget about this soon enough. If we can just hold out for an hour, he’ll be too busy having fun to chase us. Besides, I’m scared. Could you stay with me for just a little while?”
Marsha stuck out her tongue and winked. It wasn’t that he was mesmerized by her cute looks, but Shirone ultimately decided to go along with her. Above all, if he got caught by Gamos now, things would escalate beyond his control.
“Alright. But my friends are waiting, so I can’t stay for long.”
“Okay. Let’s just wait until Gamos’s men give up. This way.”
Marsha led Shirone through a maze of alleys to a seedy-looking tavern. He wondered who would come all the way out here for a drink, but it was surprisingly crowded.
“Hmm, this place hasn’t changed a bit, even after all these years.”
“Isn’t this a place you frequent? You said you knew a tavern…”
“Ah, I used to come here a lot. It’s been three years since I was last on Galliante Island. I have a friend who lives here.”
“I see. You knew the way so well, I thought you were a local.”
“Hehe, I never forget a path I’ve seen once. Running is a part of my life, you see.”
When Marsha sat with Shirone at the bar, the rough-looking men all turned to look. The combination of a beautiful woman and a young boy was out of place.
“People are staring.”
“Don’t mind them. This tavern is where all the island’s troublemakers gather. When something happens, the news gets here first, so we’ll know when Gamos gives up.”
“Doesn’t that make it more dangerous? His men could storm in here.”
“Gamos rules the island, but he’s not a rabble-rouser. So this place is… sort of like a resistance hideout. A community of fate, you could say.”
Shirone didn’t quite believe her. In a place with so many people coming and going, it would be practically impossible to completely control the flow of information.
*This isn’t something you can do with a system alone. It’s only possible with an agreement or a rule. But why? What would they have to gain?*
As Shirone stared at her, Marsha gave him a troubled smile.
“My, you’re a sharp one. You’re right. This tavern is in collusion with the Galliante autonomous government. They’re supposed to turn a blind eye to whatever happens here, even the authorities.”
“I knew it. But why would the government do something like that?”
“Money. Money laundering, creating slush funds, distributing lobby funds, and so on. This is what they call an ‘island gate.’ A system born from the island’s closed-off nature, I suppose. There was an agreement. In exchange for circulating funds in the shadows, they guarantee the safety of criminals. You scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours. Well, isn’t that how the world works? Hehe!”
Marsha flicked the wooden stick she had in her mouth. Her smiling eyes, curved like a seagull’s wings, looked strangely sad.
“It’s funny when you think about it, isn’t it? Everyone talks about punishing criminals, but in the end, it’s the criminals who line their pockets. They break down impossibly large sums of money into smaller, more digestible pieces. They’re like the microorganisms of society. Without microorganisms, living things die.”
Shirone couldn’t answer. The societal systems that ran counter to human nature were too complex and multifaceted for an eighteen-year-old boy to judge.
“I’ve been talking about such serious things. Your name is Shirone, right? What brings you to the island?”
“I came with my friends. We wanted to go swimming and see the ruins.”
“The Kergo Ruins? I’ve been there before. Ah, I was so young then, and now I’m already twenty-seven. I might just grow old and die a spinster. How old are you?”
“Eighteen.”
“Oh my, you’re older than I thought. You look really young for your age.”
“You look young for your age too, miss. Ah, is it okay if I call you Noona?”
“Of course. It all starts with ‘Noona.’ Once we’re lovers, you can call me whatever you want, hohoho!”
Shirone’s lips curled into a smirk of disbelief. To an eighteen-year-old boy, a twenty-seven-year-old woman was an unattainable adult.
But aside from that, Marsha was a much more intelligent and reasonable woman than he had expected.
The conversation was enjoyable, and as Shirone’s guard lowered, he told her about what had happened at the port.
Marsha nodded as if she had an idea of what he was talking about.
“Ah, you got caught by a street tout. They’re nasty, for sure. Still, five gold is a bit much.”
“Yeah. It ended up causing a fight with my friend, so I’m not in a great mood. He’s probably still waiting for me. I’m going to get an earful when I go back.”
Marsha checked the time and then asked the bartender.
“What’s the situation with Gamos?”
The bartender acted as if he hadn’t heard, merely wiping a glass, so Marsha placed a silver coin on the counter.
Instantly, the bartender’s lips parted as if they had never been sealed.
“Word came in ten minutes ago that they’ve spread out along the main street. There are probably about forty of them blocking all the roads.”
“Ugh, still? That man is so persistent.”
“The Gamos alert usually dies down quickly. He must be really pissed off today.”
Marsha turned to Shirone and grinned sheepishly. Shirone, of course, had nothing to say. He was the one who had blown Gamos’s top in the first place.
Marsha returned to their original topic.
“Anyway, it’s best to just deal with street touts moderately and avoid them. They belong to their own little organizations. Once you get tangled up with them, the aftermath can be difficult.”
“I see. I didn’t really think that far ahead.”
“Hehe, why would you need to? You’re here to have fun, right? But danger always lurks beneath the fun for tourists. The island is small and closed off. To divide the limited resources, the competition is bound to be fiercer than on the mainland.”
Shirone committed her words to memory. He planned to stay on the island for ten days, so he was bound to encounter many more touts.
It was a good thing he had heard Marsha’s advice; if he had acted as he did today without knowing anything, it could have easily escalated into a major incident.
A sudden realization struck Shirone, and he looked at Marsha.
From what he had observed while talking to her, she seemed like a genuinely good person. She was kind, witty, and had the prudence not to judge others’ words rashly.
Why would someone like her resort to petty theft? Seeing her casually toss a tip to the bartender, it didn’t seem like she was short on money either.
“Um, I don’t know if I should ask this, but I’m really curious.”
Marsha leaned back in her chair and looked up at the ceiling.
“Phew, I was wondering when you’d ask. But Shirone, a woman’s three sizes aren’t something you hear with your ears. They’re something you imagine in your head.”
“No! That’s not it! Why did you steal the vase?”
“Hm?”
“You don’t seem like the type to be a petty thief. And you were lying about not having money. It wasn’t even a particularly useful item, so why steal a vase…?”
“Hmm.”
Marsha rested her chin on her hand, lost in thought.
“I don’t know. I guess I just felt like stealing it?”
“What? Is that possible?”
“It is. It’s called kleptomania. Of course, I wasn’t always like this. I was an orphan. My parents abandoned me when I was four. A man from a mercenary company found me and raised me. He became my foster father.”
Shirone’s heart trembled at the unexpected words. Marsha, like him, had been abandoned by her biological parents.
“But it was far from a comfortable life. A mercenary company is a place crawling with strange people. I think I was eleven when one of the most vicious men in the company tried to lay his hands on me. Luckily, my foster father found out first and beat him to a pulp.”
“Of course he did. His daughter was almost assaulted. Anyone would do that.”
“Hehe, you think so?”
“What?”
Marsha looked down at the bar with sad eyes. It seemed as if her eyes had grown moist.
“Every day, I received a piece of bread and a cup of water. My foster father gave me nothing else. No clothes, no snacks, no toys. He was essentially just keeping me. That’s when I started stealing from others. One day, I was caught stealing an apple, and he paid for it without a fuss. But as soon as we got home, he changed and started hitting me. Without saying a word, until I passed out.”
“That’s horrible. If he could afford to pay for it, why didn’t he just buy it for you in the first place? And why didn’t you just ask him to buy you things?”
“Because that’s what my foster father wanted. Total submission to him. The only way I could resist was to steal something every day. Of course, on the days I was caught, I was beaten half to death. It was a terrible life. Then one day, I just decided to give up on everything. So I ended up saying this to my foster father.”
Marsha propped up her chin as if reminiscing about that time.
“You can kill me.”