Chapter 162 - [Pre-Regression Memories] Brigitte's Shameful Dark History
Time slipped by in a blur, and a great deal ended up skipped along the way.
The stretch where I drank with Brigitte and did my best to keep her happy got skipped in its entirety. I kept watching to see why, and the reason turned out to be simple.
Drink → go home → barge straight into the shop the moment work ended and call for me → drink → go home → barge straight in and call for me → drink → go home → call for me → [infinite loop].
"No wonder this is basically club-host work!?"
"If anything, a woman dragging a man around a bar and throwing money at him while she plays seems even worse to me."
"Urk~!?"
As if to prove the point, the monologue was no different.
After that day, whenever I had a stressful day, I used it as an excuse to come by 'every single day.'
We exchanged phone numbers, and I even handed over a business card with my direct line.
I did give Dalgi a heads-up, but… she didn't exactly look thrilled about it.
"Of course she wasn't thrilled! A girl who was basically her own little sister had her sights set on Chang-ki, didn't she!?"
But so what? What do you want me to do about it?
This side is the guild master of one of the finest crafting guilds in the world.
I called them "stressful days," but truth be told, there isn't a day I'm not stressed.
Naturally, I went every day!
"Is this woman actually insane!?"
If Seres had been here, she would have doubled over clutching her stomach.
The scene changed.
A few days had passed since we'd met after I walked out of Dureupnamu Pub. In this round, Rhea was perfectly fine — no horns, no tail — so apparently she had never actually been kidnapped at all.
If anyone was not fine, it was Brigitte. The woman who was supposed to be that girl's mother was by far the most unhinged of the lot.
"Mom."
"Putting on makeup?"
Uh, yeah? Mm-hm~!! Mom has work today! So I'm just heading out for a bit~!
What? Did the makeup go on weird or something?
"No. It's not that…."
Rhea gave her parent a long, strange look. On the screen, her mother wore the kind of sultry makeup she never touched in everyday life, and a red dress that plunged at both chest and back.
The back especially — cut away so deep that the crease of her rear was on full display. Her chest was no better: the fabric hung so loose and low that a few steps would have been enough to bare her nipples outright. And the side slit ran just as high, leaving nobody any doubt that she had skipped underwear entirely.
She looked for all the world like a working prostitute.
"UAAAAAAAAAGH!!!! What is with that getuuuuup~~!!! What is it, why!? Did I jump ship to OP!? Did I class-change into one of those bitches selling her body in there!?"
I kept my eyes on the screen while pinning down Brigitte, who had begun flopping around the bed like a landed eel.
"Mom… you've been going out in outfits like that an awful lot lately…."
"And it seems like you've been visiting Auntie Dalgi's place all the time, too…."
"Is there… something going on between you and that bar…?"
Rhea's trademark brilliance shone in this round as well. Naturally she'd worry, with her own mother parading around outside looking like that.
At which point the Brigitte on this side of the screen answered in her past self's stead.
"No! Mom is not that kind of person! I am not a woman who works at places like that! Please, don't look at me like thiiis!!!"
She knew full well her screams would never reach the screen, and still she thrashed in mortification as though the humiliation were happening to her this very second.
Meanwhile, how was the dark history taking it? While this one wilted in shame over her own behavior, that one merely knitted her brows.
Good grief, this kid. There is nothing she won't say to her own mother.
I really am going out because of work.
"But…."
"And there's all that sudden spending lately…."
"Where on earth… are you spending all this money…?"
Why?
You think Mom's out doing something shady?
"No… but…."
Why are you even worrying about money in the first place?
That's Mom's money.
I earn it, I spend it.
"…"
"I'm sorry."
"UAAAAH, I'll tear you apart, you bitch! What the hell are you spouting at our daughter!? One taste of a man and you've completely forgotten your duties as her mother, is that it!?"
Sprawled out on the bed, she thrust both hands up toward the screen floating above, raring to grab that hair and rip it out by the roots then and there.
But the dark history on the screen swept right past her daughter Rhea and out the door. The destination, just as before, never changed.
Rhea's been meddling an awful lot lately.
I know what she's worried about.
She's afraid I'll play too hard and start slacking on the real work, I suppose.
But that's a misunderstanding.
Guild business has never run better, the money keeps rolling in, and I'm working hard.
And yet this mom of yours, just trying to blow off a little steam, gets glared at with pursed brows for gallivanting around.
She never used to be such a rotten kid….
"Who are YOU calling a rotten kid, you lunatic!!! Turn around right now and apologize to Rheeeeea!!!"
No matter how much of a scene she threw beside me, that side would never so much as twitch. Stripped of her maternal qualifications, she strolled the red-light district despite the early hour, and naturally every gaze in the district came raining down.
Celebrities occasionally wear dresses like that and blow up in giant internet headlines — 'Ms. So-and-So's Shocking Exposure!' — and here was a guild master doing exactly that.
Ordinarily I'd want to take Rhea's side.
But this time, I've decided to live as a woman, not as a mom.
From what I dug up, looks aside, he was a young man quite popular both inside the guild and out.
For all that bulk of his, comforting people seemed to be second nature, and I got wind of a rumor that the girls working under OP's name adored him so much that honey practically dripped from their eyes at the sight of him.
There was even a woman who went out of her way to single him out — a temporary guild member, no less — and force drinks on him….
This world has far too many thieving cats after him. Myself included.
Auntie's just going to have to protect him…!
"THAT'S YOOOOU!!!!"
"Shh. Shh."
"Mmmmmph~~!!"
Brigitte arrived at the pub. Unlike in the first flashback, plenty of women now stood on standby, waiting to work.
The moment she made her entrance, the whole atmosphere flipped.
…
"…"
She and the pack of prostitutes glared each other down. A full-blown guild master, locked in a silent pissing contest with a handful of rank-and-file guild members.
"Auntie, quit being sooooo pathetic!!!"
When her past self even deigned to sneer — giving the plunging dress she'd worn that day a little sway for good measure — the woman destined to own this dark history grabbed me by the ribs and shook, beside herself.
"Chang-ki. No — honey! Now I totally get why Seres pushed this on me so hard!? Auntie was wrong, okay…? So please, let's just stop watching this…! Huh? Huh? Auntie is soooo ashamed, eeeeee!!!!"
She wriggled out of my arm-pillow, buried her nose in my armpit, and hid her face there. Even though this Brigitte had done absolutely nothing wrong, she clung to me like a koala and begged the whole time. A spectacle so embarrassing its own owner couldn't bear to watch it.
Where's my baby?
"Who's your baby?"
"Chang-ki was sweeping the corridors at the guild up until just now."
"He'll be with the Madam at the moment, so kindly don't go interrupting them."
With that Dimwit?
And why are you lot making him sweep corridors?
Do you think working that poor boy through menial chores on top of everything will cheer him up?
"Chang-ki said he wanted to, so we let him."
"He said if he didn't at least do this much, he'd turn into a freeloader who does nothing but drink."
"We did try to stop him, you know."
Then you should have tried harder.
Keep this up and Auntie will just snatch him away for herself, you know?
Would that be fine by you?
"Ha. What a comedian."
"Who gave you permission to steal Chang-ki away?"
"I doubt even Guild Master Dalgi would allow it?"
Well. We'll just have to see about that.
They already cross paths in the same Tower as it is; I doubt she'd want to stack up more reasons to get red in the face with me, either.
"Seriously, this woman—"
"Keep your hands off Chang-ki."
"He is plainly spoken for, and that's the only reason we're keeping our hands to ourselves."
Those two aren't even properly dating, though, are they?
You think Auntie doesn't know the Dimwit's the one making every single move here?
And yet you all carry on about him being "taken."
Enough. Bring my baby out here.
We'll have our drink today too, and then he can head home.
"Ha."
"You're hilarious. Genuinely."
What's so funny?
"Chang-ki isn't someone who officially works here, you know?"
"So kindly quit treating him like a host?"
You girls are the hilarious ones.
I'm spending my own money to drink with an acquaintance at this establishment — where's the problem?
If you're bitches selling your bodies at this place, know your station and get back to work.
Or are you itching to brawl with a paying customer?
"…Selling our bodies?"
"This auntie, seriously…!"
At her jeering dare to throw down, the OP whores bristled right back and stepped forward, hackles raised.
Their opponent was Brigitte — a woman prone to looking like a fool, but in reality a madwoman who would grind you into powder. Into a situation where both sides might well draw blood, Dalgi appeared.
"Giiirls, knock it oooff~."
"What do you think you're doing to a customeeer~?"
"Lady Dalgi!"
"But the Mechanic guild master picked the fight first…!"
"She did!"
"She's pulling this stunt just to haul Chang-ki off and get wasted with him again!!"
"She straight-up treats him like a host, you know!?"
"I know, I know."
"I was listening to the whole conversation from the next room over."
"Ha, Brigittaaa… can't you act like a grown-up?"
"Why are you trying to pick fights with my girls~?"
They started it; I merely returned the favor~?
More importantly, hurry up and fetch Chang-ki.
I'll fatten your sales today and leave nice and quiet, so don't you worry your head.
Worried? Who's worried~.
Like the girls said, Chang-ki isn't one of our hosts~.
He's hurt and taking a break from hunter work for a spell — didn't I tell you that last time~?
I know that, which is exactly why I keep showering him with money.
I've even been bringing him equipment to use for his comeback once his wounds are fully healed.
And none other than yours truly — the Tower's reigning master of this field — is preparing it all personally.
If you're his partners, shouldn't you be celebrating instead?
"Gittaa~."
"You seem to be laboring under some misunderstanding of your own, though~?"
"I'll say it once more: that boy is not a host."
"There are things money can't buy no matter how much you lay at someone's feet — have you forgotten~?"
"I simply want things to work out between Chang-ki and a little sister I hold dear."
"So please… stop interfering any more than you already have… would you kindly~?"
That "little sister" would be the Madam — your very own vice guild master, I believe?
But far as I know, those two aren't even dating?
He hasn't even confessed yet, and Chang-ki's still a free man — so why are you butting in?
Or what — don't tell me you've got feelings for Chang-ki yourself?
"Ha. You are one venomous woman."
"Fine, fine."
"Now even I can't say~."
"Nobody ever comes out of meddling in someone else's romance looking pretty."
"The three of you can sort it out on your own."
Whatever angle I looked at it from, Brigitte was dead serious. A madwoman who'd discovered men late in life was planning to shower money until she could walk off with one particular man — and worse, she didn't just have money; she had a useless surplus of power besides. Dalgi had given up on stopping her too, reasoning that any interference might spiral into open war between guilds.
"Girls. Go fetch Chang-ki."
"Bring the Madam out with him."
"And the rest of you are out of this from here on."
"Let Chang-ki handle it as he sees fit, and we'll watch from the sidelines."
"GUILD MASTEEEER!!!"
Every last prostitute in the place lamented, of all things, just how popular I'd been in this round. Which was, for all intents and purposes, a declaration that Brigitte's rampage would be left to run unchecked.
The woman herself, evidently convinced she'd won, skipped off with a tra-la-la giggle into her usual room and planted her butt down with all the confidence in the world.
Those little nobodies — daring to square up against ME?
This side: guild master of a corporate juggernaut.
Their side: street-corner whores, at very best.
No matter how many of those leg-spreading bitches band together, they're still the same weeds served with the same rice….
…Phew.
No. Think happy thoughts.
They eat and drink glued to a man all day, so surely they've caught on by now that Chang-ki's a good one?
And seeing them throw that fit rather than let go of Chang-ki… heh heh heh….
Ahh, I really must hurry and find our Rhea a new daddy before she gets any smarter.
I wonder if there's any way to poach him into my guild~?
A woman's greasy, unseemly inner depths — the sort of thing she could never, ever let the man she loved see — poured out in full. She sneered at her rivals as whores, knew perfectly well how many women had their eyes on him, and was still plotting to install me as Rhea's new father. In her own head it was pure devotion; from the outside, a raving married woman wielding money and power to snare a younger man.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAGH!!!!!"
She shrieked at the top of her lungs at the vivid sincerity her dark history kept reciting. Face still jammed into my armpit, legs kicking all the while — she was so mortified she very nearly lost her mind entirely.
"There, there. So our auntie was that sweet on me, huh? Enough to go making me Rhea's new daddy on the spot? You wanted a young husband that badly?"
"UWAAAAH!! AAAAAAGH!!! Don't ask me that while you're ribbing meeee!! I'm beggiiing yooou!!!"
And of course, the moment I actually wrapped her up in my arms, she went into full convulsions, wailing at me to stop. Just like with Seres — this one's dark history was every bit as hilarious.