The Boy in the Back Alley (2)
City of Shoara.
Shoara, one of the three cities owned by Count Bayezid’s family, was always crowded with people.
Not only is it the center of northern logistics where two rivers meet, but it is also a city that continues to develop due to the power of the Bayezid family, a prestigious family in the north.
Because of this, people referred to the city of Shoara as a city that shines as brightly at night as during the day, and also called it the lighthouse of the North.
However, beneath the brilliance there is always a shadow hidden by the light.
Hidden beneath the bright lights of the city, there was one area that everyone knew but turned their heads to.
That was the existence of a slum where all the dirty and filthy things in Shoara were gathered and packed into one area.
“The candle on the 2nd floor is 20 silver, and the candle on the 3rd floor is 30 silver.”
“…Is there anything extra if I buy a lot at once?”
“20 silver, 30 silver.”
“Hey Vlad, take some more of the bread I gave you when you were begging!”
A fat middle-aged man with half a bald head shouted in a tongue-twisting pronunciation, but the blonde boy didn’t care at all.
“If you don’t have money to pay, go home and massage your wife’s butt.”
“Uh huh~! Look at this noom shiki. Are you like this because you can’t learn because you don’t have a mother or father? Don’t do that…”
The air was damp with desire and lust.
The constant sound of music and people’s shouts were echoing through the ornately decorated four-story building.
“…Your eyes, you bastard!”
There was no sound anymore in the ears of the drunk middle-aged man.
The only thing that captured all of his senses was the blue eyes of the blonde boy sitting in front of him.
It was an oddly weighty look for a boy who had only just turned 16.
“…I don’t know who Abby is, and I guess it’s because she died a long time ago and can’t learn.”
Vlad lowered his head and continued speaking, tapping his fingers on the desk.
“The children of that family will not end up like me if their father lives a long and healthy life.”
“Second floor! Three!”
The middle-aged man, who came to his senses as soon as he avoided Vlad’s eyes, quickly grabbed the candle and dropped it like throwing a silver coin.
“Sir, is this a 100 silver coin?”
“You take it all, you bastard!”
“Have a good night. customer!”
“You unlucky blue-eyed bastard!”
Vlad had been looking at me like he was going to eat me just a moment ago, but when I received the unintentional tip, I had no hesitation in bowing deeply.
“…It’s salty.”
Vlad whetted his appetite as he looked at the 100 silver coin in his hand.
As Shoara was a developed city, there were many establishments, but there were few places as famous as the ‘Smile of the Rose’.
This is because the owner and madam of this place, Marcela, was not only beautiful, but the quality of service provided between drinks and women was also excellent.
Therefore, it was not difficult for Vlad, who just sat quietly selling candles in this always bustling place, to save a penny or two in the name of tips.
Of course, the process was also difficult.
“Aaaah!”
“You slut! “He’s just selling his body quietly, but he’s even committing fraud!”
In the second floor hallway, a prostitute was being dragged out by a customer and being beaten by her hair.
“What kind of fraud did I commit?”
“I’ve been a mercenary for 20 years! “They’re selling drugs that don’t work anywhere!”
The brown-haired prostitute was throwing her arms forward as if she was more afraid of the man’s fist swinging in front of her than of the shame of her breasts that were clearly exposed.
“There is no quiet day.”
Vlad sighed and took the candles in front of him and went up to the second floor.
“customer. Is there a problem?”
“Vlad! “Please save me!”
“Some kid came and said hello! “Get a madam here, you bastard!”
Vlad quietly put down the box of candles he was holding in the hallway and sighed.
“If you want to meet our madam, you’ll need a gold coin, not a silver coin.”
“What kind of gold coins are you talking about when you are running a shitty business? You bastard! “If you don’t have a madam, bring your own mom!”
As the commotion that started in the second floor hallway echoed throughout the building, several people who were drinking in the first floor lobby began to watch with interest.
There are coquettish prostitutes on their knees.
Holding a beer in his left hand and a cigarette in his right hand.
To watch the most entertaining fight in the world.
“…Would you like to hear what I have to say?”
Vlad covered his eyes with his palms and asked the man who said he had been a mercenary for 20 years.
“This second!”
The man shouted, throwing the candle at Vlad who was angry.
“Isn’t this 7 minutes long? “What kind of bastard is that, I just took off my pants and it’s all burning!”
Vlad stared at Tadaman Cho rolling at his feet.
A rose candle used as a means of measuring time.
This candle, which takes 7 minutes for each candle to burn, was a standard used to measure the time of customers and prostitutes, as well as a means of transaction.
“Okay then.”
Vlad searched through the box he had put down and picked up a candle used on the second floor.
“Do you see the clock in front of you? “From now on, I’m going to light the candle and see if it lasts seven minutes.”
There was no clock to tell the passage of time in the lobby on the first floor, where people had to have fun, but there was a clock on the second and third floors, where people had to be sensitive to time.
“Why should I listen to scammers?”
The man who said he was a mercenary crossed his arms and rejected Vlad’s offer.
“Let’s do it.”
“…….”
Looking at the blue eyes in front of me, I couldn’t help but nod without realizing it.
Eyes that can subdue others just by looking at them.
Jorge, the boss of the organization, looked at Vlad’s eyes and commented that he would be the leader in any alley.
“If it’s less than 7 minutes, then you can keep beating the woman or not.”
Vlad said, striking a match on the sole of his shoe.
“Instead, if this really lasts 7 minutes, the customer will be beaten by me here.”
“……what?”
Vlad lit the candle without the mercenary having time to stop him. He put the candle down in the middle of the hallway and nodded.
“Vlad…”
Only the poor prostitute, shaking her shoulders anxiously, was looking at Vlad, not Cho.
1 minute 2 minutes 3 minutes.
As time passed, the attention of everyone gathered in the hall began to focus.
“uh?”
The moment the mercenary’s eyes widened as he was still holding the prostitute’s hair.
“It’s been 7 minutes, bastard!”
Vlad swung the club on his waist with lightning-like movements.
Bah!
Red blood splashed onto the mercenary’s head from the harsh blow.
“Aaaah!”
Vlad’s sudden blow created a gap, and the prostitute who had been captured escaped.
“You missed today!”
Vlad grabbed the mercenary who was still unconscious by the neck and dragged him into the room they had just left.
Click-
“You committed the fraud first! “A 20-year-old mercenary has this much belly fat?”
Bah! Bah!
“Kwaaaak!”
“And why are so many people looking for my mom today? “Would you rather live in sorrow under a sky without parents?”
Locked visit.
The sound of blows and a man’s screams can be heard incessantly.
Vlad added to the anger he had suppressed earlier and focused on striking the man in front of him.
“Ah…that’s right!
“Shut up you bastard!”
When the drunken onlookers didn’t see the fight they were expecting, they licked their lips and turned their heads back to the prostitutes sitting on their laps.
Bah!
The sound of clubs and the screams of men.
As the black-haired woman sitting on the fourth floor gestured downwards, the music of the orchestra became louder.
Some people cry, some people get angry, but all of that just flows quietly, buried by the loud music.
This is Shoah.
This is the smile of a rose.
It was just a place where the passing lives gathered and stagnated for a while.
※※※※
After a noisy night, the quiet morning sunlight fell on the Rose Inn with silence.
The smile of the morning rose, decorated with antique decorations, gave off the feeling of a nobleman’s villa.
Each ornate pattern contained the sorrow and tears of a dark-haired woman, but few people would recognize it.
“Vlad.”
“oh. Anna.”
There was a woman calling out to Vlad, who had politely left the last remaining customer on the floor of the alley.
“The corners of my eyes have turned blue. “I need to rest for a few days.”
“That’s right. “Still, what’s not broken?”
She was a brown-haired prostitute who suffered violence from mercenaries last night.
“Thank you.”
A woman with black bruised eyes smiling brightly and handing something over.
Vlad stared at what she was holding out.
“I’ll eat well.”
It was an egg.
“Eat here now. “That’s a raw egg.”
“Hmm…”
Vlad made a meaningful expression as he saw Anna smiling at him.
“okay.”
Vlad cracks the bottom of the egg with his finger and swallows the porridge.
The woman named Anna said, happily watching Vlad’s uvula move.
“I’m worried that men have become rough these days. In times like these, you need a man you can definitely trust…”
“Good luck.”
Anna smiled bitterly as she looked at the eggshell on her palm.
“…If you change your mind at any time, let me know. “Wouldn’t I make more money than that red-haired kid who looks like a millet?”
“Maybe so.”
Vlad took a step forward with those words.
“Oh. Anna!”
“huh? why?”
Anna looked at Vlad with her eyes wide open in anticipation.
“Aren’t you opening the front door too much? “It’s still winter, so you need to take good care of yourself.”
“…This is also a sign of gratitude.”
Only after Vlad pointed out did Anna cover her breasts.
When he looked up again, Vlad in front of him had already disappeared to the end of the hallway.
“The only thing I can sell is my body, but this is not enough…”
In the middle of an empty hallway.
The woman with no one to rely on smiled sadly.
※※※※
“Jorge. “Someone played a prank on me early on.”
The first floor is a lobby that sells alcohol and food.
The 2nd and 3rd floors are window rooms.
And the fourth floor is the living space for prostitutes and employees.
Vlad reported to the man who was eating breakfast in the restaurant on the 4th floor.
“It wasn’t 7 minutes.”
“okay?”
The huge man named Jorge was not paying much attention to Vlad’s report.
“It wasn’t 7 minutes.”
“huh. okay. “They said so.”
Grilled sausage black pudding hash browns on white wheat bread.
The breakfast that Jorge always ate was the same.
And just like the diet he ate, the man named Jorge was a man who never changed.
“Did you understand what I said? “Someone put a candle to our food line?”
“No, who dared to do that!”
The black-haired woman who was making breakfast in front of Jorge interrupted with a mischievous smile.
“Now we have to find out who did it.”
“Of course I have to find it!”
“Am I looking for you?”
“You find it!”
“What am I looking for?”
“Actually, I already found it!”
“Who is that? Marcella.”
Marcella, the owner of the rose smile.
She has such outstanding beauty that she is ranked among the top five in Shoara.
Although she was in her mid-30s, she still maintained her beauty. She had the appearance of a bright woman and the smile of an innocent girl.
“it’s me. I was kidding. “I wanted to easily get some honey while eating away at drunk people.”
Garbage words came out from the plump red lips that all men coveted.
“Ha…”
Vlad lowered his head as if he was shocked.
“I just screwed over that stupid guy…”
The owner said that, but what can he say from the employee’s point of view?
“…If the candle had been put on the railing instead of the hallway floor, it would have been a mess.”
I deliberately placed it on the floor just in case.
If that had not been done, the onlookers on the first floor would have recognized that the seconds were not 7 minutes long.
After hearing Madame’s announcement, Vlad stood up from the chair in a weak posture.
“Where? “Let’s go eat.”
“I’ll go down for a moment and come back.”
“why?”
“…I’ll at least put a blanket on the guy who just threw it away.”
“That’s nice!”
Vlad comes down the stairs with trembling steps.
Even though he felt no remorse for blowing off an innocent man’s head, it was one of Vlad’s beliefs that he should still do the bare minimum as a human being.
Was it the nature of the back alleys here that if those beliefs were not held firmly in place, one would quickly be swept away by the dark waves?
“Howdy! “My proud junior!”
There was a voice that grabbed Vlad as he came down to the first floor.
“Don’t touch it. “I’m tired today.”
“I heard you did something yesterday? “As expected, my proud junior!”
He was a Burrey belonging to the Jorge family.
“Did you get any tips while selling candles yesterday? “Your seniors have something to write about today.”
At the end of Vlad’s gaze, members of the Jorge family were visible.
“fuck you.”
“No, don’t do that, just listen to me. “We are not scumbags who forcefully take money from our juniors.”
Burray came close to Vlad, putting his arm around his shoulder.
“What a rip-off.”
“It’s about giving and receiving. If you give us money, we have something to give too. “It means something like this.”
“what is that?”
Burley narrowed his eyes as if he had finally understood what was being said.
“Follow me.”
When Burley nodded, the other members of the Jorge family made way.
“It’s in the basement.”
Vlad followed Burray’s guidance and walked with him into the Rose Smile Basement.
This place, where alcohol and food ingredients are stored, is an important place in the operation of Rose of Miso, so it was also a place managed by Burrey, whom Jorge cherished.
In other words, this was Burley’s territory.
“Nimi….”
“What do you think? “It’s a familiar face, right?”
Vlad, who was still the youngest member of the Jorge family, needed his permission to take anything from here.
“Just give me 40 silver and I’ll give it to you. “This is really cheap. Where else can you find such a good senior?”
There was something writhing behind Burleigh, who was smiling humorously.
A child looking at Vlad pitifully with blood streaming down his forehead.
He was a child with black skin.
