Chapter 173 : Vincent
In fact, the neighborhood was too messy to be considered a usual change. Broken windows, blood-stained walls, deeply gouged asphalt. Although quarrels and fights were common in Gellerg City, such traces were not left by individual fights.
Having experienced a large-scale battle in Brahms, I could clearly distinguish the difference. At the very least, it was a war between gangs.
‘I thought I had confirmed that there were no gangs that would run wild in this area before moving in.’
The top priority was the large square footage, but I had decided to move in after sufficiently reviewing the nearby security. I had been robbed of my crops by Podrak the other day, but at least it had been peaceful before that.
‘Even if they don’t know that I live here, the word must have spread that it’s not good to touch this place.’
The information in the back alleys is always the fastest. Especially when it came to dangerous people or places, the information spread well even without going through an informant.
‘Has a turf war started?’
Of all times, when I was away… I sighed and said to Sage.
“Just in case, take care of the rear guard.”
“Yes.”
I left her there and walked forward. It was the moment I reached the main gate.
A heavy wind pressure was transmitted to my skin. I didn’t even have to use my own hands.
“……!”
「The World Tree reports that it has caught an enemy!」
This is my house. The plants that have propagated in every corner of my house are no different from the hands and feet of the World Tree. The vines wriggled and soared, catching the opponent.
“……A knight?”
I had just returned from Brahms, so I had that illusion. The appearance was that similar. Metal that covered the entire body, and a faint sound of air escaping every time the joints were moved.
A robot, no, should I say a suit? It felt somewhat familiar.
“Wa, wait!”
As I shook him in the air, a voice soon came out.
“Allen? You were Allen? Stop! Please! It’s me, Bell! It’s Bell!”
As expected. White steam was sprayed from the head of the suit, and a familiar face popped out.
“I clearly said it was okay to just stay still.”
The main gate opened, and someone with an androgynous appearance came out from inside.
“Beta.”
“Welcome back safely.”
This one was a real robot, an android.
“Hey! What do you mean it’s okay to just stay still! You should have told me who the opponent was!”
“You didn’t ask who it was.”
“You should have told me that without me asking!”
“Colin had already set up a security measure, so there was no reason for Bell to step in.”
“You never know! If that doesn’t work…!”
“Stop.”
I stopped the two who were still bickering and asked.
“What the hell happened?”
***
“The Brotherhood is causing a ruckus.”
“The Brotherhood.”
It was a name that gave me a headache from the first word. The joy I had felt when I returned to Gellerg City quickly disappeared.
“Is it Hatig again?”
“Hatig?”
“The name of the orc who kidnapped you.”
“Ah, that orc. Hmm, it’s not unrelated.”
When a problem arose in the Brotherhood, if you pointed to Hatig, there was about a 50% chance that you were right. He was a guy who had even attacked the underboss with me.
He must have found a suitable prey in another branch and was trying to eat it. But for that, Bell’s answer was filled with a lot of awkwardness.
“First of all, I didn’t hear it properly either. Beta investigated it in a private community.”
“I can confirm the truth, so don’t worry and just tell me.”
“It’s such a strange story that I can’t easily bring it up either.”
Bell scratched the top of his head, which had become less hairy, and told the story.
“It seems that a civil war has broken out in the Brotherhood.”
“……”
“It’s a strange story even if you think about it, right? They’re a disorganized group, but they don’t fight among themselves often.”
Bell seemed to be half-believing and half-doubting, but I took it seriously. The civil war of the Brotherhood. It was a story that was treated as a main storyline in FP.
As an organization with influence over the entire continent, it was a huge incident that all the cities would be caught up in.
‘The civil war of the Brotherhood wasn’t supposed to happen at this time.’
According to my memory, there were conditions for the civil war of the Brotherhood to occur. Those conditions shouldn’t have been met yet…
‘Is this kind of talk meaningless now?’
The Mad House had overturned the long-standing direction of the organization and was about to swallow Brahms. If what was supposed to happen had happened, it was not strange that the timing was a little earlier.
“You said it’s not unrelated to Hatig. Is it something he did?”
“No, that orc helped us.”
“……?”
“As you saw outside, the damage reached here. At that time, Hatig stepped in and cleaned it up. He knew we lived here and said he would make sure they wouldn’t even come near here.”
Originally, the civil war of the Brotherhood was a rebellion of the fourth faction that Hatig would start. If it was something Hatig had done, he wouldn’t have had the luxury of caring about this place.
Then does that mean that this case was not a civil war started by Hatig?
“Okay, I’ll have to look into the detailed circumstances. What about Colin?”
“The head of the school said he had something urgent to do shortly after you left and would be busy for a while. The house is relatively intact thanks to the magic he had set up.”
I turned my head to Sage, and she immediately shook her head.
“I haven’t heard anything.”
Well, we had gone to Brahms together. If she had heard anything casually, she would have told me first.
‘If it’s something that would make Colin busy, is it related to the Mage Tower?’
Had he been threatened by the Mage Tower, who had found something he hadn’t been able to handle, to come or be captured? I wasn’t particularly worried about Colin’s absence.
He wasn’t called a wanderer for nothing. The only thing that bothered me was Sage’s education.
“Let’s go inside.”
“Uh, okay?”
“I’m going to inspect whether you’ve been cleaning well and not being lazy in the meantime.”
“……Ah.”
She had been a great help in Brahms, more than I had expected. She seemed to have something to do, and she would do well on her own.
“Then I’ll stop by the office and come back.”
I left Bell’s pleading gaze behind and headed to Cromwell’s office.
***
“It’s been a while.”
“It has been a while… but is it just my imagination that you look very worn out?”
“……For a greeting after a long time, it’s a hurtful topic.”
And yet, Cromwell did not deny my words. It was a change in impression that made him look as if he had actually aged a few years, enough for him to know it himself.
“Weren’t you looking cheerful until I left?”
Starting with the contract with Elliot, Cromwell’s office was thriving. I had been in Brahms for a long time, more than I had thought, but it wasn’t long enough for a successful office to suddenly fall into a slump.
Cromwell said with a tired expression.
“I don’t know if you’ve heard, but there’s a ruckus on the Brotherhood’s side.”
“I stopped by my house before coming here, and my house was also a mess. What happened?”
No matter how well-versed Beta was in the network, she was inferior to the information power of a broker who also served as an informant. As expected, Cromwell met my expectations.
“I’m seeing that a problem has arisen on the Brotherhood’s leadership side.”
The three factions that ruled the Brotherhood. One of them, the vampire clan ‘Blood Alliance’, I had encountered while dealing with the underboss.
Then does that really mean that Hatig did not start the civil war of the Brotherhood?
“As the largest force in the underworld, the Brotherhood’s aftermath is reaching our market. The number of requests has decreased a lot. They’re even warning contractors not to get involved. That’s why we’re hitting a blank.”
“Is the source that a problem has arisen in the Brotherhood’s leadership reliable?”
“It’s a matter that the Brotherhood is trying to hide as much as possible. But since he came to see me himself, it’s highly likely.”
“Himself?”
“The man who was looking for you last time came again. He requested your brokerage. It’s about time he came, so if you wait a little, he’ll be here.”
Just then, the sound of footsteps coming up the stairs was heard. And following the sound, a thick smell of blood hit my nose.
“……You’re finally back.”
An impression that was incomparably more tired than Cromwell’s. A man with dark circles under his eyes and dry lips strode towards me.
“I’ve been waiting for a long time. It was the same last time, is it always this hard to see a contractor’s face?”
It was the vampire who had come as a messenger of the Blood Alliance.
“Let’s go inside and talk.”
Following Cromwell’s guidance, we sat facing each other in the room where I had talked with Elliot.
“I’m glad I didn’t come in vain today. Even I was starting to feel a little self-conscious.”
“Did you come to the office every day until I came back this time too?”
“Yes.”
“……”
It was a reply as if to say, ‘what’s so strange about that?’. I had felt it last time, but he was certainly a strangely sincere guy.
“Even if the Public Security Bureau doesn’t target brokerage offices, is it okay for a vampire to wander around outside so often?”
Vampires are monsters who are the target of oppression. The moment their identity is revealed, the city issues an order to kill them on sight. They had even founded an organization called the Brotherhood to hide their identity, so it was a sincerity that did not suit them.
“As you know, we pretend not to see each other even though we know. The low-level guys who don’t know such deep circumstances can be easily deceived just by cosplaying as a mage.”
He seemed to have his own tricks. Even if the smell of blood was so thick that it paralyzed the nose, Gellerg City was originally a city where even powerful criminals wandered around without any sanctions.
“But I thought you were a guy with a lot of guts, but I didn’t know you’d be active even after getting on our queen’s bad side. I was surprised when I heard your story from the queen. I thought you were already dead.”
“I’ve heard such compliments so many times that I’m sick of them.”
By the way, a queen. Following the elf princess, a vampire queen. It was a title that made me feel as if I were still in Brahms even though I had left it.
“Come to think of it, we didn’t even introduce ourselves last time. I thought you were a guy who would die soon, but… my name is Vincent.”
It was a name that suited him if it suited him. Well, that wasn’t important.
“Okay, what business does the Blood Alliance have with me? The queen, the head of your faction, probably doesn’t like me very much.”
I had made her back down by offering to erase the evidence that the underboss had supported the terrorist organization. It was a deal we had agreed on, but she probably didn’t have a good feeling about me.
“And I heard that the Brotherhood is creating an atmosphere to prevent outside personnel like contractors from getting involved.”
“That’s not our faction’s position. Our Blood Alliance is actually actively trying to attract contractors like you.”
One side is trying to block outside personnel, and the other is trying to attract them. A clearly opposite position.
“The one who caused the trouble is the Shadowfang, who is one of the pillars of the Brotherhood along with our Blood Alliance. To explain…”
“Werebeasts, a gathering of mongrels. Am I wrong?”
“……You knew about vampires, and you even knew about that.”
When I thought of werebeasts, a person came to mind. Cole Khamisi, the leader of the Quadruple who was a wolf beastman.
“What’s with the Shadowfang suddenly causing all this trouble? Are they trying to resolve their grudge against vampires now?”
As I had provoked Cole Khamisi at the time, werebeasts and vampires were historically well-known enemies. It was contradictory that the two were eating from the same pot in the Brotherhood.
In the end, if that old grudge had exploded, it was a commotion that could be understood.
“You know a lot, so you have a lot of prejudices. You’re misunderstanding the structure of this case.”
“……?”
“As I said, the Shadowfang caused the trouble.”
Vincent explained with a more tired voice, as if just thinking about it was draining.
“And we’re struggling to stop it.”
(End of Chapter)