The blood swirling around the dagger rapidly seeped into it. The densely engraved characters covering the pitch-black blade glowed red, and Evan tightened his grip on the dagger once more.
The attackers who had been rampaging moments earlier were thrown into confusion by the sudden attack. By the time they sensed the threat and raised their guns again, Evan's dagger had already carved a wide arc through the air.
A blade of blood cut across the space.
“Ghk!”
The death cry was brief.
Deciding that the situation was over, Evan leisurely looked around.
The sight was unexpected.
Red velvet covered the floor, with slot machines and card tables arranged across it. There was even an old billiard table that would probably be considered an antique in this world.
‘A casino?’
It felt less like cyberpunk and more like a casino from the nineteenth-century Prohibition era. However, the complicated wiring visible across the ceiling and the neon decorations mounted on the walls reminded him that this was still the era he knew.
Evan approached the group that had been annihilated in an instant.
One of the remaining two had died immediately. The other had collapsed to the floor and raised his head to look at Evan.
Evan confirmed that a soul still remained inside the body and felt relieved.
“I'm glad at least one survived. I almost did something that wasn't worth the cost.”
“Cough, urgh…… Wh-Who the hell are you……?”
As Evan approached the survivor who was still breathing, he glanced around.
“What else would someone who came to a gambling house be? A gambler.”
Evan placed a hand on the man's head.
“And you're trespassers.”
Evan's hand harvested the soul.
It was somewhat disappointing that although he had dealt with six people, he had only collected one soul.
Souls had far too short a shelf life. Like tuna hauled onto the deck of a ship, they lost their quality and disappeared in an instant.
Evan returned the dagger to the inside of his cloak and looked around.
The attackers were not the only people here.
People were hiding behind the bar, an overturned billiard table, and the card tables.
A head rose from behind one of them.
“……I didn't expect it to end like this. Wow, I really thought I was going to die today.”
It was a blonde woman dressed in a bunny-girl outfit.
Her apathetic expression was completely devoid of tension, making it difficult to believe that her life had been threatened only moments ago.
She looked at Evan, made a gesture as though raising her hands, and spoke.
“That gun scares me, so I'll say this in advance. I'm not one of the attackers, I'm not a debt collector, I'm not a cop, and I don't have a gun, okay? I'm just a poor, pitiful dealer who's about to be crushed to death by debt. Please don't shoot me.”
Once she confirmed that Evan had no intention of attacking, she sighed, walked over to the bar, and pounded on it.
“Manager? It's over. And I think a customer has arrived? He doesn't seem to be on the reservation list, though.”
“P-Please spare me!”
Only then did the person hiding beneath the bar emerge, trembling violently.
He stared at Evan with a deathly pale face and both hands raised high.
He was a middle-aged gentleman wearing neatly slicked-back hair, a tie, and a red vest.
“Please spare me! D-Do not shoot!”
“I won't shoot you or kill you. I'll behave, so just explain this place to me.”
Evan made it clear that he had no hostile intentions before every person who emerged started shouting, “Please don't shoot!”
Apparently realizing that Evan wanted the conversation to proceed quickly, the manager began speaking at once.
“I am the manager of this establishment.”
“Is it a casino?”
“Yes. My name is Jack, the Floor Manager of 777 Gate.”
“So I definitely made it into the city.”
It appeared to be a relatively small casino, but the mere fact that it gave such a clean impression showed that it existed on an entirely different level from slums like Asle.
Still, the sight itself was novel.
The other end of the smuggling route was connected to a casino.
“……No, perhaps this makes more sense.”
On second thought, this might have been more reasonable than connecting the route to an abandoned house with no one around.
There was no place in the city that could truly be described as deserted in the first place. Rather than risk being discovered by a homeless person, it would have been safer to connect it to a place guarded by an organized group.
After realizing that Evan was not a deranged murderer, Jack cautiously watched his expression and spoke.
“Um, were you perhaps sent by the people in Asle as a mercenary? We were already in some trouble because our business contact in Asle disappeared. Somehow, those bastards found out and attacked us to seize this place. Did you come to rescue us?”
“Not particularly. I was passing by, and it was noisy.”
Evan had begun to understand the circumstances.
A great deal of money passed through smuggling routes.
Where large amounts of money moved, there were always those waiting for an opportunity to seize it and those desperately struggling to protect it.
The ones struggling to protect this route had died gruesome deaths at the church, destroying the balance of power.
Fortunately, Evan had appeared just before the situation completely fell apart.
“A-Anyway, it is true that you ultimately protected this place. But…… Urgh.”
Jack looked around.
There were shattered machines and tables, employees who had already been killed, and decorations smashed throughout the room.
“Repairs, hush money, the broker's fee for finding new employees…… Money. My money…….”
Evan stared at the casino manager, who was already lamenting his money, then spoke.
“You forgot to calculate something.”
“Pardon?”
“My labor costs.”
Evan drew his pistol from inside his cloak once more.
“Eek!”
Jack collapsed onto the floor, every trace of color draining from his face.
Evan stared down at him, then smiled faintly. He picked up the fallen attackers' magazines and tucked them into his ammunition compartment.
“I'm joking. What you actually forgot to calculate was the passage fee. Common sense says passing through here wouldn't have been free, right?”
“Yes, well, that is true, but…….”
“How much is it?”
The moment he heard that, Jack frantically waved both hands.
“N-No! Absolutely not! How could we take money from the person who saved our lives? That would be outrageous. Please pass through! It is free! Naturally, we should serve you free of charge.”
Evan returned the pistol to his cloak and shook his head.
“No. That won't do. I intend to keep using this place.”
“Of course! It will remain free from now on!”
“Without payment, there is no responsibility. How am I supposed to trust you? What I need isn't trust. It's a service.”
Evan picked up a chip from one of the card tables and held it against his wrist.
The lamp attached to the chip flashed, then turned green.
Evan placed the chip on the bar.
【SYSTEM: Cash Withdrawn from Virtual Wallet. -1,000,000c】
【Wallet Balance: 2,162,000c】
The dealer from earlier stared at the chip Evan had presented, then looked toward her manager.
Watching her reaction, Evan continued.
“This is the deposit. I'll continue using this place, and if I'm satisfied with the service, I'll consider making you a long-term business partner.”
Evan had only just arrived in the city.
How to grease the palms of local law enforcement, how to navigate the balance of power between factions, and how to establish an information network.
None of those things were impossible, but securing each one individually would be troublesome.
If an established business could handle all of that on his behalf, this was not a losing deal.
“If that is what you want…….”
“However.”
Evan looked at him.
“If I'm dissatisfied with the service, or if you happen to entertain any foolish ideas……. The situation could become troublesome. Not as a threat, but as a legitimate customer complaint. Do you understand?”
Jack looked at the attackers sprawled across the floor. His face turned deathly pale again as he waved his hands frantically.
“Of course! Absolutely! Yes, naturally! We at 777 Gate never disappoint our customers!”
“Then we're business partners now. I look forward to working with you.”
Evan calmly extended his hand.
Jack clasped it with both hands and shook it vigorously.
The deal was complete.
It had been an unexpected situation, but the arrangement was quite satisfactory.
Evan turned toward the exit, but Jack hesitantly called after him.
Evan stopped and glanced back over his shoulder.
“Now that we are partners…… I know it is shameless of me, but could I ask you for one favor?”
“Later. I have a lot to do right now.”
“I-I'll pay you.”
“I'm not desperate for money. We can discuss it later.”
“……If you leave now, we'll all die! Those people you just dealt with were only the advance party of an organization called Freebird. They'll come storming back soon. Noncombatants like us can't stop them!”
“That isn't my problem. It also wasn't part of our agreement.”
This passage was not Evan's only way to travel in and out of the city.
If things went wrong, there were plenty of other routes.
Having a manager guarantee the route was convenient, but considering an all-out war against an organization of unknown size before the situation had even stabilized would not be worth the cost.
“Then…… how about this?”
Jack's voice changed.
He still sounded terrified, but the sticky undertone of a merchant proposing a deal had entered his voice.
“Sir, are you perhaps a mage?”
Evan paused.
After organizing his thoughts for a moment, he answered.
“And if I am?”
“We see countless items pass through this place. Asle isn't the only location connected to this passage. Things entering the city, things leaving the city…… Some of them are ‘dangerous objects’ that ordinary people cannot even touch.”
With trembling hands, Jack pulled a tablet PC from inside his clothes and operated it.
“I don't believe they targeted us merely to seize this gate. I don't have any concrete evidence, but I suspect they were after a ‘special cargo’ scheduled to pass through here today on its way to the city center.”
Jack cautiously held the tablet screen out to Evan.
“Please look at this.”
The screen displayed a list of items scheduled to be offered at Midnight Carnival, an underground auction house in the city.
Countless expensive goods and illegal cybernetic devices were listed, but Jack pointed to one highlighted entry.
[Lot No. 404 - Abyss Fragment (Unappraised)]
The photograph was blurry, but the object appeared to be a lump of black stone.
At first glance, it looked like an ordinary piece of ore. However, bizarre characters had been engraved into its surface.
“What is this?”
“We don't know either. However…… apparently, the courier transporting it said it was a legacy left behind by ancient mages. It seems the mages in the city are rushing to obtain it at any cost. If you help us, we could cooperate with you in securing this object…….”
At that moment—
「……!」
The hamster, which had remained silent inside the cloak, reacted violently.
Evan's head tingled.
He realized that the hamster was borrowing his sight.
“Let's take a moment to organize our thoughts before continuing this discussion.”
Evan gave a suitable excuse, moved some distance away from the others, and sat down.
「Wow. Is the city truly that different?」
“Did you recognize something?”
「I could never forget that pattern. That is a sealing casket from the Age of Black Magic.」
“A sealing casket?”
「It was used to contain powerful Arcane Implements. I don't know what's inside it…… but there is one interesting detail.」
“Keep talking.”
「The markings on Arcane Implements took different forms depending on the era. You could call it a kind of fashion. Thanks to that, you can estimate when something was made by examining the markings. You said you were looking for Yender's Amulet, didn't you?」
The hamster began to snicker.
「Even a shit-for-brains black mage should understand what I'm trying to say, shouldn't you?」
Evan organized his thoughts for a moment, then smiled faintly.
“Perhaps I should've entered the city sooner.”
Since he had entered this world, the distance separating him from his objective had not narrowed at all.
Now, after nearly a month, it felt as though that distance had suddenly been cut in half.
Evan turned his head toward Jack.
“Why don't you tell me a little more?”