It was already past noon, so noisy bustle came from the main street direction.
He pulled up his hood to avoid being remembered and checked the position of his partner knife for emergencies. He slipped out of the alley and merged into the crowded main street.
So, first check if that bastard is here. If not, scout for a cargo ship that can smuggle me in. If even that’s impossible, I guess I’ll have to board a regular ship.
That bastard was the evil merchant named Boyit—creator of the hole, weapons merchant, and owner of merchant ships.
Cargo ship fares were never cheap, so his plan was to use connections to board a merchant ship for free. If that didn’t work, smuggling. If even that was impossible, he would sail properly, but he didn’t have the fare. He needed money.
To shake off the Hero, he had to take quick, easy methods. Of course he didn’t have time to scrape together coins by petty theft. If the negotiation with Boyit failed or he couldn’t even meet him, the only options were to use the slave girl as collateral or sell her.
He went straight from the main street through the commercial district to the dock.
This town had no strict zoning, so there was no formal commercial district, but commercial facilities lined the main street, so it was recognized as such in practice.
A while later, he passed through the bustling wide commercial area and entered the quasi-industrial zone.
Here were warehouses and open storage for transport companies and fishing laborers. Outsiders rarely entered.
The important thing was that security forces came here occasionally. The town’s security was pretty good, but he had to be careful not to run into them.
Still, knowing he was smuggling wasn’t particularly impressive work.
Relied on his memory of the previous visit and continued. He found a group of people spreading out wooden boxes in the yard.
Probably cargo. He felt like he’d seen them somewhere before.
"Hey, I’m really in trouble! If you keep pressing me like this, I won’t be able to use the place!"
"What? It’s barely sticking out! Just put it away already and stop dragging this out!"
"It’s not barely! It’s almost half my allocated space!"
A group was loudly arguing.
He glanced at them casually, thinking it was none of his business, and noticed the bearded fat man among the two arguing was the target he was after. He stopped.
"Hey Boyit, what’s up? Want me to mediate?"
"Ah? Oh, it’s you, Clock! Coming here is rare, eh?"
A loud, vulgar voice echoed.
It was noisy in the yard, so maybe he couldn’t hear properly without shouting, but it was still too loud. He could see the person they were arguing with flinched a bit because of how loud it was.
"I- I’m busy over here, so I’m leaving, but please move out of the way soon!"
As soon as Clock arrived, the man complained in a rush and left. He seemed to have decided to leave before being pressured.
"Damn brat, you’re full of yourself!"
"No, even if you complain, it’s your fault. Why are you all over the place like this?"
Each merchant ship had designated unloading spots.
Boyit had spread out an amount of cargo that even an amateur like Clock would think was excessive.
"Ah, there were various reasons I decided to withdraw from this town... This cargo is what I’m going to load next."
"Withdraw? Why?"
"Ah, there were various reasons. More importantly, what about you? Did you suddenly get the urge to want a young girl?"
Boyit trafficked humans. He was asking if he wanted the slave girl, but unfortunately the timing was perfect.
...He hoped there wasn’t a human inside those boxes. No, he wouldn’t dig deeper. Some things were better not to know.
Clock was doing evil things too, but there were some things he didn’t want to get involved with.
He pulled his gaze away from the boxes to avoid being noticed and moved to the main topic.
"...Boyit, actually I came with a request today. Get me out of the country."
Clock suddenly lowered his tone and spoke with a serious face.
The villainous merchant was momentarily surprised, but then his expression shifted to one that understood everything. He suggested, "Let’s talk in my office."
"Oh, sorry to keep you waiting."
He called back to the hole house.
The girl waiting there had spread a blanket on the floor and was lying down. The moment she knew he had returned, she immediately sat up.
"Go into the town and follow me. Grab the hem of my clothes from behind. Also, from today your name is... let’s see. Adelina."
He gave a random name since he didn’t know hers. The name of a dog he used to own.
With only two people on the journey, it was fine, but in a crowd not knowing each other’s names could even be dangerous, so it was an emergency measure.
In reality, if she were kidnapped, the only option would be to abandon her.
"Put on the hood. Also, don’t do anything strange no matter what I say to you."
He added one more warning.
When he confirmed that the girl—Adelina nodded curiously—he shouldered the bag and stepped outside.
Now he just needed to find a convenient slave.
The western sky had begun to turn red.
It would be night in a few hours, but unfortunately he had no money to borrow an inn.
He could stay in the hole house, but he had decided to move for the sake of sleeping on a proper bed.
He wandered through the crowded streets for the third time.
While sensing Adelina behind him, following the instruction by gripping his hem, he went around the shops.
"...Hey, miss."
When Clock spotted a woman, he approached her close and spoke in a gentle voice color he had never used before.
Behind him, Adelina panicked, thinking he had suddenly switched to another person’s hem.
"I’m surprised. Your eyes are very beautiful."
"Oh, thank you. Your eyes are very beautiful too."
"Really? I’m glad I got praised by such a beautiful person. If you’d like, after this..."
"I’m sorry, my husband is waiting at home."
She smiled brightly and left the place quickly.
The method of sleeping on the bed Clock had thought of was basically picking up a woman.
It seemed reckless, but Clock was a man with plenty of experience who wasted nothing. He had confidence to at least treat it as one of the possibilities.
Adelina, who didn’t know what "picking up" meant, blinked the whole time as Clock tried to flirt with unfamiliar women.
"Ah, damn it. Maybe I should just give up today."
He talked to nearly ten shopping women, but all were empty.
Of course, because he had only approached women who looked like they might have marriage experience.
If the woman had no experience, Adelina’s presence as a slave would inevitably hinder him. Even as a slave, going around picking up women with a slave was obviously not normal.
Even if they were married, they would still refuse. Of course.
The women Clock targeted lived alone. The condition was mainly that the husband wasn’t home, and they were interested in fire play. It wasn’t easy to find.
Ah, she’s a hindrance.
Well, whatever. Guess I’ll just sleep there tonight.
The sky had darkened a lot, and foot traffic had decreased.
The town’s security was pretty good, but women disappeared all at once after evening, so at this hour he had to give up.
When he got back, he should make her clean that dust... Is that well still alive? If there’s no water, it’s even more troublesome. Guess I’ll head back to Boyit’s place after all—
Right as he thought that, a woman entered his view.
...Oh? A widow? She’s quite beautiful.
She was probably in her early twenties. It was a waste to seal a woman for a dead man.
Clock set his sights on the woman in a black mourning dress he had stumbled upon.