When the dress hem and black leather military boots were revealed under the black riding hood instead of shoes, the thugs and pickpockets of the back alleys hid here and there like mice that had seen a cat. Esperanza walked the relatively clean street while not forgetting to check her position on the map.
There it is.
Esperanza moved so fast she was barely visible as an afterimage. Jack, who had been walking while tucking a pocket that obviously wasn't his into his chest after pickpocketing, flinched. It seemed like something black had passed by.
"Did I see wrong?"
"No?"
"Aaaaagh!"
Jack, who had fallen flat on his bottom, was still clutching his money pouch instead of checking his body even in that situation. She felt a little sorry. He probably didn't want to do this kind of work.
"You haven't forgotten me, have you?"
"Who, huk."
Jack gasped while sitting down. Under the hood black as death was not a skull but the face of a beautiful lady. Jack's gaze fixed on the vivid pink lips. He remembered how those lips had smiled. How could he forget? They would suddenly pop up even in his sleep, making him wake up screaming.
"Did you already forget?"
"No, no. I didn't forget!"
If he said he forgot, it seemed like she would engrave it firmly in his mind so he could never forget. Jack answered while slowly sliding his bottom backward. Even that stopped as if frozen when a right foot peeked out from under the hood. She was a woman who had taken down thirty-two grown men in an instant. He absolutely couldn't escape.
"You didn't go around telling anyone about me, did you?"
"I didn't. Really. I didn't!"
"Then that's fine. Why don't you get up."
Esperanza extended her hand, which looked even paler in contrast to the black hood, and gestured for him to grab it. Jack tremblingly extended his dirty hand.
"If you grab it, it'll, it'll get dirty."
"It's fine. If I cared about that, I wouldn't have come here."
That was also true. At least she didn't seem like she would talk nonsense. Just like her sword strikes had no excess.
Jack's thin, small hand was placed on top of Esperanza's hand. Esperanza used strength to help Jack up and waited for the child to find his balance and dust off his shabby suspender pants.
"I have a favor to ask you."
"......That thing from before?"
"Yeah. You know where the information broker is, right?"
"I know where, but I only know the location. Really."
'Jack's Note' contained the principles that information brokers kept among themselves. If you followed the basic ones, you at least wouldn't be driven out or attacked. From then on, money decided everything.
And Esperanza had quite a lot of money.
"Which information broker shall I guide you to?"
The child, who was still fidgeting with his hands in fear, asked.
"Are there different types of information brokers?"
Actually, Esperanza had hardly ever used information brokers directly. She had gone where newspaper boy Jack guided her and gotten sufficient information. Once she broke through once, she received contact through Jack.
"There are separate people who handle 'this' kind of stuff."
The child drew his finger across his throat while sticking out his tongue and rolling his eyes back.
'What exactly does this kid think of me?'
It was obvious even without asking. Esperanza sighed deeply. Jack, I miss you.......
"It's not that kind of thing, so guide me to an ordinary information broker."
"Ah, yes."
Perhaps thinking he had gone too far, he led the way with stiff steps.
Of course, Esperanza didn't completely trust Jack. Even now it was quite suspicious—he might be guiding her toward where his gang was to attack her. Then? She could just kill them all and come out. Whether he could still lie until then remained to be seen.
Last time she didn't kill them, but it was because she wanted to resolve things without killing if possible, not because she didn't know how to kill. Living as a hunter meant living with death on your back. She had seen hot blood splashing on bodies and light fading from eyes countless times. Countless times until she became numb. Though it was all fake. Like this scene before her eyes now.
The intense purple eyes suddenly became cloudy.
Jack, who was leading the way, moved his steps while trembling. Even though she was suppressing her killing intent, the sensitive pickpocket boy felt its afterimage and tensed up.
The boy walking with steps more creaky than an automaton and the black hood following the boy without leaving even a footprint, let alone a footstep sound.
It was such a bizarre combination that even the slum people, who had no interest in giving attention to others and cared only about their daily earnings, muttered one by one. Half of them glanced around without even perceiving the existence of the black hood.
"Hey, Jack. Are you okay?"
"I'm, I'm fine."
The boy answered as if his throat was being strangled and walked looking only ahead again. The man who was about to raise his fist feeling ignored saw the black hood and flinched, lowering his hand.
"Here it is."
It was surprisingly quite a decent building. Since it was a building in the Alter District, it couldn't help being old and shabby. The information broker that Esperanza had first visited following newspaper boy Jack's guidance was a noisy bar, but this place was quiet as if not even a mouse would dare approach.
Information brokers' lives depended on security—was it okay to work in such a place?
She carefully opened the door. Creak. The inside of the door that opened with a sound like a death wail was black as an abyss.
"It's Jack."
Jack flinched and trembled, actually hiding behind Esperanza.
But where exactly was the voice coming from? Esperanza took another step inside without lowering her guard.
"Can, can I go now?"
Her eyes narrowed. Could she trust this kid?
"Why don't you wait. After the customer's business is finished, I should escort you back. You might get lost."
"Yes, yes."
"Please come in. Would you like some tea?"
A gentle tone. But different from the languid gentleness of nobles. Mandatory kindness covered with one layer.......
'Call center?'
That was exactly the feeling. The voice addressing Jack was like an adult who had been forced to volunteer at an orphanage, and when addressing Esperanza it was like a call center employee. Neither was particularly friendly.
"Nice to meet you."
Lighting turned on in the dim place. A poor place that still used oil in this era when magical engineering was making dramatic advances. The smell of burning oil was terrible. But the space was neat.
A man in brown robes with black short hair walked out. From a room inside the building.
In other words, a position where he couldn't see Jack and Esperanza when the door opened. The place where the voice was heard and where he actually was were also different.
'He's using magical tools.'
A guy who had magical tools to create mystique by making voices seem to come from the opposite side was cosplaying as poor in an area crawling with crime?
Really, there wasn't a single trustworthy aspect. He was completely different from the bartender-like information broker she had dealt with 13 years later. She felt a distinctly dangerous feeling.
"It's humble, but please come in."
The leather sofa was torn in several places and sank deeply as soon as she sat down. Still, the man's pale face showed no shame. Esperanza didn't care about such things either. Only Jack kept glancing around nervously.
"You sit here too."
Only after Esperanza's invitation did he finally sit at the edge of the sofa. The child seemed to want to run away immediately and didn't even look at the tea the man was brewing.
A teacup with missing pieces and tea that was obviously cheap leaves. No tea food either. It seemed like an exhibition of what poverty was like. However, he had enough teacups to fill the number and his posture while pouring tea was steady. Though the tea set clattered, there was discipline in his movements. Rather than being educated, he seemed like someone who originally used his body. A soldier? In this alley, an assassin might fit better.
"What's your name?"
"Information brokers operate on anonymity principle, customer."
"A title would be fine too. I'm asking what I should call you."
"Then please call me 'Teacher.'"
A need for recognition subtly revealed. It was as if she was poking at what his weakness was. But that couldn't really be a weakness. Her intuition as a weathered hunter said so. Jack had really guided her to a formidable person.
No matter how dangerous, as long as he did his job well.
"Good. Teacher, I came to buy information."
"What do you want?"
"Can you get any information from across the country?"
"Osdern mainland and colonies are possible. Colonies have additional charges."
"I don't need colonies. What I want is hunters who obtain this kind of hide. That's the first thing."
Esperanza took out a small piece of hide from her pouch and offered it. The teacher's face changed minutely when he received it.
"You have something precious."
"I obtained it by chance. Anyway, that's the first thing I want. The second is."
Suddenly the lamp light flickered. In the dim room, one side of the teacher's shadowed face looked as if it was melting. In contrast, the opposite side of his face was as smooth as an aesthetic automaton's face. Different faces separated by a sharp nose bridge. The lips crossing that boundary were bright red.
Janus.
Instinct sent a warning. This guy is dangerous.
"Second, please find all cases where many people died at once."
"Murder cases?"
The teacher whispered. In a voice as neat as a scholar's. He seemed somewhat interested.
"Like an entire village of people dying. Whether it's from infectious disease or whatever, it doesn't matter. Except for cases where the culprit was revealed."
"Very broad range. There are quite a few cases of miners being buried en masse or workers dying when factories collapse."
"I want to know as much as possible for now. Recent...... information from the past year."
"Understood."
The teacher took out something like dice from a drawer.
"You can take this. It's not as impressive as what the master of the mansion you're staying at made, but you'll be contacted when information is prepared. Please visit again then."
The teacher even knew where Esperanza lived. Did he see her when she came to the slums? No matter how similar the hood, this was common clothing. With such different clothes underneath, he couldn't have associated her with that fully grown lady from before. Even Jack, who had seen her closest, hadn't recognized her at first.
Conversely, this information broker's abilities were trustworthy.
"Good."
"The advance payment is 50,000 terot."
She took out the bills she had desperately sorted that first night after falling here from her pouch.