Chapter 128

“Could it be ‘The Butcher Baron’?”

“Oh, so you recognize him. Indeed, those few who by sheer luck survived went about town spreading tales of this friend’s likeness. Since you were among their gang, you must have heard more of it.”

Butcher… what? Eugène frowned, for it was a title he had never heard in all his life. Gecko, however, reacted with far greater drama.“Hieeek!”Startled out of his wits, he scurried back until his shoulders struck the wall, and casting nervous glances about as if seeking some way of escape, he fixed Eugène with wary, trembling eyes.

“Do you understand the situation now, little one?”

“How can this be, my lord?! You said you would spare my life!”

“I am not going to kill you, brat. Who said that I would?”

“Then why did you bring… why did you bring that person?”

Every stammering syllable had been a mere pretense. Gecko, now revealing his true nature, spoke with confidence. He did not yield to Hunter’s leisurely demeanor and stated everything he wanted to say clearly. He seemed to have quite a temper.

“As you know, because of the incident your gang caused, this gentleman has taken considerable offense. However, what really concerns him is not insignificant street rats like you but the forces behind that act.”

Hunter stepped away from Eugène and approached the boy. Though fear was evident, Gecko did not take his eyes off Hunter, and his gaze trembled. Hunter grabbed the boy by the shoulders and drew him forward so that he stood directly facing Eugène.

“Look carefully. If you ruin today’s business, the person who will come after you is not me, but him. If you harbor any foolish thoughts, you had better be prepared.”

Gecko, pinned by Hunter’s hands and unable to move, stared at Eugène with a face pale as death. His pupils shook wildly as though he faced an executioner bearing an axe. Eugène did not understand the reason but met the unnervingly intense gaze calmly.

“D-damn it. Bloody hell. I understand! I understand, all right!”

Eugène did not say anything, but to the boy, that silence was more threatening. Gecko nodded frantically, swearing with all his heart that he would not entertain any reckless thoughts.

Only then did Hunter release him. Gecko took hesitant steps backward, then suddenly flushed red. He had not realized, while frightened, how shameful his behavior had truly been.

“But my lord, you must keep your promise! A real thief does not count a life as payment. To us, only the jingling of coins is a true reward!”

The boy shouted with defiance, as if to reclaim his bruised pride. Raised among the weeds of the harsh backstreets, he had a boldness that was no ordinary boldness. Hunter listened with mild amusement to the boy’s fearless declaration.

“Honestly, I do not know who comes up with such rustic sayings.”

“lj uMCt!”

“yMb OMfTj. snwCw fT OM Owwt PM TnMdP. ygZw jMd wZwC TwwO RngTTwdC Mp Pnw BgkvtgbT YCwgv g WCMJfTw?”

snMdxn nw tft OMP nwgC g WCwkfTw kMOpfCJgPfMO, Pnw YMj kgdxnP Pnw JwOPfMO Mp g OgJw. zwgrfcfOx PngP pdCPnwC gCxdJwOP JfxnP WCMZMvw ydOPwC’T bCgPn, nw Ndfkvrj TndP nfT JMdPn. snw knfrt ngt g TPCMOx TwOTw Mp WCftw gOt g TngCW gbgCwOwTT Mp Pnw TfPdgPfMO. BdtxfOx bnwCw PM rfw tMbO gOt bnwCw PM CwpCgfO pCMJ TPwWWfOx CwZwgrwt g vwwO fOTPfOkP. yMbwZwC, qdxèOw kMdrt OMP xfZw nfxn JgCvT pMC Pnw YMj’T krwZwCOwTT, bnfkn bgT pgC YwjMOt nfT gxw.

No matter how clever, a child was still a child. In the slums, children as cunning as that one were usually granted only two possible futures. They would either be drained to the bone by adults more deceitful than themselves and die young, or they would survive to the end and become adults who exploited children like themselves. Neither future was desirable.

Gecko received ten silver coins as a down payment from Hunter. Only then did the child’s expression improve. He quickly pocketed the money against his chest and led them to Thierry Kiatek’s mansion.

Gecko’s steps were as quick as his small frame suggested. He was remarkably familiar with the geography, darting through alleyways with unusual skill. Eugène understood from observing the child’s movements why he had earned a nickname like ‘Gecko’. Gecko was so adept at hiding himself that a single moment of inattention would be enough for him to vanish completely.

“Why is that child so frightened?”

The child led them cautiously, always choosing streets without people. Eugène followed silently for a while. Once a reasonable distance had been maintained between them and Gecko, he asked in a low voice.

He knew that the child’s gang had previously had a violent encounter with him, yet even so, the child’s reaction seemed excessive. Deaths in the alleys were not uncommon. Since they had attacked first and then suffered retaliation, one could say they had brought it upon themselves.

Having grown up in the slums, Eugène understood the logic of the backstreets to a certain extent, which made the child’s behavior all the more perplexing. Hunter, upon hearing the question, smirked.

“That kid was a member of the Clawhand gang, a fairly large group among the rats. They originally numbered close to twenty. How many do you think remain now?”

“How many remain?”

“One.”

“One?”

“Yes. Only one. That child is the last subordinate of Clawhand. You personally slaughtered four, and two more were so badly injured that they died without proper care. That makes six dead, so fourteen should have remained, but no one knew what happened to the other thirteen. At first, they disappeared one by one, and before anyone realized it, none were left. It was as if ghosts had carried them away, gone without a trace.”

Hunter lowered his voice so the child ahead would not hear, speaking quietly to Eugène. Only then did Eugène understand why such an imposing nickname had been attached to him.

“Do you know why that child went so far as to disguise himself in a girl’s clothing and hide? It is because he feared that the ‘Baron Butcher,’ who had wiped out his gang, would come for him as well.”

Hunter added this casually, unsure whether Eugène had understood, yet Eugène remained silent.Tsk. Boring fellow.Even while falsely taking the blame for thirteen more deaths, he did not so much as twitch an eye.

To think His Majesty would entangle himself with such a stony fellow, one must admit his tastes were certainly peculiar. Hunter shook his head and, as if he had seen something unsightly, turned his attention away from him.

While they conversed quietly, their steps gradually carried them beyond the Waning Moon District to a quiet street where the middle class resided.

Even if it was called a middle-class street, it was not a neighborhood of citizens who had taken root in the capital. It was rather a cluster of rented houses that foreign merchants or large-scale itinerant traders would lease whenever they stayed in the city. The name of the street, ‘Sailboat Street,’ came quite literally from the fact that most of the houses were equipped with small docking facilities.

The faint river breeze carried with it a peculiar odor. It was the thick, raw smell of freshwater, utterly distinct from the briny scent of the sea. As the night deepened and the temperature fell, a milky fog from the river veiled their sight.

But even through the darkness, one could clearly make out the sight of well-kept rental houses standing shoulder to shoulder in neat rows along the Salpine River. As Eugène had suspected, one of those was likely their destination.

His guess was swiftly proven correct. Scurrying ahead to lead the way, Gecko halted in front of a certain house. The boy hid himself in the opposite alley, from which the house was plainly visible, and waited for them to arrive.

“That is the place.”

The long shadows of the alley were dark enough to conceal not only the child’s small frame but even the two grown men beside him. Eugène crouched at Gecko’s side, fixing both eyes on the spot the boy had pointed out. Hunter, bending beside him as well, smacked his lips and muttered as if to himself.

“Well, it does look plausible.”

Indeed, the place was well suited for concealing oneself without attracting attention. Every house had its own docking facility, making it easy to slip in and out of sight, and given the character of the street, no one paid much heed to unfamiliar faces passing through.

The only problem was that nearly all the houses in this quarter were rented. Here, anyone who paid the price could take a lease. Since most of the tenants were merchants on long journeys, no guarantor was required; instead, a heavy deposit served as proof of credit.

“Are you certain this is the one?”

“Of course. I am certain. When the client came for the first transaction, once. When he placed the deposit, once again. Twice in all, he visited our den, and both times I shadowed him. There are those who think themselves clever and make detours before turning elsewhere, but I have dealt with enough such people before. That man did not go so far. I even lay in wait here through the night, just in case, and both times he went in after dusk and came out in the morning.”

Gecko complained about how bitterly cold he had been at the time, glancing at them anxiously as if afraid they might scold him for making them waste their effort. Even after the boy’s confident assurance, Hunter looked none too pleased. Casting a sidelong glance at Eugène, he muttered under his breath.

“But this neighborhood… What assurance do we have that the man who held the lease a month ago is still the one who holds it today?”

Eugène, who had been silently staring up at the darkened windows, turned at that. He fixed Hunter with a blank face and dropped a curt question.

“Do you truly not know?”

“…What?”

“A man as cautious as you did not think to verify something that simple? Were it I, the moment I secured the boy’s cooperation, that is the very first matter I would have confirmed.”

He had followed along in silence, sensing Hunter had some ulterior aim, but only to a point. Eugène now drew the line with finality, leaving no room for further games.

It had been a stroke of unexpected fortune to have spotted Gecko walking from the direction of the theater the day before, yet even without such fortune, it would not have been overly difficult to see through Hunter’s trick. From the beginning, the very fact that a back-alley child dared to behave so boldly before a figure of Hunter’s stature was in itself deeply suspicious.

“Is it not enough that I humored you this far? Why not end it here?”

Feigning carelessness to lure his counterpart into a mistake, then quietly stealing away the information leaked in the process, was one of Hunter’s most well-known tricks. The boy no doubt believed with all his heart that he was keeping his cards well concealed, but in Eugène’s experience, the truth was far more often the opposite.

That was why a child was nothing more than a child. Thinking this with some bitterness, he drew out a gold coin and tossed it to the boy whose usefulness had run its course.

Damn it, what is happening? What are they even talking about?While the incomprehensible conversation passed back and forth above his head, Gecko, restless and wide-eyed, reached out reflexively and snatched up the coin. Only then did he realize that what had been given to him was no mere dell but a full dinar. His eyes widened to the size of lanterns.

“Go.”

“Pardon?”

“You have done your part. Now go.”

Eugène gave the boy a firm dismissal. Hesitating and glancing at Hunter for permission, the boy looked again at the gold coin in his palm, then bolted without so much as a glance back. Left in this position, it was Hunter who found himself at a loss. His face stiffened in brief dismay, but he soon forced a brazen grin and shrugged.

“Damn it. Why did it not work? The plan was perfect.”

“What was your trick?”

“There is no need to press so harshly. As that brat himself testified, this place is indeed connected with Thierry Kiatek. However, more recently, it has been confirmed that other fellows have also been coming and going, yet there was no way for me to pry into their identity.”

He had already been caught once while attempting to deceive someone. When Eugène pressed him again, Hunter seemed to think that he must not provoke his temper any further, and so he obediently confessed his true intention.