Chapter 131: The Bar

The gangs of Ashmelion followed a very simple and crude way of life.

For them, humans decided right and wrong not according to legal standards but according to their own subjective morality.

As long as you were strong enough, anything you did was an act of the law.

To most gang members of the Quads, the criteria for whether they should deal with a person wasn't whether or not they had the right to do so but whether or not they felt like that person deserved to die.

That judgment of being deserving of death was naturally defined by themselves based on publicly accepted ceremonial etiquette among the gangs of Ashmelion.

This was a universally accepted fact in the entire city and even if you didn't want to accept it. What could you do? An ordinary citizen wouldn't dare to change the status quo but it didn't mean that they weren't unresigned.

Of course, they had their grievances.

These gangs were just too domineering.

But since they were powerless to do anything about it, so why not just embrace it?

Thus, the gangs became an important part of Ashmelion's social ecosystem.

But that didn't mean that they weren't scums that the Joselian Kingdom absolutely abhorred. If given the chance, the Kingdom would definitely crush these gangs beneath the soles of their shoes.

Calvin seemed to be in a daze as he stumbled about in the streets of the Northern Borough. His movements were erratic and his knees seemed to be made out of jelly as they wobbled to and fro.

Bruce and Ashlynn furrowed their eyebrows, was he drunk?

"He's feigning drunkness... Interesting... I wonder why he is doing that?"

Bruce instantly saw through Calvin's act.

Ashlynn heard what Bruce had said and a smirk appeared on her face, "What's the fastest way to blend yourself in the crowd of people belonging to the Northern Borough?"

"What's with the sudden question?" Bruce frowned.

"Don't be a buzzkill, just answer me."

"Well, I guess... To wear those black coats and act like a shady individual?"

Bruce stared at Ashlynn in doubt.

Ashlynn shook her head, "Nope... It's to act like a drunkard!"

"Act like a drunkard?"

Bruce thought for a moment before enlightenment finally dawned upon him, "I see what you did there..."

"Clean water is generally scarce in Ashmelion. So that they won't catch any disease..."

"These people from the Northern Borough decided to drink alcohol instead... That way, any impurities from the water would be purged by the alcohol. But this also meant that they would seem eternally drunk..."

"Their gaits are unnatural and similar to what Calvin is doing right now..." Bruce repeatedly nodded his head, but he suddenly let out a sigh, "Does this mean that even kids are treating alcohol as their water and are slowly becoming the next generation drunkards?"

Ashlynn bitterly smiled, "There's nothing that we can really do about that... Well, anyway. Let's go ahead and follow that guy before we lose him. I'm quite interested as to what is his next course of action."

"All right." Bruce nodded and the two of them continued to follow Calvin from behind. The only difference was that Ashlynn shamelessly stuck her body close to Bruce and acted like a strumpet.

Bruce furiously blushed.

He was a young man on his prime, yet he still hadn't tasted a woman.

The matured womanly fragrance of Ashlynn assaulted his nose making him feel dizzy.

But remembering the fact that one of them might be in trouble made him understand that this wasn't the time to act like an innocent boy. He steeled his resolve and gulped a mouthful of saliva before he got into the act.

The Northern Borough was a rough part of Ashmelion indeed.

Ashlynn had to act like a strumpet if she didn't want to be harassed due to her beauty.

Even though most men still turned their necks towards him, there existed a certain concept among the men appropriately named as the "Brotherly code".

Ashlynn had a vague idea regarding this concept, so she took advantage of it and it became the reason why their journey on following Calvin was relatively smooth sailing.

They discovered that Calvin had entered a bar.

Ashlynn and Bruce glanced at each other.

The former was supposed to be a strumpet, so the two of them couldn't possibly enter a bar when they were already acting as drunkards. If they do, they might be kicked out of the bar.

However, this realization also puzzled the two.

Calvin was similarly acting like a drunkard as them, yet he managed to enter the bar without any problems. But when Ashlynn and Bruce tried to enter the bar, they have been barred entry with the guards stating that they should be going to an inn and have fun there instead of going to another bar with how drunk they look.

Unable to follow Calvin inside the bar...

The two decided to remain outside and wait for him to go out.

The inside of the bar was something that one would expect from a bar in the 1400s century Earth. It was rowdy, smelly and people were generally rough. The looks of the women were garbage, though their bodies were gorgeous, except that one couldn't rate them first-rate.

Calvin approached the bar and sat there.

He sat there for a very long time.

He didn't order anything.

Eventually, a strumpet approached him from behind and tried to seduce him into giving her some money but Calvin remained unresponsive.

The bartender who had been observing Calvin furrowed his eyebrows.

He had no recollection whatsoever about Calvin but from the look on Calvin's face.

He seemed to be looking for someone.

He approached Calvin and said, "We don't die, we multiply."

"Huh?" Calvin stared at the bartender in confusion.

Once the bartender saw that Calvin was indeed genuinely confused. He said, "It seems that you're not a gang member... In that case, then this wouldn't be so complicated. Who are you looking for?"

Calvin smiled, "I'm looking for a frequent customer of this place. The guy charges five joselian pesos a week for rentals, but instead of saving those coins, he uses them to flirt with these women and drink in this place. Just leave me alone, I think he'll be here soon."

The bartender scrunched his eyebrows, "I seem to have an idea as to who are you looking for. May I ask, are you someone whose name starts with the letter C?"

Calvin was pleasantly surprised, "Do you know who I am?"

"Just answer me." The bartender said, "I'll tell you everything if you're indeed that man whose name starts with C."

"I am!" Calvin almost immediately replied, "Full name, Calvin."

"Calvin..." The bartender fell into deep contemplation, "Ah! You're indeed that man that he's looking for in the past few days. All right, come with me. I'll bring you to him."

The bartender brought Calvin into the second floor of the bar.

When Calvin and the bartender walked into the staircase, some drunkards who had been playing with the trumpets glanced at Calvin with cold looks on their faces. But that look on their face disappeared at the very next moment, it was as if it didn't even appear in the first place.

Calvin was brought into a room.

The bartender was about to knock onto the wooden door when feminine moans along with rough breathing suddenly rang from behind the door.

Calvin made a sidelong glance at the bartender and the latter noticed what Calvin was trying to imply. Calvin was saying with his eyes that it was better for him to leave this to him.

After all, he was just a bartender doing his job.

He didn't need to be involved in things that were detrimental to him.

The bartender nodded gratefully at Calvin before he returned to the first floor.

Calvin was now alone on the second floor of the bar and he directly kicked open the door in front of him.

"Ah!"

"What the fuck?!"

Inside, the intertwined figures of a man and a woman were revealed. The strumpet subconsciously covered her body out of shame while the man who couldn't help but curse out of surprise revealed a look of shock on his face.

Calvin didn't say anything.

Viktor, the landlord, and the man who had been enjoying himself with the company of a woman looked frustrated. He had reached the peak and was about to climax, but someone just had to interrupt. Nonetheless, he didn't dare to express his frustrations in front of this death god.

He glanced at the woman and she stood up before leaving the room without saying anything.

She closed the door on her way out and Calvin was left alone with Viktor in the room.

"I didn't expect that someone wanted by the Yellow River Gang would still be able to have fun with women. Are you not concerned about your life at all? Have you already forgotten our deal? Did you forget that you still need the antidote from me by next month?" Calvin coldly said.

"Yes... I know... I haven't forgotten about it, sir... But you know that I'm also a man, sir... I've been so stressed lately and I need an outlet to release it. I can do that at the least, right?" Viktor revealed a wronged look on his face.

"Do I look like I care if you are stressed? I've given you one job! One job! I wanted you to spy on the movements of the Yellow River Gang, yet you failed to report to me that they have taken my wife away! You're completely and utterly useless!" Calvin declared.

"What?! They've taken your wife?!" Viktor almost shot up from his seat. His eyes almost bulged out of his sockets as he kneeled onto the ground and said, "Please forgive me, kind sir! They must've done the deed when I am sleeping in the inn! I promise you that this won't happen again..."

"I will buy the service of mercenaries so we can rescue your wife right now!"

Calvin didn't have much time to quarrel with Viktor, "All right, just hope that those bastards haven't done anything to my wife, or else... I will definitely skin you alive!" He directly threatened the man and Viktor tightly closed his eyes out of fear.

"Stand up! We will go to the base of the Yellow River Gang!"

"Sir... Are we going there, just the two of us?" A strange look appeared on Viktor's face.

"Yes! Do you really think that those bastards are blind enough to not notice the movement of a dozen burly men creeping up to their base?" Calvin rolled his eyes at him.

The Yellow River Gang definitely had a vast information network spread throughout the city of Ashmelion.

If they wanted to pay a visit to the base of the Yellow River Gang, then they needed to be incognito.

Needless to say, they couldn't bring any mercenaries with them.

"All right... I'll be right by your side, sir!" Viktor stood up and prepared his weapons.

Not even a minute had passed since then and the two of them were finally out of the inn.

Ashlynn and Bruce who had been acting as if they were a passionate couple in the nearby dark alleyway instantly noticed that a few seconds after Calvin walked out of the inn with another man...

Several drunkards followed them from behind.

These drunkards were clearly practiced in the art of tracking.

Their acting was seamless and impossible to see through for an ordinary man.

If not for the fact that their route was incredibly similar to the route that Calvin was taking, it would be impossible for anyone to notice that they were following Calvin.

"Thieves?"

"Most likely... But those movements clearly aren't movements of thieves... In other words, they must have something different in mind for Calvin." Ashlynn refuted Bruce's conjecture.

"A kidnapping?" Bruce absentmindedly mumbled.

Ashlynn rolled her eyes at him and said, "Kidnappers often run a background check on their potential victims. Calvin is piss poor and lived in the Northern Borough with his wife. How could he be valuable enough to kidnap in exchange for ransom?"

"Ah..."

Bruce awkwardly scratched his head out of embarrassment. To be honest, he wasn't this muddleheaded. But after Ashlynn dragged him to a dark alleyway with her hands touching all over his body as the two of them acted like passionate couples...

Bruce was still in the reverie of that moment.

But one couldn't really blame a virgin for fantasizing.

Ashlynn stared at Bruce in amusement.

"Did you perhaps thought that I would pop your cherry back in that dark alleyway?"

Bruce instantly stopped on his tracks, "S-Senior... Teasing me like this is foul..." He turned his gaze away and didn't dare to stare right into Ashlynn's eyes.

"What? You thought that I would do something like that in a shithole like this?" Ashlynn lightly chuckled. But in the very next moment, she said in a coquettish voice, "Maybe once we're back at the Central Borough."

"Cough... Really?"

Bruce almost keeled over from shock, but then he turned to look at Ashlynn and asked, "Are you serious?"

"Pffft!" Ashlynn boisterously laughed, "Of course, I wasn't serious! What? Did you really want me to do it with you? If you were my type, I would've agreed but you're just a cherry boy! I don't really like inexperienced men. They suck at it and it just hurts doing it with them..."

Bruce rubbed his nose and didn't dare to respond to Ashlynn's words.

Soon, the two of them arrived near a warehouse.

Calvin went inside that warehouse along with that man whom he walked out with from the inn.

"Does he swing that way?" Ashlynn casually remarked.

Bruce almost coughed a mouthful of blood, "Senior... Please take this, seriously!"

"I am taking this seriously..." Ashlynn coldly snorted before she crouched beside Bruce.

"What do we do now, Senior? Those drunkards are still here."

"Yeah, I can see them. They aren't even acting like drunkards anymore. This is dangerous..."

"What?" Bruce asked in doubt.

"They are obviously hostile to Calvin and once a fight happens, Calvin would be surrounded and that would be the end of him."

"Y-You're right..." Bruce nodded his head. A grim look appeared on his face as he said, "What should we do, Senior?"

"Do we go ahead and assist him right now?"

"Nope... We've got to wait until the fight breaks out."

"Why do we need to wait?"

"Silly boy, of course, we need to wait since we need a reason to beat them up!"

"If they attacked Calvin first, then we can beat them all up and then say that it's self-defense! Sigh... You really need to know how to scheme, young man." She crossed her arms in front of her chest and shook her head in disappointment.

She even let out a sigh that rendered Bruce speechless.

Who was it that was continuously distracting him from doing his job?

"A-All right, we wait... But are we not going to inform Captain that Calvin is in trouble?"

Bruce asked Ashlynn."

"Hmmm..." Ashlynn thought for a moment, "What classification is your class under?"

Bruce didn't reply.

A brown glow appeared in his eyes and it served as his reply.

"A tank-type, eh... Do you have your Aspect, already?"

"Yeah, I do..." Bruce took a knuckle duster out of his chest pocket and presented it to her.

"All right, since you already have an Aspect, then it shouldn't a problem for us to deal with these gangsters."

Bruce stared speechlessly at her.

"What? Are you dissatisfied?"

"Let me tell you this, I may be the only woman in our group but I am more powerful than you think"

"No, I'm not thinking about that, Senior..."

"What?" Ashlynn raised an eyebrow.

"I'm thinking about who will protect you and receive injuries in your stead."

"Oh, that...?" Ashlynn had a strange look on her face.

"Well, since you're the tank, then good luck and be a good meatshield. I guess?"

"You..."