Chapter 239: Universal Constant

The thousands of forest ranges outside any city were dangerous due to the lack of people that hunted monsters to cull. However, both Christine and Calvin had never met any monster in their journey to Azucar.

Needless to say, their journey went smooth and they soon arrived at Azucar with refreshed looks on their faces after having taken that bath.

The Hamlet of Azucar didn't seem to be a Hamlet.

It was more like a small city than a quaint little village. The number of people scurrying around in the area seemed to be even greater than that of the Hilton Borough. But there was a stark difference between Ashmelion and the Hamlet of Azucar.

That difference was that...

"Wha-What is with this city? Why are there naked people everywhere?" Christine covered her eyes with both of her palms.

... the city had an abundance of male and female prostitutes.

Fortunately, the male prostitutes were dressed properly, or else Calvin might also do what Christine was doing right now.

Sweeping his gaze across the entrance, Calvin saw that there was no security whatsoever.

Yet, why was it that this place managed to maintain its peace?

if Calvin had to take a guess, then this place definitely had an underground powerhouse that secretly managed the matters of Azucar and maintained its order, as well as the balance between all things.

They probably were controlling Azucar's reputation to the extent that the place would seem incredibly dangerous, but with great rewards.

As for the reason why?

Well, it was obviously marketing.

After all, the men of Las Felipinas were often hot-headed and risk-takers.

Taking advantage of this innate cultural trait of theirs, the group that was behind this place seemed to be a lot more knowledgeable than Calvin had expected.

Walking towards the entrance, a thought suddenly appeared in Calvin's mind and he immediately took off his coat and covered Christine with it.

"What are you doing?" Christine looked annoyed.

"You're too beautiful!" Calvin firmly said.

"What?" Christine was dumbstruck. Her heart seemed to tremble as she stared right at Calvin.

'W-What was this guy doing flirting with me so openly?' Christine thought to herself.

"I said, you're too beautiful! The tallest wind attracts the most wind..."

"Since we are here to help that Fatty, we must not cause any trouble for him."

"Oh..." Christine instantly understood what Calvin was talking about.

In this place where all sorts of debauchery were everywhere, a woman like her would definitely attract unwanted attention.

Calvin's words made sense, but she felt disappointed for some reason.

"Purpose?" The entrance guard nonchalantly said. They didn't seem to be collecting any fees. It was as if they were only here as a decoration since they weren't even inspecting any goods nor doing anything for Azucar's security.

A lecherous smile appeared on Calvin's face. "My friend, must you ask why I came here?"

The guard was taken aback. A smirk appeared on the corner of his lips. "Say no more. Next!"

Christine walked forward and the guard asked once more. "Purpose?"

"Uh..." Christine was surprised that she was asked this question even though she was Calvin's companion.

She kept her head hung low underneath her coat and surreptitiously glanced at Calvin.

Calvin was signaling using his finger that she should follow what he had said, but Christine was hesitating.

"I asked you a question! Why did you come here?" Christine's figure visibly trembled.

A frown spread on the guard's face. "Can you raise your head and look at me for a moment?"

The guard requested.

'This is bad.' Calvin thought to himself.

He stepped forward and rescued Christine from her situation.

Flicking a peso coin to the guard, Calvin winked at the former. "This is my friend, Christian. He's a cherry-boy, and we came here to get him popped..."

"This guy's easily embarrassed and intimidated, and you might have scared him off with your question. Just know that we're here to pop and nothing else."

The guard received the coin and kept it in his pocket.

But a sneer appeared on his face as he continued his line of questioning, "I understand what you are talking about, but that doesn't make him less suspicious!"

"If you really came here to pop this cherry-boy, then where are you going? Name an establishment in Azucar, and I'll believe your words..."

The guard's words were loud and it attracted a lot of attention from the crowd.

Christine grew nervous. Sweat appeared on her forehead and her back became drenched with perspiration.

Calvin furrowed his eyebrows. "Must you go so far, my friend? We came here to have fun in the House of a Thousand Thrusts!"

The guard was surprised by Calvin's words.

To be honest, he thought that both of them were first-timers in Azucar. In addition, Calvin was so generous as to actually give him a peso coin. As a result, the guard thought that Calvin was loaded, so he schemed to squeeze them dry of their money under the threat of detention.

But to think that his plan would fail...

He really misjudged the two of them!

"All right, all clear. Go in." The guard knew that his scheme was a lost cause, so he didn't bother about it anymore.

"My thanks, friend." Calvin smiled and dragged Christine with him into Azucar.

"Wheeew... That was close." Calvin stopped near an alleyway as he heaved a sigh of relief.

Christine was staring at him in disgust.

"What's with that look? Did I do something wrong?" Calvin asked with a frown.

"Men will always be men, they always want to do those sort of things! They are like animals!" Christine lashed out.

"What?" Calvin was even more confused. "What are you talking about?"

"I am talking about you, you animal!"

Christine criticized, "It's clearly not the first time that you came here... Otherwise, how could you possibly know the name of a brothel?"

Calvin didn't know what to say.

But then an idea appeared in his mind and he retaliated, "How did you know that the establishment I told that guard earlier was a brothel?"

A smirk appeared on his face as he teased this so-called maiden who desperately wanted to remain untainted.

"S-S-Shut up! Let's go and find that Fatty!" Christine didn't dare to stare at Calvin straight for she was afraid that he might see the crimson blush that was on her face at this moment.

Recalling the words, 'House of a Thousand Thrusts' how could an establishment with such a name be something different other than a brothel?

The world 'thrust' alone made it very clear... 'Ah! What am I thinking!' Christine furiously shook her head to clear her thoughts of lewd things.

"Speaking of that Fatty, I wonder where that bastard went," Calvin asked.

"He probably came here to do those things!" Christine softly, yet firmly responded.

"I don't think so... He was crying while holding that letter, so how can he possibly visit a brothel after reading that traumatic letter?"

"Well, maybe he wants to release his stress?" Christine replied. But then the blush on her face was further exacerbated.

"That makes sense. All right, let's go and ask a local where the House of a Thousand Thrusts is located." Calvin decided.

"W-Wait!" Christine stopped him in his tracks, "How can you be so sure that he's in the House of a T-T-Thou—"

"House of a Thousand Thrusts?" Calvin completed the sentence for her.

"Yes, that's it!" Christine almost exclaimed.

"Well, that Fatty might be shameless but I don't think that he'll settle for less with his personality. Have you already forgotten how he tried to fight Deputy Instructor Eutem for the sake of getting the authority to go out?"

"That battle was hopeless, but for the sake of his goals. That Fatty seems to have the resolve to do anything that he could to achieve it," Calvin explained.

"Calvin..." Christine stared at him in shock, "Some times. I feel like you're more observant than me."

"Doesn't that make us kind of a kindred spirit?" Calvin lightly chuckled.

"Uh... yeah..." Christine was taken aback by his smile and she took a step backward in retreat.

"Hey, watch where you're stepping a—"

"AH!"

A pained scream rang out behind Christine.

Turning around, both Calvin and Christine saw a rugged, half-naked middle-aged man let out a shrill cry of pain.

Christine had unknowingly stepped on his foot when she took a step backward.

"Ah! I'm so—"

"If sorry is enough in this world, then we would be able to do anything that we want!"

The middle-aged man scolded as he collapsed onto the ground and started squirming on the ground while holding his foot.

"Shit! That hurts, that hurts, that hurts! What the fuck did you do! I feel like I broke a bone!" The middle-aged man cried out.

"Brother!" A man came running towards them from the distance. He inspected the wounds of the middle-aged man and a serious look appeared on his face, "He broke his ankles and the joints of his foot. You injured him!" The man glared at Christine, further exacerbating the nervousness of the latter as she took several steps backward and trembled.

"N-No... I didn't... I wasn't using any strength—"

"Shut the fuck up! if we said that my friend got injured, then he got injured!" The man stared dangerously at Christine.

Calvin finally understood what was going on.

A single glance was all it took for him to notice that these men were scammers.

"What a bore..." Calvin commented. It seemed that in every world, scammers existed.

Back on Earth, scammers like these people were abundant. Of course, the methods of the scammers on Earth were far more sophisticated than the primitive methods of these scammers, but their goals were the same—it was to squeeze as much money as they could from their victims.

Scammers seemed to already be a universal constant.

They existed where life existed.

"W-W-What should we do, Calvin? I don't... I don't have a lot of money with me, and I clearly didn't use any strength!"

Christine was nervous and doubtful. Even though the situation didn't sound so convincing, the fact that she was a martial artist from a noble family meant that her body was far stronger than the average human. In short, she was convinced that she might be able to easily break the bones of an average human just by lightly stepping on their bodies.

This was why she was both nervous and doubtful. She wasn't sure if her walking strength was strong enough to break the bones of people.

The two men heard what Christine had said and the man who inspected the middle-aged man's 'wounds' pointed a finger at her.

"You clearly didn't use any strength? My friend's foot is swollen and purple! What? Are you still going to deny it?"

Indeed, the middle-aged man's foot looked swollen and purple.

Christine was taken aback.

"I see..."

Calvin's words resounded in the area.

All eyes focused on Calvin.

Christine hid behind him, while the eyes of the onlookers revealed amusement within their pupils.

Obviously, they knew that the climax was about to come.

Was this young man going to compensate them?

Or was he going to fight them?

Both choices were foolish, and this was why the situation was interesting to the onlookers.

Although personally, Christine wanted Calvin to beat these thugs up.

But her eyes dimmed when she saw Calvin taking out his money.

"C-Calvin..." She muttered in disappointment.

The eyes of the two men brightened when they saw the paper notes and the coins that Calvin was taking out of his pocket.

'W-W-We've hit the jackpot!' Both men inwardly screamed in glee.

"How much do I have to compensate?" Calvin calmly asked.

"Uh..." The two men clearly still hadn't recovered from the surprise that they had received.

It took them quite a while to reply with an answer.

"F-Fifty, no! A hundred pesos is enough! Fifty is for the doctor's fee and fifty is the compensation for my brother's trauma."

One of them shouted.

"I see, so a hundred for one of you. How about I make it two hundred?"

"T-T-Two hundred?!" The man was astonished. "Y-Yeah, that works best! Give us two hundred and we will forget about what happened."

Calvin softly nodded and he took out peso notes worth two hundred pesos.

Handing it over to the man, the latter received it with a look of glee on his face.

"K-Kid! It's good that you are sensible enough! All right, we will let you go!" The man quickly stuffed the notes into a bag.

"You're going to let us go? But did I say that I am going to let you go?" Calvin asked with a smile.

"What are you talking about?" The man furrowed his eyebrows.

Calvin stretched his neck and cracked his knuckles. "It's not easy to extort money from me without paying the price! I've compensated you for your brother's injuries, but he wasn't even injured in the first place so that two hundred pesos that I gave you is to pay for your time in the hospital!"

Calvin lunged forward and held the man's wrist.

With a twist, a piercing cry rang out which shook the hearts of the onlookers.

"Brother!" The middle-aged man who was lying on the ground this whole time reacted.

He was about to stand up when Calvin arrived in front of him and said, "Didn't you say that my companion here injured you? Why are you about to stand up? Could it be that you really weren't injured in the first place?"

"Arrogant brat!" The middle-aged man brandished a knife.

Christine's face paled in horror, "Calvin!"

"I'll be fine!" Calvin sneered. Taking a step backward, he dodged the knife and retaliated with a palm strike.

The attack looked simple, but it was sent towards the middle-aged man's foot that Christine had supposedly injured!

"AAAH!" The middle-aged man shrieked in pain.

Calvin followed up with two more attacks and both men collapsed unconscious onto the floor.

Dusting his clothes, Calvin casually retrieved the two hundred pesos and swept his gaze across the crowd.

In an instant, the hostile eyes that had been targeting them since they entered Azucar seemed to disappear out of nowhere.

Calvin let out a sigh of relief.

'There should be some peace after this.' He thought to himself.

Indeed, Calvin's actions had sufficiently proved to these thugs that he wasn't someone that would go down without a fight!

That he wasn't someone to be trifled with!