Chapter 85: [The Underground Black Market]
While I didn’t ask them to instantly start working, I still guided them through a few basic things and then instructed them to observe for today.
Time passed from that moment onwards and evening came in the blink of an eye. The number of customers was more than in the morning, so Anna would have learnt a lot of things today.
And once the evening came with the hour hand on the clock reaching 5, I closed the shop and helped the last few customers.
“Both of you wear these and follow me.” I gave them black cloaks. They were big enough to hide their heads and faces, while I also added a function to hide their face structure, even if it’s barely visible.
Taking their hats away and storing them into the ring, I waited for them to wear their cloaks.
“Weren’t we going to follow you from next week?” Leena was confused as she looked at the cloaks. And I smiled as I explained in brief,
“Just because Mrs. Thompson won’t follow you doesn’t mean the others in town will stay silent. We will need to hire someone capable of protecting you both until you understand how this city functions.”
Both of them turned silent as a serious expression appeared on their faces. And then, wearing those cloaks, they followed me outside the shop.
Taking a bunch of odd lefts and right, we came in front of a blind alley. And pressing one of the bricks three times, a door opened on the left towards the basement.
“…”
“…”
Both Anna and Leena were surprised to see the door before I turned at them.
“Don’t get surprised with only this much,” I spoke as I began walking down with both the girls behind me.
The path downwards was quite long. So much that it seemed like we were walking for forever, but after 30 minutes of normal walking, we saw the other side, as a wide open area.
While it was still far away, if you focus a little, you can see the area filled with a bunch of people walking around the area and murmur was audible at this distance.
“Hey Wesker! Come here to sell your ‘Special Arrays’ ?” The hooligan like guard, standing at the wide door on the left side, waved his hand while I returned his greeting with a smile.
“Not today, Brok. Just came here to buy a couple of things and stuff.”
Brok, the guard with a slightly ugly face, looked behind me with a lust filled gaze as he spoke,
“You sure you aren’t in the mood to sell? These seem like fine goods.”
The other guard also approached them as he spoke with an even more lust filled gaze,” yeah. They need to be checked thoroughly. Who knows what weapon they might be carrying?”
I turned around as I spoke one sentence,” they are with Morpheus.”
And the other guards froze stiff, before he took about a dozen steps behind and gulped as he asked,” that Morpheus?”
I nodded as I answered again,” yes. THAT Morpheus.”
Sweating buckets, he looked at me before turning to those girls who stood there still without making any move.
“Let’s go,” I spoke to the girls, and they began walking again. And thus we entered into the underground black market of Border Town. One of the filthiest places you can be in this world.
While mesmerised by the beauty of the underground market that was filled with lighting of all sorts, their amazement turned to shock as they saw the contents of the stalls. And then a disgusted and nauseated look took over in the end as they looked at the caged slaves.
‘Their expression reminded me of when the first player found the market. He was quite happy, so he made a video, but the more he ventured into the black market, the more he found nauseating.
Several guilds even launched a combined attack on this place because of how inhumane place this was.
Slaves, to items of cannibalism. Parts of the human body, to various kinds of antiques. Everything was sold here. You can sell anything here as long as you have the power and capability to do it.
“Wesker,” Leena spoke as she held the unconscious Anna in her arms. Slowly sitting on the ground as she helped Anna down, Leena looked at me with an unexplainable gaze.
I kept my silence for a few moments before walking towards the sister and holding Anna in my arms. Before I stood up and then turned around,
“I will answer everything. But for now, let’s finish what we came here for.”
I couldn’t understand what she was going through. But I had my reason for not making any move till now. A few really good reasons.
Walking through the market, we came across a certain wooden house where more than a dozen demihumans were standing outside. They weren’t there for the stall but rather were waiting for customers.
They were mercenaries.
Walking towards the shop, carrying Anna in my arms, I garnered quite the attention of everyone around. But it was fine. It is better this way as well.
“Hmmm? Wesker? Haven’t seen you in the underground for a while. And especially in this part. Anything special?” The receptionist was an old man with a half burned face. He stood there on the other side of the stool, barely supporting himself against the stool.
He smoked a cigar and wore glasses made up of gold as he gazed at me and the girls behind me.
“Been a while Revius. Came here to hire a mercenary,” I looked at him with a nonchalant gaze before I waited for him to speak.
“What kind of mission?” he asked, a bit interested.
“Protection,” I answered.
“Hmmm?” He looked at those girls again before he chuckled and spoke,” duration?”
“2 Months,” I answered as I calculated that by that time I could help them get strong enough to protect themselves within the city.
“That long, eh? You must be loaded to make that kind of request,” he laughed at me.
“I am,” I smirked as I looked at him, making him choke on his cigar for a moment.
“Cough cough… ” He looked at me with a deep gaze again before asking,
“Do you have any mercenary that you want to specifically assign to the job?”
He spoke as he smoked the cigar again.
“Morpheus,” I answered with a calm look again.
