[At that moment, near the commercial district of Baron Gilbert’s domain.]
Every city has a brothel.
No matter how much their scale may differ, wherever humans form a society and live together, there are bound to be one or two people selling their bodies. And when several of them gather together, it becomes a brothel.
How does a feudal lord manage such a place?
Some try to wipe them out on a grand scale, while others, despite disliking them, quietly turn a blind eye to those heading toward the brothels.
There are also those who tacitly tolerate them while accepting under-the-table payments.
Baron Blake Gilbert belonged to the sort who closed one eye while using the other hand to quietly receive financial support from the people running the brothels.
There were quite a few adventurers in this barony, so wiping out the brothels would have been pointless. There was no reason to meddle with a business whose demand far exceeded its supply.
“It’s been quite a long time since Your Lordship came here. I thought we would discuss things in your office.”
“Right now, we need to have a more intimate conversation. Just between you and me.”
In other words—
“The chairman of the Merchants’ Association.”
“Yes, Your Lordship.”
“Is the flower shop still doing well?”
“Of course.”
The lord and the chairman of the Merchants’ Association had maintained their relationship for quite some time, continuing a mutually beneficial exchange.
“But, Your Lordship. Are you truly going to pay one million gold…?”
“Chairman. You’ve been watching me for a long time.”
Baron Gilbert grinned as he swirled his wineglass.
“Do I look like the sort of man who would offer up his domain for the sake of someone like Jake?”
“Even if that is not what you truly desire, I understand that you are the sort of person who might do so for the greater cause.”
“Yes. The greater cause. For the sake of my public image, Jake must be kept alive. But I cannot give one million gold to a demon—not to another noble, but to a demon.”
Baron Gilbert firmly shook his head.
“Then is the negotiation a failure?”
“It isn’t a failure. Because that demon never intended to keep Jake alive in the first place.”
Baron Gilbert took an object from his pocket.
“This is the aphrodisiac he gave me.”
“.......”
“He seems to want to trade this. He wants to establish regular dealings.”
“That’s dangerous. What if it’s actually a deadly poison disguised as an aphrodisiac? Or it contains some contagious disease? Or perhaps it’s a drug that turns humans into monsters?”
“Yes. It is dangerous.”
An item received from a demon.
Naturally, it was only right to doubt its effects.
“But what if his words are true? Demon Dandelion claimed that he had made even Jake Gilbert hard several times over.”
“You mean an enhancement drug? A genuine aphrodisiac, in the purest sense?”
“It might be.”
“......You’re expecting a great deal from it.”
The chairman’s lips twisted into a sly smile.
“You intend to distribute the aphrodisiac among those adventurer bastards and rake in the money, don’t you?”
“Even if the customers aren’t adventurers, if the effects are certain and it’s safe, there’s no need to limit our clientele to mere riffraff.”
“Indeed. As long as we suitably alter its origin, there would be no problem selling it. We could simply attach an appropriate label to the outside of the glass bottles and sell it, or transfer the contents into bottles used by our own merchant company.”
Even knowing how dangerous it was, he could not help licking his lips at the thought.
“It will probably be addictive to some extent, but if we dilute it as much as possible and make them gradually increase the dosage, it should work.”
Aphrodisiacs made money.
Not just a little money, either. It was a major business capable of bringing in a considerable profit.
“Succubi have practically vanished these days, so even securing aphrodisiacs has become difficult. And yet, for a demon to approach us with a trade offer first….”
“Perhaps they know something about the circumstances of the human world.”
“There is demand for aphrodisiacs everywhere, but the supply is extremely limited.”
“Yes. Recently, even the cheap stuff has been regulated by priests of the Goddess Church, who patrol around with both eyes wide open… Sigh.”
“It can’t be helped. The Saintess was raped with an aphrodisiac, after all.”
“...It truly can’t be helped, but thanks to that, our situation has become exceedingly difficult as well.”
“I know. I’ve noticed that the amount of money coming in from this side has decreased somewhat.”
There had been some incident, and aphrodisiacs had become something akin to the Goddess Church’s deepest taboo.
“That’s why I want to test this aphrodisiac.”
“Test it…?”
“Yes. We’ll have soldiers waiting nearby, secretly capture a prostitute, and test the aphrodisiac on her.”
“An experiment, you say. If you obtain satisfactory results, do you intend to continue trading with the demon?”
“If you remove the label of ‘demon’ from him, he’s an excellent trading partner. At the very least, unlike those adventurer bastards, he won’t clear a dungeon and then demand an absurd amount of money for the materials, will he?”
The baron shifted in his seat.
“Listen first. Hear what that demon put forward as the ‘real negotiation.’”
The baron explained the details to the chairman.
“...I see. Offer up a sacrifice and receive the aphrodisiac?”
“What do you think?”
“If there are no restrictions on the sacrifice, then there is no need to kidnap humans from the slums and throw them in. Indeed, the terms of the deal appear favorable.”
“Don’t they?”
“But….”
The corners of the chairman’s mouth twisted slyly.
“My lord. About Jake Gilbert. Did you confirm that he was alive before you came back?”
“.......”
“You didn’t, did you? Did you simply have no time to check? Really?”
Baron Gilbert averted his eyes.
Like a man who had been struck in a sore spot, he fixed his gaze on his wineglass with an awkward expression.
“Well, the negotiations proceeded so quickly….”
“No, no.”
The chairman waggled a finger as he continued.
“You deliberately pretended not to know and never confirmed whether he was alive. With your own eyes.”
“......Surely a demon wouldn’t toy with someone’s life.”
“Demons generally don’t refrain from such things out of a sense of honor. But the head of the Adventurers’ Guild said so himself, didn’t he? That demon is unlike any demon he has ever heard of. If the name was an alias, then he had disguised his identity in order to lie deliberately. And if it was his true name, then he was the sort of bastard capable of telling such lies.”
“......You’re saying he’s using Jake’s corpse to conduct the trade?”
“So it really is ‘dead Jake’?”
When the chairman asked with a smile, the baron covered his face with one hand, unable to stop himself from smiling as well.
“I really can’t get anything past you.”
“Heh heh. As expected, Young Mas—Ahem. Your Lordship does want that Jake bastard dead.”
“Now, don’t put it quite like that. It makes me sound like a heartless and cruel monster.”
The baron straightened his posture with a serious expression.
“Sometimes, you pretend not to know even when you do. Wasn’t that something you taught me?”
“Heh heh. I understand.”
The baron and the chairman exchanged grins.
“The problem is whether Jake is alive. Regardless of whether Your Lordship wants that bastard to die, if the deal goes through, he could become a serious weakness for you.”
“Because he’s a bastard?”
“If those demons keep him alive, then if the deal goes awry later, they could release him and use him to report Your Lordship.”
“......That would be troublesome.”
The baron’s expression twisted.
“Report to the Goddess Church that ‘Baron Gilbert made a deal with demons’?”
“‘I was captured by demons and subjected to terrible torture, but barely escaped the dungeon and came to report it to the Church. How did I learn of this? The demon kept talking about it while torturing me.’”
“Terrifying.”
“It would be troublesome. Extremely troublesome. Therefore….”
The chairman tapped the lid of the aphrodisiac with one finger.
“Let’s confirm the effects of this aphrodisiac first, then decide how to proceed. It won’t be too late to determine the terms of the negotiation afterward. In merchant dealings, this is essentially a ‘sample.’”
“A sample….”
“Since Your Lordship has gathered the people by tomorrow morning, we should confirm it at once. Excellent. The prostitutes’ discipline has been slipping lately, so this will give us a chance to straighten them out.”
“The prostitutes’ discipline? Why?”
“Well, you see.”
The chairman gave an incredulous chuckle as he picked up the aphrodisiac.
“They complain that there aren’t any men who know what they’re doing.”
“......Those prostitutes have grown too spoiled.”
“They shouldn’t be allowed to get too comfortable, heh heh.”
“Well, let’s confirm it quickly. Ah, Chairman. The aphrodisiac is….”
“We’ll capture two people who won’t cause trouble even if they die and test it on them.”
“Good.”
The baron and the chairman clinked their wineglasses.
“Let us hope that demon becomes our very good ‘business partner.’”
* * *
“Achoo.”
“I apologize. I’ll raise the temperature in the room immediately.”
“It’s not that.”
Since Lilith had made such a fuss over a single sneeze, I calmed her down and straightened my clothes.
“This robe is warmer than I expected. The heating magic in the room is, too.”
When I first came to the assistant instructor’s room, I had shivered a little from the cold.
I had even slept wrapped tightly in blankets, but ever since becoming an official assistant instructor, my quality of life had continued to improve.
The layout of the assistant instructor’s room—in other words, the assistant instructor’s private quarters—was the same as when I had first entered.
However, the furniture had been replaced with considerably better pieces, and I could request things for my hobbies whenever I needed them.
The temperature inside the room was even kept warm.
They hadn’t installed a boiler, but magic circles hanging on the walls like wallpaper emitted a gentle heat from all directions and regulated the temperature inside.
‘Long live magic.’
To enjoy such luxuries as a human, I would probably need to hold at least the rank of count.
Rather than struggling my way up there while hauling luggage for a living, it was a better life to sleep with women, work as an assistant instructor, and lick the vampire princess’s pussy.
All I had to do was give up on being human.
Even as a human, my position in the Vampire Legion of the Demon King’s Army had become more precious to me.
“Secretary.”
“Yes.”
“I just felt like calling you.”
“Is that so? You may call me whenever you wish. If you are bored, give me any order you like.”
“Anything, huh….”
I had access to so many luxuries here.
And more than anything else—
“Secretary. I have some time to spare. Could I take a look at the area around the dungeon entrance?”
From this assistant instructor’s room, much like a CCTV monitoring room, I could use magic to observe several locations.
“...You want to work?”
“Not exactly work. I just want to take a look while I’m resting. I’m worried they might test the aphrodisiac, immediately discover its effects, and come rushing over.”
Those bastards prioritized safety.
They probably wouldn’t enter our dungeon, but they might send someone this way for the sake of the deal—or send a letter, or some other signal.
‘It’s a shame I can’t see the sub-dungeon.’
I could only see this side.
Originally, I could only observe the inside of the assistant instructor’s room, but in order to respond immediately to these negotiations, I had obtained permission to view the entrance leading into that sub-dungeon.
“I’ll display it immediately.”
An image resembling a hologram flickered into existence before me.
It was magic, but it looked exactly like a scene from some science-fiction film set in the future.
“As you can see….”
My secretary, Lilith, fell silent.
‘Looks like I’m not going to be able to play the gentleman here.’
Srrr.
A man and a woman entered the dungeon.
“That is….”
“Secretary. Send the others immediately and secure them.”
They were not an ordinary man and woman.
Then again, it was doubtful that anyone entering a dungeon would be ordinary. Still, it wasn’t as if two naked men and women usually staggered inside.
“Wow.”
I couldn’t help laughing at the words engraved across the naked bodies of the two people visible in the image.
“How classy.”
Paid in advance.