In the end, Lisa was sent back to the ship while Katsuki and I followed Emilia to the meeting point.
The fact that I had to go back to the ship as well to store the loot into my Pack of Folding further proved that both Katsuki and Lisa were just trying to get rid of each other.
Emilia’s contact seemed to be someone inside the Narrow District so we were making our way through the narrow streets once again.
I guess it’s because it’s already so late, there were even more people having sex out in the open as compared to the daytime.
This really is the red light district I see.
I even received more than double the number of propositions too, some of them literally just standing around dressed provocatively to attract people.
“Why are they so focused on me?” I asked, wondering why Katsuki and Emilia only had people glancing at them but no invitations at all.
Emilia turned to Katsuki and raised an eyebrow, only for my maid to shake her head at her.
The Nekomata then turned to give me a wry smile, “Lady Aster is really cute huh?”
Where did that come from?
My question went unanswered and Emilia simply continued leading us towards the rendezvous point.
After a few more Infrids asking me to fuck them later, we turned into an even smaller street where it was practically deserted.
Going deeper inside, we eventually reached a single story building that looked out of place amongst the multistory buildings around it. It even had an iron door instead of a wooden one too.
Emilia went up to it and rapped her knuckles three times before pausing for a second, then knocking another two times and pausing again before finally ending it with a single knock.
A panel on the door slid open and someone looked through it, their eyes narrowing slightly when they saw us.
“The back alleys,” Emilia whispered without any prompting.
The person behind the door grunted before sliding the panel back in place, letting me know that what Emilia said was a pass code of sorts.
Sounds of locks being slid out could be heard from behind the door before it was pulled open abruptly, revealing a male Infrid standing behind it.
Unlike the other Infrids outside who looked especially cheery and happy, his face was locked in a scowl which deepend when he saw Katsuki and me behind Emilia.
“Who are they?” He asked, nodding at us.
“My associates,” Emilia answered curtly.
That seemed to be enough as the Infrid stepped aside for us to enter without another word.
Emilia strolled in like she owned the place while Katsuki and I followed behind her.
My Inugami maid didn’t seem intimidated by the glare that the doorman was sending us while I was feeling a little nervous. Not because I was afraid of the people here but afraid that I might cause too much destruction should a fight break out which would make me stand out too much.
Hey, we’re obviously going to some shady place right now. I’ve already seen Emilia get backstabbed twice so I’m already expecting something like another fight to happen again.
If that happens, I’ll of course get involved and fight back against them but I may cause some unintentional destruction of property while I’m at it.
Some people would definitely notice and I might get reported, which would then land me in trouble with the law and I’m going to be known by the others as the young Mistress of the Nilm Family. That name would forever stick to me and impede my journey in the future.
If this was some secluded island with no one around, I could just kill everyone and leave no witnesses behind, but that’s something that I can’t do over here.
Alright! I’ve decided! If something happens, I’m going to just pick up Emilia and Katsuki in my arms and make a run for it! Perfect plan!
While I had been busy thinking about how I would run away with these two, Emilia stopped in front of a desk where another Infrid was seated with her feet propped up on the table and smoking a pipe.
A very familiar looking pipe.
“Oh, hello. Aren’t you Lisa’s friends from this afternoon?” Cassie greeted me while blowing out a puff of smoke from her pipe.
…
Really? What were the chances?
Emilia turned to me, “You know her?”
“Umm… I bought some clothes from her shop this afternoon actually…” I explained.
“Really good tastes if I might add,” Cassie chuckled.
Emilia gestured to her, “Do you know who she is?”
“Err… I just know that she’s Lisa’s friend and also a fetish clothes shop owner?”
“You could say that she’s basically the puppetmaster of the Narrow District, the one who rules this place from the shadows. That shop of hers is just a front for her to get information and contacts in the day.”
Cassie scoffed before moving her feet off the desk, “Please, you give me too much credit Miss Scarlet Flash. I’m merely just a community leader of sorts. Now, shall we get down to business?”
Emilia nodded at me and I nodded at Katsuki in turn.
My personal maid shrugged off my Pack of Folding and started pulling out the plates that contained the loot we were planning to sell.
She shook them and the plates quickly transformed them into the objects in question, all of them arranged neatly in a pile at the side of the room.
Cassie strolled towards the pile and inspected them slowly, even lifting the covers of one of the boxes to peer inside and poking a finger into the Grey Powder.
“I heard about your unfortunate incident,” Cassie commented suddenly while still continuing her inspection. “I’m glad to see that it hasn’t affected your ability to continue doing business.”
“Oh please, if that were to happen, quite a lot of people would have their livelihoods ruined, including yours, right?”
I wasn’t sure if that was meant as an insult or not but Cassie turned back to look at Emilia with a neutral gaze, “That’s quite a bold statement. Are you saying that I won’t be able to survive without you?”𝒐𝑣𝗅xt.𝑐𝑜𝐌
“Is that not a fact?”
“Hmph… Are you getting sloppy? If you think that would make me give away my other contacts to you so easily, then you’re mistaken.”
“Oh, that’s not what I was aiming for at all. I just needed to know if you had other contacts so thanks for confirming that.”
“Tsk… You’re really as annoying as ever, aren’t you?”
“Really? I don’t think so. I think it might just be your old age catching up to you.”
Eh? Wait a minute… I can’t tell if this was just a friendly banter or the two of them were actually insulting each other?
I was already getting ready to grab both of them to make a run towards the door at the first sign of aggression but unexpectedly, Cassie turned away from Emilia first.
“Alright, alright. I have the money prepared already. Can’t you take a joke?” She sighed, puffing on her pipe.
Emilia crossed her arms at her, “My time is money and you can’t afford me.”
One of the Infrids came forward and dropped two bags on the desk, the jingle of coins inside unmistakable for anything else.
I leaned over to Katsuki, “What just happened?”
“Mistress, Miss Emilia is quite influential and has a solid record in her business. To have Miss Cassie check the goods so thoroughly is akin to insulting Miss Emilia that she does not trust her to deliver the promised products despite her delivering them herself. My guess would be that Miss Cassie was trying to gauge Miss Emilia’s reaction to see if she had indeed gotten sloppy in her business.”
Ugh… Mind games I see…
Cassie returned to her desk and gestured towards the bags, “As promised and also a pleasure doing business with you as always.”
Emilia pointed at the boxes of Grey Powder, “Just to make sure, you have a way to sell this without any of this alerting the smugglers we got them from, right?”
Cassie waved at Emilia dismissively, “What do you take me for? Do you think this is my first time doing this or something? If you must know, it’s no big secret that I got my hands on another batch of Grey Powder. Which is why I can just add yours to mine and sell them as a batch together. Plus, my source for those are from the North, so even if your little smuggler friends hear about my little sale, they won’t think it’s theirs.”
“That’s good then. In that case, I’ll be taking these.”
Emilia picked up both bags before passing one of the bags to me and leading us out of the place.
“Oh, Miss Aster?” Cassie called out, prompting me to stop to look at her. “Do come back anytime you want for more clothes. And bring Lisa along too, I’ll give the both of you special service~”
I didn’t need to ask to know what she meant by special service and quickly left the room with the others before I could be roped into another sex session with her.
Now… Where are my cakes, Emilia?!