Chapter Four
GIVE IN
Dionysus stood up and looked around.
'I know I slept in the sewers, but I'm pretty sure that I didn't do it there.'
After wondering for a bit concerning what happened, he just shrugged it off since it didn't really matter. Afterwards, he made his way out of the sewer and onto the main road of the capital. After that, he began to take a bit of a walk.
'I wonder if there's actually something interesting to do around here.'
While wondering this, Dionysus looked up at the dark mist above him. It was somewhat thick, but it was nothing compared to yesterday.
"Tsk"
He had wanted to terrorize some innocent civilians, but none of them were going through some actual bad times. Though, some of them did seem to have it somewhat tough.
'I heard somewhere in the crowd that I resembled something in a case from the past? Some 'Qualdecia' or something'
Following the events that happened yesterday, when he walked through the crowd to get away from where he killed the captain, he heard someone whisper something about a case from the past. His curiosity triggered, he walked up to a random woman on the street and looked at her.
She looked back at him with nervous eyes while quickly trying to walk away. Though, of course, Dionysus didn't let her get away and took her by the arm and leaped into the air.
"AH-!"
Before she could even get a proper scream out, Dionysus covered her mouth and landed on top of the roof of a building. After that, he got his mouth close to her ear.
"Tell me where I can find the people that would know about criminals, crimes, and all that before I gut you out and feed you to another person as food."
Making sure to leave a somewhat rude remark, Dionysus watched as the dark mist swelled to at least double the size that it was previously.
After a couple of seconds passed, the woman finally stopped squirming around and nodded.
"If you start screaming or signalling for help, I'll do exactly what I promised."
After saying that, Dionysus removed his hand and let her catch her breath. Following that, it seemed that the woman was willing to speak up.
"Yo-You can most likely find that stuff by sorting through records or somethi-"
"MORE SPECIFIC, MA'AM."
Dionysus made sure to put the right amount of force into his voice. This only compelled the lady to speak even more and even faster.
"T-The headquarters of investigations! Or you can go to the black market!"
The first one interested Dionysus the most, but he still hadn't lost it enough to forget his limits.
"Tell me more about the black market, fast."
"Just go to the edge of the city on any side and you'll be able to find it! It's widespread, and there's a market for everything! There's probably going to be a market for informa-!"
BAM
He slapped her in the back hard enough that he heard something similar to a snap. Slowly afterwards, blood began to gurgle out of her mouth.
"Ah, oh well."
Dionysus stood up and began roof hopping all the way to the edge of the city.
--- SEQUENCE 2 ---
Dionysus was currently strolling through the edge of town, which really wasn't anything like he expected it to be. He thought it would be very secretive and so on, yet it seemed to be bustling.
'Is this really a black market? Or am I at the wrong place?'
Dionysus really was a bit confused as to why it was so bustling when it was against the law. It was a narrow road with stalls on the side, except this road actually went around the city completely, so it was humongous.
"Hey, you!"
A woman sitting behind a wooden stall called out to Dionysus, who only expended enough time on her for someone to blink. After that, he attempted to continue walking as if he had never been called to.
GRASP
SLAP
Dionysus immediately slapped the woman that had grabbed his left shoulder onto the ground. Though she seemed to be in both pain and shock, the will that she had in her eyes had yet to disappear.
Dionysus was most definitely beginning to get pissed off.
"What?"
"Please, let me help you! You want to know about something that happened a while ago in Qualdecia, right? I can he-"
"Let's take this somewhere private. Lead, cockroach."
"Y-Yes sir . . ."
Dionysus could've swore that when she said this, the woman was blushing. He started to get more pissed off at her.
'This ant would dare to experience pleasure from me harassing it?'
Dionysus would let it off the hook this time since she was going to be giving him information that he wanted to know.
Finally, after following her for around half an hour, they arrived upon what Dionysus would call a really terrible place. This seemed to be a residential district where homeless and poor people would huddle together and try to tough it out in this world.
"Alright, this is where I live."
The woman stopped moving in front of a building that seemed as if it was ready to take a tumble onto other buildings. Dionysus giggled a little at how pitiful it was, before gesturing for the woman to continue. Although she felt slightly embarrassed, she continued.
"I live in the basement of this place."
Not even going through the door of the building, she climbed through a hole in the wall to get inside it.
"What shit living, you cockroaches really are crappy existences."
Once again, the girl showed a light smile at his words, pissing him off even more. Dionysus acknowledged within himself that she was a masochistic ant.
Finally, after descending down the half shattered stairs, the two had finally arrived at the basement floor of the building. The woman shooed away some mice that seemed to be quite big for mice.
"Welcome to my cr-"
"Details, now."
Dionysus just wanted to learn what he was here for and head out. Although he didn't have much else to do, he simply didn't like how this place looked. It really was a stain on a city that would otherwise be really beautiful.
After saying that, the woman walked up to what seemed to be cabinet files, which would be a weird thing to spend your money on when you're so poor that you live in an area like this. However, Dionysus had yet to truly recognize her trade.
While scrounging through the files, she started talking to Dionysus.
"My ability is called Important Thought, and it tells me the thing that people are most concerned with at the time that I look at them. That's why I knew you were thinking about that case."
"Using my ability, I have become one of the most powerful information brokers in the world. One might think that only seeing the most concerning thought of a person doesn't reveal a lot, but a lot of people are thinking about the most important things. For example, just imagine if I had a chance to look at the emperor! The information I could gather . . ."
She had finally pulled out a file and was currently dusting it off.
"With the information that I gather, I organize it all into files, which is why I have these cabinet files instead of a couch or something."
The woman finished dusting off the file and held it towards Dionysus. He attempted to snatch it from her, but she immediately moved her hand away from his prowling one.
"What?"
Dionysus looked down on her in a very condescending manner, but she had already gotten accustomed to such things. After all, the manner of her trade happened to be one that many nobles were interested in, so she was always looked down upon when dealing with the elites of society.
"See the name on this file?"
She held the file a fair distance away from him and pointed at the big red word on it.
After finally making out what the word was, the condescending look disappeared from his face and one of curiosity appeared on his face.
"Why is my name on it?"
"So, you're this 'Dionysus'?"
Her face curled into one of a smile. Dionysus only replied with a dead stare.
'I thought that the case in the past was only similar to me, not actually me. What was the past version of me?'
In reality, the current Dionysus was still new to the world. However, he had gotten accustomed to the world at a rapid pace, as not even a month had passed since he entered it, but he knew so much. Yet, no matter how much he tried, he couldn't remember his past that surely existed.
'Wait a second . . .'
Dionysus finally began to peek through the surface and realized something.
"Woman, you said you gain all your information from looking at people's foremost thought, so does that mean someone was actively thinking of me and even knew my name?"
Dionysus was beginning to crack down on something.
"Of course, do you think I just happened to know your name?"
Dionysus looked down at the ground and began to lose himself in a thought process. Since this was the case . . .
'I didn't live a lonely life, it seems. People knew me, I just have to find them.'
This was a revelation that he didn't expect. Although he couldn't remember his past life, he expected it to be somewhat similar to the one that he was living now, but now it seemed as if he lived a life that was worthy of being remembered by others.
He looked up at the woman, who flinched when his eyes connected with hers.
"Where did you find the person that was thinking about me, how long ago was it, and what did they look like?"
Haah
The woman sighed.
"Usually, I'd be unable to answer that since I'm constantly getting information, but the person you're talking about happened to look very . . . different."
"It was a man with red hair and completely blacked out eyes, almost as if someone had taken an ink pen and scribbled out everything. It was near the fountain at the center of this city at night-time."
Dionysus committed this to his memory before snatching the folder out of her hands and beginning to walk away. Of course, the woman wouldn't just let him.
"Wait, you have to pay for it somehow!"
"I don't have any money, what do you want me to pay you with?"
At these words, the woman sat down and began to think. Although Dionysus didn't intend to give her anything, he just wanted to give her false hope and then take it away. As time passed, it seemed that an answer had come to her mind.
"I actually need someone dead. They've bought out my information on multiple occasions, but it seems that they've turned a new leaf and are beginning to report many black market organizations that they worked with in the past."
At these words, Dionysus' thought of just leaving her without paying for the information disappeared. A smirk appeared on his face, and he turned around to look at her.
"Who and where?"
After getting all the information out of here, it seemed that it was one of the nobles of this society.
"Guess they're finally going to uphold their position as a noble and follow the law . . . Fine, leave it to me. Go to the fountain at the center of town tomorrow morning for evidence."
The woman continued to stare at him for a bit, but then she slightly blushed and nodded.
"I'll see you tomorrow at the fountain."
"Oh, you won't be seeing me."
After saying those words, Dionysus disappeared from the room before she could even catch him.
'Shit, did I just get scammed?'
--- SEQUENCE 3 ---
Amy had concluded that she had been scammed by Dionysus yesterday, but she decided to head to the fountain in the morning, just in case. However, what she didn't expect was a crowd blocking her way to the fountain.
'Is there some sort of festival?'
She began pushing her way through the crowd to get to the fountain. As she squirmed through it, she could hear the occasional words out of people.
"What the . . ."
"How did this happen . . .?"
"I gotta leave before I throw up."
'What are all these people talking about?'
Even when looking at their mind, all she could see from anyone that she looked at was, essentially, 'This is terrible'.
However, all her questions were cleared once she arrived at the fountain. The fountain with the sun rising behind it was a surreal image usually, but the sun actually made it worse today.
BLEGH
Amy covered her mouth to prevent barf from coming out.
'He . . . followed up on his words.'
Before Amy lied a body with all its intestines ripped out and water of a deep red color. She saw a little paper on the face of the balding old man's body, and reading what was on it only confirmed her thoughts even more.
There was only one word on it . . .
DONE