"I'm hosting a fake project through a temporary company I created. There, I'm going to tie together all of my father's weaknesses and make him pay almost all the money he has. Then I'll use the company to tie him with illegal activities and send them into prison."
Yvnes massaged his temples as he said this, looking tired.
"While my father is in prison, I could siphon off everything he's gained for himself. When that goddamn leader comes out of prison, nobody will be by his side. That's when I can begin my revenge."
I watched as Yves calmly talked about sending his father to prison. Whenever Yves spoke about his father, there was a strength in his voice that he didn't seem to realize. I could feel his loathing. Although I didn't know why he hated him so much.
This side of Yves was something that wasn't explained by the novel. In the story, he acted slimy in front of Hestia, then suddenly grew cold at times, and anyway, was a male main character that I didn't understand, but to think that was because of his father. It felt like I was reading a side story.
We weren't close, but I couldn't tell him to stay strong at how he was struggling. I couldn't get myself to say it. It felt like I was putting my nose in somewhere it didn't belong, and my mouth wouldn't open.
I dumped the rest of my sandwich in my mouth and put my eye back on the magical telescope.
"Yves, they moved. It looks like they're headed to the left road at the slums."
Yves was my school senior anyway, and because he spoke casually to me, I took out the polite suffix behind his name. Yves didn't seem to mind this either.
At my words, Yves wordlessly began gathering his belongings. It looked like he was rushing. I hurriedly cleaned up after myself and followed him.
We were currently undercover on the top of the building, so the only way down was the stairs. I rushed towards the staircase. But Yves blocked me.
"We'd be late if we took the stairs."
That's what he said as he grabbed me by my waist towards him. I was surprised at how strong he was. He held me up without breaking a sweat, then held me like a piece of luggage with one arm and ran.
Yves ran to the opposite side of the staircase. It looked like he was going to jump from the rooftop.
Right before we jumped down, he spoke in a low voice at me.
"Bear with me for a bit."
Right before we fell, I sneakily checked his expression. At first glance, it looked like he had no thoughts written on his face, but there was a slight urgency that you could read.
I was lost in my thoughts and couldn't prepare myself. I suddenly felt like I was floating.
"...what, I wanna di.....Uaaaaaaah!"
I wanted to use floating magic, but I couldn't do anything as I felt my blood rushing up in the face of gravity. I just fell straight down, held onto by him. I almost had tears falling down my eyes.
Right before we fell, he took out a small piece of paper that he ripped with his teeth. Soft light emanated from the paper and enveloped both of us, then slowed the speed of our descent. He landed gently, as if he was used to it.
When I couldn't get back on my feet after we landed, he just piggy-backed me and ran. I felt like throwing up on his back, but I barely held it back.
Yves headed down an alley in the slums that was darker than usual.
As Yves walked into the alley holding me on his back, the people in the slum alley all looked at us.
Yves ran as fast as he could once we entered the slums, then suddenly stopped. In a low voice, he cursed.
"Shit, we lost them."
He urgently looked around, then met eyes with the women in the alley. Yves seemed to think quietly to himself for a moment, then quietly whispered something to me, still on his back.
"Pretend to be asleep for a bit."
I didn't know what he was thinking, but decided to follow his instructions for now.
When the women saw that a good looking boy was holding a woman on his back, they looked at him with interest. Yves suddenly wiped off the cold look on his face, then approached the women. His face was prepped with a smile full of interest and good will.
"Pretty nuna*s, can you help me out?"
When Yves approached them and asked them the question, they excitedly came closer. Then, he gave them the most pitiful look he could.
"Kyaa, he called us pretty nunas! He must be crazy! Aren't we all middle-aged?"
"Wow, you look so nice and pretty. You still look like a minor, why are you here? And who do you have on your back?"
"What do you need help with?"
Wow, they really went head over heels over being called nuna.
Yves listened at their impassioned words of support and began to speak again.
"My nunim is on my back and she's drunk as a skunk, but my father took our keys and disappeared."
Yves finished speaking, then checked the expressions of all of the women in front of him before looking at me with affectionate eyes.
"I can't let my nuna sleep on a cold floor like thiiiis….. hiiiing."
My body stiffened at Yves' actions. I could hear how he was pretending to be cute in his voice. I knew how sneaky he could be, but seeing him act like this gave me chills. I was absolutely creeped out because I knew his real personality, but because he still looked like a child, other people probably just thought he was a little cute. A little...…. When I flinched on his back, he gripped my hand as a warning. I didn't even breathe as I stayed still.
"I saw my father disappear through here. Do you know where he might have went?"
Yves asked, eyes shining. When the women asked how the person we were looking for looked, Yves began to explain.
"They have a prominent nose and are wearning a red jacket. They have a black hat."
At Yves' explanation, they seemed to remember something.
"Oh, if it's that person then they headed over to where 'Yasur's Hut' is!"
"Hey, hey, can a minor go to a place like that?"
"What's the problem? He looks pretty grown. They can just find their dad and get out."
The women told him where he went. When Yves smiled and told them thank you, they asked him to please visit them next time. That they'd give him a discount. I pretended not to hear.
I thought about how he acted earlier then whispered something quietly to him.
"What was that just now?"
But he didn't respond.
After some mishaps, we finally arrived at Yasur's Hut.
'Yasur's Hut' was a surprising place.
It was similar to the 'clubs' in my previous life. As soon as we entered the place, the smell of sweat and upbeat music greeted us. There were tons of fancy lighting magic devices floating on the ceiling.
In the corner were people performing drums, and there were people in the middle who were dancing slow and cheesy with others. When upbeat music came on, they also danced to that beat.
The light in this place was generally pretty dim. Instead, there were lighting devices that changed color, which gave the place a more sensual air. Kind of fun and upbeat, but clingy at times.
I got off of Yves' back. As soon as I got off of his back, I looked around for our target. But it looked like Yves had already found him: he tapped my shoulder and pointed at a table.
At the table he had pointed out, I saw the person we were following. Our target was sitting with a few men who looked like merchants, and a few women from the slums. A few men from the slums also sat down with his acquaintances next to them.
"Shuraina, can you cause a scene? It just needs to take a moment."
Yves watched the situation, then opened his mouth.
Our current target was currently the center of attention, so it was difficult to try to speak to him.
A scene…..if it was a scene, I had to make it big enough to grab the attention of the people around him.
Then it couldn't just be something small. I was a calm, nice person who had never done anything like cause a scene, so I found myself in a bit of a pickle.
I looked around our surroundings. Was there a single place that I could stand out at if I wanted to get everybody's attention? I looked from left to right and slowly checked to see if there was anything I could use. I found one.
Right in the center, where paid dancers were dancing sexily.
That was it.
Before I went to cause a scene, I grabbed Yves. He tilted his head in question and looked at me.
"I, um, I…. w, what I'm about to right now. I, um. This is really going to hurt my pride, so. You need to pay me extra for this."
My face slowly grew warmer as I was thinking about what I was going to do. Yves just stared at me, then nodded.
"…..okay."
Then he headed to where his target was.
I put my hand on the magical loudspeaker in my pocket. I checked to see that Yves had gotten close to the target, then let out a sigh.
'This really doesn't match my personality, but...'
I squeezed my eyes shut and went up to the stage where the pretty dancers were located. The dancers were busily moving their body to the upbeat music.
I confidently appeared amongst the dancers on stage. When people saw me walk onto stage all of a sudden, their eyes grew wide.
I squeezed the loudspeaker with both hands and inhaled deeply. My breath echoed through the hot and heavy air of the club.
There was only one way for me to cause a scene without harming others.
I held my arm up and screamed out loud, imitating a heavy metal singer.
"Everybody make some noise and scream!"
Good, Shushu, channel that one part-time job working at events and dance.
"Huoooooooooooo!"
At my scream, people seemed to blank out for a moment before dancing to beat and yelling on beat.
I was basically a heretic in the middle of people who were sexy dancing. I showed the people who couldn't even wave dance what real dancing looked like. I pumped my arms up and down to the beat. My dance was powerful because I was just putting all of my strength into it. My dancing was just movement that showed that I lost against capitalism. My love of money beat any shame that I had.
My face was definitely red by now. But I still didn't stop dancing.
"Haha! Nice! Whew!"
"What's that dance that looks like a floppy fish?"
"Hoo! Hoo! Hoo!"
People looked shocked, but cheered at my powerful dancing and threw glasses of alcohol my way in support. I was annoyed, but the shame was worse. The pretty dancers next to me burst into laughter. I wanted to hide in a hole in a wall but I continued to move for money.
I gulped down my shame and took out all of the trendy dances that I knew. I shuffled to the beat, I did the backpack dance*, I did the Tropicana dance*, I did the weird dances, everything that I could think of. Everyone's eyes were on me.
I didn't know that Yves was pouring alcohol on the target but had spilled his alcohol when he saw what I was doing. He just continued to look my way.
T/N: I can't even watch TV shows without walking away because of secondhand embarrassment. Shuraina, you really do the most...….. I'm not going to lie, the chapter took a bit longer because I had to physically walk away and come back to translate because of the secondhand embarrassment I felt