Jet was doubting his own ears.
Had these travelers, who were in Akin for the first time, lost their minds? Even so, customers were still customers. He decided to treat them with respect as he normally should.
"Why are you acting like this, sir? Haha, even if you're a customer, it'll be problematic if you hurl insults at me… Kurgh!"
Crack.
Murakan's left punch broke one of Jet's ribs in the blink of an eye. The scammer gasped for air, but before he could even feel the pain, a heel swiftly descended upon his shoulder, instantly rupturing his shoulder muscle.
His two eyes and ears couldn't believe what was happening before him.
'E-Even though I'm a 5-star knight?'
Although he was currently living like a ruffian in these streets, Jet was once part of a mercenary group. He had gone through countless hardships and was a seasoned fighter.
There were very few situations where a 5-star knight could get beaten down so one-sidedly.
"Lord Murakan! Why are you attacking him? The inn's owner is going to die!"
"That's the whole point, Strawberry Pie. I'm trying to kill him. He put some poison in our drinks."
Fortunately for him, Jet was quick-witted and adaptable. He didn't hesitate to change his behaviour as he was quite attached to his life. The best plan right now was to immediately kneel down, admit his wrongdoings, and beg for his life.
"That's— Khargh— Keuk— Urpp…!"
Needless to say, Murakan didn't give Jet the time to apologize and continued his flurry of attacks. The dragon in human form spat out all kinds of insults to the inn owner, such as 'you lowly son of a flea', 'piece of trash', 'go die', etc. However, his face was surprisingly expressionless the entire time.
Murakan's lack of expression further enhanced Jet's fears.
'Such a satisfying spectacle.'
Seeing Jet—with whom Jin had a terrible relationship in his past life—getting pummelled to the ground gave him a brand new sense of gratification.
However, the scammer would be quite useful here on out. If this continued, Jet would soon turn into a cold corpse.
"Enough, Murakan. Let's hear him out for now."
"Do you seriously have things to talk about with this asshole who secretly tried to poison us, kid?"
Murakan paused his beating and turned to Jin. Seeing a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, Jet immediately knelt towards the boy.
"Please spare my life, Young Master! I will do anything to pay for my sins!"
Despite his broken ribs and his flattened nose, Jet spoke clearly and articulately. His tenacity and will to survive were quite admirable.
Jet had crawled to Jin's feet in the blink of an eye and clung to his pants. Murakan snorted but reluctantly paused his outburst of anger. Jin was still the promised contractor of a thousand years, so he would listen to the boy's thoughts and plans.
Whack!
"Let go. Your blood is staining it."
Jin crouched down and slapped Jet across the cheek.
"Yes! My deepest apologies. I'll let go, so please spare my life…!"
"I will ask you a few simple questions from now on. If you lie to us, you'll die. But if you answer truthfully, you'll live. I'll judge whether you've lied or not depending on my mood, intuition, and gut feeling. Do you understand?"
Jet nodded furiously, splattering droplets of blood everywhere around him.
"Good. What do you do for a living?"
Normally speaking, the first question one would ask would be something along the lines of 'Did you really spike our drinks?' or 'Why did you spike our drinks?' However, Jin's interrogation started off with a more fundamental question. Thus, Jet realized that Jin wasn't your ordinary kid.
He knew it would be useless to try to gain Jin's sympathy, so all he could do was to reveal the truth as objectively as possible.
"I-I'm an owner of an inn and an information broker. I also work as a pimp from time to time and dabble in some human trafficking… So I'm involved in various jobs. I-If you spare my life, I can be very useful to you, Young Master! Akin is my area of expertise."
Gilly's face contorted due to Jet's mind-blowing self-introduction. Murakan nodded to himself while muttering 'I knew it'.
"Enough with the unnecessary comments. In other words, you're a multi-functional piece of trash. Then did you spike our drinks to sell us somewhere as slaves?"
"As deplorable as it may be, that is the case…"
"Where to?"
"Excuse me?"
Crack!
Jin helped Jet's pinky finger meet the back of his hand for the first time. Jet didn't dare cry out in pain and stuttered out a certain name.
"T-T-T-T-Tesing! To the Tesing underground auction house!"
"Explain."
"Yes! The Tesing underground auction house is an auction house that an underground organization called Tesing manages… Down there, you can buy and sell slaves, drugs, all kinds of smuggled products and stolen artifacts!"
"I'll have someone heal your body by this evening. You understand what you need to do afterwards, right?"
"Of course! Thank you very much, Young Master. Thank you very much!"
Having realized his life would be spared, Jet was about to kiss Jin's shoes.
This multi-functional piece of trash would become useful to them during their stay in the Akin Kingdom. While Jin loathed Jet and his very existence, he still highly evaluated the piece of trash's skills and knowledge.
Jin sent Jet upstairs. Today's 'Please call for Jet at the reception' would be closed for business.
"Kid, why don't we just bury that piece of trash up some random mountain instead of paying for his medical fees?"
"I concur, Young Master. He may try to backstab us again if we let him survive."
"An underground organization and their auction house. It's the perfect thing to destroy in order to gain honour and reputation, don't you think? We can always kill him afterwards."
"That is true, but…"
"Let's trust him this one time. We do need a guide during our stay in Akin after all."
The nanny and the dragon didn't argue anymore and agreed to the boy's plan. In order to have a smooth journey with no complications, one sometimes had to accommodate the party leader's decisions.
Murakan and Gilly stayed behind in the inn to keep an eye on Jet while Jin left to find someone to heal the scammer.
Jin truly considered the two of them as good friends.
Nevertheless, as soon as Jin took a step outside the inn on his own, he felt an unprecedented sense of freedom and exhilaration. He could now make use of his knowledge as a regressor as much as he wanted inside the Akin Kingdom.
The city's development was being hindered by the Tesings' tyranny. In other words, most of the buildings, facilities, groups, and organizations Jin knew of in his past life were highly likely to be present today.
It didn't take him long to find a tight-lipped healer he could trust. 'Maltran' was someone who would heal anyone—even wanted criminals—as long as he was paid properly. Fortunately, his magic store was located at the same place as in Jin's memories.
"I've heard that you're excellent at performing illegal medical procedures."
"Where did you hear that?"
"Unimportant. I will pay you handsomely."
Although he definitely looked fifteen years younger, Maltran was still the same pot-bellied middle-aged man. Maltran visibly pondered for a moment, caressing his bulging stomach in the meantime.
"…How's the patient's situation?"
"A couple of broken ribs and a finger dangling abnormally. But he didn't lose a lot of blood."
Cling.
Jin flicked a well-crafted ring to the middle-aged man. Maltran stood up immediately as he caught the payment.
"My lucky day. Let's go."
Maltran was a highly skilled healing magician.
Once he arrived at the inn, it barely took him five hours to erase all traces of violence on Jet.
In fact, Maltran's sweaty appearance as he earnestly cast healing magic made him look like a devout cleric.
"I see. The Lutero Magic Federation isn't called a magic federation for nothing. To think that a healer we found on the streets would be this skilled."
Gilly whispered to herself as she watched the medical procedure. Her eyes twinkled with curiosity and awe as she had rarely observed magic during her life with the Runcandels.
Jet was touched by Jin and his willingness to hire such a good healer. As soon as he fully recovered, he knelt on the ground and continuously showed his gratitude.
"Young Master, although our first meeting did not go so well, I now pledge my eternal allegiance to you. Please allow me to serve you."
"That'll depend on your behaviour and performance here on out. Have you finished, Healer? I hope his ribs won't suddenly break apart again in a few hours."
"What an unfunny joke. Well then, I will take my leave. Please call me again if there's another emergency. I will even heal someone for free a single time as long as it's nothing too serious. I always work as much as I'm paid."
"You have excellent work ethics. Have a nice day."
Maltran left the inn.
Jet was now carefully observing the trio—who were sipping on their cups of black tea while seated.
'No matter how much I think about it, these people… They smell of money and authority. And here I thought I had an eye for people… How did I not notice it immediately?! And why did such big shots come to this desolate area of the city?'
The man who had beat him up was an extremely skilled fighter. The maid seemed to be used to seeing violent scenes. Finally, the boy Jet judged as a young and stupid aristocrat was naturally ordering the other two around as if they were his vassals.
This was a sight Jet had never seen before.
'Is he the heir to a prominent martial clan? Or the Vermont Special Forces? Either way, if I recklessly betray them, I'll be erased from the face of this continent without a single trace left behind.'
After a while, Jet concluded that the trio were the Vermont Special Forces.
He even believed that their actions so far had all been calculated, including their disastrous first encounter. Jet wasn't foolish to think so. The trio immediately realized their drinks were spiked and somehow found an excellent healer within an hour after the beating.
'These people must have investigated me before. I bet they know all kinds of information about me. They must plan on using me to enter the Tesing underground auction house to carry out some kind of mission…'
And once they fulfill their mission, they would get rid of their now-useless hunting dog: Jet.
Once he came to that conclusion, Jet clenched his teeth and steeled himself. He needed to become an indispensable existence to them in order to survive. He needed to be so useful to them that they wouldn't kill him. Thus, he needed to show them his absolute and undying loyalty and serve them wholeheartedly.
Although the Tesings held immense power and authority, they could only wield those inside Akin like a frog in a well. Meanwhile, the Vermont Special Forces was an internationally renowned and prestigious organization. Therefore, Jet had no reason to hesitate on which side of the conflict he had to stand on.
Jet soon shared more information about the Tesings and the underground auction house to the trio. Even though he made the wrong assumption about them, he was still a top-notch information broker.
"Although the Tesings' publicly known boss is someone called Salka, the real boss of the group is someone else. Salka is just a frontman and signboard. We call the real boss 'Spiderhand Alu' among ourselves."
"Really?"
"Alu is an extremely dangerous individual. Rumours say that Alu even has connections with pureblood Runcandels beyond the sea. About the underground auction house…"
Jin already knew most of the information Jet was sharing, but simply let the information broker continue his endless speech. This way, his companions could also learn of the information Jin knew from his past life.
'Still, connections with pureblood Runcandels? To think that such false rumours about Alu would spread. I highly doubt any of my siblings would associate themselves with some random thugs in the Lutero Magic Federa—'
Jin suddenly placed his teacup back on the table as if he had suddenly remembered something.
'There is one. The one who tried to place a curse on me. It's possible if it's them. After all, this is the Lutero Magic Federation—the Zipfels' territory.'
He couldn't make a hasty conclusion. Only a top-class magician could cast a curse on the level of 'Bladed Illusion', and there was no way these underground thugs had such a magician within their ranks.
However, there was nothing Jin could do other than grasping at straws. He had spent ten years in the Storm Castle and five in the Garden of Swords. All this time, he had searched for the culprit behind the curse but couldn't find a single clue or trace.
"Have you finished explaining?"
"Yes! Please don't hesitate to ask me any questions after we arrive as well. I shall explain everything with all my heart. I swear to you on my son's life."
"You have a son?"
Although Jin acted ignorant, he was quite close with Jet's son in his past life. The son was a kind and gentle kid, unlike his father.
"Yes. Since I've pledged my allegiance to you, let us set off after you've seen my son's face. It is to prove that I hold no intention of betraying you, Young Master."
The son was probably about 2 years old right now. To think that he'd use his own toddler as a tool to show his sincerity… Jin was once again amazed by Jet's awful nature and shook his head in response.
"Forget it. Let's just go."
***