Chapter 13
A Very Special Delivery
* * *
I glanced sideways at Lukas’s Children as they were eating.
“They’re the kind of people who use their bodies like canvases.”
There was unvarnished truth in my brief observation.
One of them even had a tattoo in his eyeball. Not on the eyelid on the white of the eye itself!
I had no idea what kind of magical technique the tattooist must have used, but the sight of a wave-patterned tattoo etched into an otherwise normal sclera looked truly grotesque.
“I don’t care if they draw pictures on their eyeballs. The problem is that persuasion and requests don’t work on those customers.”
When they ate, they paid. Lukas’s Children never asked to lower the price or demanded free food. They weren’t some third-rate punks.
But if they felt disrespected or harmed in any way, they always took revenge.
In truth, what Lukas’s Children did in the name of revenge was so cruel it hardly deserved to be called revenge at all.
“There was a man who once crippled the right arm of one of Lukas’s Children. It wasn’t long before he was caught by them.”
“Oh dear, did they cripple his right arm in return?”
At my question, Jonathan shook his head. Ending it cleanly like that wasn’t Lukas’s Children’s style.
“He had a wife and a young son. Lukas’s Children ordered the man to cut off his wife’s right arm… then they made him hold her severed arm and stroke the child’s head with it.”
I’d heard they threatened to cut off his child’s right arm if he refused, so the man couldn’t resist.
As I listened to the story, I twisted my face in disgust.
“They’re insane bastards. That’s so far beyond revenge it’s not even the right word anymore.”
They had long since crossed any line of retribution. But right now, the important thing wasn’t that poor nameless man.
“If the boss tells them there’s an urgent delivery and asks them to leave….”
What really mattered was Jonathan, who sat in front of me, looking despondent, unable to go or stay.
“Isn’t it obvious?”
If you told paying customers to leave because there was an important delivery, it implied that whoever placed that delivery mattered more than Lukas’s Children.
Put simply, even making that kind of request was an act of disrespect toward them.
“The moment that happens, Longwave Bistro closes its doors.”
“And I get automatically fired, don’t I.”
“Fired? You’d better start worrying about your life too. Lukas’s Children decide for themselves how far their revenge will go.”
In an organization as large as Lukas’s Children, there were plenty of tough people who could go toe-to-toe with most decorated knights.
Fighting skills and morality didn’t always go hand in hand.
A combination like a brilliant serial killer or a sword master addicted to drugs was more than possible in this filthy savage world.
In fact, people like that were even more common.
If you had enough strength to beat dozens of police officers into the ground, law enforcement itself started to look like a joke.
In other words, the more power you had, the more you were constantly tempted by crime. And not everyone succeeded in resisting that temptation.
“So what do you plan to do?”
It wasn’t an option to ask Lukas’s Children to leave. But they also couldn’t just refuse to deliver the food.
After agonizing over it, Jonathan looked at me.
“…You do this delivery.”
“What? Are you sure, boss? I heard this was an extremely important delivery.”
This was a delivery Jonathan would never, ever have assigned to me. He stuffed a mouthful of chewing tobacco into his mouth and started grinding it, as if to relieve the stress.
“There’s no other way. If you don’t like it, go over there yourself and explain everything to those people.”
I answered immediately.
“I’ll deliver it swiftly, accurately, and in perfect condition.”
Did I have any confidence that talking to lunatics who chopped off a wife’s arm in front of her husband and made him stroke their child’s head with it would end well?
I absolutely did not.
It didn’t matter whether I could beat them in a fight or not. If you could avoid crazy bastards, that was always best.
And if those crazy bastards had the power and influence to roam the city in a pack and lord over everything, all the more reason to steer clear.
“That’s a good idea. Come get me when it’s all packed up.”
“But where exactly am I delivering this to?”
I still didn’t even know where I was supposed to go. Jonathan answered.
“On the outskirts of Bennett City. The mansion of the Rose Garden’s representative.”
At his answer, I let out a small sigh.
Despite the terrifying notoriety Lukas’s Children took such pride in, now I finally understood why this delivery had to happen no matter what.
And at the same time, I really didn’t want to go anymore.
“Will I be able to see you again alive, boss?”
Jonathan answered my question.
“Keep a polite attitude. Don’t say or do anything that might make them feel disrespected. The Rose Garden is one of the rare groups in Bennett City known for being gentlemanly. If you’re careful, there shouldn’t be any big problems.”
“And if I make a mistake… or upset those guys…?”
At my follow-up question, Jonathan drew a finger across his neck.
“Everyone dies eventually, but… there’s no reason your last thoughts in that moment have to be deep and bitter regret. Make sure you don’t screw this up.”
That was a fine thing to say. If it came to it, I too wanted to die with at least a few pleasant thoughts in my head rather than dreary feelings of regret.
“I understand your point perfectly, boss.”
Saying that the Rose Garden’s members were gentlemanly only meant they were gentlemanly compared to lunatics like Lukas’s Children.
In Bennett City, if you acted too friendly and polite like you were everyone’s kindly neighbor, you were likely to be treated with complete disdain.
Jonathan quickly started cooking with the ingredients he’d been given. While he worked, I kept handling the shop’s business and waited for everything to be ready.
“It’s all done. The address is…”
Jonathan told me where I needed to go. The distance was considerable, and there was a lot of food prepared.
“If the food gets messed up during delivery, I’m not responsible for what happens after. And if anyone tries to start something with you, just say you’re delivering for the Rose Garden. Even the mayor of Bennett City wouldn’t dare stop you.”
“Understood.”
I hoisted the pack frame on my back, with a tower of neatly stacked food boxes loaded onto it, and gave Jonathan a parting nod.
“I’ll see you again alive.”
“Yeah, come back in one piece. It’d be a damn hassle if I suddenly had to work alone.”
I strapped on the frame and started walking in the direction Jonathan had told me. There was no chance anyone would attack me anyway.
“No one would be that crazy.”
Nobody in Bennett City would keep picking a fight after hearing you were carrying food for the Rose Garden’s boss.
“Hey, you there hold up a second.”
Someone called out and stopped me as I walked along with the load. It was a police officer from the Aylan Republic.
He was holding a baton-shaped battle gear, pale sparks crackling from it, as he looked at me with a sneer.
“What is it?”
“What’s all that cargo? Where are you taking it? Speak up.”
I answered the policeman honestly.
“I’m heading to the Rose Garden mansion on the outskirts of the city.”
“…Got it. Move along.”
The Republic police officer, who had obviously approached with some nasty intent, stepped aside in a hurry the moment he heard my answer. He gestured with his chin for me to pass.
And it wasn’t just the police who cooperated. The spectators who had been watching like they expected to see something amusing all went rigid in the face.
Then I witnessed an incredible miracle.
The cars on the main road moved aside. The pedestrians pressed themselves to the walls to clear a path for me to pass.
Vendors who had set up their stalls scrambled to grab their goods, sweeping everything up in a panic without even bothering to put it in order so they could get out of the way.
“My god.”
Just like a king’s procession, the street was instantly cleared wide open.
Everyone was afraid. Terrified that even a single hair of theirs might brush against the load I was carrying and that, because of it, they might fall out of the Rose Garden’s favor.
The sight unfolding before my eyes made me feel, more vividly than ever, the power of the Rose Garden, an organization that held a seat on the Antaria Grand Canal Operating Committee.
‘This is even worse than the old House Featherwing.’
All these people were acting out of fear and terror.
It wasn’t respect it was desperation to stay alive. That made it all the more frantic. The way people had looked at House Featherwing with respect and awe was nothing like this.
Of course, I didn’t deny that this too was simply another form of rule and control.
Whatever the cause, the result was the same: people submitted. I picked up my pace.
“With this much clout, if I really slip up, I’ll die without a trace.”
I hadn’t thought the Rose Garden’s grip on the city was this strong. But seeing it with my own eyes, it was worse than I’d imagined.
Without realizing it, my hand tightened around the shoulder strap. I tried to reassure myself that nothing would happen.
“There’s no way the representative is a one-eyed cannibal monster.”
Carrying my burden, I finally reached the gates of a splendid mansion on the outskirts of Bennett City.
The structure blended marble and ivory as its base, lavishly adorned with gold and silver. Smooth curves traced graceful patterns evoking clouds, wind, leaves, and flowers.
“They tweaked the Ribone style a little.”
Usually, if you tampered with a classic design this way, you just ruined the charm of the original.
But here, they’d preserved the style’s inherent beauty while introducing just the right amount of variation.
“Doesn’t look like a one-eyed monster lives here after all.”
I didn’t know who the mansion’s owner was, but for the head of a criminal organization, they clearly had a deep appreciation for this sort of aesthetic. It made the odds of them being a cyclopean brute even slimmer.
“Who are you.”
“I’m an employee of Longwave Bistro. I’ve brought the meal you ordered.”
The man guarding the gate looked me up and down.
It was obvious he was suspicious. Naturally so when Cecilia usually had meals delivered from Longwave Bistro, it was always Jonathan who came. Compared to him, I must have looked completely different.
“You’re not the one I know.”
“I’m handling today’s delivery.”
I understood perfectly why the gatekeeper was wary. If I were him, I’d be suspicious too.
“Wait here.”
“What? I thought I could just leave the food and go. Was I mistaken about that?”
To my question, the man answered curtly.
“I don’t recall giving you permission to ask questions.”
…
Some instinct screamed that trying to act friendly or chatty here would end badly.
This guard, standing watch over the mansion’s main entrance, was clearly not the type to enjoy small talk.
In fact, that blunt and uncompromising nature was probably the main reason he’d been put in charge of this post.
“Wait here.”
After giving me that instruction, he picked up the receiver and spoke while casting another measuring look over me.
Once he set the receiver down, he addressed me again.
“You. What’s that sword at your waist?”
“It’s for self-defense. The world’s a dangerous place.”
A delivery man carrying a sword did look absurd on the surface. But this was Bennett City. Here, it wasn’t anything particularly remarkable.
This was the kind of place where children would draw lines on the ground to play hopscotch, then whip out forearm-length knives the instant they started arguing.
“Self-defense, huh.”
“I borrowed it from someone I know.”
It was the kind of borrowing you did first and explained later. The person who’d “lent” it to me didn’t even know I had it yet.