Zich and Tim drank so much that it made outsiders worry for their lives. No matter how trained and resilient they were to alcohol, they couldn’t help but become drunk by the sheer amount they drank. By the time Zich and Tim left the bar, they were both extremely drunk. They no longer seemed to have the wariness they had about each other when negotiating and exchanging information and burst into songs with their arms around each other’s shoulders. They sang offbeat and out of tune like drunkards, but they didn’t seem to care about bothering the people around them.
“Hey, Zich!”
“What, Tim!”
They called each other’s names as if they had known each other their whole lives.
“You know! I am going to live ve~ry coolly!”
“You are?”
“Yup! With money and power! And girls too! I am going to get everything! And I'm going to crush everyone who gets in my way!”
“What a big dream!”
“You have to dream big! That’s how you become a big shot!”
Tim did become a big shot in his past life. Since he was one of the top subordinates under Zich, the strongest Demon Lord of all the Demon Lords, he couldn’t have gone higher than that.
“Kuh! Then you have to work hard! You know, gathering skills, money, and connections.”
“I know! That’s why I am working so damn hard right now!”
Even after that, the two wandered in the dark for a long time.
“Go in!”
“Yeah! You too!”
Even as they parted, the two appeared very close. Nobody would have thought they had been wary of each other before they drank. After sending Tim off, Zich walked through an empty street alone. Every time he took a breath, the smell of alcohol permeated the space.
‘Like I thought, playing with that guy is really fun.’ It was a future that had become a past now. While reliving the memories of the time when he was the Demon Lord, Zich Moore had really enjoyed his time drinking. When Zich first heard that Glen Zenard defeated Tim, the first thought Zich had was that he would feel lonely from now on when he drank; that was how compatible they were. But why did his footsteps have a sense of gloominess mixed in with them?
* * *
Afterward, Tim provided information to Zich from time to time about the bandits’ size, skills, and so on. They were all very useful pieces of information.
“Where did you get information like this from?”
“It’s a secret. I might think about telling you considering the amount you give me and if you tell me your identity.”
“Nevermind,” Zich said. Nevertheless, Zich was sure that Tim was able to obtain this information because of his connection with the bandits.
‘There’s no way that the Tim Platt I know would be able to extract information so masterfully even if I gave him tons of money. It might be different for Joachim or Evelyn, but it’s impossible for Tim Platt. Whatever the reason was, Zich was able to continue getting information from Tim. Excluding the bandits, the person with the most information about them was probably Zich. Still, that didn’t mean Zich believed everything Tim told him either. To be exact, he was sure there was something else that Tim wasn’t telling him.
‘He didn’t move his fingers, so he isn’t lying. He probably just excluded the parts he didn’t want to tell me. Even if he is like a beast, he can at least use his head this much.’ Tim had probably thought of this not by wracking through his head hard but through his instincts; after all, wolves were cunning creatures.
“So, you are saying these bandits are aiming for the Demiro Firm?”
“Yeah.”
“These guys are sure aiming big.”
It wasn’t as ridiculous as attacking the city hall as Zich mentioned before, but the Demiro Firm wasn’t an easy target at all. They had one of the biggest buildings in the commercial district and their firm was as large as the size of their building. Not only did they have a tight network that connected the areas within the Campbell estate, but their networks also stretched out to other estates and even to foreign lands. Furthermore, the goods they handled were precious metals like the things that bandits were crazy about.
‘How much would they gain by just robbing them?’ It was probably enough for each of the members to get a fortune and disperse.
“You still don’t know where the bandits’ home base is?”
“Yeah, they seem to have hidden it really well. Even though I placed it as my top priority, I couldn’t find them.”
“Don’t give up and continue looking for it. I will provide you with all the expenses you might need.”
“Don’t worry! Remember, I am the Tim Platt, and I will become a big shot in the future.”
“Talk about being a big shot once you actually become one. You just sound like a bluffing buffoon right now.”
Tim would have jumped in rage if it was his first time meeting Zich, but he laughed off Zich’s snide remarks now. His response displayed how close the two had become.
“Anyways, the information I gave you is pretty good right?”
“Yeah, it was the best one among the information you gave me recently.” Zich threw two gem pieces at Tim. “You know right? One is for your labor, and the other one is…”
“For the expenses that I would use to gain information. You don’t have to remind me every damn time.”
“It’s good, you know. I hope you will continue to give me useful information.”
“Don’t worry. Did I ever disappoint you?”
“No, not yet.”
“It won’t happen even in the future.” After giving a loud shout, Tim got up. He had the gems Zich gave him tightly grasped in his fists.
“Let’s have a drink again after everything is over,” Zich called out.
Tim stopped at Zich’s words as he was about to leave the room.
“…Yeah. You have to buy the drinks next time too.”
“Don’t worry. I have no intention of eating off a poor gangster. Even if you say the drinks are on you, it’s not like you would pay anyway. You’d blackmail the bar owner for free drinks, right?”
“Ha, you know me so well,” Tim said brazenly and left the room.
The door closed with a loud creak, and Tim disappeared behind it. However, Zich continued to stare at the door as if Tim was still standing in front of it.
‘He didn’t even look at me.’
When he replied to Zich’s words about having a drink after work, Tim didn’t turn around and only looked in front.
* * *
Late in the night, Tim stealthily walked into the building where he tried to beat up the angular-faced man’s underlings. Tim’s extreme actions seemed to have an effect as no one was fooling around like before. On the other hand, since they were gangsters, they looked somewhat awkward as guards. In the first place, he didn’t expect them to act like professional guards. He walked to the front; the guards noticed him and straightened their posture.
The guards clearly remembered what happened to the underlings that Tim chastised; those two had lost their bodies, and their heads were covered in blood with their tongues hanging out. Tim paid no attention to them. He walked up to the building that the guards used as their lodging and entered a room.
“You came?” The angular-faced man Tim quarreled with before welcomed him inside with hazy eyes.
“I came here because I have something to say about this plan.”
“Say it.”
“Most of our forces have successfully infiltrated the city.”
The man lying down on a foul-smelling bed with an alcohol bottle in his mouth got up and moved the bottle away from his mouth. He wiped the alcohol from his mouth with his sleeve and smiled with his teeth showing. “The time has finally come!”
Tim asked, “You know the plan, right?”
“Of course! I’ve been waiting for this moment even in my dreams!”
‘Then, you should have managed your underlings better!’ However, Tim did not voice his thoughts out loud. He would gain nothing from acting on impulse; his face would just be ridden in anger. Moreover, Tim had already chosen a sharp knife that would catch these bastards.
Tim said, “We have to stop running the business for a while, so we won’t be earning extra income anymore. You know that, right?”
“Oh yeah, about that. Do we seriously have to do that?”
Tim’s eyebrows twitched.
The angular-faced man gulped down alcohol again in a relaxed manner and said, “We’ve done well so far, and we didn’t even get caught. The extra income is pretty nice and good for relieving stress, so my underlings like it. And we did well with that job you gave us.” He smiled maliciously. “We did well in order to thoroughly chop the corpses so that no one knows we’re an alliance of multiple bandit groups.”
“That was literally the minimum I asked.” Tim slowly walked towards him and roughly grabbed the bottle from the man’s hand. “Since trash like you causes problems if there’s nothing to do, I just gave you guys permission to do that. Does it not get through your shit-filled brain the simple fact that while we can easily get out by mixing in with the merchants as guards, there’s a chance we can get caught every time?”
“Hey. All the work we did wasn’t useless. While we were getting that extra income, we killed the other bodyguards of the merchant firms, so they had no choice but to hire mercenaries as bodyguards. Since we acted like mercenaries, we could successfully infiltrate various firms. You can’t forget our hard work.”
“I would have been enough for that. No, if I did it by myself, there would be less risk, and we could have perfectly finished the matter.”
“It would have been too much for one person.”
“There was no need to use so many people like this. You just needed to send a few people to places that I couldn't cover. However, because of your crappy patience, we had to expand it to such a large scale.”
“Yeah, but even though we used a lot of men, we didn’t get caught. So until the plan starts, we should continue…”
Grab!
Tim’s hand grabbed the angular-faced man; it happened so suddenly that the man was not able to even respond. The man lost his composure, and he coughed while glaring at Tim.
“Hey, listen well.” Tim’s fingers lengthened as he choked the man. His eyes turned yellow, and his fangs grew sharp. “Don’t make me angrier than this. I’m the one who started this plan. I’m the one who provided the merchant and the manager’s weaknesses that were necessary to this plan. Even though you and the others’ patience are at rock bottom, I also have little patience. Right now, I’m utilizing all the patience I possibly can. But even that has its limits. If you fail…”
Crack!
Tim put more strength in his hands. The man’s face turned blue. “I might not be able to show any more patience. You understand?”
The man desperately nodded his head. Tim roughly threw the man on the bed.
“Cough! Kuak!”
Tim looked down on the man coughing and enjoying a gulp of air with disgust and said, “No extra income starting from tomorrow. If someone touches one of the merchants, they will die by my hand. Understand?”
“I-I got it.” The man nodded his head and was unable to think about talking back to Tim anymore. Tim burst out of the room as if he didn’t even want to share the same space as the angular-faced man.
Even after Tim was long gone, the sound of rough breathing and coughs rang out in the room.
* * *
Even though the atmosphere was tense in Bambis from the continuous bandit ambushes, it couldn’t affect people’s entire lives. People still continued on with their everyday lives. Zich stood in front of a stand. It was a fruit stand that sold a variety of fruits. Zich grabbed a fruit that was about the size of a fist.
“Want to buy it?” The owner of the fruit stand was a wrinkly old man.
“Please give me two.” After paying, Zich held the fruits with both hands. After roughly cleaning one with his sleeve, he took a big bite of the fruit. The nice combination of sweetness and sourness joyfully filled up his mouth.
The owner scanned Zich’s face and asked, “Did something bad happen?”
“Why, sir? Is my complexion not good?”
“No, it’s not like that, but it looks like you have a concern.”
“Well, I’m looking for something, but I can’t find it.”
“Is that so? Is it important?”
“Yes, it is very important. My relationship with my friend depends on this problem.”
“Aigoo, that’s an important matter. I really hope you find it.”
“Thank you.” Zich smiled and was about to say his farewells when—
A commotion erupted.