Chapter 83: Terrible Lady
Westerme, the city that never sleeps, is the brightest pearl in the southern part of the Rhine Kingdom... well, this adjective is only applicable at night.
After the Age of Exploration began, rubber, copper and a large amount of metal ores from the outer continent entered Naples. The application of electricity, which had not been popularized due to the problem of raw materials, gradually spread from Kenya to the outside world, and steam power plants sprang up like mushrooms in major cities across the continent.
However, hundreds of years later, electricity is still a luxury for most Napalms...
Electricity cannot benefit the general public for a very simple reason: first, the expensive electricity bills are not affordable for people with average incomes - power plants often pass on the losses generated during electricity transmission to the end-users' bills, and due to backward technology, the world's electricity transmission losses are generally as high as 50% or more...even more exaggerated than contemporary India.
Second, because the cables used to transmit electricity must be made of copper, all countries, including the Empire of Kenya, have a serious problem of cable theft.
Local power plants, which are usually privately owned, often refuse to supply electricity or lay wires to areas with poor security for cost and maintenance reasons. In most cities, only places with strict security and access control can enjoy electrical appliances - in other words, only the so-called wealthy and aristocratic areas can see the bright lights at night.
Westham is not a wealthy or aristocratic area, but the town of Westham has enough financial resources to pay for electricity bills and enough strength to protect the cables and wires in the town. Whenever night falls, this brightly lit town will become the brightest pearl within a ten-mile radius - an entire street of adult industry lights and colorful signs are concentrated, which is much more concentrated than the lights in the wealthy area of Innadri City.
Every night, beauty hunters from all directions gathered in this town full of lights and wine, taking out handfuls of silver and copper coins from their pockets. These merchants who paid the price for their primitive desires not only nurtured the red-light district that opened its mouth like a monster and devoured countless young men, women, teenagers and even children, but also supported more than half of the town's residents.
Cardo Gold, 45 years old, from Westham, captain of the militia, friendly with the sheriff, has a wife and two children, and supports his and his wife's parents in the two-story house he has worked hard for many years.
If outsiders only look at the superficial introduction, they will think that Mr. Gold is a respectable, responsible, family-oriented decent man. He patrols and guards the town diligently every night to protect the town and the property of the townspeople from infringement, so that women and children living alone can sleep peacefully.
But the reality is... Mr. Gold's militia's night patrols only cover the red-light district areas that pay electricity bills, and do not include ordinary townspeople who cannot afford to pull electric wires.
The militia's targets are not burglars who break into homes or bastards who molest passers-by, but thieves who steal cables, bad customers who run away without paying, and drunkards who cause trouble on the street.
After all... the militia's main income does not come from ordinary townspeople, but from the wealthy owners of entertainment venues that use signs such as clubs, bars, high-end clubs, etc. but are actually brothels.
Of course, occasionally, Mr. Gold's militia would be less firm and do some careless things. For example, the night before, when they were on patrol at night, the whole team suddenly had a stomachache and had to go to a team member's house to use the toilet. When this large group of people finally lined up to defecate, they found that the Gold Coast Club had been suddenly attacked.
This was simply a tragedy, twelve of the Gold Coast's security guards (thugs) were seriously injured, eighteen were sent to the cemetery, ninety percent of the hundreds of waiters who had been trained with great effort ran away, and even the boss himself might have been holding a funeral right now, if he hadn't been receiving a group of distinguished and capable guests.
Someone had to be held accountable for this extremely bad and serious incident. Mr. Gold had to reluctantly dismiss the two team members who prepared midnight snacks for the whole team, and closed down the roadside stall that sold bad food, and drove the stall owner with dirt under his fingernails out of Westham.
Westham is a very vibrant town. This magical dream town will never be affected by one or two serious injury incidents. One day later, the Gold Coast Club was taken over by a new owner and reopened after being cleaned up.
When Mr. Gold led his team members to patrol through this "reborn from the ashes" high-end club, he did not see any chaos at all. He only saw flower baskets at the door, coolly dressed receptionists, and guests coming in and out in an endless stream.
Of course, the sign has been changed from Gold Coast to Golden Coast.
Gold stood at the door and watched for a while, then waved to a child who was carrying a basket and selling snacks along the street, threw two copper coins to him, took the peanuts wrapped in newspaper from the child, and raised his chin to the team members: "Wait for me at the front."
The old team member who was patrolling with him gave Gold a knowing look and took the team members away.
Gold chewed peanuts and walked into the Gold Coast... No, from tonight it should be called the Golden Coast. The thugs in the hall took a look at the militia uniform on Gold, grinned with a mouthful of yellow teeth, came up to him respectfully, and took him into the manager's office.
The manager was a bald middle-aged man who looked about the same age as Gold. After exchanging a few pleasantries with the local militia captain, he smiled and took out a small package the size of a child's fist wrapped in newspaper from the drawer: "Same as before, Captain Gold."
"At your service, sir." Gold took the paper bag and finally smiled.
The bald manager smiled again and took out a smaller paper bag: "This is for you, Mr. Gold. My boss asked me to give you my regards."
The smile on Gold's face became even brighter...
This new boss is much more generous and considerate than the previous one.
The old man, who used to be a steward on a southern plantation and used his life savings and connections given by his master to come to Westham to run a brothel, was the most mean-spirited rich man Gold had ever seen. Not only did he delay paying every time, he also always complained that they, who only looked at circuits, took too much.
Gold knew that the mayor and the sheriff were both quite dissatisfied with the old dog . Otherwise, the hospitality provided by the new boss here wouldn't have so much overlap with the previous "Gold Coast" hospitality... Gold saw several familiar faces just on the short walk into the manager's office to collect money.
Of course, Gold didn't care about these... Even though he was a native of Westham and had been a militia captain for more than ten years, it was not his turn to run a brothel, a business that made a lot of money.
Not to mention anything else, without one or two respectable gentlemen (nobles) standing behind him, it would be difficult to gain the trust of the power plant and obtain electricity transmission, not to mention asking the masters above to turn a blind eye to the source of the prostitutes.
Touching the thick paper package in his pocket, Captain Gold left the store contentedly and went to find his team members.
Back on the streets, Gold, who had been in charge of local security for many years, suddenly felt something was wrong.
It is nine o'clock in the evening, the busiest time in Westham. Many coquettish young men and women and good-looking thugs are standing in front of every store. There are half-grown children running around the streets selling all kinds of food and snacks, roadside stalls serving drinks, waitresses leaning at the bar windows to solicit customers, and old prostitutes hiding in the alleys, all actively creating various noises to attract the attention of pleasure-seekers.
But... these sounds have disappeared on the streets now.
Even the voices of the unscrupulous pleasure seekers who had nothing to worry about being scrutinized by anyone disappeared.
Captain Gold looked around suspiciously... and found that everyone on the street was staring blankly in the same direction.
Whether they were greeters, thugs, teenagers, roadside stall owners and drinking customers, passing pleasure seekers, or even street prostitutes standing at the entrance of the alley with heavy makeup on their faces, who could no longer be accepted by decent clubs and could only make a living by hooking up with the customers' servants and selling a few copper coins, all showed highly similar expressions of fear and trance, as if they had seen something unbelievable and indescribable in the real world.
Captain Gold frowned and glanced at these strange people, then ran in the direction they were all looking.
After walking through the crowded yet eerily quiet crowd...Gold was also dumbfounded.
Not only was he dumbfounded, but the militia members who had arrived here early and were waiting for him, sitting at an open-air street stall drinking, had expressions similar to Gold's.
In the middle of the street, a tall person wearing a gorgeous ball gown, perhaps a lady... was walking in the center of the street.
The lady's ball gown was extremely gorgeous, just like the color photos of aristocratic ladies that Gold had seen in magazines. A single strip of lace on the hem of her skirt might be more expensive than an average family's annual living expenses. To a small town militia captain like Gold, who had a good eye and had seen the world, this outfit would not be disrespectful even if she wore it to the king's ball.
But if you were to wear something like this and walk down the red-light district street at night, among the bustling crowd of pleasure seekers, it would obviously be inappropriate... no, it would be weird.
What's even weirder is that this lady in a long skirt is so tall and strong that even the official mercenaries would be ashamed of her...
There were many drunken pleasure seekers, but no one dared to stand in front of her. Wherever she went, the crowd would consciously and actively part ways.
What's even worse is that she was looking around while walking.
Whenever she turned her face in a certain direction, the people in that direction who were timid and less knowledgeable would begin to tremble in their legs and feet.
When Captain Gold saw the lady dressed for shopping through the dazed crowd, she happened to turn her head to look at a group of uniformed militiamen sitting at an open-air roadside stall drinking.
Gold only saw her profile, and subconsciously leaned his upper body back.
The players who were unfortunate enough to see his face, some suddenly raised their hands to cover their mouths, some quickly looked away, and some turned pale...
This lady, who seemed to be of noble status and could afford to wear aristocratic dress, stared at the militiamen for a long time as if she was curious, then turned her head away and continued to stroll openly and leisurely.
She walked a little further away, and Gold, who was standing stiffly in the crowd, suddenly felt a strong sense of exhaustion...
The feeling is like someone walking on a mountain road and finds a colorful poisonous snake crawling by his feet, but the snake does not bite the passerby's ankle - a little scared, a little terrified, and a little bit light and unreal, as if having a nightmare.
Then, Gold felt something was wrong.
Westham is a paradise for men who can afford it, but it is not without ladies of noble status who have come here - there was once a baron who spent a whole summer here squandering the profits from the estate and did not return home, until the baroness came with a team of housekeepers and servants to arrest him and he was taken back in disgrace.
How could a noble lady go out without a large entourage?
Thinking of this, the militia captain became instinctively alert and looked up at the lady who was walking away.
Westerm is located in the southernmost part of the Rhine Kingdom, very close to the Sorensen Mountains, and has been frequently targeted by criminals from the Sorensen Mountains.
It wasn't just once or twice that the bandits sent spies to Westham.
But... Captain Gold, who had this idea, was not very sure about his idea.
As the spy for the thieves' gang, why send someone so high-profile and shocking?
Captain Gold stood there thinking for a while but couldn't figure out a solution. But if he were to ignore that strange lady, he always felt a little uneasy.
After thinking it over, Captain Gold decided that it was better to be cautious. He walked to the wine stand and called his brothers to keep an eye on the lady who was attracting the attention of everyone on the street.
The militia captain was quite authoritative . None of the militiamen dared to disobey his orders, as their faces showed refusal. They all followed him...
The scary lady who wanted to be the "focus of attention" wherever she went walked to the end of a street, stopped, and walked along the main avenue in the town, which was so bustling and prosperous that it didn't look like a remote town at all.
When she turned around, she saw Captain Gold's face for the first time and shuddered uncontrollably.
He finally understood why everyone who saw this lady's face looked so out of control... I couldn't handle it! I couldn't handle it at all!
The terrifying lady seemed to have just realized that a group of uniformed militiamen were following her, but she was not too surprised. She just looked at the group of militiamen casually and continued to shop according to her purpose.
Wherever he passed, he scared everyone to death...
Facing such "attention-getting" treatment, most ladies would have been so ashamed that they would have picked up their skirts and ran away, or found a place where no one was around to cry. However, the terrifying lady did not mind or care. She still strolled slowly, "appreciating" the street scene carefully with great interest and curiosity.
She doesn't care, but the brothels that do business do care.
Do they still want to do business if such a person who has an undue impact on the "town appearance" and makes pleasure seekers lose their sexual desire is wandering around the streets?
When the scary lady was halfway back, thugs from several brothels came in groups and tried to negotiate with her...
The result... this group of ferocious thugs who could usually stop children from crying at night, only stood in front of the scary lady for ten seconds, barely said a few words that didn't make their point, and then dispersed.
Captain Gold, who was following behind the terrifying lady, silently covered his face with his hands.
"Ms. Gold Coin, how will this end?" An old teammate murmured with a pale face, "Captain, what if she doesn't leave?"
Normally, the militia did not have a harmonious relationship with the thugs in the brothels. Both sides thought that the other side was useless and was just eating for free. But at this moment... these militiamen were in no mood to laugh at the joke of these thugs anyway - if the things that the thugs could not handle were reported to the sheriff, they would have to step in.
The militia was very disgusted with cleaning up the mess made by these usually arrogant nightclub thugs, but after all, everyone had to rely on these places of entertainment to make a living, so they had to do it even if they didn't want to.
Captain Gold's face was very heavy... After a moment of silence, he gritted his teeth and said, "We'll talk about it when the time comes."
Fortunately, the worst outcome did not occur...
The scary lady walked back and forth along the main street in the town and seemed to have seen enough of the excitement. She went back to the town gate and walked straight out of the town, disappearing into the darkness without looking back.
The town gate is guarded by militiamen. Under normal circumstances, young women (and young men with outstanding looks) are not allowed to leave Westham without a male companion. Even if they have a male companion, they will be repeatedly interrogated by the militiamen and their status as free citizens will be confirmed before they are allowed to pass. There are too many prostitutes who try to gain the sympathy of their customers and take them away. Several of them are stopped by the militia every month.
This time... judging from the condition of her skin, the scary lady should be quite young, so no one dared to stop her... Even after the scary lady walked away, Captain Gold, who saw his subordinate's "dereliction of duty" with his own eyes, breathed a sigh of relief.
Half an hour later, the town of Westham finally recovered from the shock and gradually regained its former vitality.
An hour later, Gold was called over by the sheriff who had just learned the news and asked about the situation.
Sheriff Sir Boris did not see in person how terrifying the Terror Lady was, and was furious about the militia letting go of a suspicious person of unknown origin. He sternly demanded that Gold cancel the militia's rotation and keep all personnel on duty for at least five days of high-intensity patrol work to prevent possible attacks by thieves or even horse thieves.
Westm had also been attacked by horse thieves (the difference between horse thieves and ordinary thieves is that the bandits are all cavalry and have mounts). Every time they were attacked, they suffered heavy losses. Gold did not dare to say a word of dissatisfaction. He came out of the sheriff and shouted to his brothers to call out all those who were on leave.
Westham's militia is composed of the strongest adult men in the town. They have lucrative jobs donated by brothel owners. Not only are they fat and strong, they have also undergone at least entry-level professional training and are equipped with armor and weapons. Their fighting power is no worse than that of ordinary small and medium-sized mercenary groups.
Due to the special nature of Westham, incidents often occur - almost every night there are riots on the streets by spendthrifts and drunken guests, which can easily escalate into bloody conflicts - the militia is also well-tested in dealing with emergencies. Soon, armed patrols appeared in and around the town, vigilantly watching every movement.
Time passed slowly, two hours later, three hours later, four hours later, five hours later...
Until four in the morning, apart from the fact that there were many more drunkards on the street and a few servants and grooms who were caught because they disliked the old and ugly street prostitutes and refused to pay them, there was no other situation.
After listening to the complaints of his team members and considering that his status actually came from his team members rather than the domineering sheriff Sir Boris, Gould decided to pretend to obey and secretly replace some teams that had patrolled outside the town for more than six hours and let them go back to rest.
At five in the morning, the number of militiamen still patrolling inside and outside the town was reduced to only a few dozen.
Jimmy, the militiaman guarding the town gate, was extremely sleepy. He kept yawning and drinking the cheapest corn rum, trying to use his last bit of energy to look at the empty town gate outside the duty post.
Guarding the town gate is actually a good and lucrative job. Although Westham does not collect gate taxes, if there are traveling merchants among the guests who need to bring goods into the town while having fun, the militia will need to be paid some money.
However, the time period for making extra money is only limited to the first half of the night. In the second half of the night, there are not many people, and those on duty can only endure it.
Jimmy is still young. His parents have no reputation in the town and have lived a mediocre life. When it is his team's turn to guard the town gate, it is not his turn during the popular period... He can only sit on the duty post which symbolizes a certain status in the late night when the only living people are dazed drunkards.
There are three people on duty every round. Two old team members who are also on the edge are not as honest as Jimmy. One of them hides somewhere to relax, and the other just lies down in the lounge behind the duty post and takes a nap.
After drinking the last bit of corn rum, Jimmy walked out of his duty post and put the empty bottle under the corner of the roadside wall. At dawn, there would be garbage collectors who would happily collect the bottles that the militiamen drank. Ten of these rough, bubbling blue glass bottles could be exchanged for a copper coin. Jimmy had done the same job when he was young.
Jimmy shivered in the cold wind of the early morning. From the alley near the town gate came the howling of some drunkard prostitute. Jimmy looked into the dark alley with disgust and turned back to his duty post.
Jimmy, who grew up in Westham, has no good feelings towards the prostitutes and male prostitutes on this street, because he has seen many people who were kicked out of brothels when they were old and were unable to clean themselves up after regaining their freedom. They still shamelessly stay on this street. No matter how old, ugly or poor a man is, he is willing to chat with them just to exchange their rotten flesh for more money for bread.
Just as he was about to enter the duty post, Jimmy suddenly saw a little bit of white out of the corner of his eye.
He paused and tilted his head in confusion.
There is an electric pole not far from the duty post, on which hangs a powered street lamp. Although the brightness is not high, it can provide the militia on duty with a certain field of vision, allowing them to see the space within a range of more than ten meters outside the town gate.
A little further away from the street lamp, there was a small piece of white, not very smooth looking object, floating abruptly at a height of one person.
Jimmy stared at the thing in confusion for a long time. Driven by curiosity, he left his duty again and walked out of the town gate quietly...
There are two rows of trees at the entrance of the town, with colorful lights hung on the trees. The lights on the trees will be powered on in the first half of the night, and will be turned off in the second half of the night when there are no guests.
Jimmy climbed over the pole and saw… this little white thing that seemed to be clinging to the tree and hiding in the shadows beneath it.
Jimmy's eyes turned cold and he drew out his sword silently.
If the colorful lights at the town gate are stolen, the gatekeeper on duty will be fined.
Jimmy hated people who didn't follow the rules, and he was determined to teach the man who dared to steal the lanterns while he was on duty a lesson.
He approached the man hiding under the tree cautiously, step by step, and gripped the hilt of the knife tightly.
Ten meters, five meters, three meters.
As if knowing that he couldn't hide, the person hiding under the tree moved slightly and turned his head awkwardly...
Jimmy finally saw through the thief who stole the lanterns.
It was a face without flesh.
No skin, no facial muscles, no nose... just a bare skull.
Jimmy opened his mouth and stared blankly at the bald skull.
Two seconds later, the young man made a faint, almost inaudible gurgling sound in his throat and his eyes rolled up.
As the saber fell to the ground with a clang, Jimmy fell down softly.
Before he fell into a coma, Jimmy had only one thought in his mind: the white thing he saw was the back of a skull...
