Hal Town, Black Rye Tavern.
A little past nine in the evening was the noisiest ti in the tavern.
The tables were covered with overturned cups and scattered plates, and the drunken custors shouted loudly, raising their glasses and drinking to their hearts’ content.
The large round table in the corner was especially lively.
Five young n each held a mug of alcohol, laughing boisterously.
The man at their head had a scar at the corner of his eye.
He slapped the table as he cheered, while beside him, lissa held a cup and, with a pained expression, downed an entire glass of grape wine in one go.
That day, just like any other, she had been working the evening shift at the Black Rye Tavern as a waitress carrying trays.
Three hours of night work earned her fifty Fenni, making it one of the better-paying jobs among her various part-ti employnts.
However, near the end of her shift that night, soone among a group of custors suddenly recognized her.
“Well, well, isn’t this little lissa?”
“Mr. Garcia?” Seeing soone she knew, lissa was also surprised.
Garcia was a debt collector employed by the wealthy rchant Potter in town.
Potter owned a casino and a pawnshop in Hal Town.
The pawnshop ran a moneylending business.
Aside from collecting debts for Mr. Potter, Garcia was sotis responsible for watching over the casino.
And the largest sum of lissa’s debts was precisely the loan issued by Potter’s pawnshop—money her father had borrowed back then to operate the theater.
Garcia ca to collect debts once every three months and had dealt with lissa before.
Sally Hesh often reminded lissa that Potter’s debts had to be repaid first, because the thods used by these debt collectors were notorious.
lissa herself disliked Garcia as well.
Every ti he ca to her house, the greedy look in his eyes when he stared at her… always sent a chill down her spine.
And now, as Garcia looked at lissa wearing a waitress’s apron, his gaze beca even more undisguised.
“Didn’t expect such a coincidence. Co, co! Sit down and take a break with us. Have sothing to eat together.” Garcia reached out and grabbed her slender arm, pulling her over to the seat beside him.
“N-no, Mr. Garcia, I still have to work…” lissa naturally wanted to refuse, but he did not loosen his grip at all.
Instead, he tightened it, making her arm ache with pain.
“I take such good care of you, and you won’t give
face? That makes it hard for
in front of my brothers! What’s wrong with resting for a bit?”
As Garcia spoke, he shouted toward the middle-aged owner behind the counter.
“Hey, Old Frank, it’s fine to let your little girl sit with us for a while, right? Huh?”
Seeing the situation, the middle-aged owner quickly forced a smile and replied, “Haha, of course it’s fine, of course it’s fine. lissa, just sit with Mr. Garcia for a while!”
Garcia was a genuine underworld figure.
The owner did not dare provoke people like him—otherwise, his tavern might mysteriously be burned down one day.
lissa could only sit down at the table helplessly.
After that, Garcia and his lackeys ate, drank, and joked, frequently egging lissa on to drink with them.
With her limited experience, lissa could not withstand these n’s mix of coaxing and pressure.
After a few drinks, her head began to feel dizzy.
It was long past the ti she was supposed to get off work.
Several tis she tried to leave, but each ti Garcia forcefully pressed her down.
The owner ignored what was happening altogether.
“I’m sorry, Mr. Garcia, I really can’t drink anymore. I really have to go ho…” lissa tried to stand as she spoke, but the mont she rose, a wave of dizziness hit her and she nearly fell.
“Hey, hey, hey, what’s this? You’re going to be a buzzkill already?” Garcia grabbed her again.
“Sit for a little longer.”
“Please, I really have to go… My mother, she… will worry…” lissa pleaded haltingly.
Hearing her slurred words, the n at the table burst into laughter.
“Oh, mother… right, right, Mrs. Hesh who’s been lying in the attic all this ti!” Garcia laughed as if he had just rembered.
“I really miss her days on stage. lissa, you really look just like her.”
After thinking for a mont, he picked up a bottle of strong liquor, poured nearly half a small glass with a glug-glug sound, pushed it in front of lissa, and said to her,
“How about this— we’re about to wrap things up anyway. Drink this last glass and sit with us for ten more minutes. How does that sound?”
With bleary, drunken eyes, lissa looked at the small half-glass of liquor that did not seem like much, and at the n around her who were jeering.
Under the influence of alcohol, she could barely think anymore, but a primal sense of danger kept warning her that no matter what, she should not drink this glass.
“I’m sorry, I really can’t drink anymore…” lissa refused with all the strength she had left.
“Oh no, lissa, that really makes
sad.”
Garcia shook his head.
“In a few days it’ll be debt-collection day. Do you know how much you owe? Every ti your family scrapes together just the interest, I have to give you several extra days. Have you gathered the money this ti?”
“I… I…” lissa suddenly found herself unable to speak.
“How about this—drink this glass and sit a little longer, and I’ll delay going to your house to collect the debt by one month this ti. What do you say?” Garcia coaxed her with a smile.
lissa stared dizzily at the glass of liquor.
Everything before her eyes seed to blur into a single ss, and the smiling faces of Garcia and his lackeys beca grotesquely twisted.
After a long while, she silently reached her hand toward the glass.
The owner looked away at this scene.
None of the other custors spoke up either.
Everyone knew what kind of end awaited the girl after she was drunk senseless by this group tonight, but here, no one dared provoke Garcia and his n.
At that mont, a figure dashed in from the entrance, weaving between the tables, and rushed to the table.
A hand reached out and grabbed lissa’s hand just as it was about to touch the glass.
“lissa, your mother is worried.”
Leon spoke as he pulled the unsteady lissa up, sweeping his gaze over the others at the table.
“Sorry, gentlen, she needs to go ho!”
With that, he supported lissa and prepared to lead her out of the tavern.
“Brother Leon?” lissa raised her head in surprise.
She could not see his face clearly, but she recognized the voice.
“Hey, hey, hey!!” Garcia imdiately shouted, raising his hand.
His n reacted quickly and stood up, two of them blocking Leon with unfriendly expressions.
“I say, friend, who are you?” Garcia spread his hands toward Leon with a false smile.
All his n had stood up, yet he himself remained seated.
“You grab our table’s little girl and try to leave—what are you trying to do, hmm?”
Leon looked back and forth at the people present.
From their bearing alone, he realized they were not good sorts.
In the end, his gaze settled on Garcia at the head.
“I live in her house. Her mother asked
to find her and bring her ho. Is there a problem?”
Garcia looked at lissa in surprise.
By instinct, she had already pressed close to Leon’s side, tightly clutching the corner of his clothes.
“Ah… I see. You’re the tenant renting the ground floor of the Hesh house, right? I’ve never t you before.”
Garcia suddenly understood.
In the past, he usually went to lissa’s house during the day to collect debts, and Leon would be at work at those tis.
“If there’s no problem, then please step aside.” Leon glanced at the two n blocking the way.
The two lackeys did not move and instead looked toward Garcia.
Garcia continued to smile at Leon, then tapped the tabletop with his finger.
“Alright, little brother, there’s no need to worry. We all know Ms. Sally and little lissa. lissa will just have one more drink with us, and then we’ll send her ho. You can go back and tell her mother that. Is that okay?”
As he spoke, he gave a look to the person beside him.
That lackey quietly lifted the hem of his coat toward Leon, revealing part of a Gun grip at his waist, making sure Leon fully understood that they were not ordinary street thugs.
Five against one—if this man dared ruin his fun today, he was going to suffer a bit.
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