Chapter 87: 24. Snakehead Tavern
After hearing Fisher’s words, the three adorable little girls blinked simultaneously, their movements synchronized as if they were three clones.
“Wait for us to ask our friends.”
“And our friends’ friends!”
“Come on, Point One!”
Just as the three girls began to call out, rustling sounds started to emanate from all around the underground room. Old Jack, holding the three sweet-smelling girls, darkened his expression. He always felt uneasy whenever they summoned their friends, fearing they might bring some disease in with them.
So he wouldn’t let those mice inside, allowing them only to appear at the pipe openings.
Before long, many mice appeared, poking their heads out of various pipe openings, twitching their noses at the three little girls outside. Some even waved hello, and there were even mice blowing kisses!
“Where is Karen Street?”
“We need to point them in the right direction.”
“But it’s possible that the mice there don’t have good memories; after all, that was two weeks ago.”
Kalma and the others spread out a map of Saint Nali in their little hands, tracing their fingers over every street. They eventually stopped at the location of the incident on Karen Street. They held up the map and pointed at that position for the mice sitting on the pipes outside. Those mice narrowed their eyes and stared for a long time before finally standing up and patting their chests, looking as if to say “Leave it to us.”
Every time Old Jack saw this scene, he felt those mice must be transformed beings or some kind of fairy; otherwise, how could they make such vivid expressions? In the next moment, many mice swarmed out through the pipes, creating a sound like raindrops hitting as they moved.
Fisher watched the mice disappear into the room and then took out the envelope given to him by the Nali Police earlier, which contained nearly twenty thousand Nali. He placed the envelope on a small table in the room. The three mouse daughters had no concept of money, but Old Jack’s gaze lingered on it for a long time.
“That’s a lot. What exactly are you searching for? If it’s something dangerous, I’d advise you to stop.”
“It’s not dangerous, but the value of this information is indeed worth this much.”
Old Jack glanced at Fisher but didn’t refuse. He truly needed to save up some money.
Fisher understood their situation. Before Jack passed away, Old Jack spent a lot of money treating his son, ultimately to no avail; that money would never come back. Although he still had a tavern on Snakehead Street, this was not a good place to end up.
Every day was filled with criminals, gangs, and addicts; he had enough of this place after so many years, or more accurately, he had had enough of Saint Nali.
If it weren’t for his son studying and working here, he would have left long ago. Old Jack wanted to move to the countryside of Nali, anywhere would do, to enjoy his old age there.
Moreover, it wasn’t good for the three mouse daughters to be seen here; they could only stay in the basement every day. His desire to move was growing stronger. He had already decided that once they moved to the countryside, he would raise the three little girls and send them back to the Southern Continent, after all, that was their homeland.
But that was still a long way off. Old Jack was in good health, still having the shadow of the gang that sliced and diced with a knife back in the day.
The basement remained quiet for a long time, and the three little mouse daughters hung on Old Jack, not minding the heat, occasionally casting curious glances at Fisher, who was resting his eyes in the distance. They only lifted their heads when familiar rustling sounds came from the nearby pipe again.
“They’re back!”
The mice from the upper pipe popped out again, panting hard as they leaned against the walls of the pipe, finally managing to utter little squeaks after catching their breath. They chatted excitedly while gesturing towards the three mouse daughters, though the others had no idea what they were saying.
“Oh, that’s how it is.”
“Oh!”
“Oh my.”
The mouse daughters nodded. The eldest among them, named Kalma, turned to Fisher excitedly and said, “They said that the squirrels there saw a human jump down from the second floor that night and quickly ran away after breaking the human’s electric track. They want to know if it’s this person?”
Fisher thought for a moment and then nodded, saying, “Yes, that’s him. I want to know what that person looks like and where he is now.”
Kalma nodded, turned back, and shouted a few words at the group of mice. After hearing her, the mice looked at each other, then held up their tiny hands, beginning to gesture.
“Ah, they said that the person is very fat. It was too dark that night to see his specifics, but they know where that guy is now.”
“Where is he?”
Fisher looked at the mice up top, who made a circular gesture and then broadly pointed upward, chirping excitedly.
Kalma and the others opened their mouths, turning back to look at Fisher, and spoke in unison, “They said that guy is now on Snakehead Street.”
Fisher’s expression changed. He quickly stood up, grasped his staff and hat, and hurriedly waved his hand at the three mouse daughters behind him, saying, “Quickly, tell your mouse friends to take me there!”
“Oh, oh, oh, hurry! Point One, take Uncle Fisher to have a look!”
The area of Snakehead Street is actually quite large. Besides the drainage system, many Nali people have built numerous structures extending towards the main underground river. Thus, the latter part of Snakehead Street resembles a market built within an underground cavern.
The deeper the area, the fewer ordinary people there are because even in poverty, they worry about their safety; in the depths, they could die and no one would notice. Here, only abandoned addicts and various dangerous individuals linger.
In a tavern deep within, a lady sat, distinctly out of place with the surrounding crowd. The lady was quite tall, holding a large glass of Nali beer. Her hat was placed on the bar table in front of her, and beside her sat several pirates who had come ashore with her, including the fat first mate.
“Ah, the beer in Nali really is great!”
These women from Sardinia had no feminine charm at all, instead exhibiting a hearty demeanor. She gulped down more than half of the liter of beer, her face flushed as she scanned the incoming patrons, hoping for a delightful encounter today. But the men were either too ugly or too dirty, not to her taste at all.
Only Alagina quietly drank her beer, her deep blue eyes lost in thought.
“Hey, Captain, what’s wrong? You’ve been out of it since coming back from the city a few days ago. Is there a gentleman you have your eyes on?”
The fat first mate, who was also the captain’s close friend, nudged Alagina’s shoulder, pulling her back from her thoughts. Alagina turned to look at the first mate, hesitated for a moment, and replied, “I did see a pretty decent man, but he’s quite special.”
“Special? In what way?”
“Not like the men back home; he’s more assertive.”
“Oh, you like that kind, huh?”
The fat first mate discreetly took a sip of her drink, suddenly gaining a rough understanding of the captain’s preferences. She wasn’t this type of admirer; she preferred adorable and delicate males. But since the captain liked it, she couldn’t say anything bad. The most important thing was to comfort her and support her feelings!
She thought for a long time before saying, “Oh, that’s not bad. After all, having a gentleman to take care of you is a wonderful thing. We’re doing fine up here, just relax, Captain!”
Alagina slightly paused in her drinking, glancing at the fat first mate, her voice lowering a bit, “He likes being above.”
“.”
The first mate opened her mouth but was at a loss for words. Looking at the silent captain and then at the crew beside her who pretended not to care but were all ears, she felt a pang of unease, and her frozen smile became increasingly awkward.
“Oh, well, um… I mean, that’s not bad too. Come, drink up! Maybe after a few more drinks, you’ll feel better?”
Alagina looked at her for a while, then picked up her drink and downed the remaining beer in one go, attempting to drown the thoughts swirling in her mind with alcohol.
Just as she set her glass down, a greasy hand suddenly landed on her shoulder, followed by a voice sounding like a duck’s quack, “Hey, handsome, wanna have a drink? Oh my, you’re a woman?!”
Alagina frowned as she turned her head, only to see a rosy-faced fat man standing behind her.
The fat man’s gender was very ambiguous, predominantly straddling the line between male and female. Not only did he sound bizarre, but his face was smeared with deep red lipstick and purple eyeshadow, all topped off with a layer of white foundation.
However, he was so fat that just after a few sips of beer, beads of sweat started to form on his face, mixing with the foundation and dripping down through the folds of his flesh, unable to move.
Originally, the lewd expression on his face turned sour upon seeing Alagina’s beautiful face and the rise and fall of her chest, as if he had swallowed a fly. He took several steps back, and upon seeing the other distinctly Sardinian pirates beside her, his expression worsened.
He did not expect to encounter a man-hungry tomboy here!
“What bad luck. I thought I’d found an aristocratic handsome guy, but it turns out to be a tomboy instead!”
The man scoffed, failing to notice Alagina’s increasingly cold expression, nor did he realize the door behind him had opened, with a mouse darting out first, starting to scream at the fat man.
“Oh my! How can there be a mouse here? So disgusting!”
Before the fat man could act to drive the mouse away, a gentleman from Nali, holding a staff, slowly walked in. Upon seeing the situation inside the tavern, he quickly scanned the surroundings, confirming that the drunken fat man had no accomplices. He then locked eyes with Alagina, who looked quite surprised to see him.
He had found a member of the Sorceress Research Society.
