How to live as a tyrant’s bastard brother episode 9
(09)
About fifteen days after my reincarnation, I left the imperial palace.
I caught the carriage stationed at the Red Moon Palace.
“Let’s go to the ‘Hope’ Casino.”
When the coachman heard my destination, he sighed openly.
He glanced at me the whole time he was going.
Judging from the mixture of contempt and fear in their eyes, it seemed like the rumor about me had spread well.
I looked outside the window, with a satisfied smile.
The street was paved with paving stones, with sewer grid holes visible here and there.
The road for carriages and the road for people were also separated by a ledge.
There were three to five-story stone buildings lined up along the
street, and each building had different colored bricks, which was nice to see.
Some buildings on commercial streets had one wall entirely made of glass.
Oil street lamps hung on the edge of the sidewalk.
In the evening, street lamp keepers would walk up and down the streets carrying embers, sticks, and oil.
Soletaraon, the capital of the empire, boasting a population of 500,000, was beautiful every time you saw it.
People who saw the imperial seal on the carriage took off their hats and bowed, or retreated to the side of the street in surprise.
The driver glanced at me and sighed again.
It was a strange expression of both pride and self-destruction.
“Is it far?”
“Everyone is coming. Please wait a moment.”
The coachman was startled and answered.
I smiled and closed my eyes.
When I woke up to the sound of horses, buildings made entirely of black bricks came into view.
“We’re all here.”
Black bricks and red lights.
Red light district in the capital Soletaraon.
It was the border between shade and sunshine.
“This is the ‘Hope’ Casino. When can I come pick you up again?”
“Tomorrow morning. Please come before the sun rises.”
Everything will be over by then.
The coachman frowned upon hearing what I said.
It means waking up at dawn, so it can’t be a good mood.
“You don’t like it?”
The coachman, probably remembering the sparring between me and Lord Bonnell, glanced between his legs and swallowed his
saliva.
“I’ll be right on time.”
Fear made humans kinder and more sincere than kindness.
“Okay. Please.”
After checking the blade of the broken sword one more time, I went down the stairs to the basement of the black building.
“Welcome. It’s hope store. “We will guide you.”
A man wearing a suit and a red mask bowed politely at the door and handed me a paper mask.
I obediently took the mask and put it on.
His eyes quickly scanned my hair color.
Even though he saw the shiny white hair characteristic of the royal family, he was not surprised.
These days, it was common for the royal family to regularly donate money to entertainment districts to maintain their dignity.
Those who could not study or master swordsmanship or magic
easily fell into entertainment.
“I will help you exchange money first.”
As soon as I entered, a woman wearing a suit and a red paper mask came close to me.
I followed her to the counter and looked around the casino.
I saw decent nobles playing cards in a room at the edge, wealthy people betting on chips at a table in the spacious hall, and young nobles throwing darts from one wall.
Waiters carrying trays walked here and there.
A beautiful dealer dressed as a bunny girl dealt cards to young noblemen.
On one side of the podium, a small orchestra played cheerful tunes.
Beautiful, colorful glass lamps poured out brilliant light from all directions.
“Thirty silver coins. Change them all to black chips.”
“I will exchange thirty silver coins for black chips.”
Due to the nature of the gambling hall, the prices of chips and money were set ambiguously to cause confusion in calculations.
The black chip was a fairly expensive chip, worth seven chips for every two silver coins.
“If there is a game you want to play, I will guide you to that table.”
“There are people I want to meet more than games I want to play.”
The woman in the suit looked back at me.
“Madame Lavecia. I want to play at the same table as her.”
There was silence for a moment.
Soon, I answered in a bright voice.
“Of course. We will take you to the same table as Madame Lavecia. I’ll ask her in which room she in, so please wait a moment.”
I recalled an incident from my past life.
Madame Lavecia was the previous emperor’s concubine when he was the crown prince.
She worked in managing villas such as Red Moon Palace, but retired after Jay lilith ascended the throne.
The age difference between her and J. Lilith was as large as between a mother and daughter, and since she was just a concubine, she had no right to succession. But then again Lilith became emperor and now she is no more into the imperial palace games.
Currently, she is enjoying a wealthy retirement life with the money she has saved and also from the various money from real estate.
With her generous personality and good use of money, she is a welcome guest everywhere on this black-walled street.
That is Madame Lavecia, as she is known to the public.
“Who would have thought that the money was stolen money?”
I sighed softly.
One month, Lavecia, who had lost a lot and was in need of money, resorted to usury and to make up for it, she had to pay for the maintenance of the imperial villa.
She secretly took out management fees using the connections I had managed, and once the rent came in, she tried to block it here and there.
The problem started when the building caught fire.
Since it could not be operated, rent did not come in, and because she had no money, she could not meet the royal palace management fees that had been incurred.
The maids’ salaries were also delayed because all the money that was earmarked for the employees’ salaries was siphoned off.
When the emperor found out, he banished Lavecia and demolished the red light district.
After that, the royal family’s dignity maintenance fee was further reduced, and the organization that controlled the red light district moved to another country to survive and stole the information it had collected so far.
It was too great a price for the deviation of one debaucher.
“We can’t allow the cost of maintaining dignity to be further reduced here.”
If that happens, you might really have to starve.
I couldn’t eat black bread while cutting meat.
As I was thinking that, someone came up to me and bumped my shoulder.
“Who are you?”
“You? who are you to ask me that?”
A tongue-twisting answer came back.
The guy had a bad smell of alcohol.
“Hope, why is the water like this here? Do you think people with all their limbs cut off come and go here?”
The young man, whose eyes were wide open, hit his head on my chest.
“You look like a royal family member with white hair.”
The guy stretched out his hand.
He was a noble master who was drunk and out of his mind.
“Yes, I am from the royal family.”
But even when I wasn’t drunk, I was a crazy, crazy royal.
I kicked him on his crotch.
This time, there was no consideration for turning on tiptoe and aiming for the inner thigh.
“Oops!”
The guy fell down like a rotten piece of wood.
A woman with a red mask came running.
“What’s going on?”
“It’s nothing.”
The woman took a moment to understand the situation and exchanged glances with nearby employees.
“Yes. If it’s nothing then please follow me.”
I don’t have any more chips.
I followed the red masked woman to a room inside the casino.
