Chapter 138: Welcome to Yoshiwara~
The midday sun blazed down so fiercely that it was hard to keep your eyes open.
The doors of the Kyogoku House stood wide open. On either side of the main hall, dozens of courtesans knelt in two rows, respectfully seeing off their former master.
For the last time, Omitsu lifted her gaze toward the sign that had hung in that very spot for nearly a hundred years. Her eyes welled up with tears.
"That’s it, let’s go." Nagabe tugged at her sleeve, whispering to her. "We’ve already collected the money, what else is there to look at?"
Omitsu clenched her teeth. And, in the end, she turned around and started walking.
From the third-floor window, Marcus followed the pair with his eyes until the two of them disappeared around the corner of the street. A smile slowly crept onto his lips.
"Master, they’re all gathered now." Pearl appeared from the doorway. "Just as you ordered, I rounded them all up in the main hall. They’re waiting for you to say a few words."
"Mm." Turning around, he stepped away from the window. "Let’s go, then. Let’s get to know our employees."
...
In the main hall, more than forty people waited on their knees, whispering and chatting among themselves.
"Did you hear the new owner is somebody really important?"
"That’s what they say. That his place in Asakusa is like twice the size of our shop."
"Come on... out here on the outskirts, a house already costs a fortune. A property right in the heart of Asakusa, I can’t even imagine."
"Doesn’t matter. We couldn’t scrape together that kind of money in ten lifetimes."
"And what’s he like? Young, old?"
"Young, they say. Though I’ve got no idea what he looks like..."
"What do you all know? Who cares if he’s got money or how old he is? What matters is that he’s a good person."
"True, if he turns out to be some damn pervert, we’re in for some rough days..."
While they were talking, footsteps were heard outside the door.
The murmuring cut off at once and every head bowed at the same time.
The curtain at the entrance lifted and a beam of light spilled in, dragging a long shadow across the floor.
Behind it, a slender figure crossed the threshold.
"All right, raise your heads."
They all did it at once... and were left dumbfounded.
So young!
That was the first thought.
So tall!
That was the second.
So handsome!
And the third.
The man who walked in didn’t look a day over twenty.
He stood over six feet tall, his blond hair tied up messily behind his head, and a restrained smile danced in his eyes.
He wore a plain, light-colored kimono and a white haori, but for some reason, they looked extraordinarily striking on him.
He had a certain kind of... appeal that made it impossible for anyone to keep from wanting to look at him more and more.
Of course, the ones feeling this way were mostly women.
The few men in the group, on the other hand, found their eyes wandering after the four women who entered behind him.
Elegant, cute, sensual, youthful.
Beautiful, without a doubt. They had nothing to envy the great Oiran Warabihime herself.
And then, at the same time, the same question crept into more than one of their heads:
Could they be the real reason this man had wanted to buy the Kyogoku House?
The hall fell into complete silence.
Everyone was running their own calculations on the inside.
Marcus planted himself in front of the crowd and let his gaze wander across the group.
From the clothes, the grooming, and even the hairstyles, it wasn’t hard to figure out who was who.
At the very bottom of the ladder were the servants in charge of the general labor, the men, the ones usually called Gyū.
Yes, the same Gyū as in Gyūtarō.
And they were the ones who shouldered a ton of tasks: taking out the trash, lighting the fire for cooking, opening the door to draw in customers, greeting those who arrived and swapping out their footwear, handing out the queue numbers, guiding them up to the floor above... a little bit of everything.
There were probably around ten people assigned to that.
Next came the maidservants, known as Kamuro and Shinzo.
These girls served as assistants and, at the same time, were the breeding ground for the place’s future courtesans.
They tended to the day-to-day needs of the courtesans while, along the way, learning what they needed to one day become one of them.
Those under fifteen were called Kamuro.
The older ones, Shinzo.
They were all young girls whose own families had sold them off to the courtesan houses, and the vast majority had a rather fetching appearance.
As long as they weren’t official courtesans, they didn’t spend the night with the customers.
In all, there were about fifteen between the Kamuro and Shinzo.
One rung higher up were the courtesans proper, with far more eye-catching outfits, carefully done makeup, and slender figures full of grace.
They were, to put it plainly, the backbone of the business.
Keeping customers company with drinks, putting on performances, and spending the night with them: all of that fell to them.
The most beautiful ones, or the ones with the best touch when it came to customers, ended up rising to the rank of high-ranking courtesans.
Those had a room of their own and had Kamuro and Shinzo at their exclusive service.
The less attractive ones, on the other hand, didn’t have a bedroom of their own: they had to take turns using the guest rooms to receive their customers and managed without any servants at their disposal.
At that moment, the Kyogoku House had ten high-ranking courtesans.
And twelve low-ranking ones.
By Yoshiwara’s standards, this was already top-tier.
Marcus observed them calmly for a few moments and confirmed that the "quality" was quite good.
Even the low-ranking courtesans were, at the very least, beauties of six points and up, and they were all young.
Though, come to think of it, it made sense: in this era, the life expectancy of a courtesan barely reached twenty-two years. There was no way to come across some old hag in the trade.
Apart from that, two people in the crowd stood out with an extremely respectful demeanor. They were also the only ones of any real age in the whole place.
One was the Yarite, a retired courtesan in charge of keeping order among the courtesans and the maidservants.
The other was the Bantou, a man who barely fit the role of manager. The assignment and handling of the male servants rested on him.
Neither of the two dared breathe too loudly at that moment, fearing that one extra huff would be enough for the new boss to find them a replacement on the spot.
Marcus, however, didn’t even bother to look at them.
His gaze swept across the crowd... and then stopped at one corner.
There, a woman was leaning against a column. She wasn’t kneeling like the rest; she was propped up with an insolent laziness.
A purple kimono, golden hairpins in her hair, flawless skin, and features that looked like they’d been pulled straight out of a painting.
Even though her posture was pure indolence, her eyes oozed defiance. She just stayed there, doing absolutely nothing, and still managed to make everything else around her lose its color.
Upper Moon Six... Daki.
Under her current alias, the Oiran Warabihime.
And, on top of that, the only Oiran in all of the Kyogoku House and the most famous in the Red-Light District.
Marcus’s gaze rested on her for less than a second, a flicker of astonishment surfacing for an instant, before he yanked it away.
But in that span, however brief it was, Daki caught it with perfect clarity. And a slight bewilderment was added to the haughtiness in her stare.
The Demon Pillar, Marcus.
The person Muzan-sama had mentioned to her...
The man who used some supposed Breathing of Desire, who gathered a group of she-demons around him and who, on top of that, thanks to his ability to devour Blood Demon Arts, had been promoted to Pillar on an exceptional basis by Kagaya.
... How was it that he’d shown up right here?
When barely half a month ago, Muzan-sama had told her to stay ready. He’d promised her he’d look for the chance to arrange a meeting between the two of them, so that she could infiltrate his inner circle...
Why was it that, without Muzan-sama lifting a single finger, he was showing up on his own? And, on top of that, turned into her new master?
She narrowed her eyes at Marcus.
She’d seen it clearly: at the exact instant he spotted her, that man had gone noticeably still. That flash of fascination in his gaze couldn’t lie. And yet, he looked away right away.
A slight curve formed at the corner of Daki’s lips.
She understood it all: he was coming for her.
And the confidence she had in herself was absolute!
Faced with her beauty, no man was capable of pulling his eyes away with that kind of indifference after the first look. Unless... he was doing it on purpose!
’Trying to pass yourself off as some little gentleman? Heh, men.’
The most likely thing was that he’d heard about her fame back in Asakusa, and that he wanted to win her favor the nice way.
And, afraid that a rejection would wound his pride, he’d simply gone with buying the entire Kyogoku House to make sure he’d have her.
A flash of contempt gleamed in her eyes.
No wonder Muzan-sama said of him that he was a "lecher by nature."
He turned out to be exactly that.
The doubt that had been hovering in her gaze a moment earlier dissolved once again under the weight of her own arrogance.
’Interesting.’
She hadn’t expected that the first solo mission Muzan-sama had entrusted to her would turn out to be so easy.
Although...
She studied Marcus more closely.
Young, well-built, and with a rather attractive appearance. Carrying out this mission, after all, was going to be pleasing to the eye and to the heart as well.
Daki licked her lips in a way loaded with provocation.
’When the mission’s over... I’m going to get to treat myself to a real feast~’
As for the woman he had at his side... the "traitor" Tamayo!
’How dare you betray Lord Muzan!? Things aren’t going to end well for you either!’
"Good afternoon, everyone."
Marcus’s voice yanked her out of her thoughts all at once.
He introduced himself before the crowd with a faint smile on his face.
"I’m your new owner. My name is Marcus."
"..."
The hall remained in absolute silence.
"I’m not going to drag this out with courtesy speeches." Marcus continued. "The business is going to keep running the same as before, I don’t plan on replacing the staff. Your servitude contracts are in my hands, but I’m not going to use them to threaten you."
"Those who want to stay, work hard. Those who don’t, can pay their redemption and leave."
Hearing this, a stir rose up among the crowd.
"... Of course," Marcus’s tone shifted, "the redemption price will be charged according to the rules."
The stir died down.
More than a couple of pairs of seductive eyes silently rolled in exasperation.
If they’d been able to pay the redemption at its normal price, they’d have been gone ages ago. As if they’d have waited until this very moment!?
Smiling at them faintly, Marcus went on: "That said, since I’m new to this business, I’m going to be depending on you all to turn a profit. So, as is only fitting, I’ve got a welcome gift for you."
"Starting today, the wages of the administrative staff and the general-labor servants go up by ten percent!"
Those who, a second earlier, had been afraid of losing their jobs felt like they were touching the sky with their bare hands.
In an instant, they all prostrated themselves against the floor at once and let out enthusiastic cheers.
"Thank you so much, Marcus-sama!"
While the courtesans and the maidservants whispered among themselves, Marcus’s gaze settled on that side of the hall.
"The monthly stipend of the Kamuro, the Shinzo, and the courtesans also goes up by ten percent! And on top of that! Your commission on the guests goes up by another five percent extra!"
Raise the commission?
With the first part, the courtesans hadn’t been all that fazed.
After all, their bodies were already sold, and that money was nothing more than a symbolic amount. But raising the commission... that was a whole different story.
The money they earned came precisely from there, from the commissions.
On its own, the earnings at the Kyogoku House were already the highest in all of Yoshiwara. With this raise, even if it was only five percent, the place became, without question, the brothel with the best earnings for its courtesans in all of Yoshiwara.
The mood lit up in an instant.
"Thank you, Marcus-sama~"
Sweet voices of gratitude rose up one after another; some blew kisses, others winked at him, and some even tugged the collar of their kimono down a little.
Compared to that display, the oh-so-solemn prostrations of the male servants looked as bland as a glass of water.
Marcus didn’t have the slightest doubt: if right this very instant he took it into his head to clear the hall of all the staff who had no business being there... the very next second the clothes would go flying and voluptuous bodies would be left there for his enjoyment.
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Throw your stones, drop them ALL! 💎
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