Roaring Heroes Battle the Overlord (Ainz) - Part 1 (Chapters 1 to 200)

Chapter 76: The Captain and the Anti-Porn Campaign

The bustling marketplace was alive with people coming and going, vendors shouting at the top of their lungs to hawk their wares. This was the heart of the Re-Estize Kingdom's capital market, and even at midday, merchants and pedestrians packed the place, buzzing with energy.

EeDechi and Barrett threaded through the crowd, ignoring the loudmouths who practically yelled right in customers' ears.

This was one of the bigger markets around, and it'd be a waste to just pick up ordinary food and drink. Barrett wanted something special, though he hadn't decided what yet.

Squeezing past a group clustered around a fried fish stall, Barrett reached the area for traveling merchants. In this world where travel was tough, these merchants wove thin threads between kingdoms, tribes, and towns, letting coins and goods trickle along like droplets, linking isolated pockets.

Compared to the noisy small-time vendors next door, the traveling merchants were quieter—maybe the hardships of the road had worn out their shouting voices, or perhaps the dust of worldly journeys had given them a layer of proud reserve.

Come to think of it, traveling merchants were a bit like adventurers: both chased after gold, wandered without roots, and called the world home. But merchants battled with cargo and grueling treks, while adventurers fought with blades, spells, and monsters.

In the lively market, EeDechi craned her neck, peering left and right, searching for who knows what.

Barrett kept sharing tips on shopping and spotting fakes, but she just nodded with absent "uh-huhs," and he doubted she'd heard a word.

"What are you looking for?" Barrett couldn't help asking.

"Do you know where there's a brothel?" EeDechi's question left Barrett stunned.

"What do you want with a brothel?" Barrett asked, half-laughing, half-exasperated. Then it hit him. "Wait, you want to... go crackdown on prostitution again!"

Those awful memories from Baharuth flooded back: EeDechi charging into the brothel, swinging her giant sword in wild arcs, pummeling guards, slaying nobles, herding naked prostitutes and johns out to huddle in a row in the cold wind, and finally torching the whole place, landing both her and Barrett on the wanted list.

That wasn't all; she also rescued two twin girls from the brothel, forcibly adding two deadweights to the adventurer party, and it wasn't until just recently that they finally managed to ditch those two girls.

"Do you know where the brothel is? You're so worldly, you must know!" EeDechi widened her big, doe eyes, for the first time looking up at Barrett with a longing gaze, like a little girl begging her dad to buy her ice cream.

Barrett's heart skipped a beat, almost softening him up, but he immediately refused. "I don't know! I know nothing! I've never been to places like that in the Re-Estize's capital."

"Really?" EeDechi's gaze turned skeptical, her eyes narrowing.

"Of course it's true." Barrett crossed his arms, his gaze wandering.

Of course it was a lie—Barrett knew the local sex trade like the back of his hand. When his pockets were jingling with gold coins, he went to high-end brothels backed by noble interests, getting his ass licked by a 25-year-old woman while pounding a 19-year-old beauty.

When he only had a few silver coins in his pocket, he headed to dingy back alleys, picking out a middle-aged woman slathered in thick makeup, flipping over the hourglass on the table, and screwing her on a bed padded with straw. Often, because he hadn't come before the sand ran out, the woman would demand extra cash.