247 Crime King
Alexis’ application was simple, because she didn’t even have to go to The Cage for it, not least because that’s not how you apply. Matthew knew a guy, who knew another guy, and who was the brother-in-law of a guy who worked at The Cage, which made the whole process easy. The half-dragon only needed to meet with the latter home, to prove that such euphoria from her sister’s husband was not just drivel.
To prove that she was an S-Class, Alexis needed to show a crystal pendant, whose crest of the Cardinal Kingdom Guild was impossible to plagiarize.
By the time the man hit his eye on the pendant, he already went crazy and wondered who was the height of the half-dragon in the Cage. Still, he promised that he would be able to schedule the fight for Friday of the same week, and that it was impossible for the Cage bosses not to accept, because a single fight could yield thousands and thousands of gold coins.
When the day came, only the half-wolf group and Alexis Dmitry left the Strogueher estate because, according to Luke, neither Nathalia, nor Shiro, nor Amelia and even less Ayumi should get dirty with this kind of work. Besides, this work would be faster if only professionals did it.
Everyone agreed with this decision by Luke, because he had experience in the matter. However, the fact that they agreed did not make Nathalia and Amelia any less nervous about what might happen.
“I could have gone, I could help them with my astral projection and other abilities should they need it.” Amelia spoke, as she tapped her foot on the ground and looked at the ground statically.
Night had already fallen, and everyone knew that by now the abandoned tunnels must have been packed with hundreds of people to watch the S-Class fight.
“Yeah, I could have gone too!” Nathalia exclaimed and raised her right arm in motivation. “I could have helped them in case it all went wrong!”
Shiro looked at the two with a fallen look, as if he didn’t understand the two women’s reaction. “Are you seriously going to disagree again just when they’ve already gone? It’s pointless, we just have to wait.” He said and plopped himself down on one of the comfortable couches in the room that was being their meeting place, the main living room of the residence.
The comment from the huge man, whose hair was already starting to get long and flowing, made Nathalia and Amelia quiet.
After Alexis was effectively signed up to participate in an opening fight, even though she was a newcomer to the Cage, everyone began to architect a plan around this main distraction, and during this architecting, Amelia and Nathalai tried to contribute, but were soon lost. The half-wolf gang was organizing everything with such professionalism that it literally surprised everyone.
So at one point, Nathalia, Shiro, Amelia, Ayumi, and Martha just let them work alone. In the end, the best possible plan was put together, bringing together the experience that all six former thieves had gained from years of experience.
Still, when Shiro looked at the women in the room, he could tell that they were not very confident that everything could work out.
“What are you guys worried about? Don’t tell me it’s with Luke, is it?” He asked, because the tension emanating from them would soon suffocate him.
“No, it’s not that.” They quickly denied in sync.
Shiro crossed his arms and clenched his eyes, while looking at them.
Since Nathalia didn’t want to make it seem like she didn’t trust Luke’s strength, she quickly began to explain herself. “Look, they are out of eight and yet only two of them have really strong Genes Skills, how can I be confident in that?”
“That!” Amelia then agreed. “I know I’ve known everyone else for a very short time, but Ynosuke said this place was as scary as a Dungeon. You can’t stay calm with six normal people going to a place like this.”
Now, Shiro understood the point of their fear. “I understand your fear, I really do, but trust me, this is unnecessary. Nath, you heard Luke when he came home from his trip, he infiltrated the Residence of two demons, and believe me, I’m sure this is a feat only he can do. The others? Well, they managed to help rebuild a city, do you really think they can’t handle creating some headaches for Straw Hat?”
The next moment Ayumi Yamazaki entered the room, carrying a tray with cups and a pot of tea, prepared by Martha. She could hear the end of the conversation, so she decided to complement Shiro’s sentence.
“Girls, if you are afraid of what Straw Hat is capable of, remember that famous criminals are yes dangerous, but those who have never been discovered are the best.”
The truth was that, ever since they were children, everyone in Luke’s gang had always taken as much care as possible to carry out any dangerous action. Not even once did they act without planning first, and not even without having information key to the success of their plans, so this time was no different.
Since Shiro, Nathalia and Oliver were cooperating with the City Guard, they had access to exclusive information about the Straw Hat.
This information was not clear enough to point out what he looked like, and for the most part only demarcated areas where he had some dominance or influence, but there was something fundamental in the municipal guards’ documents, which was that Straw-Hat had four main subordinates.
Hierarchical systems in organized crime were not uncommon, but this certainly did not suit big crime Kings like Straw-Hat, because these systems usually ended in betrayal. Still, the half-wolf gang devised a plan to contain Straw-Hat’s ‘generals’.
And if a crime king can even have generals, he can certainly have a Kingdom, and for Straw Hat, The Cage was equivalent to a Kingdom, at least on Fridays.
The Cage was an even worse place than Ynosuke’s descriptions. There were not just seven or eight arenas as he pointed out, but dozens and dozens, where many different kinds of fights took place. In some rings, fights were organized in pairs, others in larger groups, and there were even all-on-all fights that gathered up to ten people.
To complement the fiery atmosphere of the place, there were torches in every corner, and Adventurers everywhere. As information about an S-Class fighting in The Cage spread quickly, many Adventurers returned to Oukiwa for this very reason, because they wanted to see what a person of the highest rank was capable of.
For that reason, Alexis Dmitry was not surprised when she looked up from the arena floor and saw hundreds of people crowding around to try to watch her fight.
‘I think I kind of like that feeling.’ She thought as she saw everyone excitedly shouting for her. Then she put her hand over her chest and felt it throb. ‘Everyone expects something from me, just because of my title…’ This was her first time being recognized outside the Cardinal Realm as a high ranking Adventurer, so she was a little nervous.
Then she looked in front of her and saw a gigantic grating, and between the iron bars of this grating, a black curtain was coming out, concealing everything behind her. A few seconds later, this grid was lifted and a man was pushed into the arena.
At this moment, everyone watching exploded with excitement, and the bettors began to collect a lot of money. At that beginning, there were few crazy people who dared to bet against the S-Class, and one of those crazy people was exactly the King of the Cage, the man named Straw Hat.
He was not watching the fight personally, not least because that would be impossible without revealing his face, but since this was the main fight of the night he made sure to use an Epic-level Gene Skill to watch it.
When the iron grid was closed again, Alexis noticed that three eyes appeared in different places in the arena.
She couldn’t tell what they were, but noticing her opponent, she could tell that he was probably the conjurer of these eyes.
The man in front of her had a similar physique to Luke, not too tall, not too short, not too muscular, and not without muscles. However, there was a clear physical difference between him and the half-wolf, and this difference was the way this man walked.
The moment he was pushed into the ring, the man fell on all fours like an animal. Instinctively, he looked at his opponent, the half-wolf, and backed away like a frightened animal, but not with an expression of fear, because he was smiling.
From a sheath positioned in the lumbar region of his spine, he withdrew a small dagger, and at the tip of this sharp dagger it was possible to see some poison dripping.