Translator: Nefarian
For dinner, I ate paella at one of the downtown stalls. Seafood Paella, there"s no other word to describe this dish. Seriously though, the food in this world is delicious. Perhaps it"s just this particular area or maybe the food around here just suits my taste buds, either way I"m grateful for it.
After dinner, I went to Annan just like yesterday. I"m talking about the compound that has a go-go bar. I enter a different go-go bar from yesterday to take a look inside. The place wasn"t like a go-go bar; it was more like a dance hall. There were female dancers whom were dancing with the customers.
I suppose it"s not a place for people who just want to spectate the girls dancing, but for those who actually wanted to dance themselves.
I"ll pa.s.s on that.
Dancing was a thing I did under the company"s orders and that was only during the summer festival period where all members were forced to partic.i.p.ate as a sort of company bonding session. That was more than enough dancing for me.
Nevertheless, they really liked to turn up the ba.s.s, it"s really loud as per usual.
I exit this store and look into another one, this one seemed like a go-go bar so I go inside.
The music volume was even louder than the one I entered yesterday.
I sit down and order some ale. In this store, there was also tables set up as part of the stage and girls were dancing on top of the tables in front of you.
This feels like I am at some underground idol"s performance and I am able to look right at the idols from an extremely close distance. I can really appreciate this feeling, it"s quite fun.
Let"s thoroughly enjoy the pretty girls dancing on the stage today.
Is what I initially thought, but… Here it comes, oh boy, a storm of seduction.
They were not going to allow me to just observe the happenings on stage. One of the girls who weren"t dancing approaches me. She"s asking for me to order her whiskey. After placing an order, the whiskey arrives and she starts requesting me to take her out of the store.
(Haven"t you just sat down moments ago?)
The instant I refused her invitation, she immediately gets up and leaves.
(Oi, I"ve already paid for your whiskey, aren"t you at least going to accompany me till you finish the drink? You haven"t even sit next to me for a minute, you know that?!)
I"m amazed at this girl"s att.i.tude.
Furthermore, after she leaves she starts abusing me saying stuff like "what a stingy man" and "ugh, that cheapskate".
It"s very unpleasant.
Just when I thought that there are some really unscrupulous girls in this bar, another one comes along.
This girl also immediately requests to be taken out of the store the moment the whiskey arrives. Not this again… I thought in my own mind as I refused her.
She didn"t immediately leave the table like that other girl, but she kept on persisting for me to take her out. Even though she hasn"t finished her drink, she is already asking for the next gla.s.s of whiskey to be served. When I pointed out that there was whiskey remaining in her cup she said…
「Ehh, well I can"t drink that much~」
(If you can"t drink, then don"t ask for seconds!)
In any case, it"s annoying. It"s freaking irritating. It"s like I"ve arrived at a corrupt business location.
I planned on enjoying the go-go bar stage until night time and then I was going to go to a different place, but this plan was all ruined. People may have the opinion of "why not just go along with these girls and take them outside for a quickie?".
However, I am in my thirties. It"s not like I have unlimited vigor and I was no longer in my junior high school days where I was full of energy. I need to save my strength. There is one thing that disappointed me when I came into this world.
(I really wanted to come in my junior high school body.)
The thing is… Not only would I have an increased amount of physical strength, but it was also about the sensitivity of my body. Back then I was very interested in the female form, when I saw my crush sitting on her wooden chair, the act of her crossing her legs would excite me.
The me right now… Has lost the purity and that curiosity I had when I was younger.
In many ways, I"ve become an adult.
Oh well. In saying that, I think that losing this portion of me also has its advantages in terms of gaining more experience. If I still possessed such a naïve mindset, it"s possible that I will be lacking in other departments.
The possibilities are endless and we could speculate all day.
Leaving that aside, I felt quite uncomfortable in this store so I left.
Perhaps it"s because I left without taking any girls out with me, but even the waitress didn"t have her business smile as I left the store. This makes me feel bad.
I was thinking of visiting a different go-go bar, but because this gave me a really unpleasant impression of a go-go bar, I decided against it.
I hang around in the shopping district. I start observing the situation around me. There was another guy with a similar vulgar smile like mine walking next to me. A woman who looked like she worked at one of these stores was walking along the street whilst swinging her a.s.s left and right. The man started cat-calling her and shouting at the woman to come over to him.
I could see some food stalls. There was a guy eating at the food stall. There is a man shaking his frying pan as he cooked at the food stalls. There is also a souvenir shop. The street at the shopping district is bright. The people are energetic.
Although it"s earlier than I planned, I arrived at my destination. I was thinking of going to a "different place" since a while ago. The place I wanted to visit was a coffee shop. Naturally, it wasn"t just any regular coffee store. According to my sources, this was a "dating coffee shop".
The name of the shop is called Bell Talk.
I timidly opened the door. There were only a few male customers, it"s quite a vacant location. I heard that this store starts getting crowded during the later hours. So I must be early.
I thought, what"s the point of leaving the store just to come back later? So I decided to gather some information. I head towards the counter seat and sit down.
「May I order something?」
I call out to the lady behind the counter.
Rather than a hottie mama behind the bar, she was more like an old auntie working at the kitchen. I suppose she"s not really in the business of "serving customers" and more about taking orders for the food and drinks.
「That"s fine, what would you like?」
「Hmm, let"s see, for the time being I will start with ale.」
Coming right up! she says and the ale comes out at once. I take 1 silver coin to pay the bill. The old aunt starts counting off my change.
「Don"t worry about the change, how about Onee-san also gets something to drink?」
The auntie gives me a suspicious look before giving me a broad grin.
「What"s this? You want to get it on with me? Aren"t you a customer with a strange hobby?」
I laugh and ward off the auntie"s jokes.
「Actually it"s my first time in here, so I was wondering if you could help by telling me a little about the structure of how this store operates.」
The auntie also laughs.
「I see. In that case, I will accept your treat for drinks without reservation.」
Putting the copper coins that she took out of the change box into her own pocket, she started making some kind of drink. It"s quite possible that she gets to drink for free.
「So, what do you want to know?」
「Everything. This is my first time coming here after all.」
Oh geez, this is going to be troublesome, she says… Although her face was smiling. So it seems that she"s willing to talk with me. There aren"t many customers right now and she is probably free at the moment.
「This is a place where men meet with women. If you meet someone you like, you call out to them and offer them a drink. If you both get along, then you would take them outside. If you both didn"t suit each other"s taste, you would then try to find another person.」
Oh-hoh, I nodded.
She asked me if I ever went to a go-go bar, so I responded in the affirmative.
「Well then you probably know that when you take a girl outside, you need to pay a fee to the store. Over here, there is no such thing. Therefore, this place can be considered cheaper.」
「Ohh, so the only sales the shop makes is through their drinks?」
「Apart from the money obtained from customers drinking, the females who enter the store have to pay an admission fee to enter the store.」
「Only the women have to pay the entrance fee?」
「Only the women.」
I thought that it would be the women entering free of charge and the man that had to pay for the admission fees.
「If this is true, why would any girls come into the store then?」
「Oh they will come. There is no place around here that won"t take a margin of the profits and allow you to freely procure customers. If they want to try soliciting outside from here, then be my guest.」
「There are girls trying to procure on the streets, as well huh?」
Street calling, is one of the methods in which a woman uses to attract males on the streets.
「There is a park near here. Though, you could be affected by the rain, sometimes the weather could be hot or cold, bugs could fly at you and bite you and it"s also dangerous. You could even get kidnapped.」
Getting kidnapped?! That"s scary…
「Compared to that, this place can be considered paradise. Not only that but this place has its own reputation. Men are familiar with the location and come in to this place to meet women. So even if the women had to pay a small fee, it"s a worthwhile hunting ground for them.」
「What"s the reason you don"t take the entrance fee from a male instead?」
「When a man speaks to a woman, he usually orders plenty of drinks. Besides, most guys who come here want to play around for a cheap fee. If the place tried to charge them for things other than the women"s drinks, it"s likely that there will be a lot less customers.」
Saying this, the auntie raises her empty gla.s.s at me and looks in my direction.
Yeah, yeah, you want another gla.s.s? Go right ahead.
The auntie gives me a smile as she fills up her gla.s.s.
At this point, a young waiter that had a great resemblance to the auntie comes out. He wasn"t a handsome guy. It seems he came to take orders from the table. He looks at me and gives a curt bow.
「This is my son.」
After introducing us, two gla.s.ses of ale were being ordered at the counter. The male takes his tray of drinks and leaves to serve the other customers.
「I"ve heard that this place is more for amateur women, but it"s not true is it?」
When I asked this, the auntie seemed to wonder who explained that to me.
「It"s hard to distinguish when a person is an amateur and when they become a pro.」
The auntie continues.
「There are girls who come here because they cannot procure any customers in the brothels or the go-go bars. You would still cla.s.sify these girls as pro"s right?」
Yeah.
「There are also girls who worked in brothels and go-go bars but then quit or perhaps they were fired for whatever reason, these girls also come into this store. They were former professionals, so I would say they are also pro"s.」
I could only nod my head as I continued to listen.
「They were former pros, but now they"ve washed their feet clean from the business. They got a new job and got married. However, sometimes they want money and those sorts of girls also come in here.」
Are these girls also professionals? No perhaps they aren"t….
「There are those that work normal jobs or students that want to pay for their tuition fees or just girls that want some spare money to spend.」
OL and students… I would consider them to be amateurs. No well, if they make this into a habit, they would probably turn into a professional s.e.x worker?
「There are girls who want to pay for their rent or perhaps married woman who need to urgently repay their debt.」
The auntie takes a large gulp from her gla.s.s. She drinks until it"s empty.
「Do you understand? Each person will have their own ident.i.ties and reasons for being here. From my perspective, all of these women want money as compensation and they are all professionals.」
「I see… Yes, I can agree with you.」
I was convinced. The auntie swings her gla.s.s around as if asking for another drink.
I gotcha covered, go right ahead.
Just like before I took out a silver coin and paid for the bill on the counter.
「You are a really nice man aren"t you? You"re making me fall for you.」
Uhh, thanks for the compliment…. but no thanks.
「Well since it"s come to this, I"ll tell you. There are some really vicious people that come here. They are people who come here with a criminal purpose.」
「A criminal objective?」
The auntie nods and lowers her voice.
「They bring the male out into a love hotel and then take all his valuable whilst he"s taking a shower. Additionally, so that he can"t chase her outside, they will also take his clothes and shoes.」
「That"s cruel.」
「The girls might say, I know of this really nice store and if you follow them you will get beat up in a dark alleyway. Then you will get all your possessions taken from you.」
「Fuehh」
「If they invite you into their private rooms and you follow them… It"s the worst case scenario.」
「The worst?」
「Who knows, but I"ve heard you can get sold as a slave, or just outright killed. In any case, these extreme cases are unaccounted for.」
I cover my face with my hand. I thought the public peace was quite good in this city, but after all… This area is where the night life exists within the city. The danger was right next to me all along.
「What kind of places do I need to be careful of?」
She asks me where I was staying and I answered "Swiss Ham" obediently. The auntie nods and says, that"s a good place to stay.
「If you take the girls out, be sure to not go into any other shops along the way and take her straight to your hotel. If it"s a hotel of that caliber, it"s hard to pull off any malicious acts and if you don"t have any identification papers, you can"t even enter the hotel in the first place.」
「Is there anyone that doesn"t have an identification card?」
Even someone like me with an extremely uncertain background was able to obtain one so…
「There are… People with criminal records, because the identification papers will state their previous crimes, they prefer not to have one.」
I see.
「It"s better to avoid any quickies in love hotels, alright? Also going into "her" room is absolutely dangerous. All the things I"ve said before are based on true stories after all.」
Entering a girl"s room…. These were very special words that made me long for something I could not obtain in my past life. Apart from that, for the guys that want to play around for cheap, hiring a room at a love hotel seems to be the advantageous point.
「Have any of the women ever been caught?」
The auntie shakes her head from side to side.
「The moment people start getting suspicious of a particular woman… They will just leave and never come back into the store.」
The auntie thinks for a while then continues.
「They will say anything to make you believe, things like "Oh I work as a secretary at this big business, I work at the guild or they may even bring out fake t.i.tles to make them seem more trustworthy. However they are all lies.」
「They are lies?」
There are people with their own various circ.u.mstances living here, so it"s not weird that some of them are like that.
「That"s a given. This type of thing is just the beginning, don"t think that this is strange.」
The auntie taps the counter lightly with her fingers. She seems to be astonished at my low degree of situational awareness.
「When you get the chance, why don"t you visit the park in the daytime? A man with a child at the park will call out to you.」
「Some older bro?」
The auntie nods and she tries to imitate the voice of this so called "older bro".
『I am working as one of the Knights of this country. Today"s is my day off so I came here with my kid. Are you perchance a traveler? I have a deal that can make profit for the both of us, would you like to hear it? Ehh? if you aren"t a traveler we can"t do it. Therefore….』
「That is extremely suspicious.」
Sensing how awkward it would have been, my eyebrows frown.
I know right? the auntie nods.
「You seem pretty well off, am I right about this? You seem to be staying at a pretty good place and you"ve even approached an old lady like me and you"ve lavishly treated me just to listen to my stories.」
「Yes, well I"m reasonably well off.」
「Then, I would recommend that you stick with brothels and go-go bars for the best security money can buy. This place is a place for people who want to play around for cheap prices. Because it is cheap, there is a risk involved in it as well.」
She"s comparing being in this place to with being at in other stores. From this aunties view point, this is not the kind of information you would want to divulge to a valued customer.
However, perhaps she"s come to like me?
「The woman who comes here are those who have fallen from their professional status. Not being able to find customers and not having place of employment, each of these girls have their own reasons. If you go to a proper store outside from here, the quality of women is most definitely higher.」
It"s a sound argument.
「The girls you seek, such as the semi-professionals and the amateurs are generally unskilled and they aren"t very prepared. If they lost motivation they may get sulky and just try to leave you, or if they are really cruel, they will act all innocent and claim you tried to rape them to the imperial guards.」
I"m surprised.
「That"s quite harsh. Let me guess, only the male is caught by the guards and treated like a criminal?」
Recalling the news from my former world, I felt a chill go down my spine.
「No, it won"t go that far. Even the guards aren"t that stupid. If the man says that he met her here, the guards will investigate the issue and look for witnesses here.」
「So if there is evidence of the particular woman being here, we will let them know. The guards know what kind of place this is and they are accustomed to this kind of trouble.」
I see.
「The female will be reprimanded and the male will be released. But most of the males come here to play don"t they? So this kind of trouble would definitely spoil the fun.」
Yeah, for sure that"s messed up.
「That"s why, if you have money to spare you should play in a decent place.」
I nod deeply. I took the opportunity to share my unpleasant experience in the go-go bar a little while ago.
「Those type of stores also exist.」
The auntie laughs.
「They are taught to rotate through the customers as quickly as possible by the store. If they don"t listen to what the store wants, the girls working there will get an earful from the owners. If you don"t feel like choosing the girls quickly, it would be prudent to go to a different store.」
「If they run the place like that, do customers even come to the store?」
I get indignant. However, the auntie had a dumbfounded face.
「Even if you choose to take a girl out immediately, this is not necessarily a bad thing. I dare say that their take-out fee is a lot cheaper than other stores.」
「Eh?」
「Those type of stores will have a larger amount of go-go dancing girls employed inside of the store. If they don"t get the girls outside of the store, the interior of the store will soon be flooded with dancers who don"t have any customers.」
Wow…. I"m surprised. I had no idea that was the case. I didn"t even ask them what the take-out fee was.
「Recently, there are some go-go bars which have declared bankruptcy. It"s likely that the go-go bar has absorbed the dancers from the place which has declared bankruptcy and that"s why the temporary situation of having too many go-go dancers are occurring.」
The auntie had a serious expression.
「Some of the current stores are trying to help the go-go dancers. Thinking of it purely from a business perspective, there is no need for them to hire more people. They can ignore them. Or they could hire only the popular girls and ditch the rest. Naturally, choosing this action is the wiser thing and there are many shops already doing that.」
She continues.
「However, even girls who perform badly have lives of their own. It takes time to change their way of life. Taking all this into consideration, there are shops which just hire all the good and the bad girls all into one store for a temporary time period to allow the girls to adjust.」
I also have a serious face and urge her to continue.
「I guess they may have some sort of relationship with the previously bankrupted place or it could be that the new owner of the go-go bar just has a really kind heart. At least that"s my take on it.」
I felt admiration. This has been enlightening.
Even though it"s the same situation, when you change the angle in which you see things, the perspective can change so much.
「Thank you very much Onee-san. Today has really benefitted me greatly.」
Even though it may not be much, I handed her 1 silver coin. The aunt blows a whistle and gives me a big wink.
「You really are a nice guy. Next time tell me before you come over, I will close the store and accompany you for the night.」
Uhh no please, I"ll pa.s.s on that offer… I"m sorry.
I waved to auntie and left the store.