Secret Agent Chapter 070 - Family and Brotherhood (Patreon)

“Make money?” Roxy dropped her attempts to [Allure] Zack Adder and tilted her head, confusion evident on her face.

“Yeah, with the orphanage. But I don’t know if there are rules or anything.”

Back on Earth, there had been all kinds of rules and regulations for businesses.

Like not employing child labor.

Generally.

There were exceptions here and there, but in Zack’s lifetime, he had seen society shift away from letting children work at all, even voluntarily.

But here, he had seen that children did do some work.

The children collecting stones from the range at Training Day.

The little girl running a hamburger stand on Kingsroad.

The orphanage copying posters and putting them up around town for the Rose Theater.

Scutwork, entrepreneurship, and skilled labor.

Generally, it seemed children were permitted to work here in Fortinium.

Zack had mixed feelings on the subject of child labor.

On the one hand, the extreme of child soldiers and children working in dangerous mines was not something he condoned. Nor did he think children should be deprived of an education to work.

But on the other hand, his teen years had been far harder than they needed to be as he kept getting blocked from almost every legitimate avenue of making his own money.

Nobody in the trailer park he had grown up in had any money to pay a neighbor’s kid to do chores, and nobody outside the trailer park wanted any kid from the trailer park anywhere near their homes and valuables.

If he could have had at least an after-school job…

But, that was the past.

And that had been an entirely different world than the one he lived in now.

But he still wanted to make sure he wasn’t breaking the rules with this idea, at least for the sake of the kids in the orphanage.

But Roxy shook her head.

“No, there’s not, like, rules against it. It’s just, they’re kids, you know? They can’t do all that much…”

“They do the posters for the Troupe, right?”

Roxy looked up at the ceiling and put a finger to her chin. “Well, that’s because of Sister Paula and Henrietta. They’re both good artists. But the other kids can barely do the letter-work. At most they can put up the posters around town.”

Zack explained his idea, but Roxy remained skeptical.

“You really think that’d work? I dunno…”

Zack grinned. “Well, I’ll front the money for the supplies and everything, and at worst, the kids learn their letters and maybe how to draw.”

Roxy’s skepticism increased.

“You’ll front the money? How?” She eyed his armor. “How’d you even afford that armor, anyway? Even cheap armor’s pretty expensive, and you’re not getting paid by the Theater…”

“Well, the Director said he’d pay me if I need to fill in for someone from now on, but I’m going hunting thurgenrats starting tomorrow.”

Roxy flinched and her eyes widened. “After what happened to you?!” she hissed, whispering. “You’re going out fighting again?!”

Zack nodded firmly. “Yeah. But with a party of other adventurers, and I’ve gotten some training.”

“Jack, you nearly—”

“Roxy.”

Zack’s tone was firm, and Roxy’s protests died in her throat.

“What happened the other night was extremely unusual. In a lot of ways. Nothing is completely risk free. Besides, I think this will help the orphanage.”

Roxy bit her lip, still clearly worried.

“Promise me you’ll be careful,” she demanded after hesitating.

“Of course. I promise. So will you help me get this set up?”

She sighed. “I guess I’ll help. So, St. Bella’s orphanage, to start?”

“Yeah. I’m planning to go hunting in the morning, so can you meet me there around mid-afternoon?”

“Okay.”

“Jack! Stop flirting with Roxy and come say hello!” Fyodor called from his seat in the middle of the party.

“Yeah, Jack! Stop flirting with me! Nyahahaha!” Roxy lightened up, smacked his arm, and then bounced away.

“Jack, you have the look of a proper adventurer now! Come, come, have some of the beef and tell me of your epic hunt with your trusty snake [Familiar]!” Fyodor was grinning broadly and Vlad seemed happy and relaxed, chatting with other Troupe members.

“Well, the bells woke us up…”

Zack told a sanitized version of the night’s events, glossing over his own wounds and Roxy’s appearance and giving Sienna most of the credit for clearing the orphanage of thurgenrats.

Several of the stagehands were enthused by the tale but others shook their heads. “Really, just a knife? Come on, Jack. You a bit daft?”

“Better than what Fyodor and them were doing,” another stagehand said.

Zack raised an eyebrow. “Oh?” He turned to Fyodor, who looked a bit chagrined. “What did happen down here at the docks, anyway?”

“The guards at the rivergate were overwhelmed, and the vile beasts swarmed in under cover of darkness,” Fyodor said, lending the tale a bit of dramatic flair. “Me and my brothers fought valiantly, with club and boot!”

“Boot?”

One of the stagehands mimed a punt.

“Kicking, yes, and stomping. For big men like myself and my brothers, it is a simple thing to dispose of such pests!”

Millie came up and smacked him.

“And that’s how you got bit, Fyodor.”

Instantly the man was humbled, and shrank in on himself.

“Yes, Millie.”

Millie turned her fierce gaze to Zack, and he flinched. She eyed him up and down, assessing his armor, and then she sighed.

“I’m already planning to make these two some sturdy leather boots, but you went and got your own armor already, I see.”

“Yes, Millie,” Zack replied.

“But you didn’t get a gambeson, did you?”

“A what?”

“Gambeson. You don’t even know that…” Her eyes flashed. “I’ll have to give you more training, then. It’s the padded clothing you’re supposed to wear under armor, to protect your joints between the gaps and cushion the blows.”

“Oh, I see. Thank you, Millie. In fact, thank you, everyone.” Zack dipped his head, and the mood in the room shifted a bit. “Thank you, everyone, for all the training. It’s been a lifesaver.”

The bit of knife training from Sandra had been incredibly helpful with the rats, but mainly he was talking about all the [Skills] he had joined the Troupe to learn.

[Memorize], [Makeup], [Disguise], [Voice], [Pose], [Gesture], [Acting]…

Even [Sew].

Earlier today, he had only escaped the Kingdom’s trap because of the training he had done in the weeks prior.

“Oi, knock it off.” The Director appeared, suddenly right next to Zack, and slapped him on the shoulder with a ringing smack that was far louder than it felt.

Zack really wanted to learn how to do whatever it was the Director was doing. He was clearly holding out on him with some [Skills].

“You’re ruining the mood, Jack. Yeah, yeah, you’re nothing without us and we basically saved your life and all that, but you’re a part of the Troupe. We take care of each other.”

Everyone nodded along.

“Right, sorry.”

“And don’t apologize about it!”

“Sorry.”

“Oi…” The Director glowered at him and everyone chuckled.

But then the Director turned his fierce expression to Vlad.

“And you, Vlad, why were you out fighting thurgenrats in the middle of the night?”

Vlad flinched. “Director, do we really have to do this now?” He glanced at Nerezza who was still at his side, eyeing him coolly.

“Oh, I rather think we do. I don’t want your family coming to visit me asking what happened.”

And so Vlad gave his own, also clearly sanitized, explanation of how he had come to be fighting thurgenrats that night.

“I was visiting my regular haunts in the pleasure district. Jewel and Cassandra had both invited me out for evening drinks, and I simply couldn’t say no, when…”

What followed was a tale straight out of a romantasy novel, wherein the male lead heroically protected his lover(s) from an improbable attack looking cool and powerful and strong all the while.

“They were just thurgenrats, though…” a stagehand muttered in the back.

“Wait, where did you get a rapier from, though?” Ronaldo asked, confused.

“I—”

“Family secret,” Nerezza interrupted.

“Ah, of course,” Ronaldo nodded and dropped the subject.

“Ahem, anyway, with Belle safe and secure, I once again set forth into the night, to ensure the safety of everyone present…”

Though Nerezza’s expression didn’t change, the atmosphere around her grew more and more frosty, though Vlad had become absorbed in telling his story.

He had ensured the safety of all the working women by dawn, gone home to leave a note for Jack, and then set forth once more into the red light district looking for more thurgenrats.

“My blood was up, you see. How could these foul vermin invade my very own home, threaten my very own friends? And so I returned to the fight! The rats attempted to hide from me in the shadows and the dark, but I tracked them regardless, and they yielded to every thrust of my blade…”

Nerezza pursed her lips, and her jaw was tight.

“And then, as late as one would expect from the Church, they cast their Sanctuary over the city and denied me any further vengeance against the invaders. The threat now passed, I spent the rest of the day and night consoling and reassuring my girls until Nerezza…”

He glanced over and saw his family’s maid’s expression.

Zack was fascinated to see that despite how pale Vlad was normally, he could become even more pale as the blood drained from his face.

“Ah, Nerezza, you don’t need to convey all that back to…”

“That is not for you to decide, young master.”

Vlad faltered.

“Even, even if they summon me to return, I shan’t go! The Theater is my home now, and I must remain here!”

“I rather think this goes beyond a summons, young master. You should expect a visit.”

Vlad’s eyes widened. So did the eyes of most everyone who had been listening to the tale.

The Director breathed a sigh of relief.

“Oh, good. Won’t have to change the reopening schedule.” He and Emily shared a thumbs up and a smile.

Like magic, the tension in the air was defused, and everyone relaxed. Vlad’s family predicament was mainly his own problem, though Zack did wonder if it would impact him as his roommate.

Everyone broke up into small groups to mingle, and Fyodor showed Zack the lifting equipment. It was remarkably similar to the gyms Zack had used on Earth, mainly on Army bases.

Here, such things weren’t so common.

Fyodor stood next to squat rack and smacked a hand on some of the weight plates.

“You will not find a strength training facility like this anywhere else in the Kingdom,” Fyodor bragged. “These weights are all trulloy; the great equalizer.”

“Oh?”

“Yes, yes, the trulloy remains the same weight regardless of level or magic or [Skill]. A merchant brought an entire ship-full of the metal here, once, and it was a nightmare to unload… And then nobody wanted it! Rather than pay to reload it, the merchant just left it here.”

After that, the dock workers had hired a smith to make weight training equipment: dumbbells and barbells and plates and even cable machines.

Fyodor struck a pose and flexed—a little stiffly given his injuries, but his muscles still bulged.

“Is a great secret,” he said. “Training with trulloy makes one much stronger, even more than gaining levels! The key is muscles.”

That caught Zack’s attention.

“Wait, more than gaining levels?”

Fyodor grinned like he’d just hooked a fish on a line.

“Jack, will you join our brotherhood of trulloy?”