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The arrival of the additional troops seemed to cause the crowd to go wild. Their numbers were close to a thousand, which filled the entire former market district. Women were throwing all kinds of things at the demons as well as the brothel. From the few yells I could understand, it seemed like they were accusing the demons of suppressing them, and our brothel of dehumanizing women. That was pretty funny considering their circumstances. What gave these girls such confidence?
Could they not see that they were just pawns of another demon? Well, it didn’t matter. If they weren’t his pawns, they would be my pawns. To the pawn, it didn’t matter who was leading them, as long as they had someone at their backs.
Earlier, Alleya had tried to go out to speak to them. She was accompanied by Elizabeth. I was hoping that between Elizabeth’s mood setter and Alleya’s diplomatic speech, they could quell the crowds a bit. As soon as they had appeared, the crowd exploded with rage. They very nearly got past the demons. My girls had to retreat, and they were deeply shaken. Elizabeth, in particular, with her psychic ability, seemed to be most uneased.
“Are you okay?” I asked her.
“Hate…” she spoke weakly. “I heard so many hateful things.”
“It’s jealousy.” Alleya sighed. “I experienced the same things as a princess. There was more than one riot near the end of the war when rations were growing tight. Commoners wanted to know why the nobles got to eat while they starved. This crowd is similar.”
“I don’t understand,” Elizabeth cried. “We were just like them. They could work here too.”
“When they see us, they don’t see the hard work and luck that allowed us to have more. All they see is the wealth disparity. They’d rather take that wealth away from us than do what we did to earn it.”
I agreed with Alleya. I wasn’t political in my former life, what I remembered about it, but I knew wealth disparity existed at every level, and the poor always envied the rich. Unfortunately, Elizabeth hadn’t been exposed to the darker side of humanity. I sent both women to their rooms.
I ordered the rest of the girls to stay in their bedrooms too. If they were seen again, even through the windows, it could be a disaster. Diana wasn’t happy with those orders, but it was good for her mom to focus on entertaining her rather than dwelling on unpleasant things.
Fortunately, I had a plan, and Lieutenant Dire had arrived just in time.
“I brought the money,” Lieutenant Dire said once arriving at my entrance, a worried crease on his brow.
“I see…” I waved my hand over the chest, and all the money disappeared, causing the guards to let out cries of surprise.
The coins were now in my store inventory. It was a simple trick. Just like items I purchased in the store, I could pull items in and out. I also found that in the case of disposables, if I returned empty bottles I could ‘fill’ them for a cheaper fee than buying a brand new one. It wasn’t a particularly large saving, but every drake counted.
“I knew you had some tricks up your sleeve.” Dire looked at the empty chest. “Every demon has something that made him worth being birthed by the queen.”
Well, I wasn’t birthed by their queen. It was probably good she was dead then. She might have realized I didn’t belong among the other demons.
“Let’s go.” I headed out the door.
“Ah! Wh-where?” He and his soldiers hastily followed after me.
I headed to the side, and their soldiers struggled to push back the crowds until I could get in front of the neighboring building. A few demons randomly stayed here from time to time, but it wasn’t officially owned by anyone and was currently vacant. Ownership of demons was nebulous. You fought for what you kept, and the only thing keeping it yours and not theirs was strength. The demons had established some rules emulating humanity, but they were still in their infancy and had yet to develop to the level of humans who had spent countless years pushing the limits.
Most demons who had the strength to secure a property would take one of the nicer properties on the better side of town. In general, demons wouldn’t steal from each other. It wasn’t in their nature. Humans and other species were different because they were inferior. They also felt that a demon who put work into something deserved the fruits of their labor. Since I had seemingly done much to renovate the Watering Hole, my ownership was acknowledged and if someone tried to take it, it would create problems.
Even if Sal used his resources to try to force me out, those he hired would have to use pure physical strength since magic couldn’t be cast and would need to be able to overwhelm Charrack and the increasingly stronger princess. At that point, even if Dire didn’t step in, a few dozen fanboys who happened to adore the girls and didn’t want to see a disruption in their services would. I also had set up a few precautions of my own. Let’s just say that in a world of demons, I had become an advocate for the Second Amendment, although I’d only pull that card if there was no other choice.
Lieutenant Dire and his men still didn’t understand what I intended to do, but I touched the glowing icon in front of the door, and the price came up again. I took a breath. A thousand dragons were nearly a month of income for the Watering Hole in its current form. This wasn’t including the expenses such as alcohol, food, and hygiene products. Suffice it to say, I couldn’t throw that kind of money around without thinking about it, certainly not when half of it was borrowed.
[At your current level, you can own three properties.]
[You have 1/3 properties.]
[The following property is worth 1000 dragons.]
[Would you like to buy this property?]
I selected [Yes] once again. This time, a thousand dragons left my income and another tab appeared under housing. I opened it up, and there was the layout of this house. It was a two-story home already. This entire district had been the merchant district, so the bottom floor was constructed as a shop, and the top was a living area.
I played around with it a bit. I knew I was getting strange expressions from the soldiers. I was just standing there staring blindly while poking the air. My girls had grown used to this though and wouldn’t have noticed, but they were still inside. The women rioting were angry at the demons, but they were even angrier at the girls who participated. Dire might not be able to keep the mob back if the girls made an appearance.
Oh, I see… I can connect these buildings.
As it was, there was no ally between the buildings. After my last expansion, the entire lot had been used as the walls were pressed up against each other. This allowed me to create entrances between the two buildings. After considering things for a bit, I began. I found I could move parts from my building over to the new building. The girls were inside, but since they were restricted to their bedrooms, I wasn’t worried about my rearrangements affecting them.
All in all, it took about thirty minutes as my remaining hundred dragons quickly disappeared. This also seemed to be the point and time that Lieutenant Dire had lost his patience.
“What are you doing?” He asked, eyeing the increasingly dangerous crowd as they pushed in on his soldiers.
I closed the menu, sighing at the handful of dragons I had remaining. “I’m done, shall we?”
I gestured into the building. He frowned, but he didn’t stop me from walking in, and he followed after. There were two doors. I took him through the side one. As soon as we entered the main room, he gasped. What had been an abandoned building filled with broken furniture had seemingly become an ornate dining room with lighting, tables, and seating.
I based the design on a fast-food restaurant. I was also able to scavenge a lot of what was already there. Thankfully, this place had been a restaurant at one point, and everything inside it became controllable by my inventory once I bought it, so I was able to pick it all up and even repair some damaged furniture using the building menu.
“You must have spent months in secret on this.” Lieutenant Dire’s mouth hung open.
I coughed. “Yeah, something like that.”
“What is it for, though?” He asked. “I mean, it’s an eatery, but doesn’t your building already have a bar and tables? Would it be so hard to sell food there?”
“This isn’t an eatery for demons. This is an eatery for humans,” I explained.
“Really?” He perked up.
“I call it… a soup kitchen,” I responded.