Now that I think about it, Lorraine was the only fixer I ever met at Violet Fox.
Actually, when asked if Lorraine was okay as a senior, she wasn't like that at all.
“What, why?”
Perhaps sensing Osian's gaze, Lorraine overreacted.
Osian shook his head as if it was nothing and turned to Roland.
"So, do I have to say hello when we meet?"
"Probably not necessary."
Ronan smiled, a little embarrassed, but Osian didn't ask why.
It didn't take long to realize why as a crashing sound was heard from the stairs on the second floor, and soon a person appeared through the stairs.
"Is that you, the big new guy who just moved in?"His voice is deafeningly loud and feral.
Osian looked at the other person, seeing amber eyes staring back at him.
He was a handsome young man with a fairly sturdy build.
His skin was brown. It seemed to be a natural color, not tanned from years of living outdoors.
His hair was darker than his skin, with a slight brownish tinge that distinguished him from the black-haired Osian.
His fangs peeked out from between his white teeth, adding to his ferocity.
And there was one thing that caught Osian’s eye: the boots on his legs, which were old and scuffed, but looked like they were well-worn.
"I've heard rumors, you kicked the crap out of that Blood Brotherhood guy, you must be pretty strong!"
He said, and pointed a finger at Osian.
"Let's have a bout!"
"......."
Osian looked back at Ronan as if to say, "What the hell is this?”
Ronan sighed and shook his head, as if he'd seen this coming.
"Hey! Can't you hear me? Let's see who's stronger!"
"Mr. Diolan?"
Ronan turned to the brown-skinned man, Diolan, with a wry smile.
"I hope you'll be polite at first, or I'll be in trouble."
Diolan cringed at the strange pressure emanating from that smile.
"You'll be quiet, won't you?"
"No, that's......."
"Oh, no. Perhaps I didn't make myself clear enough, Mr. Diolan. I'm begging you."
The words were a request, but it didn't sound like it.
The man who was acting like a wild wolf just a moment ago shrank like a puppy in an instant.
“Hehe. thank you As expected, I communicate well with Mr. Diolan.”
Talking? Not threatening?
As Osian stared at the scene in disbelief, Lorraine explained further.
"This is Diolan here, a fixer for Violet Fox and a pretty big name in the business. He got in here before me."
"He was your senior?"
"Yeah. You don't think so, do you? Because as you can see, this guy's a total bully, and he never has a quiet day."
"No. When did I.......?"
Diolan opened his mouth to argue in frustration, but fell silent when Ronan glared at him again.
Lorraine should have been more senior than him, but he'd been working here for a long time.
‘But I can tell by the way he’s built that he doesn't have a normal training regimen. He doesn't seem to have any weapons, and he doesn't use guns?’
There are so many things lurking in this city: wizards, warlocks, mutants, and sub-races.
It's hard to tell how someone fights just by looking at them.
If it looks like that, it could be a mage.
"Let me get this straight, is it true that you managed to defeat the Blood Brotherhood guy?"
Diolan stared at Osian, his amber eyes shining.
His amber eyes glowed, and his gaze was filled with a sense of triumph for the strong.
It was something Osian sensed since he'd first challenged him to a fight, but it was clear that he had a very belligerent streak.
"You're not wrong. I defeated him, but he got away."
"That's pretty impressive, and you did it with a sword! Did you use some kind of special artifact?"
"Just an ordinary sword."
As if to prove it, Osian drew the sword from his waistband.
Diolan's expression, filled with anticipation, was quickly replaced by disbelief.
"Is it broken?"
"Broken, yes. The fight took its toll."
An ordinary iron sword, really?
Diolan stared at the broken sword in disbelief, then clicked his tongue in disappointment.
"Shame about the weapon!"
Diolan exclaimed curiously, not wanting to appear weak at first.
Ronan glared at him from the side and he froze.
"......I was just kidding."
Ronan was no ordinary man, even in Osian's eyes.
Isn't this the image of a traitor who may suddenly stab you in the back?
The fixers gathered in Ronan’s office.
At this point, he was even curious to see how strange the other fixers were.
"Why don't we all take a seat?"
Ronan casually changed the subject and the four of them sat down at the round table.
Diolan joined them, casually.
"So, what exactly happened?"
Ronan has already heard the news, but he knows it's still not as good as hearing it from the man himself.
Osian tells him what happened to him that day.
He was in the middle of taking down the gangs when Daver attacked, using the Tesla Arms he had stolen from the military.
"Tesla Arms."
At that point, Ronan was honestly surprised.
"What is that?"
Diolan interrupted but his face showed that he really didn't know.
Lorraine narrowed her eyes.
"It's a special-grade prosthetic hand created by a joint venture between the corporations and the military. It uses refined ether water as a raw material and is infused with magic, allowing an individual to unleash the power of a battalion."
"It was rumored to be in the works, but I'm surprised it was ever completed. Apparently it was taken away during final testing."
Such a precious thing, stolen by terrorists.
Of course, the Blood Brotherhood were no ordinary terrorists.
Worse than that, Osian had taken down such a Daver.
"How on earth did you do it?"
"I just swung my sword."
"You said it glowed, can you still show us?"
"I'm afraid not."
The starlight was pulled out in that moment of desperation.
It was his first time using it, so he couldn't just pull it out whenever he wanted yet.
Lorraine stuck her tongue out in frustration and Ronan, too, looked troubled.
"The Blood Brotherhood has gotten involved. This is disturbing."
"Is there a problem?"
"I'd be lying if I said there wasn't. They're pretty well organized, with Brotherhood in their name. Now that you've messed with their youngest, I'm sure his older siblings will want to rip you apart and feed you to the dogs."
"That's a noble way of putting it. Do you think they'll be that aggressive?"
"Siblings bicker with each other every day, but when a younger sibling gets beaten up outside, they're more furious than anyone else."
The words hit him like a ton of bricks as Osian remembered Daver's skill.
He was obviously a great wizard, capable of performing 4-star magic without difficulty…to think that he was the youngest member of an organization.
He couldn't imagine how powerful the leader of the Brotherhood would be.
‘This is going to take more than just starlight.’
He didn't mean to be lazy, but he had one more reason to open the rest of the talents quickly now.
"Still, I don't think the Brotherhood will make any moves right away and this will be noticed by the city of Tirna, so even if they do, they won't be moving quickly, and the military will be gritting their teeth to find them."
"That's a good thing."
"I'd like to offer my belated congratulations, I'm glad you were able to pull this off."
Of course, the original intent of the group assignment had been blown out of proportion.
The opponents weren't gangs, and parts of the power plant had been destroyed in whatever war they were fighting.
Quite a few mercenaries died along the way.
Still, we managed to secure the core facility, and in the end, we were able to retake the power plant.
Osian, of course, was the biggest player there.
"Mr. Osian's reputation has risen considerably after this."
"Has it?"
"Not yet in Tirna as a whole, but in this part of the industry, it's already hot, and I'm sure other names will start to take notice."
Of course, even the best in the business are only the best in the business.
They do all sorts of things, but in the grand scheme of things, they're still just a minor player in the city.
Even if you're a major player in a minor league, you're still going to be judged more harshly than a minor player in a major league.
That's not to say that fixers have a weak reputation.
On the contrary, it meant that there were many powerful people in this city.
"It won't be a good thing, though. It's a competitive industry, and most of them won't welcome your arrival, and some of them will probably try to crush you before you get too far."
Ronan's expression didn't change.
It was easy for him to say it was someone else's business.
"Trample."
Osian muttered the word, and his eyes met Diolan's.
It was a mere coincidence, but Diolan didn't seem to feel it.
"No, I don't do that, do I?"
Apparently, he remembered his earlier challenge to fight.
A surprisingly timid response, compared to his belligerence just moments ago.
Osian looked back at Ronan and asked.
"So, what, are we going to be attacked along the way?"
"Not unlikely."
Huh? Really?
Osian asked, and Ronan explained.
"There are a lot of people here who will do anything to eliminate their competition."
"That's pretty bloody."
"But they won't touch us right now, because our office is gray-level."
"Gray-level?"
Another word I'd never heard before.
Osian asked what it was, and Ronan explained.
"The fixer industry is so vast that it stretches all over the city. To control it, the Brokerage Alliance was created, and under it, the fixer offices were given their own grades."
"The gray color is also a rating given by the Brokerage Alliance?"
"Yes. Because there's a lot of different things that fixers do, and we need to categorize them."
There are three main categories of fixer offices: black, white and gray.
"The white ones are the ones that do honest, legitimate work, like finding people, gathering information, or helping the city with its business."
"And the blacks are the opposite, then."
"Exactly, they do the opposite, they do the dirty, illegal stuff. They're not much different from gangs, in fact, they're just as dangerous, if not more so."
"So grays are......."
"They're both, they don't lean one way or the other, and they don't discriminate in their referrals."
But there aren't that many gray offices.
They do everything, but the moment they lean one way or the other, they become white or black.
Being white doesn't mean you're not doing bad things and being black doesn't mean you're not doing legal things.
It's all a matter of degree.
The gray office, in a sense, was almost a special title that could only be earned by a place that balanced both.
"I see, that's why they're doing so well in the minority."
If you're doing both legal and illegal work, you're going to have a lot of competition around you.
And yet, Violet Fox is doing just fine.
That's thanks to the resourcefulness of the firm's owner, Ronan Rolland.
Beyond that, the skill of his fixers is nothing to sneeze at.
If it rolled in the minority, it was a sign of strength.
"In any case, you've made quite a bit of money on this one, so congratulations again."
"Thank you."
"So what are you going to do with it now? It's a lot of money, but you can't keep it all the time, so you might as well take it to the bank."
"So you have a bank you recommend."
"Yes."
“You even took a fee for introducing me.”
Ronan shrugged but I had no intention of blaming him. In the first place, being a broker was a profession that made money through such things.
"First things first."
Osian patted the scabbard at his side.
“I need a new weapon.”