Misunderstanding

"Ahh~"

Hiruma rubbed his full stomach and let out a contented murmur. He glanced out the window, thinking it was about time to find somewhere to sleep.

After leaving the restaurant, he strolled toward the city district. But before he had gone more than a dozen meters, he noticed someone following him.

So, after taking a few winding turns, Hiruma circled back into the slums. It would be inconvenient to make a move in the city district, and he wanted to see who was staying up in the middle of the night just to tail someone.

Genya Shinazugawa watched Hiruma walk into a dead-end alley with a puzzled expression. He had not expected this fat sheep to be such an idiot—getting lost right where he wanted him.

"Huh?"

"Where am I?"

Hiruma scratched his head and sighed in confusion. What he was really thinking was, Why hasn't this guy made his move yet? I'm starting to want to beat him up.

Genya Shinazugawa looked around, cautiously picked up a brick from the ground, weighed it in his hand a few times, then confidently walked into the alley.

He had lost to that little brat at home because he had been drunk. Things were different now. He had sobered up, and he felt like he could take on ten little punks.

"Kid, lend me some money to spend!"

Seeing that he was not a demon, Hiruma immediately lost interest and felt deeply disappointed.

"Brat, don't force me to do this. I don't feel like killing anyone today!" Genya Shinazugawa snarled when the other party did not react.

Hiruma put on a frightened expression, let out a few extremely perfunctory screams, then said:

"Oh no!"

"Someone's robbing me! I'm so scared!"

"Won't somebody save me?"

Genya Shinazugawa: (?_? )

Fuck, this brat was messing with him, wasn't he?!

"You forced me to do this! I'll beat you to death!"

Unaware of how terrifying the person before him was, Genya Shinazugawa charged forward with the brick. A moment later, the screams in the dead-end alley gradually died down.

Hiruma sat with one leg crossed over the other, while the battered and bruised Genya Shinazugawa served as a cushion beneath him.

He kowtowed as he humbly begged for mercy. "Little brother, please spare me!"

"I was blinded by greed for a moment. It was all my fault. Please, stop hitting me!"

"Oh, right, right! I still have several daughters at home, and they're quite pretty. If you want—"

Before he could finish, Hiruma swung down with a resounding slap and snapped irritably:

"Are you even human?"

"No, no, I'm not human. Whatever you say, sir!" Rather than getting angry, Genya Shinazugawa smiled obsequiously, wagging his tail like a lapdog. He had not expected this kid to be so damn fierce, so he could only admit defeat.

After a while, Hiruma suddenly realized something. He kept feeling that this man looked somewhat familiar.

He lowered his head, grabbed the man by the hair, and lifted his face. "What's your name?"

"This big brother, my name is Shinazugawa—"

Before the man could finish, Hiruma's eyes lit up. Shinazugawa, Shinazugawa... wasn't that the surname of the future Wind Pillar?

"Hahaha, excellent!"

"Excellent!" He laughed nonstop and continued asking, "You have a son named Sanemi Shinazugawa, right?"

Genya Shinazugawa looked utterly bewildered. How did this guy know that little bastard's name?

No, if he knew, then he must have investigated in advance. That meant he definitely liked boys.

After all, wealthy and powerful people tended to have all sorts of tastes. Sometimes little boys even cost more than little girls.

In Genya Shinazugawa's eyes, Hiruma was one of those rich people with particularly wild tastes.

"If you like them, I have plenty of sons too, sir!" He looked at Hiruma ingratiatingly, forcing an incredibly ugly smile onto his bruised and swollen face.

Hiruma: "???"

"What the hell?"

"That's not what I mean! You sell your daughters, and now you're selling your sons too?"

"Bastard!"

In a fit of rage, he kicked Genya Shinazugawa flying. Who knew that bastard would pass out on the spot?

"Fuck!"

"I haven't even asked where your house is yet!"

Slaps, cold water splashed on his face...

Hiruma used every method he could think of. He waited until the middle of the night, but the guy still did not wake up, sleeping like a dead pig. Left with no choice, he simply stopped bothering.

Anyway, he had already gotten useful information. The Shinazugawa family had to be somewhere in these slums. He could just ask around later.

Early the next morning, Hiruma spent some money asking people in the slums for the Shinazugawa family's address.

Here, money was more useful than it was outside. Finding a person or place was incredibly easy.

"Sanemi, stop picking through trash!"

"Someone paid to ask where your house is! He's heading there right now!"

A little beggar suddenly stopped Sanemi, who was pulling a cart, and said breathlessly. Sanemi had helped him before, and he had happened to see Hiruma paying for directions.

In a place like the slums, where law and order were nonexistent, anyone paying to ask for directions could only be there to collect a debt or kill someone.

At those words, Sanemi's hair practically stood on end. He grabbed the little beggar, raising his voice. "What did you say?!"

"Hurry home! He's probably a debt collector!"

"Genya, watch the cart!"

Sanemi turned to give the instruction, then clenched his fists and rushed off. He did not even need to think about it—it had to be money that his bastard father owed, and the debt collector had come to their door.

"Sanemi, that debt collector has red hair," the little beggar reminded him from behind. "Don't mistake him for someone else."

"Got it!" Sanemi gritted his teeth, his anger nearly exploding. That bastard had better not hurt his family.

In truth, he was even more worried, because their mother was not home. Only his younger brothers and sisters were there.

When Sanemi hurried home, he happened to see the red-haired debt collector the little beggar had mentioned.

At that moment, Hiruma wore a smile as he held a bag of snacks, handing them out to Sanemi Shinazugawa's younger brothers and sisters.

But in Sanemi's eyes, that warm scene was a debt collector handing poisoned food to his siblings, planning to threaten the family with their lives for money afterward—or refuse to provide the antidote.

It was not that Sanemi had a persecution complex. The rules of the slums were simply that cruel.

"You bastard, stay away from my family!"

Sanemi roared and charged at Hiruma like a raging bull, his fist carrying a fierce gust of wind as it smashed into Hiruma's face.

But to Hiruma, that attack was no different from a tickle.

A baffled Hiruma sat up while covering his face. "Sanemi, why did you hit me?"

Hiruma knew many things about Sanemi Shinazugawa, so naturally, he had not guarded against him. But he had overlooked one thing: Sanemi did not know him at all.

Sanemi tilted his head, thinking that this guy had even found out his name. There was no way he was anything but a debt collector.

"I'm hitting you!"

Hiruma: "???"

Before he could explain, Sanemi charged over again, swinging his fists. Hiruma had no choice but to dodge. As far as fighting skills went, even a hundred Sanemis would not be enough to matter, but he did not want to hit him.

"Is there some kind of misunderstanding here?" he asked while dodging.

"Did you pay people to ask where my house was?"

"I did. This place is like a maze, after all. Besides, I can afford it. It'll be reimbursed as an expense anyway."

"Then that settles it. You're carrying a sword—what else could you be but a debt collector?"

"I'm not!"

"You are!"

Sanemi had already made up his mind, and now that his temper had flared, he decided to beat Hiruma up first and talk later.