"What's the situation inside?"
In the corridor outside the private room, the Superintendent General summoned a waiter carrying a bottle of liquor and asked.
"That gentleman has drunk enough for twenty people, eaten enough for twenty people, and he's flirting with twenty hostesses at once!"
Naturally, the club's waiters had already been replaced with Metropolitan Police Department personnel.
If the Metropolitan Police Department had been able to find that many young, beautiful female civil servants on short notice, even the hostesses might have been replaced.
"This liquor tastes wonderful! Hahahahaha, bring me more!"
"Let this sage read your palm. Young lady, your hands are so fair. So fair and big. Hehehehe."
Even outside the room, they could faintly hear his wild, unrestrained laughter. The Superintendent General and the dignitaries behind him wore varying expressions.
The corners of the Superintendent General's mouth twitched several times despite himself, his expression rather peculiar.
He had already learned from Mineko Yuki's report that Jiraiya, the Toad Sage, was a lecher.
But this picture of indulgence in drink, lust, wealth, and every vice still came as a shock, worlds apart from the legendary image of sages and Buddhas free of worldly desires.
"Has he still not had his fill?"
The Superintendent General frowned and sighed.
"It's only food, drink, and women. If we can keep Lord Jiraiya happy, what would it matter if we spent ten or a hundred times as much?" the governor of Tokyo Metropolis said dismissively.
The other powerful figures wholeheartedly agreed.
"Exactly! Superintendent General, these hostesses are serving the greater good!"
"It's their good fortune to be able to attend to a sage!"
To the Government of Japan, a worldly man like Jiraiya, who enjoyed liquor and women, was certainly easier to win over and buy off than an upright, incorruptible