"Cough, cough, no need, I already said I don't mind."
But even as she said that, King's hands, clasped behind her back, were already rubbing hard against each other behind her hips. Her eyes also turned toward the sink. If possible, she would've rather just washed her hands, but that felt a little disrespectful.
Seeing King's awkward expression, Aiden shook his head. "I'll wait for you at the bar."
After saying that, he walked past her and left.
The moment he stepped out, the sound of running water came from behind him.
'Women!'
Aiden sighed inwardly…
However, just as he reached the narrow passageway leading from the restroom to the bar, he heard a scream, and a large, muscular black man came crashing down heavily right at his feet.
'A drunken brawl?'
That was Aiden's first thought, but he quickly realized that wasn't the case.
As he looked up toward the bar, he saw that dozens of people had suddenly appeared inside. Every one of them was built like a tank. About half surrounded the small stage where the singer performed, while the rest had spread out through the bar, keeping the customers and staff under control.
'Looks like someone came to stir up trouble.'
Aiden turned to glance behind him. King still hadn't come out, probably taking forever washing her hands. 'Clean freak, huh?'
Thinking that, Aiden walked out of the passageway, ignoring the thugs moving toward him like attack dogs, and looked toward the stage where Shermie stood, holding half a broken guitar in her hand.
"Need help?" he called out loudly.
"Not for now," the eighteen-year-old girl answered, her sweet voice carrying a teasing tone.
"Alright then, I'll go keep drinking. If you need help, just holler." Aiden waved at Shermie and walked straight to the bar, speaking to the bartender, who looked terrified and hunched like a frightened quail. "Another vodka, please."
"O-okay…" The bartender looked dazed, wondering if this man even realized what was going on, but still nervously poured him a glass of vodka.
In fact, not just the bartender, everyone in the bar looked just as stunned, especially Shermie, who stared blankly at Aiden.
Those goons were nothing but small fry to her, and she'd only said that earlier to be polite, but wasn't this guy being a little too unchivalrous?
She thought angrily to herself.
No matter how many times she had been reincarnated, right now she was still just an eighteen-year-old girl.
By this time, the bartender had placed a fresh glass of vodka with ice in front of Aiden.
Just as Aiden reached for it, a thug suddenly yelled, "Hey punk, are you looking down on us?!"
As he spoke, the thug threw a punch straight toward Aiden's head, the huge fist even whistled through the air.
In this world, anyone who practiced martial arts had physical strength far beyond that of an ordinary person.
But Aiden merely tilted his head slightly, and the punch missed, grazing past his ear and slamming hard into the bar counter, smashing a deep hole into the solid wood. The bartender behind the counter jumped back in fright.
Seeing he had missed, the thug wasn't discouraged, nor did he care. A fighter from South Town was no stranger to blood. Without hesitation, he grabbed a barstool from the floor and swung it down toward Aiden.
'Heh, let's see you dodge this!'
However, just as he raised the stool, a figure appeared beside Aiden and kicked the thug away with a single strike.
It was King, who had just finished washing her hands.
Seeing her "sponsor" being attacked, she didn't hesitate at all.
The power behind her kick was astonishing. The thug flew more than ten meters through the air, knocking over a row of tables, then skidding another seven or eight meters along the floor before stopping.
Ignoring the other thugs around, King anxiously asked Aiden, "Are you okay?" She still didn't know his name yet, so she could only refer to him as "you."
"I'm fine."
Aiden shook his head. He had almost fought back himself, but hadn't expected King to move so quickly. The distance from the passage to the bar was at least ten meters, but she had crossed it in a blink.
The fighters in this world were really strong.
"As long as you're fine." King sighed in relief. She had already decided that Aiden was her "sponsor," and as someone short on money, she couldn't afford to let him get hurt.
Then she stepped in front of him, facing the dozens of thugs. "The last beating wasn't enough? Here to cause trouble again? You small fry can come as many as you want, it's useless. Why don't you tell your boss Geese to come here himself?"
"Heh, to deal with you, does Boss Geese even need to show up personally? Aren't you overestimating yourself, King?"
As soon as King finished speaking, a mocking voice came from a dark corner of the bar. Everyone turned to look, and a burly man wearing a red-and-white headband and holding a long staff walked out of the shadows.
"Billy Kane."
Seeing him, King's brows furrowed immediately.
With her strength, handling those small fries was no problem, but Billy, Geese's number-one enforcer, was at least as strong as her, if not stronger.
'This is going to be tricky," King thought. 'And if we fight inside the bar… damn it, I'm probably going to lose this place.'
Against the thugs, she could minimize the damage, but if she fought Billy, another martial artist, forget minimizing losses; it'd be a miracle if the entire building stayed standing.
"Looks like you're scared, King."
Billy had already walked up to her, calling her by her South Town alias, glancing around the place as he spoke. "Looks exactly like your bar back in South Town. Must've cost you quite a bit of effort, huh?"
King didn't reply, just stared at him coldly.
Billy didn't care about her glare. He'd seen that look countless times, and in the end, everyone who looked at him like that ended up bowing beneath his staff.
With a careless grin, Billy continued, "King, I heard you've been short on cash lately. Something about your brother being sick, right? Let's say, just say, if this bar gets destroyed, would you still have the money to start over?"
"What does that have to do with you?" King replied coldly.
"Nothing to do with me, sure, but everything to do with you. Your brother's illness costs a lot, doesn't it?" Billy shrugged, then glanced briefly at Aiden, who was quietly sipping his drink, before turning back to King.
"Out of respect for our past cooperation, King, come back to South Town. Boss Geese needs your skills. If you come back, he'll pay for your brother's treatment."
"Dream on!" King gritted her teeth. Of course she knew Geese would pay for her brother's treatment if she went back, but then she'd be nothing more than his dog for the rest of her life.
"Hmph. In that case, guess I'll have to make you suffer a little, King. I really wonder, without your bar, without money, how will you save your brother?"
As he spoke, Billy pointed his staff at her nose, then gave the order, "Get them!"
Immediately, all the thugs in the bar moved at once.
Nearly half of them went for Shermie, after all, she had injured one of their comrades earlier with a guitar, and they were eager to "teach her a lesson." Not to mention, with her gorgeous looks and figure, these scumbags clearly wanted to take advantage of the chaos.
The rest split into small groups, some beating customers and staff, while others charged toward King.
"Miss King, do you need help?" Aiden called out casually.
He still hadn't moved. Instead, he glanced at the bar's entrance, suspecting Billy wasn't the only strong fighter here tonight.
But King didn't have the time to respond, because the moment Billy gave the order, she was already locked in combat with him. Fighting barehanded against someone wielding a weapon, she was at a disadvantage.
Sighing, Aiden set his glass on the counter, grabbed a bat swung at him, and punched. The bat snapped in half, and the thug holding it was sent flying.
He hadn't switched to any "class." He was just using his own strength, and that was more than enough. With a body far stronger than normal and multiple martial arts techniques under his belt, to everyone else he might as well have been a superhuman.
Come to think of it, ever since leaving the Resident Evil/Black Lagoon world, Aiden had almost always fought enemies after activating his classes.
Mostly because his later opponents kept getting stronger, angels, gods, demons, even the weakest of them were bio-mechanical beings. It had been a long time since he'd fought anyone as a "normal" human.
But even in his normal state, dealing with a bunch of thugs was child's play. Or rather, pure domination. Even though these goons had practiced some fighting techniques and had physical strength comparable to championship-level fighters in his own world, in front of him, they were like children being knocked aside one punch at a time.
In no time, the bar was filled with crashing and screaming, tables overturning, people flying, furniture splintering everywhere.
More than half the bar's furnishings were already destroyed. Even the liquor bottles behind the counter shattered when Shermie threw a thug into the shelf, filling the whole place with a heavy scent of alcohol.
King saw all of this, but she didn't have the luxury to care. As long as the building itself didn't collapse, she could handle the losses later. For now, she had to focus on blocking Billy's attacks.
And so,
Snake Bite.
Tornado Kick.
One move after another.
Neither of them used ki in the fight, perhaps afraid of making too much noise, but even so, King's fierce leg strikes were wreaking havoc.
The floor split open with every gust of wind her kicks created, and each time she lifted or dropped her leg, the specially laid wooden floorboards cracked and splintered beneath her feet.
But truthfully, with every strike she made, her heart bled a little. Under her breath, she kept muttering, "There goes a hundred euros… there goes two hundred…"
[🎉 Shoutout to Avish, Gaster, Manuel, Rohan & Baron for joining p@treon. Thank you very much.🤗]