I Own a Brothel in Another World

Chapter 262 – Social Nuisance to the Next Level

I throw a quick look around us. “Well, I’m in for some more mischief, but…”

“But?” Cecil glances at me curiously.

“Doing the wrong thing could ruin the overall result. It would be best if they didn’t think this was sabotage from the start and had to consider things over for a bit. I feel like messing with this one shipment shouldn’t be too much, but I’m not sure what else we can affect afterwards.”

“I get it.” She nods, a sinister smile growing on her sharp lips. “That’s why, we don’t have to limit ourselves only to the goods. There are a few ideas at the top of my head that might still work without alerting the workers, but they will also be much less perceptible when they are troubled themselves.”

“I’m not sure I like where this is going.” I squint at her.

My partner in crime raises her hands in a calming gesture. “I promise no one is going to be harmed. Maybe a little inconvenienced. Save maybe for those who are in on this war, right? Like the main administrator of the warehouse or other supervisors. As long as we confirm their part in this.”

“I’ll decide to trust you on this.” A small sigh escapes me as I cross my arms over my chest. “What’s the plan?”

“I swear you won’t regret it.” Excitement and some part of resolve adorn her gorgeous visage. “You can rely on me. I might not look like it, but I’m well-versed in clan internal structures. And, naturally, in general Dwarf work customs. Therefore, we can change a thing or two that will make the employees here a tad unhappy with their working environment. That should lead to suspicion, but not of the kind that you are imagining.”

“What kind then?” I ask.

“I don’t know how it is for Humans in this age, but we Dwarves don’t love each other that much. Especially in low-standing positions like these. It’s a race to the top, and there are no rules as long as you aren’t caught. So, messing with your coworkers is a common tactic,” Cecil explains, growing more and more joyful as her mind swirls with ideas. “We can make it so that everyone suspects everyone, which will create a toxic environment that might lead to mistakes, intentional or not, and thus issues for the family owning this warehouse. Our actions will be harder to distinguish from this internal conflict and lead to more chaos.”

Rubbing my chin, I keep gazing down at this devious lady. It sounds like she has some pent-up frustrations to offload onto her kin. And she is most likely the one with the greatest knowledge of how things work in this community between the two of us.

“Alright.” I let my arms drop. “But you gotta explain to me what we are doing so that I understand the ramifications of these social crimes, got it?”

She smacks herself in the chest with her fist. “You have my word!”

“Good.” I nod at her with a smile. “The lead is yours. What’s first on the list, Boss?”

The rough heiress rubs her palms together. “We can still squeeze more juice out of this storage hall. Let’s get back to that clipboard. I have an inkling of an idea.”

And so, we navigate the shelves to the hanging registry. Cecil takes it down and flips through it while scanning the entries and the recorded information. I simply glance at the pages over her shoulder, letting her cook up a decent prank. Okay, maybe more like over her head considering our heights. It’s an interesting angle for sure.

“Perfect!” She finds something after a minute, looking straight up into my eyes. “How strong are you exactly?”

“Strong as in…?” I raise a brow at her.

“Pure muscles,” my companion answers. “Lifting, moving, and so on.”

“Well… I’m certainly at the peak of humanity, that’s for sure…” I consider how much to reveal here. “But there’s more. Let’s just say that there’s almost nothing I couldn’t lift if I put my entire will into it. To a fairly realistic degree, of course.”

“Follow me, then.” Cecil waves at me, already moving away. “This will put your words to a test. I’m not certain if the two of us can manage this, but it would be an amazing start.”

Wondering what she’s on about, I hastily follow the almost trotting girl as she zooms through the warehouse while searching for something. We stop by a huge wooden crate. And I do mean huge. This thing is the size of a decently spacious living room, standing taller than me. There are multiple big words painted on the wooden panels which I soon recognize as markings that convey which side is up.

That’s enough for me to figure out what’s the goal here.

“You want me to flip this, don’t you?” I smirk lightly.

“Got it in one.” She spins around to face me, patting the package enthusiastically. “These things open from only one side, that’s why there’s so much writing all over them. Sure, you can disassemble the whole crate part by part, but it’s not designed to be treated this way, so there’s a high chance of the contents just spilling out and getting damaged. It’s a pain in the ass when someone puts these big boys down the wrong way.”

“I can imagine.” Shaking my head in amusement, I get closer to the upcoming crime scene.

“We’ll do a few that I selected from the shipment list. I think I can make it look deliberate but with an attempt to mask the intent. Targeting specific ones should at a certain point direct those who will investigate this towards a single worker. The investigators will be furious for the fucked up job, and that person will be furious for being falsely accused. Hopefully, he has some beef with another loader and it will spark a nice friendly conflict.” Cecil lives through the entire episode in just a few seconds. “So, do you think we can manage it without damaging the packaging too much?”

I examine the long and wide box. At first glance, there’s no way a single Human and Dwarf can lift this thing up. Or even push it a bit. Some powerful abilities might come into play, but if she had any in store that would be of help, she wouldn’t need to inquire about my physical prowess.

As for me, I could technically call for the Oreads, who should consider this nothing more than a child’s play. Otherwise, this might seem close to impossible, even with all my stats combined. That is if I stay true to what I said about the peak of Human capabilities. The question is, how much do I want to further show off?

Since it seems that the two of us are already on a collision course since the argument in the tent, I might as well go all in.

“Step back. I need space to manoeuvre.” I roll up my sleeves for dramatic effect.

Cecil’s eyes widen in shock as she sees me size up the corner of the room-sized crate, then quickly sprints to the nearest standing shelf, observing me intently. I crouch close to the ground, crack my neck, and prepare myself for some heavy lifting. But, by no means I’m going to try and hoist such a monster with even just Primordial prowess. Oh, no, this will require a tiny bit more.

It’s time to attempt dipping into some more potent reserves.

Mentally probing my inner self, I give my soul a brief look. There’s no doubt that it has grown considerably in recent months. Going from being unable to comprehend the Goddess’ true form to sneaking in a kiss can be considered some progress. In fact, it might be considered enough progress to use a little bit of that special demigod juice without going full Avatar mode.

And it succeeds.

Making sure that my face is directed away from the audience, just in case my eyes start glowing or radiating some weird unexplainable light, I flood my body with hot energy. It feels like all the physical limiters of my body are snapping one by one until I become unstoppable. In my mind, at least.

With my physique reinforced as far as I can take it right now, I manage to push the container up high enough to slip my fingers underneath, bringing out a gasp from my spectator.

But, that’s just the beginning.

Having found a good grip and leverage, I lift the entire thing practically at once, releasing a grunt of effort. I can hear Cecil swearing under her breath behind me, but I need to focus on not sending this box into the surroundings by accident. Knees bent, the load resting on my chest, I fix my stance a tad, then throw the crate into the air. My companion screams at that, and I catch the rotated container above my head, holding it up on my palms somewhere around the very middle.

Turning around with it over me, I grin at the nearly white adventurer woman. “Where do you want it?”

She points to the same place and flinches when I bump the shipment up, putting my grip under a corner again. Acting much more careful now, I lower it and bring the box down with the lid put to the floor. Letting go of the crate, I dust my hands off. Cecil warily approaches my spot and hesitantly bumps her boot into the package as if worried that it might bite back.

“How in the fuck…” My stunned friend peers up at me. “There’s a skill that powerful?”

“Not exactly.” I chuckle lightly. “This is more… divine… in nature. A miracle of sorts.”

Lack of comprehension is all I receive, but that’s understandable.

Thankfully, she gets over it in a flash, waving her hand. “We don’t have time to dawdle so I’ll think about it later. There are three more boxes like this one so I hope you still have some of that miracle juice in your veins.”

Guided to those specific crates, I repeat my trick and flip them all over. It doesn’t come without a price, though. The strain on my body as well as my soul is getting noticeable. I’m only just stepping into this whole true demigod territory in the actual meaning of it. But, it’s good to practice. Things are going to get even greater the more my following grows if I understand this right. I might need to start getting lessons from Lumina on how to properly control my godly side.

“Okay. That’s done. This should do nicely.” Cecil hums to herself after checking the records.

“Nice. I was slowly running out of miracle juice.” I snicker and she laughs incredulously too. “Don’t think I can dish out any more today. Or this week.”

“You need a week to recharge?” She snorts. “Poor guy.”

“Watch out or you’ll need a month to recover after I’m done with you.” I throw back at her.

The way she whips around to hide her face tells me enough about what she thinks of such a threat.

“Anything else here, Captain?” I redirect the conversation back onto its proper tracks.

“No. We need to gather more information now. Our actions need to be accurate.” Cecil starts leading us towards the exit. “Next destination is the manager’s office. This model of warehouse is fairly common so I know the layout pretty much inside out, but it’s good to be sure. Time to sneak around a bit more.”

I fall into step behind her and we dive into the covert ops once again. True to her words, the knowledgeable clan princess does understand the way this building is set up and leads us through the side passages as much as possible. She also explains that the probability of running into anyone in these parts is close to zero since the security detail is usually only hired for the goods to cut corners at any given chance.

This too is proven correct as our journey through the hallways continues uninterrupted. After about five minutes of wandering around, we end up in the same corridor as a much nicer door compared to the rest. That one must be the main office. Confirming that it does not have any guards standing watch, we approach slowly.

At least until we suddenly hear something and freeze at the spot.

Eyeying the entrance and prepared to bolt towards the nearest corner, we remain still, listening in. Something akin to rhythmic thumping travels through the walls. There’s some other noise mixed in, but it’s hard to decipher from this distance. Sharing a look, we nod silently at each other and continue onwards at a much slower pace. Judging from Cecil’s hardened expression, she didn’t expect any activity in the manager’s place this late at night.

The closer we move the louder the sounds get. It takes me much less time to connect the clues and figure out what’s going on than my companion. And she’s not to blame here at all as the ongoing scenario isn’t exactly something she’s that familiar with. But, for someone fairly knowledgeable and experienced, the thudding and quite high-pitched noises occur together in only a handful of circumstances.

One of which revolves around lots of physical activity.

“Is someone getting tortured out there?” Cecil asks quietly while I hold in a chuckle.

But, she gets it too after just one more step, her cheeks growing a pinch rosier as she throws me an embarrassed look, most likely due to how long it took her.

Our supervisor is getting some good old action in his office. Perhaps accepting a petition for a raise.

“Just our luck.” My partner grumbles.

“Hey. Nothing is lost yet. In fact, we can use this to our advantage.” I pat her on the head.

“How?” She turns to me.

“The pair in there is distracted. Should make it easier for us to sneak in. Is what we are looking for close to the bed?” I ask.

“The manager’s chambers should consist of three rooms and a bathroom. One of them is the actual office where all the information should be kept,” Cecil answers. “It’s still going to be difficult to go around these two and search through the desk without making any noise.”

“Leave that part to me.” I give her a few more ruffles and step aside to do some magic.

In a moment, our silent steps are refreshed, just in case, and I test the door. It opens without a hitch and we try to catch a peek through the tiny gap I create. What greets our eyes causes Cecil’s blush to grow as the current owner of this locum decided that it would be a good idea to place the bed right across the doorway. Thanks to that, the first thing we see is a combination of one body atop another as the upper, clearly male individual, delivers powerful hip motions to the female beneath, which results in the entire bed frame smacking into the wall.

Urging my friend in, I quickly place Hall of Serenity on the floor, limiting its area just to the space by our position. To test it out, I close the door nonchalantly, which makes Cecil jump and look at me with wide eyes. But, as loud as the slam gets, the decibels don’t make it past the magical barrier, letting the busy duo focus on their fun.

Realising that we now have pretty much free reins as long as we don’t stroll into their field of view, my partner becomes emboldened and starts studying the room we are in while I accompany her and refresh the silencing ward every time we move to its edge. Spotting the pile of clothes that must belong to our lovebirds, she snickers faintly and grins at me. One of her hands forms a loop with the thumb and index finger while the other extends two digits forward and starts thrusting into the loop made by the former.

“Yes, I can tell that they are fucking.” I roll my eyes.

“No!” Cecil huffs, partially laughing. “This is money, and this is penis. A male prostitute. It’s a universal sign even Humans use. How come you don’t know it?”

“I grew up in a peculiar place.” I chuckle. “Anyway, that means the girl is the overseer?”

“That’s right. Seems like someone is enjoying the perks of their high position.” She takes a peek at the bouncing pair, her gaze pausing on the fully visible sliding bits before looking away. “Goddess help me…”

I must say, it’s not easy to perfectly discern what is what with the amount of hair in the way, but my Dwarf friend doesn’t seem to find it too difficult. For me, it’s like both of them have beards down there, which might as well be a fact.

My inner musings are broken by the change in Cecil’s expression as she locks onto something. She trots up to a coffee table and leans over a set of glassware. Two beer mugs are partially filled. A grand smile grows on her lips as she fishes something out of her spatial storage. I watch orange powder descend into one of the drinks.

“Let’s see how you like this in the morning…” An ominous laugh leaves her lips and she pours a different dust-like substance into the other mug. “And a little surprise for you too. Now, we better get out of sight before they get thirsty.”

Getting the hint, I pave the path for us by reapplying the Hall of Serenity until we jump into what has to be the lady’s work office. Cecil closes the door behind us and listens in to check if we’ve been caught or not. The noises continue so the answer is obvious.

“Care to tell me what you did out there?” I raise a brow at her.

“Ah, yes, yes.” She clears her throat after taking her ear off the wooden surface. “Don’t worry. It’s nothing serious. Just some exotic spice for our manager and a tiny dose of potent laxatives for her paramour. She’ll piss fire for a while in a few hours and I don’t think I need to explain what’s going to happen to him.”

“How did you know which mug belongs to who?” I inquire.

“The contents. I recognised the colours of the liquors. Females like their trunks strong and glittery while males tend to pick weaker and completely clear alcohol for longer consumption before passing out.” Cecil teaches me a lesson on Dwarf drinking habits. “Having in mind the effects of the powders I administered, both of them are going to think they caught something from each other while being assured that there are no concealed health issues. Don’t ask why men get explosive diarrhoea when infected by these kinds of diseases instead of their dicks falling off or something, no one has any idea so far.”

“Right…” I drawl.

“No time to waste. Let’s get into digging.” She pushes past me to the massive wooden desk and multiple cabinets next to it.

This is clearly her world so I keep out of her way and watch. The trained heiress scans multiple documents of different types and formats fast as the wind. Not having to worry about the others hearing us, she can do so while not bothering to be careful. I keep an ear on the entrance to signal her if anything changes.

Ten minutes later, my partner in crime scowls. “I should have put an actual poison in that bitch’s beer.”

“That bad?” I join her by the desk.

“Cutthroat is describing her positively. I’ve seen this type a few times in our own family. And made sure Father put them in their place as soon as possible. I can only imagine the things that the people under her have to go through on a daily basis just to keep their jobs.” Cecil growls and I rub her shoulder comfortingly. “She’ll be the perfect scapegoat. We can go all out and the clan will most likely try to terminate her after a big enough fuckup. And she won’t go down without a fight. I have all I need from this. It’s time to mess her little kingdom up. Next step, the mess hall.”

“This place even has a mess hall?” I help her put all the documents back in.

“More like a tiny kitchen but corporate speech is corporate speech.” She shrugs. “Come on. I don’t want to stay near her any longer than I have to. I don’t trust myself not to cross the boundaries we set for this operation.”

Checking the perimeter, we find out that our couple is resting right now, forcing us to remain in place until they continue or fall asleep. We are able to confirm that both of them finish their drinks though, judging by the clinking of the glass and shared cheers. Then, fortunately, they decide to get back to their act and we make the slip during, leaving them to their own machinations.

After getting that situation out of her head, Cecil brightens up a bit again, overjoyed by the prospect of the chaos she is about to cause. A few intersections later, we charge into a kitchenette the size of a spacious bathroom. She starts throwing commands which drawers, cupboards, and shelves to check, going through them quickly. As requested, I voice out the things I see in them. When I reach salt, everything stops.

“That’s it! Help me up!” My short friend raises her arms in a kind of adorable way.

Granting her wish, I lift the little lady to one of the upper cupboards where she pours the salt out of half of the salters, filling them up with something else of a similar consistency and shade. Shuffling them, she instructs me to put her down, which I do immediately. Anticipating my question, she spins around with a quiet giggle.

“This is just sugar. The oldest prank in the book. They have an on-site cook. He will be beside himself after fucking up the communal soup. And at least one or two other people will think that he is after them with that stunt. More misunderstandings, more delays,” Cecil spells it out for me. “Now we need to locate the beer stash.”

“Beer stash?” I frown softly.

“Every warehouse has it. You technically can’t drink on the job since it involves dealing with fragile materials rather often, but everyone does, thinking that the management doesn’t notice. The truth is, they do, but they allow it to happen as long as there are no accidents on the site. It’s a way of keeping morale on a satisfactory level. People get the feeling of accomplishment from thinking they are successfully cheating the system. Even more if it’s in a group.” She smirks knowingly. “Look for any dislocated furniture and drag marks on the ground.”

And the hunt begins.

We don’t have that much space to cover, yet it’s not like we find it right away. As much as Cecil knows about these practices, I don’t doubt she isn’t one to partake in them. I mean, I don’t think she has to spend this much time serving in a warehouse unless as a punishment for doing something really bad. She’s in line to become the big boss one day.

Still, convinced that the sneaky stash is somewhere in this room, she spots the signs of old movement in just a few minutes. The mechanism unlocking it turns out to be quite smart. One of the person-sized cupboards has a more worn handle which can also be pulled up instead of just down, triggering a concealed mechanism that switches the contents. After activation, you are presented with a number of small barrels and metal containers.

Cecil tells me to get them out and I do that. She summons one giant barrel from her spatial storage and uses a simple physics-based siphon with a tube to transfer the liquid into it from the other ones. Afterwards, she replaces the appropriated beer with a barely distinguishable version popular amongst highborn girls. It’s supposed to be a deep insult to hard workers and should easily break up the group that’s running this illegal alcohol distribution centre.

You don’t fuck with a Dwarf’s craft beer, that’s a rule as good as one of the Ten Commandments.

“With this done, I think we should pack up. I left a kind present in some of the documents from the manager’s office too. Everything we’ve done should make this place practically implode. It’s going to be so entertaining watching that happen from the sidelines.” Cecil cackles as we return the stash to its proper place.

“Time to hit the road, then. We gotta retrace our steps and ensure the roof entrance doesn’t tip anyone off,” I reply while we get ready to bolt.

We both agree on that and skedaddle as fast as we can. Naturally, we don’t throw caution out of the window and still go carefully about it. The last thing we want now is to bump into a single person who will ruin the entire elaborate setup. Confirming that the sentries are peacefully sleeping where we left them in their rather compromised and incriminating positions, we find our initial entry point and I use the same magnetic spell to open it up. Cecil brings out what looks like an anchor hook and throws it through the gap, after which it expands and gives us a way to climb out.

Outside, I scrupulously weld the metal roof together. It’s not perfect, but unless they know what to look for, they shouldn’t notice the unauthorized entry. Scouting the edges of the roof, we pick a good moment to descend and hide away in the shadows of a nearby alley. Diana emerges from the darkness and takes us with her, bringing us even further. We still stay around the warehouse for about half an hour, watching if our run has been compromised or not. As no one runs in or out, we assume it isn’t.

Packing up, we use Diana’s help again to jump back to the Forgegraver compound. Thanking the big doggo with some pets and ruffles, the two of us shed some of our concealing attire and walk through the mansion’s hallways side by side, chatting about the operation. Cecil can’t stop describing all the possible outcomes of our mischief.

Soon, we arrive in front of her quarters and she turns to face me. “Thank you for agreeing to take me with you and not going off alone. It’s been a blast. And we got so many things done. It’s been a while since I participated in something this fun. Not to mention without a full team of enforcers breathing down my neck.”

“Wouldn’t be able to do it all on my own. I needed a guide anyway.” I chuckle warmly.

“Pssht. I know that’s a lie. You are more capable than you are letting on. Having me with you was more like a handicap, wasn’t it?” Cecil chuckles heartily too. “Anyway, it’s damn late and I’m beat after not only the journey here but also the night operation. You must be barely standing straight after that heavy lifting earlier. If you would like, you can drop onto one of my couches. Or, if you would prefer something comfier, there’s enough space on the—”

“Took you long enough.” A familiar voice interrupts her, making us glance to the side. “Is a simple infiltration that difficult for you? I told the Clan Head that my artefacts would be more suitable for it.”

For some reason, Daisy is still up too, and clearly on a mission to throw my current partner off, at which she succeeds considering the sneer I catch.

“Piss off, Princess.” Cecil snarls at her. “What are you even doing here at this hour? Actually, you know what, I don’t want to know. You can keep your silly rituals to yourself. With the emphasis on yourself. As you can see, we are about to retreat for a well-earned rest so crawl back into whatever hole you’ve come out of and stop bothering me and Alastair for one single night.”

“I’m afraid I can’t let you do that. I require his assistance with crucial clan matters so why don’t you crawl into your own hole and let the important people speak.” The scholarly girl raises her nose into the air.

“If you haven’t caught on, he is coming with me—”

“Like hell he is.” Daisy interrupts her again. “Your role is done. Even though it shouldn’t have been yours to begin with. So, be happy you’ve gotten this chance and stop obstructing the main family business. I’ll have you know—”

“Ladies, ladies.” I insert myself between them before things escalate any further. “It’s the middle of the night. We are supposed to be asleep at this hour. One thing Lady Cecil said is accurate. I’m certainly tired. But, while I appreciate the offer to be hosted in this neat residence, I have someone eagerly waiting for my return back home. That’s also why I’m afraid I can’t accept your request to discuss these family matters, Lady Daisy. I’ll hear you out in the morning. Good night.”

Not giving them any leeway to start convincing me to stay or bickering amongst each other, I’m on my way right after I finish speaking. It succeeds only halfway as the girls begin blaming each other for me going away. Shaking my head, I do my best to ignore their argument. Perhaps Sirgia and the others aren’t exactly watching the windows for my arrival, but my petite lover will appreciate my presence in the bed for sure, considering how much she loves to cuddle in her sleep.

Leaving the issue of the volatile heiresses for tomorrow, I make it home in no time. Surprisingly, the front entrance is unlocked so I get inside and lock everything up. The shop is shrouded in darkness, illuminated only by the moonlight here and there depending on the windows. However, as I head for the staircase heading upwards, I notice a line of differently coloured light on the side. An orange glow catches my eyes, coming from the direction of the workshop.

A quick mental ping confirms my suspicions, locating my workaholic wife inside. Taking a deep breath, I march towards the door but stop just short of it, experiencing a weird feeling of deja vu. The noises coming out of the room with the slightly open entrance somewhat match the ones I have already heard tonight.

Slightly confused, I slowly push the door to increase the gap and peer inside.

The orange glow comes from one of the furnaces burning strongly. In front of it, I find two silhouettes, sitting close to the fire. It doesn’t take me long to recognize the second person in the workshop. While the first one is obviously Sirgia, her companion is none other than her best friend, Niel.

However, they aren’t just sitting in front of the flames and enjoying the heat or forging some weapons.

As I lay my eyes on the beautiful backs of their nude forms and register the motions made by their hands that seem to hide between their widely spread legs, I get a flashback to a certain story brought up by a certain mother just a few hours ago. It finishes flying through my mind at the same time as the duo finishes too.

“How are you feeling?” Sirgia asks her companion, her skin glistening in the firelight.

“I missed this so much…” Niel replies with a blissful sigh. “Sharing this joy with you in front of a blazing hearth is the best thing in the world…”

My mate sneakily glances over her shoulder, our gazes meeting. “I can think of something much better than that…”

Fellas, I think the unlocked front entrance and the workshop door left ajar are not an accident.

There goes another night.