After Debauchery

The activities inside the hall continued until nightfall, but they did severely reduce in intensity after the quartet was performed. By the end of it all, Sugar looked like a complete mess, covered in white goo, be it on the outside or the inside. After such exertion and the consumption of high amounts of alcohol, as well as the smoking of countless cigars, everyone basically passed out on the couches.

Edrick awakened first, cracking his neck as he blinked a few times. He then went into the basement, reaching a small room tucked away from the rest, where he was able to get himself cleaned up before putting his clothes back on. He then took a step outside to enjoy some fresh air. As medicinal and harmless as the herbs used in the cigars may be, inhaling that much smoke for so long wasn’t the most pleasant of feelings.

Soon enough, someone else woke up, and surprisingly, it was Sugar, who had just wrapped herself with the cloak she had worn when arriving.

“Ah, you did a very good job yesterday. Tell me, how much are you usually paid for your services?” he asked the girl.

“Mmh… It depends on what the client wants to do… But usually? It hovers around seventy-five Copper Leyens” she replied, still visibly spent from the work she had performed. Indeed, even if she had had a few cultivators with lots of stamina hire her before, it had only been one at a time and without anything really crazy happening.

This time, she had performed for three cultivators, each of them a lustful beast who did not go easy on her. There was barely any time for Sugar to breathe yesterday, sometimes figuratively, sometimes quite literally- Not to mention that Edrick in particular was monstrously big down there. She had no clue how that thing had even fit inside her, but she knew better than to ask questions about weird stuff when it concerned cultivators…

“Seventy-five? You are quite the high-end product, aren’t you?” he chuckled whilst stretching his arms.

“Ahahah… I guess so…” she acted much more sheepishly right now. Being too tired to put up a convincing seductive tone. And honestly, Sugar was a bit spooked to speak with Anoteros alone. She had been briefed about who had hired her, and no one of such high status had ever even come close to her before. Not to mention that Edrick was naturally imposing and frightening, even if you had no idea he was a high-born noble.

But this was also a great opportunity, which was why she jumped on the occasion despite knowing that there would be three men to entertain and that an Elt was to be feared… Even if the pay per session sounded good on paper, all of Paradiso's ‘employees’ were contracted and bound by the Red Mansion. Some here were being observed to join the sect, and some owed money or had agreed to become workers in exchange for protection.

In short, only a very small portion of the girls who sold themselves actually saw much of the earnings they made. Sugar belonged to the first category. She was trying to become a cultivator, and so, every bit of money she earned was funnelled directly to the sect as a show of goodwill.

Showing that she could handle three male cultivators at once was impressive, especially considering that the Red Mansion was focused on dual cultivation and other techniques that required people to engage in intimate acts to progress. This was an actual feat she could point to so as to facilitate her integration into the sect.

But most importantly, the Elt clan was the real master of the sect, so doing a good job with someone bearing that name was certain to land her in a good position.

Sugar did not dare voice that idea out loud, however.

Anoteros reached into one of his pockets, pulling out a pouch full of coins, and handed it out as is to the girl.

“There should be about four hundred Copper Leyens inside of it, and also a little surprise, since you did such a good job- I came here expecting that I would have to order at least one more girl, but you held on well until the end”

“This…”

“Don’t mention anything, just go” he shooed her away from the private hall. The girl did not mind that she was wearing nothing but a cloak and covered in white dew that had long dried. Sugar just skittered away whilst holding the pouch close to her chest.

To Anoteros, four hundred Copper Leyens was nothing. Unless he went to a country that didn’t accept that currency, undertook efforts to buy extremely expensive things or partook in high-end auctions, he basically had no money problems whatsoever, even without the direct support of the Elt family.

Especially since he owned a fair bit of Silver Leyens.

The conversion rate between the copper, silver, and gold variations of the money used in Leynlornd was not linear. Silver Leyens were basically the coins used by nobility only. These coins were like treasures for little bourgeois or newly successful merchants. The Silver Leyens were a mark of pedigree. There wasn’t really a conversion rate between Copper Leyens and Silver Leyens. One only needed to know that the people who possessed good amounts of the second were simply superior to those who did not.

Silver Leyens were used between nobles, great merchants, or highly successful businesses whose owners might just be eligible to attain a title of nobility.

As for Royal Gold Leyens… Well, the name said it all. It was the currency of the crown, only held by a handful of incredibly powerful noble families. Only to be used when trading with great foreign powers who also used Leyens as currency, or when dealing with the royal family itself.

Even Edrick did not have a single one of those- Or rather, he only had one of them because the system had given him one. But those coins were far more closely tracked than the rest, so he could not just pull it out without awakening massive suspicion.

“Ah, Shu, Xiao… Finally awake?” he noticed some movement inside and saw his two fellows groggily rising, looking absolutely wasted. In fact, Shu immediately crawled on the couch and puked on the ground.

“What did you guys think of our little bonding moment between men?” he smiled, Shu just giving a thumbs up before slowly responding.

“It was… Pretty nice, I think…”

And then at Xiao’s pale expression.

“What the hell did I do?” he looked somewhat horrified to have so happily partaken in this. Tag-teaming a prostitute with two other men had not been on his bucket list, and it was not something he felt very proud of.

Anoteros found his expression quite humorous.

“The carriage should arrive to pick us up, let’s get going” he didn’t address Xiao’s existential crisis, however.