Walnut-chan - Chapter 201: Concern from an Old Friend

The guide stumbled along and led the two of them into a room. They had barely stepped inside when they saw a rather frail figure with his back to them.

He was a thin Feline man, hunched over as he looked out the window. One foot was bent at an unnatural angle, as if it had been injured long ago.

At the sound of the door, he slowly turned. A smile spread across his face, which was deeply etched with the marks of years.

"Miss Lin Yühsia, forgive me for not welcoming you properly. I've already heard about what happened in the slums. I failed to keep my men in line, and for that I am deeply sorry."

"Unfortunately, Mr. Beck, this isn't mine to decide."

Lin Yühsia shook her head flatly, then turned and walked out the door, leaving the room to the three of them.

Beck looked at the two unfamiliar faces before him, and his expression stiffened slightly. From the way the three of them had stood when they walked in, he'd had a feeling that things were slipping beyond his control.

If Lin Yühsia had personally led the way for them, the Rat King had clearly sided with them. Fighting the Rat King on slum turf was no different from begging for death.

But he'd built this crew with his own abilities, so he had some skill of his own. Things hadn't reached their worst yet.

With that thought, Beck instantly plastered on an even more servile smile. He looked nothing like the boss of a gang.

"May I ask what brings you two here?"

Beck didn't ask who they were. Sometimes knowing too much did more harm than good. All he needed to know was that these two were people he definitely couldn't afford to offend.

"Looks like… you're a smart man."

Saito was a little disappointed not to be facing the sneering face of a typical idiot villain, but mostly he was relieved. If he could help it, he'd rather not deal with morons. He'd met more than enough of them back on the Frozen Plains.

"This. Recognize it?"

Saito set a bottle of Oripathy medicine on the table beside them. The instant Beck saw it, his pupils contracted sharply and his voice began to tremble.

"I… I do."

"Then tell me. Where did this medicine come from?"

Saito sat down on a nearby sofa, one of the few reasonably clean and intact pieces of furniture in the room. Across from him, Beck stared at the bottle as cold sweat rolled down his face.

The reason was simple: he had finally realized who was sitting in front of him.

"M-my lord, I bought this medicine."

"Bought it?"

Saito tapped the bottle lightly against the tabletop, and Beck's whole body shook.

"I-I-I really did buy it!"

Having guessed the man's identity, he gave up all thought of resisting and laid out his story, every detail of it.

Beck had once been an Ursus merchant, running a small business selling Originium products around Deity Grypherburg. But precisely because he handled Originium so often, he'd contracted Oripathy in an accident.

After that, he lived in constant terror. In Ursus, even minor nobles who caught Oripathy were sent off to the mines, never mind a petty peddler like him.

Fortunately, he was clever enough. He sold off his belongings in a hurry and headed north to get away from the mobile cities. Only in remote places like that did he have a chance of hiding who he was.

It was out on the Frozen Plains that he spent some time with the legendary Frozen Plains Guerrilla Squad. From them, Beck learned that farther north there was an organization called Endfield, where Oripathy medicine could be bought at extremely low prices.

"So what you're saying is, you bought huge quantities of medicine from Endfield at rock-bottom prices, then hauled it to Lungmen to sell?"

"Yes, that's right, my lord."

Saito looked at the bottle on the table and almost burst out laughing.

"Do you really take me for a fool? Little Chen!"

Hearing Saito call her name, Chen Qianyu understood at once. She drew the sword at her waist and swung it at the lame Feline man.

The sword light arrived in an instant. But astonishingly, just as the blade was about to touch Beck, the Feline man turned into an afterimage and dodged, reappearing by the wall several meters away. Nothing about his nimble movements suggested he'd ever been injured.

Clap, clap, clap.

Crisp applause rang out as Saito watched Beck with interest.

"Nice moves."

"You flatter me, my lord."

Beck answered with a smile. Little Chen eyed him warily and asked Saito behind her:

"Brother Saito, should I take him down?"

She had deliberately held back on that last strike so she wouldn't cut Beck in half. Now it was clear this guy was no pushover.

But what Saito said next left Chen Qianyu utterly baffled.

"No need. He's one of ours."

"?"

"Lord Saito has eyes like torches and misses nothing. I admire you."

Beck bowed deeply and respectfully to Saito, dropping the act he'd put on earlier.

Chen Qianyu sheathed her sword in a daze and stepped back to Saito's side. Her bright, lively eyes were clear as water, with the word "curious" written all over them.

"Little Chen, when you came up here, you must have seen where they keep the medicine, right?"

Chen Qianyu nodded. With that many crates stacked in the corner, it would've been hard to miss. And looking through those half-open doors, it was obvious these people had a lot of stock.

"Our medical department sells to outsiders under strict controls, but the total amount we release still falls within a basic range. If a large amount of medicine suddenly sold off over a short period…"

"Then there's no way we wouldn't have noticed!"

Little Chen was no fool. With Saito's nudge, she caught on quickly and whipped her head around to stare at Beck.

In other words, someone who could quietly get his hands on this much stock without the medical department raising any alarm, and who would even go to Lungmen to buy medicine. Little Chen could think of only one candidate.

"You're one of Koschei's people?"

"Miss Chen, allow me to correct you. Duke Koschei is a thing of the past."

Beck the Snakescale corrected her with a smile.

"Our masters now are Duke Talulah… and Representative Kashena."

The Snakescale was a secret organization Duke Koschei had once built. Its members lurked all across Ursus, and quite a few were simply Koschei's own avatars. Their one shared trait was absolute loyalty to the undying Black Snake.

Mr. Beck here clearly had no connection to Talulah. Otherwise she couldn't have failed to warn him before they set out.

"Did Kashena send you?"

"Of course, Lord Saito."

"Things in Ursus are stable and improving these days. How could Koschei forget his 'old friend'?"