Chapter 193: Cemetery (Patreon)

"The Emperor bought up this whole building. The ground floor is a bar that's still being renovated, and from the second floor up it's offices and staff dorms."

Ivan led the two of them into the building behind him, explaining as he walked.

"I figured a big-shot celebrity as rich as the Emperor would set up his company somewhere downtown."

This place just about counted as a busy district, but it was nothing like Lungmen's city center.

"We're closer to the warehouse here. If the company were downtown, you'd either have a nightmare commute or rent through the roof." Ivan shrugged. "The old man's no fool. He doesn't like throwing money into the water."

"Besides, a logistics company doesn't really need a prime location."

True enough. For a logistics company, what mattered most was the client base, especially on Terra.

Hauling goods within a mobile city was easy enough. Anything that crossed from one mobile city to another, though, was work not just anyone could handle.

The Emperor's reasons for founding the company were questionable, but since he'd gone ahead and done it, he probably wasn't doing it just for fun.

"And his exact words were that, apart from the bar on the ground floor and the office space on the second, we can use the rest of the building however we like."

"Generous of him."

Saito nodded, quite pleased. Barring surprises, this would be their company's base from now on.

"Perfect. We'll use the next few days to run through the company registration process, and after that we can tell everyone this is Endfield Tech's registered address."

"The Emperor also told me that if we need help, we should look for a man called the Rat King in the slums."

At the word "slums," Saito frowned, careful not to let it show.

"The Rat King?"

"That's right. The Rat King, Lin Kojui."

Ivan had been in Lungmen for a good while now, and although he spent most of that time living a quiet, honest life, he knew all the important intelligence about this city.

"He's also called Lin Gray, and he's the ruler of Lungmen's underworld these days. Thanks to him, the slums here are a lot better off than they are in Ursus, and not by a little."

At the very least, here the Infected could stay alive even after their identities were discovered.

Well, any Ursus Infected would understand just how much weight that sentence carries.

"The Emperor says this Lin Gray is an old friend of Lungmen's current governor, Wei Yenwu, and had a hand in taking down Black Snake back in the day."

"Wow~"

Saito gaped, a little theatrically. He wasn't the least bit surprised. Sure, that old Black Snake was behaving himself in Endfield, but when it came to people he'd offended in the past, the line probably stretched from Deity Grypherburg all the way to Baizao.

"We're not Lungmen locals, after all. We really could use some help from a local power."

"Right. And Mr. Lin has a surprisingly good reputation in the slums. He uses plenty of underworld methods, but he really does want to make the slums better."

"I think I get what the Emperor is hinting at."

Saito nodded. If he couldn't understand a hint that broad, he might as well donate his brain.

"There's also the governor of Lungmen."

"Wei Yenwu?"

The name wasn't unfamiliar to Saito. When Talulah heard they were heading to Lungmen, she'd made a special trip back from Deity Grypherburg to talk with him for a long while, and part of that conversation had been about this very governor.

Back in the days of the Duchy, because of Koschei, Talulah had held a slight misunderstanding about the governor. Still, on the whole, she didn't much like this uncle of hers.

"What did the Emperor say?"

At Saito's question, Ivan's gaze drifted, almost by reflex, to Chen Qianyu beside him.

"He said that if the governor comes after us, you should bring Chen Qianyu along and go meet him."

Little Chen looked left and right, then, thoroughly baffled, raised one finger and pointed at herself.

"Me?"

"Yep."

Saito looked at Little Chen too. Could Chen Qianyu's ancestors be connected to Governor Wei?

Come to think of it, Talulah's younger sister also seemed to be named Chen. Could they really be family?

With that thought, Saito reached out and pulled Little Chen aside.

"Little Chen, have you ever heard the name Ch'en Hui-chieh?"

"Ch'en Hui-chieh?"

A trace of confusion crossed Little Chen's eyes. The name sounded a bit familiar, but she couldn't remember where she'd heard it. In the end, all she could do was answer honestly.

"It sounds a little familiar, but I can't remember where I heard it."

"Why don't you write home and ask your parents?"

"Okay."

Chen Qianyu had no objection. If anything, she was curious herself whether the name had something to do with the Chen family.

"Anyway, we'll deal with the governor when it comes up. We might not even run into him."

After all, their trip to Great Yan wasn't about helping Little Chen trace her family roots. They had come to seek help from the Sui Beast fragments. Once the company business here was settled, they could leave Lungmen. And if any problems came up later, the Protocol Beacon would already be in place, so they could simply come back whenever they needed.

"Let's find a spot to set down the Protocol Beacon first, then get some proper rest. We've been on the road a long time, and I'm a bit tired."

"As for meeting the Rat King, let's leave that until tomorrow."

Saito looked over the empty room in front of him. If nothing was wrong with it, he planned to put the Protocol Beacon right here.

With a flash of blue light, the massive Protocol Originium appeared steadily in the room before them.

*

The next morning, Lungmen's sky was only just beginning to lighten when Saito climbed out of bed. The time on his terminal read 4:17 a.m., an hour when even Little Chen wasn't up yet.

He was up this early because he had something to do for Talulah.

Taking the private car Ivan had parked downstairs, Saito followed the address Talulah had given him all the way to Lungmen's outer ring, and soon arrived in front of a cemetery.

He stopped the car, took two bunches of flowers out of his backpack, and walked into the cemetery.

He followed the path all the way to the deepest part, and finally stopped before two adjoining gravestones.

Edward Artorius

Yanjing

A Victorian royal and a princess of Great Yan.

But beyond that, they were also Talulah's father and mother.

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