Chapter 211: Swinging the Sword (Patreon)

"How'd you sleep last night?"

Saito walked up and greeted her first. He wasn't bothered by Ch'en Hui-chieh's "peeking". If anything, it was a relief that the one doing the peeking was Ch'en Hui-chieh. It saved him a lot of trouble.

"Fine."

She hadn't slept a wink, but Ch'en Hui-chieh's spirits were clearly much better than yesterday. With her meeting with Talulah coming up soon, she was even a little excited.

While the two of them talked, Little Chen seized the chance to scurry off and collect the sound-absorbing devices. She still hadn't figured out how to face her "idol".

But Ch'en Hui-chieh's attention was fixed on the "busy" Little Chen. After watching that sparring match, she could hardly help being curious about the girl.

At the same time, it suddenly occurred to her that she had lost the right to draw Chi Xiao.

Ch'en Hui-chieh's face darkened. Even the sword in her hand refused to acknowledge her. What a thoroughly failed swordswoman she was.

Saito quietly studied the girl in front of him and sighed inwardly. If Talulah saw Hui-chieh like this, she'd probably worry herself sick.

Looked like it was time for him, the team's "mental health officer", to step in.

Tsk. Why did it feel like he'd been handed way too much of this kind of work?

Still, he couldn't treat Hui-chieh the way he treated Yelena and the others. With Talulah around, he only needed to nudge her in the right direction.

"It's getting late, and you didn't eat anything last night. Want to grab something together?"

At the sound of Saito's voice, Ch'en Hui-chieh's stomach chimed in with a well-timed pang of hunger. In truth, it wasn't just dinner she'd skipped yesterday. She hadn't put a single bite in her stomach all day.

Martial artists naturally eat more than ordinary people, and after going so long without food, she was starting to feel light-headed.

Not wanting to pass out on the spot when the reunion came, Ch'en Hui-chieh nodded at once.

"Okay."

The two of them left the park together and came out onto the street beside it. It wasn't even seven yet, but the breakfast stalls were already mostly set up.

They picked a noodle shop at random and sat outside. Saito ordered a pile of food and sat down first. Ch'en Hui-chieh sat across from him, a little stiff, as if she didn't know how to face her sister's friend. In the end, it was Saito who broke the ice.

"Can I just call you Hui-chieh? The girl who sparred with me has the same family name as you, so it's easy to mix the two of you up."

Ch'en Hui-chieh gave a slight nod. It was only a form of address and she had no objection. What she hadn't expected was that the girl holding the other Chi Xiao would also be named Chen.

Saito regarded the blue-haired Lung girl across from him. They were meeting for the first time, but Talulah had mentioned Ch'en Hui-chieh to him plenty over the years, so he wasn't completely in the dark about her.

Time could change a person's appearance, but certain deep-rooted traits weren't so easily shaken.

Yet the state Ch'en Hui-chieh had been in when she first walked into the room yesterday bore no resemblance to the strong, stubborn girl Talulah had described. Saito had seen how badly she'd been hit. After a few confirmations with Lin Yuhsia, he quickly tracked down the culprit behind it.

'Koschei, you bastard. Aren't you afraid Talulah will tear you apart with her bare hands when she gets back...'

Talulah wasn't the same person who'd once been bowled over into the snow by Yelena. As one of Endfield's key members, she naturally enjoyed the VIP treatment from the Arsenal.

The red dragon had gone from a half-melee mage to an arts dump truck whose every strike burst into flame. The red dragon fire alone, enough to melt alloy in an instant, would give Koschei a rough time.

When Saito went looking for answers, the Snakescale trembled and swore up and down:

"Lord Saito, please rest assured. Lord Koschei harbors no ill will whatsoever toward Ch'en Hui-chieh. He merely told her the truth of what happened back then, exactly as it was."

And so Saito got the full story of that old affair out of the Snakescale, and naturally understood why Ch'en Hui-chieh was so lost.

Wei Yenwu had never shown any concern for Ch'en Hui-chieh over the years, but he was still one of the few relatives she had left in this world. And even if Old Wei was hardly a decent human being, her aunt Wen Yue had never once stopped caring for her.

Now that the bloody truth of that year had been laid out before her, how could a girl who wasn't even an adult yet bear it?

Koschei's purpose was easy enough to guess too. He wanted to channel all the conflict toward Wei Yenwu.

'I should find time to knock some sense into Koschei when we get back.'

True, the rotten things Wei Yenwu did back then were truly inhuman, but what did any of it have to do with Koschei? The Syndicate was in the middle of a roaring expansion, and he still had time to stir up trouble in Lungmen?

Saito snorted inwardly, already resolved to settle accounts with Koschei once he got back.

As for their feud, well, after hearing what Wei Yenwu had done from Talulah, Saito didn't think much of the man anyway.

His gaze returned to Ch'en Hui-chieh across from him. Family matters weren't his to get involved in, and he had no right to, but getting Ch'en Hui-chieh back on her feet clearly didn't require dragging any of that in.

"Want me to tell you about Talulah?"

"Hm?"

Ch'en Hui-chieh froze mid-bite, and her attention was pulled instantly away from the food in front of her.

"I don't know what Talulah wrote in her letters, but knowing her, she probably only shared the good news and kept the bad to herself. She wouldn't have told you everything."

"And after so many years apart, you two have both changed a lot. It might feel awkward when you first meet, so ask me anything you want to know."

Ch'en Hui-chieh set down her chopsticks. Saito's words had clearly moved her.

She thought quietly for a moment, then chose to ask the question she cared about most.

"Has she been doing well all these years?"

"That depends on how you look at it..."

And so, as the morning grew steadily noisier, Saito began telling Ch'en Hui-chieh about Talulah's life on the Frozen Plains: how they met, why she inherited her title, and the cause she was fighting for now.

Ch'en Hui-chieh listened in silence, her expression shifting from worry to something more complicated. Talulah really had kept a lot from her. She had never mentioned in her letters that she'd become Infected, and that she'd done it on purpose, infecting herself with Oripathy through Originium.

Yet by the time Saito finished, she had slowly settled on one fact.

Little Ta was still the same Little Ta. She hadn't changed.

Saito picked up a cup beside him and took a sip of soy milk, waiting for Ch'en Hui-chieh to finish digesting the news.

"You can ask her the rest after you meet. But before that, let me pass on one thing from Talulah."

"Your sister has already found her own path."

"And you? Can you still swing your sword without hesitation, the way you did when you were little?"