Chapter XLVI: Warship II

Shizukana Gake, Heian Kingdom

Month of the Tortoise 3, 172 ,328 DE

The supply yard for metal broker sits atop the cliffs along the Arekuruu River in the west of the Trade Quarter. Its location gives it easy access to the airship docks, outside the main walls of Shizukana Gake, and the river dock, at the base of the cliffs. Extend out over the cliffs, the booms of heavy cranes sit idle, but the smaller cranes in the yard remain active, loading crates of ingots into steamer trucks.

When we drive through the yard's gate, one of the yard workers, who sits inside a booth next to the gate, looks up, and seeing me in the driver seat of our steamer truck, his face pales. Acting like he does not see me, the yard worker leaves the booth and hightails it for one of the warehouses.

"Kenji! We've got a fire house priority order! Get the men in gear!"

As they hear the man's yell, one after another, the yard workers look toward the gate. Like the man in the booth, their faces pale at the sight of me, and they run for the various warehouses.

Sitting on the opposite side of the bench seat, Vorn smirks like a smug cat. "You're popular. Real popular. Do you have to load your own truck every time?"

"Go fuck a cat."

With his smirk changing into a wide grin, Vorn chuckles, and the stench of his amusement fills the air. "You really hate cats don't you?"

"You can't trust fucking cats. They're spawns of corruption. They're just waiting to claw your exposed back when think you aren't looking."

Vorn scoffs. "Cats are cute and fluffy. They make great pets. They don't need constant attention. They hunt their own food and keep the rats and mice under control. We have a few dozen of them living in the royal palace in Amber. Most nobles have a dozen of more in their keeps, and the common people keep them in their homes."

I shake my head in disgust. "Bunch or idiots."

By the time I park the steamer truck outside the main office, the yard has turned into a ghost town. For some reason, the yard workers hate dealing with me. Even though I do not treat them badly, the workers act the same at most of the suppliers that the shitty old man and I use.

As I debark from the steamer truck , the hackles on the back of my neck stand up, and I get the feeling that someone is watching me. Someone stronger than me. Casually looking around the yard, I see no signs of the watcher inside or on any high points outside the yard with a view of it. Am I imagining it?

Without saying anything to Vorn, I lead the way into the broker's office. Like the warehouses, the office is built from stone blocks, but unlike the warehouses, the roof of the office is made from stone. Considering the large sums of coin that move through the handful metal of large-scale metal brokerages in the city, a solid stone office makes sense. Made from fifteen centimeter thick wood planks and banded with steel, the door to the office would not look out of place on a fortress. As I open the door, the manager of the brokerage yard stares nervously in my direction.

A fat, middle-aged man, who has already lost most of his hair, Kobe hard face reveals his rough upbringing. According to what I have heard about him, he started his life out as a miner. No one I talked to would so much as speculate as to how he managed to snag his current job, but the owner of the brokerage seems to have implicit trust in him. The owner, the head of a minor noble clan, the Makura clan, almost never shows his face in the brokerage yard, leaving Kobe to run it. While he may not like me, unlike the yard workers, my presence has never made him nervous before.

"Beast. Why are you here?" While speaking, instead of looking at me, Kobe turns his head just far enough to look at a middle-aged man sitting at a desk in the back of the office.

Raising his head from the accounting books spread out on the table, the middle-aged man glares at me. Burning hatred fills his eyes, and he clenches his fist so tight that his knuckles stand out beneath his pale skin.

I put on my well-practiced smirk. "You got a problem with me old man?"

"Bastard! You killed my nephew!" The middle-aged man must be the younger brother of the current head of the Makura clan. It looks like today is the day for the clan's monthly review of the books.

"Was he part of the thousand-man collection of idiot trash that jumped me yesterday? The all died cowards' deaths." Without letting my smirk slip, I laugh nastily.

The middle-aged man trembles with barely controlled rage. "Kobe kick this animal out!"

Kobe's face pales. Rising to his feet, he turns toward the old man and bows. "Makura-sama, if we kick Beast out, we'll offend Grandmaster Jones. Will your brother be okay with that?"

"Tetsu was his nephew too! Kick this animal out!"

Turning back to me, Kobe gives me a half-bow. "Beast-kun. I'm sorry. Could you please leave?"

A nasty grin replaces my smirk. "Kobe, you were there when that moron yard foreman called be Beast-kun. Do you want me to break your knees like I did his?"

Kobe's face turns paler than Makura's knuckles. "Beast-san. I'm sorry. I apologize! I didn't mean to say that!"

"Shut up, Kobe!"

Despite the conversational tone of my voice, Kobe's face somehow turns paler, and his teeth clack shut.

No longer paying attention to Kobe, I wipe the grin off my face and stare flatly at the middle-aged man. "Idiot Ji-kun, don't you realize I could just steal whatever I want? I'm untouchable as far as the City Guard is concerned, and the City Lord wouldn't lift a finger to intervene. He's more likely to piss his fundoshi at the thought of pissing off Old Man Jones."

In lower-class families, the children often call their grandfather's Ji-chan. It is an affectionate form of address for them. No one would ever use Ji-kun instead of Ji-chan; it would be an extremely insulting thing to do.

"You bastard!" Makura's face turns red, and the stench of his rage fills the air. As in most of the human cultures on the Great Plateau, in the Heian kingdom, calling someone a bastard is one of the most insulting things you can do. The humans of the Great Plateau take family and their status in it very seriously.

I am not a human. My expression does not change in the slightest. "I want three tons of Sky Iron. And give it to me at a twenty percent discount. That'll compensate me for putting up with your shit."

While gnashing his teeth in rage, Makura glares at me for a moment before managing to spit out his next words. "Disrespectful bastard! If you weren't cowering in Grandmaster Jones' shadow, we would have killed you years ago!"

I laugh. "Don't you mean if you weren't such cowards that just a hint of Old Man Jones' shadow makes you shit in your fundoshi?"

After making a fist with one hand and cracking my knuckles with the other, I switch hands and repeat the process. "I don't need that shitty old man to deal with the likes of you. Feel free to attack me. A fat, smug cat disturbed my morning schedule. I haven't had my daily exercise."

Baring his teeth in an angry snarl, Makura leaps over the desk to attack and charges at me, but he makes it. A strand of grey Yuan Qi streaks through the open door of the office and wraps around him, halting his momentum.

"What the hell?" Makura's gasp of surprise, mirrors my own emotion. He tries to struggle, but compared with the strands of Power binding him, his strength might as well be that of a newborn infant. The strands feel the

After a few moments, a figure I have already seen one too many times walks into the office, and irritation fills the gap left my momentary surprise in. Unlike me, on seeing the middle-aged man, who enters the office, Makura's expression changes to one filled with hate and disdain. The sour stench of his emotions flood into his scent, fouling the air in the office.

"Kage!" Makura glares at the other middle-aged man, who halts just inside the open door.

Hearing Makura speak the name, another swell of surprise rises from my Soul. The realization of who that man is dawns on me, Otoko no Kage, Shadow of a Man. The bastard son of the previous city and some nameless commoner woman from west of the Kami Kaze Mountains. If he has a real name, no one ever uses it when speaking about him. He serves the current City Lord from the shadows, as a problem solver. He is the City Lord's most dangerous hatchet man. I should have recognized him, but I never expected to encounter him. He is little more than a myth or rumor to the people Shizukana no Gake. Old Man Jones told me about him. There are more like scattered throughout the clans of the Heian Kingdom. The serve loyally, but they are never acknowledged as a pert of their clans.

Part of the darker side of the Heian Kingdom is their disdain for anyone not of their own breed of human. The noble clans are the worst about it. Many of the commoners just quietly look down on those not of their own breed, but the scum in the noble clans go out of their way to hurt those not of their own breed. Old Man Jones tells me that is a common characteristic of all humans. No matter their breed, no matter where they live, they all look down on other breeds of humans in their hearts. I cannot say that I mind that about humans. No matter their breed, I look down on all of them.

"Let me go, Kage! I'm going to kill this bastard!"

"Be silent, Makura-san! I'm saving your life."

"Kage! Damn you! Why are you protecting this animal!" Makura thrashes wildly but does not budge the strands of grey Yuan Qi so much a millimeter.

Showing a look of disgust, Otoko no Kage shakes his head. "You're an idiot You call Beast an animal, but he would kill you in an instant. He is like a Ferocious Beast hiding in a human skin."

"You talk about human? You filthy, Half! You're half-animal yourself! Do you think you could even call yourself a human if it weren't for your brother being City Lord?"

"Are you trying to insult me, Half!?" In his rage, Makura sprays spittle along with his words.

Otoko no Kage shows a very slight smirk, and condescension fills his scent. "You are not worthy of my insults."

"Bastard! I'll have you publicly caned!"

"By who? My brother will never publicly acknowledge my existence. Your pathetic clan does not have anyone who could subdue me."

Otoko no Kage turns to me. "Beast-kun, take the metal you need and go."

I snort. "After that idiot opened his mouth, I planned to that, take them without paying. But you're starting to piss me off. You plan on getting in the way of all my fun, Kage-kun?"

With no readable expression on his face, Otoko no Kage stares at me for a moment before responding. "You should watch your mouth. As long as I do not kill or cripple you, Grandmaster Jones is not likely to get involved. No mater how much I hurt you."

I snort once more. "Come at me whenever you want. I really to know just hos strong a Martial Lord is."

After Otoko no Kage just stares expressionlessly at me for a few moments, I shrug my shoulders and leave the office. Glancing over my shoulder at Vorn, who follows with an irritating superior grin plastered on face, I give him a smirk. "Time to pay back my lesson on reinforcement sigils. We need to load the truck ourselves. It'll be faster that waiting for the yard monkeys to do it. With those bloated muscles, you should have trouble lifting half-ton pallets of metal ingots."