“It’s you! You monster!”
“The things you sold, they’re going to kill us!”
Charles’s furious face twisted his mask, and the way the flesh on his face squirmed made him look more like a monster than the mechanical merchant before him.
The mechanical merchant’s metal face showed no expression, but a hint of grievance could be heard in its gender-ambiguous voice:
“Guest, I informed you from the beginning that these goods come with a price, and should not be used often or excessively.
“It was you and your companions, due to greed, who failed to dispose of them in time, leading to your current predicament. It was you and your companions who succumbed to human nature, succumbed to… the Person of the Principle.”
“Bullshit!”
Charles struggled forward, pulling the wire binding him tighter.
“If you hadn’t incited us, would we have bought those things?!”
The mechanical merchant shook its head helplessly:
“I am an honest merchant. I only reveal the secrets of my goods to customers who have a need.”
“To hell with your honesty!”
Charles cursed angrily, struggling for nearly three minutes before collapsing weakly, breathing heavily.
“Guest, have you calmed down?” the mechanical merchant asked with concern.
Charles slowly raised his head, his trembling pupils still burning with anger:
“Why are you here? Did you plan all of this? Waiting for us to die so you can harvest our souls?”
“Negative.”
The mechanical merchant shook its head, answering deliberately:
“I am not a follower of Theocracy and do not tell fortunes; nor am I a follower of the Person of the Principle, so I do not toy with souls.
“I am here merely for a common and genuine material transaction, and to search for some lost items.
“Your presence here is also unexpected to me. Perhaps, this is a kind of fate.”
“Heh, fate…” Charles sneered disdainfully.
The mechanical merchant paused, then asked:
“You seem to be in a very bad mood. Are you interested in trading with me again? Although I haven’t brought many goods, I can still provide some after-sales care for you and your companions. For example, helping you remove the goods you now find bothersome.”
Charles frowned:
“You can make us normal again?”
“Answer, affirmative.”
The mechanical merchant said,
“However, you and your companions still need to pay that final small price. I do not lie, and I have handled many similar after-sales services.”
With that, it raised its hat, like a proper gentleman.
But Charles looked at it and only felt disgust:
“What do you want me to pay this time?!”
“I need you to do me a small favor.”
The mechanical merchant replied,
“I need you, a few days from now, at the opera performance, to smash this mechanical conch in front of Governing Madam Enos.”
As it spoke, it took out a conch from its embrace, its surface stained with moss-green. Looking into the broken shell of the conch, one could see precise gears, like an artificial heart, beating rhythmically, one after another.
Charles felt his gaze involuntarily drawn to it, just as he had been drawn to that strange music box back then.
“Why… do this?”
The mechanical merchant answered honestly:
“I have a deal with the colonel, the content of which is to deal with the Governing Madam of this district.
“You are an outsider, so perhaps you don’t know. Governing Madam Enos is a very excellent witch.
“A large reason why the major’s garrison cannot peacefully settle here is due to that Madam. The demise of the previous garrison also involved that Madam’s presence.”
“Therefore, the major invited me, along with several other gentlemen and ladies, to deal with that Madam together.”
Charles suddenly felt a sting on his face, and the feeling of his gaze being uncontrollable vanished abruptly, replaced by extreme anger:
“You want me to die?! Heh, you say you don’t lie, but you’re still the same as before, not mentioning a single word about the subsequent price!”
The mechanical merchant was silent for several seconds before replying as if enlightened:
“Oh, you require additional assurance. I can discuss that with the major. So, what specific assurance do you require?”
Charles froze, his body trembling slightly, feeling more and more that he was speaking to something utterly devoid of human emotion.
Monster!
This thing, like those high-and-mighty figures in the Fog City, they were all man-eating monsters!
They treated the people below them as consumables, as pawns, squeezing out their value and discarding them when used up!
The mechanical merchant’s round spectacles rotated slightly:
“Guest, do you wish to trade? I estimate that the bodies of your other companions may not last until next year.”
“You!”
Charles bit his lip until it bled, but his mind flashed with Rose’s sore throat at night, Anthony’s muddled eyes soaked in alcohol, and Helena’s weak cries during stomach pains.
Finally, his head, raised high in anger, drooped lower and lower…
“I… have an additional request…”
The mechanical merchant nodded gently, listening patiently, appearing very easy to negotiate with.
“Oh, right.”
Before leaving, the mechanical merchant turned back and said,
“Have you seen an exquisite music box, and a wondrous clockwork heart?”
Charles numbly shook his head, his eyes listlessly fixed on the mechanical conch on the ground. The mechanical merchant’s long shadow just happened to envelop him and the conch.
“Oh, that’s truly a pity.”
The mechanical merchant expressed great regret,
“If you have any clues, you can blow the conch and contact me. I can offer the guest goods of equal value. You know, I do not lie, and I value my clients’ privacy.”
With that, the long shadow on the ground slowly vanished.
“Snap…”
All the wires on Charles’s body broke.
He fell to the ground, lying beside the mechanical conch, silent for a long time, then tremblingly extended his right hand.
.......
Military camp, outer perimeter.
Li Andy frowned as he looked at the grim temporary siege.
He released several wisps of spirituality, attaching them to the soldiers’ clothing, but when they entered the military camp, they strangely dissipated.
This feeling was as if they had been cleansed by Sister Anna’s lantern.
“Andy, what’s wrong? Did you find anyone?”
Sophia sniffed, the smell inside the military camp displeased her greatly.
Especially since there was a faint, almost imperceptible scent of a natural predator lingering in the air!
“No, the spirituality I released dissipated.”
“Dissipated?!”
Sophia blinked, not expecting Andy’s strangely disgusting ability to ever fail.
Li Andy looked at the military camp and explained:
“There should be someone from within the circle in this military camp. They’ve set up a spirit-repelling barrier, similar to an exorcism. My few sparse wisps of spirituality were ‘blown’ away as soon as they entered.”
“Then you can release more, make them stickier, so they can hold on?”
Sophia thought she had offered a very clever suggestion, shaking her wolf ears slightly, anticipating his shocked expression.
However, Li Andy looked at her speechlessly:
“If there’s more, others will discover that a ghost has arrived.”
Sophia’s wolf ears froze awkwardly for two seconds, then she turned her head away, her cheeks slightly flushed:
“Then what should we do? Should I sneak in?”
Li Andy pondered for a few seconds, took out the Mystic Mirror, and was about to attempt to peer through it when Sophia wrapped her arms around his arm and shook him:
“Andy, look quickly, a woman is coming out!”
Li Andy looked up and saw a graceful “woman” veiled in black gauze, slowly walking towards the entrance of the military camp, escorted by several guards.
Along the way, the eyes of the surrounding soldiers were like hungry wolves staring at a lamb, their green gazes filled with undisguised greed, their looks sticky, vulgar, and full of contempt.
Even some unpleasant and filthy words faintly drifted into people’s ears.
It made one feel as if they were not in a military camp, but a bandit’s den.
“Tsk, what a big star, she’s still just a barking dog on our major’s bed…”
“Hehe, I also really want to ride her. I wonder how many merits I need to earn to gain the major’s favor…”
“The major’s leftovers are also very delicious, aren’t they?”
“Yes! Hahaha…”
Under the black veil, Charles’s face was dark and twisted.
His fists in his sleeves clenched tighter and tighter, even his fingernails digging into his flesh.
Amidst his anger, his heart also ached greatly.
He finally understood one hundred percent everything Rose had endured for them.
Gradually, his body stopped trembling, and his heart became terrifyingly still.
‘That major doesn’t seem to have spread the word that I’m a man…’
‘That mechanical monster doesn’t seem to have told the major my true identity either…’
Charles looked faintly at the military camp exit.
Should this transaction really continue?