Chapter Nineteen: Terms of Exchange

Enzo and Yulian almost simultaneously rushed up to Father Barin, each grabbing one of his shoulders and violently dragging him into the room, slamming him hard onto the floor. The sharp ring of a weapon leaving its sheath echoed—no one saw where Lin Qi had produced a gleaming single-bladed axe, but he pressed it furiously against Father Barin’s neck.

Father Barin, terrified and desperate, opened his mouth to shout for help, but Grom had already nimbly plopped himself down onto his stomach. The crushing weight made Father Barin’s eyes bulge. The poor man exhaled sharply, all the air forced from his chest, leaving him unable to utter a sound. Grom gave a grunt and wriggled his hips slightly; immediately, the vertebrae in Father Barin’s waist groaned under the unbearable pressure.

Yulian swung around and kicked the door shut. Lin Qi slowly bent down, his grim face drawing within half a foot of Father Barin’s. The priest’s face was turning purple under Grom’s weight, gasping and floundering like a fish out of water, but with nearly four hundred pounds pressing on his chest, he couldn’t draw even the slightest breath.

“Vick was captured by the Knights of the Round Table?” Lin Qi asked, his voice slow and deliberate.

Father Barin looked at Lin Qi with pitiful eyes, a horrible gurgling sound issuing from his throat. He was only a middleman, after all. All the various unruly student groups in University City had some connection with him, but he was merely a messenger. Feeling the cold edge of the axe against his neck, Father Barin prayed devoutly to all the gods of the heavens to strike these villains down with thunderbolts of judgment.

A model student, a future imperial elite—how could he possibly keep such a deadly weapon hidden in his room? If Father Barin was not mistaken, the axe in Lin Qi’s hand was the kind used by slaughterhouse butchers for large livestock—a single blow could easily cleave a man in two!

This was the dormitory of the Fifth University—why was there something fit only for a slaughterhouse here? Even with his broad experience, Father Barin’s mind couldn’t process this for the moment. Especially with the axe pressed to his neck, his thoughts had utterly frozen.

Grom was noisily chewing on a boiled egg, carefully observing Father Barin’s complexion. Only when the priest’s face had changed from purple to nearly black did Grom slowly rise and gingerly sit on a wooden stool. He had to be careful—ever since half a year ago when he collapsed Lin Qi’s bed and received a thorough beating in return, he had become much more cautious.

So, the fact that he hadn’t just broken Father Barin’s ribs was truly a stroke of luck.

Father Barin gasped in a lungful of air with a strange, whistling sound. After several violent coughs, he finally stammered out, “It has nothing to do with me, you know that! It’s not my concern. I have no dealings with the scoundrels from the Military Academy. Father Eisen is their chaplain, not me! I’ve got nothing to do with that rabble!”

Lin Qi stared coldly at Father Barin, ignoring his cries and instead sneered, “If we chopped you into eighteen pieces and tossed you into the Seine at midnight, by morning you’d have floated hundreds of miles downstream, and there would be no more Father Barin in the world.”

Father Barin turned deathly pale with fright, trembling as he stammered, “Th-this is murder!”

Lin Qi blinked and sneered, “Wrong. It’s not murder. It’s an accidental drowning.”

Father Barin nearly burst into tears, fear and fury causing him to growl, “Chopped into eighteen pieces—how is that not murder?”

Lin Qi nodded as if suddenly enlightened, scraping the priest’s greasy neck with the coarse blade of the axe, and said with a cold smile, “Ah, I see. Right, if it was just an accident, you wouldn’t be in eighteen pieces. How about we get you drunk, knock you out, and toss you into the river?”

He gave a bizarre laugh, face darkening. “A man who’s dead drunk and unconscious—could he possibly swim?”

Tears streamed down Father Barin’s face as he whimpered, “But Mr. Lin Qi, we’re friends, aren’t we? We’re friends!”

Lin Qi gave a few cold laughs and shook his head firmly. “No, we’re not friends. Since last night, we’re no longer friends! So you’ll have your fatal accident, and even if the brass from the Security Bureau finds you, it’ll just be a case of a drunken wanderer drowning by misfortune!”

Father Barin blinked away his tears, which miraculously ceased their flow. He gazed thoughtfully at Lin Qi. After a moment’s contemplation, he nodded slowly. “That talisman—I’m sorry, I gave you the wrong one. That wasn’t the one personally crafted by the Archbishop. But believe me, I didn’t mean to cheat you, Mr. Lin Qi. I just picked up the wrong one after drinking.”

Lin Qi sighed deeply and nodded. “Yes, you made a mistake, but I was nearly killed by Master Kocha’s fireball because of it!”

Father Barin raised three fingers. “Three hundred indulgences, at cost price, you know what that means!”

Lin Qi glared, gritting his teeth. “Three hundred indulgences, three thousand copper coins, and after costs, my profit is a measly ten gold pieces? Is that all my life is worth? Two thousand indulgences, at cost price. You know what I mean!”

Father Barin glared back, growling in anger, “Two thousand? With all these counterfeit indulgences popping up, do you know what trouble that will bring? One thousand, at most—or you may as well kill me! And profit—I want half. Otherwise, just kill me now!”

Lin Qi put away the axe, the heavy weapon vanishing as mysteriously as it had appeared. Enzo and Yulian, all smiles, helped Father Barin to his feet. A thousand non-church indulgences would still bring in a tidy profit—Father Barin was their cash cow now, so naturally, he deserved a little respect.

Clapping his hands, Lin Qi forced a smile through clenched teeth. “Very well, dear Father Barin, now tell me—how did those despicable, shameless, loathsome bastards capture Vick? And what conditions have they proposed?”

Father Barin wiped the cold sweat from his brow, snatched a bottle of wine from the table, and took a long swig. Satisfied, he belched, narrowing his eyes.

“How they captured Vick—I truly don’t know the details. But as for their conditions, they’re not simple.” Father Barin’s expression darkened. “Lin Qi, they want several of your Iron Fist Brotherhood leaders to meet them at midnight tonight, in the alley behind the Sword and Maiden Tavern, for negotiations.” He grimaced. “And they want you to bring plenty of gold coins!”

Lin Qi’s lips twitched—the Sword and Maiden Tavern was the usual haunt of the Military Academy students.