Adela knelt on the cold stone slabs, her body trembling like a sieve.
The will to survive made her fix her gaze intently on Lin Qingyue's figure, her eyes holding a final glimmer of hope.
Trading secrets for her life—this was her last and most crucial transaction.
Lin Qingyue looked down at her from above, her expression indifferent.
The intelligence was valuable.
But that didn't mean her crimes could be wiped clean.
Aiding a tyrant, luring the innocent to their ruin.
Every debt was stained with blood.
"Your intelligence has bought you your life," Lin Qingyue said, her voice cool.
"But only 'temporarily.'"
Adela's body instantly stiffened.
Lin Qingyue continued, "The death penalty may be spared, but you won't escape punishment. For the rest of your life, you will atone for your past actions."
As for how she would atone, Lin Qingyue hadn't decided yet.
Perhaps she could hang a sign around Adela's neck and display her at the city gates as a negative example, forcing her to give daily lectures titled My Deceitful First Half-Life.
A bit humiliating... but humiliating a vixen shouldn't count as humiliating a person, right?
Just as her imagination ran wild, pondering which form of atonement would be more creative, a deep, raspy voice spoke up.
"This... powerful lady."
Lin Qingyue turned her head to the side.
City Lord Punk had walked over at some point, forcefully suppressing the turbulent emotions churning within him.
Though his face remained deathly pale, the personal humiliation and breakdown in his bloodshot eyes were now sealed behind an invisible floodgate.
At this moment, he was no longer the pitiful fool deceived by the woman who shared his bed.
He was the City Lord of Blackrock Stronghold, wielding the power of life and death over the entire city.
"If possible, could the handling of this sinner be entrusted to Blackrock Stronghold?"
He got straight to the point, his tone tinged with a hint of request.
That works... We don't have the time to stay here and supervise Adela's atonement anyway.
Lin Qingyue nodded in agreement but immediately added a condition:
"You may, but we might need to extract more information about the 'Mother of Rebirth' from her at any time."
"I need your guarantee that we can interrogate her whenever necessary and that her safety will be ensured."
"Thank you." Punk let out an almost imperceptible sigh of relief, offering his solemn thanks before turning to face Adela.
The Guard Captain immediately handed him an object.
It was an ancient bronze scale, its trays inscribed with intricate runes, emitting a faint yet undeniable sacred aura.
"This is the [Scales of Justice], a Sacred Relic blessed by the 'God of Contracts'."
Punk's voice was exceptionally clear in the deathly silent square.
"I will not kill her. A dead fox-woman is worthless."
"But Blackrock Stronghold does not support idlers, and certainly not sinners."
He walked up to Adela, ignoring her terrified gaze, and raised the scales high.
"I, Punk Stonefist, City Lord of Blackrock Stronghold, hereby declare in the name of the God of Contracts!"
"Sinner Adela, you will atone for your sins with the rest of your life. You will sign a Master-Servant Contract with me and serve Blackrock Stronghold for thirty years."
"For the next thirty years, your wisdom, your cunning, your everything, will be used to atone for the wrongs you have committed."
"Under this contract, should you show even the slightest defiance, your soul will be burned by Divine Fire, never to find peace for all eternity!"
"Are you willing?"
The moment his voice fell, the runes on the [Scales of Justice] suddenly flared, and a soft light enveloped both Punk and Adela.
Adela could not refuse.
This was her only path to survival.
"I... am willing."
She forced out the words with all her remaining strength.
The scales shone brilliantly, and two illusory rune marks flew out, embedding themselves in Punk's and Adela's foreheads respectively.
The contract was sealed.
Lin Qingyue watched this professional scene with great interest.
Lin Xiyue, however, cut straight to the point: "So this fox vixen is now the City Lord's dog? He'll make her bite whoever he wants?"
Lin Qingyue gave her younger sister a look of approval.
Crude but true, and brilliantly concise!
Foxes are canids, after all!
"More than that." A flicker of subtle approval flashed in Su Wan's azure eyes.
"He turned a liability about to be liquidated into a controllable, long-term productive asset for thirty years, and used a Divine Spell Contract to mitigate all risks. This City Lord... is a competent lord."
Xia Lian added in a low voice, "And the justification of 'labor reform' sounds... more official, making it more acceptable to the city's residents than simply killing her."
Tsk, squeezing out every last drop of surplus value. What do you call this? Revitalizing non-performing assets and maximizing employee value.
She mentally gave Punk's maneuver a thumbs-up.
This City Lord is far more skilled than that Evil God who only feeds on emotional garbage. If the Evil God came here, he'd have to sit in on a couple of management courses.
After dealing with Adela, Punk immediately turned, faced Lin Qingyue and her three companions, and performed a standard noble's bow.
"Four young ladies, on behalf of the tens of thousands of citizens of Blackrock Stronghold, I thank you for saving our lives."
His posture was extremely humble, filled with sincerity.
"If not for you, Blackrock Stronghold would have been destroyed by internal strife today. I will never forget this debt of gratitude."
Lin Qingyue glanced at the guards behind him, who were still shaken, and spoke calmly:
"City Lord Punk, you can save your thanks for after we've won. We are now allies in the same boat, and time is short."
Punk was taken aback, then nodded bitterly. "You are right, young lady. But a debt is a debt, and an enmity is an enmity. Blackrock Stronghold has not yet fallen to the point of needing allies to bring their own supplies."
He straightened up, his tone solemn and resolute:
"To express our gratitude, and more importantly, for the upcoming siege defense, Blackrock Stronghold's armory will be fully open to the four of you! Please, be sure to select the finest weapons and equipment to keep our common enemy outside the city walls!"
-
Blackrock Stronghold's armory was less a warehouse and more a massive steel cavern.
The air that hit them was thick with the choking smell of oil and metal, mixed with a faint, lingering scent of gunpowder.
The weapon racks lining the walls were hung with menacing armaments.
Horse-chopping sabers as tall as a person, great axes requiring two hands to wield, greatswords as wide as door panels...
Deeper inside, there were steam-powered chainswords, hydraulic warhammers with external mini-boilers, and rows of "city-defense-grade rapid-fire rivet guns" that resembled oversized staplers.
Rows of armor stands displayed full suits of heavy plate armor, each with a brass boiler and exhaust pipes trailing from its back, their joints exposing complex gears and pistons—a violent yet retro industrial aesthetic.
Rough, heavy, violent, and a bit leaky.
This was the style of Blackrock Stronghold.
Xia Lian cautiously set down a "hand axe" she could barely swing, then spotted a "crossbow" that required a steam-powered winch to draw.
She shrank back, whispering to Su Wan, "I feel like... I don't even have the strength to draw a bow here. Are these weapons made for giants?"
Lin Xiyue walked up to a suit of steam-powered heavy armor with a brass boiler on its back, lifted a gauntlet weighing dozens of pounds with one hand, casually weighed it, then tossed it back onto the rack with a disgusted look, creating a loud clang.
"Absolutely not, it's far too cumbersome."
"Wearing this, my parrying and deflection skills would be useless, turning me into a welded-in-place iron turtle, only able to stand there and take hits."
Su Wan merely swept a graceful glance over the iron monstrosities belching black smoke, filled with their "violent aesthetic," and delivered her verdict:
"Giant heat-source targets, utterly lacking in elegance."
However, just as she was about to lose interest completely, her gaze was drawn to a half-finished device in a corner.
It was a metal gauntlet connected to a miniature boiler, but instead of complex gears, it was inscribed with incomplete energy-conducting runes.
Su Wan's perpetually calm, azure eyes now gleamed with a researcher's fervent light.
She walked over, her fingertips gently touching the cold metal.
"Interesting. They're trying to forcibly activate magic runes with steam power, driving the energy cycle with brute force... The approach is barbaric, but the idea itself might have some merit."
Lin Qingyue, meanwhile, treated the place like an exhibition of bizarre inventions, touching this and tapping that.
She picked up a helmet with three vertical observation slits.
"This design... is it for Erlang Shen? Or is there a three-eyed race in this world?"
(Spy-Chinese warrior deity)
She then knocked on a breastplate whose right side was noticeably larger than the left.
"And this breastplate, why is the right side so much bigger than the left? To make it easier to carry grenades?"
The four of them exchanged glances and reluctantly abandoned the heavy equipment.
The air fell silent for a moment, broken only by the hissing leak of a distant steam pipe.
City Lord Punk, who had been accompanying them, showed no embarrassment as he watched the young women shake their heads at the equipment. Instead, a wry, knowing smile touched his lips.
He broke the silence, his voice deep and resonant: "It seems Blackrock Stronghold's 'philosophy of war' doesn't align with your combat styles."
"First, I'll take you to the accessories section. There are some enchanted trinkets there that might be useful."
He paused, his tone becoming incredibly firm and solemn.
"Furthermore, Blackrock Stronghold's finest master blacksmiths are all on standby!"
"No matter how precious the materials or how complex the craftsmanship, I guarantee we will forge the most suitable, custom-fit equipment for you within two days!"