The supervisor—Overseer Liang—was here.
I'd hoped sticking to our agreement would be enough.
I should've known better.
All three of us shot up. I moved more slowly than the others—because, well, injuries.
But that didn't matter. Overseer Liang was here.
Before I could say anything, he bellowed, "That's the little thief!"
I wasn't a thief, of course, but what did I expect from a man who had tried to extort me while I was still at my residence?
I retorted, " I didn't steal from you!"
Which wasn't the smartest of all my current ideas but I was not going to play polite. I didn't almost die trying to kill a spirit beast to bow to a man who couldn't even control his urges.
I'd heard the stories. He oversaw all the farmers in his section—the wheat and grains part of the city: the Fields.
He had the power over all those sun-lashed, brow-beaten peasant farmers.
Sometimes the power got to him.
That's what the thugs were for—to make sure the victims didn't fight back.
As if summoned by my thoughts, more cronies poured in—even more than last time.
**They are irrelevant enough that I refuse to recount them in this record. **
They were big, strong, and mean—the kind to have thick arms and thicker skulls.
The overseer stepped forward, trying to be menacing.
Big Randy wasn't having it. There was a reason he was called Big Randy.
He was taller than even the hired thugs the overseer brought.
Big Randy looked like he'd been forged on the same anvil he worked on—broad, burned, and barely contained by his coveralls.
I don't know why there were so many, but he had burn marks all over his body—like skin paintings clinging to muscle like secrets.
Decades of beating metal didn't leave him a weak man.
"Hold there, Liang."
Overseer Liang turned red, like a child told he couldn't play with his favorite toy.
"What is your business with the boy?"
Igor was circling around to the side of the hired force and Overseer Liang. Not to run. That was were the tools where.
Pikes, tongs…hammers.
They didn't notice.
Or maybe they just thought the fat, balding guy with the nice belt wouldn't put up a fight.
Overseer Liang tried to calm Big Randy down, for some reason he didn't feel that confident, especially with his help starting to look wary.
They thought this was going to be the usual. I'm glad it wasn't.
"The child stole a spirit beast from me!" Liang snapped. "Surely you're not defending him? Let me take him off your hands."
If I didn't hear it myself, I wouldn't believe my ears. How shameless could one man be? Really thick skin!
Big Randy, immediately shot a disbelieving look, then turned to me, " Aren't you the one who went hunting the beavers?" I nodded, "Yes"
"You hunted the spirit beast right?" I nodded again, raising my right arm to show the proof.
Overseer Liang started sweating. Visibly.
"W…wee…well, he was supposed to come to me first. He hunted in my jurisdiction, everything done there has to be done with my permission."
He looked around, noticing the disbelief on the eyes of everyone, even his people.
I guess seeing the person who managed to kill a spirit beast would be enough to make anyone wary. Even if he was hurt.
The supervisor stepped back. Only one leg.
"It is my right!"
This man was a child. An overgrown child.
"You and I both well know I am allowed proveeds from everything past the start of the fields"
Igor stated, "And it ends where the forest starts. The only ones stupid enough to lay claim to the forest are the cultivators. And only the young ones. "
Igor had two hammers in hand now. I hadn't realized how menacing the man could look.
Gulp.
The supervisor, took one large swallow. It looked dry, like he was swallowing down nerves.
Igor tossed Big Randy a hammer. Then picked up a tong.
This couldn't have been the first time things had gone wrong in this room.
They were too prepared.
Overseer Liang looked at his men. All 6 of them. He didn't seem confident with what he saw.
"They are spirit beasts!!"
"And?" I was getting in on the action now, what? Would this harm our relationship? I laughed internally—there was no bridge here to be burnt.
"I hunted those things. They are mine. I get to decide how I use them."
The look of rage that infused him almost made me scared. Not of him. But because I thought his head would implode.
His thugs weren't as menacing when they were up against people who could—and would fight them back.
This time he was staring at just me alone. "You wait and see, you're with the hunchback right? Let's see then." He huffed. Then stumped out, his men left first before him. When he had first started walking towards the door.
Maybe it was me, but it looked like he picked up his pace, like the room had turned toxic, "Wait," Igor had his tong out in one hand and a hammer in another. "I heard screaming before you came in here, you didn't hurt any of our apprentices right?"
He didn't ask it like a question. It sounded like a threat. Like a lioness growling at you coming to close to her cubs.
Overseer Liang put his hands up with jittery speed, "N-no, he just fell, look I'll go fetch him for you." He left, this time before Igor could get in another word, "Men—!!!"
Big Randy turned to me, but he didn't relax. Hammer still in hand.
"You'd best take care of him. He doesn't seem like he'll leave you alone."
"Aye. Who's this hunchback he was stalking about?" Igor put the tong back in its place. But kept the other weapon. Just in case.
"Huo Qianlei. He's the man who took me in when I first got to the city. "
Igor looked to Big Randy, "Is he the man who took the lashings?"
Big Randy looked at him like he had said something stupid, "Yes Igor, would you also like to tell us about his family situation?"
"Ah, really? Don't you think that's inappropriate for the situation? "
Big Randy tightened the grip on the hammers handle.
Igor looked at me. "If you have any money, it'd be best you move them. And, if the hunch—Huo Qianlei, still works in the fields, it's best if he doesn't anymore.
Liang is a petty man."
"I understand," I looked to both men, bowing at a corner angle, "Thank you for the help"
Big Randy turned to me, hand still tight around the handle, " Don't worry, we can't leave our best business partner hangin', eh?"
He clapped me on the back. Forgetting how heavy his hands were.
"Let's go check on the apprentices Igor, that bastard doesn't have a single truthful bone in his body."
/////
—Meanwhile, miles away, far from the clamor of the forge—
Huo Feng's feet hit the earth.
He hit it with a force strange to mortal men.
He was running, the man, for he was a man now, had his clothes in tatters, leaves, and mud coating his exposed skin.
Inhale. Exhale. Stop.
They could hear
He kept running, he had fled from these people for the past 3 days, he wouldn't let himself be caught he—
He snagged his leg against a protruding root. For someone like him that should have been no problem. But his pursuers weren't ordinary people.
Whizz
A spear, long and thin. Serrated, jagged tip. Liquid wicking of it as it whistled through the air, he turned around….