Chapter Ninety-Four: The Adopted Son and the Adoptive Father

"Damn it!"

Standing on a more remote stretch of the harbor breakwater, Arthur, wrapped head to toe in a white cloak, saw Lin Qi on the prow of the Sea Windmill, preening with smug satisfaction. Furious, he kicked a huge rock. In his rage, he forgot to shield his foot with battle aura. The stone, battered by waves for countless years, did not so much as budge, and Arthur nearly broke his toes.

A cry of pain escaped him. Hopping on one leg like a hen with a broken limb, Arthur snarled through clenched teeth at Lin Qi and then sat down crookedly with a thud. The breakwater was littered with dirty snow and ice. Waves kept crashing against it, and a layer of seawater had collected in the snow without yet freezing. When Arthur fell, he was instantly soaked through.

Several burly men with coarse, heavy faces standing beside him hurried to help him up, only to be slapped hard across the face by Arthur, whose eye twitched with rage. He roared in a low, hysterical voice, "Weren't you supposed to send him to the mountain retreat? Why is he here? You useless fools, you idiots raised on pig dung, how do you get your intelligence?"

He lashed out with a flying kick, knocking the largest and most powerfully built man to the ground, then said coldly, "I've had you planted in the Black Tiger Family for five years. Five whole years, and you still can't even keep track of Lin Qi's exact movements. What use are you to me?"

The men's faces turned green in waves, and they hunched their shoulders, too frightened to make the slightest sound. The man Arthur had kicked to the ground looked so aggrieved he was nearly in tears. Could they really be blamed for not knowing Lin Qi's exact movements?

Yes, Arthur had placed them in the Black Tiger Family, but what were they in that household?

They chopped firewood, boiled water, scrubbed stables and pigpens, and every month they wandered the streets and alleys to collect the monthly levy from small shops that belonged not to the Empire's tax office but to the underworld—that is, what people commonly called protection money.

They were mere lackeys, not even considered important ones. Lin Qi's movements were arranged personally by Blackbeard and carried out by men like Hammer, Cleaver, and Bal. Those men operated on a completely different level from them. How could they possibly know Lin Qi's exact whereabouts?

After venting his anger with a round of furious kicking and cursing, Arthur gritted his teeth and said darkly, "He went to the Sea Windmill. What was he doing there? Hiding out? Taking a stroll? Impossible. The old man must have had another arrangement for him. Then what was it? Hmm, what's going on with the stern of the Sea Windmill? Why is there such a huge hole? It looks like it was blasted by..."

Staring thoughtfully at the great hole torn in the ship's stern by lightning, Arthur slowly nodded to himself, his mind racing in many directions. It had to be admitted that his powers of free association were formidable. He even connected this to the possibility that the Black Tiger Family was conducting some top-secret transaction at sea with outside forces, and that Lin Qi was the man assigned to execute it!

"Damn it, why him? Why let him carry it out?" Arthur ground out. "Am I really less capable than Lin Qi?"

He cast a cold glance at Lin Qi, who stood on the prow waving continuously, looking all too pleased with himself, then drew his cloak tighter around him with a touch of desolation and snorted before turning to leave. As he walked, he instructed the burly men close at his side, "Increase contact with Sea Horse Uncle and the others. Those old subordinates of my father, the Red-Haired Ghost, if any of them are still willing to follow me, if they are loyal and trustworthy, have Sea Horse Uncle gather them all again. I need a force entirely my own, one strong enough to be summoned at any time."

The men hurriedly agreed. Arthur, his face dark with gloom, kept his head lowered as he led them swiftly out of the harbor and disappeared into Dunkirk's alleyways.

Within the crowd of the harbor district, Blackbeard, his face black with fury, waved the cigar in his hand with such force that the sparks from its tip sent the nearby nobles and dignitaries, dressed in expensive fur coats, scrambling away in confusion. Blackbeard sprayed spit as he roared, "By the gods, what in the world is going on? Those two little brats who should have been recovering in the villa—how did they end up on the whaling ship? Good heavens, did they ignore their injuries and go aboard the whaler to hunt whales?"

A collective "Oh!" rose from the surrounding nobles and dignitaries.

With full conviction, Blackbeard performed every gesture and every line that a grief-stricken father ought to have. Stamping his feet, he shouted, "Even though I gave them excellent wound medicine made by the master of oriental secret formulas, they won't recover properly without at least half a month of rest! By the gods, why did they sneak onto the whaling ship? Could it be that they meant to challenge those terrifying monster whales?"

Shrinking into a dry little bundle, Cleaver stood carefully beside Blackbeard and said in a strained voice, "My lord, isn't that exactly what you've always taught the young master? You told him your children should have the courage to challenge everything. To go hunting a one-horned berserk whale while gravely injured—wouldn't that be the very image of a hero?"

Blackbeard abruptly stopped his extravagant hand gestures and stared at Cleaver in utter shock. "Really? Did I teach him that?"

Baron Milo, standing beside Blackbeard, said with grave solemnity, "Mr. Tiger, I believe you must have taught young Master Lin Qi exactly that! Surely that was the case, or how else could we explain that he and his friends dared draw their swords and fight so heroically against so many orcs?"

The nobles around Blackbeard burst into applause and praise. Yes, how heroic those two young men were. They had just fought bravely against those filthy, damned orcs and rescued Dunkirk's idle sons and daughters from their blades. Then, despite their injuries, they secretly slipped aboard the whaling ship and, like true men, battled the one-horned berserk whales in the storm and snow upon the open sea. It was truly heroic, truly fearless.

"You have raised a fine son, honored Mr. Tiger!"

"Young Master Lin Qi is truly the pride of Dunkirk, honored Mr. Tiger!"

"Indeed. If those worthless brats of mine were even half as good as Lin Qi, I could rest easy even if the gods summoned me now."

"Mr. Lin Qi is a model for all the young people of Dunkirk. There can be no doubt of that!"

Blackbeard blushed scarlet under the praise. Bending his massive, powerful frame like a great circus bear, he politely bowed to the dignitaries. With great modesty, he laughed, "You flatter me, truly you do. I only taught Lin Qi how a real man ought to behave. You are all far too kind. In truth, the young people of Dunkirk are all excellent, aren't they?"

And so the matter of Lin Qi's inexplicable appearance on the Sea Windmill was allowed to pass without further inquiry. No one delved any deeper into it.

The harbor rang with laughter and cheers. Everyone waved handkerchiefs, welcoming Lin Qi and Enzo, and above all, the return of the Sea Windmill and its prey.