She was nothing like the beast-eared girls in certain works of fiction.
Beastkin were not hybrids of humans and wild animals.
Beastification itself was a curse.
The curse intensified animal instincts, stripping people of reason. In severe cases, they gradually regressed into beasts.
Most importantly, it was contagious.
Even for their own safety, few ordinary people were willing to approach Beastkin, let alone accept them.
Those unfortunate enough to bear the curse either embraced their bestial nature and eventually died hunting or being hunted,
or secluded themselves in the mountains and forests so they would not hurt anyone.
That made things troublesome.
From the fragments he had heard, Tang Qi could tell that Anbi had probably been caught up in a theft.
Whether she was innocent remained unclear.
But with everyone already thinking of her as a Beastkin, someone might well use that against her.
Catherine had told him to notify her immediately if anything happened. She had probably dealt with something like this before.
Tang Qi decided to retrace his steps and fetch Catherine first...
But just as he was about to turn, Jackal's roar reached his ears again.
"Won't admit it? Then I'll chop off those filthy paws of yours and teach you a lesson!"
Tang Qi spun around in shock and saw Jackal raise his longsword over his head.
"I didn't steal anything! Why won't any of you believe me?"
Tang Qi was close enough to see the girl trembling all over.
Veins suddenly stood out on her pale hands, bound in the wooden stocks, and snow-white fur spread over them in an instant.
Her slender fingers sprouted sharp nails, on the verge of becoming a beast's claws.
At the sight, a boy in the crowd pointed at her transformed hands and cursed without hiding his disgust.
"Monster! It was you! You ruined our family's Star Plums!"
Jackal, meanwhile, glanced hesitantly toward Black Snake nearby—
The village official stood beside him, of course, but in Star Plum Town, the official carried less weight than the mercenaries.
Seeing that his leader had no intention of stopping him, Jackal grinned viciously and brought his sword down toward the girl's hands without hesitation.
He had not needed to carry out the punishment himself.
But Jackal never missed a chance to make people fear him.
An execution was the perfect excuse.
"No, no!" Anbi squeezed her eyes shut.
But the girl's pleas earned her no mercy.
The gleaming blade caught a flash of cold silver light—
"Catherine!"
The shout froze everyone present. The executioner's blade stopped inches above the back of the girl's hand.
Everyone turned toward the voice. After a moment's hesitation, they began guessing who the unfamiliar face belonged to.
Tang Qi had shaved his beard. Even Jackal failed to recognize him.
That did not matter. Seeing that the girl's hands were still intact, Tang Qi let out a long breath—
The mercenaries' attitude toward Catherine the night before had made one thing clear.
Only Star Plum Town's loveliest Dawn-Dusk Flower could make them hesitate.
Going against these mercenaries was hardly wise.
But Anbi was his only fan.
And he still wanted to taste the glass of Star Plum Wine she had promised him last night.
He could not bring himself to write "new friend" in his Journal one day, then wake up the next and leave her to die...
Jackal had indeed hesitated at the mention of Catherine. But when he looked around and saw no sign of her scarlet-clad figure, he realized he had been tricked.
He glared at Tang Qi and pointed his longsword at him.
"Are you her accomplice?"
"Of course not, sir. I have nothing to do with this child."
Tang Qi answered as politely as he could, all while trying to work out what else he could do.
Jackal gave a cold snort.
"Then don't interrupt this trial!"
"In fact, honored executioner, I still don't know what this child did to deserve losing her hands."
"She stole Lord Mel's Star Plums! The caravan from Dragon Gold City arrives tomorrow for the Harvest Festival. No one can afford to fall short of the agreed amount!"
"Fall short? How much did she steal?"
"At least a ton!"
"How much?"
Tang Qi blinked. He studied Anbi's scrawny frame, then considered what a ton of Star Plums would weigh—
A standard wooden barrel could hold roughly fifty kilograms of berries.
A ton would take twenty barrels.
"Forgive me, but are you saying—
that a girl barely four and a half feet tall stole twenty barrels of Star Plums overnight without anyone noticing, then hid them somewhere no one knows about?"
Jackal's face flushed.
Even a professional mercenary like him would have struggled with that, let alone a young girl.
He gritted his teeth.
"She's a beast. Of course she's stronger than she looks.
Besides, all the evidence points to her. However unlikely it sounds, it's the truth!"
"What evidence?"
"She ruined our family's Star Plums!"
The boy from before shouted and stamped his foot, heedless of the mud splashing onto his new boots.
Jackal promptly backed him up.
"That's right! This morning, Father Lynn saw her lurking around David's family home.
Not long after, they found the Star Plums growing in their yard rotting on the ground!"
"I was just passing by!"
Anbi protested.
"I swear to Gullagas!"
The boy, apparently nursing a long-standing grudge, shouted back, "Oh, please. Who'd believe a monster's oath?"
Jackal continued.
"And last night, a fruit farmer at the Manor got up and saw someone who looked like a child wandering through the Orchard.
When we took the culprit there this morning, the footprints in the Orchard matched her shoes exactly. That's solid evidence!"
"Evidence? You decided I was guilty first, then went looking for proof—"
Anbi cried as she tried to defend herself.
"You thought it was me from the start, so you blame every clue on me. Even when the cobbler lost a pair of boots, you spread rumors that I'd stolen them!
I didn't choose to grow a tail...
Why are you all treating me like this?"
Jackal had no wish to argue with the "criminal" any longer. He shot Tang Qi a vicious glare and barked,
"Enough. Stop wasting my time, or I'll treat you as guilty of the same crime!"
Even as he spoke, he cast another uneasy glance at Black Snake.
Black Snake had remained detached from the whole affair.
Beside him, the Dwarf named Gravel took a drink of Star Plum Wine from his waterskin.
He could not help nudging Black Snake's thigh with his elbow.
"Hey, Catherine thinks of that kid as a little sister. Are you sure this is a good idea?"
"Don't make it sound like I'm bullying her. All the evidence points to her. We're just upholding the law."
"But asking a little girl to haul away a ton of plums is still a bit..."
"Listen, Gravel. All of us share the blame for leaving the Orchard unguarded to go drinking.
What we need now isn't the truth. It's a plausible excuse.
Something we can tell our employer when the caravan arrives tomorrow. Understand?"
Gravel snorted. "Ha. Do you really care that much about our employer? I think you're afraid Catherine will catch the beastification curse."
"We're mercenaries. What's wrong with caring about our pay?"
Black Snake took Gravel's waterskin and swallowed a mouthful of wine.
"Besides, I'm not the one swinging the sword. Why would Catherine blame me?"
Gravel shrugged, took back his waterskin, and said nothing more.
He was long past the age of bleeding-heart sympathy.
Black Snake was his leader. If the man had made up his mind, Gravel had no reason to interfere.
Looking at the girl locked in the stocks, he saw a fish flopping on a chopping board.
That sharp cleaver might be about to slice off her soft "fins."
But more than the fish awaiting the knife, Gravel worried whether the Golden Oak would shut its doors to them after this.
"That would drive me mad..."
As he fretted, another commotion rose from the crowd.
The cause was still the man who had interrupted the trial.
Perhaps he was young and reckless.
But as far as Gravel could recall, since they had arrived in Star Plum Town, no one apart from Black Snake had dared defy Jackal twice—
Three times, counting last night.
After all, Jackal had been jeering about "selling his ass" one moment, only to be silenced by the whole tavern singing the next...
Gravel enjoyed seeing Jackal put in his place.
This time, it began with a lively, bouncing rhyme:
"Please, everyone, don't rush ahead,
The missing plums may hide a mystery;
First learn what clues can truly tell,
Then evidence will make some sense!"
Before you continue