Arknights, but the family has fallen again, again, again — Section 42

The teaspoon clinked against the side of the cup with less than polite force, the abrupt sound ringing through the quiet room.

"Go on."

"I can see that you understand. Then why are you still handing out painkillers here?"

"Rhodes Island is merely offering free medical consultations, and unfortunately, what most patients need is not medicine, but money."

"Under these circumstances, the only aid we can offer is painkillers."

That hadn't answered the question.

Vagrants had always been useful test subjects for pharmaceutical companies... Lin Yuxia knew that perfectly well.

But an operation as lavish as scattering money across a slum made it difficult to track follow-up data. Normally, no one would do it.

But from another perspective, that meant certain people might do it!

Was Rhodes Island Pharmaceuticals one of those people?

In Lin Yuxia's eyes, that was still an unknown.

A fine steed is hard to find

Lin Yuxia had many thoughts about this pharmaceutical company that had suddenly barged into Lungmen.

Ever since Rhodes Island had begun looking for a foothold in the slums, she had taken notice of this band of fierce outsiders. Lin Yuxia had almost immediately obtained information on Rhodes Island from the city entry checkpoint, then swiftly learned through personal connections and other channels that Rhodes Island had met with Wei Yenwu.

At that point, her only assessment of Rhodes Island was that they were strange.

A pharmaceutical company whose advance team was full of the Infected, and which had swiftly met Lungmen's governor under Ch'en's introduction.

But when they set up a stall in the slums and began offering free medical consultations, alarm bells started ringing in Lin Yuxia's head.

If someone knew nothing of Rhodes Island's past and only knew that it was a pharmaceutical company, then saw that company handing out free medicine in the slums right outside their home...

It looked like something that would happen in Columbia.

"I'm curious. What kind of benefit can this bring Rhodes Island Pharmaceuticals?"

Oute said, "Rhodes Island is an organization guided by ideals. Carrying out such actions helps maintain internal unity and stability. Furthermore, the Infected of Lungmen are, comparatively speaking, in much better physical condition. Granting them favors can also provide Rhodes Island with more field personnel worth employing."

You're trying to recruit troops?

Lin Yuxia ignored the empty words at the beginning.

Those who had never run a country truly found it hard to understand the importance of such lofty ideals. And if they were young enough, they were especially prone to scoffing at them.

The Infected's Originium Arts could experience explosive growth compared to before. From that perspective, it was not strange for them to come specifically to the slums...

Lin Yuxia still did not readily believe Oute's words. She only believed the truth she investigated with her own hands.

Were all Lungmenites like this?

In the original timeline, Lin Yuxia had tracked and investigated every patient Rhodes Island Pharmaceuticals treated in Lungmen, as well as every batch of Originium Infection medicine. Only after the Jade Gate incident did she finally establish a formal partnership with Rhodes Island.

That had been several years later.

All that could be said was that Little Rat was extremely wary of goodwill that came "out of nowhere."

Lin Yuxia rose to her feet, her skirt swaying and making the sheer black stockings around her thighs appear and disappear.

She ended the brief conversation. "Lungmen is a good place, unlike the other cities you have seen."

"Though the underground still inevitably grows moldy, patriarchs like Wei Yenwu care about everyone. Even the slums beneath our feet."

If Rhodes Island was truly messing around, then this was actually a veiled threat.

By invoking Wei Yenwu, someone outsiders like Rhodes Island could more directly understand the weight of, as the representative of a "patriarch," she was warning Rhodes Island not to act recklessly.

After Lin Yuxia left, Blaze muttered, "What did that rat come here for?"

"She showed up for no reason, and left for no reason!"

Oute glanced at her.

Did cats and rats just not get along?

It was not impossible, but... so that was it. Blaze thought she had messed up.

"There is no need to worry. This was expected."

Only two or three hours had passed since they left Wei Yenwu's office. If information from both the underworld and the authorities traveled that quickly, then Wei Yenwu would be the one who ought to pack up and go to sleep.

Therefore, when Rhodes Island began making a major move in the slums, "Lin" was almost certain to interfere.

Let her.

This mafia heiress was unexpectedly the type who could be dealt with through proper conduct.

Rhodes Island was offering Lungmen's Infected a second option—though based on how early they had encountered the Reunion Movement this time, it could also be called their first option.

After all, this was a proper job.

A proper job recruiting the Infected.

Even from an ordinary person's perspective, the terms Rhodes Island offered were exceptionally generous. Not to mention that the Infected themselves could hardly find any normal jobs.

Given Lin Yuxia's personality, she would only quietly collect information on these people—those who accepted Rhodes Island's olive branch—and compare it over and over, investigate it over and over...

Then reach an obvious conclusion: Rhodes Island was a group of unbelievably naive idiots.

In the short term, this could effectively disrupt whatever the Reunion Movement was planning. In the long term, it was an experiment Oute was conducting for the Rhodes Island branch office.

"This was expected too!?"

"I predicted enough possibilities," Oute said.

"Ahahaha..." The big cat gave an awkward laugh, then asked, "Who exactly was she?"

"The heir to Lungmen's underworld." Oute was succinct. "And Superintendent Ch'en, the one who brought us to meet Wei Yenwu, is Wei Yenwu's heir."

"What!?"

Oute nodded. "They are the next generation of this border city, Lungmen."

"That does explain their arrogance."

"There is no need to care. They will not stand in our way." Oute did not wish to elaborate. "How many are willing to join?"

"Most of the Infected are still watching and waiting. Quite a few people took the painkillers, but I could tell they only intended to sell them."

"Mm, good. At the very least, news that an idiot company is willing to take in the Infected will spread quickly."

"An idiot company?" Jessica came over as well.

"Knowing full well that the painkillers will definitely end up on the black market, yet continuing to hand them out without concern..." Oute's voice remained icy. "In their eyes, that must seem utterly idiotic."

"How could that be..." Tears shimmered in the cat-girl's eyes, as though she had forgotten that beneath her onion layers, she was a Blacksteel employee, and beneath that, Thundergod's young lady.

"It's fine. They're all the same."

No matter which side they chose, there was a high chance they would ultimately become manpower in Oute's hands...

But even someone as honest as him would not put it so bluntly.

"Do good deeds and do not ask what lies ahead. We did not come to Rhodes Island just to make ourselves look clever."

"The waves rose, and the tide swallowed Iberia's shores. But when the tide ebbed and flowed, the Scale Beasts stranded on the beach could not return."

"A knight from Kazimierz lifted the Scale Beasts from the puddles and returned them to the sea."

"Someone asked, what is the point of doing this? There are countless scales on this beach. Your hands are too small to save them all. No one will care about a single scale that was saved."

"The knight did not answer."

Jessica seemed to have grasped the heart of the story. Just as she vaguely realized, That Scale Beast cares, Oute chose to continue localizing it with elements native to Terra.

"He mounted the steed of the waves."

"Rocinante, the steed, let out a neigh. The Last Knight charged toward the blue, stirring up a wild gale! Every Scale Beast on the tidal flats was sent back to the sea by the knight!"

No, they had gone back, but were they still alive?

"And the knight did not look back, because his enemy had no form. The tide fell and rose again, retreated and invaded anew."

From a certain perspective, this kind of "futile rescue" could also embody the spirit of Don Quixote. Oute considered it an adapted version that preserved the spirit of the original work.

The thing where you tucked a shark in! It went viral!

"What was that supposed to be?" Frostleaf had also been engrossed in the story, and she could not help complaining. "The first half and the second half don't sound like the same story at all."

"There is no need to care. They're all the same." Oute paused before saying, "I made up this story only to warn you: the road Rhodes Island has chosen is a difficult one."

"Difficult and lonely."

The other operators felt the same, but for people Frostleaf and Jessica's age...

Their eyes lit up.

Kids halfway to adulthood loved that feeling of standing against the entire world... and Kal'tsit's absurd goal of saving Terra from Terrans and continuing the civilization of beast-eared girls truly could be called making an enemy of the entire world.

Seriously speaking, after Oute adapted the ideals of Doctors Without Borders and transplanted them onto Rhodes Island, they were in fact far more practical than the unreasonable demands the old lynx placed on Rhodes Island in actual implementation.

Even though Terra, compared to its own past, was still in an era like a cesspit... establishing an armed religious order under the banner of Doctors Without Borders here was still far easier than working under Kal'tsit.

Frostleaf hesitated for a moment, but given Oute's gentleness, she still gathered her courage and asked, "Doctor, what was that story you just recited called?"

"Half of it was something I made up on the spot. The other half, I remember, was probably a Kazimierz knight novel called The Last Knight."

At least, that was how it was in Terra.

"The Last Knight..." Frostleaf murmured.

She had been a Columbian child soldier. During the years when some children attended school, she had made a living as a mercenary. She was currently still illiterate—barely able to recognize a few shapes, and even needed the flowerpots by doorways to help remember which house was which.

"Huh? Frostleaf... are you interested in this story?" Jessica took Frostleaf's small hand.

"Mm."