Skadi, My Wife

Remembering the scene she had witnessed, Rope clicked her tongue in amazement. "I thought Officer Ch'en was already fierce and scary enough, but that Lupo woman seemed even scarier than her. She was clearly there to apply for work, but do you know what she said to the folks in Human Resources Department?"

Rope struck a pose, raising one hand before her shoulder as though she were holding something propped there. Grinning, she pinched her voice and imitated the Lappland she had heard back then. "My name is Lappland. A friend told me this place treats the Infected well and can even cure Oripathy, so I came to apply. I don't have any special talents. There's only one thing I'm good at: killing people. If there's anyone you want quietly eliminated, leave it to me."

"But let's get one thing straight. I'm good at killing, and I don't discriminate. Good people, bad people—as long as they're mission targets, I can deal with them for you. But if you send me to kill good people, it's fine if I don't know. If I do know..."

Just then, another voice suddenly picked up where Rope had left off:

"—I'll chop you all up too. After all, I have a friend who's a stupid do-gooder. If he found out I was doing that, he might be unhappy. Compared to his happiness, I don't think your lives are worth mentioning."

Appearing from up ahead and blocking Croissant and Rope's path, Lappland smiled. "That's how the rest goes, isn't it? You little rabbit who looks so easy to chop up."

"!!!"

Her long ears suddenly sprang upright, and even the fluffy tail curled behind her gave a jump. Rope, so frightened she nearly leaped into the air, pointed at Lappland with a trembling hand, her voice full of panic.

"Y-you... weren't you on the road behind us? Why are you in front of us!?"

"Of course I saw an acquaintance and wanted to come say hello. I just didn't expect to find an unfamiliar little rabbit gossiping about me with an old friend... Little rabbit, would you like to find out what it feels like to be cut by a sword?"

Lappland wore the same smile Rope had imitated earlier, but compared to Rope's harmless, slightly frivolous expression, hers carried a few more traces of madness. Her gaze was especially dangerous.

It felt as though a blade had suddenly touched one's skin, bringing a chilling sensation that raised goosebumps.

Rope did not dare say a word. She trembled in fright.

Croissant frowned tightly and instinctively stepped in front of Rope to shield her.

"Strongwoman Number Two..." Rope was so moved that tears welled in her eyes.

Lappland was a dangerous person.

That was how everyone who knew her, aside from Chen An, judged her.

But she was not actually a homicidal maniac. Killing someone to vent her anger just because they had said a few things about her was something beneath her contempt.

The only reason she had said those frightening things to Rope was to indulge her twisted sense of humor and scare her a little. Once she saw Rope shivering in terror, Lappland's amusement was satisfied, and she lost interest in her.

Looking at Croissant, she put on a wounded expression. "Miss Croissant, we've known each other for several years, haven't we? You saw me and didn't even say hello, choosing to take a detour instead. Am I really that frightening in your eyes?"

"I just don't want to cause trouble and delay the time I need to spend working my stall."

Croissant politely said, "Miss Lappland, could you please move aside? Rope and I still need to go somewhere else to do business. We don't have much time to chat with you here."

"Of course."

Lappland courteously extended a hand and stepped to one side, showing no intention of making things difficult for them.

Yet just as Croissant hurried past her while pulling Rope along, Lappland suddenly spoke. "In a few days, Chernobog will send a diplomatic delegation to Lungmen to discuss cooperation. If Miss Croissant wants to sell out those goods quickly, you can apply for security work with the delegation like I did. Bring those goods to Lungmen as luggage, and they'll probably sell out very soon."

Having said that, Lappland ignored Croissant, who had stopped in shock at her words. She turned and swaggered away.

Standing where she was and watching Lappland leave, Croissant felt strangely unsettled.

Why did this Lappland feel like she had changed somehow?

Come on a Blind Date, Chen An

With the day for Chernobog and Lungmen's cooperation talks drawing near, Chen An suddenly received an invitation from Ch'en. She said the elders in her family were deeply grateful that he had helped her work through her troubles, and wanted her to invite him over as a guest to express their thanks.

Chen An did not think what he had done for Ch'en was worth thanking him for. He had merely passed on a few words, said a few things himself, and done what a friend should do. Ch'en being able to let go was all her own doing.

Still, Ch'en had been extremely sincere when she invited him, so Chen An eventually agreed.

Night arrived.

As promised, Chen An came to Ch'en's home for the gathering—not Ch'en's own home, but the home of her elders, Wei Yenwu and Wei Wen-yue.

He had not come alone. Skadi was with him, dressed in the white dress Chen An had bought for her. She looked both soft and gentle.

Chen An had called ahead to let them know he was coming. When he and Skadi arrived, Ch'en came out just in time to greet them.

Unlike usual, Ch'en had clearly dressed up carefully tonight.

Her beautiful blue hair was tied into two adorable buns. She had changed into a fitted red qipao that accentuated her figure, applied delicate light makeup, and even put on high heels—something he had almost never seen her wear.

The slits on both sides of the qipao's hem revealed glimpses of her legs with every movement, making her look quite stunning... if she had not been wearing denim shorts beneath the qipao, that was.

But because she wore those distinctly mismatched denim shorts, the seductive charm she should have had was greatly diminished. To Chen An, who knew her usual style well, it simply felt exactly like her.

Standing at the door and watching Chen An approach with Skadi linked around his arm, Ch'en gave him a once-over and could not help complaining.

"Even Skadi knew to change clothes. Why are you still dressed the same? Couldn't you have changed into something else?"

"You say that like I have other clothes to change into. All my clothes are like this. If I don't wear my usual stuff, am I supposed to come naked?"

"..."

Looking at Chen An's innocent expression, Ch'en thought it over and realized he seemed to be right. She was left speechless.

"...I really don't know why you like such plain clothes. It's not like you're some old fossil."

"It's not that I like them. It's a habit."

"You always have an excuse whenever I say anything. I can't be bothered arguing with you. Hurry up and come in. That person and Aunt Wen Yue have been waiting for you for a long time."

Ch'en rolled her eyes at Chen An and invited him and Skadi inside.

Chen An had been invited to the home of Ch'en's uncle, Lungmen's Governor, Wei Yenwu.

As the Governor of Lungmen and an aristocrat from the Yan Nation, Wei Yenwu naturally did not live in a small apartment building like Chen An. His residence was a classical mansion, antique in style and filled with Yan Nation charm.

After following Ch'en through the estate for a while and answering some questions from the curious Skadi, who was seeing this style of architecture for the first time, the three of them reached their destination.

The people of Terra were quite strange.

They called themselves humans and knew what humans were, but Terra actually had almost no pure humans. Every being that called itself human possessed traits humans did not have, including but not limited to tails, horns, ears, or wings—humanoid beasts.

But that was not absolute. Take Skadi, for instance. She was a native-born Terran, yet like Chen An, she looked like a pure human without any beast-girl characteristics—apart from her extraordinary strength and exceptional physical abilities.

That was also why Chen An, despite being from another world in a place where Terrans were almost all humanoid beasts, could blend in perfectly. Everyone who knew him basically regarded him as a rare special race similar to Skadi. Even if he said he was human, they would naturally misunderstand, because all Terrans called themselves humans.

Furthermore, people of the same race in Terra often had vastly different appearances.

Women tended to look more human, while most men had beast-like appearances.

Put simply, Terra's women were almost all beast girls, while its men were the opposite.

Take Ch'en and Wei Yenwu. Both were dragons, and blood relatives at that.

Yet aside from dragon horns and a dragon tail, Ch'en was almost no different from an ordinary person. Wei Yenwu, on the other hand, had a dragon's head atop a human body.

But even that was not always the case.

For example, Ch'en's aunt, Wei Wen-yue, who came out smiling in a kimono embroidered with a luan bird design, was like that—just like Wei Yenwu, she had a beast's head on a human body, along with a red horn on her forehead.

"Chen An... Hm? And this is?"

Apparently surprised by Skadi's appearance, Wei Wen-yue's smile noticeably faltered, though the abnormality vanished in an instant.

After warmly exchanging a few pleasantries with Chen An and Skadi, Wei Wen-yue found an excuse, saying that Chen An and Wei Yenwu had not met for a long time and should chat first. Then she pulled Ch'en aside.

She lowered her voice, looking displeased. "Little Ch'en, didn't I tell you to invite only Chen An to the house? Why did that young lady come too?"

"When I went to invite Chen An like you told me, she was right beside him. What was I supposed to do? Besides, Chen An and Skadi are always inseparable. How could I invite only Chen An and not let Skadi come too? It's just a dinner to thank him. What does it matter whether she comes?"

Ch'en sounded somewhat impatient, but she was lying.

Though she felt a little guilty about it, she really had intended at first to listen to her aunt and invite only Chen An.

Even when she had gone to invite him, she had deliberately waited until Skadi was absent before extending the invitation.

Unfortunately, things did not go as planned. Halfway through the invitation, Skadi appeared. Faced with her innocent, friendly eyes, Ch'en could not bear the guilt in her heart. So she changed her wording, turning an invitation for Chen An into one for both of them.

It had to be said that although Ch'en was disappointed that her attempt to invite Chen An alone had failed, the guilt in her heart had indeed faded considerably.

Incidentally, Wei Wen-yue had originally called Chen An Little Ch'en, just as she called Ch'en, but Chen An had emphasized several times that she should just call him by name. He seemed very uncomfortable with her calling him Little Ch'en, so now she simply called him Chen An.

Wei Wen-yue's expression worsened. She said bitterly, "Even so, you shouldn't have let that girl come! Now that she's here, what chance do you have left, you foolish girl!"

"What chance? I have no idea what you're talking about."

Ch'en puffed out her cheeks and turned her face away. She let her aunt scold her, pretending not to hear, like a child throwing a tantrum.

Ch'en's Regret

Over on the other side, Wei Yenwu was also somewhat surprised by Skadi's arrival. But unlike his wife, he had no ulterior thoughts, so that was all it was—surprise.

Wei Yenwu and Chen An were old acquaintances. They had met over a month after Chen An first came to Lungmen.

At the time, his old friend Lin Kohrui, the Rat King, had told him, "There's an interesting kid in the Lower District. That kid is remarkable. He hasn't been there long, but he's brought the dead Lower District back to life. It's changing almost every few days, and he seems to be friends with that girl from your family." Curiosity piqued, and with nothing else to do, Wei Yenwu made a special trip to the Lower District. Chen An happened to be there, so Lin Kohrui introduced them.

Part of the reason the Lower District's development had gone so smoothly was thanks to Wei Yenwu.

It was worth mentioning that Wei Yenwu had originally wanted to pretend to be an ordinary citizen when meeting Chen An, but Lin Kohrui exposed him without the slightest mercy. Thus, from the very beginning, Chen An knew his identity and his relationship with Ch'en.

However, because Ch'en's relationship with Wei Yenwu was extremely poor, Chen An had never told her that he knew Wei Yenwu.

Also, unlike Lin Kohrui, although Wei Yenwu appreciated Chen An, he also harbored some annoyance toward him.

There was no special reason. Chen An simply did not treat his status as Lungmen's Governor as anything important. He mocked when he wanted to mock, looked down on him when he wanted to look down on him, and never gave him any face in their daily interactions.

Wei Yenwu regarded Chen An as a junior. Although talking with him was often more comfortable than chatting with his old friend Lin Kohrui, and Chen An did not feel like a young man at all, so that over time he had gradually begun treating him as a peer, he was still annoyed regardless.

Chen An was just too hard to fool. Wei Yenwu had tried several times to trick him into joining Lungmen's ranks, but failed every time. Otherwise, he would have found an opportunity long ago to make Chen An's life difficult and teach him what it meant to respect one's elders.

"When Wen Yue said you might be able to talk sense into that girl, I thought she was just being foolish and grasping at straws. But now it seems... Why are you taking out your phone?"

Wei Yenwu took a puff from his smoking pipe and made a few philosophical remarks, only to suddenly notice Chen An holding his phone as if he were playing with it. He frowned, looking displeased.

"Oh, nothing. I just wanted to record Old Wei's assessment of Madam Wei so I could let her hear it later. I'm sure she'd be very interested."

"!?"

Wei Yenwu's expression changed. Just as he was about to speak, Chen An had already tucked the phone into his clothes.

As if nothing had happened, Chen An said, "Just kidding. You'd already finished talking before I took out my phone, so how could I have recorded anything? Such a big reaction, Old Wei. Looks like you're still the same—scared stiff of Madam Wei."

By the end, he could not resist teasing him.

Wei Yenwu was henpecked. Chen An knew that.

Wei Yenwu: "..."

Still shaken, he took a deep drag from his pipe to calm himself down, then snorted in irritation. "You haven't changed at all either. You have absolutely no intention of respecting your elders."

After a moment of silence, he looked at the quiet Skadi beside Chen An and could not help saying to her, "Wen Yue and I treat each other with mutual respect. I'm not afraid of her, understand?"

Skadi blinked and nodded blankly.

She did not understand why Wei Yenwu had suddenly said such a thing to her, but Chen An had told her that when someone asked about something she did not understand, nodding was always the right choice. She trusted him.

Wei Yenwu was delighted.

Though Chen An was a bastard with no respect for his elders, this young lady was quite sensible.

And Chen An...

Was this the legendary final stubbornness of a henpecked man?

Following Wei Yenwu's gaze to Skadi, he froze for a moment, then could not help laughing.

The guests and hosts all enjoyed this thank-you dinner... That was, if one ignored Wei Wen-yue constantly praising Ch'en throughout the meal, saying she was gentle, virtuous, dignified, and good at managing a household, then immediately adding that she hated evil, had a blunt temperament, and might never find a partner in the future. She also kept urging Ch'en to serve Chen An food, calling her rude whenever she refused, leaving Ch'en embarrassed and angry. Aside from that, the process and outcome of the banquet could indeed be described that way.

Smiling as he declined Wei Wen-yue's attempts to keep him longer, Chen An left with Skadi. Ch'en saw them to the door.

"Um... Chen An, my aunt likes to say nonsense. I hope you won't take her earlier words and actions to heart."

Ch'en said this with slight embarrassment at the entrance.

Chen An waved a hand and comforted her. "Relax. Madam Wei is your aunt and your elder. It's normal for elders to worry blindly about their juniors' futures. I won't overthink it."

"That's good."

Ch'en looked relieved. She hesitated for a while before finally gathering her courage. "Hey, do you think I'll really end up like my aunt said, unable to find someone?"