"Kaspar, is Maric in?"
Inside the same billiards room, Snow found Kaspar, still limping but with a visibly different expression. Kaspar looked up, signaled his playing partners to leave, and only spoke once they had vanished. "You didn't offend Maric, did you?"
"No. Why do you ask?" Snow looked at Kaspar, whose behavior seemed slightly off, feeling completely bewildered.
"Maric was asking about you this morning," Kaspar said vaguely. "He's in the same card room as before. You can find him yourself."
Snow dipped into a brief silence before nodding. "Thanks."
"It's nothing. If I'd known you were so capable, I wouldn't have tried to cover for you. To think you were scared off by a bunch of thugs before..." Kaspar waved his hand dismissively. Snow didn't say more, simply adding a mental note of concern for him before leaving the room.
Click.
The door was pushed open, but Snow was surprised to find no zombies in the room. This caught him off guard. 'Did Klein already visit?'
"Who..." Maric's sharp shout, appearing as if his reactions were delayed by half a beat, reached Snow's ears. But he immediately fell silent.
"It seems you've already seen the effectiveness of the charms?" Snow raised an eyebrow, asking with a playful smirk.
"What do you want?" Maric's voice was low, his eyes filled with a predatory glint, but his words carried a hint of trepidation.
He had no choice. For those on the run, the ability to reverse the negative states of the full moon was undeniably precious. More importantly, if Snow could reverse a negative state, it likely meant he could also amplify one.
"Not counting the trial sample, it's three hundred pounds per charm. You should understand that I'm not overcharging." Snow pulled back a chair at the card table and sat down casually, wearing the expression of a cunning businessman who claimed to be selling at cost.
However, seeing the troubled look on Maric's face, he chuckled again. "Of course, if you can't pay for now, I offer other methods of payment. For instance, if that Miss Wraith is willing to accept some commissions, I can use the charms as payment. Naturally, we'd need to sign a contract first."
"We need to discuss it." Maric didn't give an immediate answer.
Snow acted as if he had expected this, replying casually, "No problem. I'll be in Backlund for the foreseeable future. However, if you're not comfortable with a messenger, you could always find a middleman to summon it."
...
"Are you planning to take that mission?" Maric asked, frowning once the door had closed again. It was as if he had heard something from the air itself.
"I'm short on money."
"Do you really think that detective can afford a reward of six... sixteen hundred pounds?" Maric clearly held little hope for the impoverished-looking detective.
But a cold, ethereal voice replied, "He knows he's offended a powerful figure."
"True. But he didn't seem to leave a way to contact him." As soon as Maric spoke, a hush fell over the room.
After a long pause, the cold voice uttered a few words, "Ask Kaspar."
...
Leaving the Braveheart Bar, Snow immediately relaxed. Even if his presence had caused a butterfly effect and Miss Sharon hadn't encountered the Gatekeeper's glove, she would still be short on money. This would increase the likelihood of her accepting Klein's mission. Even if Klein didn't issue the mission, Snow could still use the charms as leverage to hire them to protect him.
While the calculations in his head were humming along, he suddenly noticed a lady walking toward him. She wore an old-fashioned soft hat, a yellow tiered dress with a youthful vibe, and black leather shoes. Her figure was perfect, her hair a rich chestnut.
Before his brain could even process who she was, his hand had already shot up. By the time he realized whom he had encountered, he had already blurted out, "Good afternoon, Huang Beibei."
'Goddammit!' Snow wailed internally, nearly wanting to slap himself. However, he forced himself to maintain his composure, speaking with an awkward tone, "I'm sorry, Madam. I've mistaken you for..."
However, before he could finish, thick pea vines began to descend from the sky. The surrounding pedestrians seemed completely oblivious. In an instant, the environment was entirely isolated. And the lady, at some unknown point, had appeared right in front of him.
...
Bernadette's eyes flickered with complex emotions as she silently observed the young man before her, repeatedly savoring the name he had instinctively called out.
'Huangbeibei...'
The pronunciation didn't sound like Loenese. But that "beibei" reminded her of her father. When she was very small,perhaps before she had even learned to speak,that man would often talk to her using strange, ungrammatical reduplicated words. And back then, his name for her had seemed to be "beibei."
In truth, today's meeting wasn't a coincidence. Just last night, when the Wraith from the Temperance Faction had sought her out to identify a charm, she had grown suspicious. That bizarre activation phrase,"The turtle outlives the snake",was something she had heard before.
Back when that man was still a loving father, she had heard him scolding someone as a "stubborn troll." Finding it difficult to understand the weirdly synthesized word, she had asked him for its meaning. In response, her father had told her stories about "a white horse is not a horse" and "the turtle outlives the snake."
As a Beyonder of the Mystery Pryer pathway, she was naturally interested in a charm she had never seen before. Coupled with an activation phrase that stirred her memories, she had tried to divine the source of the charm.
But she had gained no results.
As the founder of the Element Dawn and a major figure in the mystical world, there weren't many existences that could cause Bernadette's divination to fail. Combined with the previous coincidences, it triggered an unrealistic hope in the depths of her heart.
And in their very first encounter, he had called out a name that stirred her memories. While she didn't know what "Huang" represented, Bernadette was certain this wasn't just a random outburst! Even if it wasn't a hidden move left by that man, there had to be some connection.
Bernadette thought with absolute certainty.
...
Watching Bernadette stare at him in silence, Snow felt his scalp tingle. Could this be karma? He had only just mentioned her in his diary, and now he had run into her. Was this some kind of convergence? Regardless, he had to find a way to survive.
Recalling the "social skills" his predecessor had left him, he forced a social smile and spoke with a slightly panicked tone, "Madam, if I said I mistook you for someone else, would you believe me?"
[Translated and Rewritten by Shika_Kagura]