The hall of the Knight Order headquarters had been rearranged.
The long table had been moved from against the wall to the center, covered with a dark blue tablecloth.
On it were several rows of silver cups and two bottles of red wine with their corks still in.
On the wall hung the flag of the Silver Lance Knights, the Galloping Horse Emblem reflecting a cold luster in the pale blue light of the magic lamps.
Nineteen Silver Lance knights stood on either side of the long table, their silver-white plate armor polished to a shine.
A brand-new silver lance badge was pinned to each of their pauldrons.
Kathy Bates stood at the head of the long table, holding a glass of red wine that wasn’t full.
Today she wasn’t wearing her combat plate armor.
Instead, she had changed into a dark gray formal suit, her silver-white long hair tied in a low ponytail that hung behind her shoulders.
She tapped the rim of the glass with a silver spoon.
The crisp metallic sound silenced the entire hall.
“All right, let’s skip the wine and such.”
She set the goblet down on the table and picked up a document from the vice-commander standing beside her.
The cover of the document bore the emblem of the Silver Lance Knights, and the edges of the pages still carried the residual warmth from just being printed.
She flipped open the file, cleared her throat, and began reading Masiweiluo’s reinstatement statement.
Halfway through, she couldn’t continue herself.
She looked up at Masiweiluo, who was standing across the long table.
Masiweiluo wasn’t wearing her plate armor today either.
A dark gray long-sleeved shirt, black trousers, and brown long hair tied in a low ponytail.
She stood on the other side of the long table, holding a glass of red wine she hadn’t touched, with a faint smile on her lips.
“That’s a hundred thousand voucher,” said Vice-Commander Kaznid, standing beside her, lowering his voice.
“A hundred thousand?”
Masiweiluo repeated the two words, a hint of uncertainty in her voice.
Kathy Bates flipped the document to the page with the bonus clause and tapped the number with her finger.
“A bonus of a hundred thousand vouchers—ten years of our knight order’s expenses.”
The nine zeros were clearly printed.
She picked up her glass, raised it toward the knights in the hall, and prepared to finish the final agenda item.
Just as the agenda reached its liveliest moment, the door burst open.
A young horse-kin knight rushed in, his silver-white half-plate armor askew, the badge on his chest not yet polished.
He held a flyer in his hand, the paper crumpled and wrinkled, its edges wet with sweat.
“Commander! Something terrible has happened!”
He slapped the flyer onto the long table, causing the wine bottle to wobble.
All the Silver Lance knights turned their heads simultaneously.
Kathy Bates set down her glass and picked up the crumpled flyer from the table.
The paper bore the official letterhead of the Commerce Federation, with the emblem of the three tribes encircling a crest at the top.
Below it was a bold black line of large text—
“The Voucher System is Hereby Abolished as of Today.”
There were more lines of small print beneath.
She read them one by one, her expression shifting from confusion to anger.
Her fingers tightened on the edge of the paper, knuckles turning white.
She slapped the flyer onto the table and grabbed her coat from the back of the chair.
The vice-commander followed behind her, his hand on the hilt of his sword.
“Kaznid, you stay here. Masiweiluo, come with me.”
Anyone who wanted to stop her was glared back into silence.
The Commerce Federation Building was still that gray, four-story stone structure.
Three flags fluttered noisily in the wind on the outer wall.
When Kathy Bates pushed open the door, the receptionist at the entrance stood up.
Ever since Masiweiluo had stepped down from her post, Kathy Bates had taken over as commander, but naturally, she had also cultivated the presence that came with the title.
She walked through the corridor, her leather shoes clicking on the marble floor, each step echoing.
She pushed open the door to the meeting room, and the door panel hit the wall with a dull thud.
De Li Ya Si was sitting behind the office desk.
Hearing the door, she set down her pen and looked up.
Her dark brown eyes met Kathy Bates’s gaze, but she didn’t stand.
A document lay spread out on the desk.
She had been writing something on it with a fountain pen.
“May I ask what the matter is?”
Kathy Bates slammed the crumpled flyer onto the desk.
The paper bounced from the impact.
“What does this mean?”
De Li Ya Si glanced at the flyer, then slowly capped her fountain pen.
Her movements were unhurried, as steady as her speech.
“It means exactly what it says on the flyer. The voucher system is abolished as of today. All vouchers currently in circulation can be exchanged for silver coins at the Commerce Federation exchange office.”
“A hundred thousand vouchers—tell me what that converts to.”
Kathy Bates leaned her hands on the edge of the desk, her knuckles pressed white.
“A hundred thousand vouchers at the current exchange rate—”
A dog-kin staff member who looked like a manager flipped open the ledger in his hands and tapped his finger on the numbers.
“—equals five hundred silver coins.”
Kathy Bates’s fist slammed down on the desk.
The ceramic cup on the desk jumped, and coffee splashed out, spreading a dark stain across the document.
“You did this intentionally. The prize money for the Special Tournament was denominated in vouchers. We only received it one day ago, and now you abolish the voucher system.”
“We received a notice of the act signed by the Federation President.”
De Li Ya Si placed her hand on the document on the desk, her fingertip pointing at the star-ring emblem watermark on the paper.
“The Commerce Federation must operate in accordance with federal law. This flyer is merely a specific measure to implement that act.”
“What is the exchange ratio stipulated by the act?”
Kathy Bates’s voice squeezed through her teeth.
De Li Ya Si’s dark brown eyes met Kathy Bates’s gaze.
She did not answer the question.
Of course she knew the ratio.
The act stipulated a market-value exchange, but the moment the act took effect, the Commerce Federation itself had already artificially devalued the vouchers to their lowest point.
“So a hundred thousand becomes five hundred.”
Kathy Bates’s fingers pressed four deep grooves into the desk’s surface.
She stared at De Li Ya Si’s unnaturally calm face, and suppressed anger burned in her brown pupils.
“You people at the Commerce Federation—you knew from the very beginning that the vouchers would be abolished, and you still used them as prize money. Then, the day after we received them, you declared them void.”
“You schemed against everyone in the entire Special Tournament. The people counting on that prize money to pay off debts, the people who fought tooth and nail to make it into the main tournament to earn those vouchers, the signed knights you propped up. You made fools of everyone.”
De Li Ya Si did not reply.
She picked up the coffee-stained document from the desk and set it aside.
Then she picked up her fountain pen again, flipped open another file, and set the nib to the paper.
Her movements and expression showed no change, as if Kathy Bates’s fist and accusations had happened in another room, another time.
“The exchange office is on the second floor, left side. Five hundred silver coins can be collected today.”
She didn’t even look up.
The nib scratched across the paper.
The manager beside her closed the ledger and stepped back, bowing his head, afraid to meet Kathy Bates’s eyes.
There was nothing he could do.
The vouchers were issued by the Commerce Federation;
Both the power to issue and recall them rested with them.
The Silver Lance Knights only had authority over public order, and no power over the finances whatsoever.
Kathy Bates stood in front of the desk.
Her fist was still pressed against the surface.
Her knuckles slowly returned from white to a normal flesh tone.
Then she withdrew her hand and stood up straight.
Her silver-white long hair hung down from her shoulders.
Her silhouette paused at the doorway for a moment, then she pushed open the door.
The sound of leather shoes on marble echoed all the way to the end of the corridor, growing fainter, until finally swallowed by the echo of the closing door.
—
A town outside the city.
The dirt road was slightly dried by the afternoon sun.
Wild grass by the roadside bent sideways in the wind.
Masiweiluo walked along the road, the sleeves of her dark gray long-sleeved shirt rolled up to her elbows, her lance shrunk into a short wand tucked at her waist.
She rounded a short tree and approached the wooden house.
A coarse ceramic flowerpot by the door held a small sprig of rosemary, its leaves slightly yellowed.
The door was unlocked, and the gauze curtain on the window swayed gently.
She pushed open the door, and the wooden plank let out a familiar creak.
The room was quiet.
Sunlight squeezed in through the crack in the window, drawing several thin bright lines on the floor.
On that wall were still her photos and newspapers.
The pencils on the desk were still neatly arranged in the pencil holder.
A chipped ceramic cup stood at the corner of the desk.
The wardrobe door was closed.
The blanket on the bed was folded neatly.
No dark coat hung on the chair.
No unfolded newspaper lay on the backrest.
She stood in the center of the room, pushed open the slightly ajar wardrobe door, and looked inside.
Empty.
—Enrique wasn’t there.
She went downstairs and walked to the neighboring bakery.
The dog-kin bakery owner was using tongs to pull freshly baked black bread from the oven, steam rising from the iron tray.
When the owner saw Masiweiluo standing in front of the counter, she wiped her hands on her apron.
“Oh, you’re looking for Mr. Enrique? He left this morning.”
“Left? Where to?”
“He left with a deer-kin young lady with golden hair. It looked like they were heading toward Vinedo. Oh, and he asked me to give you this.”
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