The death of the culprit had long been within Wei Yenwu's expectations. After all, this was very much how Ursus operated.
However, bringing Shirou here was not for the sake of discussing such matters. Although the other party had been very tight-lipped, the investigation had already uncovered quite a lot.
The only real question left was probably why exactly the other side had come here.
"So, Chief Wei, who are your current suspects?"
After hearing Wei Yenwu's words, Shirou thought for a moment before understanding what the man meant.
Perhaps this was a warning from an ally, or perhaps… he wanted to drag him deeper into the mess again?
Shirou strongly suspected the latter. Wei Yenwu had dug pits for people far too many times already. Even Ch'en had a very poor opinion of him. Every time she mentioned him, her tone was unpleasant, and she would usually throw in some Lungmen profanity along the way.
"I have three main suspects."
Seeing Shirou enter a serious frame of mind, Wei Yenwu did not waste time circling around the issue.
He had come specifically to warn him.
After all, one of those suspects was an old rival. If this matter involved that old rival, then regardless of the cost, he would stop them.
At present, Shirou appeared to be the other side's primary target, which made him an unquestionable ally.
Still, judging from Shirou's doubtful expression, the young man clearly still misunderstood him somewhat. He was probably thinking that Wei Yenwu was trying to set him up again.
It did not matter. That was one of the intended outcomes anyway.
At that thought, a faint smile appeared on Wei Yenwu's face. He instinctively reached for his pipe, only to remember that there was still another person in the meeting room.
Shifting his eyes slightly, Wei Yenwu saw Nian looking back at him with the exact same smile.
The moment he saw her expression, Wei Yenwu realized that events might begin drifting away from the course he had originally imagined.
"Three?"
Unaware of Wei Yenwu's subtle reaction, Shirou continued pondering his words.
He could roughly guess two of them already. Previously, Wei Yenwu had suspected that Shirou might have been sent by that side, and had even tested him because of it.
"The Black Snake, Ursus, and… Talulah. Those are my primary suspects."
Only after hearing Shirou speak did Wei Yenwu refocus and continue.
"Talulah? The leader of Reunion?"
When Wei Yenwu mentioned Talulah, Shirou could clearly sense a moment of hesitation from him.
He did not understand the reason for that hesitation, but personally he leaned more toward the first two possibilities.
In his mind, Talulah and Alina were tied together. Although he had once harbored suspicions, the existence of Crownslayer had somewhat improved his impression of her.
"That is right. Reunion members were also involved in this matter. I know you have had contact with Reunion before, and even allowed them to take some inhibitors and medicine from that building."
Wei Yenwu was not especially surprised that Shirou knew about Reunion. If Penguin Logistics' intelligence network lacked information about Reunion, that would have been far more shocking.
Recently, Reunion's name had become extremely well known in Ursus.
After all, they were an organization acting under the banner of fighting for the Infected, while operating within Ursus, the nation most hostile toward the Infected.
"…"
Hearing those words, Shirou frowned slightly and began thinking.
Naturally, this did not escape Wei Yenwu's notice. He did not keep him in suspense and continued speaking directly:
"My influence never reached that far. All of this information came from that old fellow Lin. You have met him before too, the Rat King."
The meaning behind the Rat King giving him this information was obvious enough. He did not want Wei Yenwu using it as leverage against Shirou.
For some reason, Shirou had suddenly caught the old man's attention. Wei Yenwu had heard that the Rat King had even wanted to recruit Shirou as an assistant for his daughter, only to get thoroughly scolded by his own daughter in return.
And why did Wei Yenwu know about this?
Because Lin Yuhsia had worried that her father might continue trying to recruit Shirou, so she told her mother about the matter, namely the Rat King's wife.
The night he heard about it, Wei Yenwu had gone to sleep with an enormous smile on his face. The next morning, he had woken up in exceptionally good spirits.
Even now, whenever his mood soured slightly, simply recalling that incident was enough to cheer him up.
"Hmm… I did allow them to take those supplies, but that was within the rules of the slums."
After thinking for a long while, Shirou decided to use the slums' own rules as justification.
After all, it was a place filled with gangs. Having its own unofficial rules was perfectly normal. Shirou had essentially taken prey that belonged to someone else, so sharing part of it was reasonable.
Of course, most people would not actually divide up the prey they had obtained themselves. If Phal had not brought up this sort of thing so often, Shirou would never even have known.
"Heh, I have no intention of holding you accountable. Lungmen is not lacking in those medicines. As long as the weapons and dangerous Originium products did not leak out, that is enough."
"I am simply reminding you not to treat Reunion as your own people. You worked in the Lungman Guard Department before too, so you should understand very well how dangerous human nature can be, should you not?"
"I would never bother warning an ordinary person this much. But you possess tremendous strength while also being far too kind. That is what both that penguin and that rat think as well."
"You are always tolerant. When your strength is great enough to completely suppress your enemies, that is a good thing."
"But if the opponents you face are an Infected organization capable of surviving within Ursus, or Ursus itself, or even that Black Snake… then kindness will only destroy you and the people around you."
After delivering his lengthy speech, Wei Yenwu took a sip from the tea beside him, which had long since gone cold.
He was not exaggerating. Those words genuinely came from the heart.
Mentioning Talulah was merely laying groundwork for the future.
As far as Wei Yenwu was concerned, he naturally understood that the first two possibilities were more likely. However, Talulah, as the leader of Reunion, had also benefited from this operation, and he indeed had certain grudges with her as well.
But compared to those grudges, there were other ties between them as well.
That was why Wei Yenwu had hesitated when mentioning Talulah, though in the end he still chose to bring her up.
Because he was the Governor of Lungmen. Toward anyone harboring hostile intentions against Lungmen, he would show no tolerance.
He had to sharpen Shirou, this blade, even further. Only then would Shirou be able to better eliminate enemies like the Black Snake or Ursus when they eventually struck.
As an old adversary of both, Wei Yenwu understood exactly how terrifying those people were.
"Destroy me… and the people around me? The people around me?"
After listening to Wei Yenwu's lengthy speech, Shirou reacted strongly to that final sentence, repeatedly muttering it under his breath.
Combined with his widening eyes and the veins beginning to bulge across his forehead, Wei Yenwu immediately realized that he had touched upon something Shirou desperately did not want to face.
Judging from the situation, it seemed to be memories he had not yet fully recovered? His mind may have forgotten them, but his body still remembered.
As expected, behind great power there was always a story belonging to the person who wielded it.
Watching the faint golden glow flicker within Shirou's eyes, along with the large number of glowing lines suddenly appearing across his body and crackling with energy, Wei Yenwu could only grip the pipe in his arms tightly in case Shirou lashed out due to emotional instability.
"Calm down. Nobody here is going to hurt the people around you. This place is safe, so relax."
Unlike Wei Yenwu's guarded stance, Nian directly covered Shirou's eyes with both hands while whispering softly into his ear.
The effect was immediate and obvious. The magical circuits across Shirou's body gradually faded before disappearing entirely. At the same time, the muscles throughout his body and limbs relaxed, no longer tense as before.
However, Nian did not stop comforting him simply because he had calmed down. Instead, she pulled over a chair and let Shirou lie down to rest.
Throughout the entire process, her hands never once left his eyes.
"Sleep well. Once you wake up, everything will be better."
Only after soothing Shirou for quite some time, until he completely stopped struggling, did Nian finally withdraw her hands and turn an unfriendly gaze toward the person responsible for all of this.
"This is my fault. I made assumptions about him without properly investigating first."
Facing Nian's hostile stare, Wei Yenwu did not try to excuse himself by claiming ignorance. He accepted responsibility directly.
There was no point making excuses before someone like her anyway. He also had no desire to become enemies with her. Besides, Shirou's reaction had indeed been triggered by his own words touching on memories Shirou wished to avoid.
"Do not push people too hard. A sharpened weapon may cut enemies more effectively, but it also becomes easier to break."
At first, Nian thought Wei Yenwu merely wanted to use Shirou as a trump card in his hand against the black snake. She had not expected him to remain unsatisfied with that and try to sharpen him even further.
And now look at what happened. He had sharpened him until something broke.
From Shirou's condition, it seemed that something within him had been stirred by Wei Yenwu's words and was trying to emerge.
In that brief instant earlier, she had sensed the aura of blades around Shirou becoming somewhat decayed and corrupted. Although she did not fully understand the reason, her instincts told her it was definitely not a good sign, which was why she intervened.
Had Wei Yenwu been the only one present, the two of them probably would have ended up fighting.
For Shirou, that would have been a disaster. After all, attacking the Governor of Lungmen was obviously a grave crime, not to mention the toll it would take on his physical and mental state.
"I… have nothing to say in my defense."
Being reprimanded, Wei Yenwu took a deep breath and did not argue back.
He had indeed become greedy. Although his intentions had been to sincerely warn Shirou, the result had clearly backfired.
The look in Shirou's eyes during that outburst was something he had only ever seen in people hardened by countless battles.
That realization also filled him with a sense of crisis.
"I do not know exactly what you intend to use this boy for, but he has never once complained. On the contrary, he always gives everything he has, even placing himself in danger just to solve problems."
Seeing Wei Yenwu lower his head in acknowledgment, Nian voiced her thoughts.
"I do not know much about that Reunion Movement or whatever, but I have at least heard of Ursus and your old rival Koschei. They are indeed formidable enemies, but that still does not justify what you are doing."
"His combat ability may be extremely powerful, but in the end he is still only one person. Rather than obsessing over sharpening this blade further, you would be better off finding ways to create more weapons to resist your enemies. Is that not exactly why the Lungman Guard Department exists? The people around you should count too."
As she finished speaking, Nian glanced toward the window.
On a distant building, three figures wearing bamboo hats and black cloaks could be seen observing the room. Perhaps because Shirou had stabilized, or perhaps because Nian herself was present, none of them made any further moves.
"…"
Wei Yenwu understood everything Nian said.
But fear ultimately came from inadequate firepower. While developing the Lungman Guard Department, he had also arranged many additional forces in secret.
Penguin Logistics was one. Fengchi Logistics was another. Even Rhodes Island, which cooperated with Lungmen, was within his calculations. After all, during the past two years, one of Rhodes Island's operators had handled numerous missions others dared not even touch, and had completed every single one with astonishing efficiency.
Although that person had suddenly disappeared over the past year, Rhodes Island itself had already begun establishing a reputation across Terra under the name of a pharmaceutical company.
"Sigh… You have your own considerations, but I still hope that before thinking about how to deal with your enemies, you first think about the feelings of your own people."
Seeing Wei Yenwu remain silent, Nian no longer felt like continuing the discussion.
The position he stood in was too high, and the enemies he faced were too powerful. It was only natural that one man alone could not account for every aspect of the bigger picture.
It was like forging iron. If one side was hammered too much, the opposite side would become uneven and distorted. And if one later tried to correct it by hammering it again, the entire piece of iron might simply be ruined.
Only by striking the iron steadily and evenly from all sides could it truly be forged from a mere lump of metal into a finished product.
As for whether the final result would be good or bad, that depended entirely on the skill of the smith.
After saying that, Nian focused all of her attention on Shirou lying nearby. The aura around him had calmed considerably, and that rotten, decayed feeling had completely vanished without a trace.
"Sorry… just now, there was suddenly a strange voice speaking inside my head."
Once he recovered, Shirou slowly sat up and apologized to the two people present.
If nothing unexpected had happened, then it was probably… the voice of the black mud corruption. That should have been the work of Emiya Kuro.
Though Shirou was not entirely certain. After all, the voice he heard had not actually sounded like that person, and he had not even seen anyone.
"It is fine. Just forget everything I said earlier. Be careful of the Black Snake's schemes… and do not tell Hui-chieh about the matter regarding Talulah."
After observing Shirou for a moment and seeing that he had returned to his usual self, Wei Yenwu finally relaxed.
He also abandoned his original intentions. A proper warning was enough. As for everything else… now was not the right time to discuss it.
If the conversation continued any further, forget whether that penguin would come storming over with reinforcements, the anger of the person currently in the room alone would already be enough to overwhelm him.
Not to mention Shirou's extremely broad social circle. If things escalated, the number of people wanting to beat him up would probably form a line.
Just before preparing to leave, Wei Yenwu suddenly remembered something and made one final request of Shirou.
"…Alright, I understand."
Although he did not understand the reason behind it, Shirou still agreed to the request.