CHAPTER 50: CASSANDRA

Nick took a single step forward, planting himself firmly between Marco and the iron faced woman who had just stolen all of the attention away from the two of them.

His eyes never left her, drawn in by her unique looks, but Nick didn’t recognise her.

Unlike Dido and Beast Slayer, even though her strength was only just below them, she wasn’t a major player in the War Beast Sanctuary. If she wasn’t so passive, there would be three main forces in the Sanctuary!

She was directly employed by the Federation, and probably enjoyed more benefits than even Dido and Beast Slayer did!

Nick’s voice rang out with the clarity of someone who knew he had every single upper hand in this situation.

"I’ll explain it." He said.

"Since Marco’s just about to run out of lies and falsities."

The air of the room tightened at his words, but nobody around them refuted what Nick had said.

They couldn’t give a shit about Marco and the other lowlives in the Beast Exchange hall scamming newbies and weaklings out of some chump change from Awakened and Mundane beasts, but it was a different matter entirely when it came to Mutant Beasts.

Being able to hunt Mutant beasts made one a respected veteran in the Beast Domain, and even though Nick still had the image of a Waste, weakling, or whatever other insult people used to describe him, he had still proven himself capable of hunting such beasts.

Therefore, everyone there saw him in an equal light to themselves now, regardless of whether they liked him or not — simply because he had proven his strength worthy of their respect.

So they weren’t just going to sit back and watch one of their own be scammed so blatantly by Marco and anyone else involved.

And their hatred was particularly heightened by the tampering of the corpse...

That was a taboo anywhere in the Beast Domain, regardless of the rank of the beast, or the Altered that had submitted it.

Even if a first day newbie came in with a Mundane Beast and had it tampered with, they would be as equally enraged.

Those were their kills, the results of their hard work! To have it be tampered with in a cheap attempt to cover up one’s lies, was utterly disrespectful.

And everyone recognised the iron faced lady the instant her voice rang out, unlike Nick who barely ever visited the Exchange hall compared to them.

Cassandra Velen, the closest link to the higher ups of the Federation anybody could find in the War Beast Sanctuary.

Of course, she wasn’t the only one with ties to the higher ups, as Dido technically had an even higher status than her, but the people’s chances of cosying up to the Federation were basically zero through her, but Cassandra was known for recommending those she liked, or showed potential.

Nick met her gaze without faltering, not knowing any of these details about her.

"I came here today with a near perfect corpse of a Lamboda Beast. I personally killed it, personally dragged it through hundreds of kilometres of wilderness, and personally examined it before and after entering the War Beast Sanctuary. It was in flawless condition when I handed it over to the exchange staff."

Cassandra folded her arms, with her sharp grey eyes scanning Nick with a flicker of scrutiny.

"Go on."

Nick pointed a finger at the corpse, with his voice regaining its anger as he looked at it. "Does this look near perfect to you?" He asked her bluntly, which many veterans in the room seemed shocked by, as it could have been considered rude.

But Cassandra had no reaction, and neither did Nick.

Cassandra knew that Nick was in a heated emotional state right now, and Nick couldn’t care either way.

"This bastard here, Marco, comes out and tells me its damaged. Offers me laughably low prices, less than half it was worth when I brought it in, and to top it all off — tried to cover it up with this pitiful attempt when I called him out on it."

He stepped aside so she could get a better look at the corpse herself, but there was no need for Nick to do so.

His words remaining hanging in the air like iron chains. The veterans watching nearby didn’t speak or bother to add in their own input, despite seeing everything transpire and knowing everything Nick had said was true.

But this itself acted as confirmation and backing up of Nick’s words.

If Nick was telling lies, they would have called him out on it.

But they stayed silent.

They remembered seeing the corpse when Nick first dragged it in, and many were even envious of him.

’The corpse was pristine...’

Marco opened his mouth, becoming disgustingly desperate, as the expression on his face relayed. "Supervisor Vel—"

"Silence." Cassandra’s voice cracked across the hall like a whip.

Marco’s jaw snapped shut.

She stepped forward, crouched beside the corpse, and traced her fingers across the damaged parts.

She continued with this action for a few minutes, leaving Nick a little confused in the awkward silence, but he noticed that all the veterans nearby kept up their serious and stoic expressions, so he let the odd situation continue to play out.

Until a few minutes later, Cassandra stood up.

Her expression remained unreadable, but her eyes however, were burning with barely contained fury.

"Post mortem tampering," she confirmed coldly.

"With serration patterns identical to those only our federation issued tools produce when dealing with corpses."

She turned to Marco.

"Care to explain yourself?"

Marco was sweating now.

"I— I didn’t — It wasn’t just me—"

"Don’t waste my time on your self pity," Cassandra snapped.

"You are in charge of exchanging Mutant rank and below beasts. You accepted the handoff, you oversaw the initial intake, and you oversaw the negotiations. Whether or not you had anything to do with this, the actions of yourself or the butchers fall directly under your responsibility."

Even though Cassandra said so, she knew for certain that this was all Marco’s idea.

Just the disgust she heard in his voice when she first arrived was enough to tell her his real personality.