Kaijin Fighter: So I Have to Make Monsters, So What?-Chapter 1544: Forgiven Debts and Questionable Alliances.

[Wait a minute… I thought Caretaker said he was going to start finishing his enemies off for good instead of letting them live. Why is he sparring these guys?] Corpse Doll asked her senior kaijin.

[Because there are some fates worse than death,] Nepherage informed her junior kaijin. [There are some fates worse than death …]

[Really? Being in debt is worse than death?]

[Yes,] Frosttusk rumbled. [Yes, it is.]

[The fact that the thought of owing money somehow heated him up enough to speak fluently should speak volumes about the horrors of debt,] Hurricroak commented. [But let's bring our attention back to the Maestro, yes?]

…

What Zhen Liu had done to the Redoxa Family was arguably worse than outright destroying them.

Due to the Redoxa Family pivoting to being a debt-collecting protection racket, they needed all sorts of contracts and promises in order to maintain a steady cash flow.

Not only that, but they had borrowed money from other organizations to maintain certain parts of their operation.

Now that every record they had in regard to both had been destroyed, it was very likely many of these contractors and contracted people will do all they can to renegotiate things in their favor or worse.

And without the presence of a powerful leader like before, the remnants of the Redoxa Family were more or less screwed.

Perhaps they could disappear into the wilderness or maybe fuck off to a smaller settlement elsewhere, but there was a pretty big chance of them getting found out by an aggrieved partner and having revenge inflicted upon them.

In other words, Zhen Liu had fastened the sword of karma above their heads, and it was primed to fall at any moment.

"Well, it appears that you guys now have a lot to think about in regard to how to handle your future problems," Zhen Liu said in a patronizing tone as he lightly patted the new leader of the Redoxa Family on the cheek. "But I don't have time to see the aftermath. I have other places to be. Bye-bye!"

Now that he had sufficiently broken their spirits, Zhen Liu turned his back away from the bound Redoxa warriors and rejoined his friends at the entryway that led back to the main catacombs.

"Alright, let's get the hell out of here. There isn't anything for us here anymore."

"Agreed."

As the group made their way out of the Redoxa's home for the foreseeable future, Jinju Ren took this opportunity to go in lockstep with her fiancé and ask him a question that had been bubbling in her brain ever since she heard him make his vague threat towards the poor leaderless bastards.

"Did you actually destroy all of their contracts and promissory notes? That doesn't seem like your usual modus operandi," Jinju Ren asked with a teasing tone.

"When did you learn that turn of phrase?"

"Picked it up from one of the books I borrowed from the library."

"Well…I did burn the original copies. I made sure to make my own, just in case," Zhen Liu assured her with a cheeky smile.

"Ah, that's more like you."

There was a non-zero chance that the Redoxa Family would come rearing their heads for revenge against Zhen Liu, and he wanted to have some "insurance" in case such an event occurred. That, and he noticed certain parties and people of interest in those papers that piqued his curiosity.

"You know…aside from Axer, these Redoxa seem to have created debt slaves out of a lot of other craftsmen of some repute," Zhen Liu mentioned to his allies as soon as they were out of earshot from the Redoxa stronghold. "You guys want to see if they're willing to work with us instead?"

"Are…are you thinking of establishing a base for the Zhen Clan here on Dozing Salamander?" Zhen Xing asked.

"Nah, nothing like that," Zhen Liu replied with a wave of his hand. "I'm just curious to see if we can get some more custom-made aether treasures."

…Meanwhile…

"What the hell was that explosion?"

"Knowing this place? Probably another turf war gone wrong."

"Hmmm."

"Now then, are you going to sign this thing and make it official, or will I have to make it more official by rewriting it in the blood of innocents?"

"Give me a moment..."

The oddly nice thing about gigantic labyrinthian catacombs is that two parties that had a massive amount of beef between them could have entirely separate wars with one another and not be aware of it in the slightest.

In this particular case, while Zhen Liu and his friends were dealing with a Redoxa parasite problem, a pair of Zhen Liu's old enemies were busy officially forming a rather insidious alliance.

To be more precise, after confirming that they shared a mutual enemy in the form of Zhen Liu, Madam Venus and Prince Alain had decided to form a mutual and official alliance between their two factions.

As a reminder to the readers, Madam Venus was the crazy face-stealing woman with the power of [Fate] from the Pearl Tusk Harbor incident, while Prince Alain was a the shunned prince who had his fate turned around once he had the wings of a fallen kaijin grafted onto him by a psychotic rogue kaijin by the name of Buzza.

And now, these two folks and their respective forces were working together.

As for the nature of the agreement, it was actually fairly simple.

The Shadow Garden had logistical connections and resources that couldn't be accessed through normal means but were now lacking in firepower and manpower due to a certain incident involving a certain young man and his monsters. A problem that has since been exacerbated since the disappearance of Marquis de Howlite fucked with their dealings, the disappearance of the Golden Jungle Dragon Shipping company fucked with their ability to ship goods and people, and the sudden change in management of the [Mines of Malevolence] made it nearly impossible to trade chattel for useful materials.

The Shadow Garden was still strong in terms of resources; they were just suffering from a couple of setbacks that needed manpower and martial might to solve.

On the other hand, Prince Alain's faction, which consisted of Buzza and the grafted, the Fallen of the Pearl Scale Empire, and his own royal faction, had plenty of warriors and manpower but lacked many of the resources needed to empower them to the point of being useful.

There was this one thing that showed up out of nowhere and helped to refine the "grafting" process to the point that synergy became more viable between the host and their pilfered body part, but the warriors in question still needed a lot of resources in order to stabilize their bodies and advance to higher tiers.

In other words, they were going to make up for each other's shortcomings.

"Hmm. Everything here appears to be in order," Alain concluded after looking over the contract. "However, I did notice two items of interest here that will require further negotiations."

At the mention of these items of interest, Madam Venus put on a rather pleased smile.

"I knew you were an astute person," she purred in a rich voice. "Let me guess, it has to do with the clause involving the Grafted and the ultimate fate of the archive?"

"More or less," Alain nodded.

The clause in question stated that as payment for services rendered by the Shadow Garden, Buzza was to turn five of the Shadow Garden's elite warriors into Grafted using the most powerful kaijin parts available at the time of the surgery.

Explicitly, this encouraged both sides to take down the current Kaijin Lord's kaijin and use their body parts for the surgery.

Implicitly, this meant that these parts had to be provided by Buzza and Alain.

"Kaijin corpses aren't exactly easy to come across, so having us be the ones to provide such things is a bit…far-fetched, to say the least," Alain admitted with no shame. "If you were to find these parts yourself, though, Buzza would be more than happy to assist for free. Hell, if you find more than what you need, we'd be happy to negotiate a fair price for them."

"Noted," Madam Venus nodded, understanding that these words were a test from them to her.

As for the second clause, regarding the ultimate fate of the [Demon's Archive], it simply stated that the one who dealt the finishing blow to the current owner of the archive would be entitled to its ownership.

This sounded fair on the surface, but it was also a bit of a trap.

"The Shadow Garden is home to many assassins, so I am more than aware that you could easily have me and my fellow Grafted simply serve as fodder while you send someone to swoop in for the kill," Alain pointed out. "Hell, seeing as how you collect faces like toys, I wouldn't be surprised if you would use that moment as a chance to steal the ownership of the library for yourself."

"What can I say?" Madam Venus shrugged in a showy manner. "I'm a greedy bitch."