Chapter 51
Slap.
As he turned the corner, Lorens bumped into a swiftly walking human scholar.
The two steadied themselves from the slight collision. The human scholar's white robe was stained with spots of blood. His expression darkened for a moment when he saw this, but when he looked up and saw it was Lorens, he controlled his expression and took a step back.
"Lorens? Back from Shattered Lake Prison? Sorry about bumping into you just now."
"It's nothing. Where are you headed now?"
"The tavern. It's the 15th today. The Blood Moon Tribunal is always more exciting when watched together."
"Haven't you seen enough from working at the prison?"
The other let out a laugh. "Did you see the list of prisoners announced this morning? Guess who's on it - Valcas Uhl, the elven scholar from Caimon University!"
Valcas?
Lorens was slightly surprised. Wasn't that the patient he had treated yesterday...
"Want to join us? Everyone hasn't seen you in a while. You showing up at the tavern will definitely surprise them—"
"Sure."
The scholar's expression clearly stiffened somewhat. He didn't seem to expect the usually aloof Lorens to actually agree. He had only invited as a courtesy...
"Um... then follow me. Oh, do you want to change your clothes first, treat your injuries?"
Lorens looked at his blood-stained self. "Don't they serve blood wine at the tavern? That can be used to treat me directly. Or would I be improper entering the tavern like this, would you all mind?"
The human scholar immediately shook his head. "No, of course not! I actually think it looks quite cool on you, very fashionable. Must turn a lot of heads walking down the street like that..."
Lorens sneered inwardly.
As the only lizardman at the research institute, how could he not know the other scholars secretly discriminated against and excluded him?
But he didn't care in the past, focused only on pursuing strength. Being excluded meant more peace for him, never participating in any group activities.
Besides, with the restrictions of the "Racial Equality Act", these people could only keep their grievances bottled up inside no matter how much ill-will they held.
On the surface, they even had to maintain an attitude of 'I respect you very much' and 'I don't discriminate against you'.
Otherwise, if Lorens caught them at it, reporting to the Race Committee would ruin their careers for life.
But Lorens was in an exceptionally bad mood tonight. Faced with his colleague's insincere invitation, he suddenly had a mischievous impulse to play along. So he readily agreed.
But Lorens soon regretted it.
He had never been to a tavern before.
The neon lights in blue and purple, the sultry, melodious music, the scholars of the sacred bloodline clinking glasses, every detail made Lorens feel very uncomfortable, even nervous enough for his skin to start secreting mucus.
"This is... Lorens?"
"Congratulations to Lorens on completing the Blood Embrace ceremony and coming back!"
"Come, everyone, let's drink to that!"
After the initial clamor, everyone returned to their own circles. Even the scholar who brought Lorens didn't show any intention of introducing him to his circle, directly slipping away instead.
Lorens was relieved though. He found an empty table and sat down, ordering a Melancholy Blues. Soon the bartender brought over a cocktail mixing deep blue with crimson.
"The Melancholy Blues you ordered, 20% human infant blood, 30% lizardman infant blood. Please enjoy."
Lorens drank it all in one go, licking his lips. The rotting wounds on them rapidly started healing.
He observed the tavern, feeling it wasn't much different from the fishman bars in the slums - there was a pregnant woman drinking at one end of the bar, at another booth a beastman couple were procreating, some had overdosed on moon sugar, writhing and rolling on the ground like dogs.
But the discussion topics here were different from regular taverns outside. The people here all talked about "have you produced any results", "we'll slaughter the administration someday", "this is the final year for promotion or dismissal". All very depressing adult matters that made drinking unpleasant.
A shadow also passed Lorens' crimson fish eyes - now that he had completed the Blood Embrace ceremony, he would also have to sign a young researcher contract with the institute.
Based on his current source blood quality and the institute's atmosphere, he would most likely have to participate in the "promote or dismiss" competition, producing the required results within the time limit to be promoted to associate professor. Otherwise, he would be fired and expelled from the institute, sent to the Heresy Court or forced to start his own business. In any case, he would have no prospects of advancing further at the institute.
But the problem was there were only so many associate professor positions, and dozens of scholar candidates competing... He heard of an institute in Outer Sea City that was even more outrageous, with 30 researchers competing for 0 associate professor positions. When the 20 year trial period ended, they declared everyone unqualified and just sent the scholars out to society after squeezing their 20 years of labor out of them.
Lorens drank a mouthful of liquor and lowered his head, flipping the drink menu over to the other side. He saw the familiar tavern ads on it. There was a price list for organ harvesting from members of the sacred bloodline, with the recovery institution being the 'Red Fog Organ Trading Company'.
"Humans of the sacred bloodline: hearts 80 silvers, lungs 50 silvers, kidneys 40 silvers, eyes 30 silvers..."
"Lizardmen of the sacred bloodline: hearts 44 silvers, lungs 23 silvers..."
The organ recovery prices for the sacred bloodline were clearly lower than market price. Naturally, this was because after transforming into the sacred bloodline, their organs also mutated. So sacred bloodline organs could only be sold to the same bloodline, a small market.
Besides, the sacred bloodline could recover through blood therapy. Demand for organ trade was low, so prices were low too.
If it was normal races, the prices would be at least 2-3 times higher. But normal races would take far too long to regrow organs, greatly impacting lives.
When he was most desperate, Lorens had sold some of his gills and thousands of ml of blood to earn a bit on the side.
Lorens reconsidered - 'Now that I've lost my prison job, the institute stipend will be much lower. Things are getting harder for Granny Yen's place, I should sell some organs first to send money over...'
Granny Yen was the person in charge of the Lizardman Orphanage, and had raised Lorens.
The Lizardman Orphanage was one of the few willing to accept fishmen.
After Lorens grew up, he would send about half his salary to Granny Yen, to alleviate the orphanage's financial pressures. After all, if it went bankrupt, hundreds more lizardman fry would die each year.
Free economy, free market. Abandoned infants with no orphanage would just have to reincarnate.
He didn't have any hobbies anyway, didn't like trading stocks, buying things. With lodging and food covered at the institute, the money couldn't buy anything good, might as well use it to give the little fishmen at the orphanage better meals.
Just as Lorens was pondering which organ to sell, the central area of the tavern suddenly projected an octagonal light screen, allowing all patrons to see the live content.
"It's starting, it's starting!"
"Boss Snake, come open the betting!"
"Hey, when can we have the 'Battle Royale' mode again? That was so thrilling to watch."
"I think the 'Computer' mode is the best. Seeing the electric currents jump out from their eyeballs is just too good."
"It's not some festival today, how can there be a special mode... Don't dream, it'll just be the classic mode tonight. I love watching the classic mode, ordinary yet still stimulating."
Even Lorens who wasn't very interested in the Blood Moon Tribunal couldn't help but watch when the screen lit up.
The Blood Moon Tribunal begins.
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