Chapter 44

Chapter 44. You, Just One Hit (4)

Pumpkin Leaf Inn.

As expected of a place famous for its bad food, there were more employees than customers.

A table hidden in the shadow of a pillar, where one wouldn’t even notice if someone was sitting there. Keter sat down there.

The middle-aged man sitting across from him, already there, stirred his cold soup and spoke.

“Changed your mind?”

“Changed it, yeah. To exposing everything.”

“……”

The middle-aged man, who had been bowing his head deeply, raised it and looked at Keter.

If Luke had been here, he would’ve been shocked. The middle-aged man wasn’t a villager but one of the Knights of Sephira.

A 3-Star Knight from the Lunar Knight Order. Not even from the 4th Division, which guards the Archive.

Supporting Leganon wasn’t just limited to one division of the Lunar Knight Order.

“I’m going to tell the Lord everything. What Elder Leganon is up to.”

“Do you think the Lord will believe you?”

“I’ll tell him Elder Leganon is hiding something in this village. He won’t believe it right away, but he’ll at least pretend to look into it out of curiosity, won’t he?”

“……”

“Hey, if you glare at me like that, it looks like I’m confessing. You should’ve pretended not to know.”

“As the Elder said, you’re quite imaginative.”

“100,000 gold.”

“……?”

“I thought about it. I don’t want to fight the Elder either. But I also don’t want to miss this opportunity for just a few coins.”

“So, you came to Sephira for personal gain after all.”

“Should I do it out of filial piety? For the parents who abandoned me?”

“A very Lawless City way of thinking.”

“I’ll be going home tonight. Tell them to prepare 100,000 gold by then. If even a single gold is missing, the deal’s off.”

Keter unilaterally declared this and stood up. The middle-aged man could only glare fiercely at Keter’s back as he left without a word.

Meanwhile, Luke, who had been waiting outside, overheard their entire conversation through the window.

“Keter. Yesterday, when Elder Leganon called you, did he really tell you to leave the family?”

“Now you get it? I don’t lie.”

“Why would Elder Leganon… Oh, never mind. Thinking about it, it makes sense.”

Considering Keter’s actions, Luke could understand why Elder Leganon would want him to leave the family.

But what does that have to do with Keter’s current actions and searching for the Beastmen?

Luke opened his mouth to ask Keter directly but closed it again. He remembered Keter’s words to think for himself.

“Is Elder Leganon connected to the Beastmen?”

It was a far-fetched idea, but it was the only thing that came to mind.

Keter looked back at Luke and nudged him with his elbow.

“Just keep doing what you’re doing.”

“Huh? Did I get it right?”

“Whether it’s right or wrong, if you can’t even come up with a hypothesis, you’re useless.”

“So, was I right or wrong?”

“I don’t know.”

“Huh?”

“I’m just speculating too. Right now, I’m just verifying it.”

“Verifying? Will Elder Leganon give you 100,000 gold? I don’t think he has that kind of money.”

“If he sells even his underwear, he’ll find a way. But he won’t want to give it to me. What do you think he’ll do then?”

“Hmm… negotiate?”

“The easiest thing would be to just kill me and get rid of me.”

“Elder Leganon isn’t the type to do that.”

“How can a fish understand a bird’s mind?”

“What if you’re wrong? What will you do then?”

“If I’m wrong, then I’m wrong.”

At Keter’s answer, Luke stopped in his tracks. Keter didn’t stop walking, though.

Luke felt a bit disappointed but didn’t follow. He already knew where Keter was going.

“If I’m wrong, then I’m wrong.”

Is it really that simple to think like that?

It’s not that simple. That’s how Luke felt.

One day, the pudding he had been saving disappeared. Luke suspected his roommate. They got along well, but given the circumstances, there was no one else.

He immediately confronted his roommate. Why did you eat my pudding without asking? The roommate denied it, and eventually, Luke’s relationship with him deteriorated to the point of no return.

He even changed rooms and avoided running into that roommate on purpose.

The next day, a colleague from the next room handed him a pudding. He said he saw it through the open door while passing by yesterday and absentmindedly ate it. He gave me two, so don’t feel bad.

The culprit wasn’t the roommate. Luke couldn’t even apologize to him. They didn’t meet anymore.

“What would Keter have done?”

Luke chuckled to himself.

“He probably would’ve grabbed the roommate by the collar right away.”

Up to that point, it wasn’t much different from what he would’ve done.

But after the real culprit was revealed, how would he have fixed the broken relationship?

Would he have given money? Would he have sincerely apologized?

“I guess I’ll have to see more to know.”

There’s still a lot he doesn’t know about Keter.

And a lot to learn.

Luke suddenly thought about it. The fact that he had become Keter’s partner. It wasn’t about him teaching Keter.

‘You learn from Keter.’

That was probably the Lord’s real intention.

* * *

Before coming out of the underground, Keter asked the Village Chief. Where in this village would be a good place to hide quietly?

Thanks to Keter, the Village Chief, who had survived, thought for a moment and answered.

“You must’ve seen the bean field on your way here. If you go deeper, there’s a pretty big barn. The harvest is over, and the field is infested with bugs, so the villagers don’t go near it.”

The Village Chief’s words were true. The bean field was deserted, and bugs were swarming. When Luke arrived at the barn, he shuddered and brushed off his body, clearly disliking bugs.

“No one would come to a place like this.”

Keter, who had arrived first, was lying down using his arm as a pillow.

“Keter, are you seriously sleeping?”

“I don’t know when they’ll come.”

“Who’s coming? No one knows we’re here.”

“I already told them. That I’m here.”

“No way. I heard the whole conversation at the inn, and you didn’t say that.”

“Lesson one. What did I say?”

“There are no coincidences in this world. I know, I know……”

Luke suddenly got goosebumps.

Thinking about it, when Keter said “Lesson one,” he didn’t just say it. He pointed at the Village Chief with his finger.

At the time, he thought it was just a gesture, but if it wasn’t……

“Is the Village Chief in on it too?”

Keter didn’t give any gestures to indicate whether it was right or wrong, so Luke thought about it again.

At that time, the Village Chief was listening to everything from the second floor.

This alone was unbelievable. In the middle of what was clearly an important conversation, why would an ordinary person like him stay in that position?

The knights didn’t block the entrance, and the hall’s entrance wasn’t just the front door.

He could’ve come down from the second floor and left through the front or back door at any time, or gone to a secluded spot on the second floor to avoid listening.

There were countless options. But the Village Chief stayed and listened to the entire conversation between Keter and Arbold.

‘Oh my god.’

Luke got goosebumps.

Not because of the Village Chief’s actions, which he hadn’t known about.

But because Keter, who had been calmly analyzing everything even during that intense conversation, suddenly seemed like a monster.

“Are you really eighteen? Is this face fake?”

Luke tried to pinch Keter’s face. Keter slapped his hand away.

“Don’t touch my face. If it were someone else, they’d be dead.”

“Between friends……”

Strictly speaking, Luke was three years older, but that didn’t matter anymore.

Keter chuckled at the word “friend.”

“There are three criteria to be my friend. You don’t meet any of them.”

“I think I know. Either rich, strong, or… a beauty or an Upper Noble?”

“Half right.”

Keter stood up and reached out his hand. Luke thought it was for a handshake and reached out as well.

Thud.

Keter slapped Luke’s palm.

“The bow, give me the bow.”

“Ah.”

Luke, who had been diligently carrying Keter’s bow, finally handed it over.

Keter took the bow and pulled six arrows from Luke’s quiver.

“Do you know how to shoot a bow?”

It wasn’t a malicious question.

For commoners, long-range weapons like bows or crossbows were outright banned. Only licensed hunters could carry bows.

Keter, being from the Lawless City, might’ve had no trouble getting a bow, but he probably never used it as a weapon.

In tight, complex spaces, a bow couldn’t even half its full power.

Keter answered with action instead of words.

Thud, thud.

Without even using a finger guard, Keter lightly shot the arrows.

The arrows he shot stuck into various places around the barn.

Seeing this, Luke thought to himself. What was I, no, what was Keter relying on to take such risks until now?

The archery Keter showed wasn’t particularly impressive. It proved he wasn’t a beginner by hitting something, but that was it.

“He shoots well, but……”

If Keter hadn’t had Amaranth, Luke would’ve run away right then.

Luke sighed as he looked at the arrows Keter had shot.

“Keter. It’s good to test your skills, but shooting them so high makes them hard to retrieve. Do you know how expensive each arrow is?”

Since bows aren’t standardized weapons, there’s no specialized blacksmith to make them. Buying arrows outside costs 1 gold for a bundle of 30.

On the other hand, the arrows produced in Sephira are undoubtedly top-quality. The cost to make just one arrow easily exceeds 1 gold.

That’s why, unless the arrows are severely damaged, they’re reused multiple times as a matter of course.

“Leave them there, don’t pull them out.”

“Arrows are sensitive to moisture. Leaving them like that will ruin them quickly.”

“I put them there on purpose.”

“Huh? Why?”

“Preparing to welcome our guest.”

Just as Luke was about to ask more, the barn door opened with a loud noise.

Luke, who was near the door, jumped like a startled cat and landed next to Keter.

‘I didn’t sense anything at all.’

Even the curse that usually protected him from danger only started acting up after the man appeared.

The man who appeared in the barn looked ordinary. Judging by his clothes, he could’ve been a farmer coming to inspect the barn.

If he hadn’t looked at Keter and Luke with sunken eyes, he could’ve been mistaken for just another villager.

“You have two choices.”

The man spoke abruptly to Keter.

He continued without waiting for Keter’s response.

“Either come quietly with this sack over your head and tied up, or get knocked out and dragged away.”

Thud.

The man threw two sacks at Keter.

Keter glanced at them and frowned.

“That’s not the line I was expecting. Hey, is this right? Are you sure? Shouldn’t it be something like ‘I’ll tear you apart and feed you to the crows’ or ‘Leave now and I’ll spare you’? Think about it.”

“I wasn’t told to listen to your words. I was told not to give you much time to think.”

“Tsk.”

Keter clicked his tongue and looked at Luke beside him. Luke had a determined look and was holding a bow, but he didn’t have any arrows.

‘This is definitely unexpected. They still want to capture me alive.’

Everything had gone according to Keter’s plan so far. But now, for the first time, it had gone off track.

‘Well, it happens.’

That was it. Keter’s commentary.

It was only natural.

Keter wasn’t a god. In life, there are many mistakes. Whenever that happened, Keter simply moved on to the next path.

“What’s your name?”

At Keter’s question, the man hesitated for a moment before answering.

“Hans.”

“Not your human name. Your real name.”

“……”

The man showed hostility toward Keter, who seemed to know his true identity.

Thud, thud.

The man started walking with large strides.

“Keter, use Amaranth!”

Luke, who couldn’t fight due to the curse, urgently shouted at Keter.

But Keter just chuckled.

“Why would I need a dragon-slaying weapon to kill a goblin?”

Keter pulled three arrows from Luke’s quiver and immediately nocked one.

“Don’t want to talk? You’ll want to soon.”

As Keter released the bowstring, the man disappeared from sight.