Chapter 30. The First Hero (24)
Several guild members approached carrying Wild Pigs over their shoulders.
There were around ten of them.
"If you could hunt them this well, it would've been nice if you helped Na-ye before. Don't you think so, Na-ye?"
"There must've been circumstances. Right, Seokdu?"
Seongchan asked casually.
Na-ye answered exactly what came to mind.
But Park Seokdu, who had been excited about winning one platinum, immediately became irritated.
She's changing because of that bastard.
Park Seokdu decided he needed to bring Na-ye back to his side as soon as possible.
He shouted at Seongchan.
"Is this really the time to talk about that? Prove it!"
Seongchan had made a ridiculous bet with Park Seokdu.
Park Seokdu had accused him of swapping out the Wild Pig meat inside his high-grade subspace pouch and tricking people.
It had been an absurd claim.
To prove it wrong, Seongchan had accepted a bet.
He deliberately made such a ridiculous accusation because he wanted to humiliate me.
The scheme was obvious.
Seongchan had still accepted.
One platinum was at stake.
Thud.
The Wild Pigs were piled on top of one another.
Seongchan examined them.
They look fine on the outside, but some of these were killed a while ago.
He opened his mouth.
Before he could speak, Park Seokdu interrupted.
"Don't tell me you're going to say you can't do it because your lie is about to be exposed?"
"Look at this Wild Pig! It was hunted recently!"
Seongchan looked at the Wild Pig one guild member was holding.
That one really had been killed recently.
But all the older Wild Pigs had been piled deeper inside.
The fresher ones had been deliberately placed where everyone could easily see them.
Seongchan kicked the pile.
Then he pulled out one of the Wild Pigs from the inside.
"You want me to use rotten meat?"
"Doesn't look rotten to me. Na-ye noona, does that look rotten to you?"
Na-ye carefully examined the Wild Pig Seongchan was holding.
She blinked.
Other than some discoloration in the fur, it didn't look obviously rotten.
"If the fur has changed color, that means the poison sacs will already be full once I butcher it. There'll barely be anything edible left."
"Good. You said it yourself."
Park Seokdu smiled.
"There'll be very little edible meat. That means it's still edible once you remove the bad parts. Everyone heard him, right?"
"We heard!"
"Prove it!"
"Don't run away after betting one platinum just because you're claiming the Wild Pig is rotten!"
Had Park Seokdu rehearsed this with the guild members?
They were clearly trying to force Seongchan to make the meat edible somehow.
Voices of agreement began spreading through the crowd.
The whispering grew louder.
More people began looking at Seongchan suspiciously.
Interesting.
Seongchan had walked directly into Park Seokdu's scheme.
Park Seokdu had even pulled nearby residents onto his side.
He smiled like a victor.
Seongchan smiled right back.
Park Seokdu looked at him as though asking why the hell he was smiling.
"Perfect timing."
Seongchan wasn't looking at Park Seokdu.
He was looking toward a carriage approaching from the distance.
Peuten and Taylor were riding in it.
"It can't be true."
Peuten was riding through the forest.
Dark thoughts wouldn't leave his mind.
"It was only an investigation involving demons. It shouldn't be something serious enough to lead to war."
Peuten enjoyed predicting the future.
For a merchant, predicting the future was directly connected to profit.
If he predicted a drought and stored food beforehand, he could sell it at a higher price when the drought arrived.
Predicting the future meant recognizing opportunities to earn more money.
That was why foresight was such an important ability for a merchant.
If we find a mana stone inside a Wild Pig, wouldn't that mean the demons are announcing an attack on the Terk Kingdom several months in advance?
A dark thought had suddenly entered his mind.
It gradually developed into the idea that signs of war might already be surrounding the Terk Kingdom.
And in that possibility, demons appeared to be deeply involved.
No. Surely not.
Maybe some demon had simply been bored and fed mana stones to Wild Pigs as a cruel joke.
It was still only prediction.
Even so, Peuten couldn't dismiss it.
If Count Thornjer is involved, though, that changes everything.
Count Thornjer was the head of the Highs Merchant Company.
As its Deputy Head, Peuten knew better than anyone how Count Thornjer managed the company.
That made Peuten believe his prediction was unlikely to be completely wrong.
If the Guild Head believes something will produce profit, he's the kind of man who would create a war that didn't exist.
Peuten worried about the Terk Kingdom as he rode.
Suddenly, bright sunlight struck his eyes.
He blinked quickly to adjust.
Then he stared at the scenery ahead.
"Is that Tolkan Village?"
Peuten looked at the massive wooden palisade.
It had been built using thick, sturdy logs.
Inside, the villagers looked healthy.
There were fields being cultivated.
Other fields were being harvested.
Most surprising of all, there were an enormous number of houses.
They were roughly built, but there were so many that the settlement looked like ten ordinary villages combined.
It was rare to find a settlement that large outside a kingdom's city walls.
"What exactly did Seongchan do here? Didn't he just teach them how to make Wild Pig Soup?"
The moment he thought that, he noticed a cauldron.
Inside it were Wild Pig meat, potatoes, and carrots.
The villagers were eating stew.
"Squeeeal! Squeeeal!"
A group of Wild Pigs charged toward the palisade nearby.
BANG! CRASH!
The monsters repeatedly slammed themselves into the wooden wall.
While they attacked, villagers holding spears stood on top.
They mercilessly stabbed the Wild Pigs in the necks and backs.
"SKREEEE!"
The monsters struggled.
But they couldn't even break through the palisade.
One after another, they collapsed.
Despite charging with tremendous force, the entire group of Wild Pigs died without accomplishing anything.
"Retired mercenaries?"
Peuten urged his horse toward Tolkan Village.
So much had changed that he briefly wondered whether the original Tolkan Village had moved somewhere else.
He had received reports saying the village was successfully defending itself.
He simply hadn't expected it to develop this far.
A villager on guard duty stepped in front of him.
"Who are you?"
"I'm Peuten, Deputy Head of the Highs Merchant Company."
Peuten naturally expected the villager to move aside.
The man didn't.
Instead, his eyes became hostile.
"Don't you know what the Highs Merchant Company is? It's the largest merchant company in the Terk Kingdom."
"I know. What business do you have here?"
Peuten almost became angry.
Then he stopped himself.
The Highs Merchant Company hasn't done anything for them.
Count Thornjer had decided not to support the villages.
He had reduced the number of knights assigned to protect them and redirected support toward the Rice Ball Guild, focusing entirely on preparing for battle with demons.
The villagers had suffered because of that.
Peuten had secretly tried to support them.
But he had calculated how much damage the Wild Pigs were causing and provided only what he believed the company could afford.
Although Peuten had given secret assistance, there was only so much he could do.
It hadn't been enough to give the villagers truly safe lives.
"Seongchan told me to meet Taylor. Is he here?"
"Did you say Hero Kim Seongchan?! What's your relationship with him?!"
"What?! He's someone Hero Kim Seongchan sent?"
"What the hell did Hero Kim Seongchan do with the Highs Merchant Company that kept us barely alive instead of actually helping?!"
Peuten shot a cold look toward the man who said the last line.
That was not something someone should say directly in front of the Deputy Head of the Highs Merchant Company.
The villager trembled under his gaze and looked away.
Calm down.
A merchant company wasn't defenseless.
Someone at the level of Deputy Head naturally had enough strength to protect himself.
For a moment, Peuten had released killing intent out of irritation.
He took a slow breath and calmed himself.
Then he spoke confidently.
"I'm currently building a relationship of trust with Seongchan."
Merchants lived on trust.
One sentence saying they were building trust should be enough to prove him.
"Then I'll guide you to the Village Chief."
"Actually, I'd prefer that man over there to guide me."
"M-Me? I don't know where he is."
"What are you talking about? You greeted the Village Chief with me earlier."
"You bastard!"
"It seems the two of you are going to have a very enjoyable conversation."
The man Peuten had selected was the same one who had openly criticized the Highs Merchant Company.
Even with the Deputy Head standing right there.
Together, the two entered Tolkan Village.
"Are you a hero?"
"No."
"If you aren't even a hero, why did you say something like that?"
"Th-That... Are you sure I can speak honestly?"
Peuten met the man's nervous glance.
Even a hero shouldn't normally show this kind of attitude.
The man looked as though he would happily spill every thought in his head if someone gave him permission.
No wonder he spoke badly about the company even in front of me.
Peuten reached out.
Grab.
"Uuugh!"
"I was only trying to brush some dust off you. Your reaction is excessive."
Peuten kept a hand on the man's shoulder and shook it lightly, pretending to remove dust.
Then he spoke again.
"If the company hadn't provided any support, everyone here might have died. There were circumstances that prevented us from helping more. It is unpleasant when you deliberately stab at that point."
"So there were circumstances. I'm sorry."
The man's expression wasn't particularly apologetic.
He looked more like he was thinking, So what?
But under Peuten's stare, he eventually apologized.
"It's good that you can admit it. I hope you won't think badly of the Highs Merchant Company from now on."
"Of course. I'm poorly educated, so sometimes I lose my temper and say nonsense. I'm sorry."
"Ahjussi! Did you cause trouble again?!"
"Village Chief, what do you mean, trouble? I brought the Deputy Head of the Highs Merchant Company."
"Deputy Head? Why would someone that important come here?"
Peuten had heard that the Village Chief was relatively old.
But the man standing before him looked young.
Then...
"Are you Taylor?"
"Yes. Why are you looking for me?"
"I'm Peuten. This isn't something we should discuss out here."
"You can speak casually to me. Formal speech makes me uncomfortable."
"I'm fine."
Peuten disliked speaking casually to someone he wasn't close with.
Doing so felt rude.
It was rare for someone to reject respectful treatment when it was freely offered.
Peuten was familiar enough with this situation that he simply waited for Taylor to recover from his confusion.
After a moment, Taylor glanced toward a certain house.
Peuten followed his gaze.
We could talk in that house.
It's a little far away, though. There's still a chance that isn't what he's looking at.
Predicting possibilities was second nature to Peuten.
"If it's an important conversation, that house would be better."
"Whose house is it?"
"My grandfather's."
"Why were you looking at it?"
"My grandfather loves spreading rumors, so I was checking whether he was home."
Taylor paused.
"He is."
An old man stood behind the window, smiling pleasantly.
Peuten gave him a small greeting.
The old man greeted him back.
Then Peuten followed Taylor into another house.
"Ah, it's been a while since I've been here. It belonged to a friend. Snarn, it's been a long time."
Peuten opened his high-grade subspace pouch, took out a chair, and sat down.
As Taylor had said, the room was full of dust.
"I noticed people building houses on the way here. Is there a reason this one was left empty?"
"Well... The people who lived here died because of Wild Pigs. Maybe that's why no one feels comfortable giving the house to someone else."
"If there's a family struggling to raise children, you could suggest they clean this house and live here. Once the dust is removed, it could become a good home for children."
"That's a good idea."
Peuten found himself liking Taylor.
They leave the houses of the dead empty.
It isn't practical.
But I suppose it's their way of remembering the people who lived here.
Seeing the expression on Taylor's face as he remembered the past, Peuten smiled faintly.
Remembering the dead was important.
But now it was time to discuss the real reason he'd come.
