Chapter 34. The First Hero (28)
"You must've had a hard time cleaning up after the head of the Highs Merchant Company."
Seongchan neither blamed nor praised Peuten.
He simply offered a small word of comfort.
Peuten had spent a long and difficult journey dealing with this mess.
Seongchan wanted to acknowledge that.
"No. Cleaning up would be giving me too much credit."
Peuten answered calmly.
"All I did was endure."
Seongchan had expected that response.
He's always calm.
And then he gets things done.
Peuten described it as merely enduring.
But being able to endure was itself a form of ability.
Otherwise, he never would've risen to become Deputy Head of the Highs Merchant Company.
"If the person involved says that's all it was, then fine."
Seongchan leaned forward.
"Are you certain he joined hands with demons?"
"I personally overheard Count Thornjer speaking with demons."
Peuten's expression hardened.
"He said the plan to destroy villages with Wild Pigs and make the residents speak badly about the Terk Kingdom had failed."
If one village after another collapsed and the kingdom still sent no knights or soldiers, eventually the village chiefs could unite.
They could begin openly criticizing the Terk Kingdom.
That could create an excuse for another kingdom to attack.
"Na-ye made it hard for the plan to work."
Even when everyone else ignored the villages, Na-ye had stubbornly continued protecting them.
Without Na-ye, Count Thornjer's plan would've progressed exactly as intended.
"That's right."
Peuten nodded.
"And the reason Count Thornjer realized the plan would no longer work was because of your actions, Seongchan."
Taylor, who had been quietly listening, couldn't hold back anymore.
He stepped into the conversation.
"Once everyone became capable of killing Wild Pigs easily, I heard Lord Vantart say that the plan was useless now."
Taylor continued.
"He said they would stop spreading Wild Pigs little by little and instead gather them together and send them all at once."
"Taylor."
Na-ye immediately reacted.
"Did you say Lord Vantart?!"
Lord Vantart was the demon who had killed Cha Hyeonwoo, former Guild Master of the Rice Ball Guild.
He was also the demon responsible for King Haiman losing his leg.
A Demon Lord was considered roughly equal to a human king.
Now they knew Lord Vantart and Count Thornjer had been preparing the foundation for an attack on the Terk Kingdom.
And Seongchan and Na-ye had accidentally blocked part of that preparation.
"So while hunting Wild Pigs carrying Fear Mana Stones, you discovered that Lord Vantart and Count Thornjer were working together?"
"Yes."
Peuten answered.
"Count Thornjer spoke naturally with the demons. There were several demons around him too."
His eyes darkened.
"I wanted to deny it, but when I saw that many demons moving according to Count Thornjer's words, I couldn't."
"Can you say the same thing in front of His Majesty Haiman?"
Peuten had calmly described the scheme of the man who led the merchant company he belonged to.
Seongchan knew it couldn't truly be easy for him.
So his voice became slightly concerned.
"I'll correct what went wrong for the sake of our merchant company's trust."
"Then that's enough."
Peuten's expression remained serious.
Almost too serious.
Seongchan thought inwardly,
I'll make sure you can smile with some room to breathe eventually.
Thinking about what would happen next, Seongchan smiled.
Haiman held a mana-circuit extractor while building another circuit.
It needs to be stronger.
Stronger.
He completed the propulsion mana circuit and began testing it.
Wind swirled around him.
His body lifted from the ground.
He could even fly forward with stability.
The problem was speed.
I need to adjust the circuit that increases speed.
If he modified only the speed circuit, he could certainly increase speed.
But then maintaining balance became difficult.
The propulsion circuit also had to be strengthened to match the higher speed.
The balancing circuit had to be redesigned as well.
In short, changing one mana circuit was almost the same as changing every mana circuit.
If I touch speed, propulsion becomes the problem.
And the biggest problem is...
There was nowhere left to draw more circuits.
The Leg Machine was already covered in mana circuits.
Finding empty space was difficult.
And even when he found a gap, it was nowhere near large enough to complete a full circuit.
His head felt hot.
Haiman put down the mana-circuit extractor.
Gulp. Gulp.
After drinking water, he leaned his head against the back of his chair and closed his eyes.
"Do I need to draw everything again?"
No matter how many times he rearranged the circuits, he couldn't find an answer.
Yesterday, he'd genuinely believed it would work.
But once he continued drawing, he discovered a missing section.
Now he couldn't figure out where to fit it.
Knock. Knock.
"Come in."
Haiman fixed his gaze on the door.
It opened.
Serina and Kosdal entered.
Why is Sir Kosdal here?
Kosdal hadn't visited in two years after fighting with Serina.
Haiman had asked Serina what happened between them.
She had always avoided answering, so he'd never learned the details.
Now Kosdal stood before him, and anger was clearly visible on his face.
"Did you reconcile?"
Haiman decided to interpret the situation positively.
He smiled in welcome.
"Your Majesty Haiman!"
Kosdal's voice was intense.
Everything he felt was visible both on his face and in his tone.
The damp air of the laboratory suddenly felt like a blazing furnace.
Kosdal's emotions were so intense they seemed to heat Haiman's own body.
Haiman was a man who chose reason over excitement.
He opened his mouth.
Serina spoke first.
"I told you not to get worked up."
"I'm not worked up."
Kosdal immediately shouted again.
"Your Majesty Haiman!"
One look at Serina's expression told Haiman everything.
She had probably spent the entire walk here repeatedly telling Kosdal to calm down.
Serina already tried to calm him.
There's no need for me to do the same.
Instead of calming Kosdal, Haiman chose to talk.
He settled his own body and spoke in a composed voice.
"It seems this is our first meeting in two years. Is it my imagination, or do I sense hostility?"
"Does it look like imagination?"
"If it isn't, then what is it?"
"Do you know how your knights and soldiers are living?!"
"I was told Count Thornjer is training them well."
Haiman had needed time to strengthen the Leg Machine.
More than that, he had needed time requiring extreme concentration.
That was why he'd placed the training of the knights and soldiers under Count Thornjer and focused on researching mana circuits.
Is there something I don't know?
He occasionally visited the training ground.
Whenever he did, the knights and soldiers seemed to be training normally.
Nothing had appeared obviously wrong.
"Have you actually visited the training ground?"
"Is there a problem?"
"No."
"Then why ask?"
"Have you seen the guards protecting the walls or how they hunt Wild Pigs outside the city?"
Kosdal was Knight Commander of an allied kingdom and also Haiman's brother-in-law.
Even so, this was the first time they'd met in two years.
And Kosdal kept firing questions at a king without actually explaining anything.
Consumed by anger, Kosdal had already decided Haiman knew the truth and was pretending not to.
Stay calm.
Haiman couldn't easily answer without first understanding where Kosdal's questions were leading.
He needed to lower Kosdal's excitement.
"What exactly are you trying to hear from me?"
Haiman looked at him evenly.
"I can't answer properly if all you do is throw questions."
Haiman hadn't had time to leave the castle.
He was researching the propulsion mana circuit so he could escape the endless metallic clicking of the Leg Machine and prepare for whenever the demons attacked again.
He couldn't explain every circumstance to Kosdal.
So he decided to move directly to the main issue.
If his face looked healthier, I'd yell at him even more.
Kosdal had already heard from Serina and Knight Commander Tern that Haiman had been devoting himself entirely to research.
Kosdal had asked whether research really justified ignoring everything happening outside.
Serina had replied,
Oppa, if you were in the training ground and suddenly gained enlightenment, would you leave just because someone came looking for you?
Serina had compared research to martial enlightenment.
Kosdal had wanted to argue.
But Serina was both a knight and a magical engineer.
She wasn't the type to say something like that without reason.
So he had accepted the comparison.
Even if he didn't fully agree, the results in front of him proved Haiman really had been working.
His face and all those failed Leg Machines prove he wasn't wasting time.
Kosdal finally calmed down enough to speak directly.
"Why did you reduce support for the knights and soldiers while increasing support for the Rice Ball Guild, which is made entirely of heroes?"
"I learned that ordinary knights and soldiers couldn't properly stop demons."
Haiman had reasons.
When he lost his leg, he would've lost his head instead if Cha Hyeonwoo, former Guild Master of the Rice Ball Guild, hadn't been there.
Before dying, Cha Hyeonwoo had told Haiman not to cut support to the Rice Ball Guild.
Until then, Haiman had always seen heroes as outsiders.
People who could betray them at any time and become enemies.
Because of that, he had disliked supporting a guild made of heroes.
But after hearing Cha Hyeonwoo's final words, he changed his thinking.
Maybe I shouldn't reject them so strongly.
Was that wrong?
Even after hearing the answer, Kosdal's expression didn't soften.
Haiman had entrusted much of the kingdom's operation to Count Thornjer and Rice Ball Guild Master Park Seokdu.
Then he'd checked their reports to confirm whether things were running properly.
Nothing in the reports had looked wrong.
"Rumors were spreading when I entered the Terk Kingdom. Do you know about them?"
"Oppa!"
"Stay quiet. His Majesty Haiman needs to know too."
Kosdal was asking about rumors circulating throughout the kingdom.
Rumors.
Isn't that normal?
Haiman was used to rumors.
People in high positions naturally attracted many of them.
What mattered was Serina trying to stop Kosdal from speaking.
Now Haiman was curious.
"You said rumors?"
"Yes."
"Don't listen."
Serina stepped forward.
"Oppa only came to tell you that after training the knights and soldiers, their lazy attitude disappeared."
Haiman's expression changed.
"The knights and soldiers had become lazy?"
He had seen them training.
It had been about a year ago, but nothing had looked especially undisciplined.
If they had become lazy, the reports should've included the reason and a plan to fix it.
There had been nothing like that.
Instead, Haiman had received daily reports saying the knights and soldiers completed their required training before hunting Wild Pigs.
The reports also said the Rice Ball Guild members continued training diligently in preparation for the demons' return.
Which one is true?
Because he was deeply absorbed in researching the propulsion mana circuit, Haiman had replaced direct observation with reports.
The research required at least ten hours every day.
If he also focused on everything happening outside, he couldn't secure enough research time.
Was I being greedy?
Haiman had begun the research with one purpose.
When Lord Vantart invaded again, he wanted revenge.
No one had directly told him he was wrong.
Whether it was greed or not, I'll decide after hearing everything.
Haiman waited.
Kosdal slowly opened his mouth.
