Blood poured out of Drew’s neck and soaked the ground, as if his greed was dripping out of his heart. The robed man wiped the blood away from his sword and placed it back into its sheath again.
‘The plan is ruined.’
He glanced at Drew’s corpse. A look of annoyance flashed across his eyes, but the man’s personal mission superseded his emotions.
‘Do I have to move onto the next plan? No, this situation means that all possible routes have changed. Even if I don’t use Drew, there’s a high chance that the plan will fail.’
In a way, he already knew the answer.
‘It can’t be helped. I have to force out the result.’
It wasn’t what his master wanted, but it was the only way to obtain a similar result.
‘I need to supplement some more personnel. I thought it would be fine by myself, but it seems like I’ll have to resort to the last measure.’
This hurt the man’s pride. The importance and level of difficulty of this place and mission were on the low side. That was why he was the only one who had been placed in charge of the mission; and from the first place, the man’s skills and status were not suitable for a place like this. He had simply taken the job in his free time, thinking of it as a sort of a mini-vacation. However, his plans were ruined now.
‘I have to show some achievements to protect my pride. And…’
There was an even more important matter.
‘I have to find out the unknown variable.’
Everything had been running smoothly until now; he had to find out the cause of the change. It was probably the unknown variable.
‘I have to investigate who that guy is and then kill him!’
A chilly pair of eyes glittered inside the robe.
* * *
As if Snoc’s house was mimicking its owner’s feelings, it exuded a gloomy atmosphere. The wooden entrance hadn’t opened since Drew abandoned Snoc. It was the same whether his accomplices visited him or not.
Although it was late, a single candle wasn’t lit up, and the inside of the house was dark. Snoc lied on his bed and stared at the ceiling absentmindedly. Clothes were on the floor in a mess, and untidy dishes littered the table. Snoc didn’t move at all, enough to make one wonder if he was actually dead. Only his blinking eyes and heaving chest hinted that he was still alive.
Growl!
Even though he barely moved and used the bare minimum energy, his digestive system continued to work. Without considering its owner’s feelings, Snoc’s stomach cried out to Snoc to throw some food inside it.
“…Should I eat something?”
Even though he cut off all outside contact and shut himself in his house, Snoc didn’t intend to die. He grasped his stomach and got up. As if he was going through a lot of inner distress, his eyes were sunken. He got off his bed and put on his shoes.
Koo! Koo!
A small being approached Snoc’s legs and cried while tapping his feet.
“Are you hungry too?”
It was the mole who he met at the mine some days ago. He met the animal only recently, but the mole was basically a family member for him. Snoc liked the mole upon meeting him. As if they were connected by a thread of destiny, he felt a sense of affinity towards the mole by instinct. In addition, after Drew betrayed him, the mole was the only one he could share feelings with. It was very strange, but Snoc felt like he could give up his life for this mole he met just a couple of days ago.
“Yeah. Let’s eat. We will only be able to live if we eat.”
He picked up the mole and hugged it. As if he was used to this, the mole burrowed into Snoc’s chest.
“Let’s go, Nowem.”
While calling the name he gave the mole, Snoc went to where the cupboard was. He lit up a candle and scavenged the area for food.
“…There’s nothing to eat.”
The only thing left was a dry piece of bread.
‘I should go out to buy food when the day gets brighter.’
Although Drew stole most of his money, he still had enough money to eat for the day; but whenever he thought of this, he felt gloomy. Snoc took out a slice of bread and ripped it apart. Then, he placed a bread piece in front of Nowem’s nose.
Snort! Snort!
Nowem sniffed the bread piece.
Grab!
Nowem opened his small mouth as wide as he could and bit the piece of bread into smaller pieces. He looked adorable, chewing with his mouth full of bread. Snoc placed the rest of the bread into his mouth. The dry bread sucked all the moisture out of his mouth, and he forcefully chewed the crumbly, untasty bread. After he gulped down the rough bread, he felt like his empty stomach became a bit fuller.
The air felt stuffy and humid, so Snoc opened the window. A faint moonlight seeped into the room. The full moon hung in the sky today and spread its peculiar, dream-like atmosphere. It felt like the moon was comforting his disturbed mind. Snoc placed his elbow on the windowsill and stared at the moon.
‘Huh?’
A dark shadow cast under the moonlight.
‘What?’
Was he imagining it? Snoc rubbed his eyes and stood closer to the window. Someone was there. Under the moonlight, a man who exuded the same mood as a grim reaper stood a short distance away from Snoc’s house and stared at him through the window. And he wasn’t the only one—Snoc could see four figures.
They all wore dark robes, so it was difficult to separate them from the darkness. It was impossible to decipher their age or gender and made them a terrifying sight to behold. Snoc quickly closed the window and locked it.
‘What was that?’
Late in the night, mysterious figures were ominously staring into his house. Snoc immediately locked all the windows in his house and checked the lock on his door. Then he took a seat next to the bed while hugging Nowem. As soon as he heard someone barge into his place, Snoc planned to hide under his bed. He held his breath and perked his ears in case somebody forced the door open.
‘Did I imagine it?’
He didn’t hear the door open or any other sound. Maybe he imagined the scene in his tired state. Or maybe he misunderstood a group of people who had no interest in him but were moving for some other reason. Snoc began to scorn himself for being such a coward. Then, he lifted his head and saw a dark shadow in front of him.
* * *
Even though it was late, a large fire crackled in Zich and Hans’ room. Zich sat in front of the only table in the room, counting coins from the mountain of gold coins in front of him. At a glance, he looked like a greedy merchant who had earned a lot of money and was now internally crying out in happiness. But for that to be the case, his expression looked too indifferent.
Clink!
The last pillar of ten coins stood on the table.
‘That bastard sure earned a lot.”
Zich’s fingers thumped the neat layers of gold pillars. At his touch, the pillars slanted and collapsed. Their clinking sounds were enough to satisfy a hungry soul.
Hans watched the scene from his bed. Zich told him that he could sleep earlier, but Hans couldn’t sleep from the clinking noises. It was also his first time seeing so many gold coins glittering before him. He couldn’t take his eyes off of them.
Then, Zich prepared a bag and poured a set amount of gold coins into it.
“This is the amount that Drew stole from Snoc. If I include his compensation for mental damage, this will probably be enough. I also separated the amount Sam might ask me for compensation.”
After taking some coins out, Zich stared at the rest of the gold coins.
“This is mine.”
The remaining amount of coins was a substantial amount.
“Hey.”
“Yes, sir!”
It was a conditioned reflex now. When Zich called him, Hans answered without a moment of hesitation.
“Take this.”
Zich carelessly threw a handful of coins at him, and gold coins rained over the bed Hans was sitting on.
“…What is this?”
“Use it however you like. You can buy something to eat, buy some equipment, or even save it for the future.”
Hans stared at the pile of gold coins. He didn’t expect to get a share at all, and this wasn’t even a small amount. It was an amount he had never possessed before.
“C-Can I really take it?”
“What? Do you not need it?”
“N-No. That’s not it…”
“Then, take it.”
Hans stared down at the pile of gold coins. On top of the gold coins, there was a pouch. It was what Zich threw so that Hans could put his gold coins inside.
“Wouldn’t it be better to save… what if we don’t have enough traveling expenses, sir?”
Hans tried to put on some airs since it was such a large amount.
“If I combine the amount I packed before traveling, the reward I received from Karuwiman, and the money I got from beating up this guy who didn’t know his place, we won’t have to worry about money for a while. And even if that money drops low, there are a lot of places where we can get money from.”
Now that Hans thought of it, Zich never seemed to save money. Although Zich said he was saving the expensive potions, he also used them unsparingly when he needed them. If Hans thought back on how Zich used up all his three potions just because his friend was beaten up badly, Zich almost seemed wasteful.
‘Does he have something to back him up?’
Hans thought this but quickly erased it from his mind.
‘It’s useless to think about it.’
By now, he knew that common logic didn’t work on Zich. Hans placed the gold coins into the pouch and sealed its opening tightly. Then, he pushed it into a deep corner of his luggage.
“Then, should I get going?”
Zich got up from his chair and stretched. Then, he moved to blow out the candles.
“…What is it?”
Zich turned his head and opened the window.
“Why do you say that?”
“It’s noisy outside.”
He saw a crowd of figures running on top of rooftops under the yellow moon. They looked clearly suspicious looked like bad guys.
‘Should I intervene?’
It could be a chance for Zich to do a kind act. He was pondering for a moment when he saw that one of the group members was carrying a person.
‘Isn’t that Snoc? Why is he there?’
Zich could tell that they were not close friends of Snoc right away. It was apparent that Snoc was mixed up in some new trouble.
‘He is such an unlucky guy. It hasn’t even been long since his incident with Drew.’
“I am going out for a while.”
“Sorry?”
Zich left with those words and jumped right out the window.