Chapter 157 - One Treasure Beside a Request

"Monsters, you say? You said becoming a knight was your dream, didn't you? Then we have to go. That's only natural. Isn't cutting down monsters exactly what knights do?"

Krais thought cutting down monsters was what made someone a knight.

To the people listening, however, it sounded different.

Wasn't that practically belittling knights?

To treat living weapons capable of changing the course of a battlefield as mere monster hunters.

"And on top of that, it's a village built by common folk. Shouldn't we save them? My sense of justice is boiling over."

Why does his tone sound full of greed when it should be full of concern?

His eyes practically seemed to have turned into gold coins.

Everyone looked at Krais while thinking more or less the same thing.

Krais paid no attention to anyone else's gaze.

He focused solely on Encrid.

The decision-maker was what mattered.

What did other people's opinions matter?

"What is it?"

Encrid asked with his arms crossed.

"You big-eyed bastard. Why do you keep trying to drag us somewhere?"

Rem, who had been watching blankly, said while lying half-sprawled on his cot.

His instincts are sharp as a ghost.

Krais thought that and looked up at the Captain with his secret weapon, his sparkling eyes.

Yes, my eyes are big, aren't they?

Look into my eyes.

Now, you are starting to want to take this mission.

Those clear, wide eyes seemed almost half-hypnotic, and Encrid worked his lips for a moment before speaking.

"Should I spit in them?"

'Where did he get eyes like that?'

Krais read what Encrid was saying with his eyes.

'Ah, this isn't it. It's not working.'

Then what was the next method?

Krais racked his brain as usual, then soon gave up.

He was clever.

His mind worked well, and he was quick on the uptake.

Krais himself thought that was thanks to all the hardship he'd suffered when he was young.

It was thanks to that hardship.

'Tricks like this don't work on the Captain.'

He got the feeling.

This wouldn't work.

Then what was left?

A frontal breakthrough.

Always straight and direct.

The Captain had always treated him and the others that way, so he just had to do the same.

It was extraordinary perception.

Krais changed his stance with astonishing speed.

It was like a falling meteor.

That was how fast he was.

"Roughly a hundred years ago, there was a merchant named Dolph who was counted among the best on the continent."

The story began in the past.

First, he had to draw interest.

Should it be called the strange hobby of a wealthy man?

Or perhaps an eccentric obsession?

One of the hobbies of the merchant named Dolph was hiding away part of his fortune and making treasure maps.

It was the sort of unofficial history that turned up when one went digging through history books.

"But did this end as just unofficial history? No. If it did, why would I bring it up?"

Here and there, strength entered Krais's tone.

He could be called a persuasive storyteller.

There was passion in his words.

They said Dolph had once been the owner of a famous merchant association.

But just before he died, he spirited away all his wealth and hid it all.

Naturally, the people who were supposed to inherit it must have lost their minds.

His six wives all breathed fire from their mouths together.

"Why would you do that!"

They said Dolph did not answer.

They said he silently endured their condemnation.

He merely said this.

"If you want my fortune, find the maps."

That was what the unofficial history said.

The final record in that unofficial history was that the compiler asked the merchant Dolph, before his death, one question.

"Why did you make something like maps?"

Dolph's answer to that was a masterpiece.

"Because it's fun."

There were more than twenty maps covered in codes.

The one who uncovered the first of them obtained a treasure.

It was a man who had been Dolph's coachman.

They said the man became rich, then later organized a merchant association and ran it completely into the ground.

The one who deciphered the second map was the first wife.

She was greedy.

She hid that fact even from her own son, went alone to the place her husband had made, fell into a trap, and died.

That was right.

The coachman had been bait.

He was the final arrangement Dolph had prepared.

Contrary to what the unofficial history said, Dolph hated the idea of his fortune passing to anyone.

In particular, he hated the thought of giving anything to his family to an appalling degree.

"In truth, he was a fruit without seeds. A honeybee that couldn't drink honey."

Before they knew it, everyone was listening to Krais.

His talent for spinning a tale was enough to slap the average minstrel across the face.

That was right.

Dolph had been unable to have children, and yet he had six wives and more than twenty children.

It made no sense.

So he planned revenge.

That was why he hid all his wealth in various places.

A few of them had already been dug up.

By a fellow named Kirgon, known as the greatest treasure hunter on the continent.

Since the treasure hunter Kirgon had already proven it...

"The treasure exists."

It was a secret history.

Krais knew quite a bit about this field in his own way.

Of course he did.

It was related to crona.

Rumors were widespread that if someone found and dug up these maps, real treasure would be hidden there, and the treasure hunter Kirgon had proven it.

But then, well.

Could such luck exist in this world?

The goddess of fortune must have kissed him on the cheek while he was asleep and gone on her way.

When they had swept through the enemy camp on the previous battlefield, Krais had somehow managed to pocket a few items.

This was one of the things he had pulled out from under a tree then.

"Hmm."

It was a map that reeked as though someone had stored it between their legs.

He had wanted to throw it away the moment he picked it up, but Krais had instinctively known it was no ordinary item, so he took it.

Treasure maps were one of the common items that circulated everywhere.

There were also far too many fakes.

There was a man in the Gilfin Guild who could recognize things like this.

In polite terms, an appraiser.

In back-alley slang, a fence.

After all, one had to have an eye for recognizing treasure in order to sell it.

"This seems real."

That one sentence from him had been enough.

It was from a full hundred years ago.

Because the language was different, the so-called appraiser couldn't recognize the words.

Krais hadn't recognized the ancient script either.

He had racked his brains trying to decipher it, but unexpectedly, the answer came from the Frog.

Luagarne called herself this.

"I'm a scholar."

A Frog?

Unlike his inner thoughts, Krais did not send her an insolent look.

Instead, he asked her to decipher a few random letters, and based on those, he pieced them together and obtained the answer.

Dolph's sixth map.

"There will be treasure. An enormous one."

Krais had delivered his impassioned speech from the center of the quarters.

His face was red.

It was because he had kept talking without rest despite the lack of oxygen.

"It's so old that there probably aren't even any traps working properly anymore, so this is basically like picking up a jewel lying in the road. Except someone smeared dirt on the outside. All we have to do is brush it off and take it."

The story was rather interesting, but Encrid was not moved by Krais's passion.

Nor did he give a definite answer about going to the place marked on the treasure map.

He merely thought this.

'I'm heading out anyway.'

Monsters, beasts, war.

His hands itched.

Whether what he had learned would work.

Whether the path he was taking was the right one.

Whether everything he had obtained through training, sparring, and teaching with everyone around him had been steps toward a milestone.

Wanting to test one's own ability was human instinct.

"We'll accept the request."

At Encrid's words, Krais was extremely pleased.

"Whether we stop by there is undecided."

At the words that followed, Krais looked extremely disappointed.

His eyes opened as if they might split, and he muttered, "No, how could you?"

Seeing that, Rem snickered beside him.

Encrid did not know, but from the moment Krais learned the map was real, he had been scheming over how to make use of it.

Go looking for the treasure alone?

That was no different from telling the monsters to enjoy a meal with his flesh and blood as bread and wine.

Then with the guild boys?

Then it would become a banquet served with the flesh and blood of himself and the guild members.

He needed a group skilled enough to disregard the threats of monsters, beasts, and bandits.

But hire mercenaries?

Then he would have to hire at least a squad's worth.

The belly button would end up bigger than the belly.

So the first one he targeted was Rem.

"Take on one request."

"I'll accept assassination requests only. Limited to three targets. A sinister stray cat, a picky lazybones, and a lump drunk on god."

Rem had no intention of listening.

Would Ragna or Jaxon be any different?

He did not even try with Audin.

To begin with, he was a body that rarely even went out to the battlefield, so what treasure hunting?

"If Brother Big-eyes swears to offer it all to God."

He would just say something like that.

He thought about asking the Platoon Commander, but for nearly three months, hadn't the man been swinging his sword like some madman?

It was hard even to approach and talk to him.

"I'd even take your paw."

When he needlessly said that to Esther...

HISS!

Esther expressed her displeasure with her entire body.

If he came any closer, she was ready to scratch him with her claws again.

Ever since the first day he saw Esther, when he had sneakily touched her to find out her sex, Esther had hated him terribly.

No, she loathed him.

They said she was a spirit beast, but how a mere panther could express emotions like that was a wonder in itself.

That was when he thought he might have to half give up.

No matter how much he liked crona, he would not risk his life.

That was Krais's principle.

Wasn't that why his dream was to open a salon and live his whole life without worrying about crona?

To live in the middle of a safe city, enjoying the night in moderation.

Of course, a salon was not without risks either, but wasn't that level of danger just the right kind of thrill to enjoy while living?

In any case, it was something he had half given up on, but if the Platoon Commander went?

What was Encrid's skill like these days?

"It's no use. Even I can't beat him."

That was the official statement of the Captain of the Border Guard.

"If I were given five marksmen and two mages, it would be worth trying."

That was what Platoon Commander Torres had said.

With five marksmen and two mages, even Krais might be able to try taking down Encrid.

Even without him, wouldn't the rest be enough?

"It's getting interesting."

Rem had acknowledged that much too.

"I want him."

That was what the Fairy Company Commander said so often it had become a habit.

What did all of that mean?

Didn't it mean that any ordinary group of ghouls wouldn't be able to touch even a single hem of the Captain's clothes?

Could our Platoon Commander actually be a true genius?

There was no doubt.

He had already seen him fight a Frog right before his eyes.

And so...

"Ah, why not? Let's go. Come on, let's go."

Krais begged.

Encrid ignored him.

"I'll go with you too."

In the meantime, the Frog joined in.

"Good. Excellent!"

Krais brightened.

"Should I go too?"

Pin raised her hand as well.

She was a Ranger.

An exceptionally skilled Ranger, at that.

She was not quite at the level of a Pathfinder, a walking mapmaker, but she was good at finding routes and good at fighting.

"Gooood!"

Krais stepped forward again.

Watching him, Encrid let out a small laugh.

There was no need to stop the two of them.

If the request had come to him now, and the Battalion Commander had personally pointed it out and spoken of it...

'It's dangerous.'

That was why his heart beat faster, and that was why he had accepted, but still.

Reducing danger was the right answer, so the more people they had, the better.

A monster group forming a Colony, the protection of a Pioneer Village, temporary command authority, and the Frog as a companion.

What if he brought Rem or one more member along with them?

"Want to come with us?"

Encrid asked without thinking.

No, to be honest, he did have some expectation that Rem would come.

"Ah, don't you know I'm busy?"

At Rem's answer, as he lay idling with his body wrapped in a blanket after slipping into bed at some point, Encrid thought all over again that it was very much like Rem.

The bastard was busy idling around because he had nothing to do.

Then he thought he might take Ragna instead and asked him.

"I don't feel like it."

You don't feel like it?

Does he want to laze around?

Has he not had enough laziness lately?

Ragna was no different, stuck to his cot.

He answered without even turning his head.

"The Lord grants me no teaching."

Audin refused as well.

Jaxon was nowhere to be seen at all.

Encrid had heard he was standing duty properly, but it seemed he had no time to stop by the quarters.

In the end, it meant he could not bring anyone.

Encrid accepted it as it was.

In truth, if there were an enormous threat, they would send a unit.

Would they really single him out and send him?

That was what he thought.

Confirm the monster group that had formed a Colony near the Pioneer Village, and if possible, defeat it.

The order sheet stated that he would have command authority over the village's forces.

'If there is a Town's Watch in the village.'

Their numbers would likely not be that insufficient.

Then all he had to do was prepare thoroughly before leaving.

This world was not kind to travelers, so it was only natural that no one could even think of setting out without substantial preparation.

Normally, four people simply setting off would be enough to make one tilt their head.

But a Ranger and a Frog were included.

Moreover, by Naurilia's soldier grading system, a swordsman at the level of a special-grade soldier was the commander.

They were not a group that would fall to ordinary threats.

It was a world overrun with bandits and monsters, but this much could be called more than enough.

So it did not matter that none of his platoon members followed.

"We depart in fifteen days."

Encrid said, and Krais, still watching his mood, asked.

"Is it really impossible?"

"We'll see."

Encrid was always sincere.

He did not know how the job he had taken on would go, so they would have to judge the situation on the way there and back.

For Krais, it was simply desperate.

As it happened, the treasure cave he had found was in that direction.

It was only a day's distance from the Pioneer Village.

"Good. Excellent."

Krais knew there was no point in begging further.

And so the party began preparing.

Travel in this world was truly no easy thing.

It was a world where the minimum requirement for those called peddlers was armed strength.

Even peddlers who traveled from city to city moved in groups of at least ten while maintaining fighting strength.

That was why mercenaries and Naurilia's soldier mercenary system were so welcomed.

In such a world, only four of them would set out.

There was no concern, but that did not mean there was any need to prepare carelessly.

Encrid decided to go out to the village for the first time in a while.

There were a few items he needed to get at the market.