CH 3

Bills Village.

The first village in the story and the place where the tutorial was carried out. Cadel sighed inwardly as he looked around the village, which was strikingly similar to the scenery he had seen through the screen of his phone.

Dark wooden houses and low-rise buildings, rough dirt floors and street stalls, and even carriages navigating the narrow streets. It was a perfect medieval setting where not even a speck of modern Korean culture could be seen. Of course, HeoKni’s culture was drawn from different places, so there would still be strange parts if one looked for them.

Well, if you like fantasy, you're bound to dream of living in an era like this at least once. However, when I fell into a game in a medieval background, that illusion was broken more easily than thin ice.

‘It smells awful! What the hell is this smell? Is it horse dung?’

It was like the fishy smell of animals, and the musty smell of rotten fruits from under the stalls. Cadel pushed forward, trying to hold back from pinching his nose shut.

“Commander, where are we going now?”

Van asked innocently, following beside him. He was carrying Cadel’s luggage. He had insisted on doing it, so Cadel had handed it over after a brief argument, and Van had been delighted as if he had received a present. It was an incomprehensible reaction.

“The tavern.”

“In daytime?”

“The doors will be open, right?”

“They will be.”

Cadel was looking for the tavern. The early story and training quests of [Hero of Knights] were all done in the tavern. It was a place of information in Bills Village and a station for mercenaries looking for work. So, if the story flowed the way Cadel knew it, it would be right to find the tavern first.

“But, Commander, isn’t the tavern this way?”

“...Okay?”

Fortunately, he had a faithful and meticulous subordinate, so Cadel was able to find the ‘Noon Whale’, the representative tavern of Bills Village, without much difficulty. Even though it was still early lunch, the inside was filled with customers, They ate only stew instead of alcohol, or they drank the stew with alcohol and were in the middle of a meal. Cadel and Van found empty seats and sat down.

“What do you want to eat?” Cadel asked Van naturally. He didn’t know what this tavern sold, other than alcohol, so he was trying to guess the menu in this way. But Van shook his head calmly.

“I’m fine. Just Commander can eat.”

“If a mercenary doesn’t fill their stomach, what power will they have to fight? Say something quickly.”

“It’s all right, Commander.”

‘It’s not all right!’

Cadel swallowed back his rising cry and clenched his mouth. A quick glance at the other tables revealed that everyone was eating a stew, but he couldn’t figure out the name of that stew. The waiter was far away and could only take one order at a time.

He sighed in the end and said sullenly, “I’ll have a drink or something.”

“...On an empty stomach? Order something, Commander.”

“You aren’t going to eat either, so why should I eat? Our mercenaries are united in spirit. If one is hungry the other can’t be full.”

By that logic, instead of ordering alcohol, he should go out and exercise on an empty stomach, but Cadel was shameless. Then Van’s face turned pale and he was visibly restless, like a dog that had lost its toy.

While Cadel was surprised by his overly sensitive reaction, Van hesitated for a while and then muttered gloomily, “If you order even my share, you will run out of funds, Commander. I don’t know when we’ll get our next quest… I don’t want to satisfy my hunger by squeezing the commander’s money bag.”

Oh my god. Cadel was speechless at the pitiful answer that he couldn’t have imagined. Of course, it was natural to lack funds at the beginning of the game, but he didn’t know he was such an incompetent boss who couldn’t even buy a proper meal for his subordinates.

“Besides, even if I don’t eat, I’ll be fine for a few days. Don’t worry, just order.”

Facing his friendly smile, Cadel’s expression distorted miserably.

In the end, Van and Cadel decided to order a stew and share it. Cadel did notice his grim expression but decided it wasn’t worth paying attention to. It was probably because the ‘lamb stew’ ordered was surprisingly mediocre.

‘Is there no meat? There’s only one potato… and it tastes completely raw!’

It was so sad that Van had chosen to starve because they didn’t have enough money to order one of these. He was eating the stew and smiled at Cadel whenever their eyes met.

Cadel’s desire to succeed soared at Van’s sorry appearance.

In the game, he had always raised his knights to be the best. He gave them the best equipment every season, invested a lot in their skills, and raised all their stats to the max.

But what kind of nonsense was this? He could not tolerate it. It was about the self-esteem of the number 1 ranked user.

‘I’m going to have to start collecting money. If I continue living this kind of life, I’ll get sick first, even if we become a knight order.’

As he ate the freshwater stew that contained a single potato, Cadel looked around. In order to proceed with the story, the priority was to meet the NPC who provided the quests.

But so far, no one stood out. All they did was stare blankly into the air while drinking bland stew and alcohol, or talking nonsense.

Was it not time yet?

Playing the game and possessing a character in the game had different meanings. There would be a flow of events unique to this place, so maybe he had come here too hastily.

Just then, as Cadel looked gloomily downwards at the half-empty bowl of stew, two men sitting at a table next to them suddenly started having an interesting conversation.

“Viscount Straw is looking for mercenaries again? It looks like the ones sent last time were mediocre.”

“What do you mean! As far as I know, the Crow Mercenaries also sent people. It’s not about the mercenaries; the land is cursed.”

“I heard that the Crow Mercenaries only sent their lower members?”

“Do you say that because you don’t know their lower members are better than most guys?”

Were they looking for mercenaries?

Although he had skimmed through most of the story, the name of the character ‘Viscount Straw’ was familiar. Unless Cadel’s memory was worse than the stew in front of him, Viscount Straw was obviously the main figure in the first quest. Cadel’s ears perked up as he overheard the conversation.

“Anyways, don’t you want to try it? The commission is 5 gold coins.”

“Are you not thinking properly? Why would the commission be so expensive? It’s because it’s the price of a life. Viscount Straw needs to get rid of his damn greed. Does it make sense to send people to death to scrape up a single piece of farmland the size of a piece of dung? If you see mercenaries dying one after the other, you should stop.”

“Okay, okay. I was just asking, don’t get so heated…”

The man had lost his appetite and was leaning against the back of his seat. At this time, Cadel was trying to find the clue to the quest through the two’s conversation.

“You trample on the Straw family’s estate and talk well. How many lives do you think you have?”

Suddenly, the door to the tavern opened with a loud sound. As he turned his head reflexively, he saw that a young man with five escort knights had just entered. Looking at his upturned chin, arrogant expression, gorgeous blue silk robe and lavish accessories, he was probably the son of some aristocrat.

“I heard that there are mercenaries who rationalize their own incompetence with baseless rumors. I didn’t know they actually existed. Those mercenaries don’t seem to have the least amount of pride.”

The sarcastically-speaking man approached the men who were talking at the table next to Cadel. As he blinked, the knights guarding behind him unsheathed their swords at once.

‘That’s crazy! Why did they pull out their swords all of a sudden?’

The blades that were pulled out made a horrifying metallic screech. Cadel’s eyes widened and he shrank his upper body involuntarily.

“You must remember that if you trample of the Straw family’s lands, the Straw family can always pass judgement on you. You don’t deserve to talk about my father.”

“Sorry, I’m sorry.”

“Your eyes are bad. How about one arm to atone for your sins?”

The man seemed to be the son of Viscount Straw. Judging from his attitude and the way he spoke, it seemed that he had a trashy personality. The tips of the knights’ swords pointed towards the two men sitting at the table. If at any time the man instructed them to do so, they would swing their swords.

Cadel watched them with a mixture of interest and concern, as if watching a house burn down. Meanwhile, Van, who had been watching the situation with him, carefully touched Cadel’s arm.

Cadel reacted immediately and looked towards him, while Van whispered with a serious expression on his face, “Shall I stop them, Commander?”

“Yes…?”

“It looks like it’s Drew Straw. I’ve heard rumors that the second young lord of the viscount family kills people more readily than killing animals. Wouldn’t it be troublesome if blood splattered on your precious stew?”

Cadel blinked slowly. He though about what he had just heard.

‘So… the reason he wants to stop a fight is because the hard-to-get food will be ruined and I won’t be able to eat it?’

Should I grieve over this or should I rebuke him? Cadel, who felt complicated inside, smiled bitterly and shook his head quietly.

“No. You don’t have to.”

At Cadel’s words, Van nodded obediently. There were more important things than saving the stew now.

“I am very sorry. We only hear these stories floating around… What do people like us know? Ignorant people say what they want. Young lord, please have mercy…”

“Ha! Mercy. Are you asking me to just pretend I didn't hear it? There are a lot of things that savages want.”

The man glanced down at them as if looking at disgusting insects, then suddenly changed his expression and let out a fishy smile.

“Well… okay. If that’s the case, I’ll give you a chance. I'll entrust you with the same quest, so go to the 'cursed land' you mentioned. If you go and clean up the monsters there, I'll pretend I didn’t hear today's insults.”

“Yeah? Tha, that…!”

“There are no second chances. If you don’t like it, you can pay the penalty right here.”

The men’s faces turned pale. They thought that death was certain no matter what they chose, so they were sweating profusely. From their point of view, it was like a bolt out of the blue.

And Cadel, who was watching them, cautiously got up. Moving stealthily, he slid between Drew and the men.

“Who are you?”

The man raised his eyebrows at the unexpected appearance. The knights gave him menacing looks, but their vigilance didn’t last long.

“My name is Cadel Laitos.”

“...Laitos? Sounds strangely familiar.”

“It’s no different. I was wondering if our mercenaries could also participate in the quest.”

Cadel spoke with a friendly smile.

Yes. If Viscount Straw was the main figure of the first quest, this quest must be the first quest that he had to get. Cursed land. Didn’t the words just smell like the main story?

***

TL:

I'm just going to post each chapter when I'm done with them so there's no fixed schedule.