Chapter 14
“Ask the staff.”
There wasn’t a hint of goodwill in the man’s voice. It was obvious to anyone that he was telling Cadel to back off and stop being a nuisance. But Cadel wasn’t about to give up here.
“In my experience, the staff always recommends whatever’s most expensive or easiest to make. A regular’s recommendation is much better.”
“…And how do you know if I’m a regular?”
“I heard this tavern is a hidden gem for those in the know. It’s a hunch based on probability.”
Of course, he had never heard any such thing. Van looked equally bewildered as he glanced at the sloppy meals the other customers were eating. But Cadel was prepared to do a handstand and pretend it was an accident just to catch a glimpse of the man’s face and figure out his identity.
The man remained silent for a moment. After a brief, tense pause, he seemed to reach a conclusion and spoke in a low, resonant voice.
“Did my brother send you? You seem pretty low-level for that… I guess his eye for talent has gone downhill since I last saw him.”
The man slowly pulled back his hood to reveal his bare face. Momentarily flustered that his trick had been seen through so quickly, Cadel swallowed hard the second he saw the man’s features.
That face…!
Elegant black hair that looked as if it had been painstakingly drawn strand by strand with freshly ground ink, sharply contrasting with striking blue eyes. Distinct, bold features, a stubbornly set jaw, and a fierce, gleaming gaze that cut through the heavy atmosphere. That face, exuding an elegant beauty like a classic masterpiece…
“If you aren’t one of my pursuers, I apologize. It’s been a while since I’ve seen someone with such obvious ulterior motives, so I found it a bit amusing.”
While Cadel was still reeling in shock from realizing the man’s identity, Van glared at the stranger, completely on edge.
“Save the laughing for later and apologize.”
He seemed thoroughly displeased with this stranger hurling disrespectful remarks at Cadel, and one of his hands was already resting on the greatsword leaning next to him. The man merely glanced at Van and let out a soft scoff. The way he silently turned his head made it clear he was completely ignoring him.
“Apologize to the Captain for your disrespect.”
“Captain? Are you a knight?”
The man suddenly showed interest, raising a handsome eyebrow. Meeting his gaze, Cadel finally realized he had been zoning out and quickly composed his expression.
“I’m a mercenary. And I’m not a pursuer or anything like that.”
“Sorry for the misunderstanding, then.”
His lips twitched. Cadel suppressed the sly smile that kept trying to form and rubbed the corner of his mouth, trying hard to act nonchalant.
“Anyway, it seems you have quite a few people bothering you on a regular basis.”
“…You could say that.”
“Because of your outstanding looks?”
Knowing full well that he was handsome, the man gave a light shrug. Van, on the other hand, looked shocked, staring at Cadel with the moist eyes of an abandoned puppy. Ignoring Van’s gaze, Cadel offered a sly smile.
“Or is it because of your outstanding family background?”
This time, the man’s brow twitched. While he was at a loss for words, Cadel called over a staff member and ordered the dish Van had picked out, along with the most popular item on the menu and two glasses of beer. He then turned back to Van as if nothing had happened. Van was busy glaring at the man with a sullen expression, clearly very displeased.
“He must have dumped his personality in a cesspool, seeing how he overreacted just because you asked for a menu recommendation.”
“He must be in a situation where he can’t help but be sensitive.”
“…Captain, a person’s face isn’t everything.”
What are you talking about?
Of course a person’s face wasn’t everything, but he didn’t want to hear that from a handsome man whose face practically glowed with radiance rather than grease even after not washing for days. Cadel ignored Van’s words, wondering why he seemed so upset, and lowered his voice to a whisper.
“That man is Lumen Dominic.”
“Lumen Dominic…?”
“The second son of the Dominic Family.”
Van’s expression immediately contorted. The Dominic Family was a famous noble house belonging to the Mainyu Kingdom. They weren’t royalty, but they were a marquisate with considerable power, wealth, and influence.
Cadel had known it the moment he saw Lumen’s face. He was the poster boy ranked at the top of the popularity polls among the knights in ‘Hero of Knights’, and his performance was also top-tier. In fact, Lumen Dominic had been included in Cadel’s final deck.
What a stroke of luck! Lumen’s final awakening rank is S-Class, his innate rank happens to be A-Class, and he’s a god-tier character with massive base damage! I absolutely can’t miss out on him. I’m getting him no matter what, Lumen Dominic.
His motivation burned fiercely.
He pushed aside the fact that the man was arrogant and that meeting his recruitment conditions and managing his loyalty were notoriously difficult. What did all that matter? As long as he could get Lumen Dominic to join the mercenary group, the journey ahead would undoubtedly be smooth sailing.
* * *
Now that he knew the knight candidate’s identity was Lumen Dominic, all that was left was a natural approach. So, instead of provoking Lumen with useless nonsense, Cadel decided to pretend he had no interest in him and orchestrate an encounter disguised as a coincidence.
“There’s less information about the temple than I thought. It’s pretty quiet for a rumor that spread all the way to Vils Village.”
Currently, Cadel and Van were heading toward the Depolo Temple, the source of the rumors. The Depolo Temple was dedicated to Roden, one of the Seven Knights who had made a name for himself by leading the sealing of the Demon Realm a long time ago, and his guardian deity, Depolo.
The Seven Great Kingdoms, including the Mainyu Kingdom, each worshipped one knight and one guardian deity. Therefore, until they left the Mainyu Kingdom, they were bound to see Roden and Depolo at any temple they visited. Cadel replied, mulling over the game’s lore.
“Since it’s the source of the rumors, it’s bound to be quieter on the surface. It’s an unsettling rumor about a sacred temple, of all things. They already get a lot of tourists so they can’t afford to let their prestige drop.”
“Then it’ll be hard for outsiders like us to get involved. If the rumors are true, the temple will hire an order of knights that can keep their mouths shut and handle the job properly.”
“Probably.”
Even so, there were two reasons why Cadel had sought out the Depolo Temple.
First. As long as Lumen Dominic was staying in Hermel City, he would undoubtedly catch wind of the temple’s situation. Once he did, Lumen would get involved in the incident in one way or another. Lumen was the second son of a wealthy noble family, but he was currently traveling in disguise.
A journey without his family’s support was bound to become more impoverished the longer it lasted. Lumen needed money, and there was no job in Hermel City more suitable for his current status and financial situation than this.
And second. The rumors about the temple weren’t baseless.
He didn’t know the cause, but believers were continuously disappearing, and the temple would hire a highly skilled knight order to put a stop to it. Perhaps they had already hired one, and the knights were currently on their way. Cadel had no intention of waiting for that process to play out.
He planned to move before the knight order arrived and snatch the credit for solving the incident. To do so, it was crucial to grasp the flow of the situation before anyone else.
There was a reason why Cadel was so certain of the rumor’s authenticity and was drawing up this plan.
[Main Quest ‘The Woman in the Temple’ accepted]
[Clear the quest to progress the story. Rewards will be provided.]
[Upon failure, the knight order’s reputation will decrease by 10.]
The system window had popped up as they neared the Depolo Temple. It was a notification confirming that the incident occurring at the temple was a task he had to solve. He recalled the penalty for the new main quest.
Reputation drops by 10 if I fail? Unbelievable. My reputation is only 7 right now. Are you telling me to go into the negatives?
Negative reputation. Wouldn’t that just be infamy?
But it must mean the risk is that high. If I secretly investigate the temple and poke around as I please, only to fail to eliminate the root cause…
In the worst-case scenario, he could be held responsible. A shadow fell over Cadel’s face.
He had felt it during the first quest as well, but the penalties were too severe for being so early in the story. Playing with his subordinate’s life, threatening to drop a reputation he barely even had. As Cadel frowned, his mood souring, Van pressed in close beside him.
“Captain, I sense a presence nearby.”
The two immediately stepped off the path leading to the temple and hid in the adjacent bushes. If they walked right in, their faces would be known, so it was better to spy on them, even if it looked suspicious, until they could wrap things up cleanly.
Cadel crouched down, stifling his breath. Van, facing him, scanned the area beyond the bushes.
But no matter how long they waited, they couldn’t hear any distinct sounds. The moment a frustrated Cadel slightly parted his lips to speak, Van pressed his index finger to Cadel’s lips and leaned in right in front of his nose.
W-what the. Isn’t this too close…?
They were close enough to feel each other’s breath. When Cadel reflexively pulled back and lost his balance, Van immediately wrapped an arm around his waist and pulled him in, closing the distance even further. Cadel was practically burning up with embarrassment.
Am I overreacting? Acting as if nothing was wrong, Van maintained the posture that practically trapped Cadel in his arms and whispered into his ear.
“It’s the believers. Should we tail them?”
Cadel nodded furiously over Van’s shoulder. If they didn’t start tailing them right this second, he felt like he would pass out from enduring this overly intimate posture.
