Paladin of the Dead God - Chapter 303



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Episode 303. The Eyes That Chase Gold (4)

Boom, boom.

As Isaac was finishing his third bowl of soup made by the village chief’s daughter, a loud crash was heard at the entrance to the restaurant. Isaac turned his head and saw a middle-aged man lying sprawled out in a colorful cloak with a peacock feather pinned to his hat.

“Wait, wait, wait! There’s no need to be rough! I said I’d go on my own two feet!”

Regardless, Hesabel aimed her dagger-sharp feathers at the man.

Boom. The fired feather caught precariously between the man’s fingers.

Hesabel shot back coldly.

“Once you point a knife at someone, you should at least put out one finger and think about having a conversation.”

‘That’s right.’

Isaac secretly agreed, so he left Hesabel alone without stopping her.

I am very sorry for keeping you up at night. Since I had no intention of having a conversation on equal footing anyway, it didn’t seem like a bad idea to start somewhere.

“Wait a minute! If you’re going to cut it off, cut off the ring finger!”

Hesabel felt puzzled because when people are asked to cut off a finger, they usually choose the little finger, the fifth finger. He had never intended to give them a choice in the first place, but he asked out of curiosity.

“Why are you weak?”

“Because sometimes absence is more meaningful than presence. The tip of your sword will remain more meaningful than the five rings that came and went from my ring finger. I will receive your sword and leave my love empty forever.”

Isaac almost spit out his soup at the crazy sound he never expected to hear in the middle of all this.

However, Hesabel seemed to like that answer.

“Huh, that’s a romantic thing I never thought I’d hear in the realm of the Light Code. It’s certainly foolish to think of living with one person. But you only know one thing, and you don’t know two.”

“I don’t know?”

“The most thrilling thing is an affair with a married person… .”

Isaac quickly stepped forward before Hesabel could continue his madness and seriously affect the reputation of the Isacrea Dawn Army.

“I didn’t know you could drive other people crazy with your crazy talk, Sherlock.”

“you are…….”

The man called Sherlock looked up at Isaac and then pursed his lips.

The person who was captured was someone Isaac knew well.

***

Sherlock. A mercenary captain and playwright at the top of the Golden Idol.

He was a playwright who worked as a playwright during his normal days, but he was a man with poor talent who often ruined his family’s fortune.

But he had talents beyond playwriting: he was an accomplished bounty hunter and mercenary.

As a result, Sherlock was living a life of making a fortune as a mercenary, squandering the money he earned on dramas, and then going back to being a mercenary again.

The nonsense he was spouting off to Hesabel was just nonsense that didn’t really mean anything.

“I don’t know who you are, but… … .”

“It is ridiculous to look at a beautiful knight and the blood-winged beauty he serves and not immediately think of the famous Isaac Isaacrea. Which finger shall I cut off, Master Isaac?”

“The tip of the right ring finger.”

Hesabel immediately took action and stomped on the back of Sherlock’s right hand. Then, in one breath, he struck down with his feather and cut off the tip of his fingernail. A shrill, tearing scream erupted from the veteran mercenary captain.

Isaac sighed and dragged a chair over to her as she screamed for help after only cutting her fingernails.

“Next time, you’re really going to see blood, Mr. Playwright.”

“Uh, ah, uh. Huh? It didn’t get cut? As expected of a merciful Holy Grail Knight… … .”

“No, if you’re uncooperative, I don’t have to beat you up myself. I’ll just hand you over to the orc waiting desperately for his turn in the back.”

Only then did Sherlock’s gaze turn to the Uchiura White Tiger behind Isaac. Uchiura was glaring at Sherlock with a grin.

Sherlock held his breath as he saw the horrible sight of Uchiura.

Isaac would not regret making Sherlock into something similar right away. The only reason Isaac had kept his life was because of Leonora’s relationship with the Golden Idol.

“You tracked me?”

“What are you talking about… … Oh, yes. Yes. That’s right. I found you, Isaac!”

As the tips of Hesabel’s wings turned towards the middle of his fingers, Sherlock’s speech quickened.

This time, Hesabel asked.

“how?”

“Sherlock has a talent for seeing the ‘value’ of a person. It’s a talent for determining whether or not someone is worth money. They even say that people who are not immediately visible to him can be seen with a gentle halo. That guy uses that as a bounty hunter.”

Isaac answered on Sherlock’s behalf, as it was obvious that he would try to hide this.

Sherlock opened his mouth wide.

That was natural. Until now, he had never told anyone about his abilities.

If Leonora’s talent was to judge the comprehensive value that took future potential into account, then Sherlock’s talent was closer to being able to see the ‘price tag’.

In the game, when recruiting a companion, a ‘price’ appears above the head of the other characters. The higher the price, the bigger and more flashy the character becomes, and you can even use this to determine their location.

Isaac deliberately revealed this fact with his own mouth to discourage Sherlock.

“Yeah. How much of a ‘bounty’ is on my head?”

In Sherlock’s eyes, he can see the ‘price’ attached to Isaac’s head.

Sherlock hesitated for a moment before opening his mouth.

“… … It’s 100,000 gold coins.”

At that moment, Uchiura jumped up from his seat and muttered something. He looked angry, as if he was going to rush at Sherlock, but it seemed like he was only screaming because he was scared of Isaac.

“Why is that guy so angry?”

“… … I told the Grail Knight that I was betting on 20,000 coins. I said we could split it if we succeeded in catching it.”

It means that he tried to eat 90,000 won all by himself after forming a partnership. He is truly worthy of being called a mercenary at the top of the Golden Idol.

But Sherlock shrugged his shoulders as if nothing had happened.

“There’s no way they’d succeed anyway, and even if they did, they probably wouldn’t have any intention of sharing it with me. They probably just wanted to slurp down my 20,000 coins.”

“You negotiated so well with my neck? Yeah. Aren’t you afraid of taking on a target worth 100,000 won?”

Then, Sherlock glanced at Hesabel and glanced at her.

“Actually, I was more scared when I saw this side, so I decided to surrender.”

“… … Hesabel? Why Hesabel?”

“There is 200,000 won at stake for this girl… … .”

“200,000? To Hesabel? Who the hell?”

“Duke Hastel Gulmar of the Kingdom of Walaika… … .”

Hesabel let out a deep sigh.

There was no need to ask who Hastel Gulmar was. He was Hesabel’s biological father.

Although he was not the one who gave birth to and raised her, he is still the one who calls her father and follows her. He is the one who put a bounty on Hesabel’s head.

Isaac decided to think positively for now.

“… … The fact that he’s offering a bounty means that he has no intention of coming out.”

It was humiliating that the bounty was lower than Hesabel’s, but it was natural since the Kingdom of Walaika would consider Hesabel a traitor or a traitor to the nation.

“Anyway, Mr. Playwright, let’s go for a walk.”

***

As soon as Isaac came out, he put his arm around Sherlock’s shoulder and hugged him tightly. When Sherlock’s expression froze again, Isaac whispered in his ear.

“Your mercenary group is surrounding the village. Tell them to drop their arrows immediately.”

“Oh my, what are you talking about?”

As he spoke, Sherlock raised his hand slightly to make some kind of signal. Nothing had changed, but Isaac could tell that the murderous intent had subsided.

The mercenaries directly hired by the Golden Idol are not ordinary mercenaries. Among them, the mercenary group called ‘Extreme’ led by Sherlock was made up of only those with special talents.

That is, Sherlock, the mercenary captain, did not crawl in to surrender without thinking. He was someone who entered the tiger’s den to catch the tiger.

Because you can’t catch an extraordinary person with ordinary methods.

“The Golden Idol Order would not have been able to openly put a bounty on the head of a Grail Knight in the Empire, so they subcontracted it to you. So, does our playwright have any scripts to catch me?”

“Um, well… … Actually, we’re at a bit of a disadvantage since we’re fighting with our hands and feet tied.”

“Your hands and feet are tied?”

“Yes. If he were an ordinary person of high rank, he would have taken hostages, burned down their house, bribed the religious order, or otherwise isolated them socially and put them in a disadvantageous position. However, since he has prevented us from using any means necessary and only told us to capture the Grail Knight, we, who are powerless, are at a disadvantage.”

“It sounds like you said you would look after me.”

“Isn’t it?”

“You idiot. Leonora is doing this to save your lives and hers. What do you think I’ll do when I’m isolated and helpless and have no social awareness?”

Sherlock was a middle-aged man, old enough to be Isaac’s father, but Isaac’s verbal abuse was merciless.

At that age, a man who changes his wife every day and squanders his fortune for the sake of art is legally treated like a brat. Maybe it is written like that in the physics textbook, the Code of Light.

“Because you keep the good, I also keep the good.”

“……okay.”

Sherlock said as if he wasn’t convinced. After all, what could a mere paladin do against the Golden Idol Order?

“But why are you doing that? Miss Leonora is the type of person who will get what she wants. If we directly pressure Odrif with the Isacrea Dawn Army, she will not hesitate to use any means necessary. I know that the Holy Grail Knight is a scary person, contrary to rumors, but wouldn’t that only lead to hurt feelings for both of us?”

“That’s why I need your cooperation, Sherlock.”

“Me?”

Isaac nodded.

The reason Isaac didn’t kill Sherlock the moment he saw him was because he wanted to get his cooperation. Although he did use threats to gain the upper hand in negotiations.

“Is it true that the next top stock has been decided to be Leonora?”

Sherlock nodded with a bewildered expression at the sudden, unexpected comment.

“Yes, well, that’s right. No one has achieved as much as he has.”

The top of the golden idol is monopolized by the House of Bethia, unlike other faiths.

Originally, several families would gather their opinions and elect them, but a hundred years ago, the Bessia family eliminated all their opponents and established a monopoly. The reason the Bessia family eliminated other competitors was because ‘the representative families tried to reduce the interests of the entire Sangdae by flattering other religions and countries’, so it was a decision truly worthy of the Golden Idol Sangdae.

As a result, the neutrality of the top of the golden idol has been maintained until now.

The earthly goal of the Bessia family is to increase the total assets of the entire upper class.

Other merchants didn’t care about the blood feuds and monopolization of the Bessia family’s siblings as long as they could achieve this goal.

“But this incident is just Leonora’s arbitrary action, and has nothing to do with the consensus of the Golden Idol Council?”

“… … Right?”

“I plan to go to Odrif and confront the head of the upper house, Belman Becia, directly. I plan to warn Leonora that she is making a very dangerous gamble and that this risky action could diminish the upper house’s profits.”

At Isaac’s words, Sherlock opened his mouth and searched for words. After a while, the words came to mind and he was barely able to continue speaking.

“If that were possible, it would be the best way to resolve it peacefully, but I heard that the asset you, the Grail Knight, have is one of the long-cherished projects of the Golden Idol Association. Then cost shouldn’t be an issue.”

“Cost is always an issue. It’s a question of whether it’s something you can afford.”

“Oh, right. That’s right, that’s something I never thought I’d hear from a Paladin. Yes. Let’s say you, a Paladin, can do it. Then what do you want from me?”

“Just do as you have been doing.”

“yes?”

Isaac smiled and patted Sherlock on the shoulder.

“Report that they are attacking me as they have been doing so far, by hiring mercenaries and bribing local nobles and bandits. That I am exhausted and withering. It doesn’t seem like there is much time left. Until I reach Odrif.”

“… … Are you bribing the mercenary captain at the top of the Golden Idol right now? Do you know how much I get paid to work for Lady Leonora?”

Isaac had no intention of threatening with his life.

Sherlock may believe that he can escape from Isaac and even fight back.

It didn’t matter whether the plan was realistic or not. What mattered was that a living Sherlock would be much more helpful in thwarting Leonora’s plan than a dead one. So he needed to be coaxed and appeased appropriately.

‘For a mercenary, money is his master.’

“I will give you the right to nominate the next top candidate.”

[Serial] The Knight of the Dead God