Chapter 3
Vils Village.
The first village to appear in the story and the place where players underwent the tutorial. Cadel clicked his tongue in amazement as he looked around the village, which was surprisingly identical to the scenery he had seen through his phone screen.
Dark wooden houses and low-rise buildings, rough dirt roads, stalls lining every street, and even carriages squeezing through the narrow alleys. It was a perfect medieval scene, without a speck of the modern Korean civilization he remembered. Of course, since the world of ‘Hero of Knights’ was a hodgepodge of cultures pulled from here and there, there would probably be some awkward inconsistencies if he looked closely.
Still, anyone who liked fantasy was bound to dream of living in an era like this at least once. But now that he had actually fallen into a medieval game world, that fantasy shattered easier than thin ice.
That smell! What on earth is that stench? Horse dung?
It smelled like the raw, musky stench of beasts, or perhaps the musty odor of rotting fruit beneath the stalls. Cadel suppressed the urge to pinch his nose shut and hurried his steps.
“Captain, where are we going now?”
Van asked innocently from beside him. He was even carrying Cadel’s luggage, which was entirely his own stubborn volition. When Cadel handed over the bag after a brief scuffle, Van had rejoiced as if he had received a gift. It was an incomprehensible reaction.
“A tavern.”
“In broad daylight?”
“They’re open, aren’t they?”
“I suppose so.”
Cadel was looking for a tavern. The early story and leveling quests in ‘Hero of Knights’ all took place inside taverns. It was the information hub of Vils Village and a base camp for mercenaries looking for work. So if the story was going to flow exactly as Cadel knew it, finding a tavern first was the right move.
“But Captain. Isn’t the tavern in the other direction?”
“…Is it?”
Fortunately, thanks to his loyal and meticulous subordinate, Cadel was able to find Vils Village’s premier tavern, the ‘Midday Whale,’ without much difficulty. Even though it was still early for lunch, the tavern was sparsely filled with customers. They were in the middle of their meals, eating stew instead of drinking, or just pairing their stew with alcohol. Cadel and Van found an empty table and sat down.
“What do you want to eat?” Cadel asked casually.
He didn’t know what this tavern sold other than alcohol, so he intended to deduce the menu this way. However, Van quietly shook his head.
“I’m fine. You go ahead and eat, Captain.”
“If a mercenary doesn’t fill his stomach, where will he get the strength to fight? Hurry up and pick something.”
“I’m really fine, Captain.”
Well, I’m not fine!
Cadel swallowed the shout rising in his throat and forced a smile. Scanning the tables, he saw everyone eating stew, but he couldn’t figure out what it was called. Meanwhile, the clerk was just glancing over from a distance, waiting for them to order.
Eventually, Cadel let out a sigh and muttered sullenly.
“I’ll just have a drink.”
“…On an empty stomach? You should order some food, Captain.”
“How can I eat when you aren’t? Our mercenary group is of one mind and body. One person can’t be full while the other is hungry.”
By that logic, he should have gone outside to do some cardio on an empty stomach instead of ordering alcohol, but Cadel acted shamelessly. At that, Van’s face paled, and he became visibly restless, like a puppy whose toy had been snatched away. As Cadel puzzled over this overly sensitive reaction, Van hesitated for a long moment before muttering gloomily.
“If you order my share too, we’ll run short on funds, Captain. We don’t even know when we’ll be able to find another request… I don’t want to satisfy my hunger by squeezing your coin pouch dry.”
Good heavens. Cadel was rendered speechless by the unimaginably pitiful answer. Of course, it was natural to lack funds in the early stages of the game, but he hadn’t expected to so keenly feel his incompetence as a superior who couldn’t even buy a proper meal for his own subordinate.
“Besides, I can easily go a few days without eating. Don’t worry about me and just order.”
Faced with that sweet smile, Cadel’s expression contorted miserably.
In the end, Van and Cadel decided to order one stew and share it. They felt a bit self-conscious under the owner’s sour expression, but they decided not to care. It wasn’t worth caring about. After all, the food they ordered, supposedly a ‘mutton stew,’ was shockingly meager.
Is there even any meat in this? There’s only a single potato… And it tastes completely bland!
It drove him crazy with pity that Van had chosen to starve because they didn’t have the money to order a single dish like this. Van was barely even eating the stew, just smiling and urging Cadel to eat whenever their eyes met.
Seeing that foolishly selfless behavior, a sudden competitive spirit flared up within him.
When playing the game, he had always raised his knights to be the best. Every season, he equipped them with the strongest gear, painstakingly invested in every single skill, and maxed out all their stats.
Yet now, they were living in such squalor. He could never accept this. It was a matter of pride for the Rank 1 player.
I definitely need to gather funds first. If we keep living like this, forget about the knight order, I’ll be the first one to catch a disease.
Scooping up the watery stew, Cadel scanned the room combatively. To progress the story, meeting a quest-giving NPC was the first priority.
However, no one stood out so far. Everyone just looked half-dead, gulping down tasteless stew and alcohol while staring blankly into space, or engaging in trivial idle chatter.
Was it not time yet?
Playing a game and living inside a game character’s body were two entirely different things. This place would have its own life and flow, so perhaps he had come looking too hastily.
Just as a disappointed Cadel was gloomily looking down at his half-empty bowl of murky stew, two men chuckling at the next table suddenly began an interesting conversation.
“I hear Viscount Stra is looking for mercenaries again. Seems the ones he hired last time were pretty useless.”
“What do you mean useless?! I heard even the Crow Mercenaries sent people. It’s not a problem with the mercenaries, it’s that land that’s cursed.”
“I heard the Crow Mercenaries only sent their grunts, though?”
“You say that like their grunts aren’t better than most.”
Looking for mercenaries?
Although he had skimmed through most of the story, the name ‘Viscount Stra’ was familiar to him. Unless Cadel’s memory was more pathetic than the stew in front of him, Viscount Stra was definitely a key figure in the first quest. Cadel’s ears perked up as he eavesdropped on the conversation.
“Anyway, aren’t you going to try it out? The commission fee is a whopping five gold coins.”
“Are you out of your mind? Why do you think the fee is so high? It’s the price of a life, that’s why. Viscount Stra needs to drop that damn greed of his first. Does it make sense to send people to their deaths just to scrape every last bit of profit from a patch of farmland the size of rat shit? If he’s seen top-notch mercenaries dying one after another, he should know when to quit.”
“Alright, alright. I just asked, no need to get so worked up…”
Smacking his lips, the man leaned back in his chair. Just as Cadel was trying to use their conversation to find a clue to the quest…
“You sure have a lot to say while standing on the Stra family’s territory. You must have multiple lives.”
Suddenly, the tavern door opened with a loud clatter. Turning his head reflexively, Cadel saw a young man walking in, accompanied by five escort knights. Judging by his stiffly raised chin, arrogant expression, flashy blue silk clothes, and dangling ornaments, he seemed to be the son of some noble.
“I heard there are mercenaries these days who rationalize their own incompetence by making up baseless ghost stories. I didn’t know it was true. It seems you mercenaries don’t even have a shred of pride.”
Dripping with sarcasm, the man approached the men who had been conversing at the table next to Cadel’s. At his signal, the knights guarding his back drew their swords all at once.
Damn! Why are they suddenly drawing swords?
The drawn blades let out a chilling metallic scrape. Cadel’s eyes widened, and he unconsciously leaned back.
“You should remember that as soon as you step foot on the Stra family’s land, you can face Stra’s judgment at any time. The price for insulting my father won’t be so light.”
“I-I’m sorry.”
“I don’t like your eyes. Do I need to cut off an arm for you to offer a tearful atonement?”
The man seemed to be Viscount Stra’s son. Judging from his tone and attitude, he was a complete jerk. The tips of the knights’ swords pointed at the two men sitting at the table. They looked ready to swing at any moment, just waiting for the man’s order.
Cadel watched them with a mix of interest and concern, like someone watching a house on fire. Meanwhile, Van, who had been watching this commotion alongside him, carefully nudged Cadel’s arm. Cadel reacted immediately, rolling his eyes to look at him, and Van whispered with a very serious expression.
“Should I stop them, Captain?”
“Huh…?”
“By the looks of it, that’s Drew Stra. I’ve heard rumors that the viscount’s second son kills people easier than beasts. It would be a problem if blood splattered on our precious stew, wouldn’t it?”
Cadel blinked slowly. He thought about the words he had just heard.
So… the reason you want to stop the fight is because you’re afraid blood will splatter on the food we struggled to buy, making it inedible. Is that it?
He didn’t know whether to be sad or to scold him. Feeling conflicted, Cadel gave a bitter smile and quietly shook his head.
“No. There’s no need for you to step in.”
At Cadel’s words, Van obediently nodded. Right now, there was something more important than protecting the stew.
“W-We are truly sorry. We just heard some rumors going around… What would guys like us know? Ignorant fools just blurting out whatever comes to mind, so please, Young Master, have mercy…”
“Ha! Mercy. Are you asking me to just pretend I didn’t hear anything and let it go? You barbaric bastards sure ask for a lot.”
The man looked down at the men as if looking at disgusting bugs, then suddenly changed his expression and formed a cruel smile.
“Well… fine. If you insist, I’ll give you a chance. I’ll entrust you with the exact same commission, so go to that ‘cursed land’ you spoke of. If you go and clear out the beasts there, I’ll pretend today’s insult never happened.”
“What? T-That’s…!”
“There are no second chances. If you refuse, you can just pay for your sins right here.”
The men’s faces turned pale. Thinking that death was certain no matter what they chose, they were sweating profusely. From their perspective, it was truly out of the blue.
And Cadel, who had been watching them, carefully stood up. Moving stealthily with quick steps, he slyly slipped between Drew and the men.
“Who are you?”
The man furrowed his brow at the sudden intrusion. The knights also shot him threatening glares, but their vigilance didn’t last long.
“My name is Cadel Lytos.”
“…Lytos? That sounds strangely familiar.”
“I was just wondering if our mercenary group could also participate in that commission,” Cadel said with a good-natured smile.
This was it. If Viscount Stra was a key figure in the first quest, then this commission was undoubtedly the first quest he needed to obtain. A cursed land. Even just hearing the keywords reeked of the main story!