A Fishing Hook Made of Gold Coins (3)
Several weeks had passed.
During that time, Najin had not taken on any notable requests, instead wasting his time. More precisely, he had acted in a way that made it seem as if he was simply wasting his time, at least to those who knew his internal circumstances.
As the cowardly fool who feared a possible surprise attack at any moment, Najin had put on exactly that performance. But he had never truly wasted those weeks of acting. Instead, he had turned over in his mind every conversation he had shared with Caron, Rosalin, and Merlin.
His inner self. His mindscape.
In the span of roughly half a year, Najin had undergone a drastic change. A single event had upended his entire life. For eighteen years he had upheld the rules he had lived by, only to shatter them with his own hands and break out of his cramped subterranean nest to soar into the open sky.
His body had adapted to the sudden upheaval.
But Najin’s soul had not kept pace.
The rift between soul and body. That was the anchor that had bound him, the part he still had to overcome. How had that rift come about? After weeks of relentless self-examination, Najin had finally touched upon the answer.
The outline was forming.
It felt as though he could grasp it with a mere reach.
Yet he knew something else.
Answers, awakenings, were never that easy to come by. There was no quick fix to be had by simply folding your legs in seiza and meditating in a dark corner. Human growth always required some dramatic turning point.
“I am still only the beginning.”
“There are plenty of the Church’s hunting dogs. Very many.”
“They will not tire until they kill me.”
And right now there was a rare opportunity. What had once been a crisis had now become a once-in-a-lifetime chance, Najin was certain.
“Najin.”
Najin opened his eyes.
“Everything ready?”
When he lifted his gaze, a silver-eyed girl sat before him. Dieta. Her lips curved into a gentle smile as she asked the question, and Najin nodded.
“It’s ready.”
Kaufman Teosis spoke.
No one could say who would become the hunter and who the prey, he had left one final line, and Najin had taken it to heart.
It was ready now.
It was time to swap hunter and prey.
2.
“One. Gerald Otion.”
Dieta unfolded a finger.
“Former demon hunter who once operated in the demon lands, retired from the battlefield for unknown reasons. After retirement his trail went cold, but he’s been working as a bounty hunter lately.”
Four files lay on the desk in the office. Each carried a portrait and a short summary. Dieta pointed at one.
“Rank: Sword Seeker. Weapon: giant axe.”
She lifted the second finger.
“Two. Klaus Aten. Former commander of the Prolea Kingdom’s cavalry. Disappeared after the unit was dissolved. Weapon: three-meter lance. Rank: Sword Seeker.”
Third finger.
“Three. Basilius Malek. Soldier active on the front line bordering the demon continent. Weapon: twin swords. Rank: Sword Seeker.”
Final finger.
“Four. Tyler Verca Niman. Commanded the disbanded unit created to execute deserters. Weapon: great bow. Rank: Sword Seeker.”
After listing them, Dieta exhaled briefly and tapped the files with her fingertips.
“These are the names we’ve found so far. There are about a dozen others showing suspicious activity, but none have reached Sword Seeker. A true Sword Seeker must report their rank and information to the Empire without fail, yet none did.”
She handed Najin one additional file. The portrait showed a figure cloaked in a robe.
“That one’s worth watching. No information exists on him. Neither his identity nor his rank is known.”
Dieta let out a long sigh as she finished speaking. The gesture carried genuine disbelief.
“Four Sword Seekers, ten Sword Experts? A major noble knight order moving as a unit wouldn’t even come close to that number. The Arvenia ducal house has three Sword Seekers, and this is… this is ridiculous.”
She let out a short laugh.
“They intend to kill you outright. I didn’t expect them to go to such extremes.”
Dieta shook her head. Her own surprise at the investigation results was plain, and Najin felt his own astonishment. Yet the direction of his surprise was a fraction different from hers.
“…How did you find all of them?”
How had she found them all.
He had sensed suspicious movements and kept his eyes open, but even then he had only located a handful of Sword Experts and one Sword Seeker. That was thanks to his inhuman senses.
Dieta, however, had caught far more people and done so far more precisely than he had. Despite possessing none of his own sharp instincts.
“I already told you. This is my territory.”
Dieta’s reaction to his astonishment was nothing more than a casual shrug.
“The largest influence in Cambria belongs to my trading company. The gold coins I spend can circle the entire city in a single night. It took five years to build this distribution network and seize control of the city’s resources.”
A snake spreading its net of gold coins.
“Gather the information, cast the hook, recruit informants, then pay them with gold to create more informants. Repeat the cycle a few times and they’ll start getting caught. Roughly.”
She rolled a platinum coin across her palm.
“Even if they’re Sword Seekers, they’re still individual agents. Even if the Church gives them communication methods, they’re limited. No matter how strong they are…”
Dieta grinned.
She poked the side of her own eye and ear.
“Eyes and ears are a pair, right? Compared to that, how many informants do you think are working as my eyes and ears? And they don’t even realize they’re doing it.”
The entire city was her eyes and ears.
Dieta spoke as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. Najin, who had overheard how she had ensnared them, clicked his tongue.
—Najin.
‘Yes, Merlin.’
—I don’t usually say things like this, but right now the girl in front of you is not to be treated as an enemy.
‘I think the same.’
Najin felt genuine sympathy for Merlin’s words.
Dieta was his friend, his first real friend, so of course he was grateful. If he turned her into an enemy, he would face something extremely troublesome and eerie, he was certain.
“I’m really glad Dieta is my friend.”
“Suddenly?”
“Yeah, suddenly.”
Dieta let out a soft laugh.
“Well, anyway… once the hook is cast, getting the next piece of information is simple. Obtaining details on Sword Seekers is easier than you think.”
“Easy, you say?”
“Sword Seekers are strong enough to pose a real threat. The Empire may not manage them with iron-clad rules, but they still have to be aware of them. If a Sword Seeker decides to turn the battlefield into a slaughterhouse, a single territory can be ruined in the blink of an eye.”
“Therefore, even a knight captain or a unit commander is given a title and placed under management. Dieta shrugged as she spoke.
“A Sword Seeker of that caliber leaves behind records of every place they’ve been, their identity, and personal details. Just a little digging and the information comes spilling out. Well, the Empire’s royal guard or the special task force on the front lines, rangers—those are the exceptions…”
Dieta spoke with deliberate casualness.
“Even they become exceptions once they retire. The moment Kaufman Teosis retired, all his information was released. It’s a kind of deterrent. Don’t do anything reckless. And the active royal guard and special task force…”
“Even the Church can’t touch them.”
The time it had taken to place the hook was long, but once it was cast the rest was finished quickly, she said.
“So what now?”
“…?”
“Even if you become a Sword Seeker, the other side will have at least four Sword Seekers and a dozen Sword Experts. Facing them alone will be extremely difficult.”
He had to admit it. The Church had sent far more people than Najin had expected, and he could not handle them all.
“Then why make plans?”
“Of course. If I’d answered that I would face them alone, I would have grabbed them by the collar right then and there.”
Najin gave a wry smile.
When Dieta had cast her hook and begun the fishing, they had sat together and worked out several possible strategies. And, in this case, which of those strategies was the best?
The two looked at each other and smiled. They were both thinking the same thing; the certainty felt almost tangible.
“Of course, even this way it remains dangerous. In the end, it depends entirely on what you decide to do.”
She flicked the platinum coin still rolling on her palm.
“Still, it’s a gamble worth taking, isn’t it?”
Dieta’s coin flew through the air and Najin snatched it from mid-air.
“Alright.”
Dieta shook her head, unable to hide her exasperation as she looked at him. No matter what, Najin would have to stake his life. The only thing Dieta could do was increase his chances even a little.
Dieta and Najin rose from their seats.
It was time to move according to the promise they had made. As they prepared to act, Dieta stepped closer. She straightened the wrinkles in his coat, then pressed the back of her hand firmly against his chest.
“Don’t get hurt, okay?”
“Considering the opponent, that might be difficult.”
“Haa… what kind of person am I dealing with…”
Dieta grumbled. After taking a long breath she looked up at him.
“Don’t die. That much I can promise, right?”
“I think I can accept that promise.”
“Then it’s settled.”
Dieta stepped back.
“Come back. Don’t forget to greet me when you return.”
3.
“They’re moving.”
The Church’s hunting dogs hidden inside the city whispered among themselves. They were scattered across every corner of the city, moving along its outer edges and gathering information.
The number of people who had become the Church’s hunting dogs had reached twenty, yet they never gathered all at once. Instead, they formed small groups of two or three to exchange information and then pass it downward.
The five strongest among the hunting dogs.
Naturally created hierarchy and command authority.
The ones holding command had accumulated countless battle experiences on the front lines and knew exactly how ambushes and assassinations should be carried out. That was why they had quietly searched for an opportunity.
“The twelfth night. Target is moving northward along the Ahmadi Road. Suspected to be carrying out a request, accompanied by adventurers, but we are not to be hindered.”
They had obtained the list of participants in the request. The list contained no high-risk individuals.
“Ambush at that location. No variables allowed. The Church has given a warning. The target is a person who possesses the ability to flip the power balance.”
A young brat who hadn’t reached the Sword Seeker rank.
To capture that brat, they had thrown five Sword Seekers into the fray. Yet none of the five doubted the Church’s judgment. No matter how they were bound by ties of misfortune or fate, they knew how terrifying Archbishop Orlan truly was.
If he had judged this way…
Then there must be good reason.
They had cross-verified the information they obtained, and above all they had kept a close watch on any possible interference from the Arvenia trading company. According to the Church’s information, the request target maintained friendly relations with the trading company’s owner.
“No sign of them.”
“Same here.”
But there was still no confirmation of the trading company’s involvement. The request had been issued through the central guild, and the youth named Najin had simply stepped outside the city to complete the minimum number of low-rank requests required to maintain his red-grade status.
The request had fallen into their laps by default. When they investigated Najin’s movement radius, they found no connection to the trading company’s owner.
He could not approach the city center, but because Najin was a well-known figure here, it had been easy to track his movements. Information about him had poured out from every direction, and they had collected it all.
Of course, one could not simply take every piece of information at face value. That was why they had periodically gathered to cross-check and verify the data they collected. And the moment they confirmed that all twenty of them had received the exact same information, they were ready to move.
The prey had left its nest.
Now it was the hunters’ turn to move.
They still believed themselves to be the hunters and harbored no fundamental doubts about the fact. They had not been careless, but they had assumed they held the advantage.
That was why they had no idea.
That all the information had been manipulated.
That they had been swept up in a flow created by someone else.
That a golden hook had been threaded onto their title.
That the hunter and the prey had swapped places.