Bullshit
Why hadn't I noticed the strange looks in my comrades' eyes sooner?
Perhaps it was the title we wore: the Imperial Guard Knights. We were the pinnacle of military might in the Empire. In sheer numbers, we were a mere hundred knights, but every single one of us possessed the strength of an Intermediate Expert or higher, with plenty of Upper Experts and High Experts filling the ranks.
Because we were permanently garrisoned in the Imperial Capital, outsiders often mistakenly assumed we lacked real combat experience. In truth, we saw more bloodshed than any other order in the Empire. If a monster wave pushed a peripheral territory to the brink of ruin, we were the first unit deployed. A crisis requiring a thousand conscripted levies could be casually resolved by a dozen of us descending like a tempest. We were the Emperor's most useful instrument of rule.
Naturally, our members possessed pride beyond measure. Most spent their entire lives living in the training grounds like sword-crazed fiends, and even the leisure-minded among them did little more than nurse a pint of ale in the evenings.
To think people like that would turn green with envy just because I made a little money.
Once I became conscious of their gazes, even the stray remarks they tossed around ceased to sound harmless. That was especially true today, when someone I assumed had zero interest in Kodana sidled up to me.
"Eric. Did you hear? Kodana just broke three hundred and forty million."
"Did it? I had no idea."
"Don't play dumb. There isn't a bigger whale in the entire capital than you right now. Word has it the Arcknight Ducal House barely managed to scrape together fifty coins, but you've got way more than that. In a way... doesn't that make you a bigger deal than a duke?"
She was a tall, blonde beauty with healthily bronzed skin—the knight Celine.
A year my senior, she was without question the strongest among the female knights. She was already an Upper Expert, and we had been close friends since my early days in the order. She was also the sort of terrifying companion who preferred crushing skulls with a warhammer over fencing with a sword. Yet right now, her eyes were uncharacteristically narrowed into sly slits as she pressed her face closer, pestering me for an answer.
"There's a rumor going around that the Hero is going to issue additional Kodana soon. Ah, but of course, you'd know far more about that than I would."
"I wouldn't know. It's not like I'm on regular speaking terms with the Hero."
"Really? You attended him for quite a long time when he was living in the Imperial Palace. You were almost a member of the Hero's party yourself, weren't you?"
"I yielded my spot to Millia. So, what exactly is your point?"
"Just saying, is all."
I had no desire to indulge Celine's persistent sarcasm, so I simply ignored her. At that, she leaned in closer, bringing a faint stench of stale alcohol with her.
"By the way, why the stiff face, Eric?"
"I'm not stiff. Just go train."
"Oh, right, of course I should. Unlike a certain someone, I didn't make a fortune off Kodana, so I have to keep my head down and swing my weapon if I want to keep my rice bowl."
Her actions, however, completely contradicted her words. She made no move toward the yard to hone her blade, nor did she head to the gymnasium to lift weights. She merely stood there, glaring at me with bitter resentment.
Come to think of it...
I remembered hearing that Celine had rarely shown her face on the training grounds lately. Rumor had it she spent most of her days frequenting the taverns near the garrison. Back then, I had chalked it up to an ordinary slump, but looking at her now, it seemed I was the primary cause. Neglecting her training because of Kodana? What was she even thinking?
If she actually held a few coins, I might have understood. Honestly, even my own heart had hammered against my ribs when the price spiked out of nowhere. It was hard to fathom that a gaudy gold coin stamped with the Hero's ugly mug was worth more than several years of my salary.
As far as I knew, however, Celine wasn't an investor.
She hailed from a martial family whose entire lineage served, or had previously served, as knights in either our Imperial Guard or our rival, the Black Iron Knights. But the barony they held was pitifully humble—a minor territory of four thousand souls that could barely feed itself. Why on earth was someone like her checking the price of Kodana every single day? It wasn't as if obsessively checking the ticker would conjure coins into her pockets out of thin air.
Now that I look closely, she's even put on flab around her waist.
A reasonable layer of fat was essential for stamina, but Celine's physique currently looked thick and soft. Attractive on an ordinary woman, perhaps, but as a knight, she was an outright failure. The capital's fiercest female knight was wasting her prime stewing in jealousy over a colleague. While I despised meddling in other people's business, letting this fester any longer seemed like a recipe for disaster.
"Celine."
"Yeah? What?"
"What is it you actually want from me? Quit sneering and just say it."
At my blunt question, her gaze wavered slightly.
"Are you... really asking because you don't know?"
"I'm asking because I don't."
Letting out a heavy sigh, Celine cast a subtle glance toward our comrades sitting some distance away. The male and female knights watching us nodded or cleared their throats in quiet solidarity. She had stepped forward as the designated mouthpiece for everyone who held a grudge against me.
Presently, she spoke in a grave, measured tone.
"Eric. You are a commoner."
Did she really need to remind me of my social standing? It was the worst possible opening she could have chosen.
"Did you think I'd forgotten, or are you just stating the obvious?"
With another protracted sigh, Celine finally let loose what was on her mind.
"...Becoming a knight doesn't change your birth. A knighthood is a post, not a hereditary title; you can't pass it down to your children. With your skill, you might be granted an estate someday, but until then, you remain a commoner."
"I'm well aware, so you can stop spelling it out."
"Even so, I—no, we—never discriminated against you. In fact, we went out of our way to make sure you never felt out of place."
That was something I couldn't deny. Most of my peers were highborn aristocrats; there wasn't even a recognized bastard among them. While few held independent titles of their own, each was a young lord or lady back home. If something happened to their primary heirs, many were in line to inherit their family domains immediately.
"I admit it. I've never felt unfairly treated."
That didn't mean, however, that I was obligated to grovel just because these noble-blooded elites had deigned to treat me like an equal. In an order of knights, martial skill was the only true currency, and I had been hailed as a prodigy from the day I enlisted. Even now, I was living up to those lofty expectations. There was a reason my name had been put forward for the Hero's party in the first place.
Yet Celine—and the knights egging her on—seemed to attach monumental significance to their petty crumbs of graciousness.
"I'm glad you recognize it. But, Eric... lately, you're the one making us feel alienated. Very deeply, in fact."
"So you're saying my Kodana is rubbing you the wrong way."
"Yes. That. As you know, the order's pay is relatively modest. It certainly isn't meaningful money to a noble. Yet out of nowhere, you've amassed staggering wealth. How do you think we feel watching that happen?"
"Judging by how rotten your face looks, not great."
I offered a thin smirk, staring straight into Celine's eyes. I didn't care for her dragging my commoner status into this, but I had a rough idea of what she was after. It was true that I had been stingy with my comrades, but that was genuinely because I lacked liquid cash. I hadn't liquidated a single Kodana yet; like everyone else, I was scraping by on our standard monthly stipend.
Still, reading the room, cashing out two or three coins didn't sound like the worst compromise. Fine. Even if I sell two, I'll still have a hundred and six left.
Looking between Celine, who kept her chin tilted up defensively, and the rest of the watching knights, I let out a short breath and nodded. At that, her expression brightened ever so slightly.
"Eric. I'm glad you're finally seeing reason. It's late in coming, but I suppose you've always been a bit oblivious."
"Right. If you say so."
Fine. I might look like a pushover, but I'd sell just two. Right now, a single Kodana was going for three hundred and forty million liras. That was enough to purchase a sprawling townhouse in the heart of the capital. Outside the capital, it was enough for a two-story mansion and a carriage with a full team of horses. Selling two would leave plenty to go around.
They're people I'll have to see every day anyway. It makes sense to grease the wheels a bit.
I mentally drafted how to distribute the favor. Should I drown everyone in fine wine for a solid week? Or perhaps sell two coins and hand each of the hundred members six million liras in cash? That was equivalent to two full months' wages; if they had any shred of decency, they would be more than satisfied.
Having made up my mind, I looked Celine in the eye and opened my mouth to speak. But then...
"Eric. How would you feel about turning half of your Kodana into joint property of the knight order?"
"If half is too steep, forty percent would do," Celine added casually, as if she were granting me immense clemency.
Only then did I realize how grossly I had underestimated the depths of their greed. These people weren't hoping for a modest handout. For reasons beyond sanity, they genuinely believed they held an equity stake in my fortune.
Having their true colors laid bare made my choice exceedingly simple. I locked eyes with Celine, my voice dropping flat and cold.
"Celine. Half? What half? Stop talking bullshit."
There was no reason to entertain insanity with politeness.
"...Bullshit?"
"Yeah. Do I look like an idiot to you? Why the hell would I hand half of it over to you people?"
The Kodana I held was the compensation I had received in exchange for willingly surrendering the glory of the Hero's party. I hadn't predicted the price would explode like this, but that didn't mean it had been handed to me for free. Even now, people sneered behind my back, claiming I had chosen filthy lucre over humanity's sacred mission to slay the Demon King.
'This is why commoners will never amount to anything.'
'There's a reason the Imperial Family doesn't pick commoners as personal escorts.'
'I heard he literally stitches Kodana into his underwear.'
I had endured that garbage in silence. I had kept quiet about the fact that the Hero had booted me out purely to curate his immaculate personal harem, and I hadn't drawn my blade to silence the bastards running their mouths. I figured that was the tax one paid for hitting the jackpot.
And now they wanted me to surrender that very same Kodana? That would make me both a sellout and a sucker. And that was something I would never accept.