Chapter 145
Chapter 145
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 145
Chapter Title: 45. Frigid Plains (1)
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1.
Hawk Eye.
Maple World evaluated him, one of the Cygnus Knights' captains and the leader of the Lightning Knights, like this.
"The most cheerful man of all. Friendly enough to befriend anything in Maple World."
Hawk Eye was sociable enough to earn such praise.
And he was the same now.
"El, I'll accept your proposal. No need for three times the payment."
Hawk Eye placed his arm around El Pam's shoulder with a cheerful smile.
"M-Master?"
Viola's eyes widened in shock at the sight.
Even so, draping an arm around the shoulder of someone he was meeting for the first time?
Of course, El Pam knew better.
'As expected.'
This wasn't just a symbol of cheerfulness.
'He's starting with intimidation right away.'
In fact, this action was a warning from Hawk Eye to El Pam.
A warning that he could crush El Pam at any moment.
It wasn't a vague notion on El Pam's part.
The world saw Hawk Eye as cheerful but somewhat sloppy on the other hand.
Indeed, there were plenty of anecdotes about him acting eccentric or careless.
But El Pam knew.
'As expected of the man with insight second only to the Phantom Thief.'
Hawk Eye's true nature was his ability to gauge the person he faced above all else.
Even accepting El Pam's proposal right now was due to that insight.
"M-Master. This decision seems too sudden."
Viola had missed what Hawk Eye had seen.
"It's sudden, but I had no choice but to make it."
"Pardon?"
"You brought the necklace."
"What?"
El Pam hadn't come empty-handed.
"I-Is that true?"
Viola, stunned by the fact, looked at El Pam, who nodded in response.
"I didn't know exactly which necklace it was, so I gathered every one I could find."
He confessed to having already cleared that Mystic Gate.
Viola's expression showed she could hardly believe it.
"Then why were you late?"
She never imagined the reason El Pam's party had missed the appointed time was this.
Her shock soon reached Hawk Eye.
Fine, suppose El Pam had cleared it.
'But how did Master know the moment he saw it?'
Yet how had Hawk Eye realized it the instant he saw?
Hawk Eye flashed a bright, refreshing smile at his disciple's questioning gaze.
"You can tell just by looking. My eyes don't lie."
He winked with his gray eyes.
Viola stared blankly at the sight.
El Pam, however, was different.
'No way that's true.'
Hawk Eye did have insight rivaling the Phantom Thief, but he didn't have eyes that saw the truth like the Phantom Thief.
He had no ability to read El Pam's mind or thoughts.
If he knew the situation anyway, the reason was simple.
"I'm kidding, kidding. As if I had a real ability like that. I saw it. The Mystic Gate has been cleared."
He had seen the traces of El Pam's party clearing it.
Once he'd seen that, predicting the situation wasn't particularly difficult.
"Just a little while ago. You have no idea how shocked I was—sweat was pouring out on the way here."
But covering the path El Pam's party had taken over two days in just a few hours was on another level.
In other words, that was Hawk Eye's capability.
His 7th Circle power was on a level incomparably beyond what El Pam could match now.
"Oh, but I have one question."
In short, Hawk Eye could do it anytime.
"Why did you clear it solo?"
Depending on how El Pam answered this question, Hawk Eye could kill him in an instant.
And it was entirely possible.
It was true that Hawk Eye, the Lightning Knight Captain, was famous for his good nature.
But he was also the one who had judged countless adventurers as the Lightning Knight Captain.
He saw blood without hesitation when blood needed to be spilled.
Especially for Empress Cygnus, he could do anything.
If El Pam was a threat, he would smash him with a punch as swift as lightning, without a second's hesitation.
That's why El Pam didn't say anything unnecessary.
"If you'd brought the Cygnus Knights, it would've been a total wipe."
"A total wipe?"
"It belonged to the Lion King. Guiding the Cygnus Knights into a place like that would inevitably cause problems, no matter what. And attempting to clear it would only make the problems bigger."
"That's true."
Hawk Eye nodded at El Pam's answer.
It was plenty reasonable.
So he posed a new question.
"Still, you could've failed, right? It wasn't an ordinary place."
El Pam answered without the slightest hesitation.
"No one is more confident than me at finding items."
Pure, unadulterated sincerity, without a shred of falsehood.
Hawk Eye smiled faintly.
"Just like Oz said. I like it."
Tap tap!
He patted El Pam's shoulder with his own hand.
"So that settles the deal with Oz, right?"
"If the necklace I found is the one you're looking for, yes."
"Of course it is."
"Then the deal with Oz is done. Just pay the promised amount times three."
"Alright."
Hawk Eye nodded readily.
At that moment, he draped his arm over El Pam's shoulder again and said,
"Now, how about a deal with me?"
2.
"Boss, how'd it go?"
El Pam answered Dibo, who had been waiting for him.
"The deal's done."
"Wow!"
Dibo let out a cheer at the response.
It was well-deserved.
"200 million mesos! We actually got 200 million mesos!"
The reward from this job was an astronomical sum.
Enough to live without ever worrying about money again.
"Amazing, amazing. Huh? Why does it feel like I'm the only one excited?"
"You're the only one excited."
But among those who heard the amount, only Dibo was cheering.
Kiri, Miner, and Ralph weren't particularly thrilled.
"Kiri? You don't like money?"
"I don't hate it."
Kiri was surprised, but that was it. No cheering.
"Miner, what about you? Huh? Don't your golden eyes spin when you see money?"
"Hey, they don't spin."
"No? You like money, right?"
"I like money. But money from that Hawk Eye bastard is an exception."
Miner, the pirate from the Notilus ship who had bad blood with Lightning Knight Captain Hawk Eye, wasn't cheering either.
Dibo could understand that much.
But it didn't end there.
"Ralph, what about you?"
Why wasn't Ralph, who loved money more than anyone—more than even Dibo—cheering?
"There's a problem with this job."
"Problem? Oh."
That's when Dibo remembered.
"Right, it's not just any money. It's money from stealing the Lion King's stuff."
No time to simply celebrate.
"Sorry. I thought too lightly of it."
"No, the Lion King doesn't matter."
"Huh?"
"The issue is we didn't get even more compensation for the risk we took."
Dibo stared blankly at Ralph's follow-up words.
He looked at El Pam with that expression.
Eyes that said, What do we do with this guy?
"Ralph."
"Yes."
Dibo brimmed with anticipation as El Pam seemed about to say something.
El Pam obliged.
"So I got three times the promised amount."
"I knew you would!"
Dibo's expression went blank.
'Is my sense of normal all wrong?'
That was the moment.
"Hold on, Boss."
Feeling something off, Dibo asked.
"Three times is almost 600 million mesos, right? Roughly? And he okayed it on the spot?"
El Pam's proposal was insane, but was it even possible to approve that?
"Tiger Eye?"
Tiger Eye Viola was no ordinary knight, but she couldn't decide on an amount like that freely.
"No way."
"Right? So who okayed it? No one but Hawk Eye could, right?"
"You catch on quick."
"Huh?"
"It was Hawk Eye."
Everyone froze at the name.
"H-Hawk Eye was here?"
Of all people, that name coming up here?
No one had expected it.
Even El Pam hadn't.
He had spoken with Hawk Eye, but his appearance was unexpected even to him.
Instead, he knew one thing.
'He didn't come to see me.'
For the head of the Cygnus Knights—one who hated them more than anyone—to enter the Lion King's domain.
There was no way he took that enormous risk just for El Pam's fake identity, El.
In other words, meeting El Pam was just incidental.
He had a real objective.
'That's why he made that proposal.'
It wasn't a vague guess.
"Hawk Eye, huh? What a huge figure to show up."
"Huge my ass. He's a pirate scum."
"Hey, gold-eyes. Talk right. Doesn't that make you pirate scum too?"
"Watch your mouth. How am I pirate scum?"
"Then? You're not?"
"No. I'm a pirate wench."
"......So why'd he come here?"
"I don't know the reason. And we don't need to. What's important is that Hawk Eye made a proposal."
"A proposal?"
Hawk Eye had proposed a deal to El Pam's party.
"Huh? What about that necklace? Didn't Boss get it from the Mystic Gate? Weren't we going to deliver it?"
"He commissioned us to take over Viola's party's project to recover Aran's item."
"Oh!"
He was asking them to find Aran's item—an enormous task—in their stead.
No ordinary proposal.
"My god."
It was entrusting the Cygnus Knights' duty to El Pam's party.
An enormous matter that refused comparison to the mere help they'd given until now.
And from the Cygnus Knights, no less?
A group that staked their lives on duty.
"You didn't accept it, did you, Boss?"
So Dibo was on guard first.
A valid reaction.
The problem was one thing.
"Isn't accepting it the right call?"
"Kiri? You're siding with the knights just 'cause they're knights?"
"Man, this is great. Hawk Eye got on his knees and begged me, huh? Can't stand that."
"Gold-eyes, you?"
Everyone except Dibo was drawn to the proposal.
"Dibo, no questions for me?"
"You're okay with anything if there's money, right?"
"Exactly."
At that point, Ralph looked at El Pam and said,
"So what compensation did you settle on?"
El Pam answered the question.
"No compensation."
"What did you say?"
"Exactly what I said. No compensation. Hawk Eye just asked me a favor."
Working for free.
"You actually okayed that?"
"No reason to refuse."
El Pam had nodded readily to the proposal.
Of course.
"We can ask Hawk Eye for a favor when we need one."
Why refuse a chance to owe a favor to no one less than a Cygnus Knights captain?
'We had to find Aran's item anyway.'
Moreover, El Pam had come here to find Aran's item, proposal or not.
This was actually a huge opportunity.
"So we're going to meet the one who asked us to get this necklace."
Thus, El Pam didn't hesitate.
"Where is he?"
"Looking for a bard in Elnas Market."
Dibo tilted his head at the words.
"Uh, Boss. Aren't we already in Elnas Market?"
In Elnas Market, going to Elnas Market?
Ralph answered Dibo's question.
"You mean the back market? I'm against it. Too dangerous."