An Invitation from a Predator
“Why don't you try learning swordsmanship?”
“Why should I?”
The Hero, Ilexid Graim.
He kept trying to persuade the unenthusiastic Archmage, who stared back with a thoroughly bored expression.
“You have incredible talent! Your reflexes and your eyes are amazing!”
“I know.”
“Huh? You already knew?”
Looking at the bewildered Hero,
Archmage Trevalier raised his chin and smirked.
“Is there anything in this world I cannot do?”
“Uh... is that so?”
Confusion washed over the Hero's handsome face, but
the party's Archmage merely shrugged indifferently.
“I simply choose not to. In truth, I excel at almost everything.”
“I-I see...”
“So keep your trivial suggestions to yourself.”
“Okay...”
Trevalier had been a prodigy from the moment of his birth.
He had never needed to learn from anyone.
A mere glance over someone's shoulder
was enough for him to grasp the underlying principles of any technique.
And that genius talent remained unchanged, even after crossing dimensions.
“You are aware there is a fee to issue a Vagabond Token, correct? It is one silver coin.”
“Here it is.”
Trevalier readily produced a silver coin, stretching his arm to place it on the reception desk, which was nearly as tall as he was.
The receptionist, Mak Chung, immediately scraped the edge of the silver coin with a piece of metal to verify its authenticity, then nodded.
“Payment confirmed. Please write down your basic personal details here.”
Trevalier took the wooden tablet and froze for a fraction of a second.
Come to think of it, he was illiterate in this world's language.
This is problematic.
He had just made a grand, intimidating entrance and seized the momentum. He couldn't afford to embarrass himself over something like this.
While Trevalier's mind raced for a solution,
Mak Chung, who had been watching him closely from behind the desk, spoke up with a genial smile.
“You may simply dictate it to me. Most people do, in fact.”
“Ahem...”
Indeed, the general literacy rate of this neighborhood didn't seem particularly high.
Trevalier gave Mak Chung a nod of appreciation for his timely intervention and handed back the wooden tablet.
He then recited his date of birth, place of birth, and name.
“Young Master Ilyang?”
“Yes.”
Ilyang.
Of all the characters currently stored in Trevalier's memory,
it was a combination squeezed from the few whose meanings he actually understood and found acceptable.
Mak Chung smoothly carved the information into the Vagabond Token.
He then retrieved a red-hot branding iron from a nearby brazier and pressed it against the bottom of the wooden token.
He was branding it with the weed emblem of the Nangin Association.
Ssssshh—
With the sharp scent of burning wood, the Vagabond Token was created.
The lowest rank of Vagabond Token.
The Wooden Token was complete.
“All finished, Young Master Ilyang.”
Trevalier.
Or rather, the boy who was now Ilyang,
took the token handed to him, turning it over in his hands as he surveyed his surroundings.
He had secured a basic identity token.
But an identity token alone was not enough.
A mage required vast resources to grow.
Resources, ultimately, meant money.
He needed to amass a fortune.
But how?
Working as a mere vagabond mercenary obviously had its limits.
As he stood lost in thought, the helpful receptionist, Mak Chung, offered some advice.
“Even at the Wooden Token rank, you can take on simple requests, Young Master Ilyang. See those wooden plaques hanging on the bulletin board over there? Those are all Wooden-rank requests. As you may know, you cannot accept requests higher than your current rank—such as Iron, Bronze, or Silver—unless it is a very exceptional case.”
“Hmm...”
Right. A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.
Approaching the board, he saw quite a few Wooden-rank requests.
However...
...I still can't read the script.
Ah, this cursed illiteracy.
Once again, it tripped him up.
Grimacing slightly, he turned to look back at Mak Chung,
but another vagabond had just approached the desk to speak with him, making it awkward to interrupt.
Just then...
“Haha! Looking for a suitable request, little brother?”
A greasy voice echoed from behind.
Ilyang turned around.
Standing there was a man in his late twenties or early thirties, with thick double eyelids and a broad, flat nose.
He wore a pristine white robe and held a folding fan extravagantly adorned with white peacock feathers and various other bird plumes, posing as if he were a character in a painting.
He partially concealed his face with the fan, exposing only his eyes and nose.
An aura of immense wealth practically radiated from his entire being.
The only fatal flaw that clashed terribly with his luxurious attire
was his remarkably unfortunate face.
But his martial strength is decent.
He was strong enough that even if all the vagabonds in this hall banded together, they wouldn't stand a chance against him.
At this level, would they call him a first-class master here?
His martial prowess was at the very peak of the first-class tier.
By the standards of his former lower dimension, he was roughly equivalent to a mid-tier knight.
Ilyang let out a faint smile.
At a glance, this world seemed to revolve around martial artists—the equivalent of knights—rather than mages.
Even in such a world, a man of this caliber was undoubtedly a formidable expert.
Why would such an expert suddenly strike up a friendly conversation?
With a complete stranger?
He has an ulterior motive.
Ilyang couldn't tell what the scheme was yet, but he could sense a deeply malicious intent.
Honestly, that made it even better.
Ilyang beamed, looking up at the man who had approached him.
Adopting the most innocent, naive expression a boy his age could muster, he asked in a childish voice,
“Are you offering me a request?”
“Haha! Of course. Why else would I have approached you?”
The man took the bait instantly as Ilyang played dumb.
He continued in an overly friendly tone.
“It just so happens my manor was about to post a request suitable for a Wooden-rank vagabond. What do you say? Would you like to take it?”
“May I ask what the job entails?”
“Oh, it's nothing major. Nothing difficult at all. I was thinking of personally entrusting it to you, little brother.”
He spoke as if he were doing Ilyang a massive favor, all while withholding the actual details of the request.
Normally, anyone would smell a rat at such excessive kindness and back away, but...
This is actually perfect.
It was far better if the man was a villain. It made cleaning up afterward so much simpler.
Thus, Ilyang asked again with polite curiosity.
“May I hear the details of the request first?”
“Ahem, well, you are quite meticulous for your age, little brother. Of course. As I said, the task is simple. It is merely overseeing a herb garden managed by our manor.”
“Overseeing a herb garden...”
Even a cursory thought suggested this wasn't a short-term job.
Yet he was offering a long-term contract to a kid he had just met?
A foul, sticky stench was beginning to waft from this proposal.
“The work itself is easy. However, because the garden is located outside the town, right at the foot of the mountain, wild beasts tend to wander down at night. Your job would be to drive them away. Not too hard, right? Any beginner can do it.”
His voice was sweet and persuasive.
If the job was warding off wild beasts at night, it meant he would have to stand guard in the dark.
Ilyang stared at the young man for a moment, his lips curling upward of their own accord.
Rather than the task itself, focusing on the location where the task was to be performed made the scheme painfully obvious.
At the foot of the mountain.
Outside the town limits.
A remote, desolate place far from any prying eyes or the protection of the local authorities.
If something were to happen there, no one would ever hear him scream.
The man's intentions were as clear as day.
Ilyang's smile grew even wider.
“I assume you have officially registered this request at the desk?”
“Ah, but of course! Look, it is written right here. It was placed in the corner, so you must have missed it, little brother! Hahaha!”
The man laughed far too much.
Well, it is always nice to see someone enjoy life.
He plucked a wooden plaque from the corner of the board and turned back to Ilyang as he walked toward the reception desk.
“The pay is quite handsome as well. Five silver coins a day.”
Ten days would yield fifty silver coins.
One silver coin was worth a hundred copper coins.
Based on the local prices, ten copper coins were more than enough to cover a full day's food and lodging.
Calculating based on that,
working for just ten days would cover his living expenses for a whopping five hundred days.
Ilyang smiled as he estimated the local cost of living.
As he had suspected, the terms of the request were far too generous.
“That is an exceptionally good offer. But why has no one accepted it yet?”
“Haha! Because they are all cowards. They think anything outside the town walls is too dangerous. That is why they always miss out on making real money. Pathetic fools who will never be rich.”
The young man spoke loudly, casting a glance around the room,
but strangely, the surrounding vagabonds all hurriedly avoided his gaze.
There is definitely something going on here.
The young man seemed to be quite famous in these parts.
And not in a good way.
The receptionist at the desk,
Mak Chung, looked between the young man and Ilyang with a highly conflicted expression before finally processing the request form.
“Young Master Ilyang, congratulations on accepting your first request.”
Despite the congratulatory words, his voice was noticeably subdued.
Even so, he followed protocol, recording the registration
and handing over the stamped documents to both parties.
“You may return every ten days.”
“Understood.”
“Hahaha! What a spirited little brother! Shall we begin the work starting today?”
“Hmm... very well.”
After registering the start date at the desk,
the two immediately stepped out of the Giyang County branch of the Nangin Association.
It is a bit of a shame that I already paid for a room at the Manseok Inn, but...
right now, he was dying of curiosity to see what kind of scheme this greasy bastard was cooking up.
When it is this blatant, it is impossible to miss.
It was obvious he was dragging an innocent beginner off to use for some nefarious purpose.
Playing the ignorant fool was becoming quite the chore.
A few vagabonds standing at a distance whispered urgently among themselves.
Ignoring them, Ilyang walked out of the building, heading straight toward the town gates, when the white-robed man suddenly spoke.
“Ahem, by the way, what is your name, little brother?”
“Ah! You may call me Ilyang, Great Hero.”
“Haha, I see. I am Pyeong So-byeok. My Pyeong Clan operates a fairly large apothecary here in Giyang County. We supply eighty percent of the medicinal herbs distributed to Cheonjung Castle in Myeongju Province.”
“Is that so? Forgive me, I did not realize I was in the presence of someone so esteemed.”
“Oh, think nothing of it! We can get to know each other from now on, hahaha!”
From that point until they completely cleared the town gates,
Pyeong So-byeok maintained a forced, friendly expression while continuously trying to pry information out of Ilyang.
“So you truly have no family? My, is that really true?”
“Yes. I am a complete orphan, with not a single living relative to my name.”
At the mention of him being a lone orphan,
a sinister gleam flashed in Pyeong So-byeok's eyes before vanishing just as quickly.
“Hmm, is that so? Your manner of speech is so refined that I was curious about your background... but it seems there is nothing to it.”
Once they reached a point where the town walls were no longer in sight,
the look in Pyeong So-byeok's eyes transformed into a burning, predatory glare.
It was the gaze of a predator that had finally cornered a delicious piece of prey.