"Ian, thank you so much. You saved the village."
"You saved our lives. We’ll definitely repay this debt."
"I only did what needed to be done."
All the bandits had been wiped out, but they had still inflicted considerable damage on the village.
Fortunately, while there were many injured, no one had died.
That was only natural, since the bastards had chosen a hit-and-run strategy, striking swiftly before the nuns could respond.
Still, they had set fires to exploit the confusion, and several houses had been reduced to ashes.
"This is a serious problem. Winter’s almost here, so rebuilding will be rough."
"Why not have them stay at the inn for the winter instead?"
"That sounds good. When spring comes, we can all rebuild the houses together, one at a time."
"And with the money Ian donated, we should have more than enough."
The villagers put their heads together to find a solution for the neighbors who had lost their homes.
Amid all that, however, one man saw an opportunity to be greedy.
"I’ll charge ten silver coins per night."
"Tom, is this really the time to joke around?"
"Do I look like I’m joking? This is the only way I can make up for my losses too."
"Fuck, is that something you do to neighbors who’ve lost their homes?"
"That’s that, and this is this. Besides, the village has plenty of money, doesn’t it?"
"You fucking bastard!"
Thanks to him, the atmosphere rapidly turned hostile.
Voices rose, and it would not have been surprising if fists started flying at any moment.
"I’ll speak with the Church and arrange a place for the women to stay through the winter."
"Oh! You’d do that for us?"
"I’m sorry this is all I can do."
"Not at all. You’ve done more than enough."
After thanking me, the village chief whispered something to Tom, the innkeeper.
Only then did the greedy Tom finally shut his mouth.
"But where’s Kaelen? We haven’t even seen hide nor hair of him."
"Right. Isn’t this exactly what we’ve been paying that bastard for?"
Kaelen, the captain of the village watch, had been receiving money for the village’s operating expenses.
They paid him a large sum every month in consideration of his knight-class strength, yet when he was actually needed, he was nowhere to be found.
"I saw him earlier. He was collapsed in the tavern."
"Apparently, he said Finn did it to him."
"That fucking bastard was so damn confident, telling us to rely on him, and this is what he amounts to?"
"From what I heard, it seems Kaelen was trying to join hands with Finn too."
"What?"
"That bastard was planning to betray our village too."
"That son of a bitch. I ought to..."
"Now, now, everyone calm down. It’s only a rumor for now. Don’t stir up discord over nothing."
The village chief quickly tried to settle things down, but the villagers had already begun to suspect Kaelen.
And I had a rough idea where that rumor had come from.
John, obviously. Looks like his relationship with Kaelen fell apart over this incident after all.
John had not gotten the chance to distinguish himself during this bandit attack.
The picture he wanted had been completely overturned.
To recover from the worst-case scenario, he needed a living sacrifice, and Kaelen had conveniently failed to accomplish anything this time as well.
Since he receives money for the village’s upkeep, Kaelen will bear the full brunt of the villagers’ anger.
Of course, Kaelen did not seem like the type to take it lying down, but that was not my concern.
"Village chief, what are we going to do with that bastard?"
A villager asked, pointing at Finn.
Judging by the look in his eyes, he seemed ready to kill Finn, who had betrayed the village, on the spot.
"Hmm..."
The village chief could not answer easily either.
He too wanted to personally cut off the head of Finn, who had targeted his property, but from the village’s perspective, Finn was irreplaceable.
People who can do arithmetic are rare in the Middle Ages.
That was all the more true in a place like Entiel Village, where money circulated thanks to the pilgrims drawn by the Church.
The village chief knew that, so he could not rashly kill Finn.
At the very least, Finn had to be kept alive until a replacement could be trained.
"Village chief, may I say something important?"
"Ian, you may speak to me anytime."
Perhaps my efforts to raise his favorability had paid off, because the village chief listened attentively to what I said.
"It seems you are having trouble deciding because of that man’s abilities."
"You’re thinking the same thing I am."
"But if we do not properly punish someone who betrayed the village, others may be tempted to do the same."
"Heh heh, managing people is difficult. Not everyone thinks as we do."
"Which is why I say this: I know a little arithmetic."
"You do?"
"Yes. It is only basic stuff, but until someone else can replace him, I’ll handle the brokerage accounts."
"Would you really do that?"
"Yes. I’ll do my best for the village."
"As I thought, you’re the only person I can trust."
The village chief probably thought I was making a sacrifice, but I had plans of my own.
This will let me naturally steer them into trading with the Twilight Company.
Merchants had not visited Entiel Village often because of Finn, but if I brought in the Twilight Company, I could accelerate the village’s development.
"Now we can kill that bastard without worry."
"How should we kill him?"
"We’ll have to think about that."
All that remained now was deciding Finn’s punishment.
Normally, they would sell someone off as a slave, but because of the evil Finn had committed, no one could come to a quick decision.
They were clearly trying to find a way to inflict as much pain on him as possible.
This was usually how a traitor’s story ended.
So I made one suggestion.
"What a hassle. Let’s just burn him at the stake."
. . .
"Urgh!"
John, limping on one leg, was rendered speechless by the sight before him.
"Ian, you’re the hero of our village!"
Every villager was praising Ian.
They hailed him as a hero, and even his father, who had rejected him so harshly, smiled in Ian’s presence.
Damn it! That was supposed to be my place!
John’s plan to summon bandits through Finn, then put Kaelen forward and become a hero, had completely fallen apart.
Instead, Ian had claimed every bit of credit for himself.
John could not stand the jealousy boiling in his gut.
If it weren’t for that bastard, I would have succeeded long ago.
John burned with hostility toward Ian.
Thinking back, too many things had felt suspicious.
When he had enjoyed a secret tryst with Isolde, when Torm committed his crime, when Daevon underwent a religious trial, and even now—Ian had always been there, and events had always unfolded in his favor.
Could that bastard have noticed my plan?
It was absurd.
Only he and his gang knew about the plan.
Yet he could not shake his suspicions about Ian.
There were simply too many suspicious circumstances to dismiss it all as coincidence.
"John, are you all right?"
"B-Bella."
Bella, one of the village prostitutes, approached and supported John.
"I’ll walk you home."
"Thank you."
Normally, John would have brushed aside concern from a prostitute like Bella.
To him, prostitutes were no different from trash on the roadside.
But because she had helped him avoid the worst outcome, John could not be cruel to Bella.
Rather, having lost everything, he naturally found himself leaning on her.
"You need treatment quickly, or the wound could fester."
"Whew, there’s a healing potion in the house."
"That’s a relief."
"It should be in the back of that shelf. Get it for me."
"The village chief really hid it well."
"Keep it a secret from my father."
"Don’t worry."
Bella found the healing potion as he requested. Then, from an angle where John could not see, she pulled out a packet of powder hidden in her clothes.
With a wicked smile, she poured the unidentified powder into the healing potion.
. . .
The status of a prostitute belonged to a gray area.
Even if someone harmed them, they had nowhere to appeal for help.
The Church of the Sun turned its back on prostitutes due to doctrine that valued chastity, and men had no reason to help women they considered filthy.
They were the weakest among the weak.
Especially prostitutes who could not bear children had even less of a future.
Bella was one such prostitute.
For now, she made a living by selling her body, but the moment her beauty faded, even that would become impossible.
Nothing but a miserable future awaited her.
Then a customer approached her.
"Who are you?"
"It’s a pleasure to meet you."
Ian the hunter.
The village’s biggest topic of conversation.
The man who had recently married Isabelle had come to see her.
"I suppose your wife doesn’t take care of you at night very often."
At first, Bella had been quite flustered by his visit, but then she recalled Isabelle’s beauty and understood.
The more beautiful a woman was, the more stingy she tended to be about satisfying her husband’s desires.
The men who came looking for prostitutes were usually like this.
They needed someone to satisfy the desires they could not indulge with their wives.
"I’m different from your wife."
Bella naturally reached for his crotch.
Then, in her usual alluring voice, she seduced him.
"I can accept every one of your lustful desires."
"Ah, I’ll pass."
But Ian rejected her touch.
"More importantly, have a seat. I have something to discuss with you."
"Pardon?"
Ian removed Bella’s hands from his body and seated her in front of him.
His actions carried a firm resolve, as though he were declaring that he would not have that sort of relationship with her.
The strange atmosphere left Bella bewildered.
A man who had come to see a prostitute was saying he did not intend to have sex with her. It was ridiculous.
"Contrary to what you think, my wife and I have an excellent relationship."
"Then why did you come looking for me? Don’t tell me you’re here to crack down on me?"
Remembering that Ian was an honorary believer, wariness flickered in Bella’s eyes.
It was common for the Church of the Sun to crack down on prostitutes.
"Nothing like that. I came to make a deal with you."
"A deal?"
Flicking a gold coin, Ian asked Bella,
"Would you be interested in making a lot of money?"
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