Chapter 29: Whispers of Power and the Price of Heroes

“First, I want to start with an apology. Even though I was part of the Hero’s Party 200 years ago, I didn’t notice those demonic beasts invading the Empire at all.”

“No… Principal, you were at the Academy at the time.”

Did they even have the authority to be involved in that kind of issue in the first place?

It’s not that the principal’s authority is too limited—just that the scope of their power is different.

A Minister of Education can’t interfere with the authority of the Minister of Defense, after all.

“And…”

The principal pushed a box on their desk toward me and opened the lid.

Inside were what clearly appeared to be a large number of gold coins.

One silver coin is worth roughly 20,000 to 30,000 won.

A hundred silver coins make up one gold coin.

Which means, what’s in front of me now is…

“25 gold coins. A ‘reward’ from the Empire.”

I stared intently at the coins.

“Are they worth that much? A nucker and an adult wyvern?”

“You know the nucker’s venom is essentially highly condensed mana, right? Normally, visible mana doesn’t really harm people. It’s not exactly good for you, but an average person can survive it thanks to their natural healing. But that ‘venom’ is different.”

I already knew that.

I’d helped take down a young knucker about a third the size of a full-grown one, together with Siwoo and eight other veteran adventurers.

“The venom gets more dangerous as they mature. Naturally, the price skyrockets too. Not to mention how much more of it there is. That’s why the nucker alone is valued at 15 gold coins.”

“And the wyvern is 10 coins?”

The full-grown wyvern was the one carrying off the nucker I’d hunted.

“It might be more dangerous, sure. But the body isn’t worth as much. You know how it is as an adventurer—there’s always a mix of ‘risky but unprofitable’ jobs and ‘easy but lucrative’ ones. This one just happened to be a ‘risky and profitable’ case. Wyverns also provide plenty of materials, but compared to a nucker, they’re relatively cheaper.”

The principal shrugged and said,

“Do you think the amount is too low?”

“What? Oh—no, not at all. I actually thought it was more than I expected.”

When we took down the juvenile knucker, there were ten of us including Siwoo and me—and we only got about two gold coins in total.

Sure, the size difference was extreme, but still.

I’d heard adult dragons fetched a high price, but I hadn’t realized how high.

If we assume one silver coin is worth about 30,000 won, then today’s reward totals around 75 million won.

I only estimated silver coins at “around” 20,000–30,000 won because it’s impossible to compare this world’s cost of living 1:1 with modern-day Korea.

Broadly speaking, this world has “low labor and real estate costs compared to goods.”

Everyday expenses are somewhat similar, but when it comes to property and wages, it’s a completely different story.

Buying a house within a lord’s castle town costs around 15 gold coins at most.

In a frontier village, it’d cost even less since you’d only be paying for construction.

Of course, “buying a house” in this world isn’t something you can do just because you have the money.

This is a society with a strict class hierarchy—spending a large sum of money at once requires all sorts of permits.

And under the pretense of paperwork, they’ll milk you for taxes too.

Most successful adventurers just pay several decades’ worth of rent in advance to avoid the hassle.

“Honestly, I’ve never lived as an adventurer myself, so I wasn’t sure if this was a fair amount. I’m relieved to hear it is.”

The principal looked a bit relieved.

“Even if I had been a famous adventurer, the money I earned back then wouldn’t be comparable to what it’s worth now anyway.”

Well, yeah—it’s been 200 years.

If they were part of the Hero’s Party back then, that means they were already an adult even before that time.

“The monster corpses were all retrieved by the Empire.”

“The Empire took them?”

I was a little surprised.

Normally, it would be the Mage Tower or the Adventurer’s Guild that handled monster remains.

Come to think of it, the reward money also came from the Empire.

“Yes. Unfortunately, there wasn’t much we could do on our end.”

The principal let out a sigh.

“We had hoped to purchase the remains for study, but the Empire acted before we had the chance.”

“I heard other adventurers were dispatched to help deal with the wyvern. Wasn’t there any backlash from the Guild?”

“Well, in the Capital, the Guild is more or less subordinate to the Empire.

In other territories, if a Guild disappeared, the territory itself might collapse, but it’s a different story here where the Imperial Family directly governs.

I’m not sure the knights can handle monsters as efficiently, but that doesn’t mean they’re easily defeated either.”

Yeah, that makes sense.

“Still…”

“You think so too, don’t you?”

The principal’s smiling expression stiffened just a bit.

“Something about this… smells fishy, doesn’t it?”

“You may be a commoner, Lila, but you’re sharp, so I don’t think I need to spell it all out. Still, I’ll say this much… Be wary of the Imperial Family.”

“Wait, are you suggesting the Imperial Family…?”

“I can’t say for sure. It’s just speculation—I don’t know what they’re really thinking. I doubt they’d go so far as to try killing a Hero. But still…”

I nearly smacked my forehead.

Seriously?

Even if they’re worried about their legitimacy, this would be going way too far.

Then again, as the principal said, nothing’s been confirmed yet.

“So what would you like to do with the money? You could take it out and distribute it yourself, or deposit it in a bank.”

“I’ll deposit it at the bank for now.”

No matter how you looked at it, walking around with 250 gold coins in your hands was a bit much.

As for dividing it up—we could talk first and then split it however they wanted.

“250 gold nyang!?”

There she goes again—she even adds “nyang” when she’s surprised.

“Yeah. Split evenly, it’s 50 gold each. That should be enough for everyone to live comfortably for a while.”

Listening to my words, Sasha’s face lit up… only to darken just as quickly.

“But still, this money is basically all yours, isn’t it, nya…”

“She’s right. In the end, it was you who defeated both monsters, Lila-nim.”

“Grrr…”

Could you please stop calling me “-nim”?

…Though, telling them to stop probably won’t change anything, so I gave up.

“If you guys hadn’t been there, I wouldn’t have made it out safely either. So just think of this as my life’s worth.”

I said, turning to look at Siwoo, who smiled softly.

I shrugged—

“Ack!” —and cried out from a sudden sharp pain in my side.

“A-Are you okay, nya!?”

“Are your wounds still not healed?”

Seriously.

I even missed class for three whole days lying in bed, and I’m still like this?

“I’m fine, really.”

I replied through a grimace.

…If I said I was in pain here, I just knew all the Saintess candidates would come flooding in.

It had already been exhausting turning away all the visitors.

Siwoo had helped a lot with that.

Chloe, in particular—maybe because she’s lived her whole life as a nun with no outlet for her desires—blushed and went “Oh my, oh my” just from seeing Siwoo and me alone together.

“What… What’s with that look on your face…?”

Chloe asked while hurrying over to use her holy power, having apparently noticed my gaze.

“It’s nothing.”

I let out a deep sigh.

***

~ Interlude From Zenira’s Perspective ~

Even after Lila left the room, Xenia kept staring at the door for a long while.

Power is always dirty.

Even more so not during peace, but in times when the survival of all humanity is at risk.

“The appearance of a Hero means the Goddess no longer believes this world is safe.”

Xenia clicked her tongue.

Leaning back in her chair, she let out a deep sigh.

If the Empire was the one behind those two monsters… what could they possibly be thinking?

Using monsters as weapons wasn’t a new idea.

There had even been older proposals to domesticate monsters and regularly harvest their byproducts.

That came before they even considered weaponization.

But if they did that, the Adventurers’ Guild would no doubt push back.

The Capital might be relatively safe, but in other territories, the Guild is essential for dealing with monsters.

After all, monsters are beings that occur naturally.

Just because they managed to easily extract byproducts here didn’t mean the wild monsters in nature would disappear on their own.

It was precisely because they earned so much more than the average person that the profession of adventurer could still exist.

Would the Empire, as it stood now, be able to nationalize the Adventurers’ Guild and run it properly?

No—would they even attempt such nationalization?

A headache throbbing behind her eyes.

She pressed her forehead with her fingers, then slowly looked at her left hand.

A hand missing its pinky finger.

On her fourth finger, a ring was worn.

A thin gold band with a small crystal embedded in it—no other adornments.

The ring was scratched in places, but the crystal still caught the light and sparkled whenever it hit.

“Luke…”

She covered the ring with her other hand and held it tight.

That day, they never even found her Hero’s body.

In the final charge toward the Demon Lord’s army, not a single soul besides her and the Hero had survived.

Luke, Xenia… please, let there still be light in this world.

She remembered the Saintess who had tempered the Holy Sword by stabbing it through her own heart.

They hadn’t even had time to recover her body before she and the Hero had moved forward.

Would another tragedy like that unfold again?

“After everything… after all we did to protect this world…”

Zenira buried her face in her hands.

And she stayed like that for a long time.