Ch.165Report on the Downfall of Charity (7)

“Well, I’m still in bad shape.” Kain pointed to his shabby clothes.

“Above all, I’m too exhausted to work. But I could do a job that would cover the cost of breakfast and lunch.”

“That changes the calculation.” The gray-haired man’s eyes glinted.

“Even if I pay for your meals, I should be compensated for you slicing the ankles of four of my men.”

“Your side started the trouble first.”

“No.” Antonello leaned back. “We were simply following our employer’s orders to drive away a ‘thief.’ And our employer hasn’t rescinded that order yet.”

When he raised his hand, the men and women seated around the table stood up. They were young—almost childlike—yet shrewd, like hunting dogs who knew to wait patiently at their master’s gesture.

But Antonello hadn’t lowered his hand yet.

“So, are you asking me to pay for their medical expenses?”

“No. I’m asking you to do the job they were supposed to do. You’re clearly better than all four of them combined. Consider it a contract succession, if you will.”

“I have nowhere to sleep and nothing to eat.”

“I can provide those easily enough.” Antonello grinned. “If anything, I should be thanking you. You’ve reduced the cost of four men down to one. What do you say?”

Kain let out a hollow laugh.

In the end, what this man wanted was for Kain to take over the contract with the “Stone Mason Guild Master” since he had shattered the ankles of four subordinates, making it difficult to fulfill the original agreement.

“I’m curious about something. What makes you think you can trust me enough to hire me?”

“I think you’re misunderstanding something.” Antonello waved his finger dismissively. His subordinates sat back down.

“I don’t particularly trust you. What do I know about you? Even the name Iago doesn’t seem to be your real one. I trust my judgment and experience. I don’t care about anything else.”

“For how long?”

“The mandatory period is three days. Beyond that, I’ll pay you by the hour. Working hours are from when the workshop opens until it closes. Your daughter will be taken care of by the guild, so you don’t need to worry about that.”

“I’ll do the three days. But you’d better find replacement personnel quickly.”

* * * * *

Noon. Under the sun at its zenith, the salty smell from the heated sea was boiling. Even the toughest workers put down their tools and went for lunch to escape the stench that assaulted their nostrils.

Leaving the restaurant, Kain headed toward the street, against the flow of people. Following the address Antonello had given him, he found a decent inn. A room with just one chair, one wardrobe, and one bed—the kind of place where an outsider looking for work might stay temporarily.

As he lay down on the bed, he felt both drowsiness and pain simultaneously. Until that moment, Kain had been clutching the mussel shell as if it were a treasure. He tossed it out the window. Fortunately, it didn’t seem to hit anyone.

A rare luxury. Though he desperately wanted to rest for a while and his eyes were slowly closing, Kain couldn’t fall asleep.

Finally, he gave up on sleeping. Lying flat on his back, staring at the ceiling, he recalled the stories he had heard.

‘Leonardo the Charity. The pirate who became a saint.’

Just like Hans the Diligence, Leonardo the Charity was also devoted to good deeds. The difference was that instead of creating facilities himself, Leonardo donated massive amounts of money to existing institutions.

In truth, he probably didn’t have the leisure for more. He was already busy with his own business—providing security for nobles and wealthy merchants, escorting merchant ships, and occasionally eliminating pirates.

As word spread about Leonardo’s mercenary group’s effectiveness, more work came their way. With more tasks to handle, they recruited more people, to the point where other mercenary groups joked they might starve to death.

The mercenary wages had risen so much that even junior officials from Venelucia were quitting the military to join.

But now Leonardo was quitting. Apparently, he had been going around saying he would “spend his days fishing on a scenic island.”

Coincidentally, this announcement came after news of Hans the Diligence’s downfall had reached the city.

‘He must be planning to escape.’

With so many eyes on him and so many affairs to settle, he would have countless matters to resolve. He would probably gather the most valuable and portable jewels, head to a remote island, and then disappear without anyone knowing.

But there was still time.

He had been making a commotion about handing over responsibilities and dividing his business. Even now, as everything was coming to an end, he showed no signs of backing down. He was busy selling his businesses, clients, and operations to former competitors at the highest possible prices.

The problem was that Leonardo was always surrounded by people and engaged in “public” activities, making it difficult for Kain to approach him. Antonello wouldn’t be the only one suspicious of Kain’s identity.

‘What am I worried about? That someone might recognize me? That even if they do, they’ll make a fuss about turning in a Rose Party member who fled here?’

Kain scoffed at himself.

“Persecution? That’s all in the past. There was a storm of it when Niccolo Dandolo was alive. Not anymore.

Some nobles rounded people up to show loyalty to Dandolo, but there were also those who, terrified after seeing the ringleaders burned at the stake, started denouncing each other.

So many denunciation letters piled up that they reportedly filled the courtyard of the guard station. But after Niccolo met his fate, even that died down.

People became somewhat calmer then. Power, freedom, and duty should all be distributed equally among Venelucia’s citizens? What nonsense.”

It seemed that to the people here, Rose Party members had become like a past hit song. Rather, the term was now used as a contemptuous insult for someone who engaged in anachronistic and immature behavior.

As if everyone had agreed to bury it with the excuse: We were all young then. It’s all in the past now.

While Antonello had taken notice of Kain, it wasn’t to determine whether he was a Rose Party member or not. More accurately, he wanted to know if Kain was “that infamous hunting dog.”

“If that man appears again, quite interesting things would happen. Some would try to capture and kill him. After all, he definitely broke the double contract rule.

But others would try to recruit him by any means. At this point, there’s a high chance they’d employ him.”

“They’d employ him even though he broke the mercenaries’ implicit rule?”

“These are times of realignment. The guilds are at odds with each other, and the nobles are watching each other closely. They’re wondering if having that person in that position is beneficial to them or not.

In such a situation, wouldn’t it be reassuring to have a renowned man who infiltrated enemy lines, gained trust, and successfully carried out an assassination?”

With nobles and guilds entangled in the conflict, it was a complex web where it was impossible to tell who was on whose side and who was the enemy.

Leonardo’s mercenary group had been maintaining some balance, but with Leonardo himself announcing retirement, the group would likely fragment.

“Venelucia will become like a plate thrown from the table. It’s a given that it will break. The question is how many pieces it will shatter into. In other words, every mercenary can grab one of those pieces. The winds of opportunity are returning to everyone.”

The chaos that had come to the Empire was now arriving in Venelucia as well.

“Of course, it’s not a good thing. There are even ominous rumors circulating. Sailors have always been superstitious.”

“What kind of rumors?”

“About four or five months ago, a strange rumor spread at Pearl Dock. They said a demon descended from the sky and attacked a pleasure boat, and as luck would have it, ‘Arius the Temperance’ was on board. You know him, right? The one who defeated the Demon King alongside Leonardo the Charity.”

“A demon?” Kain let out a hollow laugh.

“Creepy, isn’t it? Well, after that, there were stories about seeing a rider on a ghost horse on some rooftop or another.

What’s important isn’t whether it’s true or not, but that such rumors weren’t dismissed as ‘crazy talk’ but spread secretly. If Venelucia were healthy, such nonsense would have disappeared. But in troubled times, such tales spread more easily.”

Indeed. Pearl Dock in Venelucia was where Arius the Temperance had been attacked, where all of this had begun.

Pearl Dock was on the opposite side of where Kain was currently staying. It was different from other docks; cargo ships and fishing boats were prohibited from even entering.

At this point, going there would likely yield no meaningful information. If even the Imperial Royal Guard Bureau couldn’t obtain information, Kain would certainly come up empty-handed. Especially if the Order had thoroughly concealed everything.

‘Wait. Come to think of it, why did Laios attack only Arius and leave Leonardo alone?’

Kain knew that Laios couldn’t see and was instead guided by the “Black Phoenix.” He would invariably appear wherever hatred and resentment were concentrated as consciousness.

And that wasn’t what Hans and Roberta had wanted. They had deliberately cultivated Black Phoenix priests and sent them around the world to incite hatred and resentment. They perpetrated violence that created conflict, hatred, and division among people.

But it was Laios who appeared before them, transformed them into the “monsters” they desired, and took them away. And Laios didn’t seem to share the same intentions as Hans and Roberta.

‘It doesn’t add up.’

Roberta, Hans, and Leonardo had worked together for a long time. This meant Leonardo likely had a stake in the spread of the Black Phoenix Faith.

If Hans selected the personnel, Roberta educated them, and Leonardo funded them, everything would make sense.

But in that case, Laios should have dealt with Leonardo. Yet Leonardo hadn’t been harmed at all. On the contrary, he had continued to brazenly work as a mercenary leader in Venelucia.

Perhaps Leonardo wasn’t here at that time. He might have taken a ship to visit Hans in the City of Lombardt.

‘It would be good if I could see the entry and exit records.’

While sorting through these thoughts and making decisions, Kain fell asleep without realizing it. It was an extremely uncomfortable dream.

* * * * *

The sky was blue and the sea was white. A sea covered in white foam. Instead of reefs, clouds emerged, and birds leaped from the water into the sky.

An absurd landscape where the sky and sea were inverted.

The sun was setting. The foam rose all at once. Looking closely, they held spears in their hands. When the foam shot their short spears toward the sun, it sank, spewing blood.

The crimson blood stained the white foam of the sea. Now it had become bloody foam. From the depths of the sea, a ship without sails or oars floated up. The ship’s side was burning, and people tied up on it were screaming.

With a thud, thud sound, ships rose onto land. Following the ships, waves of red foam swept away the alleys and streets of Venelucia.

Standing on the sea, Kain watched the ships passing by. He ran and ran after the ships toward land, but he was running in place.

Ahead, he saw Beatrice dressed in white. Countless foam rose and seized her. Kain ran desperately but couldn’t get even a step closer.

Beatrice, who had sunk, rose again. She was waving her hands in all directions, crying for help. Only then did Kain look down at himself. Hands and arms extending from the sea were holding him firmly.

As the ships crawled further onto land, the blood-soaked sea was also dragged ashore. This caused the water level to drop slightly. Hands and arms, shoulders and neck. Then faces emerged.

They were Kain’s own face. Countless Kains, with expressionless faces, standing upright in the sea, were holding Kain himself.

Opening and closing their mouths, they were saying something.

* * * * *

Kain woke up from his sleep with a scream. He threw off the sweat-soaked blanket. Since they had been gripping his body tightly, he jerked away in shock.

“Ha…”

Kain sat on the edge of the bed. Since setting foot in Venelucia, he had hardly been able to sleep. Before, he thought it was because the bed was uncomfortable, but that wasn’t it.

He couldn’t sleep.

‘So those street thugs were Leonardo’s mercenary members.’

He had consciously tried to ignore that fact.

He hadn’t come here to find out why Beatrice had been driven to that state. His mission was to understand exactly what the Seven Heroes had done.

So what he needed to ask Leonardo was about what happened in the Northeastern Wasteland and specifically what he did with Hans the Diligence.

Not who instigated her expulsion, or why they had disposed of the mercenary members who fell to Kain and her attack that night.

‘Focus.’

Kain opened the window. He gripped the windowsill until it hurt.

‘Concentrate. Let’s do just one thing. This isn’t the time to be distracted.’

– Do you really think so?

Kain looked into the darkness beyond the window. The voice came from there. The secluded darkness between buildings. A dead-end alley where even moonlight didn’t reach.

– In the end, couldn’t you learn everything by capturing and interrogating Leonardo? What are you waiting for? With your skills, you could enter his residence right now.

– Haven’t you already noticed how incompetent the mercenaries here are? Do you think a junior officer could block your way?

Kain stared at the shadow for a while. He closed the window with a thud and lay back down on the bed. Then he pulled the blanket back up and fell asleep.

The second sleep was relatively peaceful.