Blood poured out of Drew’s neck and soaked 

the ground, 

as if his greed was dripping out of his heart. The robed man wiped the blood away from his sword and placed it back into its sheath again.

‘The plan is ruined.’

He glanced at Drew’s corpse. A look of annoyance 

flashed across

 his eyes, but the man

’s personal

 mission superseded his emotions.

‘Do I have to move onto the next plan? No, this situation means that all possible routes have changed. Even if I don’t use Drew, there’s a high chance that the plan will fail.’

In a way, he already knew the answer.

‘It can’t be helped. I have to force out the result.’

It wasn’t what his master wanted, but it was the only way to 

obtain

 a similar result.

‘I need to supplement 

some more

 personnel. I thought it would be fine 

by

 myself, but it seems like I

’ll

 have to resort to the last measure.’

This

 hurt the man’s pride. The importance and level of difficulty of this place and 

mission

 were on the low side. That was why he was the only one who had been placed in charge of the 

mission

; and from the first place, the man’s skills and status were not suitable for a place like this. He had simply taken the job in his free time, thinking of it as a sort of a 

mini-vacation

. However, his plans 

were

 ruined now.

‘I have to show some 

achievements

to

 protect my pride. And…’

There was an even more important matter.

‘I have to find out the unknown variable.’

Everything had been runni

ng

 smoothly until now

; he

 had to 

find

 out the cause of the change. It was probably the unknown variable.

‘I have to investigate who that guy is

 a

nd then kill him!’

A chilly pair of eyes glittered inside the robe.

*     *     *

As if Snoc’s house was mimicking its owner’s feelings, it exuded a gloomy atmosphere. The wooden entrance 

hadn’t

 opened since Drew abandoned Snoc. It was the same 

whether

 his accomplices visited him or not.

Although it was late, a single candle wasn’t lit up, and the 

inside of the house

 w

as

 dark. Snoc 

lied 

on his bed and stared at the 

ceiling absentmindedly

. Clothes were on the floor in a mess, and untidy dishes 

littered

 the table. Snoc didn’t move at all, enough to make one wonder if he was actually dead. Only his blinking eyes and heaving chest hinted that he was still alive.

Growl!

Even 

though 

he barely moved and used the bare minimum energy, his digestive system 

continued to work

. Without considering its owner’s feelings, Snoc’s stomach cried out to Snoc to throw some food inside it.

“…Should I eat something?”

Even though he cut off all outside contact and shut himself in his house, Snoc didn’t intend to die. He grasped his stomach and got up. As if he 

was

 go

ing

 through a lot of inner distress, his eyes were sunken. He got off his bed and 

put on

 his shoes.

Koo

! 

Koo

!

A small being approached Snoc’s legs and cried while tapping his feet.

“Are you hungry too?”

It was the mole who he met at the mine some days ago. He met the animal only recently, but 

the mole

 was basically a family memb

er 

for him. Snoc liked the mole upon meeting 

him

. As if they were connected by a thread of destiny, he felt a sense of affinity towards the mole by instinct. In addition, after Drew betrayed him, the mole was the only 

one he could share feelings with

. It was 

very strange

, but Snoc felt like he could give up his life for th

is

 mole he met just a couple of days ag

o

.

“Yeah. Let’s eat. We will only be able to live if we eat.”

He picked up the mole and hugged it. As if 

he

 was used to this, the mole burrowed into Snoc’s chest.

“Let’s go, Nowem.”

While calling the name he gave the mole, Snoc went to where the cupboard was. He lit up a candle and scavenged the area for food.

“…There’s nothing to eat.”

The only thing left was a dr

y

 piece of bread.

‘I should go out to buy food when the day gets brighter.’

Although 

Drew stole most of his money

, he still had enough money to eat for the day; but whenever he thought of this, he felt gloomy. Snoc took out

 a slice of bread

 and ripped it apart. Then, he placed 

a bread 

piece in front of Nowem’s nose.

Snort! Snort!

Nowem s

niffed

 the bread piece.

Grab!

Nowem opened his small mouth as wide as he could and bit the piece of bread into small

er

 pieces. He looked adorable, chewing with his mouth full of bread. Snoc placed the rest of the bread into his mouth. The dry bread sucked all the moisture out of his mouth, and he forcefully chewed the crumbly, untasty bread. After he gulped down the rough bread, he felt like his empty stomach became a bit fuller.

The air felt stuffy and humid, so Snoc opened the window. A faint moonlight 

seeped

 into the room. The full moon 

hung

 in the sky today

 and spread its peculiar, 

dream-like

 atmosphere. 

It felt like the moon was

 comforting his disturbed mind. Snoc placed his elbow on the windowsill and stared at the moon.

‘

Huh?’

A dark shadow cast under the moonlight.

‘What?’

Was he imagining it? Snoc rubbed his eyes and stood 

closer

 to the window. 

Someone

 was there. Under the moonlight, a man who exuded the same mood as a grim reaper 

stood

 a short distance away from Snoc’s house and 

stared

 at him through the window. And he wasn’t the only one

—

Snoc could see four figures.

They all wore dark robes

, so

 it was difficult to separate them from the darkness. It was impossible to decipher their age or gender

 and made them

 a

 terrifying sight to behold. Snoc quickly closed the window and locked it.

‘What was that?’

L

ate in the night, mysterious figures were ominously staring 

into

 his house. Snoc immediately locked all the windows in his house and checked the lock on his door. Then he took a seat next to the bed while hugging Nowe

m

. As soon as he heard someone barge into his place, Snoc planned to hide under his bed. He held his breath and perked his ears in case somebody forced the door open.

‘Did I imagine it?’

He didn’t hear the door open or any

 other sound

. Maybe he imagined the scene in his tired state. Or maybe he misunderstood a group of people who had no interest in him but were moving for some other reason. Snoc began to scorn himself for being such a coward. Then, he lifted his head and saw a dark shadow in front of him.

*    *    *

Even though it was late, a large fire crackled in Zich and Hans’ room. Zich sat in front of the only table in the room

,

 counting coins from the mountain of gold coins in front of him. At a glance, he looked like a greedy merchant who had earned a lot of money and was now internally crying out in happiness. But for that to be the case, his expression looked too indifferent.

Clink!

The last pillar of ten coins stood on the table.

‘That bastard sure earned a lot.'

Zich’s fingers thumped the neat layers of gold pillars. At his touch, the pillars slanted and collapsed. Their clinking sounds were enough to 

satisfy a hungry soul.

Hans watched the scene from his bed. Zich told him that he could sleep earlier, but Hans couldn’t sleep from the clinking noises. It was also his first time 

seeing s

o many gold coins glittering before him. He couldn’t take his eyes off of them.

Then, Zich prepared a bag and 

poured a

 set amount of gold coins into it.

“Th

is is the

 amount that Drew stole from Snoc. If I 

include

 his compensation for mental damage, this will probably be enough. I also separated the amount Sam might ask me for compensation.”

After taking some coins out, Zich stared at the rest of the gold coins.

“This is mine.”

The remaining amount of coins 

was

 a substantial amount.

“Hey.”

“Yes, sir!”

It 

was a conditioned

 reflex now. When Zich called him, Hans answered without a moment of hesitation.

“Take this.”

Zich carelessly threw a handful of coins at him, and gold coins rained over the bed Hans was sitting on.

“…What is this?”

“Use it however you like. You can buy something to eat, buy some equipment, or even save it for the future.”

Hans stared at the pile of gold coins. He didn’t expect to get a share at all, and this wasn’t even a small amount. It was an amount he had never 

possessed

 before.

“C-Can I really take it?”

“What? Do you not need it?”

“N-No. That’s not it…”

“Then, take it.”

Hans stared down at the pile of gold coins. On top of the gold coins, 

there was a

 pouch. It was what Zich threw so that Hans could put his gold coins inside.

“Wouldn’t it be better to save… what if we don’t have enough traveling expenses, sir?”

Hans tried to put on some 

airs

 since it was such a large amount.

“If I combine the amount I packed before traveling, the reward I received from Karuwiman, and the money I got from beating up this guy who didn’t know his place, we won’t have to worry about money for a while. And even if that money drops low, there are a lot of places 

where

 we c

an

 get money from.”

Now that Hans thought of it, Zich never seemed to save money. Although 

Zich

 said he was saving the expensive potions, he also used 

them

 unsparingly 

when he needed them

. If Hans 

thought back on 

how 

Zich

 used up all his three potions just because his friend was beaten up badly, Zich almost seemed wasteful.

‘Does he have something to back him up?’

Hans thought this but quickly erased it

 from

 his mind.

‘It’s useless to think about it.’

By now, he knew that common logic didn’t work on Zich. Hans placed the gold coins into the pouch and sealed its opening tightly. Then, he pushed it into 

a

 deep corner of his luggage.

“Then, should I get going?”

Zich got up from his chair and stretched

. T

hen, he moved to 

blow out

 the candles.

“…What is it?”

Zich turned his head and opened the window.

“Why do you say that?”

“It’s noisy outside.”

He saw a crowd of figures

 running on top of rooftops

 under the yellow moon

. T

hey looked clearly suspicious and looked like bad guys.

‘Should I intervene?’

It could be a chance for Zich to do a

 kind act

. He was pondering for a moment when he saw that one of the group members was carrying a person.

‘Isn’t that Snoc? Why is he there?’

Zich could tell that they were not close friends of Snoc right away

. It was

 apparent that Snoc was mixed up in some new trouble.

‘He is such an unlucky guy. It hasn’t even been long since his incident with Drew.’

“I am going out for a while.”

“Sorry?”

Zich left with those words and jumped 

right out the

 window

.