Chapter 242 - Even in a Life Like This (5)

“What he commissioned was information about himself.”

That was the information they finally obtained after reaching a compromise. The information broker squatted down beside the stake he had been driving firmly into the ground.

“What kind of information, exactly?”

“Exactly what I said. The Demon Knight bought every scrap of information about the person known as the Demon Knight. His activities, speculation about his movements, unanswered questions. Everything.”

“... Why did he buy that?”

“Do you think customers tell me why they buy information?”

Deathbringer frowned at the broker’s glib reply. Was he still holding out after all this? Or did he truly not know? Both possibilities crossed his mind.

“Ah... Now I understand.”

Meister, on the other hand, seemed to know something. Both the broker and Deathbringer turned to him in surprise.

“What are you looking at?” came his prickly response.

“You know?”

“Wait, you actually know?”

“Who knows? Just keep talking. Or is that all?”

“You asked what information the Demon Knight bought, didn’t you? Then yes, that’s all.”

... Frankly, Deathbringer wanted to grab Meister by the collar and shake whatever he was hiding out of him, but now was not the time. Putting that conversation off, he kicked the broker’s knee with the toe of his boot.

“There’s something you haven’t told us.”

“I really don’t know why he bought it!”

“Not that.”

Deathbringer took over driving the broker’s stake into the ground and jerked his chin.

“Information on the Demon Knight is within my clearance. Why did you refuse to tell me?”

He was entitled to know not only the information itself but who had bought what. That was a privilege unique to Deathbringer, granted so that he could select and track down people for execution.

Why, then, had the broker concealed it? Even knowing that discovery would arouse suspicion?

“... Damn it, fine. Fine! Because I never reported the commission to the information guild, all right?”

“... You’d have been in serious trouble if the guild found out.”

Even if the information itself had a low clearance level, selling it behind the guild’s back was against the rules. Only then did Deathbringer understand the man’s choice.

“You can keep it secret from the guild, too?”

“You can. It’s just that you lose your head if you get caught.”

“Hmm. Why take that risk?”

“... It wasn’t my idea. He asked for it first. He paid handsomely for the risk, too. More importantly, look at the commission itself. He wanted to buy his own information, right? This really was a job that wouldn’t come back to bite me.”

When you sold someone’s information to a third party, it was only natural for the subject to bear a grudge against you. All the more so if you had been caught selling it under the table and abandoned by the guild.

“I don’t normally pull this shit, either. I only agreed this time because I thought there really wouldn’t be any trouble.”

“Hmm.”

“I mean it. How many people do you think I’ve seen die taking money on the side on my way to this position?”

He really had seen far too many people die that way. As a result, he tended to be fairly cautious.

In the end, though, he had accepted the Demon Knight’s commission because someone buying information about himself hardly seemed likely to hold a grudge.

“Besides, he’s... the Demon Knight, isn’t he?”

Of course, the enormous gains the Demon Knight’s previous commission had brought the guild had also played a part in that decision. As the broker in charge, he had reaped quite a few benefits himself.

The man might not have acted out of goodwill, but the broker had profited enough to feel inclined to do him a favor.

“As a fellow human being, how could I not help someone on the front lines of hunting demons? That’s why I agreed. He wasn’t buying information on someone else, just himself. I figured I could at least accommodate him that much.”

But he could hardly admit all that outright. The broker shamelessly spun an excuse, and the two men, unaware of the truth, more or less accepted it.

“No information guild member is that much of a sucker.”

One of them kept his eyes narrowed in suspicion to the very end, but still.

“So you really don’t know why he bought it?”

“I don’t.”

“You look like you do.”

“Goddamn it, this is why I hate dealing with coworkers. You fuckers never listen.”

The broker bantered easily, then lowered his voice as though gauging their reactions.

“Anyway... keep your promise. I told you partly because I value my life, but also because I want to honor my promise to my client as much as I can.”

“If your promise was to keep it secret from everyone, haven’t you already broken it?”

“True, but it’s not as though the Temple or the entire guild knows.”

If the Temple or the guild caught him, how many people would learn this information? Ten? Twenty?

“I think telling just you two and burying it is still better than having those two organizations find out. The lesser evil, you know.”

Besides, neither the Temple nor the information guild was friendly toward the Demon Knight. These two were different. The broker judged his choice the best one available.

“... Why are you protecting him?”

“Huh?”

“If you’ve come this far, you must know he has a demon inside him, and that he escaped to avoid execution.”

Yet apparently someone found that very choice strange.

Granted, it was understandable. The guild’s policy was to sell information to anyone, but it also discreetly leaked the intelligence it gathered so that people with something unsavory to hide could end up dead. When it came to a secret like the Demon Knight’s... quite a few branch managers would be inclined to approach the Temple and sell it.

“Well... because he’s my client?”

But his reason for not coming forward was simple. He felt a little sorry for the Demon Knight... for that adventurer who had hunted nothing but demons like a beast, without any memories. That was why he concealed the truth under the pretext of protecting a client.

“Surely you’re not going to give me grief over that, too?”

More to the point, these two were also moving in secret without reporting to other factions such as the Temple or the Magic Tower. They had no right to criticize him for doing the same.

“That’s not what I meant.”

“Then we’re done here, right? Can I go now?”

“You breached the confidentiality clause. You owe a penalty.”

“What?”

“You must have charged extra for the risk. Hand it over. I’ll return it to Boss.”

“Fucking hell...”

Deathbringer held out his hand shamelessly, and the broker finally rummaged inside his clothes with obvious reluctance. Soon, he produced a pouch.

“Maybe it’s just as well. Figuring out what to do with it was giving me a headache.”

TAP.

Something’s claw rolled out of the pouch.

“Holy shit, you actually took this?”

“If you’ve got a problem, take it up with the person who paid me. I was shocked when he said he’d pay with this, too!”

The broker shouted, then ground his teeth.

“I was going to turn it into cash here in Bemurhen, but of course the damn city had to be destroyed...”

He seemed unhappy that the trouble he had taken to come here in person had been for nothing. Though there was no way to be sure whether even that was genuine or an act.

“Anyway, we’re really done now, right? I can go?”

“Of course not.”

“Oh, what now?”

“Sell me the information the Demon Knight bought.”

“Are you a stalker?”

“Shut up. Are you selling or not?”

“Fuuuck...”

Still, holding him here would yield nothing more. Deathbringer made one final request: to buy the material the Demon Knight had purchased.

There was no rule against it—anyone could buy information on the individual known as the Demon Knight, provided they paid—so his conscience was reasonably clear. He might feel just a little... guilty facing the Demon Knight afterward, but still.

“I burned everything I gathered, and now you want me to collect it all again...?”

“It doesn’t matter if the guild finds out this time. All the factions will be buying it anyway, especially the Temple.”

Now that the Demon Knight had fled, several factions would seek information about him, if only to track him down. With that in mind, there was no need to take pains to compile it secretly. Everyone would find out anyway.

“True, but... Ha. It’ll take some time.”

“How long?”

“A month?”

“That’s too long... Can’t you give me a rough account of whatever you remember first?”

“Do I look smart enough to remember all of that?!”

“You can’t be stupid if you’ve made it that far.”

“Goddamn it. Pay me more.”

In the end, the deal was successfully concluded. It cost him a little money, but he would at least receive what the broker remembered promptly, with the complete information package to follow.

“Damn it, let’s never meet again. You know it’ll be a pain for you too if the Temple hears we met, right? Keep that Inquisitor from earlier in line.”

“Same goes for you.”

“Understood. Now get lost.”

There was no reason to keep him any longer. Deathbringer and Meister let him go. Reporting them would only get the broker arrested along with them, so they had no fear of him talking.

All that remained was to silence anyone who might have witnessed their meeting and spread some false information.

“So, do you know? Why Boss bought that information?”

“I do. You don’t?”

“... No. So would you tell me?”

“Hmm, I’d rather not.”

“Are you kidding me?”

“Sorry, but I’m serious. I have no reason to tell you.”

Before they could carry out that task, however, another compromise was needed. Deathbringer was aghast at Meister’s betrayal, if it could be called that.

“But why...?”

“Why? The reason I could piece it together is something I happened to hear from the Demon Knight. And it’s not something I can casually repeat. That’s why I won’t tell you.”

“...”

“You should have become close enough for him to tell you himself.”

The problem was, yes, he had absolutely no rebuttal to Meister’s words.

Unless you traded in information, it was normal not to broadcast someone else’s private affairs. And it was indeed Deathbringer’s own fault that he had never become close enough to be told.

“But I...”

“On a separate note, I’ve been wondering for a while. Why do you follow the Demon Knight?”

Meister had questions of his own.

Judging by what this man said, and by the Demon Knight’s attitude, the knight seemed to place no value on those around him. Why, then, was Deathbringer so devoted to him? What did he like so much about him?

“Is there any reason to care so much about someone who doesn’t care about you?”

Few things could be as pointless and painful as waiting for an answer that would never come.

Even with those words left unspoken, Deathbringer’s expression remained rigid.

“... What about you, then?”

After a long silence, he resorted to the counterquestion people used only when they had nothing left to say.

“Me? I stepped in because I thought the Demon Knight was being treated unfairly.”

But Meister had plenty of answers he could give without hesitation. That was Deathbringer’s miscalculation.

“Of course, now that he’s run away, unfair treatment and all that no longer matter. So I’m not defending him anymore. I’d only get branded a heretic myself.”

“Then why did you come looking for the broker?”

“Curiosity. Isn’t everyone like that, honestly? When something you thought would never change does, everyone gets curious.”

When it came down to it, Meister had come this far with feelings closer to those of a gossip chasing a story. He had sought a reason not for the Demon Knight’s sake, but because he was curious why the man had made that choice.

There would be no next step. He would no longer act on the Demon Knight’s behalf, beyond protecting his private affairs out of basic human decency.

“...”

Realizing that, Deathbringer bit his lip again. [“Have we failed?”] The regret shown for the first time by someone he had thought would never break rose before his eyes again. [“Am I truly unable to help him?”] That incomparably stubborn, headstrong fool, weeping without even a sound. [“If salvation exists for him under the name of death, then I...”] That sight of light falling.

“... Is that... is that not allowed?”

But should he give up?

Should he stop, too, now that even that foolish Softie had crumbled?

“Do you have to have a reason to follow someone?”

Deathbringer thought of the candy that had unexpectedly found its way into his arms. He remembered that candy, so precious that he still carried it with him, unable to finish it all.

Its sweetness had been far more than he deserved back then.

“If you want a clear explanation, I could give you any number of reasons. Because I owe him an apology, because he doesn’t deserve this, because he...”

Because... it had been so very sweet.

He wanted to share that sweetness with the Demon Knight. That was all.

“But is that really what you wanted to hear when you asked? Is it not enough to say things just turned out this way?”

Truly, that was all.

“No.”

At last, Meister lowered his eyelids.

“That can happen. Yes, it can.”

His violet eyes briefly grew distant, as though recalling a moment from his past. His brown lashes fluttered upward again.

“But... what are you going to do now? Follow him? You’re traveling with the Hero.”

“... I don’t know. It wasn’t for the Hero that I joined this journey in the first place.”

“You really have no plan.”

Meister shrugged at Deathbringer’s answer.

“I still can’t tell you.”

That addition drained all the strength from Deathbringer.

“Instead, I’ll give you a hint you ought to understand, unless your head is just a flowerpot for your hair.”

“... What?”

“People buy things because they don’t have them.”

But it was too early to be disappointed. Deathbringer blinked at Meister’s hint.

You bought things because you didn’t have them. And the Demon Knight had bought information about himself. Then the Demon Knight... ?

“Oh, right. Take back the things the Demon Knight gave me, too.”

“... Boss gave you something?”

“I had no choice. I needed something to show the Temple.”

“What are you talking about?”

“I mean... Ha. Do I have to spoon-feed you every last detail?”

Fine, he knew plenty and was clever, but did he have to be so damn smug about it? Pouting, Deathbringer pried a detailed explanation out of him. Fortunately, it wasn’t that the Demon Knight had entrusted Meister with his belongings because he valued him more highly.

Quite literally, he had “had no choice.”

"This is..."

But as Deathbringer looked through the items the Demon Knight had handed over to Meister—as a thread bracelet, surely braided and gifted by some child, rested upon his palm—he could not stop wondering: had he truly "had no choice"?

... Does a thread bracelet still hang from your hand?

“... The Mountain Lord is moving.”

Before Deathbringer could sort out his thoughts, however, Meister spoke at the sight in the distance. With a rumble, the Mountain Lord’s enormous body danced through the downpour.

The long white body began surging through the rain.

Is It a Problem If the Protagonist Is Too Committed to the Role? (Serial)

Author │ Hae Inseol

Publisher │ Kim Juhyeong

Published by │ J Plus Media Co., Ltd.

Marketing │ Han Jaehyeok

Address │ Suite 1101, 11F, Ace Techno Tower 8, 11 Digital-ro 33-gil, Guro-gu, Seoul (Guro-dong)

Email │ [email protected]

Website │ http://blog.naver.com/jayplemedia1

ⓒ Hae Inseol 2022

※ This work is published by J Plus Media Co., Ltd. under contract with the copyright holder. No part of its contents may be used in any form or by any means without the permission of the company and the author.

Violations may result in criminal and civil liability.