I Am the Madman of This Family

Episode 44. You, this guy, only one is right (4)

Pumpkin Leaf Inn.

As a place famous for its tasteless food, there were more employees than customers.

A table in the corner where you don’t even know if it’s hidden by the shadow of a pillar. Keter went and sat there.

The middle-aged man across from him, who was already sitting, rummaged through the cooled soup and said.

“Did you change your mind?”

“It did change. To expose everything.”

“… … .”

The middle-aged man, who had been lowering his head, looked up at Keter.

If Luke had been here, he would have been surprised. The middle-aged man was not a villager, but one of Sephira’s knights.

A 3-star knight belonging to the Galactic Knights. He wasn’t even part of the 4th Squad guarding the archives.

Supporting Leganon was not just one squad of the Galactic Division.

“I’m thinking of telling the family head everything. What is Elder Leganon doing?”

“Do you think the head of household would believe that?”

“They say that Elder Leganon is hiding something in this village. won’t believe it right away. But why don’t you pretend to look for it even if you’re just curious?”

“… … .”

“Ah, if you stare openly like that, it looks like you’re confessing. You should have pretended not to know.”

“As the elder said, you have a rich imagination.”

“100,000 gold.”

“… … ?’”

“I’ve been thinking about it. I don’t want to fight the elder either. But I don’t want to miss this opportunity with just a penny.”

“I wonder if the reason you came to Sephira was for self-interest.”

“Then shall we do filial piety? For the sake of my parents who abandoned me?”

“It’s an idea from a lawless city.”

“I will go home in the evening. In the meantime, tell them to prepare 100,000 gold. If even 1 gold is not enough, the negotiations will break down.”

Keter gets up from her seat after being notified unilaterally. The middle-aged man only glared fiercely at Keter, who left without a word.

Meanwhile, Luke, who was waiting outside, overheard the two of them through a crack in the window.

“Keter. Did Elder Leganon call you yesterday, did he really ask you to leave the family?”

“You understand now? I don’t lie.”

“Why on earth Elder Leganon… Oh no. Come to think of it, you might be.”

Considering Keter’s actions, Luke could understand Leganon’s heart when he told him to leave the family.

But what does that have to do with the search for the Beasts, with Keter’s actions now?

Luke opened his mouth to ask Keter right away, then closed it again. It was because I remembered Keter’s words to think for myself.

“Is Elder Leganon related to the Beasts?”

It was an absurd idea, but that was the only thing that immediately came to mind.

Keter turned to Luke and patted him with an elbow.

“Just do it like now.”

“uh? that’s right?”

“Apart from being right or wrong, if you can’t come up with even a hypothesis, it’s useless.”

“So you’re right or wrong?”

“I don’t know either.”

“uh?”

“Maybe I am too, I can only speculate. Now it’s about checking that out.”

“work? Will Elder Leganon give you 100,000 gold? I don’t think you will have that much money.”

“If you sell even the panties, I’ll get it somehow. But you don’t want to give it to me. Then what do you think?”

“hmm… Negotiation?”

“It’s easiest to just kill and get rid of it.”

“Elder Leganon isn’t the kind of person to do that.”

“How does a fish know the heart of a bird?”

“What if you are wrong? What are you going to do then?”

“If it’s wrong, it’s wrong.”

At Keter’s reply, Luke stood tall. It’s worth stopping together, but Keter didn’t stop.

Luke was saddened, but he didn’t bother to follow. ‘Cause I already know where you’re going

“If it’s wrong, it’s wrong.”

Could it be that easy to think of?

I can’t think of it easily. Luke did.

One day, the pudding he was trying to save disappeared. Luke was suspicious of his dorm roommate. I got along well with my roommate, but under the circumstances, there was no one else.

I immediately went to my roommate and asked. Why did you eat my pudding as you please? Because he pretended not to be a roommate, Luke ended up falling out with him to the point where it couldn’t get any worse.

Eventually, I changed rooms and deliberately avoided running into the roommate.

The next day, a colleague from the next room served pudding. Yesterday, while passing by, I saw pudding through the open door and accidentally ate it. I gave them two instead, so don’t be sad.

The culprit was not a roommate. I couldn’t even apologize to my roommate. Because I haven’t seen you any more.

“What would Keter do?”

Luke smiled and replied to himself.

“Looks like you grabbed your roommate right away.”

So far, it’s not that different from you.

After that, after the real culprit is revealed? How to repair a broken relationship?

will you give me money? Shall I offer a sincere apology?

“You should see more of that now.”

There are still many unknowns about Keter.

And something to learn.

Luke suddenly had an idea. Being partnered with Keter. That does not mean that he teaches Kether.

‘You learn from Keter.’

It seemed that this was the true meaning of the head of household.

* * *

Keter asked the village chief before coming out of the basement. Where is the best place to hide quietly in this town?

The village chief, who was able to live thanks to Keter, rolled his head and replied.

“You must have seen the bean fields on the way here. When you go inside, there is a pretty big barn. The harvest is over and silverfish are installed in the field, so the villagers don’t even go near it.”

What the village chief said was true. The bean fields were deserted and infested with insects. Arriving at the barn, Luke hated bugs and shook himself off.

“No one will ever come to a place like this.”

Kether, who had arrived first, was lying on her back with her arms folded.

“Keter, are you going to sleep?”

“I don’t know when it will come.”

“Who is coming here? No one knows we are here.”

“I already told you. I am here.”

“No way. I heard all the conversations you had at the inn, but I didn’t say anything like that.”

“Lesson One. What did I say?”

“There are no coincidences in this world. I know, I know… … .”

Luke suddenly got goosebumps.

Come to think of it, when Keter said Lesson One, he just didn’t say it. He pointed at the village chief with his finger and said,

At the time, I thought it was just an act, but if it’s not… … .

“The village chief is also in one line… you mean?”

Keter didn’t bother to gesture whether it was a right or wrong answer, so Luke looked back.

At that time, the village chief was listening to everything on the second floor.

Even this alone was inconceivable. In the middle of a seemingly important story, he, a normal person, dares to keep his position.

The knights weren’t particularly blocking the entrance, and the entrance to the hall wasn’t just the front door.

After coming down from the second floor, I could go out through the front or back door at any time, and I could go to a corner on the second floor to avoid hearing as much as possible.

The options were innumerable. However, the village chief dared to listen to the story of Keter and Arvold to the end.

‘oh my god.’

Chicken meat grew on Luke’s skin.

It wasn’t because of the village chief’s actions that he didn’t know about.

It was because Keter, who had been able to see through all of this while having a bloody conversation, suddenly looked like a monster.

“Are you really eighteen years old? Isn’t this face fake?”

Luke trying to pinch Keter’s face. Keter snapped that finger.

“Don’t put your hands on my face. If it was someone else, I would have been cut.”

“Between friends… … .”

Technically, Luke was three years older than me, but that didn’t matter anymore.

Keter laughed at the word friend.

“There are three criteria for being my friend. You are not satisfied with any of them.”

“I think I know what it is. Rich, strong, um, the other one… A beauty or a noble in the Senate?”

“You got it half right.”

Keter got up from her seat and stretched out her hand. Luke thought it was a handshake, so he reached out to shake it.

widely.

said Keter, who slapped Luke’s palm.

“Give me a bow, a bow.”

“ah.”

Luke, who faithfully carried a bow for Keter’s use, finally handed over the bow.

After receiving the bow, Keter also pulled six arrows from Luke’s back.

“Do you know how to shoot a bow?”

It wasn’t a malicious question.

Possession of ranged weapons such as bows and crossbows is prohibited for commoners. Only licensed hunters may carry bows.

Keter was from a lawless city, so it might not have been difficult to get a bow, but he wouldn’t have bothered to use it as a weapon.

In a cramped and complicated space, the bow couldn’t exert even half of its power.

Instead of answering, Kether showed by action.

Tok, tok.

Keter starts shooting arrows lightly, without a protective helmet to protect his fingers.

The arrows he shot stuck all over the barn.

Seeing this, Luke had a new thought. What did I, or Keter, believe in and take the risk up until now?

The archery that Keter showed me didn’t look particularly great. It was proven that he wasn’t a beginner by getting something right, but that’s it.

“It shoots well, but… … .”

If Keter hadn’t had the amaranth, Luke would have run away right now.

Luke sighed as he looked at Keter’s arrows.

“Keter. It’s good to shoot it as a test shot, but it’s difficult to retrieve it if you shoot it from such a high place. How much does each arrow cost?”

Since the bow itself is not a standardized weapon, there is no specialized forge that makes it. If you want to buy arrows outside, you have to pay 1 gold for each bundle of 30 arrows.

On the other hand, the arrows produced by Sephira are by far the highest quality. Even just the cost of making one foot was enough for 1 gold.

Because of this, unless the arrows were severely damaged, it was a daily routine to recycle them over and over again.

“Don’t pull it out, leave it as it is.”

“How sensitive are arrows to moisture? If you leave it like that, it will soon become unusable.”

“It was put on purpose.”

“huh? why?”

“It’s getting ready to receive guests.”

It was the time when Luke was about to ask a question.

The barn door swung open.

Luke, who was near the door, jumped up and landed next to Keter, startled like a cat.

‘I, I didn’t feel the presence at all.’

Even the curse that normally protects oneself in case of danger only starts to stir when the man in front of him appears.

The man who appeared in the barn had a normal appearance. Just by looking at his clothes, he looked like a farmer who had come to inspect the barn.

If he hadn’t acted to look around Keter and Luke with sunken eyes, he could have been dismissed as one of the ubiquitous villagers.

“You have two options.”

The man opened his mouth to Keter without hesitation.

He continued talking without hearing Keter’s reply.

“Either you wear this sack and follow me quietly while being tied up, or you can be dragged stunned.”

Took.

The man threw two cannons at Keter.

Keter glanced at it and frowned.

“It’s not the line I was thinking of. Hey, is this right? Are you sure? Didn’t they say something like ‘I’ll tear you up and feed you as crow’s rice’ or ‘I’ll save you if you leave now’? Think carefully.”

“I haven’t been told to listen to you. He told me not to give him too much time to think.”

“Tsk.”

Kether clicked her tongue and looked at Luke next to her. He was holding the bow with determined eyes, but he was not holding the arrow.

‘This is definitely unexpected. Still trying to capture me alive.’

So far, everything has gone according to Keter’s plan. But now, for the first time, it has gone astray.

‘Well, it could be.’

It was over. Keter’s comments.

It was natural.

Kether is not God. There are many things that go wrong in life. Each time, Keter simply moved on to the next path.

“Hey, what’s your name?”

At Keter’s question, the man pondered for a moment before saying,

“Hans.”

“No human name. your real name.”

“… … .”

The man showed hostility toward Keter, who asked if he knew his identity.

Tuck, Tuck.

The man started walking with a big stride.

“Keter, use the amaranth!”

Unable to fight due to the curse, Luke hurriedly called out to Keter.

But Keter laughed.

“Why do you need a weapon to kill dragons to kill goblins?”

Keter drew three arrows from Luke’s quiver at his waist, and immediately put one on the string.

“Don’t you want to talk? You will want to do it soon.”

Keter let go of the string, and the man’s figure disappeared from sight.