Chapter 42

Chapter 42. The Smell of Money (2)

The surge in Loracus prices could have occurred naturally. After all, the tulip mania wasn't orchestrated by anyone's intention. It's reasonable for scams and losses to emerge from abnormal market trends.

'But all kinds of scams that happen once in decades occurring all at once in modern times?'

This was an abnormal situation.

Someone, with a distinctly malicious intent, was shaking up the market.

And it wasn't something a couple of merchants could cook up by putting their heads together.

'Could there be another person possessed by a spirit like me?'

Isaac entertained the thought but immediately dismissed it. The reason he was possessed by Nameless Chaos was because he was the first to achieve endings with all eight faiths, excluding the Nameless one. It didn't make sense for someone else to come into play now.

'So, divine intervention?'

This seemed the most plausible.

In that case, the most suspicious entity was undoubtedly the Golden Idol.

Having witnessed the Golden Idol Merchant Guild ending, Isaac knew they didn't always earn money in wholesome ways. Fair trade was just one aspect of the Golden Idol.

Caitlin seemed clueless, but the decisions of the order's leadership and the perspective of its lower ranks could differ.

If so, Isaac might have been dragged into a complicated internal conflict.

'I need to consider various possibilities and act accordingly.'

Isaac looked back at the men.

"Where did you buy that Loracus coin?"

"Why do you want to know?"

Of course, this cheeky response wasn't from the men.

***

When Isaac turned towards the source of the voice, he saw a one-eyed woman looking down at him from a second-floor window, and the number of homeless people and beggars around had noticeably increased. Among those rags, Isaac spotted the glint of blades.

Isaac tilted his head slightly and replied.

"Don't you have manners for a guest?"

"If you want to buy coins, buy them from those guys. We don't deal with petty retail customers. Everything goes through distribution channels."

The one-eyed woman laughed slyly.

Suddenly, the exit of the alley was blocked by the belongings and broken carts the homeless people had brought with them.

The men conversing with Isaac realized what was happening and froze. They tried to scatter and escape, but were surrounded by the menacing stares of the homeless, making it clear they weren't here to sell coins directly.

"Did you guys kill the person from the Golden Idol Merchant Guild?"

"Don't know much about that. Why don't you ask them yourself? They'll be in heaven or hell, somewhere."

The moment the one-eyed woman signaled, the homeless charged.

Isaac, hearing her words, realized these were indeed barbarians. Believers don't joke about heaven or hell. Only barbarians, who deny the afterlife, could make such jokes.

As Isaac drew his sword, instead of confronting its blade, the assassins threw their rags at him. These were not ordinary rags but interwoven with wire difficult to cut through with a blade.

Isaac was quickly entangled in rags and wire, and archers hidden on rooftops and between alleyways ruthlessly fired their arrows.

Thud, thud.

The bundle of rags turned into a pincushion in moments. As arrows pierced it without resistance, one of the homeless glanced at the one-eyed woman.

'Should we continue?'

The woman, without letting her guard down, nodded. Then, the homeless pulled spears from a pile of trash and skewered the bundle of rags. The one-eyed woman frowned as she observed the chaotic scene.

'This was too easy.'

It wasn't her first time dealing with a Golden Idol Merchant Guild informant. The level of the informants had been increasing, and even a slight oversight could lead to their downfall.

But this time, hearing they had hired a Grail Knight, she had been on high alert. She gathered as many people as possible and set a thorough trap. She hadn't expected to lose, but neither did she anticipate winning so lacklusterly.

'For all the fuss he made, he doesn't seem that special...'

"Who is it?"

At that moment, the voice that rang out made the one-eyed woman gasp. She tried to turn her head, but the sticky air and the decaying scent of blood rendered her immobile.

"I knew you'd come this way."

The one-eyed woman could tell just from the creepy warmth behind her and the voice alone that 'something' almost 2 to 3 meters tall was looming over her. This entity, awkwardly mimicking a human voice, pressed something—whether bone or blade—under her chin.

"Stop."

The one-eyed woman raised her hands. The homeless stopped their attack and withdrew their spears. Seeing the rags soaked with blood surrounding Isaac, they were convinced of his death. But as they reached out to remove the net and extract the body, the blood-soaked rags reverted to their original color.

Before the homeless could express their shock, Isaac's sword pierced through the rags, striking the neck of a nearby vagrant. Isaac emerged unscathed, not a single wound on him.

'Red Prayer comes in handy at times like this...'

[Red Prayer (S)]

[The user's body temporarily turns into a form of red mist, allowing movement unimpeded by physical barriers. In this state, all physical attacks are nullified.]

This was an ability he gained after devouring Heinkel Gullmar.

Being able to nullify physical attacks was useful for evading surprise attacks like this. He could have used Red Petition to escape and counterattack when he was wrapped in the rags, but then he would have exposed his ability to turn into red mist. That would mean he would have to kill everyone present.

'That's not an option.'

He was supposed to embark on a noble quest as a Grail Knight. He couldn't allow rumors of bloodshed to follow him.

Instead, Isaac decided to set a few clear examples.

He pushed the first vagrant he struck hard into another, causing them to tumble. The archers hurriedly raised their bows again, but Isaac didn't give them a chance to react, moving swiftly to strike another homeless with his sword.

Isaac only paused when his sword found its mark in another body. With each swing, a limb or a head flew off. The screams of the vagrants followed one after another, without a chance for them to catch their breath or exchange glances.

Even the barbarian robbers, accustomed to rough battles, couldn't respond calmly to Isaac's methodical culling of lives.

"Boss, boss!"

Finally, cries for help erupted. Isaac glanced up at the second-floor window. The one-eyed woman, pale and immobile in the dark room, caught his gaze.

As their eyes met, she barely managed to open her mouth to declare surrender.

"Don't speak while looking at him."

A chilling voice whispered from behind just as something blunt and damp flung her down to the first floor. The one-eyed woman crashed into a heap of garbage in the alley with a loud noise.

Spitting out the dirty water that filled her mouth, she barely lifted her head only to meet Isaac's gaze bearing down on her chillingly.

Isaac, sending a thankful thought to Zihilrat's glowing red eyes on the second floor before letting him disappear back into the shadows, turned his attention back to the woman. Zihilrat, true to his nature as a creature that thrived in damp underground conditions, had adeptly hidden his massive form.

"I surrender, I surrender. Please..."

The one-eyed woman hastily declared her surrender to Isaac. In response, Isaac's sword severed her right hand, eliciting another scream.

"Surrendering was smart... But you didn't think you'd get off without any pain while your subordinates died, did you?"

Despite her agony, the one-eyed woman nodded frantically, the smell of burning flesh wafting through the air. The effect of the Judgement Sword caused her barbarian flesh and blood to incinerate. Her hand, now charred black around the wrist, would have to be amputated.

"I didn't cut your tongue because I have many questions. That means every time you hide something from me, I'll cut off a useless part of you, leaving your tongue for last."

***

The one-eyed woman's name was Jacquette. Surprisingly, she was quite forthcoming with her story.

She had come from across the northern seas, abandoning her faith due to a long and complex story, and had brought her subordinates with her due to recent hardships in making ends meet. Isaac learned even more irrelevant details than he cared to know.

Isaac judged these unnecessary stories as attempts to divert from the main topic and stabbed her left hand too. Only then could he steer the conversation towards the crux of the matter.

"Who's selling them?"

"Yukhar Leven is a nobleman!"

As the sword of judgment hovered in front of the remaining eye of Jacquette, she screamed his name in desperation.

It was neither surprising nor strange that Jacquette and these Barbary bandits were employed by a person named Yukhar. After all, mercenaries are mercenaries when paid, and bandits when not.

That is why properly professional mercenaries are respected.

"Tell me about Yukhar Leven."

Yukhar Leven, a nobleman, was a big name in the black market operating in Seor.

He was making money through all sorts of unsavory means, from usury to smuggling, black market deals, and handling stolen goods, using his noble title. It was said that there was nothing in the Seor black market that didn't go through his hands.

The problem was that after the Loracus incident, this Yukhar guy expanded his business into multi-level marketing and Ponzi schemes, even involving coin schemes, pulling all the money from the bottom of Seor.

Even according to Jacquette's story, even the beggars in the slums had one or two Loracus coins, expecting their value to skyrocket along with the price of Loracus.

In the end, Yukhar was selling non-existent Loracus.

'If he's operating on that scale, the Golden Idol Merchant Guild must know.'

Isaac paused to think then asked.

"Why is Yukhar buying up all the Loracus coming into Seor?"

"What?"

Isaac pressed the sword of judgment to Jacquette's left hand, causing her to thrash in fear.

"No, no! I didn't understand the question! Yukhar is, I mean! He is buying a lot of Loracus, but from what I know, it's not a significantly huge amount!"

"Not a lot?"

The amount Isaac heard from Jacquette was indeed 'insignificant.' While it might seem a lot to ordinary people, it was small for a syndicate, and minuscule compared to the amount of Loracus handled by the Golden Idol.

'So who is buying the Loracus?'

The conclusion was absurd but clear.

Real flower enthusiasts were buying them.

And so were many fools hoping for the price of Loracus to continue rising.

Most likely, the vast majority of Loracus were held by these so-called investors, who found it hard to sell as the price of Loracus increased every day. Meanwhile, Yukhar was collecting money through all kinds of scams amid the price distortion.

Ultimately, Yukhar's goal was not the Loracus itself but the price distortion caused by Loracus. They didn't care what it was, as long as they could cause price distortion and a craze.

'Caitlin would find this absurd if she knew.'

Of course, there were other considerations. Whether the Golden Idol Merchant Guild was really uninvolved in this matter.

While Yukhar was making money through all sorts of scams, the biggest beneficiary was the Golden Idol Merchant Guild, which had gathered the most Loracus.

'Something's off...'

Isaac felt something was amiss. He was looking for who was buying the Loracus. It was clear that Yukhar was making money from the Loracus incident, but that was a way of making money, not about buying the actual Loracus.

However, it was certain that an informant of the Golden Idol Merchant Guild had tried to investigate Yukhar and ended up dead, and Yukhar was definitely involved in the distribution of Loracus.

The details could be asked in person. There wouldn't be a friendly chat, though.

Isaac looked down at Jacquette and said,

"I need to meet that guy."