(Continued)
Isaac simply looked at them without replying. Sensing something off in his gaze beneath the hood, the merchants quickly shut their mouths.
But they hadn’t approached Isaac out of simple charity.
When new dishes were placed on the table and Isaac resumed eating, the merchants started talking again.
“Actually, some strange people have been gathering at Odryf Port recently. You don’t seem like an ordinary person either. Could you tell us who called you here?”
Isaac hesitated for a moment before speaking nonchalantly.
“Leonora Bessia.”
It wasn’t a lie.
After all, he was here because of her.
The merchants exchanged glances filled with shock and disbelief. There was no way someone summoned by the most likely heir of the merchant guild could be ordinary. Hadn’t they also said that Shalok, the mercenary captain, was a talent discovered by Leonora?
“Could it be that you’re the big shot hired to deal with the Holy Grail Knight...?”
One of the merchants muttered in surprise, but the other merchant next to him quickly jabbed his side with an elbow.
“No, that can’t be! The rumor said it was a tall swordmaster from Elil. This guy is too young and too small, isn’t he?”
Isaac wasn’t particularly tall by the standards of this era. In Rougeberg, he had even been able to pass for a woman.
‘A swordmaster from Elil? Could it be...?’
Isaac was intrigued by the mention of this swordmaster, but the merchant next to him immediately rebutted.
“The Holy Grail Knight is a great warrior chosen by Elil. A single swordmaster couldn’t be enough. Of course, they must have hired people from all over the place. I even heard they hired human hunters from Wallachia!”
Isaac nearly choked on his food and almost spat it out.
The merchants hurriedly handed him a glass of water, which he barely managed to swallow down. But he couldn’t understand why Wallachian human hunters were being mentioned here.
Placing payment for the meal on the table, Isaac asked one of the merchants.
“So, where is this theater of Shalok’s? I’d like to go and get crushed to death.”
***
“Oh, Laante, have you been hiding your true identity from me all this time...?”
“No, put more emotion into it!”
In Shalok’s theater, which had no audience, Shalok was enthusiastically engrossed in his distasteful hobby of creating a terrible play late into the night. With the money he’d received from his latest commission and his previous experience, he had come up with the idea for a new play.
He was already thinking of Leonora’s commission as a near-failure. Hiring the swordmaster from Elil was more for show than anything else. Whether it succeeded or failed didn’t matter. He had time to kill, so he decided to indulge in his hobby and blow through some money.
But the actors, unable to endure the abysmal script, finally snapped.
“How am I supposed to convey emotion with a line like this?”
Other actors were also complaining. They weren’t happy with the play for various reasons.
However, Shalok, determined to keep the newly hired actors in line, remained firm and pressed them even harder.
“Why can’t you? You were paid to do it, weren’t you? The female lead has just spent her first night with the beautiful Nephilim male lead, only to discover he is actually a hybrid—part octopus and part angel! Isn’t that heartbreaking? And as for Laante’s role, you should make your performance more... fluid...”
Whoosh. Just then, a sudden gust of wind blew, extinguishing the lights on the stage. Annoyed by the interruption while already dissatisfied with the actors’ performance, Shalok declared a break.
He sat down and started reading his own script, imagining the scenes in his head.
“Oh, Laante, have you been hiding your true identi—”
“What identity?”
As soon as he entered his office, a blade pressed against Shalok’s throat. A rough, saw-like blade was held under his chin.
Shalok, realizing immediately who the hidden figure in the dark was, whispered without any hint of surprise.
“Sir Holy Grail Knight, I knew you would come!”