Mastery Is Earned

After leaving the shop, Raymond and Henk retraced their steps.

“That woman...” Henk began along the way, but Raymond cut him off. “We’ll talk when we get back.”

Although the black market contained many rare goods, Raymond had no particular need to buy anything. Only when they passed the slave dealer’s shop did he and Henk stop some distance away and watch it for a long while in silent agreement.

Raymond considered the kobold extremely important, but he also knew this was not the right time to buy it. It was a living creature, and there was no way he could openly bring it back to their inn in Brightwater. The best course might be to buy it shortly before leaving the city, arrange a separate meeting place, and collect it there.

After passing through the same narrow passage as before, the two soon left the black market.

It was still only afternoon, with some time left before nightfall, yet the streets remained crowded. Raymond noticed a ring of people gathered in an open square beside the road, where a Brightwater guard was addressing the crowd.

Raymond glanced at Henk. “Shall we take a look?” Henk nodded, and the two walked toward the gathering.

Raymond was not as tall as Henk, but at six feet one inch, he still stood above most people. He could easily see what lay at the center of the crowd.

There was a notice board with several freshly posted notices bearing an official-looking seal. Raymond was too far away to make out the seal itself, but with a Brightwater guard standing beside it, he could guess that the notices were official.

Most common people could not read. After posting the notices, the guard read their contents aloud to the crowd.

Raymond listened for a while and soon understood what they said.

They announced an open bounty on the fishfolk outside the city. Anyone who killed one could claim a reward by presenting its right hand. Each hand was worth twenty copper coins, with no limit on the number submitted, and the offer would remain in force indefinitely.

It sounded much like the commissions Blackstone issued for goblins, except that Brightwater’s bounty was clearly more generous. Raymond simply did not know how strong these fishfolk were.

After spending several days in Brightwater, he had gained a general understanding of the surrounding area. To the northwest of the city lay a coastal lagoon called Deepwater Lake. It extended roughly twelve miles inland from the coast and measured about six miles across at its widest point. Its southeastern end lay near the city and connected to the harbor through a tidal channel.

Shallows, marshes, mudflats, and reed-covered islands lined the shores of Deepwater Lake, especially along its southern edge. Toward the center, however, the water rapidly grew deeper. According to local stories, people had once lowered ropes hundreds of feet long without touching the bottom. That was how Deepwater Lake got its name.

More than a dozen fishing villages stood along the shore. The villagers grew grain beside the lake and harvested its waters, while small and medium-sized fishing boats traveled to and from Brightwater every day.

The lake teemed with aquatic life. It was said that the lakebed connected to the open sea, and fish, shrimp, and crabs from offshore waters often entered with the tide.

In the past, a few fishfolk had appeared only among the southern reed beds. They were few in number, usually fled at the sight of humans, and were remarkably timid. Their bodies were slender and frail, so the local residents had never considered them a threat.

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Over the past few months, however, the fishfolk had grown increasingly numerous and were being seen more and more often.

At first, they occupied only the reed beds, but later they spread across the entire southern shore. Although they did not dare attack human villages directly, they assaulted people traveling alone beside the lake and cut the mooring lines of anchored boats. Many small fishing vessels had also been attacked—some capsized, while others sank after holes were bored through their hulls.

As a result, many villagers living beside the lake no longer dared remain in their homes and fled to Brightwater. Many fishers no longer dared take their boats out alone either. The supply of seafood in the city’s markets had fallen sharply, and the related trade had declined with it.

That was probably the main reason Brightwater had issued the bounty on fishfolk.

Henk kept staring at the reward listed on the notice.

“Interested?” Raymond asked.

“Mm.” Henk nodded firmly.

“I don’t think you should spend your time and energy on this.” Raymond tilted his head, indicating the other people around them.

“These people don’t even know where their next meal will come from. They’ll risk everything for those rewards. To you, the bounty would only be extra income. To them, it’s money they need to stay alive. We’re outsiders. If we take too large a share of the bounty, we’ll easily draw everyone’s resentment, and there’s no reason for us to take that risk. Do you understand what I mean?”

Henk did not argue. He merely lowered his head and remained silent for a while before finally sighing.

Raymond rose onto his toes to pat Henk on the shoulder, and the two left the crowd together. As they walked, he said, “We’ve already made a great deal of money selling the spoils. Once we sell the remaining goods tomorrow, we should receive another large sum. That ought to last you a long time, shouldn’t it?”

Henk shook his head. “I need money. A lot of it. I have to send it home.”

“Send it home?” Raymond asked.

Henk did not answer.

Seeing that he did not wish to elaborate, Raymond asked no further questions.

The two continued toward the inn in silence. Halfway there, Raymond could not shake the feeling that something was wrong and was about to look back when Henk raised a hand to stop him. His eyes remained fixed ahead, and only his lips moved. “Don’t turn around. Someone is following us.”

Someone was following them?

Raymond’s body immediately tensed. So the unease he had felt along the way was not because of Tessa after all. Someone was behind them. His hand moved toward his weapon, stopped halfway, then dropped back to his side.

Raymond lowered his head and continued walking.

The follower had probably picked them up after they left the black market, but Raymond could not yet tell who was behind it. He had revealed only two truly unusual objects inside: the black scale of unknown origin and the piece of pitch-black ore.

The scale did not appear valuable, yet the kobold had recognized it at a glance. Tessa’s smile, meanwhile, had briefly vanished when she saw the ore. Either object might have drawn someone’s attention. Judging by the timing, however, Tessa was the most likely person to have sent someone to investigate them.

If the follower truly worked for Tessa, then Raymond’s earlier act—playing the fool and pretending to be a boastful mercenary—had not completely dispelled her suspicions, or those of the power behind her.

Since the follower had not made a move, whoever was behind them probably wanted only to learn Raymond and Henk’s identities and where they were staying. Even so, caution was essential. This was Brightwater, not the familiar town of Blackstone, and there was no telling what the follower might do next.

The clumsy surveillance suggested that the follower was only a minor underling tasked with gathering information. Even Raymond had vaguely sensed something amiss.

Alongside his wariness, another thought occurred to Raymond. During his recent practice bouts with Henk, he had spent almost the entire time on the defensive. He had yet to truly test himself against anyone else.

After Basic Swordsmanship reached Lv. 2, Raymond experienced no change in his strength or physique. His fundamentals, however, had become far more solid. Basic movements that had once remained separate began to flow together, with no obvious pauses between footwork, parries, and counterattacks.

In his subsequent sparring sessions with Henk, Raymond remained no match for him, but he could now seize tiny openings and turn them into genuine opportunities to counter. This forced Henk to hold something back for defense whenever he attacked, preventing him from attacking with the same abandon as before.

At the same time, Raymond’s body could now react to an approaching attack before conscious thought. He no longer had to decide in his mind which technique to use and how to counter before acting.

Faced with a follower who clearly meant no good, Raymond found himself wanting to test his sword against the person and see just how far his swordsmanship had progressed.