Goose Hunt

"Alright men. So remember, please leave the pillaging until after we find the horns, alright? The soldier who finds the horns with get 0.5% of the auction price!"

"Ummmm, what is 0.5%?"

"What's an auction?"

"What horns?"

While standing in the crowd of General Fulcrum's men, I chuckle lightly at their response to his little speech on why they should find the horns.

Has he forgotten that education is a privilege that only the most wealthy and powerful could have? Maybe all those years sitting on gold coins made his brain a little forgetful.

Luckily, he instantly knew his mistake and corrected himself soon after. He knew that if he mentioned that they'd get "approximately 4,500,000 gold coins", they'd ask how much that gold is worth and what "approximately" means.

"If you find the horns, you'll get a lot of money! More money than you can even spend in your lifetime. You will have so much money, that you can have multiple wives, my good men!"

""WOOOAHHHH!!!""

"Multiple wives!?!? Is that true!"

"What the hell! Screw pillaging, find the horns!"

""Horns!!!""

'Well, at least he didn't lie'

It's very true what he said. If you had 4,500,000 gold coins, you'd be able to get a VVIP treatment at Argent, you'd get into any city you please and maybe buy a château somewhere in the poorer side of Whittaker Village.

With 4,500,000 gold coins, you can have multiple wives as well, a treatment that only the highest of the high get.

It's not said what the "minimum power-level" you need to qualifying for this, but if you could buy a medium business with your liquid net worth, it seems that you're set for two wives.

If the biggest families really wanted, they could probably get away with having wives in the double digit numbers.

Some failed young master of massive families have resorted to this to get rid of the stress. The biggest case of this was the failed young master of the Lambert family, who now has 24 wives.

However, I doubt that the soldier who finds the horns will live at least a day before he can even check his bank balance to find that 4,500,000 gold sitting there.

First of all, there's the untrustworthy-ness of the massive businesses and the nobles and the generals. You can't trust people as cunning as them.

And then, there's the competition. Even if you aren't assassinated by these high-powered people, your "friends" and "family" will come begging for money and support.

They could even get violent. This is the same as winning the lottery; you get a massive amount of money, but the true nature of your close friends is really revealed during this time.

However, the soldiers are already too riled up to think this through and are only thinking of having two wives and a lot of money. These people have not been to school, so you can't expect too much from them.

This is why the wealthiest people are worth damn near their entire clientele while the customers are working their asses off to provide for their families.

This is an aristocracy, but the corporations hold the nobles by the balls. They can squeeze and squeeze until they get what they want and when they finally do, they start caressing it as a reward.

With Fulcrum finally feeling that his men and even some of the other generals' men are riled up to the point of increasing performance, they start marching their way to the now broken open gate.

Due to last night's...happenings, Anna had to ride her way here in a specially prepared carriage by Fulcrum and throughout the day, I caught Hana staring at Anna with jealous and envious eyes.

I'm sure she knows why Anna is in the carriage, but she can't say anything about it unless she wants to ruin my reputation as a good boy. Well, my good boy reputation is ruined by now but still.

It isn't a good look when you rail your fellow hero until she can't walk, now is it?

When we finally arrive at the foot of the entrance, there are some scouting parties with infantry holding down some of the guards of the wall.

The human soldiers that greeted us were smiling as they rubbed their feet all over the faces of the subservient guards. The hate against the demons, who basically are humans with horns is very intense.

While waving us by, the soldiers start running around the city like headless chickens, checking every single house they can in case the demon king is hiding in plain sight. It was a good idea to mention about the commission to the man who finds the horns.

I slowly walk behind the running, crazed soldiers like a parent watching their children run into the playground. With a smile on my face and my fingers tapping my waist, I start laughing.

Why? It's so obvious why. These men will be wasting time. This is helping me with my upcoming treason trial, and it also buys time for the Danlia Corporation do they have more leeway when planning things.

The only problem is that I have no idea if they'd rather I speed things up or leave them as they are. So, it's better to be safe than sorry, so I'll just keep on extending this wild goose hunt.

Somewhere in Destinasia...

————————————————————————————————————————————————————

As I make my way through the twisting and turning hallways of the Danlia mansion that has been here for many many years, I start talking to myself.

After all, I'm about to be a part of a massive meeting.

I arrive in front of the large wooden doors and take a deep breath. Pushing the door out of the way, it reveals a luxurious room decorated in marble, purple silk and other expensive materials.

On the marble table was 5 people. These 5 people hold a bit of power. Oh, they aren't anybody important.

It's just Rosé Danlia the CEO of Danlia Corporation, both of her parents and my parents, the Chairman of Lambert and his wife.

"Good morning madam Rosé, uncle, auntie, mom, dad"

With a small nod on my head, I greet all of them with the respect they deserve. Rosé nods lightly, her parents make a hum of approval and my parents s both smile at me with loving eyes.

"Good morning Ulysses...let's get down to business? To defeat the horns"

"Yes yes, I know I know"

I answer Rosé with a slightly annoyed expression as she has mentioned ethics too many times to count. I know she is reminding me, but it's a bit annoying.

I settle down at a chair and accept some tea offered by one of the maids.

"So Rosé. I've already told my da- my bosses about your propositions and now, we're going to hear what exactly you want from the Lambert family"

"Yeah yeah...hmmm, alright then! So, first of all, we NEED to keep Jeffrey Carus alive at all costs. He is the main turning point of this operation and we have him right now. At the end of this, we WON'T get rid of him"

With a slightly head nod, my parents are silently comprehending what Rosé is saying. Despite being your typical friendly elderly couple, they are savages in business.

Father majored in law and was a master debater, meaning he can pick your arguments apart, Ema while mother majored in business and is a whizz at most business matters.

They fell in love and made a monster that was my brother. My brother sadly passed away at 13 due to a freak accident that killed him and my entire family. Since I was very close with the Lamberts, they took me in.

"Second! I gathered my hero, Kim Min-chul, and he will be very useful in this operation as well. He will be tried for treason against the state, but he is likely to get away with it"

"Treason? What did you do now, Rosé"

Hearing the strong word that was "treason", her father interrupts her and stares her down with strict, but worried eyes. Treason is no joke, even if you get away with it, it leaves a sour taste in the boble's mouths.

"I didn't do anything. This was all of my dear hero's workings. He killed a general who was under some unknown margrave and to save face, the margrave filed a treason charge against him"

"Huh...then, ignore that question"

"Right then, this hero is important due to his wit and quick thinking. I also have a feeling that he is more powerful than he lets on, so unfortunately like Jeffrey, he will stay alive"

'Huh. Seems like Morrigan won't die a second time'

Rosé and I make eye contact and like two children hiding something bad from their parents, we smirk and she continues her speech. We both know that the reason he will be alive to the end is because of Aria.

....wait, aren't we already hiding something from our parents?

—————————

(A.N) yo! Another chapter for you beautiful and handsome readers and I hope that you are having a great day and that tomorrow will be even better!

Thanks so much to those who regularly support this novel and I hope that you continue to enjoy this novel!

If you enjoyed this chapter, consider supporting this book by voting for this novel with your powerstones, commenting on this chapter and reviewing this novel with your thoughts!

Thanks so much and love ya! See ya when I see ya, peace ✌️!