Lost Horns

My tent door opens up to reveal a slim man stepping into it for some official business. Right behind him was three other men, both with their weapons drawn.

The slim man starts feeling around my luxurious tent and after a couple of minutes, he clicks his tongue in annoyance. His head turns to look at me with a scorn on his face.

The time right now is 1:00 a.m I haven't slept yet. Considering the intruder, it seems that it was worth it.

I'm supposed to be sleeping and this slim wasn't invited in here by me. He let himself in on "official business" to look for my horns.

The horns that I found and took from someone. They are mine, and ye they are trying to take it away from me. It's very uncouth and very rude of them, but it's expected.

Who wouldn't want to steal from me? I literally have a pair of basically magical bones that are worth basically a billion gold.

To add to that, I had nowhere to place it. We are out in the middle of nowhere, smack dab in demonic territory without a hiding spot for my expensive materials.

It's the perfect recipe for burglary. The slim man checks around once more and orders his men to leave the tent, followed by some obscure orders that I didn't hear properly.

"Hoooo....come on"

He breathes out a sigh to get rid of his stress at this moment and he takes the chance. He reaches his hand under my sleeping bag to look for the horns and surprise surprise, it isn't there.

I'm not stupid enough to place it on my person, the most likely place. They were checking my tent out since it was better than not checking.

If it was not on my person and somewhere in the tent but they woke me up by accident, that would be incredibly stupid and an unbelievable waste of resources.

With another click of the tongue, he gently slaps his knee in frustration before leaving my tent. I smirk while hiding under my blanket and I sleep soundly throughout the night.

The next morning, I wake up and do my usual morning jog and workout. I usually do this aline and som I scan the area for people. Well, not that people would go here.

The only people you'd find were corpses, stray soldiers who are taking a piss and maybe some escaping demons that got lost on their way out.

I see that nobody is around for a while and so, I start digging and digging using a stick from a tree. The ground gets softer and softer until there is a hole right beside a random tree.

I dig the rest of the way down and I suddenly hit a wooden box. My smile surfaces once more as I open it up. Thankfully, the horns are still here.

I bury it back using my utmost precision and proper handling of the ground to make it look like haven't even walked over there. I finish the jog and nothing eventful happened.

Sadly, the slim man and his goons weren't back at my tent the next night. Honestly, I kind of wanted to scare him when he checked my sleeping bag by shuffling around, but that might be too obvious.

Again, I had a good sleep and the caravan supposed to transport us back should be arrived tomorrow in the afternoon. Everyone was in a good mood, including general Fulcrum.

That was a surprising. Wouldn't he not want to go back to avoid being spanked by his big boss? Ehh, I'll discover it with the help of Rosé.

I jog the usual path and check on my box. To my horror...it was gone.

My wooden box filled with a billion gold worth of treasure has now disappeared into nothingness. There aren't anything that signals where the horn-nappers went using footprints and such.

They covered their tracks cleanly and properly. I started showing panic on my face. I ran straight back to the camp and when I returned, Fulcrum greeted me with a gigantic smile on his face as if he won the lottery.

"Oh, Min-chul my friend! Is there some sort of problem or something?"

Hearing his mocking tone, I lower my head and grit my teeth. He was the one who took it. It's so obvious with how he is talking to me.

He is deliberately making me angry. I think he is capitalizing on the fact that I can't do anything to him. He knows I'm smart.

If I punch or abuse him, that's my trial basically down the drain. If the don't punch him, he'll continue annoying me until I do.

I can't steal the horns back because he definitely has enough liquid funds to keep it hidden until tomorrow afternoon. This is such a fucking mess.

"No, nothing is wrong, dear friend"

"Really? Then, I'll get going! Hopefully the carriages arrive here soon!"

Throughout the day, I made it my goal to indiscriminately search for my lost horns. I sparked digging under trees and doing everything in my power except moving my men.

That would evoke the suspicion of the generals and if I moved my men once more after Fulcrum bared his fangs, I'd been the red once more. This is fight against Fulcrum the political veteran and I, the newcomer.

David and Goliath.

Sadly, David didn't win this one. I couldn't find any sign of the horns throughout this day and the next one. By the time the afternoon came, I saw the silhouettes of the approaching carriages.

I knew that I 'twas game over for now and Fulcrum knew it was game over. He had won, I had lost. To think I lost against someone like him.

Someone so blatant, it isn't fun. Even if he gets away with this, Anna and Hana won't let him. Well, that's assuming he'll get away with this.

I'll make sure he pays. I'll just wait for the right chance.

The journey back was a bitter one. One that really annoyed me greatly as I had to bare with Fulcrum's constant celebrating with his general friends. I'm sure they are under the same person.

When we arrived back home a week and a half later in Destinasia, we were greeted with a massive parade and bouquets of flowers thrown at us.

The women were squealing at the sight of their battle-hardened husbands and the hotness of most of the heroes while the men were gawking at the beautiful Anna, the mature Ha-neul and Yamasaki Kin as well as the slightly airheaded Hana.

We were their salvation that killed the bad guys. We saved their families from being taken and killed and experimented on. That's what they thought of us.

We all wave back at them with vigor, but on my mind is more important things. We all arrive back at the castle of Destinasia but suddenly, I was brought to a high class hotel on the same street at massive business headquarters.

Apparently, I'm already being brought to court?

"Ah, so we meet again. Welcome welcome to my humble business"

"Humble, huh?"

The woman that I was waiting to see walked in on my massive suite and her name was Rosé. Rosé Danlia. She was my savior in this situation.

Her bright smile made me not want to tell her everything about the horns. It was too much. Hiding it is better.

"Are you ready! The auction is on in a week and you are participating as my +1 guest. No other heroes are participating"

'What a predicament'

With this pushed right in front of me, I now have no choice but to come clean with this woman. What a shame.

I really thought I had it going.

"I can't. You need to invite me as I didn't find the horns"

"Hmm Hmm yeah I know you- you didn't find the horns? What the hell does that mean?"

"I mean it's been stolen"

She goes slack-jawed with a baffled expression. To think that I lost a billion like that in the blink of an eye and I'm not even breaking down mentally.

The stress is easily enough for a regular person to commit suicide while a smarter person would try to run or something, but to blatantly admit it?

She probably appreciated the honestly though.

"I don't follow. YOU lost it? That can't be"

"Ahh, it's such a shame. What the hell are we going to do, Rosé? I'm so scared. What do we d-"

"Wait! Stop it already with that stupid voice of yours"

She shuts me up with a finger to my mouth. Her sigh echoed around the suite before coming to a rest.

"...do whatever you want then"

"It's good you trust me"

"Yeah yeah. As if you'd betray me, your pillar hope"

"Same with you. You need me as well, I'm sure of it"

With our grins reaching our ears, it's like a devil meeting another one of his own. What a pleasant sight. This woman might match me too well.

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(A.N) yo! Another chapter for you beautiful and handsome readers and I hope you enjoyed this one! I hope you had an awesome day and that tomorrow will be even better for you!

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