Not All Heroes From Earth Are Bad [EN]: Chapter 123

Bell, who worked at the Inn of the Hero’s Rest, had just turned 16 and celebrated her coming-of-age ceremony.

People assumed the innkeeper, Renoff, was her father, but the truth was far different.

Bell was involved with a criminal organization, and Renoff, the innkeeper, was a high-ranking member – you could say her direct supervisor.

“Kill the men and keep the women. They’re pretty, so we can get a good price if we sell them off.”

That was Renoff’s standing order.

Bell followed it without hesitation.

She’d done similar jobs several times already, so it wasn’t difficult.

The targets were obvious marks [easy targets or victims].

They carelessly flaunted a large sum of 20 gold coins and wandered around defenselessly like idiots.

Even the one who claimed to be a nobleman from a distant country seemed uncertain of himself.

‘Walking into the jaws of death! How could they be so stupid?’

Everything was going according to plan.

The guy who looked like a knight was just a big, clueless fool.

A knight carrying a puppy in his arms, no less.

From the start, it didn’t make sense that a knight couldn’t ride a horse.

He was probably just a gigolo [male escort or companion] pretending to be a knight.

The noble lady walking next to him with such a haughty face was no different.

Bell was sure she would soon drop that arrogant mask and beg for her life, making a scene.

“We’ve arrived,” Bell announced.

She had finally lured them to a secluded spot.

Now, all that was left was for the waiting members of the organization to take care of them.

“Die!”

A member of the organization swung his sword.

The man in armor just stood there blankly, not even thinking of resisting.

‘Goodbye,’ Bell thought with a victorious smile.

Then it happened.

“…!”

Everyone’s eyes widened.

The man had caught the sword.

To be exact, he was holding the blade between his index and middle fingers.

“H, how… why is this…!?”

The member of the organization trembled, unable to do anything.

He was panicking because the sword was stuck in the man’s fingers and wouldn’t budge.

At that moment, *thwack!*

The member’s head went through the wall.

Bell and the other members blinked.

Even with their eyes wide open, they couldn’t comprehend what had just happened.

The moment they thought they saw something flash, the member’s head was embedded in the wall.

“This isn’t right…?”

Bell couldn’t help but realize that something was terribly wrong.

Was it even possible for a person’s head to break through a wall?

No, was it even possible to break a wall with brute force in the first place?

Only a true knight, not just any ordinary one, could achieve that level of strength.

*Thwack! Thwack! Thwack!*

The heads of the organization members were embedded in the wall one after another.

The man in crimson armor.

The man they thought was a pushover was actually a knight.

And not just some flashy show-off, but a real expert.

You could tell just by his movements.

At that level, he could join a formal knight order in any large territory.

“That was easier than I thought.”

The time it took for the heads of all 20 members of the organization to be embedded in the wall was less than a minute.

No, could it have been 30 seconds?

Even while doing all this, the knight was still holding the sleeping puppy.

“…”

Bell stared at the wall with trembling eyes.

The sight of the organization members with their heads embedded in the wall felt like some kind of macabre performance art.

The blood flowing from their broken heads soaked the floor.

Bell’s lower body also began to feel wet – she was losing control.

Choi Hyun-seok strode towards Bell.

“Thank you. I’m a bit of a moral person, so I’m not comfortable hitting other people directly.”

“Excuse me…?”

“Anyway, thanks to you, I was able to take them out cleanly.”

“W, what is your identity…?”

Bell asked in a trembling voice.

“What is my identity?”

Choi Hyun-seok pointed to himself and grinned.

“A member of the Demon King’s army.”

A huge fist approached.

Bell lost consciousness.

***

It had been five years since Renoff started running the inn called the Hero’s Rest.

With his kind face and his habit of treating his neighbors kindly, he was a man of great popularity.

For the past five years, no one had suspected that he was an executive in a criminal organization; his acting was nearly perfect.

“I’m going to make a big score this time.”

Even Renoff revealed his true self when he was alone.

A smile never left his face now.

It was because of the two suckers who had suddenly appeared yesterday.

At first, he thought they were a knight and a noble lady traveling, but after watching them for a while, Renoff noticed something strange.

‘That man is not a knight.’

His attire was clearly that of a knight, but his behavior and speech were not at all knightly.

The act of trying to appear dignified was awkward, and the sight of him constantly carrying a sleeping puppy was nothing short of comical.

A knight who lacked basic etiquette and manners and couldn’t even handle a horse? Unheard of.

So, what were those two, really?

Renoff came to this conclusion.

‘A naive young lady has fallen in love with a commoner and run away.’

You could tell by the way they carelessly flaunted their precious gold coins.

They probably ran away with the family’s fortune.

In other words, those two were clueless idiots.

Showing off gold coins like that in Kiton, where the security wasn’t good, was practically begging to be robbed.

‘If they’re asking for it, it’s only right to help!’

Renoff first had a young member of the organization steal the gold coins.

Even though they were still young, they had been living as pickpockets on the streets for years, so their skills were as good as those of an average adult.

Moreover, considering that young children were good at inducing carelessness, they were even better than adults.

So, they took twenty gold coins.

Next was the turn of the horse and carriage.

‘They won’t be able to leave without money… I need to subtly induce them to sell the horse and carriage.’

Renoff came up with a simple but foolproof plan.

All that was left was to lure them into a trap.

But things went even easier than he thought.

The foolish knight came to him before Renoff could even act.

At the man’s words that he wanted to sell the horse and carriage, Renoff held back his laughter and called Bell.

-You can handle it well, right?

-Don’t worry.

They exchanged knowing glances.

Bell took the two out of the inn.

“The job should be done by now.”

Renoff checked the time and grinned.

The guy pretending to be a knight would be on a one-way trip to the afterlife, and the noble lady acting all high and mighty would be covered in tears.

In that moment, a dark desire flickered in Renoff’s eyes.

“Her face was quite pretty; what a shame! What a shame!”

He had to be careful about his actions because he had to maintain his facade as a kind innkeeper, which he sincerely regretted in times like these.

“But I have to endure it because the income is good.”

Renoff’s income had increased several times over since he had become an innkeeper.

Especially when there were big scores like this, he would receive an income that was the envy of any wealthy merchant.

“Twenty gold coins from the Drasen Empire, plus two healthy horses and a luxury carriage. All together, that’s about thirty gold coins.”

Thirty gold coins.

A huge sum that ordinary commoners would never even see in their lifetime.

Enough money to buy a decent house in the capital of any average country or territory.

After paying off the higher-ups and distributing it to the lower-downs, he would only get a few gold coins in his hands, but that was still a lot of money.

Renoff rubbed his hands together, waiting for Bell to finish the job and return.

At that moment, *thump!*

The inn door opened, and Bell appeared.

“Oh! You’re here! Did the job go well…?”

Renoff’s voice trailed off.

Because Bell’s condition was strange.

“Bell…?”

Bell was leaning against the door with her head bowed.

Renoff slowly approached Bell.

“What’s wrong? Are you okay?”

“Yes. I’m fine,” Bell replied, still with her head bowed.

Renoff, who was approaching, stopped abruptly.

“Who… are you…?”

Bell’s voice was strange.

It felt bizarre, like a man with a thick voice was forcibly imitating a woman.

“I’m Bell~?”

“Don’t joke around! What are you doing!”

A vein popped out on Renoff’s forehead.

Bell must have succeeded in the job and was playing a prank with the other members of the organization.

He knew she was excited, but to play such a prank on him, an executive.

Renoff, thinking of giving her a stern scolding, strode forward.

He roughly grabbed Bell’s hair and lifted her head.

“Where do you think you’re playing…”

Renoff’s eyes shook violently.

Bell’s face, which he had lifted, was covered in blood.

Her eyes were completely blank, as if she had lost consciousness.

“Bell…?”

“Yes! Boss!”

The voice was coming from behind her, not from Bell’s mouth.

Only then did Renoff realize.

The voice was coming from behind Bell.

Renoff’s gaze slowly turned towards the back of Bell.

And soon, he met Choi Hyun-seok, who was grinning.

“Hello?”

“…”

Renoff turned around and ran without a moment’s hesitation.

He was planning to escape through the secret passage that had been built when the inn was constructed.

‘Something’s wrong! Something’s seriously wrong!’

Bell and the other members must have been defeated.

The man he thought was pretending to be a knight was really a knight.

“Oops!”

Renoff slipped and fell on his butt as he ran.

Looking down at the coldness he felt, he saw that the floor was frozen solid.

“W, why is this!?”

Renoff hurriedly got up again.

He worked his legs hard to escape, but it was so slippery that he couldn’t get a good grip.

His heart was pounding, and the floor was slippery.

In the end, Renoff fell to the floor again before he could even take two steps.

“Ouch…!”

At that moment, as he groaned from the impact, a strange laughter was heard.

“Kee-hee! Kee-hee-hee!”

Renoff quickly scanned his surroundings.

A woman with a height of about 30cm and white wings came into his view.

“A fairy…?”

It was definitely a fairy he had only heard about in rumors.

Fairies, who occasionally appeared near heroes, were said to have kind hearts and elegant dignity.

“Kee-hee-hee! Idiot!”

However, the little creature in front of him was anything but a fairy.

A little devil would be more like it.

*Clang, clang.*

The sound of armor friction was heard from behind.

Renoff didn’t want to turn around, but he forced himself to turn his head.

“…”

He saw the man approaching, holding Bell, who was on the verge of death, in one hand.

“Sorry about what happened to your… associate.”

He wanted to say that she wasn’t his daughter, but there seemed to be no need to do so.

After all, he couldn’t detect even a hint of apology on the man’s face.

“We still have something to settle, right?”

At Choi Hyun-seok’s question, Renoff nodded repeatedly.

“I, I’ll give it to you! I’ll give you everything! Just spare me!”

Renoff was a man who made quick decisions.

***

*Thud, thud, thud.*

Choi Hyun-seok took out gold coins from his pocket and threw them one by one.

*Thud, thud.*

Soon, all the gold coins were gone.

Choi Hyun-seok frowned as he looked at his empty pocket.

“Why are there only ten?”

Originally, Abelson had twenty gold coins.

Half of them had disappeared.

Renoff frantically waved his hands and shouted.

“I, I’ve already paid them to the higher-ups!”

“Paid?”

“Yes! To do business here, there are many palms you have to grease [bribe]… The higher-ups always take half of the profits.”

“So, you’re saying my money is gone?”

Choi Hyun-seok said with wide eyes.

“My happy retirement fund? My wedding fund has fallen into the hands of criminals?”

“T, that’s… Please wait a moment!”

Renoff quickly opened the inn’s safe.

“Here! There are more gold coins here! This is my personal money, but I’ll give it all to you!”

There was quite a lot of gold and silver coins piled up there.

Counting them, there were five gold coins and forty silver coins.

“Alien-nim [referring to Abelson]. What is the value of silver coins?”

“It varies from country to country, but usually twenty silver coins are exchanged for one gold coin.”

“So, we can say that there are seven gold coins here.”

Abelson nodded.

Choi Hyun-seok looked at the innkeeper, Renoff, again.

“I’m short on money?”

“W, well, I’ll somehow get about three gold coins! Please give me just one day!”

“Hmm? Three gold coins? What are you talking about?”

Choi Hyun-seok tilted his head.

“You have to give me forty gold coins. There are seventeen here now, so you have to bring twenty-three more.”

“Excuse me!?”

Renoff exclaimed in surprise.

“Didn’t you have twenty gold coins!?”

“That’s the principal [original amount].”

Choi Hyun-seok grinned and continued.

“Five gold coins for the mental damage I suffered. Five gold coins for the time I lost. And I think my fist slipped a bit when I hit your organization members earlier. Five gold coins for the treatment fee. Finally, five gold coins for the interest on lending you twenty gold coins for a day.”

“…”

“If you add up the principal, it’s a total of forty gold coins, right?”

Choi Hyun-seok put the money in his pocket and continued.

“Let me say it again, there are seventeen here now, so you only need to bring twenty-three more. Understand? It’s simple math, right?”

Renoff felt dizzy.

What kind of absurd logic was this?

There was no way he could get forty gold coins.

“Where am I supposed to get that much money!?”

“You said you paid it to the higher-ups, right? Just get it back. And you can figure out how to get the few that are missing.”

“I’ll die if I get caught by the higher-ups!”

“You’ll die if you don’t bring it.”

“I’m not kidding; I’m really going to die! Just kill me now! Kill me!”