What Good Is Being Smart?

At dusk, the sun had not yet fully set. Thin clouds swept across the horizon, glowing purple in the sunset.

The early autumn breeze rolled across the wasteland, carrying a faint, refreshing chill.

The enticing aroma of wild mushrooms stewed with ham drifted from the pot over the fire, quickly spreading through the camp on the evening wind and teasing the men who had toiled all day.

That burly woman was unexpectedly an excellent cook. Such a simple combination had somehow been turned into something that felt like a lavish feast.

Li Ang gripped a hard loaf of bread resembling a baguette, dipped it in the steaming broth, and contentedly enjoyed his first hot meal in two days.

The rich, fragrant gravy masked the bread's rough texture. The soggy bread, soaked soft in the broth, went down with the steaming stew, and a comforting satisfaction immediately filled every part of his body, easily driving away the day's fatigue.

In its place came a faint sense of comfort and drowsiness.

The food definitely had not been poisoned, because that woman had eaten first out of everyone. She had wolfed down an entire huge basin of it.

Most of them let out satisfied breaths after finishing the meal. Then, as darkness fell, snores rose and fell throughout the camp.

The scouts had found no sign of enemies nearby all afternoon, and no other accidents had occurred in camp.

Even the disguised nomad camp was more or less complete.

That night, everyone had even enjoyed a fragrant hot meal.

Everything had gone so unbelievably smoothly.

It was as if the Goddess of Order had covered them with her robes.

The next morning...

"My lord! My lord! Wake up!"

Li Ang was roughly shaken awake by one of his men. He rubbed his eyes and crawled out of the tent.

Then, in an instant, he was wide awake.

The camp was in chaos, as though it had been raided by countless wild boars... Several mercenaries were noisily rummaging for their clothes, and some were even searching the hidden pockets in their underwear...

Most of the mercenaries were still asleep, but every tent had already been thrown open.

Li Ang lunged in panic toward the place where he had left his money pouch—without question, it was already empty.

Completely clean. Not a single coin remained.

Fortunately, his noble crest had been hanging against his chest the whole time. Otherwise, it would probably have been stolen too.

The burly woman who had claimed to be a noble was gone, and so were the farmers she had brought with her.

The pitchforks and rakes, however, had been left in camp, leaning beside Li Ang's tent as though they were mocking this greedy and foolish lord.

"Sound the horn! Wake everyone up!"

That incredibly fragrant mushroom soup from last night had to have been the problem!

The food really had not been poisoned. It had merely made everyone sleep deeper and more soundly—the mushrooms were harmless, but they had a sedative effect!

Everyone had been knocked out by that meal. Someone had entered their tents and stripped them of all their gold, silver, and valuables, yet no one had noticed a thing.

Li Ang's head buzzed...

He had always prided himself on being exceptionally clever, yet he had been tricked by a countrywoman!

An indescribable sense of humiliation flooded his heart until his vision swam. Only after slapping himself hard twice did he recover, his intelligence finally coming back online as he began a painful reflection.

Once he had suspected that the woman might be Oden's daughter, Li Ang's mind had been completely filled with denars. All he could think about was how to negotiate a price with Count Oden.

That woman's clumsy acting and ridiculous lines had somehow passed easily before Li Ang...

He had seen at first glance that she was a commoner pretending to be a noble. Having grown used to Sarah's elegant bearing and Ansen's determined resolve, that woman's awkward imitation was as jarring as Oden's bald crown.

But, but...

But that greedy heart of his had still willingly walked into the trap!

Li Ang had always believed that, with the knowledge accumulated by a modern person, he could only fool others. There was no way he could fall into someone else's trap on the "ignorant" Pande Continent.

Yet reality had swiftly given him a vicious slap—no matter how smart someone was, no matter how much they had seen, once they fell into greed, they could be deceived.

Moreover, now that he had calmed down, Li Ang remembered who Liwa was—a special character from the game in his previous life who could become a companion, a bandit posing as a noble.

Perhaps in that game made of code, she could only stay in a tavern, waiting for the player to approach her, after which she would either become the player's helper or be expelled from the party.

But now, anyone could appear anywhere and do all kinds of unimaginable things.

Besides, a name like "Liwa" was simply too common. Every village had girls with that name. And... faces in the game did not match real people—Sarah was far prettier than she had been in the game, while Liwa looked far sturdier as well...

His former understanding of the game was unreliable when facing living people and this vast, dangerous continent.

What did it matter if he was a transmigrator? What did it matter if he was a modern person?

To Li Ang, this was a very fortunate warning.

Yes, very fortunate.

Because Liwa had only intended to steal his money, not take his life.

But the warning had come in time. It made Li Ang realize that, subconsciously, he still regarded himself as the protagonist of this world.

Human thought was a strange thing.

Although Li Ang had always felt a sense of danger in this world, deep in his subconscious, he had always possessed that protagonist mentality, as though he had some sort of halo.

This deeply buried mindset was probably something every transmigrator had.

But now, Li Ang understood that he had unconsciously made a fundamental mistake in the depths of his thinking. That mistake was called arrogance.

That arrogance born of being a transmigrator had clouded what had once been a fairly useful brain.

The party had regrouped. Every mercenary's eyes held frustration and sorrow—all of their wallets had disappeared.

The carpenters, however, said they had suffered no losses. Most had not brought any money, and the woman apparently had not searched their bags.

Fortunately, their weapons and equipment were mostly still there, and the camp had not been set on fire.

That woman had even thoughtfully prepared a pot of fragrant oatmeal porridge for them, faint steam rising from it in the cold morning wind.

But now, no one dared drink it.

Such conduct showed that the woman was most likely a habitual offender, and that she was absolutely confident she would not be caught.

At least two things she had said were not lies—she really could cook, and she really was familiar with the nearby bandits, as well as the terrain around here.

Out in this wilderness, there was no hope of tracking down a thief like her.

"Brothers... I am deeply sorry! My rash decision has caused all of you to suffer losses—I do not know how much each of you lost, but I must compensate you!"

Li Ang climbed onto a cart, waving his arms as he began to rally their spirits.

"Of course, I believe you all know that I was robbed too... So from now on, after every battle, I will distribute the spoils among you—but for the sake of fairness, you must exchange heads or prisoners for them. Brave men will become wealthy in my army!"

"At the same time, once my territory has been established, I will select those with outstanding military achievements from among the ranks to become apprentice knights!"

"No matter your background, no matter what you have done before! I swear on my family name that I will never break my word!"

"So, you can start learning to read!"

It was a very simple strategy of redirecting conflict, turning an internal problem that had already occurred into an external promise that was still nowhere in sight—a tactic modern people saw all the time.

But mercenary tradition was for mercenaries to provide their own weapons and work for pay. There had never been any distribution of spoils—though hiding loot for themselves was common enough.

Unless an entire mercenary company was hired to fight independently, mercenaries might often clean up the battlefield, but they could usually only secretly tuck a few small items into their clothes.

Of course, any cash found on enemy corpses was customarily left to whoever cleaned up the battlefield. A prisoner's money was also left to whoever captured him. No one would pursue the matter; that was the convention.

Li Ang's decision meant that this hired force would more or less receive the treatment of retainers—compensation guarantees, the right to share in spoils, and even the possibility of becoming nobles!

The mercenaries did not dare believe it at first, but then a huge uproar erupted.

"We swear to follow our lord unto death!"

Li Ang did not know which clever fellow had been the first to shout that flattering line.

But in any case, morale had recovered, and his men once again seemed full of drive.

Li Ang led his men onto the road back to Fletcher Village, striding with his head held high and an unconcerned expression on his face, though his heart ached bitterly.

The leadership skill he had expected to improve showed no sign of movement.

And he truly had not expected to suffer such enormous losses in this desolate wilderness.

The losses were immense, so immense that Li Ang's heart bled.

The vanished money pouch had held more than six hundred denars, but that was a minor matter.

The main loss was the original owner's father's keepsake: that knight's sword whose hilt crest had been worn smooth.

That sword had fit his hand perfectly. Though it was no divine weapon, no other weapon had ever been able to replace it.

And Li Ang could guess what crest had originally been engraved on that sword.

—A griffin.