Chapter 25

With legs faster than even a galloping horse, Gerald caught up with the moving caravan in less than half an hour.

When he tossed the corpses of the Orc Wolf Rider Band's two leaders onto a wagon and told everyone who the orcs were, the entire caravan erupted.

The merchants, both thrilled and astonished, examined the two bodies carefully, confirming their identities from various details. Some even brought out copied wanted posters and compared the portraits on them.

There was no doubt about it. These filthy, hideous-looking orcs were the ruthless and cunning ringleaders of a criminal gang that had led hordes of bandits in ravaging the Four Northwest Towns for years, attacking villages and merchants!

The Orc Wolf Rider Band was finished!

The merchants cheered and crowded around Gerald to thank him. And after thanking him in words, they pooled together a considerable sum of money as a reward.

Sui Xiong had no intention of accepting it. As far as he was concerned, those orcs had dared to gang up and ambush him, so wiping them all out in retaliation was only natural. Why should the merchants pay him? If anyone deserved a reward, it was the Adventurers Guild in town, where he could claim the bounty.

But this time, he was the one who got talked around. Gerald told him that in civilized society, it was only right for merchants to reward those who eliminated bandits. Refusing the money would actually offend them.

Since that was the case, Sui Xiong wasn't the sort to stubbornly cling to his own opinion. Of course he wouldn't turn down this perfectly legitimate income.

And the benefits of eliminating the Orc Wolf Rider Band didn't end there. They found plenty of valuable loot on the two bodies. Since both had been scared to death, their belongings were mostly undamaged. Blood Hand's enchanted leather armor and magic scimitar alone were worth a month's income for an ordinary merchant.

And that wasn't all. Each orc had a spatial pouch. Blood Hand's was nearly empty, containing little beyond some money and potions. He had probably put most of his earnings into equipment to improve his fighting strength as much as possible. But the old shaman's pouch was packed with valuables. It held over a thousand gold coins, along with all sorts of gems, high-grade potions, and scrolls, worth several times as much altogether.

According to old Soth's estimate, the treasures in the two pouches, the equipment on the two orc leaders, and the bounties on their heads came to more than twenty thousand gold coins in total, even counting only what could readily be converted to cash!

Twenty thousand gold coins! When Gerald heard the number, he was utterly dumbfounded.

What did that sum mean? The villagers of White Leaf Village earned most of their income from logging, making charcoal, and growing Gold Vine—a poor-tasting crop that could ward off negative energy and served as a staple food for commoners in the Ash Forest region. An average household could save three to seven gold coins after a year of hard labor. The Church of the Sleepless took at least seventy percent of that in taxes, leaving most families with only one or two coins.

"Wait, they take at least seventy percent in taxes? That's outrageous!" Sui Xiong cried when Gerald got to that part. "Shouldn't people rebel against a bunch of parasites like that?"

"Your Majesty, those taxes are quite light," Gerald said in surprise, explaining, "The church only taxes farmers after they've set aside enough food for themselves. In other words, it taxes their surplus. By comparison, when those noble lords collect taxes, they don't care whether the farmers have any money or not. That's what real heavy taxation looks like."

Only then did Sui Xiong realize he'd misunderstood. A moment's thought made it obvious. If people couldn't meet their basic needs, who would willingly live in a godforsaken place where skeletons roamed at night?

It was like the lesson in On Catching Snakes: poisonous snakes were dangerous, but compared with oppressive taxes and forced labor, catching snakes was still preferable!

"No matter the world, tyranny is fiercer than a tiger!" he thought, letting out a deep sigh.

Gerald had no idea what Sui Xiong was thinking and continued, "White Leaf Village as a whole probably saves around two hundred gold coins in taxes each year. Twenty thousand gold coins would be equivalent to a hundred years' worth of taxes from that village. Or look at it another way: back when I was an adventurer, my whole team saved only about a thousand gold coins in a year, and we were already quite a capable group."

"Think about it, Your Majesty. The reward for driving off a dragon is only five thousand gold coins. The bounty for hunting down a criminal who murdered a noble is only a thousand. And the bounty for wiping out the infamous Orc Wolf Rider Band is only two thousand. You can imagine just how much twenty thousand gold coins is worth!"

Sui Xiong nodded slightly. At last, he had a clear idea of what twenty thousand gold coins could buy.

"With this money, we can build a temple. Your Majesty, I suggest we also go and establish a village, so we can have a whole village's faith to ourselves. It wouldn't be much, but it would be reliable and risk-free. Once the village has settled down in a couple of years, we can establish another one. After we've established a few villages, we can build a town..." Gerald's thoughts ran further and further ahead. "Then, after a century or two, we could have several towns and a dozen or so villages, with the steady faith of at least ten thousand people."

Sui Xiong neither agreed nor disagreed. Gerald was thinking far, far too far ahead. Even the Chinese, who were always talking about "century-long plans," were usually just saying it. Who would make a plan stretching one or two hundred years into the future and seriously intend to carry it out?

But then he considered it from another angle and understood.

In theory, both he and Gerald were immortal. A hundred years or two hundred years meant little more to them than a few more seasons: watching leaves sprout and fall, and watching villagers grow old and die.

In this world, "immortality" wasn't a fantasy. It was a plain fact.

"Your Majesty, what do you think of this plan?" Gerald asked.

Sui Xiong gave an awkward laugh and answered vaguely, "No rush. Let me learn more about this world first."

"Very well. The wisdom of a deity far surpasses that of mortals. Perhaps you'll soon come up with a better plan to establish your faith even faster." The loyal Gerald nodded repeatedly. "Still, I think establishing a few villages where we have a monopoly on the faith would be a very reliable approach..."

They'd been speaking telepathically. Old Soth saw Gerald standing motionless, apparently lost in thought, and couldn't help reminding him, "White, this isn't over yet. There's another big payday waiting for you!"

He'd done Sui Xiong a real favor. The conversation immediately turned from establishing villages to bringing in more money.

"Usually, the leaders of bandit gangs have a secret stash, so they can make a comeback if things go wrong or retire comfortably when they leave the business. The Orc Wolf Rider Band has been terrorizing the Four Northwest Towns for five or six years, so their leader, Blood Hand, must have a stash of his own," old Soth said. "If we can find it, there'll be another fortune waiting for us!"

At the words "another fortune," old Soth's face lit up strangely. His eyes, usually a little cloudy with age, had brightened again—so brightly that they almost dazzled.

Sui Xiong finally understood why he'd named his caravan the Lucky Coin.

The old man was a complete miser!

"How much do you think there'll be?" Palin asked curiously.

"At least ten thousand gold coins!" old Soth declared firmly, making Sui Xiong wonder how on earth he'd come up with that figure.

Palin clearly wasn't very interested in money. Or perhaps, after seeing treasure worth twenty thousand gold coins, ten thousand no longer impressed him much. He nodded casually and went back to the campfire to study his spellbook.

Gerald nodded too. "Sounds promising. I'll see what I can do to find the stash."

"If you find it, be sure to bring me a souvenir! At least one intact gold coin!" old Soth said quietly but firmly. "That's my information fee. We may be good friends, but we can't break the rules!"

One gold coin?!

Sui Xiong didn't know whether to laugh or cry. He could tell old Soth wasn't joking and was quite serious, but he couldn't understand the old man's way of thinking at all.

Humans in this world really did have strange ways of looking at things!

Yet Gerald clearly had no trouble following old Soth's bizarre train of thought. He replied just as solemnly and earnestly, promising to choose the most special souvenir for him and deliver it personally.

Old Soth was satisfied and left with a smile.

"Gerald, what exactly did you two mean? Are souvenirs really that important?" Sui Xiong couldn't help asking.

"Your Majesty, it's a tradition among adventurers." Gerald knew that his deity knew very little about the human world, so he patiently explained, "Adventurers often hear about treasure or other valuable things. But for all sorts of reasons, many never get the chance to follow up on those leads, even by the time they're old. So, if they meet a younger adventurer they get along with, they pass along the leads they never had a chance to investigate. And if the younger adventurer follows one up, they're expected to bring back a little something as a keepsake for their elder, no matter how much they find. It's a way of respecting tradition and carrying on the culture passed down through generations of adventurers."

So that was how it was!

Sui Xiong understood at once. Old Soth's somewhat stooped figure suddenly seemed much taller and more impressive to him.

An aging adventurer entrusted his experience and dreams to the next generation. Then, when the younger adventurer succeeded, he brought back a keepsake, allowing those who no longer had the strength to go adventuring to share in the joy of that success and proving that their own quests hadn't been in vain... Such love of adventure, such a spirit passed from one generation to the next—it was deeply moving!

It was like the great esports players of the past. Even after retiring, even after getting so bad that amateurs could wipe the floor with them, they still loved the game. They never truly left it, continuing to work as commentators. Even after going from champions to total scrubs, they still used their stand-up-comedy routines to get viewers to love the game and share in the fun. They didn't mind becoming a laughingstock or being called a clown...

The worlds might be different, but the spirit underneath was the same!

"Old Soth, when you die, I'll help you get a new body and bring you back to life. I'll make you a super-sturdy one. It won't matter if your legs and feet are short. I guarantee it'll shrug off swords, spears, floods, fire, lightning, and ice. Then you'll be able to break through every obstacle, even by rolling face-first into traps, and carry on with the adventuring you've never been able to forget!"

Deep underground, the deeply moved Giant Jellyfish scratched his chin with a tentacle and smiled in satisfaction, never realizing how flawed his reasoning was...