FAR - 13

The Archer coughed and wiped his mouth with his sleeve, his eyes still wide as saucers.

"Catch Calain? You?"

He furrowed one eyebrow and looked at me, not with mockery, but with genuine bewilderment.

Fair enough. How was a Farmer supposed to catch a Knight? It was a hundred percent valid point, so I took 0 damage from his reaction. I even nodded in agreement.

Royal Knight Calain Rioden. A young and overly enthusiastic figure; the number of criminals he had personally tracked down and caught numbered over a dozen.

They say if there were five Calains, criminals would vanish from the kingdom, and if there were ten, they'd start locking up innocent people, requiring more prisons to be built.

Young, robust, full of spirit, and a diligent hard worker who learned his martial arts from the outstanding seniors of the knighthood.

To this, should I add his two-faced nature?

'An honorable Royal Knight by day, a Hunter-killing maniac by night...'

That's right. This guy, who appeared to be a righteous knight, actually went crazy whenever he saw a Hunter. Since the kingdom's official stance was to discriminate against Hunters, he went around murdering them and leeching their EXP without a shred of hesitation.

'Given that he awakened as a Hunter himself but hides the secret while going around killing others, he isn't exactly honest, either...'

I thought about Calain's terrifying backstory, but I didn't tremble or cower in the slightest.

When I remained silent, the Archer grew suspicious and instinctively raised an eyebrow. As if I had been waiting for it, I flashed a grin.

"Calain is supposed to grow rapidly early on by catching Belsus, right?"

"Uh, yeah."

Although Calain's early stats are considered broken, his prologue inherently starts with him killing Belsus, meaning his true starting point is after devouring Belsus's EXP.

"Then since he failed to catch him, he must be weaker than what we saw in the game."

"Well, yeah, but..."

"And I'm a Farmer. I can put debuffs on the food I make. Let's feed my food to Calain."

The Archer blinked at the sudden dump of information.

The next second, he freaked out.

"Wait, does that mean you've been feeding me that kind of food this whole time?!"

I shrugged and confidently scoffed at him.

"You're a competitor too. Did you think I'd just give it to you for free? It's your fault for gobbling it up without a hint of suspicion. It was delicious, wasn't it?"

The Archer made a spectacular face, looking as if he had just eaten food waste.

His brain was telling him to throw up everything he had eaten so far, but the piece of meat from the stew currently in his mouth was so good he couldn't bring himself to spit it out. He was chewing it with a tearful expression, this guy was hopeless.

"Do you want to starve to death, or eat and get a little weaker?"

"..."

"If you don't eat, it's zero calories; if you do, it's one calorie. Eating is clearly the better deal, right?"

The Archer whipped his head toward me, tears welling up in his eyes.

"I ate pork, salt, pepper, oil, eggs, and even cheese! How is that only one calorie?!"

I patted his shoulder, calmly trying to soothe him. Of course, he didn't seem soothed at all.

"I only gave you a weak debuff. But I'm going to hit Calain with a massive one."

"Ugh, fine. Let's say I accept that! But how are you going to feed it to Calain?"

It was a crucial question.

I scratched my head with a vacant expression and muttered carelessly.

"Well... maybe I should open a food cart or something."

"Are you crazy?"

I imagined setting up a sign reading <Farmer’s Premium Stew! Only 2 Silver!> right where Calain was passing by, trying to lure him in with the smell.

If I ever got bored of life, that might be a fun way to go.

"I'll figure out how to feed him. Your role is the important part. I'm only going to say this once."

When I gripped the Archer's shoulders tightly, his momentum faltered, as if he were actually intimidated by a flimsy Farmer like me.

It was probably due to the cold, ruthless tone of my voice.

"I'll draw Calain's attention. Once I feed him the food, you shoot him with your bow and kill him."

Catching him meant eliminating Calain from this ranking competition and leaving the Archer to proceed solo.

The Archer's face turned completely pale. Suddenly quiet, he slowly lowered his head.

"I told you I couldn't do it. You're telling me... to kill my own character?"

The first time he heard those words, he was outraged, but now he just seemed deflated. I had never heard him sound so powerless.

"How is he your character if you can't even control him?"

But I had no intention of going easy on him.

"Look at Calain's personality. Do you honestly think you can team up with him later? You guys can never coexist. Not as long as you both have the ability to devour each other."

Do you not want to win? What are you going to do with such a weak heart?

A long silence followed.

Perhaps realizing there was no other way, the Archer eventually nodded. His tightly clenched jaw seemed to tremble slightly.

---

Calain had dreamt the same dream thousands of times.

The dream of finally severing that sluggish bastard's neck today.

—There is one last remaining bloodline of the previous dynasty. A collateral descendant who has evaded capture for 20 years. If the Knights could snuff out that final spark with their own hands, there would be no greater honor.

A man who became the kingdom's worst death row inmate simply because of the blood flowing in his veins.

It was the moment he first saw him up close. Calain's eyes had gone wide as he absorbed Belsus's information.

He was a Hunter.

One that he could kill and extract EXP from.

'To think there could be a sacrifice so perfectly made for me...'

With that man's severed head, both the kingdom's reward and immense power would roll into his lap.

Therefore, he had to be the one to strike down Belsus. He couldn't let any other knight or hunter claim the prize.

Calain chased Belsus for years. Eventually, even the time he spent at the royal palace made him anxious. Whenever he was dispatched, he always made a point to track the places Belsus might have gone.

Belsus was slowly draining away from the relentless pursuit. No matter how much of a natural escape artist he was, having Calain throw away his everyday life just to chase him down was bound to wear him out.

Time and time again, whenever Belsus narrowly escaped his clutches, Calain would kick a wall and curse.

—You worm!

Even when stabbed in the shoulder with a sword, he survived and fled. He should have aimed for the heart.

He had poisoned food and sent it to the farmhouse where Belsus was staying for the night, but even after eating it, Belsus managed to crawl his way out. He should have used a poison potent enough to turn his skin pitch black.

Calain was sick and tired of this farce. Today would be the last. He would end it here in these slums.

Belsus was so severely weakened from terrible starvation that his face was practically unrecognizable. Dodging that arrow must have been his last desperate struggle. There was no way he could have made it out of the slums.

Calain closed his bloodshot eyes for a moment before opening them again. He roughly wiped down the skin of his face, which felt slightly stiff and dry like a viper's.

It was when he raised his head, vowing to kill and claim that worm.

"Wow, it's a Knight!"

Suddenly, a cheerful voice rang out from slightly below his eye level. Calain spotted a boy who had approached closely.

"You're here to catch the bad guys, right?!"

It was a boy he had never seen before. Whether he was a boy or a young man was hard to tell; he wasn't very tall, but his eyes were strangely lively, making it confusing.

Kids who admired the Royal Knights were a dime a dozen on the streets. A clueless kid energetically tagging along was no big deal.

However... they usually offered flowers, if anything. Kids offering food were rare.

"I made this... Would you like some?"

The boy pulled back the cloth covering his basket and briefly showed Calain the food inside.

The sandwich, filled with thinly sliced ham and cheese between bread, and drizzled with sugar syrup and pepper, gave off an incredibly tantalizing aroma.

"..."

It was pure instinct. Upon seeing the strangely mouth-watering food, Calain gulped down saliva.

'Come to think of it... I've been skipping meals trying to catch that worm.'

Even if it was made by some random beggar instead of a chef, it wasn't unedible to Calain. He had frequented commoners' street stalls during his missions before.

Besides, he was desperately hungry.

However.

"You take a bite first."

He was highly suspicious.

Royal Knights, especially those like Calain, tasked with special orders to apprehend the kingdom's criminals, secretly accrued a lot of grudges. This boy looked completely insignificant, but he could be an assassin trying to poison him.

"Ah... Me?"

The boy seemed to hesitate for a moment, but then, with hands that were uncommonly clean and dust-free for a commoner, he tore off a corner of the sandwich.

Calain's eyes fixated on the piece of sandwich as the boy's fingers pushed it into his mouth. He watched the entire sequence of him chewing and swallowing it.

"...I'll take it."

The sandwich was handed over to the dazzlingly armored Royal Knight. The Knight slowly took a bite and swallowed.

It was then that the boy, Heean, shot a glance behind the Knight.

'...Hah.'

Hiding behind a corner, the Archer drew his bowstring. His arm trembled slightly.

The tip of the arrowhead was aimed directly at the back of the Knight's neck in the distance.