So now Kael stood at the edge of the forest, his belongings in a burlap sack that smelled of old potatoes. His entire net worth: 43 copper coins, a bent sewing needle, half a loaf of black bread, and a map drawn on a tavern napkin that supposedly led to a “minor dungeon of negligible threat.”
They kicked out the clever poor person.
Kael adjusted the strap of his sack. He didn’t argue. He never did. Words were expensive. Arguments cost energy. And he had exactly 43 copper coins to his name. Raw chapter 46.1 YUUSHA PARTY O OIDA SARETA KIYOU BINBOU
The Hero’s party had already turned their backs. The Warrior was laughing. The Priestess didn’t even look up from her prayer book.
They compound .
Kael read it three times as the campfire crackled behind him. Synergy. That was the word they used after he had calculated the exact angle for a Ricochet Arrow to pierce a Lich’s phylactery through three walls of bone. Synergy was what they claimed he lacked when he suggested rationing the high-grade mana potions instead of letting the mage use them as chasers for his morning ale.
The ink was still wet on the dismissal notice, though “notice” was a generous word for a crumpled sheet of parchment shoved into Kael’s chest by the Hero’s own gauntleted hand. So now Kael stood at the edge of
The Hero’s party didn’t know that the “minor dungeon of negligible threat” was actually the abandoned laboratory of a miserly Archmage who had hidden his fortune in puzzles no noble-born fighter could solve. They didn’t know that Kael had been decoding the napkin map for six months, using their campfire hours to memorize patterns while they slept.
And Kael knew exactly where to invest his first three copper pieces. End of Raw Chapter 46.1 He didn’t argue
But as he walked into the darkening woods, he allowed himself a small, quiet smile.
They didn’t want clever. They wanted shiny.