Nam Sung - Legendary Moonlight Sculptor Volume 17

A huge crowd had gathered when Weed reached Morata's square through the movement portal. People were buying and selling goods in the square as well as recruiting party members. With the Northern part of the Versailles Continent being showcased as an adventure region, Morata was flourishing into an even larger city.

“Please look this way!”

“Weed, Weed! Come hunt with us.”

“Are you really Weed from the Continent of Magic?”

There we many people who were trying to get close to him, causing a commotion, asking questions about the River of Lamentation quest, or if he really was Weed from CoM. People even went up onto the castle walls to wave and cheer at Weed.

They welcomed Weed's return like a hero coming home after winning a war.

This was different from the time when he sold cheap sculptures in Rosenheim Kingdom. Weed folded his arms, raised his chin along with his gaze, and emanated arrogance.

“Heh, there are a lot more people here now.”

He had to act unconcerned and completely unalarmed, as though the amount of people gathered were a natural course of events.

Abruptly, Weed yelled with Lion's Roar, “I went. I fought. I earned!”

“WHOOOOAAA!”

Cheers loud enough to shake Morata Square to its foundations erupted at once.

“He said he earned a ton!”

“Imoogi! Please show us the items from the Imoogi you hunted!”

“WEED! WEED! WEED!”

His popularity was greater than that of a pseudo-religious cult leader, and the crowd was at the peak of uncontrollable delight. The hopes and dreams of the ordinary people in the Versailles Continent! After all, Weed had returned after hunting monsters others weren't able to kill, and accomplished a quest no one had ever experienced before.

Morata's Soldiers and the Freya Church's Knights mobilized to contain the situation. Only then was the uproar narrowly suppressed.

The Freya Church's Knights bowed their heads towards Weed politely.

“We would like to thank you for defeating the evil Embinyu Church. It is an honor to meet the adventurer who will go down in history as the benefactor of the Freya Church.”

Weed replied with dignity. “It was nothing. I did not suffer in the slightest. The fight against the Embinyu Church was extremely dull. It was easier than going into a bank to take a nap on a scorching summer day.”

He would take a nap in a bank and read comics in a large bookstore. Those were the excellent cultural facilities that had allowed Weed to spend his youth in peace. Since there were several banks in his neighborhood, they were places where he could go in at any time and comfortably utilize. They even arranged the latest magazines categorically for their customers.

The people at the banks would sometimes gossip, but he simply ignored such things! Weed was someone who had even shared deep conversations about today's youths over a cup of coffee, with one of the older guardsmen he had become friends with.

“He's talking with the Knights.”

“They're talking to him really politely.”

The crowd broke into whispers. The sight of Paladins speaking to Weed was enough to make their stomachs burn with jealousy.

That a portal would suddenly form and Weed would come out of it, was something the Merchants or Warriors doing business in the square had never expected.

“I think this is the first time I've seen the Knights of Freya acting this friendly.”

“It must be because they're talking to Weed, right?”

“Of course it is.”

With the Knights of Freya arranged in the plaza, there was no one who tried to carelessly approached him.

“Hmm.”

As the ruckus calmed down a little, Weed glanced around the square. The crowd in the square was packed in tightly, like a bag of sprouts.

'The number of players here has really grown.'

The thought of taxes occurred to him as he looked at the Merchants sitting in the stalls they had opened in the plaza!

'Should I raise the taxes or not? Even if I only raise the income tax by 1 %, the revenue would be enormous…'

Weed invested all his energy into performing calculations. He was bad at math, but when it came to adding and subtracting money, he had never once made a mistake.

'No, not yet. It's still too early. If give off the impression of being desperate for tax collection this early, I won't be able to unleash a tax bomb later.'

His face paled, and even his expression became agonized.

He needed a clever scheme that would make people feel like he wasn't raising the taxes even when he was.

At the sight of Weed's deeply tormented face, the players gradually quieted as well. Looking at his expression alone, it appeared as if he was tackling a truly enormous problem. When he occasionally grimaced, the players' hearts would drop in alarm.

There were people who had previously met Weed, as well as those who had only heard of him here.

“Was his clinging to coppers while selling sculptures all an act?”

“His incognito skills aren't normal. He went around hiding his identity like that even though he's a player with a high enough level to hunt the King Hydra, y'know.”

“Wargod Weed. Look at his expression, is he gonna wipe us all out because his mood soured?”

“They say that in the Continent of Magic, he was a solitary Warrior who didn't welcome even a little fuss or hassle…”

Once the excitement subsided, the people were struck with an eerie mood.

It was because the Weed from the Continent of Magic was a figure with extreme notoriety!

In a corner of the square, Merchants were chattering thoughtlessly. They were discussing Weed's misdeeds from the Continent of Magic!

“Soo-il, did he really kill people ever so often?”

“Yeah. Weed's nasty deeds were crazy. I was killed five times myself.”

“Why were you killed? Were you enemies with Weed then?”

Weed could also hear the conversation between the young Merchants. Since they were discussing his history during his Continent of Magic days, he was deeply interested. it was an important conversation because, depending on the crowd's opinion, he could change the taxes as well.

“There was no particular reason. Once for making him wait because I was taking a long time to buy goods at a shop, once for meeting him by a stream, and once for going into a dungeon he was hunting in. The remaining two times were because I couldn't take his misdeeds anymore, so I joined a coalition and died while fighting as a group.”

“He killed people for reasons like that?”

“He didn't just kill people, either. It was literally a massacre. He didn't leave anyone alive, even the unarmed or wounded.”

In the Continent of Magic, Weed's notoriety was not limited to monsters alone. Even to players, he was merciless slaughter embodied. With his extremely overwhelming level, amazing skill management, and unique items, he was the strongest player. He trampled on those who challenged him to the point where they couldn't recover, and he simply killed those who were eyesores.

'I didn't differentiate humans from monsters.'

Weed briefly recalled his Continent of Magic days. He killed so much that it was difficult to remember all his opponents separately. He had found absolutely no reason to leave humans alive just because they were players, when he was already killing monsters. He even purposefully sought those who put on airs because they were high leveled players, started a fight, and killed them.

The force of a large guild? He didn't care.

'No matter how well organized they were, everything worked out once I killed them three or four times.'