Chapter 39: A Hidden Quest
It took Jin two whole days to sort everything out.
The merchants and village heads came and went in a steady stream, each claiming what had been taken from them. Jin, however, was not foolish enough to simply hand everything over to whoever pointed at a chest and shouted that it belonged to them. Every claim had to be supported by evidence. Be it seals, ledgers, markings, witnesses, or anything that could reasonably prove ownership.
Whatever could be proven was returned to the legal owners.
Everything else remained with Jin.
That included the unclaimed goods, the loose coins, and a number of valuables whose owners had either never been found or had long since stopped being alive enough to come looking for them. By the standards of the law, it was salvage.
And there was quite a lot of it.
Enough, in fact, that Jin no longer had to worry about money for quite some time.
Once everything had finally been settled, the small cohort that had originally consisted of Jin, Gus, and four knights set out toward the Wall once more.
Only, it was no longer a small cohort.
It had become a party numbering more than thirty.
A large cart, a carriage, and several horses now travelled with them.
At the very front rode Sir Gareth and Berrick, their horses setting the pace as they led the procession along the road. A short distance behind them came the carriage, probably belonging to some merchant who had either failed to claim it or was no longer in any position to do so.
It now carried Jin, Gus, and the silent boy with the wrapped sword.
The boy had yet to speak a single word to Jin.
Behind the carriage came the large cart, loaded with the goods and coins salvaged from the bandits’ stronghold. Jin had no intention of leaving a small fortune sitting in a cellar simply because it had once belonged to criminals.
Then came the thirty-seven former bandits-men who had once preyed upon travellers along these roads and now belonged to Encrid by the terms of their surrender.
Bringing up the rear were Harrun and Yohan, riding on horseback and keeping a watchful eye on the former bandits.
It was quite a sight.
A strange little procession of knights, prisoners, carts, and nobles making its way north beneath the cold sky.
Ellis Cavel also rode alongside them until they reached the bend where the ridge curved away, and the road turned north.
"My father asked me to relay a message, if matters here were resolved as he expected."
Ellis called out as he brought his horse closer to the carriage.
Encrid leaned his head out through the carriage window.
"Oh? What is it?"
"He said he would keep Valerian Red ready for whenever the young master decides to stop by," Ellis replied.
Jin, who had been listening from inside, smiled.
That stingy old man must be really happy.
"Please convey my thanks to the Baron," Jin said. "Of course, I will stop by. And ask him not to adulterate the wine."
Ellis blinked.
Then his lips curved into a smile.
"We should be the ones thanking you."
He straightened in the saddle and gave a polite bow.
"Have safe travels, young master. I will look forward to the next time we meet."
"Likewise."
Ellis turned his horse around.
Jin watched him ride south until the young man’s figure gradually disappeared behind the ridge.
Then the party continued north, toward the Wall.
Jin had a strange feeling that this would not be the last time their paths crossed.
He left the matter to fate.
For now, there was a carriage beneath him, a road ahead, and several hours of sitting comfortably without having to fight anyone.
He was already thanking the heavens for the invention of carriages and thinking about how wonderful it would be to sleep properly when-
[ Hidden Quest Complete: Reveal the Maren’s Secrets ]
"Oh."
Jin straightened.
The system had not even told him about this quest.
Yet here it was, announcing its completion as though the entire matter had been obvious from the beginning.
And unlike the Emergency Quests and Narrative Quests he had encountered before, this was something else entirely.
A Hidden Quest.
[ You have altered the fate of a noble house and rewritten a region’s story. ]
[ Narrative Relevance Updated: 0.17% → 0.25% ]
[ Calculating Reward... ]
Jin’s eyes sharpened.
The Narrative Relevance had increased by 0.08%.
It was a marginal increase-small enough that, on its own, it hardly seemed worth mentioning. And yet, it was still more than what the Emergency Quest had rewarded him with, and even more than what he had received for altering Gus’s fate by taking him out of slavery.
That alone made Jin pause.
He still had no idea how the system calculated Narrative Relevance. There was no visible formula, no explanation, and certainly no indication of how much a single action was worth. All he could do was compare the changes and try to draw his own conclusions.
And if his guess was correct, then revealing the Maren family’s secrets had somehow mattered more to the story than remaining within House Gannon or even freeing Gus from the fate that had originally awaited him.
The thought was both interesting and unsettling.
Because if the system considered some events more important than others, then there had to be a hierarchy to the story.
And Jin had absolutely no idea what determined it.
More importantly, he had no idea what consequences might follow from changing it.
Would the people involved begin making different choices?
Would events he remembered from the original story disappear entirely?
Or would the narrative simply bend around his interference and find another path toward the same conclusion?
Jin couldn’t say.
For now, all he could do was keep moving forward and watch what changed.
Still, he couldn’t say he disliked what was happening.
Unexpected or not, a higher Narrative Relevance and an unannounced reward were hardly things he was going to complain about.
If the system wanted to reward him for breaking the story, Jin certainly wasn’t going to refuse.
[ Calculating... ]
He stared at the system window with complete concentration.
A moment passed.
Then another.
Finally, when he was beginning to get tired of waiting, a new message popped up.
[ Reward: Skill Proficiency Increase ]
[ Gannon Family Swordsmanship: F → E ]
Jin’s eyes widened.
’Wait.’
A skill proficiency increase?
And directly to E-rank? That too for the strongest, six-star skill he had.
That was amza-
[ Initiating forced integration. ]
’Forced what-?’
The world went white.
✦ ✦ ✦