The Laughing Swordsman

Apollo remembered that Vicar was wanting to change. However, there probably wasn't much to change if he kept staying here.

...And more importantly, if Vicar decided to leave, he shouldn't care too much if the colossus were killed.

Apollo remembered that the talisman would teleport the user quite far away, so maybe that could be useful to Vicar. It was definitely quite the expensive gift when it was just to teleport someone away, but it was a gift Apollo was willing to give.

And so, Apollo spent a thousand gold coins to purchase the golden talisman labeled escape. Many people who at least somewhat understood the value of the golden talisman or even just the golden talisman would call Apollo insane.

After all, it's not like Vicar couldn't just choose a direction to go, leaving that way.

But that was his decision.

And so, he found himself left with five hundred gold coins. He was now deciding on how many food pellets he wanted and if he should get any of the black flame matches.

After a period of deliberation, Apollo decided to get two hundred food pellets, two black flame matches, and left the remaining two hundred coins for future use.

After collecting all of his items, he then flipped his coin above the grey desk once more.

This time, eight lines of white mist condensed. If the requirements for the promotion were similar to last time, that would mean ten lines of white mist were needed. After completing another relatively hard mission, he should be able to rise in rank.

That is, assuming he had already met the other requirements.

Then, Apollo looked down at the various pieces of parchment below him. Just like last time, there were a large amount of them, filling up the table.

He looked through the various parchments, trying to think of which one he wanted to do.

Apollo picked up one of the parchments, eyeing it with great interest.

'Rank - Silver Coin - Platinum Lined

Target: Adult Male Colossus

Description: Appears to be a variant of a lizard. The adult version is at least five hundred meters tall and one thousand meters wide. Males can be identified by the red tuft on the top of their head.

Requirements: Recover a relatively intact corpse of a Colossus. Bonus rewards for better preservation.

Reward: 10,000 Gold Coins and 2 Contribution Points'

It was one he had seen before, and the rewards that came with it were quite ludicrous. However, Apollo ended up hesitating when he picked up this parchment.

He couldn't help but think of when he looked at the old colossus from earlier while holding the unicorn eye. From what he had seen, it didn't have a single sin shown on its body.

Apollo closed his eyes.

Then, he slowly lifted up the parchment until all of the others disappeared.

Apollo accepted the mission.

With that, he left.

He soon reappeared within the snowy wasteland, right next to Vicar. The snow and wind battered against the two as they looked at each other.

Vicar spoke up.

"So you finished your mission?"

Apollo nodded.

"Yes."

Vicar nodded.

"What did you get?"

Apollo scratched the side of his head.

"There were a lot of gold coins, which I then used to buy some stuff."

Vicar raised an eyebrow.

"You were able to buy things?"

Apollo nodded.

"I got some food, these weird matches, a talisman with effects I don't understand..."

He then pulled out a golden talisman. In the center was a picture of a half-opened eye. It was the escape version.

"And also something you might want."

Vicar blinked a few times, then slowly took the golden talisman from his hand.

"Thank you. May I ask what this does?"

Apollo tilted his head to the side.

"I'm pretty sure I know what it does. It should send you really far away in a random direction."

Vicar lifted up the talisman and looked at the half closed eye closely.

"Haha, and why exactly did you get this for me?"

Apollo shrugged his shoulders.

"Just thought you might want to go somewhere."

Vicar looked at him.

"Was this expensive to buy?"

Apollo scratched the side of his head.

"Well, it was half of the money that I got from the mission. But you also helped me complete it, so it's pretty fair."

Vicar laughed.

"You really didn't have to, but..."

He took a deep breath.

"Thank you for the gift."

Apollo looked up at him.

"No problem."

The two of them stood there for a few moments. Apollo ended up taking out the unicorn eye and looking at the thick nearly black tendrils emanating from Vicar.

He had a slightly lost expression on his face.

According to the eye, Vicar was an unbelievably evil person. However, Apollo just couldn't see him in that way. Not to say that he thought Vicar was a saint, or even a relatively good person.

Apollo just thought he was someone.

Someone trying to live their life.

He then began to wonder what Karn would look like while holding the unicorn eye. However, Apollo quickly forgot about it.

After all, he didn't need the eye to tell him what kind of person Karn was.

Regardless of what Apollo would see, that wouldn't change his opinion. So the eye didn't really matter.

Apollo began to realize that the way he judged morality seemed to be quite different from how unicorns did. From what he could tell, unicorns saw people for every single bad thing that they have done.

Whether or not someone was good or bad was directly correlated with this fact.

However, Apollo just couldn't see people like that.

It was a view that neglected all the good things that person may have done. It didn't see what that person had to go through.

And most importantly, it didn't take into consideration that some people were just trying to live the best way they knew how.

Vicar looked towards Apollo.

"Hey, want to go somewhere?"

Apollo nodded.

"Sure."