Noan did not lift his head. He slowly stood up, brushed off the dust on his body, and then turned to walk inside the house.

    "Noan!" Caleb shouted, "Are you blaming me?"

    Noan suddenly stopped just as he stepped through the main door. He sighed and asked, "Am I supposed to be grateful to you after you betrayed me?"

    "I betrayed you?" Caleb scoffed, his tone laced with contempt. "Noan, that was your mistake. If you hadn''t exposed the food pills, I wouldn''t have known, Hawke wouldn''t have known, and you wouldn''t have become his target."

    "Ah!" Noan let out a long sigh. "So if I choose to be a good person, that makes me a fool?"

    Caleb snorted disdainfully. "Huh! And what if I told you that''s exactly the case?"

    Noan said nothing more. He stepped inside the house and closed the door behind him.

    Caleb frowned. His expression shifted several times before settling into an eerie calmness.

    He glanced at the gray flag fluttering atop Noan''s house, then turned toward the firmly shut door.

    After a moment, he turned and walked away.

    Caleb had only gone a little over a hundred meters when he saw three figures at an intersection.

    Hawke stood in the front, with two subordinates behind him. Behind them, a rhinoceros with a burning horn stood still.

    The fire on the rhino''s horn illuminated the surrounding area.

    Upon seeing Caleb approach, Hawke hurried forward, lowered his head, and said, "Boss."

    "Uhm." Caleb nodded slightly and asked, "How many pills?"

    "Thirty in total," Hawke answered honestly. "One pill can keep us full for a day, which means we could—"

    "No," Caleb immediately cut him off. "Store them for now. We will use regular food and only resort to the pills in emergencies. Understood?"

    Hawke did not question further. He immediately tucked the pills into his pocket.

    "Boss!" Hawke suddenly spoke up. "Why are we bothering with this tedious plan? Wouldn''t it be easier just to kill him and take all the food pills instead of putting on this meaningless act?"

    "I suspect he still has a lot of food pills. We just need to—"

    "You think everything is that simple?" Caleb suddenly spoke, cutting off Hawke''s words.

    Hawke frowned at that, his eyes filled with confusion. "What do you mean, boss?"

    "Huh!" Caleb snorted before saying, "Forget how many food pills he still has. Just the fact that he has a method to transport those pills from the city to this place is already valuable enough to keep him alive."

    Noan knew that Zhisse was angry on his behalf because of what had just happened. He gently patted its head and said, "Don''t worry. Everything is within my expectations."

    He wasn''t a fool. When he handed the food pills to Caleb, he had already anticipated betrayal.

    Two possible scenarios could unfold.

    The first: Caleb would use this secret to threaten him, forcing him to supply food pills continuously. Otherwise, he would expose Noan''s secret.

    In a place where food was so scarce, that would make him the enemy of every other lord.

    The second: Caleb would trade this secret with Hawke for certain benefits.

    After all, Noan had only given him three pills. After three days, Caleb would still have to find more food.

    That was precisely why he could use this secret to gain additional benefits—or, more accurately, to buy himself more time to search for food in the forest or near the river.

    However, upon seeing Caleb return without a single injury on his face and how he spoke, Noan realized something—Caleb seemed to be on the same side as Hawke.

    Perhaps he was Hawke''s subordinate, pretending to be an ordinary lord oppressed by Hawke to gather more information for him.

    Even though Hawke looked down on and humiliated him, Noan wasn''t too angry.

    This was exactly what he wanted.

    To make his enemies lower their guard against him. Then, when they least expected it—kill them immediately. That was Noan''s plan.

    However, he wasn''t foolish enough to be careless and assume that Hawke only had a single hero—the Rhinoceros Beast from earlier.

    After all, Hawke was a high-ranking lord. He definitely wouldn''t have just one hero.

    If Hawke had more than one D-rank hero, things would become even more difficult.

    Noan was alone. It was as if he were walking on thin ice—one misstep, and he would plunge into an icy abyss with no end.

    Besides, he had deliberately exposed his possession of the food pills because he wanted to gauge the true value of food in this region.

    More importantly, he wanted to observe the attitudes of the other lords—especially the group led by Hawke.

    Noan smiled and asked, "Zhisse, did you mark the bag earlier?"

    Krit! Krit!

    Zhisse, still clinging to his shoulder, immediately nodded, its expression practically saying: Praise me, Master!

    Noan stroked its head with his finger, his voice soft. "Tomorrow, I''ll give you a big reward."

    Krit! Krit! Krit!