Leandro did not answer. He simply nodded and left the shop. His silence was not merely out of courtesy toward the leather merchant who had dealt fairly with him, because he knew full well the captain had spoken those words expecting him to die. Yet, he had meant to take that road regardless.0

Leandro had never planned to demand so much as doubling the reward. Yet, it was no surprise. Whether it was a monster in the mountains or a bandit chief, he often saw how those who offered bounties behaved very differently when it came time to pay. He already knew how to deal with such people.0

What mattered was the prey: the hippogriff. Leonardo never once thought of losing. In the four years he had hunted monsters alone, drifting from place to place, he had mastered two domains.0

The first was the domain of the blade. Within a radius of three meters, he could cut into an opponent's opening in an instant, whether it was another bounty hunter creeping up on him, a cave-dwelling bat monster, or even the phantom of his mother.0

The second domain was far wider. At times, it stretched to a hundred meters, depending on weather and terrain, and at other times it narrowed to barely...0