WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Natty
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ Copy Skills with Affinity! ◈
Chapter 10: Death Wish (3)
──────
People caught up in the main scenario were never ordinary, and it was difficult for any of them to have only good traits.
There were quite a few people one absolutely had to avoid, and this girl ranked near the top of that list.
Deathwish, Katia Heinkel Craven.
A major character whose role in the scenario rivaled Noel's.
The traits he remembered were these.
Eccentric, fickle, self-destructive, and willful.
And despite all that, her innate power was terrifyingly strong.
If things went wrong, every possible factor would make the negative fallout disastrously severe.
“...”
Considering the direction the game's story took, every lead character was bound to get blood on their hands eventually.
But regardless of the route, the person most likely to kill the greatest number of people was probably this girl standing before him.
She was not someone who killed indiscriminately, nor was she the sort of bastard who enjoyed inflicting violence on innocent people.
But it was like pressing a particular switch. If someone touched one of her sore spots, this girl was the sort of person who could commit mass slaughter without blinking an eye.
On the surface, she looked like a wealthy young lady taking a leisurely walk through the streets.
In truth, she was a calm-looking time bomb.
!! Sub Quest !!
▶ Make contact with “Deathwish,” Katia Heinkel Craven.
▶ Resolve the situation as peacefully as possible.
▶ If you handle the current situation smoothly, the target's favorability toward you will increase significantly!
▶ A penalty will be imposed upon failure!
...And now, while tangled up with a person like that, he was being told to resolve things peacefully.
As if something unpeaceful was guaranteed to happen.
The thought alone was horrifying, but now that this had appeared, he would have to stay sharp.
‘...A crisis could also be an opportunity.’
If he used it well, perhaps it could be.
A significant increase in favorability meant plenty of skill copies.
“I'm bored.”
They had been quietly walking side by side without speaking for quite some time when those words suddenly came from the girl.
“Isn't there anything we can do?”
“...I thought you asked me to keep you company. Didn't you have something to say?”
“Nothing like that.”
“...”
“I really only called you because I was bored. Something fun was right in front of me, and you interrupted it.”
Aiden Kellermain found himself speechless at her smiling reply.
No.
Shouldn't there have been plenty to ask?
Why he had intervened just now, how he knew her identity. Those alone were enough topics to keep a conversation going.
“Or would you like to entertain me yourself?”
“...”
“I can think of a few rather nice ways to play with you. Would you like to hear them...”
“Anything is fine?”
Katia snickered at Aiden Kellermain's abrupt interruption.
He did not look remotely respectful toward royalty, but when he gathered everything he knew about this girl, she did not seem like someone who cared about that sort of thing.
She was direct about everything. There was no need to overthink it.
“Anything is fine.”
“I have something to do, so follow me if you want.”
Aiden Kellermain walked ahead. When Katia saw their destination, she gave a derisive snort.
“A gun shop?”
In the Imperial Capital's back alleys, one could naturally get almost anything. Even guns that required troublesome possession permits could be bought as long as one had the money.
“Is something like this really meaningful?”
“I need one.”
“Why?”
“Why are you curious about the reason?”
“You can use abilities.”
“...”
How did you know that?
As he looked at Katia with that unspoken question, she cocked her head slightly.
Her response was immediately a little sheepish.
“...You can tell just by looking.”
...There sure were a lot of things she could tell at a glance.
Still, explaining why he needed a gun was somewhat complicated.
As Katia said, those who could use abilities had little reason to handle firearms.
But considering Aiden Kellermain's own trait, there was no tool better suited to him than a gun.
“Abilities become much more precise when given a form like this. You can contain them in your body, but it is more efficient to put them into a weapon.”
He remembered Noel explaining that to him before.
An ability could be used on its own just fine, but its efficiency multiplied when channeled through a weapon. It was a very simple concept.
Then, in Aiden Kellermain's case, where he handled several abilities, the choice became a little more difficult.
He needed something with multiple components, and above all, something he could use despite having received no combat training.
That ruled out traditional cold weapons like spears and swords. Aiden Kellermain had never had anything to do with such things.
Naturally, this was the most suitable choice.
A firearm. A convenient weapon made up of many parts.
“Welcome!”
The gun shop owner was a friendly old man who gave the entering customer an eager greeting.
Considering how menacing Aiden Kellermain's disguise looked, that level of customer service deserved full marks.
“...Do you have a handgun a beginner can handle?”
“Of course! Please have a look over here!”
The owner did not falter in the slightest, even at a request completely mismatched with Aiden Kellermain's voice and appearance.
“I don't think buying these would mean much.”
Meanwhile, Katia, who had been trailing after him, was looking around with apparent dissatisfaction.
“Weapons are for killing people. Everything here is for self-defense.”
...Embarrassingly enough, that was exactly what Aiden Kellermain wanted.
But before he could properly explain that, Katia was clearly determined to act on her dissatisfaction.
“Shopkeeper, where are the cartridges?”
“Ah, you'll find them in the drawer.”
At that, Katia whistled as she rummaged through the drawers, then took out rounds suited to the handguns on display.
So far, there was nothing particularly strange about it.
It was a perfectly normal situation, enough that neither the owner nor Aiden Kellermain gave it much thought.
“If you'd like to test a weapon, the backyard is...”
The problem was that before the owner could finish,
Katia had aimed a loaded gun at her own head.
“Wait, miss...!”
Before the startled owner could even finish speaking,
an ear-splitting gunshot rang through the shop.
“...”
With the clatter of a casing rolling across the floor, Aiden stood there with his mouth hanging open.
Divine Power had suddenly flared up around Katia's body the instant she fired the gun.
It looked exactly like the Divine Power Aiden Kellermain had handled before. Flames that moved automatically upon detecting danger to their user.
The bullet that touched that Divine Power's extreme heat had clearly melted away without a trace.
“See? Even when I suppress it as much as possible, it bursts out like this. So annoying.”
Katia gave a faint laugh as she placed the smoking gun back onto the display case.
Then she moved down the display, picking up each gun and doing the same thing.
Pick it up, load it, hold it to her head, and fire.
As though comparing them.
While Aiden Kellermain and the owner watched stiffly, the bullets kept being blocked and melted by the Divine Power surrounding her body.
“Ah, right.”
Naturally, the farther one went down the display case, the larger the firearms became.
Before long, Katia was holding something that should have been called a hand cannon rather than a handgun to her own head.
“This one feels pretty good.”
Then she fired it.
The Divine Power that had easily blocked handgun rounds apparently could not withstand a projectile of that caliber and was pierced through at once.
But.
“...”
The color drained from Aiden Kellermain's face as he watched what happened before him.
Even with her head completely blown apart,
Katia calmly turned around.
The face crushed apart by the bullet clung back together, like a doll made of clay being kneaded back into shape.
And filling the gaps was the same Divine Power that had automatically emerged when she was in danger moments ago.
As though death itself was not permitted to someone who wielded it.
As though it would not tolerate even a single drop of blood being spilled.
It regenerated that injury perfectly, without leaving even a trace.
“This is the sort of firepower that's worth using. You should buy something from here onward.”
And Katia herself,
despite having just had her head blown apart by a bullet,
did not blink once. Her expression did not change in the slightest.
As though she truly
felt nothing at all.
“The Divine Power I've suppressed as much as possible is about as strong as a few thin sheets of iron. Wouldn't it need to pierce that much to be useful in combat?”
Aiden Kellermain groaned inwardly as he looked at Katia, who was still smiling as she held out the handgun toward him.
He knew the trait this girl possessed, at least in his head.
Painlessness.
And something far beyond that, numbness.
In exchange for wielding this absurd Divine Power, Katia Heinkel could not feel any sensation at all.
The Divine Power automatically erased any means that could harm her, cutting off all outside stimuli.
‘Seeing it in person, this is completely...’
Wasn't she a monster?
Even though she said she had suppressed her ability as much as possible, calling her practically immortal would not have been an exaggeration.
He thought he could see why she had a role in the main story comparable to Noel's.
And at least one other person clearly agreed with that assessment very strongly.
At the click from the counter, Aiden Kellermain and Katia turned at the same time.
Pale as a sheet, the owner was aiming a loaded gun at Katia.
“Get out of my shop.”
“...It does look a little grotesque, doesn't it? I'll pay for every bullet I fired, so...”
A flash burst before Katia's eyes as she spoke.
It was probably because the Divine Power had erased the bullet fired by the shop owner.
“I told you to get out, you monster bastard...!”
The strained voice barely came out.
The trembling hands plainly showed that the owner was not accustomed to making threats like this either. It was probably an act committed in half panic after seeing Katia calmly do something so insane.
But.
The corners of Katia's mouth stretched wide at the sight.
“I can see how I might look a little strange.”
At a glance, it was the same vacant smile as always.
But Aiden Kellermain, skilled at reading people, immediately recognized the difference.
Beneath that expression was killing intent sharp enough to rip through skin.
This girl reacted extremely sensitively to others' hostility.
“Still, it's a little unpleasant when someone starts putting bullets into me out of nowhere, don't you think?”
The moment Katia strode toward the counter as she spoke,
with a click, the switch in Aiden Kellermain's head moved.
It was his personal alarm, sounding whenever he entered an extreme situation.
It felt similar to the moment before Noel was about to swing her sword at him.
If he stayed still,
that man would suffer something truly terrible.
!! Sub Quest !!
▶ Make contact with “Deathwish,” Katia Heinkel Craven.
▶ Resolve the situation as peacefully as possible.
▶ If you handle the current situation smoothly, the target's favorability toward you will increase significantly!
▶ A penalty will be imposed upon failure!
And in the current situation,
that was absolutely not a development Aiden Kellermain welcomed.
Groaning, Aiden Kellermain clutched his head.
This was already the second time since meeting this damned princess that someone might die if he did not intervene.
And at the very least,
he was not the kind of person who could simply let that pass.
Especially when he had the means to stop it.
◈ Weaver of Fate
【 Katia Heinkel Craven 】
- Bond: Level 2
- You can copy 1 skill.
<Copied Skills>
◆ First Vow
He hurriedly operated the familiar window that appeared whenever he copied a skill. He had looked over what was available once before, so choosing was easy.
The only way to stop Katia from doing something insane here was to turn her attention elsewhere. There was no way to physically stop her.
And the only way to calm an eccentric, fickle, willful person's anger was to catch her interest.
That decided which skill he needed to take.
- System Message
▶ Copying the “Sacred Body” skill!
While Aiden Kellermain operated the window, colorless flames lapped around Katia as she strode toward the counter.
The burning Divine Power soon took form, forged into a blade, and accurately targeted the man standing behind the counter.
Without hesitation, it fired.
The shop owner's face had gone from pale to purple. He looked like someone who had sensed his own future.
“...?”
Then Katia's eyebrows arched.
She must have noticed Aiden Kellermain throwing himself between them.
But her eyes immediately widened.
Probably because the arm Aiden Kellermain held out as he stepped in was pierced by that flaming blade.
“It hurts!”
And his arm, as he cried out, was being regenerated by brightly burning Divine Power.
It was exactly the same sight as Katia herself regenerating her blown-apart head just moments before.
▣
It hurts.
It hurts...!
◆ Sacred Body
Repairs the body based on First Vow. Its power can be strengthened through a vow ritual.
◎ You must possess First Vow as a prerequisite skill!
◎ The First Vow skill has not been granted an inherent trait. The “Sensory Block” trait has been removed. A penalty is applied.
◎ Only minor injuries can be recovered!
His arm was intact thanks to this, but pain was still pain.
Aiden Kellermain clutched his arm and writhed frantically.
Needless to say, burning pain was the most severe pain a person could feel. The agony of having one arm completely pierced by a burning blade was beyond words.
Of course he would react like this.
But.
“...”
Katia's eyes as she watched him were filled with shock.
As though she were witnessing something that should have been impossible.
“Sir...!”
While Katia stood frozen in a daze, Aiden Kellermain groaned out toward the counter.
“Run...! Damn, this hurts like hell...!”
The owner understood him and immediately turned to flee.
Fortunately, it seemed this stunt had been worth something.
Katia clearly did not care in the slightest about the owner escaping.
“You're just like me.”
Her cheeks trembled. Her usual smiling face was now terribly distorted.
“Hey, Mr. Kellermain. Answer me. That was my Divine Power.”
Still tearing up from the agony, Aiden Kellermain blankly turned toward Katia.
“Mr. Kellermain?”
“Did you think I'd be fooled by that pathetic disguise? More importantly, answer me. What was that just now?”
...Then she had approached him while knowing it was him from the very beginning.
He had thought she knew far too much about him, and she had seemed too conveniently placed for their encounter to have been chance.
But rather than ask her more about it, Aiden simply sighed inwardly again.
That was not what mattered right now.
“...That's right.”
There was no point lying.
She was not stupid, and there was no way he could hide something like this.
No, more precisely,
what he needed to conceal was something else.
“You're just like me.”
“Can't you tell by looking?”
“...”
Katia's expression grew even stranger at those words.
The excitement in her glittering eyes was clear enough for even a fool to recognize.
“But how can you...”
“How can I feel pain?”
“...”
Katia froze completely. Her eyes shook wildly, as though he had struck the nail directly on the head.
Aiden Kellermain knew why this girl casually went around shooting herself in the head.
A state beyond painlessness, numbness, was a horrific curse for someone born with it.
With no stimulation at all, empty as though nothing existed, she had to continue living while unable to die.
She must have been repeating those bizarre acts because she wanted somehow, even a little, to feel something.
In that sense,
the real reason Katia had been so shocked a moment ago was not merely that Aiden had used the same ability.
It was likely more that, despite wielding such an ability, he was vividly feeling pain.
So.
“Want me to tell you?”
“...”
Katia's body stiffened.
He had clearly struck deep into her weak point.
And the switch in Aiden Kellermain's head was still turning with a click, click.
The situation had erupted in an instant, and he had dealt with it through little more than improvisation.
But now that he had come this far, it was time to add one more thing.
Since things had turned out this way, should he not take every advantage he could?
In that respect, it was time to stay true to his profession.
A con.
Telling the other person a lie.
“If you want to know.”
And turning that lie to his own benefit.
“Will you do me a favor?”
- System Message
▶ You have handled the Sub Quest wisely.
▶ Target “Katia Heinkel”'s interest has increased.
▶ Bond Level has been promoted from Stage 2 to Stage 3.
▶ You have gained 1 additional skill copy!
▶ Related content has been added to the Main Quest!
“...”
Aiden Kellermain looked at the windows that appeared before him and let out a relieved sigh.
Clearly,
the feedback for his gains was gratifyingly straightforward.
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