WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Natty
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ Copy Skills with Affinity! ◈
Chapter 53: Uproar (2)
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“...I don’t recall submitting a résumé.”
Aiden shot back.
...His attitude was sharp enough that Noel, who had been quietly watching beside him, nearly rubbed her forehead without thinking.
Then again, he was the kind of person who picked fights with direct imperial royalty whenever he got the chance. A Grand Duke would hardly be an exception.
What was surprising was not Aiden’s confrontational attitude, but how calmly the Grand Duke accepted it.
“I’ve long known that you’re ill-mannered with anyone you dislike, regardless of who they are.”
The Grand Duke adjusted his clothes as he spoke.
“If those children from earlier looked like they were about to die, I would have saved them myself. Do not concern yourself with that.”
“...”
Aiden listened silently before replying in the same blunt tone.
“...I still don’t understand why you arranged this in the first place.”
“I wanted to know whether you were a fool who had stumbled upon power by luck, or a person whose convictions were truly firm.”
“Pardon?”
“You were a war orphan, weren’t you? From the slums. You have only become famous recently.”
“...”
As Aiden’s frown deepened, the Grand Duke continued evenly.
“When someone’s circumstances change suddenly, it isn’t difficult for their true nature to become muddled. I merely wanted to see whether you were that shallow.”
“...By investigating my past and urging innocent children into danger?”
Aiden’s reply remained curt, but the Grand Duke simply smiled.
“Then it was worth doing. I found someone I liked.”
“...”
This man was a formidable opponent.
Aiden mulled over that impression.
Seeing how smoothly the Grand Duke let every barb slide past made the thought come naturally.
“...In any case, that doesn’t explain anything. What position are you hiring me for, and what do you want me to do?”
“Do you know why the Aslan Duchy lies in the north?”
Of course he knew.
It was the gateway through which all manner of evil spirits and magical beasts crossed into the Empire from beyond its northern border.
There was a reason it was called the Empire’s shield.
“Then this will be easier to explain.”
The Grand Duke added with a gentle smile.
“Once every ten years, fiends and magical beasts pour through from there, and a hellscape unfolds. It is a day called the Night of the Hunt.”
“...”
“I want you to help bring it under control.”
...This was an unmistakable opening to Chapter 2.
“...Don’t you have children of your own? I heard they are all highly accomplished warriors. Surely you could ask them to handle it instead...”
“Those halfwits? You expect me to trust them with it?”
“...”
“The moment I began to falter, those fools started trying to swallow up my title. I cannot entrust such an important duty to them.”
“...Even so, surely they are more qualified than I am.”
As Aiden tried to argue despite that merciless assessment, the Grand Duke scattered several photographs across the table.
They contained images striking enough to make both Aiden and Noel flinch.
Aiden wielding Pure White Ki, Divine Power, and even Spiritual Power.
There were also records of him using the Dawn Knight’s techniques while fighting the Lord Protector not long ago.
“You are a hot commodity, Lionheart’s husband.”
“...”
“A user of multiple abilities, with ties to the Dawn Knight as well...”
The Grand Duke shifted his gaze from the photographs to Aiden.
“You are talent that the entire continent would salivate over and rush to claim, not merely the Empire. It seems that Emperor bastard is desperately trying to keep anyone from taking you while suppressing the attention focused on you.”
The Grand Duke continued calmly.
“So make your preparations and come to my territory. I have a price ready that you will be unable to refuse.”
“...”
“A Heavenly Mandate is coming, Lionheart’s husband.”
Aiden’s body twitched.
Thinking back, he had heard those words before.
A Heavenly Mandate is coming, Mr. Aiden.
...The Prince had said that to him before.
Before he could even consider why the Grand Duke had uttered the same words, the Grand Duke continued.
“The Empire will soon be turned upside down. The powder keg is already full, and someone is playing with fire inside it. That Emperor bastard may be many things, but he did a miserable job raising his children.”
“...”
“The conservative nobles loyal to the Emperor, the radical nobles attached to the Prince, and the military officials attached to me. Those factions divide the Empire’s political world into three. Did you know that?”
“...I don’t particularly want a lecture.”
“You needn’t know. What I just said is the entirety of the price I am offering.”
“Pardon?”
“You and the Prince don’t get along very well, do you?”
“...”
“I will help you resolve that.”
Grand Duke Aslan’s voice remained level.
“I, who command the Empire’s largest faction after the Emperor and Prince.”
But his next words were unmistakable.
“I will personally help you take that Prince bastard’s head.”
...It was certainly an offer Aiden could not refuse.
▣
A well-made train, especially when riding in first class, naturally offered an exceptionally comfortable ride.
It was a space designed so wealthy people could travel in comfort. Of course it was.
Which meant that was how things should have been.
“...”
“...”
Feeling as though his blood was drying up, Aiden looked back and forth between the two people sitting with him in the train compartment.
Noel and Katia were both staring outside the window so intently that it felt unnatural.
‘This is suffocating.’
Aiden sat in his seat, breaking out in a cold sweat as that thought came to him.
They had never seemed especially close before, but it was much worse now. Neither said a word or tried to make eye contact. Whenever their eyes happened to meet, they sharply turned their heads away from each other so abruptly it felt unnatural.
‘They both seem upset.’
Noel seemed upset that Katia had followed them without saying anything, while Katia seemed upset that the two of them had gone out without saying anything.
...They were both old enough to know better. What were they even doing?
From Aiden’s perspective, it was utterly absurd to watch the finest knight representing a nation’s military might and a Princess acting like this.
It would be better to do something more productive than dwell on it.
With that thought in mind, Aiden organized the information springing up in his head one by one.
‘The main quest’s critical branch...’
Honestly, he would be lying if he said the Grand Duke’s sudden words did not bother him.
Hadn’t he reacted as if he already knew about the final coup, the highlight of Act One, Imperial Capital Rift?
‘...Why?’
That was the greatest question.
Grand Duke Aslan had no reason to help Aiden. The Grand Duke was not particularly close to the Emperor, either.
More precisely, the Grand Duke despised all direct imperial royalty, including the Emperor and Prince, considering them fools who wore crowns despite having no ability.
An uncompromising believer in merit, Grand Duke Aslan was a strategist and an ambitious leader with an exceptional talent for gathering people.
Wasn’t that the sort of person Grand Duke Aslan was?
To begin with, the reason the coup in the original work occurred was because of those very qualities of Grand Duke Aslan.
‘...Wasn’t Grand Duke Aslan the one who started it in the original work?’
The original final villain of Act One was Grand Duke Aslan.
Now, the main Scenario had already become thoroughly tangled. The most likely person to stage such a coup was the Prince, who was supposed to have stopped Grand Duke Aslan, while the Grand Duke, the original villain, was offering to help stop him.
“...”
Looking at it that way, something had likely gone wrong because Grand Duke Aslan was ill unlike in the original work, while the children who would have helped the Grand Duke stage the coup were instead after the Grand Duke’s position. Grand Duke Aslan must have felt as though a trusted axe had struck his foot.
That was probably closely related to why the Grand Duke had approached Aiden, saying that Aiden was to his liking.
‘...Come to think of it.’
Aiden tapped his chin as he sank into thought.
Grand Duke Aslan was himself a golden pile of skills, comparable to Noel or Katia.
Of course, in terms of wielding abilities, there were barely any people across the continent who could compare to those two. But skills were not limited to ability-related ones.
When it came to support skills that could help one navigate difficult situations, Grand Duke Aslan’s worth rivaled theirs.
There was nothing to lose by raising his Affinity.
And when Aiden listed those qualities together, the current situation could be summarized simply.
‘Isn’t this the perfect chance to wring every last skill out of the Grand Duke?’
...For Aiden, it was an opportunity worth a fortune.
“We’ve arrived.”
As he continued those thoughts, Noel’s calm voice cut in.
“This is the Aslan Duchy.”
The train was descending a slope beyond a high hill.
It was high enough to offer an excellent view of the surrounding landscape.
Then, beyond that view, a vast city unfolded like a panorama.
“...Wow.”
It was huge.
Insanely huge.
That was Aiden’s first impression.
He had visited the Imperial Palace before, but its towering scale and grandeur had been what left an impression. It had not given him this overwhelming sense of sheer vastness.
A massive city stretching beyond the horizon. By area alone, it was said to be the largest single noble territory on the continent.
The Empire’s greatest stronghold, called its second heart alongside the Imperial Palace. The Aslan Duchy.
And the setting of Chapter 2, Night of the Hunt.
‘This is ridiculous.’
No wonder the Grand Duke was called the Empire’s foremost grand noble.
As Aiden clicked his tongue inwardly, the train suddenly jolted as it descended the slope.
When the ridge that had filled his view disappeared.
“Hm?”
Something strange passed through the edge of his vision.
“That is...”
Aiden looked up at the sky, tilting his head.
Countless dark shapes covered the heavens, things he had never seen before.
At first, he thought they were simple storm clouds, but a closer look showed otherwise.
Storm clouds did not have boundaries cut as precisely as though they divided the sky into distinct zones.
Nor did they continually spill thick black haze, sticky as tar and looking as though it could blind someone.
“Ah, that must be the Void Zone. It is my first time seeing it in person.”
Katia spoke in a low voice as she looked at the black sky faintly visible beyond that frozen wasteland.
“I heard no human living on the continent can ever enter it, yet they built a duchy right next to it and live there.”
It was the place where the body of Wornil, the God of Devouring worshipped by demonkind, had been sealed.
That was the coffin where all the gods of the Pantheon had joined forces to seal the god.
Centuries had passed since it was first discovered, yet the deathly energy lingering around it showed no sign of subsiding.
Any ordinary person who approached it would die, one hundred percent. Even someone with powerful abilities could not possibly remain unaffected.
‘To begin with...’
Thinking about it, that was not entirely accurate.
The reason the duchy existed here in the first place was because of that.
The reason most of the people living in the duchy had filled the place with ritualistic and religious structures, even while accepting a relatively low level of civilization, was also because of it.
Aiden had heard that, from the northern Empire’s position as its shield, life itself would be disrupted by its influence without even those measures.
“Let’s go.”
As he processed all that information, Noel’s words suddenly reached him.
Then, with a rattling sound, the train gradually slowed.
“...”
Aiden took a deep breath.
Right.
Chapter 2 began now.
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