WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Natty

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◈ Copy Skills with Affinity! ◈

Chapter 69: Encounter

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Thinking about a person named Ganesha Aldebaran, there was no way the skills he possessed could be rated poorly.

The unseen hand that ruled the continent's underworld. A wealthy tycoon. A great merchant.

...That was the information visible on the surface.

The deeper information Aiden knew was that Ganesha was dangerous enough to need all that as a public disguise.

So it was good that someone like that already held interest and Affinity toward him.

‘...The problem is that there’s nothing I can do right now, isn’t it?’

He could not actively seek Ganesha out. He had to wait until Ganesha made contact first.

The quest window said there was no hostile intent, so there was no particular reason to prepare, either.

If they met face-to-face, Aiden had ways to raise that Affinity sharply. But he could not go looking for Ganesha.

So for now, he had to keep doing what needed to be done.

The quest window had said he would come on his own. Since Aiden did not know how he would approach him, preparing for it would be pointless. He would be better off using his limited time as efficiently as possible.

Training makes the man. Meyer cut him to pieces every night, but practicing those movements with his actual body was a different matter.

Which meant that getting badly hurt to the point his body felt like mush while practicing combat on Reaver that morning was nothing to be embarrassed about.

“...Are you all right?”

“...”

Even seeing Noel struggle to hold back her laughter was nothing to be embarrassed about.

That was what he needed to tell himself. After all, it would be shameless to scold the person who had supported him all the way to the pharmacy for laughing at him...

“...I’m fine.”

With that, he slowly opened the pharmacy door.

“Excuse m...”

“Get out right now!”

“...”

The timing made it easy to mistake the insult as being directed at him, but Aiden quickly realized it was not.

The scene visible through the partly open door was already ugly enough without his involvement.

The first thing he noticed was a girl sprawled on the floor.

Her clothes were so filthy that it was impossible to tell when she had last washed. Her complexion was pale, perhaps because she was malnourished.

She was struggling to clutch the area around her stomach with her arms, clearly in pain. Then again, she would not have come to a pharmacy otherwise.

Judging by her posture, someone appeared to have shoved her to the ground.

It was not difficult to find the likely culprit. When Aiden shifted his gaze, he saw a middle-aged man behind the counter with an angry expression.

He was probably the shop owner. He was likely the one who had just shouted at her, too.

“I’ll pay. I’ll pay you, so please... My stomach hurts so much. Just some painkillers...”

The girl pleaded in a trembling voice. Her pitch wavered, and her voice itself was so weak that she sounded half-dead.

Yet despite her desperate plea, the middle-aged owner who had just roughly handled her showed no sign of backing down.

When the girl looked as though she might approach him, his expression grew several times harsher as he shouted at her.

“I said get out! If you come any closer, I’ll call the police!”

Aiden noticed Noel’s expression steadily twisting beside him.

To someone as kindhearted as her, this scene must have been outrageous. It did not look normal to him, either.

At the very least, the girl was saying she would pay, and she clearly appeared to be in pain.

Treating a girl like that so viciously went beyond poor customer service. It was the sort of behavior that would utterly ruin someone’s reputation as a human being.

Why?

Though an act of violence that defied common sense was unfolding before him, that was Aiden’s first thought. One might call it a virtue of a con artist.

First, swiftly and accurately absorb the information that makes up a situation. Then arrange that information appropriately without allowing personal emotions to interfere at any point.

So, let’s take a look.

Medicines prescribed for the girl lying on the floor were spread across the counter. There was loose change beside them, apparently what she had put down to pay.

It had all scattered around when she was thrown back.

A useful clue.

In other words, the owner had not stopped the girl before she approached the counter with money. Something had happened when she handed over the money, or at least when she came close enough.

Then why would he want to throw out a customer in such poor condition, even at the cost of his reputation?

It was not difficult to guess.

Aiden studied the girl’s body closely. He found what he was looking for at once.

“Noel. Stop.”

Then he whispered to Noel, who looked ready to smash through the pharmacy door at any moment.

“Aiden, how can you say th...”

“Near her wrist.”

“What?”

“Look. Near that girl’s wrist.”

Startled by his sudden words, Noel shifted her gaze toward the girl’s wrist.

It was not difficult to spot the black speck protruding through her skin.

“...”

Noel bit her lip hard.

It was a clear sign of an infectious disease.

It did not infect healthy people, but it was common among children in slums, where they were malnourished and constantly exposed to polluted environments.

Even with medical technology as advanced as it was now, it was only natural for people to look poorly upon those with infectious diseases. Especially children from the slums, since no one would know what disease they carried.

“Even so, we can’t just leave her like th...”

“Of course not.”

Noel began to protest in a slightly raised voice, but Aiden cut her off with a flat, even tone. Then a smile appeared on his face.

It was an expression she remembered.

One she had seen before.

The smile that had made this man take root in a corner of her heart.

The particular smile he wore when expressing his convictions.

The next moment, Aiden casually stepped through the pharmacy door.

▣

His brisk footsteps did not suit the grim atmosphere at all, and both the owner and the girl on the floor stared at Aiden in a daze.

Ignoring them, Aiden continued toward the counter with light steps.

Meeting the owner’s eyes, he spoke brightly.

“Please ring up the medicine here as it is.”

The owner snapped back to his senses and looked at Aiden suspiciously. He glanced at the girl, wondering if they knew each other, but she was staring at Aiden with the same stunned expression. Apparently, they did not.

“...Those medicines were not prescribed for you, sir.”

“No, I took a look, and they happen to be exactly what I need.”

His attitude was so shamelessly confident that Noel, watching from behind, nearly laughed. At that level of confidence, even openly pretending not to see the obvious did not look pathetic.

He was plainly saying that he would buy the medicine in the girl’s place. The owner seemed thoroughly flustered, his eyes darting about for a moment before he barely regained his composure.

Then, seemingly realizing Aiden’s intentions, the owner’s expression filled with strong distaste.

In any case, he was not particularly eager to sell the medicine in this situation. It would be troublesome if Aiden had the same infectious disease.

If word spread that someone with an infectious disease had visited a shop, customers would stop coming and sales would plummet.

And a record of having sold something was one of the surest proofs that they had been there.

But the owner could hardly search Aiden’s body out of nowhere for a stone fragment that might be somewhere on him, so he cautiously spoke first.

“Sir, every product here cannot be purchased without a doctor’s prescription...”

“I know none of them require one. Let’s not play dumb.”

“...”

“Medicine that children from the slums buy is all pretty much the same. None of it is important enough to require a prescription.”

Aiden gave the owner an even brighter smile than before. He was smiling outwardly, but the expression carried the pressure of someone telling another person who knew better not to make a fuss and quietly let it go.

The owner’s expression changed slightly as he responded.

“Even so, it would be difficult to give them to a patient who does not appear to have any symptoms...”

Frankly, that was not much of an excuse, either. The person hearing it had injuries all over his body, even if they were not severe.

Besides, products for which that excuse might work always came with a notice that a doctor’s prescription was required. Aiden had already pointed out that the medicines on the counter did not fall into that category.

So the additional excuses used in such moments tended to be flimsy but effective.

We are out of stock, so we need to save them for customers in more urgent need. Things like that.

Even if the seller had so much stock piled up in the back that it was rotting and growing mushrooms, the buyer had little to say in response if the seller insisted on an excuse like that. Simple, but powerful.

So what did one need to do to destroy such an excuse?

The answer was the same. Present something simple and powerful.

The method Aiden chose was so powerful that it crossed into madness.

He took a fountain pen from his pocket. It was a gift Sissela had once given him, something precious that he always carried with him.

He felt a little reluctant to use it this way, but his decision was swift, as was his action. First, he rolled up his sleeve. Beneath his coat and shirt, Aiden’s bare arm was revealed.

Then, with a casual motion, he moved the fountain pen.

Aiden drove the pen into the outside of his upper arm and dragged it down past his wrist.

The nib sliced through his skin. Fresh blood burst out, mixing with the ink and running down in a dark red stream.

Because the motion had been so casual, everyone present needed a moment to understand what exactly Aiden had done and react.

The owner stared at him as though he were insane. Noel swallowed a groan behind him, and the girl lying on the floor went pale.

The sharp scent of blood filled the air, and within seconds, Aiden’s arm was covered in blood. The flowing blood soon formed drops and fell onto the shop floor. Drip, drip. He raised his bleeding arm and deliberately set it on the counter where everyone could see it. It was rude, irrational, and barbaric.

But the process was simple, and the effect was extraordinarily powerful.

And throughout that entire sequence of actions...

Aiden still wore a smile.

“Wow, this really hurts.”

With that calm voice added to the sight, something close to fear began to appear in the owner’s eyes.

“It hurts so much that I think I’ll need painkillers to settle it down. You agree, don’t you?”

Aiden spoke in a clear voice as he spun the bloodied fountain pen in his equally blood-soaked hand. The droplets falling on the counter had almost formed a puddle.

He was still smiling.

“Ah, and since I’m worried about an additional infection, I’d appreciate some antibiotics as well.”

That polite voice must have sounded terrifying to the owner.

“...How does a person keep getting more and more...”

“...”

Of course.

Noel’s voice, now practically resigned, somehow struck painfully at his heart.

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