Even in a Dark Fantasy, You Still Have to Eat - Chapter 33

WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Haruto

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ Even in a Dark Fantasy, You Still Have to Eat ◈

Chapter 33: Still, We Live On # 2

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The Wall was not simply a pile of stone walls.

Each floor had its own facilities.

The ninth floor had the Training Ground, while the eighth had an armory where weapons were made.

It had been quite a while since I came to the Wall, but I had not explored every floor.

So I had no idea what was on the sixth floor.

“Jermain, is the next lesson on the sixth floor?”

My face heated up, and my legs trembled for no reason.

“Little brother, the sixth floor is where people fuck.”

Clap, clap.

Jermain smacked her palms together, making a strange sound.

My mouth went dry.

‘Of course! If the lesson after touching breasts isn’t that, what else could it be!’

We arrived on the sixth floor of the Wall.

Most of the Wall’s corridors were bleak gray stone, but this place was different.

‘It smells like flowers.’

Women holding bouquets stood beneath red lanterns.

There were many men walking through the corridor too.

They looked at the flowers the women held and bargained over the prices.

“Two hundred thousand Ether for one flower? What a rip-off!”

“Then leave.”

It was a strange yet familiar sight.

“Jermain, this is a brothel.”

“Hey, watch what you say. This is a flower shop.”

“A flower shop?”

“We simply provide a special service to customers who buy flowers. Go buy one too, little brother. The lesson starts after that.”

“Tch, no.”

“No?”

Rejecting the words of a beautiful woman like Jermain.

I had grown in many ways.

It couldn’t be helped. If I didn’t want to, I didn’t want to.

Those women looked like they would be full of dangerous diseases.

‘Should I spend my precious Ether just to catch a venereal disease?’

I knew someone who was a regular at brothels.

Their teeth fell out, and their lower half rotted away before they died in agony.

I didn’t want to die like that.

My dream was to marry a woman I liked and live happily together.

It would be nice if she prepared my meals every morning.

“It would be even better if she massaged my shoulders at night after I worked hard all day.”

That was my dream.

To live an ordinary, happy life like everyone else!

“Huh?”

At my words, Jermain twisted her brows as if a bee had stung her tongue.

And then, finally...

“Pwahahahahahaha!”

She laughed so loudly that every woman selling flowers looked our way, and even the men hurrying out of the corridor while adjusting their waistbands stopped walking.

“Why are you laughing?”

“You have a cuter side than I expected.”

Cute?

I heard that if a woman called you cute, it was over.

Damn it.

“Anyway, Jermain, I can’t do this lesson.”

It could go against the first principle of my life: taking good care of my body and staying healthy.

I didn’t like brothel prostitutes.

Jermain’s eyes narrowed to slits.

“Then how about this?”

Jermain opened the zipper of her top and took out a handkerchief from between her breasts.

Then she folded it over and over into the shape of a flower.

It wasn’t a real flower, but I wanted it more than anything sold here.

“How about buying my flower?”

“How much is it?”

My mouth went dry again.

“Ten billion Ether.”

What kind of price was that?

It was ridiculous.

Grin.

Jermain smiled suspiciously, hid the flower between her breasts, and zipped her top back up.

Then I understood what she meant.

‘She was never planning to sell it for real money.’

‘She wants me to steal it from her bosom.’

‘Like a Thief!’

‘Fair and square!’

Steal something from Jermain’s bosom when she was at least a Level 16 Trickster.

Was that even possible?

Still, the challenge made my heart race.

I cautiously reached out my hand, but Jermain smacked the back of it.

“Hey, if you come at me that openly, it’s hard even for me to pretend I didn’t notice.”

“Hehe, I was trying to be as sneaky as possible.”

“It seems proper Thief training should come first for you, little brother. Follow me.”

Jermain grabbed my hand and pulled me along.

Her hand was rougher than I expected.

# # #

Jermain led me into a room tucked away on the sixth floor.

A woman wearing a veil sat demurely on the bed.

Was she a little older than me?

“Clara, you still have my item, right?”

“Of course.”

The woman felt around beneath the bed.

Was she blind?

Jermain handed me the book Clara took out.

“I’ll give you this.”

“What is it?”

“A skill book. It only appeared in the auction house once, a hundred years ago. I barely managed to get it and have kept it ever since. Forget the price, there are no listings for it at all.”

An incredibly rare skill!

My mood instantly improved.

At the same time, I felt uneasy.

“Can I really accept something like this?”

“It’s a little wasteful, but I have to give you the reward for completing the request, don’t I?”

That was true.

This was my reward for bringing her the Eight-Armed Great Mother Idol.

Flip.

I opened the skill book.

The squiggly letters shifted into words I could read.

「Shadow Companion」

「A thief thought, “If only there were two of me.” He worked hard and learned to move his own shadow at will.」

「Allows the user to manipulate their own shadow for a short time.」

「Level Requirement 10: Met!」

「Would you like to use it?」

Oh, Shadow Companion!

I had seen this skill in the game.

Was it the kind that made shadows follow you around and add extra attacks?

I remembered it being a skill used by high-level Thieves, but I could learn it at Level 10.

‘The level calculations in the game Night Diver and this world really seem very different.’

「Would you like to use the skill book?」

Of course, yes.

Never hold back on investing in my body.

Sssshhh.

The book turned to powder and seeped into my body.

“《Shadow Companion》.”

I immediately tried the skill I had learned.

Then I felt something I had never experienced before.

It felt as if my body had split into two.

“Uhhh.”

It felt like my brain was tangling.

My vision swayed in every direction.

“Why is this happening?”

My body fell forward with a thud.

Even standing up wasn’t easy.

“Wow, this is incredibly difficult.”

“Hehehe, you want to control your shadow, don’t you?”

“Yes!”

“Clara, can I borrow some paper and quills?”

Jermain’s new lesson began.

“Little brother, draw a circle with the pen in your left hand. Draw a star with the pen in your right.”

A circle with my left hand.

A star with my right.

“Is that even possible?”

“This is the most basic training. It’s a secret method that I don’t teach just anyone. I’m teaching it specially to you, little brother.”

“Come on, don’t lie. How could anyone do that?”

“Hah, lie?”

Jermain took the pens.

She held one in each hand and began drawing.

Scratch, scratch.

I thought she would draw a circle and a star.

“Ta-da.”

On one side was my face. On the other was the face of the blind woman named Clara.

They were incredibly detailed!

“Oooh!”

That was seriously amazing!

Compared to that, drawing a circle and a star would be easy.

Let’s practice hard.

My motivation was suddenly overflowing!

“Then, little brother Yore, I have urgent business, so I’ll leave first. It’s a skill with endless uses, so practice it every day.”

“Yes, take care!”

Jermain had taught me many things that helped me despite everything.

Let’s keep getting along.

If things went well, maybe she would let me touch her breasts again.

Then Clara asked me.

“I didn’t think Jermain would give that skill book to someone else. She must have high expectations for you.”

“Are you close with Jermain, Clara?”

“We have known each other for a long time. But I don’t know her well. You may know her better than I do.”

You.

The way she spoke was old-fashioned and somehow embarrassing.

She didn’t look like someone who sold flowers in a place like this.

“Clara, just call me Yore.”

“Yo... re?”

Clara’s face, faintly visible behind the veil, twitched strangely.

“Could you be the new Thief in Felix’s party?”

“Oh, you know my name?”

I was kind of famous.

Maybe word of the +20 Breakthrough Stone had spread.

“Felix talks about you a lot.”

“Felix?”

That Felix.

He acted so dignified and strict, but he had been visiting brothels.

‘That bastard really is a man!’

I should go tease him.

# # #

I returned to the Wall’s lodgings.

“Three thousand... two hundred... eleven... Three thousand... two hundred... twelve...”

Felix was doing one-finger handstand push-ups.

He somehow held himself up on a single finger.

“What are you doing?”

“Can’t you see? I have to become... stronger!”

Felix dripped sweat.

What an ascetic guy.

At least, that was how he looked.

“I heard you know Clara?”

“Gah!”

Crash!

Felix fell over.

He hurriedly got back up and grabbed me by the collar.

“How do you know that name!?”

Sniff, sniff.

Felix smelled my body.

“The smell of cosmetics... Don’t tell me... You went to the sixth floor! Don’t tell me you and Clara...!?”

Shake, shake.

He shook me back and forth so hard that my head felt like it was being rattled apart.

“Don’t freak out like that. We only talked.”

“Talked?”

“Yeah.”

Only then did Felix let go of my collar.

He wiped away his sweat with the towel on his shoulder.

“I’m saying this in advance in case you misunderstand. Clara and I don’t have any kind of relationship either. She just resembles my older sister, so I’ve visited her a few times to talk. That’s all.”

That was the first time I had heard Felix had an older sister.

‘If she looks like Clara, she must be pretty.’

‘And if she’s Felix’s sister from a knightly family, her conduct must be proper too.’

She was a suitable candidate to become my wife.

I really should stay on good terms with Felix.

“Then where is the Erdari you captured?”

Ah.

Right, I had captured an Erdari.

We had already entered the third day. Was it about time to let her out?

I reached into the Black Bundle.

“Hehehe, I didn’t even tell Major Jeremiah.”

Major Jeremiah’s hatred toward the Erdari was real.