WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Haruto
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ Even in a Dark Fantasy, You Still Have to Eat ◈
Chapter 34: Campfire
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It was time to interrogate the demonkin Erdari.
How should I interrogate her?
Pull her ears?
Stick needles into the soles of her feet?
Hehehe.
I shivered at all sorts of delightful possibilities when...
“I’ll tell you everything I know.”
Nineveh, whom I thought would hold out like a turtle, promised to cooperate much more easily than expected.
What?
Had keeping her in the Black Bundle and starving her for around three days worked?
“Demon, do you know how many days have passed since you were captured?”
First, I asked because I was curious what it was like inside the Black Bundle.
“Two days? Three?”
Nineveh answered calmly.
“What did you see inside my bundle?”
“Black, cozy darkness.”
That was interesting.
So being inside my bundle felt like being locked in a black solitary cell?
And time still passed normally.
“What is this necklace?”
Now, I should ask about the necklace Moltma had left behind.
The keywords I knew were “greatest treasure” and “key.”
“Looking at your face, it seems you know what this is.”
I was the only one in our party who had not received a reward for the Spider’s Jewel, so I needed to get as much as I could out of this necklace.
“That belongs to Akam.”
“Akam?”
What was that?
I should ask Hermit later.
Clink.
Felix placed a hand on his sword hilt and asked.
“Who are you?”
The Erdari smiled.
“I am Nineveh, the forty-sixth Ascendant of Shando.”
“The forty-sixth?”
Felix flinched as though he had been stung in the back of the neck by a bee.
He tapped the floor twice with his foot.
It was a signal to step outside because he had something to say.
Once we were in the hallway, he spoke.
“I thought she would just be about priest-class. She’s far more important than that. I don’t think this is something we can handle ourselves.”
Felix looked quite serious.
“Is she really that important?”
“If we get involved with this carelessly, it could get Hammer and Hermit killed too, not just you and me.”
Blessed people like us were valuable personnel.
Why else would Brigadier General Ezakiel have personally come to that filthy prison to recruit me?
This was a bomb that could blow the heads off a Blessed party like ours!
“What exactly is an Ascendant?”
“Put simply, we captured someone with a rank around Brigadier General Ezakiel’s. It’s not an exact comparison, but it’s close enough.”
“Oh!”
This was an enormous achievement.
Still, Felix warned me again as if he did not care about that at all.
“This isn’t something we can handle ourselves. Let’s hand her over to the higher-ups.”
Felix was strict, but he was not a coward or an idiot.
There had to be a reason he was saying this much.
“Fine. We should hand her over to Brigadier General Ezakiel.”
If we sent her to Major General Jeremiah, we might have to go through all sorts of interrogations and annoying searches again, starting with, “Why did you lie?”
If we sent her to Brigadier General Ezakiel and asked her to cover for us, we could probably avoid the troublesome parts.
Felix nodded at my opinion.
“You really are good at these little schemes.”
Then I should ask a few more questions before putting her back in the Black Bundle.
When I returned to the room with that in mind, Ascendant Nineveh asked me.
“Your scent is unusual. Why is that?”
Every Erdari I met said something like that.
“Are you after my Ratas too?”
“Ratas...? Blech. Just thinking about it makes me want to throw up.”
Nineveh gagged.
So this bastard’s weakness was Ratas!
# # #
The next morning.
Perhaps because of the carrier pigeon we had sent the night before, Brigadier General Ezakiel arrived at the Wall from military headquarters.
The Brigadier General looked at Nineveh, who was being held in our lodging, and calmly said.
“Untie her.”
Huh?
Untie her?
That crazy demon woman?
“...”
Even Felix, who usually obeyed his superior’s orders, hesitated.
“It’s fine. I’ll take responsibility.”
Brigadier General Ezakiel was not the kind of person who joked. Felix and I untied Nineveh despite wondering whether this was really right.
Nineveh rolled her shoulders and flexed her hands, then smiled.
“Even among the ignorant soldiers of Rendo, there is a wise one.”
“Then please board the prepared carriage.”
It was treatment fit for an honored guest.
It felt like a dream.
‘Weren’t demons supposed to be killed on sight?’
What was this, sleeping with the enemy?
There had to be a reason behind Brigadier General Ezakiel’s actions.
When the Erdari boarded the carriage under heavy guard, Brigadier General Ezakiel finally turned around and faced Felix and me.
“Capturing a high Ascendant is an achievement not seen in roughly a hundred years. This merit will certainly be reported to the higher-ups, so you may look forward to a reward soon.”
A reward!
Enhancing my weapon with the Refining Stone Brigadier General Ezakiel had given me last time had been quite profitable.
I hoped she would give me another rare material like that.
“Felix, your assignment may change as well. You said you wanted to join a subjugation party, didn’t you?”
Felix was going to a subjugation party?
What was that supposed to mean?
“Brigadier General, could you put that matter on hold?”
“Have you changed your mind since then? If so, that’s fine.”
Then Brigadier General Ezakiel turned her eyes toward me.
“Yore, you have been doing remarkably well lately. It seems my eye for talent was not mistaken when I brought you in.”
Pat, pat.
She tapped my shoulder as though encouraging me.
She smelled so nice that it made the tip of my nose tingle.
She was an elegant, dignified older woman, different from Jermain.
‘She would definitely make a wonderful wife.’
Just as I wondered how much Ether I would need to save to marry someone like her, Brigadier General Ezakiel stopped.
“Come to think of it, Yore, I heard you reached Level 10?”
“Yep!”
“That’s faster than expected. Then pack your things.”
“My things?”
“Blessed who reach Level 10 must complete the military academy and receive an Imperial officer’s commission. Did Hammer or Felix not tell you?”
They had not told me anything.
I looked at Felix, wondering what was going on. He scratched the back of his head.
“There’s been so much going on lately. I didn’t have a chance to tell him.”
Military academy.
School obviously did not suit me, so I was already worried.
Just thinking about it made my chest feel tight.
I would not be able to earn Ether because I had to go to some boring, useless school.
It felt so unfair that I almost cried.
“The training for your commission will be abbreviated. It should only take around two weeks.”
Perhaps she read the gloom on my face, because the Brigadier General comforted me.
“After that, you’ll return to your original unit here, so don’t worry too much.”
“Yep.”
“And don’t forget to bring your weapons and equipment.”
“My weapons?”
“There’s an Ether Table there as well. You’ll deploy every day, so you’ll need them.”
Oh!
I could deploy to earn Ether even at military academy?
Maybe school would not be so bad after all!
“But Brigadier General, what will happen to our party while Yore is gone?”
Felix asked before the carriage left.
Brigadier General Ezakiel paused to think.
“There is a Thief whose party was wiped out, leaving them as the sole survivor. I’ll assign them to you. They’re Level 13 and have three years of experience, so you won’t feel Yore’s absence.”
“Ugh...”
Felix frowned.
Hermit, who had come out to see what was happening, also looked disgusted.
“Another unfamiliar Thief...”
“Yore! Bring back a few meat pies when you return after graduating! The cafeteria’s meat pies are famous!”
“Yep! Hammer, Hermit, Felix, I’ll be back soon, sir!”
Anyway, I left the Wall.
Things moved at lightning speed.
“I thought the military would be a stricter, more rigid place.”
I asked Brigadier General Ezakiel as she prepared to board the carriage.
She smiled.
“The easier, the better.”
Clop, clop.
The carriage set off.
Headquarters was two days away by carriage from the Wall.
There were no seats left in the carriage, and there were no spare horses, so I sat on top of a cargo wagon.
It was uncomfortable because the seat was hard, but I liked being able to enjoy the scenery.
“Are you Yore the Thief? I am Knight Reynold.”
A knight on horseback spoke to me.
With his closely cropped beard, bald head, and greatsword on his back, he reminded me of Lieutenant General Raiden.
Though he was much younger.
“How was the Lieutenant General’s final moment?”
“He was amazing. I want to become someone like him too.”
“He must’ve gone out like a true man. I joined the Wall because I wanted to become like him as well.”
Reynold did not look down on me for being a Thief. He seemed like a decent knight too.
He even took out something like a portrait from a round locket and showed it to me.
“Pretty, right? She’s my wife. We’re having a baby soon.”
His wife was beautiful.
I envied his stable family.
“Yore, if things go well this time, I’m going to take some leave. I need to see my baby, and I want to take my wife to the sea like she’s always wanted. So this job has to go well.”
Reynold tightened his grip on the reins.
Before long, night fell.
We stopped to make camp.
Knight Reynold lit a campfire.
But I suddenly felt uneasy.
“Sir Reynold, wouldn’t it be better to put out the fire? If we light a fire this deep in the woods, animals or bandits will come.”
On roads this remote, you should not light a fire unless you were about to freeze to death.
The bandit group I used to belong to made money by following those flames.
“If you want to return safely to your wife, it would be best to put out the fire.”
At my worried suggestion, Sir Reynold thumped his chest.
“It’s fine. I’m a Level 15 knight.”
Was Level 15 the same as Felix?
If he was as strong as Felix, maybe it was fine to light a fire in the forest...
Whoosh!
Thud!
An arrow flew from the forest and struck the carriage.
“Bandits!”
Shing.
Sir Reynold immediately drew his sword.
What a veteran knight!
Just as I thought I could rely on him even in a situation like this, Sir Reynold pointed his sword at me and shouted.
“Fuck! Put everything you have on the ground and lie down! Try anything funny and I’ll kill you!”
Huh? What the fuck was this?
Masked bandits burst out of the darkness and stabbed the guards in their necks.
“Ack!”
“Argh!”
Stab, stab. Spray!
Blood splattered everywhere in an instant.
Hehehe.
Sinister laughter spread from every direction.
“Reynold, did the operation succeed?”
“The carriage really came down this road!”
“A military Brigadier General and a female Erdari should fetch us some money!”
Fuck, Reynold sold us out?
What was with these knights and stabbing people in the back?
I suddenly missed Felix.
A knight like him was someone I could really trust with my back.
My inner affinity for him just went up.
“The guards have all been dealt with.”
“Now all that remains is the carriage and that Thief.”
Step by step.
The bandits approached the carriage.
Looking at their equipment, they were not ordinary highway robbers. Every one of them was a Wall explorer.
There were seven of them, around my level, slightly above it, or slightly below it.
And Sir Reynold was with them.
‘Fuck, I can’t win this.’
Running was the safe bet.
Then Brigadier General Ezakiel spoke in a gentle voice from inside the carriage.
“Yore, what should we do?”
Her expression beyond the carriage window showed neither tension nor fear.
Looking at her smile made me feel confidence and courage too.
The courage to talk big!
“What do you mean, what should we do? Am I supposed to die like a dog here? I’m running!”
I dashed toward the forest with all my strength.
The bandits snickered at the sight.
“He ran.”
“At least he has a brain.”
I hid in the darkness and activated my skill.
“《Shadow Companion》.”
Controlling my shadow and body at the same time was still difficult.
But if I only controlled the shadow, I could do it.
‘It feels like playing a game while looking at a monitor.’
‘A first-person shooter.’
Whoosh.
I found the enemies through my shadow and threw a shadow shuriken.
Slice.
The blade grazed a masked bandit’s neck.
Spray!
The bastard spat blood and panicked.
“Guh, what the fuck is this!?”
Before they could come to their senses, I retrieved the shuriken and threw it again.
This time, it struck another bastard right between the eyes.
Thud.
“Urgh!”
“Fuuuck! It’s a shadow!”
“The shadow is moving!?”
Sharp bastards. Had they already figured it out?
Still, there were only five left!
Author’s Note
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