WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Haruto
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ Even in a Dark Fantasy, You Still Have to Eat ◈
Chapter 48: An Enemy of an Enemy of an Enemy
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They say wanting something for nothing is a thief's mindset.
But stealing isn't easy either.
It takes incredible effort.
Of course, there were people who really did want something for nothing.
Kill someone and take it from the corpse.
That was how murderers called Desperados worked.
It was also the easiest and most vulgar kind of theft.
That was why Desperados were routinely looked down on even among the Wall's Thieves.
“Trickster Yore.”
A Desperado had targeted me.
“It's time for you to die.”
Velzer was an oddball with countless daggers tucked into belts all over their body.
And Velzer seemed to hold a deep grudge against me.
I had something to say about that too.
“Hey, Velzer! Is this because you got trapped in that secret room at the volcano last time?”
I was angry too.
Velzer was blaming me for something that had been their own fault.
“You screwed up, so why are you taking it out on me?”
“I'm taking it out on you?”
“You aren't some innocent virgin. Among experienced hands who know the score, the one who gets fooled is the idiot. Aren't you ashamed to turn this around on me after making that mistake?”
“That mouth. Say one more word, and I'll tear it apart.”
Shing.
Velzer drew a dagger from their chest and gripped it in reverse.
At that moment, I checked Master Estelle's expression.
“An uninvited guest tracking mud into someone else's laboratory. That doesn't make me happy-.”
Master's expression was frighteningly grim.
The reason vicious Velzer hadn't attacked me immediately was probably Master Estelle.
“Die!”
Whoosh.
Velzer swung an arm and threw a dagger.
The throw had a wide windup, so I ducked and avoided it.
Thunk.
The dagger embedded itself behind me.
At that moment, I felt something strange.
“...Huh?”
There had definitely been about twenty meters between Velzer and me.
But somehow, Velzer was already behind me, bringing a blade down.
“It's over.”
When did Velzer get there?
It was so fast that I hadn't sensed it at all.
‘I have to dodge!’
I desperately bent backward.
The dagger grazed my left thigh.
“Aaaagh!”
My clothes were cut, and my skin was scraped.
That hurt!
“You scamming bastard! How did you do that? Why were you suddenly behind me...!?”
“The one who gets fooled is at fault. Wasn't that what you said?”
Whoosh.
Velzer flicked the blood from the drawn dagger.
Those eyes were so cold that a chill ran down my spine.
“Master! At this rate, your disciple is going to die!”
I hid behind Master Estelle.
“《Strange Arrow》.”
Master cast her spell.
Silver-white magic floated before her face.
It chased Velzer.
Fwoosh.
“...Magic arrows?”
Velzer ran through the cramped laboratory, dodging the arrows.
The speed was enough to make Velzer difficult to follow with my eyes.
But the astonishing thing was that the magic arrows turned in midair and kept chasing Velzer.
“A tracking spell?”
“They won't stop until you die-.”
Magic arrows that pursued their target until death!
Fuck, magic really was amazing.
“Master, you're the best!”
Velzer.
My tiresome bad blood with Velzer would end here!
Just as I thought that, Velzer put a hand to their chest.
Velzer pulled every dagger from the belts, held them like a fan, and scattered them in every direction.
Fwoosh.
Thunk, thunk, thunk.
Daggers embedded themselves everywhere at random.
“Idiot! They all missed!”
What an ugly final struggle!
That was what I thought.
“Huh?”
Velzer's body disappeared from my sight.
Swish. Swish, swish.
Velzer appeared like a ghost from the positions of the daggers embedded in the walls.
‘Fuck, teleportation!’
Teleportation, or incredibly fast movement, to the location of the daggers.
That was the trick Velzer had used to appear behind me earlier.
Velzer moved skillfully between the daggers scattered around the room.
Even the magic arrows couldn't keep up.
“Ghk.”
“Gasp! Master!”
Velzer moved at high speed between the daggers spread throughout the room, cutting down Master Estelle.
It was too fast to see.
Slice. Swish. Slice!
Watching her get filleted alive was horrifying.
Blood sprayed everywhere.
“Gah!”
Thud.
Master Estelle finally collapsed.
“Fuck! Master Estelle!”
“Kill the caster, and the magic naturally stops.”
Shing.
Velzer sheathed the dagger at their waist.
Looking closer, the daggers launched at random just moments ago had all been neatly returned to Velzer's belts.
‘Velzer recovered the weapons in that time too!?’
‘Now I understand why Hammer wanted us to avoid fighting Velzer!’
This was truly a desperate situation.
But it seemed I still had some luck left.
Thwack!
“Guhk!”
Velzer screamed.
A human arm rolled across the floor.
A magic arrow had flown in from behind and severed Velzer's left arm!
Velzer looked startled while staring at the magic arrow still flying around.
“...Ghk. Why?”
“Ah-. I liked that body for once-.”
In the corner of the laboratory, a woman wrapped in bandages appeared.
It was a familiar appearance to me.
“Master! You're alive!”
“...Master? Ha! Two bodies? Can magic really do anything?”
Velzer wrapped the bleeding stump with a belt, then tied it tightly using teeth and a remaining hand.
The bandaged version of Master laughed unsettlingly.
“What can be done gets done, and what can't doesn't-.”
“Finding a person?”
“Why? Is there someone you want to find-?”
“...”
Master narrowed her eyes, and Velzer closed their mouth.
Master had clearly struck the mark.
‘This is my chance to step in!’
Ahem.
I cleared my throat and shouted.
“Velzer! Master is so amazing that finding one person is nothing to her! But if you kill me, Master will never make a deal with you!”
Velzer also seemed to be looking for someone, though I didn't know who.
This was information I could use.
“...”
Velzer kept dodging the incoming arrows and seemed to be considering it.
Then Velzer placed a hand on the bag at their waist and took out a scroll.
“Trickster Yore, you're quite lucky.”
Riiip.
Velzer disappeared as soon as the scroll was torn.
Velzer had left using a return scroll.
# # #
Desperado Velzer.
Velzer was so terrible that I never wanted to run into them again.
‘With one arm cut off, Velzer should stay quiet for a while!’
‘I got lucky!’
“Ah-. This body-. It's broken-.”
The bandaged Master Estelle looked at Master's body lying on the floor.
She really had two bodies.
“Master, this is you, and that is you too, right?”
“Everyone has that thought sometimes, don't they-? That it would be nice to have two bodies. So I tried making a shell-.”
What did that mean?
She probably needed theories I couldn't understand.
“Can I make two bodies like that too?”
“Probably not-. It's a very difficult technique, even for me. It also requires an enormous amount of Ether.”
Anyway, what mattered was that I had survived.
Master Estelle pointed at her corpse.
“Then, Disciple, pick up that shell and place it on the operating table-.”
“Uh... yes!”
I carefully lifted Master's dead body.
It was incredibly slender.
And still warm.
This was a shell...
“...Nngh...”
“Wah!”
I was startled.
She was still alive!
“Huh, it hasn't died yet? Good-. I needed something to offer as a sacrifice.”
“A sacrifice?”
“Mhm-. The Mother of Stars only accepts living things, which is troublesome.”
Master chuckled.
As my thoughts became complicated in many ways, the bandaged Master asked me.
“What was the name of the person you wanted to find?”
“Uh... Debora, the Thief who fled to the Land of Night?”
“It's better to give as many identifying details as possible-. Many people share the same name.”
“She also founded something called the Night Thieves Guild. She's around her late twenties to early thirties, I think? She has blonde hair and blue eyes...”
“That should be enough-. Mother of Stars-.”
Estelle began chanting a spell.
Soon, something astonishing happened.
A dark blue mist spread everywhere.
“Nngh!”
The shell on the operating table screamed.
When the suspicious mist cleared, the shell's already slim stomach had become even flatter.
“...”
The shell on the operating table moved its mouth soundlessly.
The bandaged Master watched it and chuckled.
“The vocal cords and more than half the large intestine, both kidneys, and the entire stomach. It took the tongue too-? It took a great deal as payment-.”
“...It looks incredibly painful. Is this really okay?”
“If it looks distressed, Disciple, you can close its eyes yourself-.”
“What?”
“It's an empty shell now anyway-. It won't resent or curse you.”
Was she telling me to kill it?
No matter what, it had once been Master Estelle.
I really didn't want to finish it off.
‘I have to use that.’
I took an 「Anesthetic Gas Potion」 from my pocket.
It was something I had taken from the Thieves when I was with Ishtar's party.
I put a little of the potion on my hand and rubbed it around the shell's nose and lips.
“Phew...”
Only now did the tension leave my shoulders.
Then the bandaged Master tapped my side.
“Did you like that body so much-?”
“Um... I suppose you could say that! Hehehe...”
“Then I'll count the care you just showed as payment for this job-.”
Master held out a pitch-black pebble the size of a fingernail.
“What is this?”
“Debora's location-.”
“Isn't it just a pebble?”
“Well-. The Mother of Stars' knowledge is always like that. Sometimes an answer becomes a question, and sometimes a question becomes an answer-.”
It felt like I was getting scammed somehow.
Still, I had accomplished my goal, so I should get out of here quickly.
“Um, Master. This is the food I promised you. You said last time that you were having trouble because there was no food here. Hehe...”
I took jerky from the Black Bundle and gave it to Master.
Then I hurriedly escaped and headed for the return magic circle!
# # #
For some reason, no idols appeared on the way out.
So I was able to return quickly to the Strategy Room at the Wall.
“Hermit!”
I immediately went looking for Hermit.
I had to tell her about the incredibly strange things I had experienced!
Hermit, who had been looking at the Familiar Egg, tugged at her hair in surprise.
“Two bodies? That's definitely Living Spirit Transference! It's magic that has been forbidden since the Empire's golden age!”
Living what?
The difficult-sounding words already made me sleepy.
“So, Hermit, what is this?”
I took out the pitch-black pebble and showed it to her.
Hermit was pretty smart in her own way, so maybe she would know something about it.
Hermit shook her head.
“I don't know either.”
“I can never tell if you're smart or stupid.”
“What was that!?”
We went to Hammer, explained everything that had happened, and showed the stone.
Hammer, who had been training, stopped moving when Hammer saw the pitch-black pebble.
“You remember Lieutenant General Raiden's Black Fortress, right? This stone is made of the same material as its walls.”
Hammer unfolded a map and pointed to a spot.
“And this black stone only comes from this mine here. It's an abandoned mine. The perfect place for Thieves to hide.”
The mine was inside the Empire, not beyond the Wall.
And it was close to the Wall.
“Hammer, can I go look around first?”
If we all went together, they would get suspicious.
So I would sneak in alone and carry out the romance scam operation.
The next day.
I rode Moltma the horse and galloped toward the mine.
It was called Black Rock Mine.
As I approached, there were indeed countless Thieves right at the mine entrance.
“Wow, look at all these sinister faces.”
“Who the fuck are you?”
“Who is this bastard?”
“I came to join the Night Thieves Guild!”
This was a newly formed Thief gang, right?
They must have been recruiting talented people.
Since they were opposed to Jermain's Thieves' Guild, they would need capable people even more.
And I was a prime recruit who had arrived at just the right time.
‘They might find me suspicious.’
‘But Thief gangs are groups united by profit, not trust.’
‘They won't refuse me.’
The men exchanged looks.
Then one of them jerked his chin.
“Follow us inside first!”
Good!
They took the bait!
“That girl too!”
“Huh? What girl?”
When I turned around, a woman was standing behind me.
Her face was hidden by a mask, but I recognized that pointed hat.
‘Is that Hermit!?’
‘When did she follow me?’
Footnotes:
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