WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Haruto
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ Even in a Dark Fantasy, You Still Have to Eat ◈
Chapter 64: Oath to the Tail # 2
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“Mr. Hammer!”
“Oh! Yore, you made it!”
Mr. Hammer was waiting for me where our party had split up.
A little later, Hermit and Felix appeared in the distance as well.
“Everyone made it here on time?”
“Hermit, you didn't cause any trouble this time, did you?”
“What did I do!?”
“Alright, alright. Stop fighting.”
Mr. Hammer stepped between them and calmed things down.
Then he immediately looked at Felix.
“Did everyone find anything? Felix, you go first.”
“I heard there is an orphanage in this Kerning Town. If we are looking for children, there is a good chance they are there.”
“An orphanage?”
“It would be more accurate to call it a training center that raises professional Thieves.”
A place that raised children to become robbers and murderers?
What kind of bullshit was that?
The world really was ending.
I clicked my tongue and spoke.
“I found the kid. She's resting at the inn right now.”
“Whaaaat!?”
Mr. Hammer jumped in shock.
After looking around, he grabbed my shoulders and shook me.
“You really found her? Huh? You aren't lying, right?”
“Yes, sir!”
I explained everything to them as briefly as possible.
I met a pickpocket, went to a gambling hall together, and met the Emperor of the Abyss.
Mr. Hammer clicked his tongue in disbelief as he listened.
“You really are lucky! I thought this mission would take at least several months!”
Several mooonths!?
Just thinking about it was terrifying.
I had no intention of staying in this city that long.
‘I can't earn Ether here!’
I wanted to get back to the Wall and kill monstrosities already.
Hermit looked interested after hearing my story.
“You really got a skill book from the Emperor of the Abyss?”
“Yeah. 《Subtle Touch》.”
Since it had come up, I might as well learn it.
「Would you like to learn 《Subtle Touch》?」
Yes.
The book slowly seeped into me.
So what had changed?
‘《Subtle Touch》!’
I secretly reached toward the potion bottles at Hermit's side.
Hermit jumped in shock.
“What!? Why are you targeting my pockets!?”
Grrr.
Hermit got angry like a furious raccoon, and I realized my mistake.
‘We finally got close, and now she's going to hate me!’
There was no mage as capable as Hermit.
I had to stay on her good side.
So I hurriedly explained.
“No, I just wanted to test what this new skill feels like!”
“Oh, is that all?”
She was forgiving me for that?
Hermit really was such a pushover.
“But not my pockets! Pick Felix's pockets instead!”
“Why me!? Mine are off-limits too!”
“Ahem. Yore, mine are off-limits too.”
Everyone had their guard up around me.
Not that being on guard kept anyone from getting pickpocketed.
Anyway.
I tried using 《Subtle Touch》, but it did not seem subtle at all.
What was this skill supposed to be?
Then Asibarr whispered in my ear.
【Kakakak! Try using it with Black Eyes!】
Black Eyes?
「Possession Check Successful!」
「Sword: Flesh-Cutting, Bone-Severing」: Difficulty 8
「Small Necklace」: Difficulty 9
「Smelly Cheese」: Difficulty 2
...
..
“Oh.”
A difficulty rating appeared next to every item.
I immediately understood that this was the difficulty of pickpocketing them.
Was ten the maximum score?
‘If I'd had this sooner, my record of fourteen convictions could have been cut in half!’
Anyway, I felt great.
Mr. Hammer patted my shoulder.
“Then let's head to the inn already!”
“Yes, sir!”
I headed toward the inn with the party.
We had walked for a while when Felix placed a hand on the longsword at his waist.
“Mr. Hammer, we are being followed.”
“Followed? Where?”
“Who is it!?”
Mr. Hammer and Hermit looked around.
Then something flew toward us.
It was a small bundle.
“An attack?”
Shing.
Felix drew his sword.
I stopped him before he could do something reckless.
“It is fine. Put your sword away. It isn't that.”
I opened the bundle.
There were two dead sparrows inside.
Mr. Hammer crossed his arms and asked.
“Yore, what is this about? And what are those sparrows?”
“I think Nimble left them.”
“Nimble?”
The person following us was probably Nimble.
Nimble's scent, similar to the smell of wildflowers, had been lingering around me.
‘She must have left that pheasant in front of my inn room this morning too.’
‘And now sparrows?’
Hermit looked interested.
“Nimble? That beast girl?”
Hermit gripped her staff and looked around.
“If we catch her, investigate her, write a paper, and present it at an academic conference... Puhuhu!”
“Hey, don't do that! It'll be a problem if she turns into a wolf!”
I remembered how Nimble had torn people apart and killed them.
She really was a savage predator.
Making an enemy of someone like that for no reason would only cause trouble.
“She can turn into a wolf? That makes me want to catch her even more!”
Hermit tightly gripped her staff and aimed it in every direction.
Talking like that, we arrived at the inn.
Mr. Hammer spotted little Isaiah and bowed his head.
“I am Explorer Sergeant Hammer. We will safely return all of you inside the Wall, so I ask for your generous cooperation.”
“...Rookie, she really is an Erdari!”
Hermit held her staff and stayed on guard.
Felix looked around and clicked his tongue.
“I slept outside yesterday. You were living it up in a room this nice?”
Living it up, my ass.
Nimble had nearly killed me.
I had not even slept properly.
“Sergeant Hammer, it is nice to meet you. I am Sauriel, and this is Isaiah. How do you plan to return? Will we travel overland?”
“...Well.”
Mr. Hammer hesitated before answering.
“Returning overland is extremely dangerous under the current circumstances. We will leave that as a last resort and look for other options first.”
The Land of Night was dangerous.
It was filled with criminals fleeing the law, descendants of demons, and insane undead.
A little kid like Isaiah would not last even one day.
‘Then all my suffering would be for nothing.’
At that moment, Sauriel spoke in the gentle manner of a noblewoman.
“Sergeant Hammer, there is an old ruin beneath this city that people have not touched for a long time. There is a teleportation circle there as well.”
“A teleportation circle!?”
Hermit jumped in shock.
It seemed she had even forgotten to be wary of the Erdari as she excitedly asked.
“Is that true? It really exists?”
“Yes, it does. I saw it clearly myself.”
“What incredible luck!”
“Hermit, what is a teleportation circle anyway?”
“It is magic that moves people or objects!”
“Like an Ether Table?”
“Exactly! An Ether Table is an inferior version of a teleportation circle!”
Hermit then began explaining the history of imperial magic.
Honestly, I could not stop myself from yawning.
So while Hermit and Sauriel discussed difficult things, I went outside the inn.
Rustle.
Someone slipped behind the wall around the corner.
Felix, who had followed me out, clicked his tongue.
“You said that was Nimble? How long is she going to keep this up?”
“I don't know either.”
Why had the girl who growled about killing me suddenly started acting like this?
Maybe she was waiting for the perfect chance to kill me.
Like a beast waiting for its prey to let its guard down.
‘Could she have given me the pheasant and sparrows to fatten me up before eating me?’
That thought suddenly sent a chill through me.
Felix nudged my side.
“You stole something from the Beast King's Chest, didn't you?”
“The Demon Soul Contract?”
“Yeah. Isn't she here to take that back?”
Now that he mentioned it, Nimble had demanded that I give something back.
She had called me a Thief too.
‘If I return it, will she stop trying to kill me?’
Cold sweat ran down my forehead.
Giving back something I had stolen.
Once something entered my pocket, it was mine.
Giving it away for free was practically charity work.
“Yore! Felix! Get ready to leave!”
Mr. Hammer shouted through the window.
It seemed they had roughly finished their discussion upstairs.
# # #
We scoured the sewers for the underground ruins beneath this city.
Finding the way was not difficult.
Sauriel knew the twisting underground passages well.
The problem was the traps.
But I could disarm them easily.
Click!
“It is safe now!”
“Sir Yore, your skill is remarkable.”
Sauriel sounded impressed.
Little Isaiah added a word from beside her.
“Yore is amazing. He won all the gambling too, and he didn't lie to us!”
Being praised like that made my nose itch with embarrassment.
We entered the underground ruins.
They were filled with statues with long noses and ears.
Their bodies were as small as little children.
Hermit tapped one with her staff and jumped in surprise.
“These are goblins! Petrified goblins!”
“You are very knowledgeable. Long ago, this city was filled with goblins.”
According to Sauriel, Kerning Town had once been a city of goblins, thieves.
As if proving that, there were countless goblin statues.
“Why did all these goblins turn to stone?”
Felix tapped a statue.
Mr. Hammer also tapped one with a wary look.
“Fuck, I just hope they do not suddenly wake up!”
I carefully examined the goblin statues too.
If their heads were cut off at the neck, they would look exactly like Asibarr.
That strange idol, Asibarr.
Could Asibarr have been a goblin?
Thinking that, we reached the depths of the ruins.
A magic circle was drawn in an open area surrounded by cliffs.
“It really is a teleportation circle!”
Hermit happily placed her hand on the floor.
“Ooooh! There's still magical power in it! Shall I try activating it?”
Hummmmmm.
The magic circle beneath Hermit's palm shook loudly.
I was not kidding, it was so loud that my ears hurt.
Then it happened.
Crash.
The petrified goblin statues shattered and crumbled.
Gold coins and jewels spilled out from inside them, clattering across the ground, and I instantly perked up.
“Fuck, these bastards had jewels in their bellies!”
Excited, I picked up the jewels and gold coins.
At that very moment, one jewel rolled off the cliff.
Tap. Tap. Crash. Boom. Rumble.
The cliff was so deep that the echoes of it hitting the bottom sounded like thunder.
Then Nimble's fur stood on end all over her body.
“Something is coming.”
Coming?
What was?
We only had a moment to wonder.
【Disgusting Kobolos.】
【You dare disturb my long sleep.】
【Have you come to covet what is mine again?】
Rumble.
The ruins shook as if an earthquake had struck.
Soon, something enormous with wings flew up from beneath the cliff.
“Fuck! A dragon! Why is it so huge!?”
Mr. Hammer shouted.
Just as he said, a gray dragon with horns on its head flapped its wings and roared.
Kraaaaaah!
It was as large as two large buses put together.
【Every treasure in this city is mine.】
【I will not give you even a single pebble.】
Whoooosh.
The dragon opened its mouth and fired a strange beam.
Everything it touched hardened like stone.
“...Isidor, the Stone Dragon!?”
Sauriel was shocked.
“I never imagined a dragon that large was sleeping beneath the city ruins! It must have awakened after hearing the teleportation circle activate!”
A dragon could only be defeated by a party of Level 20 adventurers working together.
That meant we did not stand a chance as we were.
“The teleportation circle! I will activate it quickly!”
Hermit put more power into it.
Slowly, strange circuit-like patterns appeared over Hermit's face.
“《Mass Teleportation》!”
Flash!
Light burst forth.
【Kobolos, perish!!!】
【I will burn your city to the ground!!!】
When I came to my senses, we were in the familiar Strategy Room with its Ether Table.
I clenched my fist and shouted.
“Fuck, we lived! Hermit, we lived!”
“Urk...”
Thud.
But Hermit did not even have time to feel happy before she collapsed, coughing up black smoke.
And Nimble's tail fur stood on end as she shouted.
“What is this place!?”
Footnotes:
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