WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Haruto
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ Even in a Dark Fantasy, You Still Have to Eat ◈
Chapter 73: Yore Holds an Engagement Ceremony!? # 2
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“Mr. Yore, we have finally met!”
Miss Dantes grabbed my hand.
The feel of her soft white silk glove was so unfamiliar that I did not know what to do.
“Uh... do you know me!?”
Karma Dantes.
A beauty difficult to forget after seeing her even once.
I was deeply confused because someone like her seemed so happy to see me.
“Newbie, if you stole something, give it back right now!”
Hermit warned me in a quiet voice.
Then Miss Dantes laughed, blooming like a flower bud.
“This is our first meeting. But when I saw you, Mr. Yore, I knew. You are the benefactor I have searched for all this time!”
Squeeze.
Miss Dantes held my hand as if it were some great treasure.
At that moment, Hermit frowned and slowly stepped back.
“Huhhh!?”
Had she forgotten that she had been told not to raise her voice or act rudely during today's meeting?
Still, I felt like making a stupid noise too.
‘What the hell is going on!?’
As I stood there reading the room, Miss Dantes suddenly pulled away in surprise.
“I am sorry. I was so happy that I grabbed your hand... It must be terribly rude for someone like me to hold Mr. Yore's hand....”
Then Hermit tapped the floor with her staff.
“Ahem! Could you explain what is going on?”
“Ah!”
Miss Dantes trembled like a startled rabbit, then held out the back of her hand for us to see.
Slide.
When she removed her white glove, there was a strange scar-like mark on the back of her left hand.
“A burn scar?”
Hermit, who often got burned while using magic, recognized it right away.
Miss Dantes blushed deeply as she showed it to us.
“...I am sorry. It is not a pleasant scar, is it? I got it when a candleholder fell on me as a child. I always have to wear gloves because of it.”
“Then why did you show us that burn scar?”
“I have scars like this all over my body. I suffer from a terrible curse of misfortune.”
A curse of misfortune?
What did that mean?
‘Does it mean she has unbelievably bad luck?’
Slide.
Miss Dantes lifted the hem of her dress.
That was a very bold action.
“Uh!”
“Whoa!”
Even Hermit was startled when we saw the scraped scars on her knees.
“My knees are a mess too, right? I trip over stones and fall almost every day.”
Who would have thought I would live to see a highborn lady's knees?
That was quite a sight.
As long as she did not ask me to pay for it.
“Still, I have somehow managed to survive lately thanks to this token of good fortune my father brought from a foreign land.”
Slide.
Miss Dantes pulled something from her chest.
It was black and looked hard.
It was about as large as my palm.
“That is a Dragon Claw Talisman!”
Hermit recognized it.
「Dragon Claw Talisman: Increases the owner's luck. A talisman that increases Ether acquisition and assists in collecting material items.」
A talisman that increased Ether gains!?
I almost reached for it without thinking.
The item I had wanted so badly had been hidden against her chest.
“Since I started carrying this talisman, I have not been getting hurt by bad luck as often. But lately, it feels like my luck is getting worse again....”
“So you want this great Hermit to enhance the talisman?”
Hermit nodded with a confident snort.
She soon drew a magic circle on the floor and placed the Dragon Claw Talisman on top of it.
“O Goddess of the Anvil!”
Miss Dantes clenched her fist as she watched.
“I heard the chance of a successful enhancement is less than ten percent.... Please, it has to succeed. Without it... I would have to live in fear of when I might get hurt every day...!”
Whoa, even I was starting to get nervous about enhancing someone else's item.
The very next moment.
Crackle.
Intense sparks burst from the magic circle, followed by a flash of light.
The talisman enhancement had succeeded.
“I-It worked!”
Hermit was delighted.
Miss Dantes was also overjoyed and suddenly hugged me.
“It worked!!!! It worked!!!!”
“Uhhh.”
For me, this was torture.
A noble lady who might have my head cut off if I looked at her wrong was clinging to me like this.
‘Are women really this slender!?’
Now that I thought about it, this might have been one of the first times anyone had hugged me.
My head felt fried for several reasons.
Then Miss Dantes suddenly gasped and pulled away from me.
“I am sorry. I was just so happy....”
“Ahem, that can happen. A successful enhancement is always something to celebrate.”
Hehehe.
I awkwardly laughed and rubbed my nose.
# # #
“This is the Training Ground. We spend most of our time here on days when we are not heading out.”
We walked around various parts of the Wall.
Miss Dantes was curious about the Wall, and she also wanted to see how well the enhanced talisman worked.
After walking around for about half a day, Miss Dantes looked absolutely delighted.
“I did not trip over any stones, and I was not hurt by anything falling on me!”
Trickle, trickle.
Beside the Training Ground, Miss Dantes dipped her feet into an artificial fountain in the park.
She splashed water at me with her white feet.
“Normally, I would have slipped and fallen by now! Ah, it is cold!”
“Hehe, I am happy that you are happy!”
“The talisman helped, but I think it is also because of you, Mr. Yore.”
“Me?”
“The Blaset twins told me about you. They said there was someone with incredible luck and asked whether I would like to meet you....”
Was I lucky?
I had never really thought of myself that way.
Miss Dantes was probably luckier.
She was born into a noble family where she would never have to worry about starving, and she had probably lived wearing and eating only the best things.
She was even incredibly beautiful.
Most of the men at the Training Ground kept stealing glances at her.
“You must have been born under a star of great fortune, Mr. Yore. So I have one favor to ask.”
“A favor?”
“Could you take walks with me like this sometimes? I think just doing that would make me feel as if some of Mr. Yore's luck has passed on to me.”
Taking walks together?
Could this be a date invitation?
I felt so good that a shiver ran down my spine, but I was worried too.
‘Getting involved with a noble will bring all kinds of trouble....’
I would have to watch what I said and did around Miss Dantes.
I was not good at that sort of thing.
Perhaps she noticed my hesitation, because Miss Dantes hurriedly waved her hands.
“You can treat me comfortably! Actually, I have always admired the work of explorers a little. Because of my constitution, I could not do much outside activity since I was young....”
“Ah, if that is all.”
That evening, after parting with Miss Dantes, I asked everyone while preparing for tomorrow's expedition.
“She said she would pay me fifty gold coins every time we take a walk together.”
Fifty gold coins were worth nearly ten million Ether.
Felix frowned when he heard me.
“That Miss Dantes offered you that much? What, did you drug her and brainwash her or something?”
“Bullshit.”
“It makes no sense otherwise. Just like Brigadier General Ezakiel.”
“Kehhehe, if you are jealous, just say so!”
“What are you even talking about?”
Felix snorted and walked away.
Then Hermit added something.
“The Dantes family has close ties to the Imperial Council. Newbie, normally, she would be someone you could not casually approach or even speak to!”
“I did not approach her. She approached me!”
“If something goes wrong, our whole party might get screwed through collective responsibility!”
That was kind of scary.
Then Nimble clicked her tongue while tearing into some meat.
“Nobles? Those girls in fluttery clothes who cry all the time? Yore, you like girls like that? Your taste sure is....”
“No, it is not like I particularly like her.... Ahem.”
The next day, I took a walk with Miss Dantes on top of the Wall.
How could I say no to fifty gold coins?
“Wow, it is really high!”
The enormous Wall seemed novel in many ways to a sheltered lady.
“Mr. Yore, d-don't let go of my hand!”
Miss Dantes tightly held my hand as she trembled.
She soon stood at the Wall's high railing and shouted.
“Waaaaa!”
“Hehe, how is it? Feels good, right?”
“It feels so refreshing. Mr. Yore, you see a view like this every day, right? I am so jeal... Ahh!?”
Slip.
Miss Dantes lost her footing.
I quickly pulled her toward me and held her in my arms.
“Whoa, be careful.”
My heart pounded.
What if I had let the woman in front of me fall from that high railing?
Having my head cut off probably would not have been the end of it.
“Hehe! You saved me, Mr. Yore.”
Miss Dantes laughed, completely unaware of how I felt.
The problem was that her glove had slipped off during the incident and fallen far below.
Miss Dantes pulled her scarred hand against her chest to hide it.
“My bare hand... it would probably feel unpleasant to hold, right?”
“Not at all. Look at my hand.”
Slide.
I held out my hand to Miss Dantes.
It was covered in little scars.
Scars from injuries I could not even remember.
“My hand’s uglier, isn’t it?”
There had been plenty of times when I almost had my wrist cut off.
After all, cutting off hands was the standard punishment for theft.
It was practically a miracle that all my fingers were still attached.
“...I-I think it is cool. It looks like a man's hand....”
Miss Dantes blushed deeply.
It was the first time in my life someone had called my hands cool.
No, it might have been the first time anyone had called me cool at all!
Then things suddenly became incredibly awkward.
What should I say now...!?
As I struggled, Miss Dantes spoke first.
“Um, Mr. Yore, is there a woman you like?”
Several women's faces suddenly came to mind.
I started to feel nervous for no reason.
“...Why do you ask?”
“Actually, there is something I have not told you. I did not seek you out just to enhance the talisman.”
“Then why?”
“...Someone important wishes for you, Mr. Yore, to become my fiancé.”
Crack!
Lightning struck in the clear sky.
Whooosh.
A sudden downpour began.
The autumn weather at the Wall was this unpredictable.
Footnotes:
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