WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Order
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ I Became the Dark Knight in the Game World ◈
Chapter 40: Marriage Scam (2)
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I was about to deliver some impressive line, but Mazhar beat me to it.
Mazhar’s gaze was cold. He was still a young man who had not truly faced the hardships of the world, but ambition burned in his eyes.
“Lady Kett. You’ve found an actor who works remarkably well with you. However.”
Mazhar’s eyes gleamed.
“I have dreams of my own. I regret that you went to such lengths, but I cannot give up like this. I’ll return soon.”
He turned and stepped out the door. At least it was better than being thrown out as he had been moments ago. Once I confirmed that Mazhar had disappeared down the hallway, I turned to the side.
“Whew, we finally got rid of him, Armede.”
Armede was practically leaning into my arms. It was an uncomfortable position for both of us, so it was about time we separated.
To my surprise, Armede looked up at me with a flushed face.
“Y-You said something like...”
Ah. To someone listening from the side, it could have sounded like a sudden confession of love. She must have been flustered, so I quickly spoke to clear up the misunderstanding.
“Don’t worry. Didn’t you say you’d choose me as your partner in this fake engagement scheme? I was only playing along.”
Armede’s face returned to normal, becoming expressionless again, though she looked faintly tired.
“Right. I knew it.”
Then she smiled softly.
“You were pretty passionate for someone who was only playing along. Don’t you like me or something?”
* * *
That was the bravest question Armede could manage. If he said yes, she was ready to start arranging the wedding venue.
Instead, Kriel proudly began talking about the quick thinking that had let him deceive Mazhar.
“What do you think of my quick thinking? I put together a story without crossing the line into lying.”
“...What?”
“A knight must not speak lies, but must also possess a certain flexibility.”
It was the kind of deceptive rhetoric that only demons from some old fable would use. Armede nodded blankly, pretending to be impressed.
For a moment, she nearly told him he acted exactly as he looked, but she held herself back. That was not something to say to her future fiancé.
‘It can’t be helped. Still, he did agree to the engagement itself, so I can wait for the right chance and...’
“By the way, is Mazhar Gabi’s declaration that he’ll return soon really not a problem?”
“What could he possibly do? We’re engaged. Bring me that Horn Dagger.”
Armede thought, So what can you do now, Mazhar? Now that she had someone to present as her fiancé, there was nothing Mazhar’s side could do.
It did not take long for that expectation to collapse.
* * *
As Armede examined Orisin from every angle, someone knocked on her door. This horse-headed Spirit was oddly noisy for a Spirit.
Armede stretched and opened the door. The Horn Dagger analysis had hit a standstill, so the timing was perfect. She needed to clear her head before focusing on it again.
It was probably a society member visiting to report research results or seek advice on an experiment. Armede opened the door without much thought.
Standing there was an Imperial standard courier wearing a wing-shaped badge.
“Are you Armede Kett?”
“What? Ah, yes. I am.”
“This is a notarization request sent by Mazhar Gabi.”
“What the f...”
Armede used superhuman restraint to stop a stream of curses from escaping. The courier was only carrying out their duty. After politely seeing the courier off, she immediately tore open the envelope and read its contents.
“Ha, shit.”
He put some thought into this...
Armede muttered in disbelief.
* * *
Thanks to Armede’s kindness, Kriel was staying in another room on the same floor.
She had said, “I’ll have questions about the sword while I research it, so it’ll be inconvenient if you’re too far away,” but in truth, she was likely showing appreciation to an acquaintance helping her through a difficult matter.
Kriel had just handed Tuon his greatsword for maintenance and settled down with a book when hurried footsteps sounded outside the door.
“Kriel. Come out!”
As expected, it was Armede’s voice. Had she found some fatal flaw in Orisin? Kriel always preferred a doctor’s, no, a mage’s report to be as long as possible, but he had grown somewhat attached to Orisin.
“Did something happen?”
He looked Armede over. She was uninjured. It did not seem that Orisin had caused trouble during treatment while shouting, “Heh heh heh, I’m turning evil!”
“Mazhar found an annoying detail to use against us.”
Armede briefly explained the contents of the letter in her hand. Under Imperial law, an engagement could only take effect if it was certified by a third party qualified as a Notary.
Usually, a priest’s status served as that qualification. In short, Mazhar’s letter asked, “You say you’re engaged, so which priest officiated it?”
If they could not name a priest, it would amount to admitting that the engagement had no legal effect. Mazhar added that if he did not receive a suitable answer, he would bring the matter before an Imperial court.
“If I’d simply rejected the engagement proposal, it would be one thing. But if I reject it while pretending to have a fiancé, that gives him grounds to take it to court.”
Armede added that coming down to the Duchy of Argetlam because she could not stand the sight of her family had been a mistake.
Mazhar Gabi’s proposal had originally been a personal matter. It had not been a marriage arrangement negotiated between families.
Yet while Armede had come to the Duchy of Argetlam to hold the society conference, the two ladies representing the current head of the family had replied that they would “consider” the proposal made in the name of the Gabi Family.
It was a crafty move, exploiting both Armede’s absence and the fact that the two ladies were the legal representatives of the current head of the family, who was in a coma.
“A fake engagement after receiving an official proposal like this will unquestionably count as fraud. Damn it...”
“So the hardline move meant to make the Gabi side give up completely backfired.”
Kriel scratched his head.
[Ah, just in case, something like, ‘What if you bring in a proper Notary now and get engaged for real?’ won’t work. Mazhar’s side will obviously ask that priest when the engagement was notarized.]
“Horsehead? How did you get here?”
[Pink kid, even if I look like I’m tied to that sword all the time, I can fly quite a long way.]
Armede was naturally calling Orisin horsehead now. It was strange that everyone who met Orisin ended up doing the same. Then again, it was a name that fit Orisin’s appearance exactly.
Kriel nodded and spoke. He intended to borrow an ancient Spirit’s wisdom.
“Orisin. Do you have any experience or wisdom that could help with our current situation?”
[Do I look like I would? It’s not as if I never dreamed of pretty places like wedding halls, but I never had any reason to go to one.]
That meant it was too late to get the engagement notarized, and even if they did, the lie would be exposed anyway.
Then a possibility suddenly crossed Kriel’s mind. What if they found a priest who was permitted to lie?
“Does the Church of Eve Kaha have any doctrine against giving false testimony?”
[Uh, not that I know of. That lot are necrophiles, so they don’t care much about the affairs of the living. Most of their teachings are about how to treat the dead. Still, no priest would lie as a matter of common sense...]
Kriel smiled in satisfaction.
[Wait. Hey. You aren’t...]
“Then we should call a priest who is permitted to lie.”
Orisin wondered whether to stop that crazy knight or demand something to chew on along with a spell to materialize a body.
Surely he was not planning to call Morgina here. It would be an utterly insane sight.
* * *
After sensing a strange current from the east, Morgina, who was learning esoteric arts from the Head of the Order at the Church of Eve Kaha’s main temple, received sudden news.
More precisely, after coming out of her closed-door training, she was told that a messenger pigeon, no, a messenger raven had come and gone.
The letter asked whether she could come as quickly as possible because advice was needed about an engagement problem. Morgina nearly collapsed from the sudden rise in blood pressure.
She immediately kicked open the door to her grandmother’s room.
“Aaargh! Grandmother! What is this supposed to mean?!”
“What are you talking about, child? It’s not as if I secretly read a letter sent to you. Tell me what happened first.”
“I got a letter from Kriel, and I’m only finding out about it now!”
“We certainly told you that a letter had come. You were the one who said, ‘The training you damned old hag made me do has made it hard even to speak, so tell me later.’”
Morgina lowered her head in dismay.
...Then, about a second later, she snapped her head back up.
“I finished the training you told me to do, so I can leave again now, right? There haven’t been any special requests for support from a Church branch, have there?”
The Head of the Order of the Church of Eve Kaha nodded.
“I have no idea what happened, but...”
Wait for me, Kriel.
Leaving the letter behind, Morgina began running out of the temple. Her destination was the Duchy of Argetlam.
The Head of the Order picked up the letter as it fluttered to the floor.
It had been sent a week earlier.
Footnotes:
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