WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Order
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ I Became the Dark Knight in the Game World ◈
Chapter 50: The Gabi Trading Company (4)
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Money was a serious matter.
When I was acting as a knight, I accepted only a single coin for the sake of Nobility. But when I worked as a mercenary, why else would I scrape together every last coin of the contract fee?
[This is driving me insane. I honestly can't tell how much of your knightly nonsense is sincere and how much is an act.]
[Do you doubt my lord's reverence for chivalry? You vulgar wretch.]
[Yes, yes. My apologies. ...No, even if I am vulgar, could I possibly be more vulgar than an Abyss-forged Demon Sword?]
Morgina and Armede both seemed oddly deflated after hearing me, but they said they had no interest in payment.
Well, one was a Saintess, so her religious order probably gave her an allowance to maintain her dignity. The other had enough wealth and ability to afford work that brought in no money, like the Abyss Eradication Society.
Of the three people who were going to storm, no, visit the Gabi Trading Company, I was the only one who cared about money.
Maybe I should've asked Mazhar for more money. I felt a brief pang of regret.
“Come to think of it, Orisin. What did Armede say after examining you?”
[It wasn't much different from Morgina. I've experienced all kinds of magic that purifies natural beings, including Spirits.]
Orisin's account of the blade being scrubbed after someone suggested splashing it with water carried a deep weariness.
In the end, it was the same diagnosis Morgina had given. Something like, ‘I don't know why this won't come off, but this stubborn grime isn't going anywhere.’
[I can't accept this reality! How can the stain of the Abyss taint Orisin's pure white mane!]
[Wasn't your mane cut down to a quarter? Only your neck is left, after all.]
[......]
“Well, keep your chin up. Both a mage and a priest have failed, but we still have a Spiritist left.”
After Tuon's merciless verbal abuse left Orisin hanging their head, they soon regained their resolve. Watching that, I nodded in satisfaction.
I needed to bring back at least three expert opinions to submit when I returned to the Western Army.
Spiritists were even rarer than mages, so when they asked, ‘What were you doing that made you return to your unit this late?’ I could say, ‘Ha ha, it wasn't easy finding a Spiritist sociable and knowledgeable enough to examine someone else's Spirit.’
The military never paid much attention even when you brought expert opinions. It took about three before they started thinking, ‘This bastard is serious,’ and listened.
I wasn't planning to apply for a medical discharge, but I intended to use the prolonged mission as an excuse, so the more opinions I had, the better.
‘Hm. If I say it took two or three months to meet each one, could I take half a year off before returning to the Western Army?’
It was an excellent plan. As soon as I returned, I would receive my overdue discharge certificate and return to civilian life.
* * *
They were unexpected visitors.
Mazhar Gabi looked at the people standing before him in bewilderment.
Kriel had declared the day before that he would return, so his visit was expected. Morgina and Armede were the ones who surprised Mazhar.
‘Can someone with the rank of Saint really move around this freely?’
Unless it was an exceptionally huge religious order, a Saint was a high-ranking asset, with roughly one assigned to each order. More precisely, a living Saint. Those who received a god's Divine Stigmata while alive did not appear at a rate of one per religious order. One might not even appear once in a generation.
Only because this was an era still shadowed by the Demon King War had as many Saints as those of the mythic age appeared. Before the Demon King War, they were people one might never see in an entire lifetime.
Kriel had promised to bring Morgina, but Mazhar had not been certain she would truly come to help him.
They were practically strategic resources who ought to be deployed on matters far more important to the religious order.
Mazhar had wondered how someone as important as a Saint had ended up manipulating his Trial by Combat, but because it concerned a Champion's engagement, he assumed the order could not simply stand by.
What Mazhar had not expected was that most of those “strategic resources” were unusually stubborn people who valued their religious order's doctrines and beliefs over its interests.
Rather than officially visiting the duchy as the order's public face, meeting with the duke's family, and expanding Eve Kaha's influence, Morgina had wanted to follow Kriel and crush the Abyss's head.
That was why Mazhar Gabi found himself facing a Saintess who bestowed healing miracles upon patients with a compassionate expression that did not suit a follower of Eve Kaha.
And then there was...
“What brings you here?”
“Client management.”
Armede, wearing a weary expression.
Kriel was legally Armede's fiancé at the moment, so it was not strange for her to find some excuse to accompany him.
Mazhar gave a hollow laugh, feeling the irony of it all.
If he had succeeded in becoming engaged to Armede, he had planned to bring her to lift his father's curse. He had believed it was the only means available to him to restore his family.
After losing the Trial by Combat, he had thought it was all over. His father would slowly waste away, and the family would split apart. All that remained was a future where his siblings fought fiercely over their father's death.
He had resigned himself to that, yet things had turned out far better than his original plan.
It was absurd, but quite hopeful.
“Ha ha. I'm grateful for this. I should've had my father's health examined much sooner.”
“Exactly. You shouldn't have exhausted yourself over an engagement. You could've just told us honestly.”
“Do you think I could tell anyone about something like this? The Gabi Trading Company has as many enemies as it has wealth.”
Mazhar shrugged. He had only told Kriel so readily because Kriel had approached him after saving his life, speaking of Heroes as if he knew everything. Normally, Mazhar had intended to keep the fact that the Abyss had cursed his family secret until the end.
‘That must be why my sister and brother oppose gathering people on a large scale to help Father...’
What if word spread that the head of the Gabi Trading Company had not stepped away from the front line temporarily to watch his children compete, but had been cursed and left helpless, unable to respond to any attack?
The Gabi Trading Company's rivals would never let such a fine opportunity pass them by.
There was also the matter of the curse supposedly coming from the Abyss. It would inevitably raise suspicions of what they had done to receive a curse from the Abyss.
The Abyss had used so many schemes to drive people apart that simply being cursed would not bring them to trial, but the Gabi Trading Company's reputation would certainly suffer.
While his siblings remained silent, his father was dying. Mazhar could not accept that.
“Fine. Are you well enough to travel?”
“With enough money, injuries of this level can be treated easily. I can endure a short journey from the duchy to my home.”
“Then let's leave right away.”
“...Right now?”
“Is there something you haven't finished?”
Mazhar thought carefully about the Trading Company's business. The main reason he had followed Armede Kett to the Duchy of Argetlam had been to court her. Now that it had fallen apart completely, all that remained was business at the Trading Company's branch.
But even that business had been temporarily halted because someone had set the building on fire. There was no reason to delay.
“No. You're right. I'll have a carriage brought around.”
* * *
Mazhar's wealth, enough to summon a carriage with ease, was good news for Kriel. Thanks to the Mark of the Great Warrior, the Dark Knight's nature was concealed enough that the horses would not refuse to carry him, as long as he rode separately in a carriage instead of directly on their backs.
Unexpectedly, it was a comfortable journey.
“...First, there's something I need to ask of you before we enter the family estate.”
“A request?”
“Seeing my father won't be difficult. But you'll have to leave all your weapons behind.”
It made no sense to approach a patient while heavily armed. Kriel silently nodded.
“And please follow only where I lead you, if possible. My eldest brother Jaren and my elder sister Arsika rarely remain at the estate these days, but if we happen to run into them, they may pick a needless fight.”
Jaren, the eldest, and Arsika, the second child of the three Gabi siblings. The ambitious pair cared more about the results their father's death would bring than his death itself. If they learned that Mazhar had brought someone in to prolong their father's life, they would immediately try to interfere.
Kriel nodded without objection. He had come to beat down the Abyss, not to support someone in the Gabi Family's conflict, so he had no interest in needless trouble.
Still, though he had no reason to publicly support anyone in the Gabi Family, he might have reason to publicly attack someone.
“Let me ask one thing. What if the one behind the curse is connected to your family?”
Mazhar closed his mouth. Only after swallowing several times and taking a deep breath could he speak again.
“I believe my brother and sister may be greedy for money and power, but they are not the kind of people who would join hands with the Abyss and murder their own father. But if that is the case...”
Mazhar lowered his head. After a deep sigh, he continued in a heavy voice.
“At least give me a word of warning first. I need time to prepare myself.”
* * *
“A word.”
“What?”
Ten minutes after arriving at the estate, Kriel raised his fist.
Footnotes:
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