I Became the Dark Knight in the Game World - Chapter 53

WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Order

◈ I Became the Dark Knight in the Game World ◈

Chapter 53: Inheriting the Trading Company (1)

──────

Armede's obsidian spearhead struck Tushkin's right shoulder. The Bone Armor covering his skin shattered, and obsidian shards bit deep into the red muscle beneath.

Unfortunately, the Bone Armor had been exceptionally tough. The obsidian shattered against it, but the fragments did not lose their momentum. As a result, Tushkin Gabi's shoulder ended up riddled with hundreds of obsidian shards like buckshot.

Groaning in pain, Tushkin quickly reached a decision. For some reason, the bleeding from his shoulder would not stop. It would be better to cut the arm off at the shoulder and attempt to regenerate it.

But the other two had no intention of standing by and watching. Kriel and Morgina rushed at the enlarged Tushkin.

Tushkin was a merchant, not a warrior. That was why he made such a poor judgment. To overpower Kriel and Morgina, he had simply made himself bigger.

His body was far too large for the room, making it difficult to move. And with his surface area expanded so drastically, he could not avoid every blow from two skilled fighters.

Even while taking a beating, Tushkin Gabi resisted fiercely. If nothing else, he had plenty to say about the final charge against him.

It was true that he had lent money to the verminous mages of the Abyss Eradication Society on exceedingly generous terms. But was it his fault that those bastards failed to repay their debts on time?

Tushkin blocked Kriel's cudgel with his right arm, his elbow bending in a direction it never should have, and vented his grievance.

"Have you lost your mind, Armede? You should blame your society members' ruined financial sense! Why is that my fault?!"

Tushkin's indignant fury echoed through the room. Armede answered coldly.

"If you lent them money knowing their heads were full of flowers, then you did it on purpose. Do you know how much hell I went through settling their debts to keep our society's credit rating from dropping?!"

"Isn't it your fault for gathering nothing but useless...?"

The truth was sharp enough to pierce Armede's heart. But Armede was an excellent mage, so she was not shaken by the desperate nonsense of a servant of the Abyss.

"Shut up, old man! I'll kill you!"

Calmly expressing her opinion, Armede pulled a magic catalyst from her spatial pouch.

The new catalyst she took out was an object with a long and storied history, one that had retained its shape despite enduring thousands of years. It was a fragment of history passed down since before the County of Kett was even founded.

A material that formed the foundation of countless civilizations while serving as a tool of conflict since ancient times.

"What are you trying to do...?"

It was a rock.

Tushkin was baffled that Armede's proudly displayed secret weapon was nothing more than a stone, and he failed to react to Morgina's attack. His body had grown enormous, but he still retained a human shape. Morgina was well practiced at making able-bodied people lose their limbs.

Morgina smashed Tushkin's shinbones with the iron maces in both hands.

Tushkin collapsed with a scream. In the meantime, Armede finished her preparations and untied the hairband securing her ponytail.

The hairband in Armede's hand had somehow become a Sling. It was a backup weapon she had chosen after frequently suffering from a shortage of Mana during her days as a mercenary.

The loaded Sling began spinning with a menacing whine. When its acceleration reached its peak, Armede hurled the stone with all her strength.

"Move!"

Kriel could not understand why they needed to avoid a mere stone, but ignoring a mage's instructions on a battlefield was never wise.

He immediately grabbed Morgina, tucked her beneath one arm, and ran toward Armede.

The stone struck Tushkin.

An ominous flash flickered within it before blossoming into a brilliant radiance that swallowed the rock.

The radiance soon became a fireball. The stone, which had changed from the size of a fist to a ball of fire as large as a face, finally exploded.

A searing blast swept through nearly two-thirds of the room. As the family head's bedchamber, Tushkin Gabi's room was as large as all the floor space inside an ordinary commoner's home.

More than half of its luxurious furniture, along with the room's owner, turned to ash in an instant.

The garden was visible beyond the shattered wall. The floor was no better. One wrong step, and they would fall to the first floor. Kriel stared at Armede in disbelief.

"You may admire your fiancée's abilities."

Armede shrugged. It was a contingency she had prepared to overcome the two weaknesses of the explosive magic she specialized in: its massive Mana consumption and lengthy casting time. By inscribing spells onto stones beforehand, she had effectively created throwable magic scrolls.

They were weaker than spells cast with a proper incantation, but their advantages made up for it. As long as she had enough time to recover Mana and stones from her homeland, she could make as many as she wanted in advance. And if they hit their target, they would explode without an incantation.

Kriel was about to say something, shocked that a mage's ultimate move involved throwing rocks.

Bang!

The mage guards hired by Mazhar broke through the door, whose seal had weakened while Armede focused on the Sling.

"Young Master! What on earth happened...?!"

Tushkin Gabi's bedchamber was in a horrific state. One wall had been blown away, letting the wind in. Every piece of furniture had been smashed, and most of it had burned to ash.

More importantly, Tushkin Gabi, the head of the Gabi Family, was nowhere to be seen.

Something terrible had clearly happened here.

The two mage guards exchanged glances. Mazhar hurried toward them to explain.

"Everyone, calm down. The people I brought are not enemies of the Gabi Trading Company."

"...We had faith in you, Young Master!"

"What?"

"It has been a long time of humiliation and endurance. Jaren and Arsika have no interest in the future of the Gabi Trading Company. Their eyes are fixed only on wealth."

"What are you talking about?"

"Head Tushkin was a good man, but his very existence had become shackles binding the Gabi Trading Company. We support your bold decision, Young Master."

These bastards?

Mazhar was dumbfounded. So these people thought that...

"We will remain silent about what happened here. If we say Head Tushkin was corrupted by the Abyss, no one will dare question your actions."

They thought Mazhar Gabi had eliminated Tushkin Gabi and taken the first step toward seizing full control of the Gabi Trading Company amid the chaos!

"No! That's not it! Father really was corrupted by the Abyss!"

"Of course! We believe you, Young Master!"

"This is no time for that. We do not know what Jaren and Arsika might do with this. We need to quietly spread rumors that they were under Head Tushkin's Abyssal influence."

"If we absorb their factions while they are detained for investigation, Young Master will become the head of the Gabi Family...!"

Just as Mazhar Gabi was about to clutch the back of his neck and collapse, ash drifted out on the wind blowing through the broken wall.

But it was clearly moving against the natural flow. All the ashes that had once been Tushkin Gabi poured out beyond the wall at once.

"What the hell?"

Morgina's ravens of Divine Power rushed at the ashes and exploded, scattering them for a moment, but they could not stop their movement.

Beyond the wall, the ashes gathered into the shape of a sticky, amorphous liquid monster. It rose from the ground and quickly grew large enough to look down on the Gabi residence's second-floor bedchamber. Though it had no mouth, it let out a horrifying cry.

[Mazhar!]

Facial features formed on the liquid monster as it shouted. They were horribly distorted and constantly melting away, but it was Tushkin Gabi's face.

"Good heavens! Head Tushkin really was a servant of the Abyss!"

"I thought it was an excuse Young Master made up after erasing the evidence with explosive magic!"

"I told you that isn't it!"

[I always thought you were weak. Jaren inherited my ambition, and Arsika inherited my scheming. Only you were a soft, feeble husk, a brat who inherited nothing but your mother's beauty!]

A tremor spread through the entire mansion. The others could not easily tell what it was, but Kriel, who was closest to the Abyss here, could tell what Tushkin was doing.

He was laughing.

[So you assembled an assassination squad to plot against me! I underestimated you! You are the child most like me! You are more than qualified to become my new body!]

"Kh, uh... Aagh...!"

Unable to withstand his rapidly rising blood pressure, Mazhar was on the verge of collapsing. Tushkin's presence was far too ominous for Kriel to fight while protecting Mazhar. He handed Mazhar over to the mage guards.

"Take your employer and get somewhere safe. We'll deal with him."

The mage guards grabbed the gasping Mazhar and began fleeing the room. A few seconds later, one of them threw something to Kriel.

"Take these! I couldn't bring the greatsword. It was too heavy!"

Tuon and Orisin. Kriel set down the red cudgel and caught both blades.

The moment he gripped the swords, strength filled his entire body. What he had learned since falling into this world was not cudgel fighting, but swordsmanship.

Ah, this cool, solid feeling.

"It's time to return to being Kriel the Knight."

[Hey. But isn't a knight's essential equipment a horse, not a sword?]

Kriel shut his mouth.

Footnotes:

Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried