I Became the Dark Knight in the Game World - Chapter 55

WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Order

◈ I Became the Dark Knight in the Game World ◈

Chapter 55: Inheriting the Trading Company (3)

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“That’s right, young master! Of course not. If it turns out we knew beforehand about Family Head Tushkin, no, former Family Head Tushkin’s Abyssal corruption, Jaren and Arsika will definitely seize on it.”

“But if we only happened to learn the former Family Head’s true nature today, Jaren will be suspicious. We need a plausible explanation for how we realized he was connected to the Abyss...”

“You still don’t get it, do you? You brought a priest with you. Not an ordinary priest either, but the Saintess herself! He may have deceived ordinary priests until now, but he couldn’t fool the Saintess’s eyes and ears. That’s the story!”

“Aha!”

Kriel thought he could hear Mazhar Gabi clutching the back of his neck, about to collapse somewhere behind him, but he paid it no mind.

He was sifting through Tushkin Gabi’s remains.

“What are you doing?”

“Armede? Where’s Morgina?”

“Over there.”

Morgina was speaking with the guards and Mazhar Gabi. From what Kriel caught, she was explaining how to respond when a family member had suffered Abyssal corruption. As the Saintess, she seemed well versed in such procedures.

“And what are you doing?”

“I’m searching Tushkin Gabi’s corpse.”

“I can see that. He’s definitely dead already. I’m asking why you’re doing it.”

“I know your abilities well.”

“Hm?”

It went back to when Kriel had worked as a mercenary. Armede had been treated as a sort of final solution in the mercenary company she led. If a Monster was unusually tough or a goblin settlement’s defenses were oddly sturdy, she simply blew it up.

The bodies were often too damaged to collect the full extermination reward, but the results were reliable.

“The thread’s power is far weaker than with a proper incantation, but Tushkin hadn’t even become a Demonkin. He was only at the level of a Demonic Beast. Normally, he should have died the moment he took that explosion head-on.”

“Huh? But he survived and turned into that strange liquid monster.”

“That’s exactly what’s strange.”

The Abyss could even perform miracles that brought the dead back to life. Yet that was impossible for something at the level of a Demonic Beast. Resurrection was a realm permitted only to Demonkin with considerable experience, whether in terms of time or slaughter.

Things might have been different inside an Abyssal Domain, where the Abyss’s power held more direct influence. But the Gabi estate was not in the heart of an Abyssal Domain. It was prime real estate with fine mountains and clear waters.

“There may have been outside interference, or some artifact may have been involved.”

Kriel could normally find artifacts tainted by the Abyss even while passing by, but Tushkin’s ashes now covered the entire garden, making it difficult to identify anything in particular.

“Most of what he wore on his fingers seems to have been blown to pieces too...”

Even as she said that, Armede rolled up her sleeves. Morgina, having finished her explanation, seemed puzzled but guessed they were looking for something. She made shovels and sieves, then joined the search, making one each for Kriel and Armede as well.

Highborn people digging through ashes. Wondering what was happening, the estate guards who approached, along with Mazhar Gabi, ended up taking shovels too.

While sifting his father’s ashes, Mazhar Gabi heard a metallic clink against the sieve.

“I found something! I don’t know what it is, though!”

Mazhar Gabi pulled something out from beneath the ash. It was a metal ornament engraved with geometric patterns. Originally, it would have been linked to a metal chain and worn as a pendant, much like the Mark of the Great Warrior around Kriel’s own neck.

Kriel took the pendant from Mazhar Gabi. It had been caught in the explosion and had its existence absorbed by Tuon, leaving it extremely faint, but a trace of supernatural ability remained.

“Was it originally shaped like a tree?”

A tree. Regeneration.

A fragment of an old memory passed through Kriel’s mind, from his days playing Tirnanog RPG.

It was a post on one of Tirnanog RPG’s few community sites, discussing suitable item builds for each character.

“Steel Branch...”

A suitable mid-to-late-game item for warriors. Aside from granting excellent health regeneration, Kriel could not remember its detailed effects.

There was another reason he remembered it.

[Steel Branch? That’s an artifact the ancient dwarves mass-produced when they tried to recreate the World Tree’s blessing.]

At Orisin’s words, Kriel suddenly recalled his days in the Western Army. Whenever he was sent alone on an operation, he had carefully searched the surroundings, wondering whether there might be ruins where those artifacts remained.

Honestly, he had been a little envious of the other knights wearing Steel Branches. For some reason, that sort of luck had never come Kriel’s way.

Still, envy was not the decisive reason Kriel remembered that artifact. It was because of something those knights had said.

“Right. It was also worn by a Hero.”

[What?]

“Oh, I’ve heard that as well. They say the warrior among the three Heroes who defeated Valor wore a pendant shaped like a tree carved from steel. That was a mass-produced item?”

[Only ancient dwarves could mass-produce it! They probably can’t do it anymore. Well, maybe they could if the Mountain Kingdom’s Unquenchable Flame still remains?]

Kriel followed the faint supernatural ability. He could clearly sense its original effect, accelerated regeneration.

Yet he could also feel the aura of the Abyss. It was as though someone had removed the Mana Circuit that granted the accelerated regeneration spell, then implanted one of the same structure that operated through the Abyss.

“They corrupted the artifact with the Abyss.”

“...An ominous object. Will you take it?”

Kriel shook his head. He flicked the steel ornament away with his finger, and Mazhar caught it without much difficulty.

“Isn’t that decisive evidence of your father’s Abyssal corruption? It’ll be your final trump card for inheriting the Trading Company.”

“Uh, right... No, I don’t have any desire to inherit the Trading Company!”

“Then give it to your older brother or sister. Either way, it’ll be more useful in your hands than mine.”

Kriel shrugged and added,

“But you’ll end up using it in the end.”

“Why do you think that?”

“Isn’t it a certainty that Jaren and Arsika will accuse you of murdering your own father? To fend off that attack, you’ll naturally submit this as evidence. Once you get through it safely, most of the Gabi Family will already be on your side.”

“Huh?”

Still dazed as he wondered whether it would really work out that way, Gabi was led toward the office by two mage guards and called out.

“Thank you! I’ll send the payment shortly, so please wait a little! Let’s discuss it together over dinner!”

As he spoke, Gabi threw something. It was a gold coin. Not a copper coin or a silver coin, but gold. He was quite generous.

Kriel snickered and replied,

“I’ve already received more than enough payment.”

“That’s only the advance payment! I’ll make sure you receive a separate reward for the results!”

* * *

In the darkness, a Demonkin rose to his feet. His brow furrowed.

“Again?”

He was not originally a Demonkin meant to occupy this position. Rather than quietly plotting behind the scenes like Satranak, his role had been to fight the necessary battles in the proper places.

The reason Jipeolluk, the Fang of Grikenkos, had stepped outside his original role to oversee communications with Demons was simple.

Satranak, who had originally held that role, had met a sudden and violent death in some corner of the Sacred Kingdom.

Jipeolluk had only intended to serve as Grikenkos’s priest until a new Demonkin was born.

Yet during that brief time, Grikenkos’s power had been struck by a series of strange calamities.

Satranak’s sudden death had only been the beginning. Belatedly, Demonic Beasts had been dispatched to track the traces of the Seven Demon Weapons, but the werewolves grew confused and abandoned the pursuit.

They claimed that Gratuon had split into two. Jipeolluk assumed the detestable priests of the Sacred Kingdom had invented another sealing method.

Still, no matter what seal was attempted, the Seven Demon Weapons always had the potential to break free into the world on their own. With a sigh, Jipeolluk considered the loss a sunk cost.

Then came the Gate City’s wyvern conscription officer.

That one had confidently declared that, by using their sibling, they could devour the Gate City. Their talent for tormenting humans seemed useful enough that Jipeolluk had expected them to reach the level of a Demonkin if they killed their sibling and took their heart.

Then one morning, the connection to Grikenkos was cut off. Without warning, they had been chopped to pieces and killed.

And Tushkin Gabi. Since the Demon King War, he had steadily nurtured his Demonic Nature. It was not deep for someone who had followed the Abyss for so long, but he was a rare talent because he possessed completely legitimate authority within the Empire.

As Jipeolluk waited for a regular report, the Demon revealed, “His fate has been cut short.”

That made three already. Not Abyssal beginners who had barely reached the level of Monsters, but Servants who should have played their own roles in Grikenkos’s plans.

What was this?

What was happening?

Jipeolluk struggled to hold back a sigh.

Someone had requested an audience with Grikenkos’s apostle.

The one responsible for corrupting the Hero’s relic.

Footnotes:

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