WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Order
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◈ I Became the Dark Knight in the Game World ◈
Chapter 58: In Search of the Lost Heirloom (1)
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I'm cold and hungry.
Kriel thought.
[Wasn't it like this when you entered the Sacred Kingdom too?]
Kriel was in the Lir Domain's dungeon.
[Master. Now that it's come to this, let us go to the Abyss─]
[Be quiet!]
Tuon's whispers tempted him to embrace the darkness within. Orisin hastily drowned out the vicious sophistry. A unicorn's clear, ringing noise pollution was more than loud enough to smother a Demon Sword's whispers.
Listening to their usual exchange, Kriel thought.
What did I even do this time to end up here?
I didn't even put on my armor before coming.
* * *
Contrary to what Kriel believed, the Lir Family had not thrown him in prison because of his appearance.
Of course, Kriel's appearance was extremely intimidating. There were no tales in Tirnanog of adventures to become the king of pirates, so when people saw someone carrying three swords, their first thought was not, Did he take comics too seriously? It was, Is he insane?
Especially when red killing intent swirled in that person's eyes, and their skin was so pale they looked like a corpse. At that point, it might have been better to find a helmet that covered his entire face.
Still, a prestigious elven family would have met old vampires who had lived for centuries, or ancient dragons that had endured spans of time beyond even the mountains, at least once.
The Lir Family had often received strange and extraordinary guests like those. Kriel might have looked somewhat, no, very much like a servant of the Abyss, but they were not an unreasonable group that threw people in prison indiscriminately for that reason.
The reason Kriel had been imprisoned was Lewein Lir.
After realizing that his younger brother had fallen into the Abyss and plotted to kill him and take his place, Lewein agonized over the matter. He had long since beaten down the servants of the Abyss who had come to kill him, but who could say whether there were other remnants plotting something?
So, for the first time in a while, Lewein wrote to the Lir Family's direct line as well.
From Lewein Lir, a relative from a collateral branch of the Lir Family and current Advisory Mage of the Gate City on the Sacred Kingdom-Empire border, to the wise members of the Lir Family's direct line.
His foolish and pitiful younger brother, Collin Lir, had fallen into the Abyss and plotted to steal his identity. Collin's plan had been stopped, and he had entered eternal rest, but there might still be Abyssal accomplices remaining. Exercise special caution toward anyone using the name Lewein Lir.
The letter was sent several days after Kriel left the Gate City. At the time, he had been busy with one thing after another alongside Armede in the Duchy of Argetlam.
Then, around the time the letter arrived, an heirloom theft occurred within the Lir Family.
The Lir Family treated the matter with the utmost severity, but the conclusion was unexpectedly anticlimactic. The heirloom was found in the room of a direct relative whom the family had practically disowned for being too dissolute. There was ample circumstantial evidence that the relative had intended to use the heirloom as collateral for a loan, unable to handle gambling debts.
Still, the fact that an heirloom had been stolen so easily was not a good sign.
What terrible consequences might have followed if the thief had been a Servant of the Abyss instead of the family's wastrel?
As a result, by the time he arrived at the Lir Family, their Abyss security measures had quietly reached their highest alert level.
In truth, even then, everything could have passed without incident.
A warning had arrived from Lewein Lir to beware of an impostor using his name. Then Kriel appeared, showed Lewein Lir's letter of delegation, and tried to prove his identity. On top of that, he looked exceptionally suspicious.
Even so, the Lir Family was reasonable.
Just because the household was unsettled did not mean they would seize and imprison a traveler solely for looking suspicious. What if he really had received Lewein Lir's letter of delegation?
The old elves might have tried to summarily execute a suspicious human for doing nothing more than approaching their territory.
Yet the fact that a prestigious family descended from Ancient Elves still remained recognized as nobility in the modern Empire meant they had abandoned the old elves' distinctive elitism and discrimination.
Though wary of the suspicious visitor, the Lir Family decided to hear him out first and sent one of their direct blood relatives as requested.
Then, right in front of them, Kriel took out a ring infused with Abyssal energy.
It was a ring that exuded poison, the culprit behind the contaminated water source of a mountain village near the Lir Domain.
And Kriel said,
“First, please take this.”
From Kriel's perspective, it was a natural measure. The village where the Poison Ring had been found fell under the Lir Family's jurisdiction. Shouldn't he report that the Abyss had cast its shadow near their territory?
The ability to deal with Abyssal items was another issue. Kriel lacked the magical ability to purify Abyssal artifacts. Of course, simply disposing of them rather than purifying them was another matter.
As a Dark Knight, he could use his authority to absorb the remnants of the Abyss.
But Kriel did not want to strengthen the darkness within himself that way.
The mage dispatched by the Lir Family accepted the Abyssal artifact with a carefully blank expression, then said something had come up and left.
They then rushed to the family elders, cried, “Aah! It's a servant of the Abyss!” and collapsed.
That was how Kriel, who had been playing a word-chain game with the two swords because he could no longer endure the boredom, was sent to the detention cell without understanding why.
* * *
Sitting in one corner of the detention cell, Kriel sighed.
The tense elf had returned and said, “The person who will speak with you is this way,” then led him around in circles.
The instant Kriel entered the room after hearing that the person who would speak with him was inside, he was teleported into the center of a prison cell.
It seemed that something like a teleportation circle had been set up in advance.
Kriel had no intention of escaping the prison by force. He knew that would only deepen their misunderstanding.
‘They were so focused on sending me to prison that they hadn't even confiscated my weapons. A guard will show up soon and do something.’
All he had to do was make a polite request of a guard when one came.
‘There seems to have been a misunderstanding. Please contact Advisory Mage Lewein in the Gate City and ask whether he knows someone named Kriel.’
He might have to wait in the detention cell for a day or two, but once the truth came out, the Lir Family would surely put more effort into finding a Spiritist after committing such a grave discourtesy.
* * *
The elves of the Lir Family were arguing fiercely. They could not understand the intentions of the servant of the Abyss who had boldly revealed an Abyssal artifact as soon as he arrived at the Lir Family estate.
“To reveal an Abyssal artifact so openly. There must be an Abyss follower within our family. That ring was likely a token meant to arrange a meeting with an ally he had agreed upon beforehand.”
“Calm down. That is far too much speculation! What young Lewein went through was difficult and cruel, but believing the Abyss has infiltrated even the direct Lir bloodline because of that is short-sighted.”
“Could he not simply have given it no thought? Perhaps he found the ring by the roadside and showed it to us, the effective lords of this area, to report it.”
“Hmph, ridiculous!”
“We must force him to confess his backer and purpose at once!”
One of those watching the Elder elves argue quietly rose from her seat. In truth, few had even noticed that she was present. She had entered while concealing her presence from the beginning.
Even those who had noticed her paid little attention. It was natural for the Lir Family's covert guard to accompany gatherings of the family's direct bloodline.
Once outside the meeting room, she vanished into the darkness.
* * *
An hour had already passed since he began waiting for a guard. Unable to endure the boredom any longer, Kriel started another word-chain game.
[Darkness.]
[Sable Knight.]
“Trickster. Orisin, you lose again.”
[You knighthood-obsessed fools! Are you two teaming up just to gang up on me?!]
When the three of them played word-chain games, Orisin lost nine times out of ten. For some reason, Tuon and Kriel worked exceptionally well together.
Kriel told Orisin to accept defeat graciously and prepared for the next round.
“Knighthood.”
“Doppelganger.”
[…Huh?]
An unfamiliar voice came from the other side of the prison. It was a cracked voice that somehow seemed to carry the feeling of a hangover, even through the wall.
“Was someone there?”
“That is what I would like to ask. This was my private cell. Are you from a collateral branch that offended one of the family elders? You would have to be seriously disliked to be sent somewhere surrounded by an anti-mana force field.”
“I am not part of the Lir Family. Who are you?”
“Huh. I thought it was a voice I had never heard before. Alberic Lir. You can call me Al, or Rick if you prefer.”
“How did you end up here?”
“They say I stole an heirloom or something. I don't remember it, but everyone keeps saying that.”
Is he insane?
Kriel scratched his head.
Footnotes:
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