WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: HidingTurtle
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ I Became the Ophidian of the Apocalypse ◈
Chapter 135: Press C to hide your appearance
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Court Count Jimier Berolinger.
A Court Count was, literally, a count who resided at court.
At times, they acted as the king’s representative and wielded immense power.
So even though Berolinger was only a count, the house enjoyed wealth and influence that rivaled any duke or marquis.
Moreover, Jimier Berolinger was an exceptional figure.
The people in politics who feared him had given him the title of Old Fox.
He was short, with a goatee like a billy goat, and his appearance was unremarkable.
But everyone knew that major and minor affairs of the kingdom were decided in the master bedroom of the estate where he retired after leaving the royal court.
Jimier was power incarnate.
At that moment, the Court Count was drinking tea and reading documents.
The glasses perched on his nose looked ready to slip off at any moment.
He casually opened his mouth.
“The gift, did they accept our gift over there?”
The Court Count’s speech was lighter than one might expect.
People meeting him for the first time were often surprised, but the person beside him was a butler who had served him all their life.
The butler answered smoothly.
“We had a new golden filing cabinet crafted and sent to Headmaster Valanyar, but they refused it.”
Headmaster Valanyar was the headmaster of Emerald School.
At the same time, they were a powerful mage and scholar who held one of the Eight Heroes’ seats.
They had refused the Court Count’s gift.
“Paint the outside white and send it again. Then they’ll accept it.”
“...Will that work?”
Even the loyal butler could not readily nod.
Would covering gold with white paint really make them accept it? Could it be that simple?
“Scholars care about appearances. They don’t like getting things in golden boxes. Valanyar’s the same. Slap on some white paint and send it over, they’ll take it.”
“I shall do so.”
“Hehe. Isn’t that bastard just like that? Full of greed inside, but dressing up the outside to look modest.”
“Haha, I shall do that.”
“Bastard... Don’t force yourself to laugh when it isn’t funny. You know I hate that.”
The butler smiled awkwardly.
No matter how one framed it, the Court Count was not someone who could be called pleasant.
Especially at times like this.
“Oh, and these ones I marked. Kill them all.”
“...Yes, understood.”
Whenever he decided who would live and die from this room with a single fountain pen in hand, he was utterly ruthless.
“Give that one at the Academy more support. I’m putting Obern in as insurance, and they’ll be arriving soon, right?”
“I will see to it.”
“Has the Third Prince’s enrollment been handled?”
“Yes, it will be processed shortly.”
At the mention of royalty, the Court Count smiled.
It was an exceptionally dangerous smile.
“Someday, when the red sun rises...”
The Court Count hummed a lyric, apparently in a fine mood.
The butler took the documents and organized them.
Then a commotion came from outside.
Someone was running toward them.
There were voices trying to stop them as well.
There were not many people in this estate who could run around like that.
“Ho ho.”
The Court Count was already smiling fondly when the office door flew open.
“Grandpa!”
An ugly little brat appeared.
Even a hedgehog thinks its own baby is beautiful, as they say. The Court Count swept his running grandchild into his arms.
“Oh? Your face really is a mess.”
“Yeah. That bastard.”
“Why did that fellow hit you, I wonder? Ho ho.”
His grandchild’s face was slightly red and swollen.
The commotion from earlier that day had been reported to the Court Count.
But he could not make sense of what had happened.
Apparently, the servant accompanying his grandchild had struck the back of the child’s head, then the child had suddenly begun wildly hitting his own face.
“Grandpa, what did you do to that bastard? Did you punish him?”
The Court Count understood the situation in his own way.
If the servant had truly struck his grandchild’s head, then his grandchild must have hurt himself to get that servant punished.
To provoke his grandfather’s rage.
It was a very cute lie.
He did not want to interrogate his grandchild over it and scold him.
“Yes, I punished him.”
“How? Did you kill him?”
“I cut off only his wrist and sent him away.”
“Aw, that’s boring.”
And so the matter was settled.
“Throw away that disgusting snake statue too!”
“Snake statue?”
The Court Count looked at the butler, wondering what the child meant. The butler explained.
“It is one of the items acquired recently. It is not a snake but a stuffed wyvern, brought in by the hunter Hailit Langrey... It is currently being stored in the warehouse.”
Jimier Berolinger received several bribes every day.
Those items were stored for a time, then sent back out under Jimier Berolinger’s name.
Sometimes as another bribe, a return gift, or a bestowed reward.
The butler whispered so the grandchild would not hear.
“It is on the outgoing list... It will be removed this week.”
“I see.”
Then it was none of his concern.
Jimier Berolinger declared heartily,
“Yes, I’ll smash it and throw it away for you.”
“Wow, Grandpa, you’re the best!”
It would not be thrown away. It would be sold off somewhere.
But seeing his grandchild’s delight made him feel strangely pleased.
* * *
Day 21 of evolution.
I had a problem.
What should I steal?
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【Cyclops’s Single-Eye Piercer】
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That rapier was no ordinary weapon either.
Cyclops’s Single-Eye Piercer. The name alone made its piercing power sound formidable.
Was it not a fine artifact with historical heritage?
If this world were a game, it would definitely be at least a Unique-grade item.
It probably had options like Ignore Pierce Resistance +5, Physical Attack +10, Magic Attack +5... and so on.
But I already had two swords, so it dropped down the priority list.
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【Messenger’s Winged Shoes】
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There was also a single boot decorated with golden wings.
Pelerian said it was an item that greatly increased running speed.
I did not have feet, so I could not use it.
Then something occurred to me.
Could Isil wear it?
A vine wearing shoes would have enough character appeal to rival Puss in Boots.
-I have no idea whether it would be cute.
Pelerian dismissed the notion immediately.
Even if he was an Archmage, he clearly knew nothing.
-Set your priorities. Particularly valuable items have alarm magic that activates if someone touches them.
‘Does that apply to me too?’
-No, it does not apply to you.
‘Ah.’
There was also the matter of size.
Pelerian’s Signet Ring had Spatial Storage Magic embedded in it.
But the storage space was not particularly large.
There would be limits to the size and quantity of items I could take.
Among the many objects, there was one I definitely wanted.
It looked as if it had been preserved in the warehouse for a very long time.
It was something that would make a fine flowerpot.
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【Althead Ritual Celadon】
...
──────────────
‘That celadon is an artifact too, right?’
-Yes. Though we would need to examine it more closely to learn what magic it possesses.
The fact that its name appeared when I focused was proof enough that it was no ordinary object.
And it had something inside it.
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【Althead Ritual Celadon】
- Golden Soil
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Golden Soil.
I did not know what it was, but it seemed like it would be good for plants.
Naturally, I was not planning to eat it. I wanted to give it to Isil.
Did Isil know how I felt?
The moment my evolution was complete, I would grab the goods and make a run for it.
I would leave a bill for all the people who had called me disgusting and stuffed me into the corridor as an ornament.
Clank.
Then the door opened.
Servants came in with clomp, clomp footsteps and began loading items onto trolleys.
‘Hey, what are you doing?!’
Fortunately, they did not load the items I had picked out.
But one of them suddenly picked me up.
Were they taking me out of here already?
I had not gotten anything yet!
“Ah, not that one yet.”
“Really?”
“Yeah, it says on the list that it goes out tomorrow. Leave it for now.”
Fortunately, the servant put me back down.
Then they loaded the items and left.
‘Tomorrow?!’
That meant I was being taken out of this warehouse tomorrow.
My plan to become the phantom thief Prince Serpent after finishing my evolution would fall apart.
‘What do we do?!’
-What do you mean, what do we do? We cannot leave those behind!
Just as I had marked Althead Ritual Celadon in my mind,
Pelerian had something he absolutely wanted to take.
It was a blank parchment scroll.
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【Malphas’s Parchment】
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Unlike the other objects, it had been left practically buried in dust.
That made sense. It was nothing more than yellowed parchment, and there was not much of it either.
It was only classified as an artifact because it gave off ominous Mana.
-They failed to recognize its value. That is how collectors with nothing but money are.
Pelerian said that old parchment was the most valuable item here.
-It contains the power of Malphas, the Raven Demon. That demon’s nickname is the Scammer-in-Chief.
‘So?’
-It is parchment that crafty demon uses when making contracts. Any terms written on it can never be broken. They are enforced.
Gasp. Then what if, for example, someone wrote, “If I lie, the continent will be destroyed,” and deliberately lied?
When I asked that, Pelerian looked like he wanted to throw up because my idea was so childish.
Apparently, that would not work.
‘Anyway, what should we do?’
-Listen.
Pelerian’s plan sounded fairly plausible.
-Hehe. Once it gets dark, that will be our chance.
We waited for time to pass.
* * *
One thing I liked about this world as a phantom thief was that it had no CCTV.
When I asked whether similar magic existed, Pelerian said there was none here, at least.
Apparently, such a thing required an exceptionally skilled mage to stay attached to it constantly.
That meant there was plenty I could do.
Pelerian and I first looked over the warehouse interior.
This was a warehouse, not a vault.
Which meant ventilation was necessary. Naturally, there was a window for that.
But even an agile thief could not escape through that window.
It was a tiny opening, difficult to pass through unless you were very thin, and it was high up near the roof.
You could climb up if there were a ladder, but the guards made that impossible.
There were probably magical alarm devices as well.
In other words, this warehouse had been designed to make a thief’s intrusion extremely difficult...
‘But I’m already inside.’
I had already infiltrated it perfectly.
Outside the window was dim, and it was already deep in the night.
The perfect time for a thief to steal something.
I put strength into my tail.
I could feel Pelerian’s ring.
I tried using Spatial Storage Magic.
It was usually easy, but perhaps because my evolution was not yet complete, I barely succeeded.
‘Isil!’
Isil sprang out from inside.
Normally, Isil was incredibly slow, but coming out of Subspace, they were quick.
Isil immediately clung to me.
‘You missed me a lot too, huh?’
Smack! Smack!
But Isil kept hitting me with their leaves.
They must have been upset after being alone for so long.
Still, it could not be helped. I had only recently learned to use the ring’s Spatial Storage Magic.
After indulging Isil’s sulking for a while, I asked them for something.
Isil understood perfectly.
‘You can do it, right?’
Still clinging to my body, Isil slowly extended their vines.
Unfortunately, it seemed only two vines could stretch far. But I would have to make do with that.
The parchment and celadon were the priority.
I carefully placed Isil’s vines on them.
The warehouse was quiet.
But it would not stay that way for long.
‘Now!’
I pulled the items Isil had grabbed.
Whirrrrr-
They came rushing over, as though a fully extended measuring tape were recoiling.
At the same time, I used Transparent Hand to collect the items I had been eyeing.
Beeeeeeep!
A deafening alarm rang out.
‘Isil, get back inside for a moment!’
I put Isil and the collected items into Subspace.
Beeeeeeep!
Clank! Clank!
Iron bars suddenly sprang up around the display cases.
Red lights also came on with a click.
Armed guards would soon rush in.
And that was not all.
-A golem is activating!
There had even been a golem hidden inside the warehouse.
It seemed to be a golem meant to drive out thieves.
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【Berolinger House Storage Guard】
【Traits】
[Guard], [Golem]
【Skills】
[Emergency Alarm Lv. 10], [Slash Resistance Lv. 10], [Grab and Tear Lv. 10], [Stone Fist Lv. 10]
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But the golem’s level was...
-Pathetic.
‘Scrub golem.’
Even my current magic was enough to handle it.
「You use Intermediate Elemental Magic: Water Lv. 2.」
I made a sphere of water and covered the golem’s head with it.
It would not suffocate to death. But its sensory devices were disrupted.
It could not charge any farther and froze in place.
-Below its solar plexus.
「You use Intermediate Elemental Magic: Wind Lv. 2.」
A butterfly of wind fluttered over.
It slipped into the gap below the golem’s solar plexus.
Boom!
It exploded and tore off the protective armor over its chest.
「You use Transparent Hand Lv. 17.」
Then I grabbed the rapier I had collected earlier, Cyclops’s Single-Eye Piercer, and sent it flying.
The pointed blade pierced the golem’s core.
Crack!
That was the end.
The golem stopped functioning completely.
「You have defeated Berolinger House Storage Guard.」
What a pushover.
Then again, a golem like this...
Hey, I had already taken down two golems stronger than you back when I was a White Horn Snake.
Soon, a commotion erupted outside.
The guards were opening the warehouse door to enter.
The alarm had gone off and the golem had been defeated in the blink of an eye, so it was a rather quick response.
Bang!
The door opened.
“Who is it?! How dare you!”
The moment the guards rushed inside,
I put my preparation into action.
「You use Transparent Hand Lv. 17.」
I simply broke the window with Transparent Hand.
Crash!
The guards all looked up.
“D-Damn it, it’s outside. It escaped through the window!”
‘The thief climbed the wall, broke the window, and escaped.’
That was how the situation must have appeared to them.
The guards rushed back outside.
As for me,
I simply stayed still.
There was no need to run away.
Fortunately, the crystal snake ornament had not been stolen by the thief, and it quietly remained in a corner on the second shelf of the third rack.
It was the perfect crime.
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