WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Dionysus
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ I Picked Up the Protagonist’s Heroine ◈
Chapter 13: You Had It All Planned
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The mastermind.
To track down the Death God Cult, I needed money and manpower.
Until now, Father had provided the funds, so money had never been a concern. But things were different now.
I had no justification.
‘Father, in about two years, the Undead King will be resurrected and the apocalypse will begin. I need money and people to stop it, so could you give me some?’
There was no way I could say that.
Self-sufficiency.
I had to acquire them myself.
And for that, this would help.
Jingle.
At last, I found the key in Karma’s other pocket.
It looked ordinary, but I could feel the magic surrounding it.
A key with a magical locking mechanism.
It was the same reward Laward could obtain in the game after killing Karma.
If he selected [Try opening the safe with the key], he could obtain the gold bars Karma had amassed over a lifetime, as well as the organization’s ledgers and roster.
As long as I found that safe, money would no longer be a problem.
The issue was how to get into their hideout.
I could storm in through the front gate and wipe them out, just as Laward had done in the game.
But if I killed every guild member, I would lose useful manpower.
Since they accepted assassination requests, they specialized in covert operations.
There were no better pawns for pursuing the Death God Cult’s trail.
They would also be perfect to cut loose or discard once I had used them, if necessary.
It would be a shame not to make use of them.
“Hmm.”
Or I could use Lucia.
She could enter and leave the hideout without arousing suspicion.
I could tell her to bring back the things from the safe.
Still, even if I was her patron, Lucia and I had met only once.
Our affinity would be close to zero.
Whether she would do as I asked...
“Woooah!”
Startled by the sudden cheer, I turned my head and saw Ester surrounded by soldiers.
“Uh, um...?”
She looked over the soldiers with the frightened expression of a cornered rabbit.
“You saved us, Academy student!”
One soldier tightly grasped both of Ester’s hands.
“If you hadn’t come, we all would have died! Thank you so much...! Sniff...”
“Ah, no... I only did as my patron told me to...”
Ester glanced at me for help.
But as she turned toward me, the soldiers looked my way as well.
“Third Young Master... I apologize for doubting you.”
One of the soldiers bowed deeply, and as if on cue, the others offered polite bows as well.
“Young Master...! We survived thanks to the student you brought...!”
“We truly owe you!”
Their attitudes had changed so drastically that I could hardly believe they were the same men who had mocked me before.
Just as I felt the urge to tease them in return...
Thud, thud, thud, thud!
The sound of hoofbeats rang out, and I naturally turned my head toward it.
When I narrowed my eyes and focused, I saw riders rushing toward us beneath the banner of House Hasgard.
“Father! This way! We heard an explosion around here!”
The eldest Hasgard shouted to Father.
“Romans... Daywin... Please be safe...”
“Don’t worry, Father. Th-they’ll be fine! They must have only gotten lost.”
The eldest seemed to be trying to reassure Father by speaking loudly.
Despite how tense his own expression was.
They rode in with the soldiers.
Father was to the eldest Hasgard’s left.
Mother was to his right.
Unlike the two worried men, Mother looked furious.
“Ugh.”
I had not expected Mother to come too.
A chilling feeling swept over my entire body.
Lady Hasgard wore armor, with a massive battle axe strapped to her back.
When one thought of a countess, one might imagine someone delicate and around ten years younger than the head of the house. But that prejudice had been shattered after I possessed the youngest son of House Hasgard.
My mother was a woman nearly 180 centimeters tall, with a strong frame.
She had the very image of a warrior.
I truly could not understand Father’s tastes.
Or perhaps Father was Mother’s type, and that was why they had married.
Had she captured him?
“Dyer.”
“Yes, Mother.”
Lady Hasgard called her eldest son without taking her eyes off the front.
“Do not show your unease. Too many eyes are watching.”
“...I apologize.”
“This is not a battlefield. It is a subjugation festival. Nothing will happen.”
“But...”
“A Hasgard man dies on the battlefield. I have never raised sons weak enough to die in a place like this.”
“...Yes, Mother.”
A moment later, Father approached me, dismounted, and called out.
“Excuse me!”
Perhaps because he was so flustered, Father seemed to have mistaken me for a member of the paladin order.
“Have you perhaps seen this emblem around...?”
He pointed to the two-spear emblem engraved on his round armor, but quickly realized there was no need to ask.
“...Daywin?”
He finally recognized me.
Then he seized my shoulders.
His grip was tight enough to hurt.
As I watched his trembling pupils, the eldest Hasgard and Mother dismounted as well.
“Daywin! Are you safe?!”
Dyer somehow ran over despite his heavy armor clattering with every step.
“Daywin, are you hurt anywhere? And what is this white armor...?”
My eldest brother and Father patted and prodded me all over, checking my condition.
They searched me as thoroughly as airport security.
As I shook off the hands clinging to me from all sides, I met Mother’s eyes.
“...”
Without a word, Mother looked away.
She must have had mountains of questions herself.
A moment later, she asked only one thing.
“Where is Romans?”
“Brother is...”
“I’m safe!”
Romans raised a hand and approached us just then.
“Romans! Th-there’s blood on your chest...!”
Just as they had done with me, Father and my eldest brother fussed over my second brother and checked his condition.
“I’m fine. Thanks to the student the youngest brought along, I’m completely healed! Hahaha!”
Romans recounted everything that had happened after we were separated, from the assassins’ appearance to the moment I joined the fight.
He told it all like a heroic tale.
Just as he was finishing.
“Romans. Daywin.”
Mother’s cold voice fell low.
“We need to talk.”
We both froze in alarm.
We need to talk.
Come sit here.
Magic words that any son raised by a strict mother could not help but fear.
The middle Hasgard’s bright smile vanished, and his face darkened.
He trudged over with the expression of a defeated soldier.
“Y-you called, Mother?”
Romans stood at attention.
I stiffened beside him.
“Romans.”
“Yes!”
“I hear the goblins’ behavior was unusual.”
“Yes, that is correct.”
“Why did you not retreat immediately?”
“Well...”
“I have always told you that retreat is as important as advancing.”
“I did think of retreating. But...”
“Pathetic. You thought about it? I would rather have heard a reason you did not retreat, but all you have are excuses.”
One of Mother’s eyebrows rose sharply.
“If you had been alone, then yes, you could have judged the situation and either engaged or retreated. But what about the soldiers who followed you? Your father trusted you and entrusted soldiers to you. Yet your arrogance and indecision drove everyone into danger.”
“...I have no excuse.”
At some point, Romans’s gaze had settled on his feet.
“The worst part is that your careless judgment nearly cost you your life as well. If your younger brother had not come, you would already be a cold corpse.”
That final remark was the point.
Mother was not angry over Romans’s arrogance or indecision.
She simply did not express it as Father and my eldest brother did.
Only I, who had begun a second life, knew Mother’s true feelings.
My previous life had changed too much now.
After Romans died, Mother fell ill with grief and passed away.
“Daywin.”
Then came my turn.
“Ugh. Yes.”
I could not help imagining what kind of arrow would fly my way.
Just as I swallowed nervously.
Smack!
Mother struck my back with a full swing.
“Ghk!”
Her hand had moved before her words did.
“Do not do anything reckless.”
Even though I wore armor that could block even a swift dagger, Mother’s hand somehow still stung.
‘Karma lost...’
Lucia had followed Karma to the subjugation festival and secretly watched everything unfold.
The guild members had led the goblin horde into Romans’s forces.
Daywin had intervened and devastated the forest.
Karma and Daywin had fought.
She watched with her heart in her throat.
“Lucia came too?”
And that was what Daywin had said.
The moment he saw Karma’s face, he said it clearly.
‘You knew everything.’
Daywin knew who Lucia had been working for.
He knew every detail of her circumstances.
Lucia naturally recalled their first meeting.
“I want you to focus on your studies.”
It had been the same then.
Though they had just met, his eyes had seemed as though they could see straight through her.
“Is it not that you cannot quit?”
Those eyes seemed to know everything, as though they might suddenly pry into her life. She hated them.
He was a noble who had possessed everything since birth, parents, wealth, and status.
“After all, we will have to deal with them one by one.”
She suddenly remembered him saying that as well.
One by one.
Deal with them one by one.
She had not understood his intentions then.
But Karma died.
Daywin Hasgard had killed Karma.
‘So that was what he meant by dealing with them...’
Had he intended to kill Karma from that point on?
It was far too unnatural for Daywin to know Karma’s face otherwise.
He must have investigated in advance.
Then was their meeting at the subjugation festival merely a coincidence?
“I have a bad feeling about this. It could be a trap.”
Lucia herself had said that.
A trap.
At the time, she had said it carelessly to stop Karma, but upon reconsideration, it was not impossible.
Had Daywin been waiting for Karma instead?
Had he been the hunter rather than the prey?
‘You had it all planned.’
Just as he had for Laward.
Just as he had for Ester.
If only a young sprout could bloom beautifully, he could make anything possible.
He became sunlight, water, and soil.
‘Could there be an order to it?’
Had such salvation come to me as well?
Could I hope for a life unlike the one I had lived until now?
‘Could I be saved too...?’
“Shh. Don’t turn around. Listen.”
The sudden voice brought her back to reality.
“It’s me, Lucia.”
A masked assassin stood behind her.
“We never heard you were coming. I don’t know what happened, but for now... it’s fortunate.”
The guild assassin smoothly raised their bow and aimed at the Hasgards.
“Lucia... Karma is dead. That monster killed Karma... We cannot go back like this.”
The arrow nocked on the bow pointed at each member of House Hasgard in turn.
“Those bastards look like they are about to start celebrating because they think it is all over. They have no idea we are hiding here.”
Gulp.
The assassin swallowed and continued.
“Lucia, get ready until I fire. Once the arrow hits, you charge in through the opening. They will surely panic, and you might be able to cut one more throat.”
“...Lucia does not know.”
“What?”
“What would that change?”
“We have to take revenge!”
The assassin snapped, keeping their voice as low as possible.
“We are the dogs Karma raised... Even if our master is dead, we have to remain loyal to the end... To the very end...!”
Those words stirred up Lucia’s thoughts.
A dog.
Was there any label more fitting?
She had been trained from childhood.
She had learned how to move as her master commanded, how to hunt, and how to obey.
Her master provided a place to live, and she ate what she was given.
When ordered to bite, she bit.
When she rebelled, she was beaten.
“...A dog.”
“I will not target that bastard in white armor. It would not work anyway. But if I hit one of the others, it will be fatal at this distance. The death of a family member will hurt more than being struck by an arrow...”
At the word family, Lucia naturally thought of her younger siblings.
She had lived as Karma’s dog and never complained because she wanted to protect them.
She had lived for the sake of what was precious to her.
“I know you wanted to leave the guild. You even attended the Academy, of all things... You wanted an ordinary life, right? But... we are who we are. This is no time to hesitate. Our hands are already stained.”
“I am not hesitating. As you said, Lucia is a dog. Lucia is loyal to her master.”
“Good. Then I will fire.”
The assassin drew the bowstring with a tense expression.
Slash!
Lucia swung her sword.
A single flash passed in an instant.
Lucia’s blade sliced through the assassin’s throat.
“Ghk... Lu, Lucia... Why...?”
“I told you.”
Dark crimson blood covered half of Lucia’s face.
“Lucia is loyal to her master.”
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