WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Alyo

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◈ Surviving as a Warrior in a TRPG World ◈

Chapter 67: The Return (1)

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"...Then what about the Guild now?"

"It's temporarily closed. No one knows when it'll reopen."

Gerik felt unease slowly rising within him, especially at the mention of Num's Holy Knight Order storming in.

'There's only one reason Num's Holy Knight Order would get involved.'

It was a possibility he did not want to consider. But Gerik wondered if that mysterious group had infiltrated the Stonecreek Adventurers’ Guild.

The very people who had attacked Lugos's party and killed Priest Osrik.

"Phew..."

His appetite vanished. Gerik cast aside the food he had been eating and rose from his seat.

The Guild was closed, so he could not even set foot inside. Since things had come to this, he decided to check on the companions with whom he had faced death.

'If I go to Minos's lodgings, I'll find out something.'

With that thought, Gerik headed for the temporary manor where Minos's group was staying on the outskirts of Stonecreek.

"Is anyone there?"

After taking a quiet breath, Gerik knocked on the manor door. Fortunately, someone seemed to be inside. Movement sounded from within, and the door soon opened.

"Gerik!!"

A familiar figure appeared before him. The old knight, whose white hair and sturdy build left a strong impression, cried out Gerik's name.

Ilvern was a battle-hardened old knight who had never lost composure in any situation. Yet Gerik's return must have felt like a miracle even to Ilvern, because the old knight's eyes were stretched wide.

"Have you been well?"

Ilvern repeatedly expressed gratitude and led Gerik inside. Then Ilvern had a servant bring tea and refreshments.

"First, don't misunderstand me. How in the world did you survive down there?"

Apparently, Ilvern had been terribly curious. Knowing the question was somewhat rude, Ilvern asked it directly. Before Gerik could answer, Ilvern began explaining what had happened to the others.

"I'll be honest. Not long after you fell, we finally managed to bring it down."

Ilvern said that after killing the Grizzly Owl, the old knight had rushed to Minos first and administered a high-grade healing potion, along with further emergency treatment. Minos's condition had been extremely critical at the time.

"After that, hoping against hope, we checked the cliff you had fallen from. But we could not see you, or even the bottom."

Perhaps Gerik had somehow managed to cling to the cliffside. Ilvern had gone there holding on to that faint hope, but the moment Ilvern looked down into the endless darkness, the old knight had no choice but to realize it.

No one who fell down there could possibly return alive.

"Ah... Well..."

Gerik gave a bitter smile at Ilvern's words and calmly began explaining how he had survived. Naturally, he could not tell the whole truth.

Things such as the dimensional key and another world could never be spoken of.

So, as he had prepared beforehand, Gerik began offering an explanation that mixed truth and lies in suitable measure.

"First... as I fell, I desperately used Charge and Slash to scrape against the wall and slow my descent. Luckily, it worked to some extent."

Any other sword would have shattered almost immediately. But Gerik said that the blade forged from Red Iron was durable enough to hold out for a while.

Even that Red Iron sword broke before long, however. Gerik explained that he had drawn his spare sword and repeated the same thing, barely managing to reduce his falling speed.

"I survived, but... the impact was so severe that the armor and most of the equipment I'd bought with all my savings were destroyed."

"Good heavens..."

Gerik casually mentioned his ruined equipment with a bitter smile. He did hope he might receive compensation, but he did not make it obvious.

"My injuries after the fall were serious too. Fortunately, I'd already drunk the healing potion you gave me, Sir, so I at least avoided dying on the spot."

"I see... But if your injuries were that serious, how did you overcome such an ordeal and escape?"

Ilvern looked at Gerik with curiosity filling his eyes. Following the plan he had prepared, Gerik removed his gauntlet and displayed the ring on his finger.

Skyler's Quintet.

Ordinarily, it was something he should never reveal. But during the battle against the Grizzly Owl, he had already exposed its nature in order to save the dying Minos.

Everyone in the party already knew the ring existed, so hiding it now was meaningless. Gerik decided he might as well use it as the basis for his lie.

"As you saw, Sir, my ring contains magic that treats severe injuries. I managed to hold on by using it to tend to my wounds. I barely dealt with thirst and hunger by drinking groundwater and eating mushrooms."

Gerik continued, mixing suitable lies into his account of his days underground to create a believable story.

"I did only the bare minimum necessary to survive, enduring until the ring's cooldown ended. After repeating that for around fifteen days, I was fortunately able to recover from all my injuries."

The story continued. Gerik told Ilvern how he had wandered underground without direction before luckily finding a slope leading upward, and how he had crawled up it while clutching his starving stomach.

Then, when he finally made it up, he found the entrance collapsed and panicked. Fortunately, he discovered traces left by the party and barely escaped by following them.

Ilvern listened to Gerik's desperate survival story for a long while. When Gerik finished, Ilvern spoke heavily.

"...I'm sorry. We should have at least made some attempt to save you."

"It wasn't your fault, Sir."

Gerik calmly shook his head at Ilvern's apology.

"There was no one to blame in the first place. And since I chose the path of an adventurer, I was prepared for this much danger. So please don't worry about it."

After reassuring Ilvern, Gerik asked what he had wanted to know.

"More importantly... how did the party escape from there?"

Ilvern calmly began recounting what had happened.

As Ilvern had explained earlier, around the time Gerik disappeared below the cliff, Ilvern had squeezed out the old knight's remaining strength and battered the Grizzly Owl until finally succeeding in ending its life.

"But that was not the end of our problems. The Grizzly Owl on the surface, enraged by the disappearance of its mate, abandoned its nest and showed signs of entering the ruins."

The party's fighting strength had already been devastated just by facing the first one.

Moreover, Gerik and Ilvern were the only two people who could deal effective damage to the Grizzly Owl, and Gerik was gone. Ilvern said the old knight quickly gave up on fighting it.

"Perhaps in my prime, but I had no way of dealing with it alone now that I am already declining. So I had no choice... I had to use a skill to collapse the entrance entirely and prevent it from getting in."

It had been an extreme decision forced on them by the urgent situation, but naturally, it left the party in a difficult position.

They had cut off their own escape route and effectively half-buried themselves alive.

"Fortunately, Katrin saved us."

Using a Half-elf's sensitive hearing to track air currents and faint sounds, Katrin ultimately found another way out. The party escaped the underground safely by following that route.

"Getting out was difficult enough, but things were still not easy."

They could not relax even after emerging outside. The roaring of the crazed Grizzly Owl echoed everywhere.

Fearing its attack, the party could not even consider returning to the campsite where their supplies were stored. They had no choice but to hurry out of the Demonwild Forest.

"We left all our supplies behind, but thanks to Katrin, we found what we needed locally whenever we needed it and managed to endure. Without her, we would have wandered through the forest and died long ago."

Ilvern said that Katrin had gathered drinking water and food as needed, allowing them to somehow hold on.

Thanks to her fully demonstrating her abilities as an outstanding guide, the party was able to leave the forest far more quickly and safely than expected.

'As expected... I was right.'

The circumstances Gerik had pieced together underground from the collapsed entrance and traces left along the detour now came from Ilvern's mouth exactly as he had inferred them.

He confirmed once again that his reasoning had been correct. Having learned of the party's journey, Gerik asked after the two people who were absent.

"The young master has returned to the Ashburn family's main estate."

Ilvern calmly explained Minos's situation.

"When the young master woke up, he made a great fuss about having to save you. He asked how we could abandon a companion who had risked his life and sacrificed himself for us."

But Ilvern saw things differently and believed there was practically no chance Gerik had survived, and the party now faced the threat of another Grizzly Owl.

Going back there under those circumstances would have been no different from walking to their deaths.

"Even so, the young master would not give up his insistence."

Minos caused a scene, but Ilvern drew a firm line, explaining that Ilvern was the head of the family's knight, not the young master's knight, and that Ilvern's assigned duty was to escort Minos safely.

Therefore, he could not grant that request.

"To be honest, if the young master had continued to be unreasonable, I intended to drag him out by force if necessary."

As the two faced each other in tense opposition, Katrin stepped in to mediate.

Katrin said she fully understood Minos's feelings. How could she not understand his desire to repay the benefactor and companion who had saved his life? But she calmly pointed out the reality of their situation.

She persuaded him that Minos's demand was not realistic and could lead them all to their deaths, making even Gerik's sacrifice meaningless. Minos was deeply saddened, but eventually accepted it.

"After going through this, the young master changed greatly after returning home."

Through this incident, Minos had keenly realized how inadequate his abilities were and how arrogant he had been.

Ilvern said Minos had resolved to devote himself more seriously to magical training, determined to become a proper adventurer for Gerik's sake after Gerik had sacrificed himself for someone as lacking as him.

"But why... are you still here, Sir?"

As Gerik listened to Ilvern, a question suddenly came to him. If Minos had left, then Ilvern, his escort, should have left with him. Yet Ilvern had remained here.

"Because the young lord asked me to."

Before leaving, Minos had made one request of Ilvern. Minos asked Ilvern to wait for Gerik here in Stonecreek for exactly one month, in case Gerik somehow returned alive.

"The young master said that if you miraculously returned and we had already left, unable even to properly repay you, that would be an immeasurable disgrace for a direct descendant of the Ashburn family."

It was a request that was faultless both in reason and principle, so Ilvern had willingly agreed. That was why he had remained here alone.

"...The young master returned with Katrin and newly hired adventurers, while I alone remained behind in hope of a miracle."

Gerik silently reflected on Ilvern's long story. The first emotion he felt was gratitude for the concern Minos had shown him.

The second was relief. He had confirmed that revealing the secret of Skyler's Quintet to save Minos when he had been near death had not been a futile choice.

As Gerik was lost in thought with a complicated expression, a servant who had entered the drawing room without him noticing handed Ilvern a small box.

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