WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Alyo
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◈ Surviving as a Warrior in a TRPG World ◈
Chapter 80: The Devil of Chance (1)
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'Sharpened Perception isn't all good, either.'
Having experienced firsthand the discomfort brought on by his heightened senses, Gerik grumbled that he would have to learn how to shut out this troublesome sensitivity soon.
'...?!'
After walking steadily for several hours, he passed the outer reaches of the Demonwild Forest and had just entered the Boundary Forest when he once again felt a faint gaze brush against his skin for the briefest moment.
'...So it wasn't my imagination?'
In a town, especially one like Stonecreek with so many rough characters, feeling sharp gazes was hardly unusual. Adventurers were dangerous people, after all.
But not here in the Boundary Forest. There were only two kinds of beings one could encounter here: monsters and hostile humans.
Sensing something was wrong, Gerik swiftly turned toward where he had felt the gaze. But in that instant, the other's presence scattered like smoke, as though it had never been there.
'...Someone's definitely here.'
Gerik was certain. Unlike Stonecreek, which had been filled with distractions, there was no reason to doubt his senses here. Showing extreme caution, he immediately drew his sword.
Shing.
Holding up his longsword, Gerik stared into the empty darkness and focused every nerve in his body, prepared for an attack that could come at any moment.
Clap. Clap. Clap.
Leisurely applause reached Gerik's ears as he focused all his senses. At the incongruous sound, wholly unsuited to the Boundary Forest, so silent it was frightening enough that even the insects did not chirp, Gerik's eyes widened.
'...!!'
Shocked by the unknown figure who had slipped close while deceiving his Perception, Gerik turned toward the sound.
There, beneath the shade of a tree, stood a familiar figure. Four shadows silently took up positions behind him.
"It's been a while, Gerik! Your senses are sharp indeed!"
Ruben. An executive of the Stonecreek Adventurers’ Guild. The man who had shown Gerik all manner of favor. Gerik's expression stiffened at his sudden appearance.
Whether Gerik was flustered or not, Ruben kept applauding, apparently genuinely impressed by his sharp reaction.
"..."
Gerik gave no reply and stared at him expressionlessly. Back when he knew nothing, he might have been glad to see his benefactor again after so long.
But not now.
Through everything that had happened, Gerik had learned that the man before him might be a spy for the heretical cult that had attacked Mudholm and murdered innocent people, or a worshipper of the Tentacled Humans that had destroyed Braktul's world.
Swoosh.
Without a word, Gerik hardened his expression and tightened his grip on his sword.
"..."
Gerik remained silent. But rather than grow angry, Ruben curled his lips as though he found it amusing and continued.
"You really are... a good actor, aren't you?"
He shook his head dramatically.
"Mudholm, was it? A country bumpkin from some nameless backwater village... Even now, I can't understand it. Such an intelligent yokel?"
Gerik flinched at Ruben's exaggerated explanation, a chill running down his spine. It practically meant that Ruben had investigated his origins and movements.
Even so, Gerik did not let his expression waver as he answered calmly.
"...I don't know what you're talking about."
Heh.
Even at Gerik's shameless denial, Ruben did not change his attitude. He simply smiled faintly and continued.
"Is that so? Then how about this? Let me tell you an interesting story."
Ruben clasped his hands behind his back and spoke at ease.
"That gemstone you received from the Ashburn family the other day. Our 'Order'... well, to be exact, I deliberately put that item into the auction house."
'...!!'
It was an unexpected development. Gerik had never imagined that the component of Skyler's Quintet Minos had won at auction had been bait, and his eyes widened in surprise.
"Oh! You're finally surprised? Since your reaction is so good, let me tell you an even more interesting story. It's a little long, so feel free to sit if your legs get tired!"
Enjoying Gerik's reaction, Ruben even made a good-natured joke.
But Gerik still gave no response and merely watched him in silence. Ruben grinned, leaned against a nearby tree, and continued.
"It began with the incident where the key and the ring vanished together."
Ruben said that, as one of the plan's chief architects, he had used his position in the Adventurers’ Guild to manipulate the information. He had successfully lowered the key's perceived importance and arranged for it to be transported by adventurers of a "suitable level."
"The problem was... the men on site underestimated the adventurers. They were due for promotion to Silver Plate, at least! What kind of attitude was that...?"
They had sufficiently reduced the transport party's strength without making it seem suspicious. Yet the men on site, as though they had all taken something, failed to handle the job cleanly in one go.
Ruben passionately explained that this forced them to proceed in several stages, which created a problem.
"And sure enough, it became a disaster! If they had handled it cleanly in one go, one member of their party would never have fallen behind!"
The experienced adventurers had entrusted the two items considered the least important among the goods they were transporting to the adventurer who had fallen behind, just in case. Unaware of that, the Order had captured the main group only to find itself in an awkward position.
To make matters worse, while searching for and eliminating the adventurer left behind, they had even provoked Num's priest, earning the intense wrath of Num, who cherished the faithful dearly.
"The problem is... even after causing all that trouble, we couldn't find the 'item.' But do you know what's even more absurd? I was blamed for all of it!!"
Ruben fumed, but Gerik thought it only natural. Whatever the process had been, Ruben himself had designed and led the entire operation from beginning to end.
"It was unfair, but what could I do? Being powerless was my own fault. After that, I did everything I could. But... I still couldn't secure the item, and after that... well, can't you guess?"
What awaited him after failing to clean up the mess was the Order's cold gaze.
Worse still, Ruben had learned through an internal source that his name had somehow ended up on the purge list.
"Whew... It's dizzying even thinking about it now. Anyway, I desperately racked my brain to stay alive, and I came up with a plan to buy time."
Cornered within the Order, Ruben had proposed releasing the gemstone, a ring component that had vanished with the key, at auction as bait to trace their whereabouts.
"I don't know whether you know this, but the key is an extraordinary item."
'I know very well.'
Gerik inwardly scoffed at Ruben's words. After all, he had used the key and undergone an earth-shattering experience.
Fortunately, Ruben did not seem to notice that reaction this time. His eyes gleamed as he continued.
"What if some powerful force had coveted the key and stabbed us in the back? Then there should have been some sign in the world! The key has that kind of power! Yet there was no sign at all. It was quiet as the grave."
Because of that, Ruben had strongly argued his case before the Order.
The key, along with the ring, had clearly fallen into the hands of an ordinary individual who did not even recognize its value, rather than some great power.
And the fact that both items had vanished together without a trace was proof of that.
"So I argued this. If someone had taken both the key and the ring as an unexpected windfall, they wouldn't know the key's value, so they would have tossed it aside somewhere. They would likely be more interested in the visible artifact, the ring..."
Ruben had argued that they should first throw out a ring component as bait.
He claimed that by investigating and tracking every person who reacted to it, they could find the key's whereabouts or traces of whoever possessed the ring.
'...The logic is certainly plausible.'
There was a flaw in that logic. If the person who had taken the items had thought the ring was merely an ordinary antique gemstone ring and sold it to a general store, that would have been the end of it.
But as Ruben had said earlier, this plan had been nothing more than a stopgap measure he had squeezed out to save himself when he was on the verge of being purged.
Even Ruben himself had been unsure whether anyone would truly take the bait.
Still, the reasoning was fairly sharp, the risk of carrying it out was low, and the Order desperately needed the key. It seemed they had let him proceed with the plan to give him one last chance.
Ironically, that far-fetched deduction, one he had made as though clutching at straws, had reached the truth exactly despite the flawed process.
The key had fallen into the hands of an ordinary person with no particular background.
Gerik.
"After barely persuading the Order and buying myself time, I immediately put the plan in motion. I placed a simple tracking spell on the gemstone box, praying that this bait would find its way to the ring's owner."
Ruben paused for a moment, as though recalling that time. His original calculation had been simple.
If a component appeared at auction, investigate every person who bid on it. That was all. But something unexpected happened.
"Ha, but wouldn't you know it? There was only one bidder. And of all people... it was the Ashburn family."
Ruben frowned, as though merely remembering it made him sick.
"The moment I confirmed that box had ended up in Ashburn hands after the auction, everything went dark before my eyes."
Ruben's scheme had been founded on one major premise: that the person holding the key was an ordinary individual who did not know its value.
But if the Ashburn family had eagerly taken the bait, that premise had been wrong from the start.
What if they knew the key's value and had reached for it? That would be the worst outcome.
They could take it by force if necessary, but the Ashburn great house and the forces behind it would never stand by while Ashburn was attacked. The matter would inevitably grow much larger.
Even if they had bought it without knowing anything, it was still a problem. Recovering an item sleeping in a great family's storage or digging out information would never be easy.
If they were caught trying to steal it, the repercussions would surely spread far and wide. It was obvious that attention inside and outside the Order would turn toward why a heretical cult coveted such an item.
'It's a checkmate situation.'
Gerik read the hidden meaning beneath Ruben's lament. No matter how it unfolded, the moment things went wrong, Ruben, who had pushed this scheme forward, would clearly be unable to escape responsibility.
"I thought it was over. I truly did."
As he said that, Ruben gave the most relaxed smile Gerik had seen from him, as though it were all in the past now. Then he continued, as if savoring how he had felt at the time.
"It was truly dizzying. The looks I received from those around me were vicious too."
In the end, driven to the edge of the cliff, Ruben had dug into the Ashburn family's internal affairs as though clutching at straws to survive.
"I recruited one of the servants working in the family by pouring in an absurd amount of money. Money means nothing if you're dead, doesn't it?"
Surprisingly, extracting information about the auction item had not been difficult. The money Ruben had spread around was a huge sum, but the information he wanted was utterly trivial.
For a servant of low status, it was like a fortune falling into their lap for a simple errand. Without a shred of guilt, they readily told him what they knew.
He had merely tracked the auction item like a final desperate struggle, but Ruben received a truly unexpected piece of news and felt his mind go blank.
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