WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Chen
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ The Genius Knight of a Fallen Race ◈
Chapter 30: Hunting, Predation, and Change
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Spring came after winter, bringing fresh shoots.
In Hasra, Pendia’s capital, a rumor that began at court started spreading far and wide.
‘The king has decided that whichever prince brings him a way to restore his health will become his successor!’
It was court business, so people could not exactly discuss it openly. Still, once a story like that spread, there was no stopping it.
Before long, both princes began openly gathering capable warriors.
They were looking for strong people who could help explore the Demon Realm. Even proud knights who normally would not spare a thought for such a harsh place began showing their faces.
Naturally, the news soon reached the common folk, and people discussed it in taverns.
Along with it came growing interest in the “unknown warrior who killed a cockatrice.”
It sounded like a lie. Someone had supposedly managed to kill a cockatrice in the Demon Realm alone, or with only a mage and a priest at their side.
No one knew the warrior’s true identity.
Some claimed the warrior was a giant as large as a mountain. Others said it was a middle-aged fighter with a lean build and fierce eyes. There were even people who insisted it was a tall female warrior.
Someone even spread the ridiculous rumor that it had been an Alto boy who had not yet come of age. Even the Altos in the slums laughed at how absurd that sounded.
Taking advantage of the situation, Kalion discreetly sounded out nobles from Prince Elvin’s faction among the families he often dealt with.
He claimed he had made a bet with an acquaintance, then jokingly asked whether the nobles would knight the warrior if the person who killed the cockatrice turned out to be an Alto. Naturally, he also buttered them up lavishly and offered substantial bribes along the way.
Unfortunately, every response was negative.
The most favorable answer he received was, “Promise to knight him, then use him for as long as we need.”
While Kalion and Roden ran around tirelessly handling that matter, Shan had work of his own.
He needed to take care of his body, his most important asset.
“Are you going out, Young Master?”
“I’m going to see the doctor. I’ll be back soon.”
Dressed in light spring clothes, Shan smiled at the maid who asked where he was going and headed out.
After crossing two large streets, passing through a small alley, and crossing a river, he saw the familiar amethyst tower.
It was the Magic Society of Pendia, the pride of every mage.
Shan’s destination was one of several mage workshops behind the Magic Society building.
“Is anyone there?”
Knock, knock.
When he knocked on the wooden door, there was a click. A small opening appeared in the door, and a pair of eyes stared at him through it.
Soon after, the door opened, and a middle-aged woman with a warm expression stepped outside.
“It’s been so long, Shan! Looks like you’re already back from the Demon Realm. You weren’t hurt, were you?”
“No, Professor Maya. I just came because I wanted to be checked for anything unusual, like you told me before.”
Maya Bekaris was an authority on alchemy and biology, as well as a professor formally certified by the Magic Society.
In other words, she was a doctor.
Of course, most sick people went to priests, so being a doctor was more like a side job for her.
He had met her through Sir Darkal.
When Shan had first begun training to become a knight, Darkal noticed that Shan’s body had several unusual traits. He had dragged Shan here and forced him to undergo an examination.
‘A mage? That sounds kind of scary... What if she does weird experiments on me?’
‘Quit talking nonsense and get in there!’
Priests were far better at simple treatment, but they did not know how they healed people. That was why, according to Sir Darkal, mages were much better at examinations and analysis.
Or had he said he received considerable help here in systematizing his training to awaken Spirit?
At this place, Shan had learned quite a few secrets about his body.
His bones were lighter and more flexible than normal. His muscle fibers were thinner and denser, allowing him to produce greater strength with the same amount of muscle.
After hearing that, Sir Darkal had said, “At least you don’t seem to be missing several internal organs, as I feared.”
For an Old Faith follower, he was a strange man in many ways. He taught an Alto disciple and kept a mage as an acquaintance.
“Come in.”
Her workshop was cluttered with glass instruments, research papers, and biological specimens, and it smelled musty.
It looked exactly like the witch’s cottage he had only heard about in stories. Remembering how terrified he had been to enter the first time, Shan sat comfortably in the examination chair.
“I meant to ask before, but why don’t you hire a servant? Even next to the Society, it seems dangerous for a woman to live alone.”
“I hired one once, long ago, but they sold every tool in my workshop and ran away. I’ve been too afraid to hire another since then. If you know anyone trustworthy, introduce them to me.”
Now that he thought about it, several items in the workshop looked as though they could fetch a good price if sold to another mage.
As they chatted, Maya skillfully collected Shan’s hair and blood, placed them in various alchemical solutions, and measured his height and weight.
“You’ve gotten quite a bit taller. You’ve gained a lot of weight too.”
“I hope I keep growing like this, like Roden.”
“Then eat well and get plenty of sleep. If you do, you’ll probably grow another twenty centimeters.”
Maya checked several more solutions and confirmed that he had not contracted several infectious diseases.
“It’s amazing every time I see it.”
“What is?”
“That magic can tell you so much about the state of someone’s body.”
“It’s the result of studying and researching hard. Magic gives you nothing for free. You have to work until your eyes fall out and your brain burns up.”
Maya tapped her temple with her index finger as if the thought alone gave her a headache, then pointed at Shan’s body.
“Your body is more amazing to me. I don’t even know how many papers I’ve written on this subject already.”
With an interested look, Maya explained that she had examined many Altos so far, all within legal bounds, of course. Yet she had never found anyone whose physical advantages were as maximized as Shan’s.
Usually, unusual traits only affected appearance or manifested in harmful ways. Mutations that benefited physical or mental ability were extremely rare, perhaps one person in several dozen.
A mutation on Shan’s level was unprecedented.
“I really want to meet your parents... Ah, I’m sorry.”
“It’s fine.”
Since they had chatted about many things over the years, Maya knew Shan was an orphan who had been abandoned by his parents.
Maya lowered her head slightly in apology, then studied several solutions containing Shan’s hair and blood again. Her brow soon furrowed.
“Hmm...”
“Has something changed?”
“A little.”
Maya had asked Shan to visit after returning because she wanted to know what effects the Demon Realm’s unique environment had on the Altos.
Most Altos in the capital had never been to a place like the Demon Realm. Those who had visited before did not have any physical data from before their visit, so it had been surprisingly difficult to gather useful information.
“Did anything special happen in the Demon Realm? Did you soak in a strange spring or get exposed to unusual light?”
“Nothing like that... Hmm, I did kill a cockatrice.”
“A cockatrice!?”
Maya’s eyes widened as she stared at him in shock. She looked so much like a witch that Shan flinched without realizing it.
“Could that story going around lately really be... You, a child like you? Goodness! You could have died! You reckless boy!”
“It was manageable.”
The way she treated him like a child who had wandered off near the water made Shan puff out his chest for no reason.
Maya continued scolding him, telling him not to do anything so dangerous. Going to the Demon Realm at Shan’s age was dangerous enough. Then she changed the subject.
“Did you bring any cockatrice byproducts? There are a few things I really need. If you’re willing, I’d like to buy them at a good price.”
“I already sold everything to the Explorers’ Guild.”
“Ah...”
Disappointment colored Maya’s face.
Naturally, selling to mages in the capital would have been more profitable than selling to the Explorers’ Guild because it removed the middlemen. Yet doing so would directly infringe on the count’s interests.
If Shan had boasted about killing a cockatrice and been caught selling its Magic stone and byproducts elsewhere, the count might have tried every possible way to interfere with him.
“Anyway, something has definitely changed. Have you noticed anything yourself? Like suddenly becoming stronger?”
“Not at all.”
Shan was too skilled at controlling his body to miss that kind of change.
After conducting several more experiments, Maya sighed.
“I don’t think we can figure anything out right away. May I take some more blood? I think I’ll need some help.”
“Help?”
“Yes. There’s someone I taught before... Calling her my disciple would be a bit much, but she’s very talented. She’s extremely busy these days, so I don’t know whether she’ll have time. If not, I’ll at least borrow some equipment from her.”
* * *
“Damn it! Every noble in this country is rotten to the core!”
At dinner after Shan returned from his examination, Roden exploded in anger.
Kalion silently nodded beside him, so it seemed things had not been going well lately.
“Want some of this?”
“Thanks.”
Roden gulped down the wine Shan poured for him, then wiped his mouth with a satisfied sound. The alcohol seemed to ease his mood a little.
“They’re all the same, every last one of them. Some bastards even said they’d rather knight a dog than an Alto! It’s ridiculous. You killed a cockatrice all by yourself! What does race even have to do with it?”
“Quiet.”
Roden calmed down at his father’s stern voice.
After a brief silence, Roden deliberately changed the subject.
“Come to think of it, it looks like the Kingdom of Ajun sent envoys recently.”
“Oh, is that about that?”
“Yeah. Apparently, the person who died in the Crusader Order was a duke’s son. The duke’s wife is the Ajun king’s younger sister, so that makes him the king’s nephew too.”
They were only jewel merchants and had no standing to attend talks between two kingdoms, so this was all secondhand information. Still, they heard that Ajun’s envoys had been quite aggressive.
They had demanded an intense investigation of Pendian explorers, even saying that everyone who had recently excavated Alto ruins should be arrested if necessary until the culprit was handed over.
Naturally, the Kingdom of Pendia had essentially told them to get lost.
The Crusader Order had already been a nuisance for constantly interfering with explorers, one of Pendia’s national industries. If Pendia followed that demand, it would look no different from a vassal state.
On top of that, with the king bedridden, both princes had attended the talks. Each had tried too hard to impress their own nobles by taking an excessively hard line, leaving neither willing to yield an inch.
In the end, the talks collapsed. Unless the Kingdom of Ajun infiltrated spies of its own, there was almost no chance of them discovering that Shan and the others had killed an Ajun noble.
Considering the rugged mountain range dividing the two countries, that would not be easy.
“That’s a relief...”
“And apparently, the Ajun prince’s engagement to one of our princesses was broken off because of this.”
“A princess?”
“That’s what I heard. Seriously, I never thought we’d leave such a huge mark on politics between kingdoms this way.”
Getting in the way of an alliance between two kingdoms was something a mere jeweler could never accomplish, no matter how many times they lived and died.
Watching Roden snicker, Shan remembered the princess he had met at the Magic Society about half a year ago.
Was she blonde? Or white-haired? He could not remember clearly.
There were supposedly two princesses, so it was probably one of them.
“More importantly, Roden, come get examined with me sometime soon.”
“Why?”
“I went today, and Professor Maya said something had changed compared to before I went to the Demon Realm. We were together almost the whole time, so...”
“If something happened, it probably happened to both of us. Fine. When should we go?”
“She said she’ll contact me once she’s ready.”
After getting Roden to agree to join him for the next examination, Shan asked Kalion to introduce him to a blacksmith.
He needed someone discreet who had the skill to work with a rare alloy commonly found in the Kingdom of Ajun.
The Merchants’ Guild and Blacksmiths’ Guild were separate organizations, but they had many points of connection. Finding someone like that through personal connections was not difficult.
The blacksmith was skilled and trustworthy, which meant he had a great backlog of orders. Shan could only meet him about a week later.
“You said Kalion introduced you?”
“Yes. I’d like to have this worked.”
Shan pulled out four chunks of metal.
They had come from the shield he looted in the underground passage of the Alto city. He had cut it into smaller pieces with Thousand Forms, then ground away all noticeable patterns.
Even if the shield’s former owner returned and saw it, they would have had trouble saying for certain that it had once been theirs.
“I don’t know what you fought to leave it in this state, but it must have been terrible... Hmm, it looks like wrought iron mixed with a lot of Kelledo.”
The blacksmith muttered several technical terms Shan did not understand, then advised him that its shock-absorbing properties made it better suited for armor.
Shan had wanted to make a weapon to replace Thousand Forms when he could not use it. It seemed he would have to settle for defensive equipment instead.
“Then please make it into a shield. A small kind that can be strapped to my forearm.”
“Your defensive ability will drop a lot if you don’t hold it in your hand.”
“That’s fine.”
“You won’t be able to block properly unless your reflexes are exceptionally fast.”
In response, Shan lightly demonstrated his reflexes.
He asked the blacksmith to throw a nearby iron poker, then caught it easily again and again.
At first, the blacksmith threw it gently out of concern that Shan might get hurt. Eventually, Shan caught the poker even when it was thrown at full strength from several meters away.
The blacksmith stared at him blankly.
“Right. At that level, something this small will be enough... I’ll have to melt it down and remake it from scratch. Would you mind if I adjust the proportions a little? I have a few good ideas. The production cost may be a little higher, but the quality should be worth looking forward to.”
Shan nodded and accepted the blacksmith’s proposal.
If the alloy proportions changed too, there would be almost no chance of anyone recognizing the shield’s origin even if he encountered someone from the Kingdom of Ajun later.
Besides, many people in Pendia used weapons and armor containing rare metals from Ajun.
Along with the small shield, Shan decided to use the remaining material to make a helmet that did not cover his face.
Shan could notice, dodge, or block most attacks. Yet in a truly desperate moment, whether he had something like that could decide the difference between life and death.
* * *
Maya contacted Shan the day after he commissioned the blacksmith, telling him to come in for an examination.
She asked him to visit at noon on the final day of the week, the holy day when the Goddess had fashioned the world.
Fortunately, Roden had no special plans that day either, so the two headed to Maya’s workshop at the appointed time.
“Hmm?”
Shan had been walking without hesitation when his eyes narrowed slightly.
A man leaning against the wall beside Maya’s workshop looked like an ordinary mercenary at a glance, but Shan sensed something unusual from him.
His gradually developing instincts from associating with many warriors told him there was a significant gap between that man’s skill and appearance.
He sensed something similar from the sword-bearing woman standing by the building across the street.
“Roden.”
“Yeah?”
“The man in front of the workshop and the woman across the street are both at least as skilled as decent knights. Do you know who they are?”
“What?”
“Don’t stare at them.”
At Shan’s whisper, Roden glanced over and shook his head.
“I don’t know.”
“If anything happens, hide behind me.”
“Don’t worry, you idiot. It’s not like we’ll suddenly get attacked in the capital...”
Roden swallowed the rest of his words.
Thinking about it, they had done quite a few things that could get them attacked.
Especially if the Kingdom of Ajun had discovered their identities, it would not have been strange for them to send assassins.
As Shan approached the workshop and knocked, he felt the two people’s gazes turn toward him.
They only glanced at him and did not react. Soon, Maya opened the viewing hole in the door, saw Roden, and widened her eyes in surprise.
“Oh my, Roden came too? You should have told me you were coming!”
“I went to the Demon Realm with Shan too. He kept pestering me to get examined with him if he was going to get one...”
Roden was also one of Darkal’s former disciples, so he knew Maya.
After hesitating briefly, Maya opened the door and told them to come in.
“Excuse us.”
Upon entering the familiar workshop, Shan realized that someone besides Maya was there.
It was a girl with dark blue hair tied tightly behind her head, wearing a mottled dress.
Her eyesight seemed poor, since she wore dark amethyst glasses. For some reason, she flinched when she saw Shan.
“Who is she?”
“She’s the girl I told you I taught before. She’s so busy that I was only going to borrow some examination tools, but it seems your body caught her interest. Would you mind if she examined you with me? She may not know as much theory, but her instincts are better than mine.”
“As long as the examination is done properly, I don’t mind.”
After answering, Shan turned slightly when Roden did not respond.
For some reason, Roden was staring at the girl with wide eyes.
“What are you doing?”
“Huh? Ah, nothing. It’s nothing.”
Shan realized that in that brief moment, Roden and the blue-haired girl had exchanged some mysterious, wordless understanding through their eyes.
Could this be what people called love at first sight?
He had no intention of getting in the way of his friend’s first love, so instead of awkwardly pretending not to notice, Shan calmly asked her name.
“What’s your name?”
“...Ah, me? She-ri. I’m Sheri.”
“Nice to meet you, Sheri.”
After greeting her, Shan sat in the examination chair first. Maya began handling several large instruments that were not usually in her workshop.
They apparently belonged to the girl named Sheri.
“Hmm, you’ll need to take off some clothes to use this. Could you take off your shirt?”
“Yes.”
When Shan pulled off his shirt, someone sharply drew in a breath.
He realized that Sheri was staring at his body and gave an awkward smile.
“Sorry. Does it gross you out?”
He knew a body covered in scars was not pleasant to look at.
It made him wonder how she would handle examinations that involved cutting skin to draw blood if she overreacted to something like this.
Fortunately, despite her absentminded first impression, Sheri’s eyes turned as sharp as an expert’s once the examination began.
Using several instruments, she and Maya held all sorts of conversations that Shan and Roden could not understand.
“The sublimation reaction in the solution is similar to Albart’s example.”
“Should we add some Cosa solution?”
“That sounds good.”
Sheri had not been lying about being interested in Shan’s body. She happily observed his drawn blood in every possible way.
Shan did not understand the details, but they seemed to be learning more than he had expected from it.
After several dozen minutes passed, Maya finally told him the results of the examination.
“It seems your body is becoming sturdier.”
Footnotes:
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