Chapter 64
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 64
Chapter Title: Francesco Dante (1)
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“Ting... The Saintess is right here, alive and well...”
The Saintess and her group had clearly been holding out against the monster attacks, waiting for support from the Holy Kingdom.
But then word came that the Holy Kingdom had cleared the gate and pulled out. That's why I urgently summoned the Saintess out using my regular customer ability.
Even though she was alive, they'd exited the gate and officially declared her dead. And their poor treatment of her even before that.
Putting all these pieces together, I had a rough idea of what had happened.
The only ones who could confirm it for sure were the Saintess and Francesco Dante, who'd been inside the gate with her.
Honestly, I didn't think Francesco Dante was much of a threat.
No, I was pretty sure he was at least half on our side.
In all likelihood, he was the one the Saintess had been talking to right before the end.
He'd received her healing, and even after Yena undid the wind cuffs earlier, he'd just sat there quietly, waiting. He didn't seem like he intended to be hostile toward us.
But in the end, this was all just piecing together circumstances and jumping to conclusions.
I couldn't be 100% certain, so I waited for the Saintess to wake up.
About four hours after summoning the Saintess and Francesco Dante into the house...
“Yujun...!”
“Yeah.”
Hyeji rushed out of the room and called for me.
The Saintess had finally woken up.
——
“...So you're saying you're the Boastful Blacksmith...?”
“Yes. Ever since you registered as a regular customer last time, we've been able to communicate in real time, right? I have the ability to teleport regulars to me as well.”
“How did you... Ah! First off... thank you so much. I'll definitely repay this favor.”
Fortunately, the Saintess seemed in much better shape than I'd expected.
“You must be exhausted, but we have a lot of questions. Is now okay?”
“Of course. No problem at all.”
“First... do you know anything about a white-haired old man covered in wounds all over his body?”
“Ah...”
When I described Francesco Dante's appearance and asked if she knew who he was, the Saintess shuddered, her eyes welling up with tears as she asked back.
“Is that him...?”
“He's waiting in another room right now. We only knew his name was Francesco Dante, so we waited for you to wake up.”
I deliberately avoided mentioning that we'd restrained him or locked him in the room.
Her reaction the moment she heard about Francesco Dante clearly showed goodwill and relief.
“He seems like a non-Awakener, so we couldn't communicate verbally. Would it be okay to go see him now?”
“Yes... sure.”
We left the room, had the Saintess sit on the living room sofa to wait, and then Yena and I headed to the room where Francesco Dante was.
We'd all need to talk together anyway, so the spacious living room made sense.
I opened the door, and there he was, still sitting quietly in the chair.
Whoosh...
As Yena's wind magic faded, he looked up at us.
“C... come on.”
Smooth—
At his gesture to come out of the room, he immediately stood and followed obediently.
And so, the five of us gathered in the living room: me, Yena, Hyeji, the Saintess, and Francesco Dante.
“Saintess, could you ask him to sit here too...?”
“Ah, yes!”
Just her reaction alone confirmed he was friendly.
Still, I thought we'd treated him pretty well considering we had zero info on him...
“Ahem, Saintess, could you ask him on our behalf to register as a regular customer?”
With the Saintess mediating, everything proceeded smoothly.
‘Francesco Dante’ has been registered as a regular customer!
[Francesco Dante]
└[Regular Customer Response]
‘Hello?’
“...!!!”
The moment I registered him and connected via regular customer response to say hello, Francesco Dante looked startled.
‘Hello...’
So it really works for communication like this.
“Now we can finally talk. The real-time communication feature solves the language barrier too.”
“Ah... that's a relief. But couldn't something simple like requesting regular customer registration have been handled with a translation app...?”
The Saintess looked puzzled when she heard she'd been asleep for a full four hours, during which Francesco Dante and I had been in this awkward standoff.
‘Such a method exists...’
Of course I knew it did.
The first thing I'd thought of when we hit the language wall was grabbing my phone and using a translator.
But I'd quickly realized it wouldn't make much difference.
What stood between us wasn't language—it was trust.
“Even if we'd chatted through a translator, I couldn't have trusted everything Dante said unconditionally. And I'm sure he felt the same about me. Without you vouching for me, Saintess, it would've been hard for him to believe who I was. That's why we waited for you to wake up.”
“I see...”
And that led to the current situation.
Dante and I, who'd been suspicious of each other, had cleared the air, and the regular customer response had broken down the language barrier.
Now it was time to hear exactly what had happened inside the gate.
“Could you tell us?”
“Yes... but first, do you know what happened with the S-rank gate and the Holy Kingdom?”
Come to think of it, the Saintess was just as out of the loop on the current situation.
“The Holy Kingdom cleared the S-rank gate and officially announced your death... along with the existence of a new Saintess.”
“...”
Her eyes shook with shock.
But she didn't deny it outright, so she'd probably suspected something like this or at least had a vague feeling things had gone south.
“It might be faster if you check the Gallery yourself right now.”
“Then excuse me for a moment...”
In the end, she'd need to know the outcome to make sense of what she'd gone through.
While waiting for the Saintess, I decided to chat with Grandpa Dante.
‘How about we talk while we wait?’
‘...Very well.’
‘How's your body holding up?’
My first question was about Grandpa Dante's condition.
Now that I knew he was friendly, I felt guilty for cuffing and restraining him with the wind magic.
‘No issues, thanks to you.’
Not thanks to me, obviously—he meant thanks to the Saintess.
She'd reunited with him and immediately used her healing.
‘I'll fill you in on the Holy Kingdom's current situation. That okay?’
‘Thank you.’
His responses were stiff, but he always replied with perfect formality.
At first, I'd thought he was just putting up with it since we'd helped him, but as we talked, it became clear he genuinely held no ill will toward us.
‘...It was the natural judgment. Above all, you saved me from that fiery hell.’
‘I hope you'll understand that we had to stay cautious since we couldn't be sure if your intentions were to harm or rescue the Saintess.’
Grandpa Dante couldn't access the Gallery, so I gave him a quick rundown of the Holy Kingdom's situation.
The Saintess was still checking the Gallery afterward, so we kept talking. It confirmed he was a true, devoted servant of the Saintess.
Of course, his account might not be entirely accurate or could be exaggerated.
But I didn't believe that at all.
If anything, he downplayed his own sacrifices—he wasn't the type to boast about them.
That's just how he struck me.
‘The Saintess is alive today because of you, Dante.’
‘...’
Shockingly, it was true.
Without Grandpa Dante, she likely would've been slaughtered before she could even request my help.
‘...No. I'm the one alive because of the Saintess.’
A true loyal retainer, downplaying his own merits and devoting himself solely to his lord.
It was a shame he was a non-Awakener, but I wanted to bring him into our guild with the Saintess.
Actually, what did being a non-Awakener matter?
He was an incredible man who'd protected her until the end in an S-rank gate while everyone else died.
Basically an upgraded version of that musclebound bro Kim Hyuncheol.
I couldn't resist the cool factor of a musclebound, loyal white-haired old man.
“...Boastful Blacksmith. I'll explain what happened inside the gate from now on.”
The Saintess, having gotten the lay of the land, finally began recounting her ordeal.
Her story lined up pretty much exactly with what I'd guessed.
From the questionable raid party composition before entering the S-rank gate to the existence of a weather manipulator they hadn't even told her about.
“So the Holy Kingdom got an Awakener who controls the weather, but he has a ton of limitations?”
“Yes... They must've judged it impossible to tackle the S-rank gate the proper way, so they used me and the other ten as bait.”
“They didn't send help—they cut off communications and just bailed on the gate...”
“Our deaths were probably planned from the start...”
The reason was likely because her influence had grown bigger than even the Guild Master's...?
I couldn't think of any other motive for plotting to kill one of the world's rare S-rank Awakeners—and a healer Saintess at that.
“Any other reasons?”
“...I'm not sure, but Francesco... Dante? He might know something.”
“Huh?”
How could Grandpa Dante, a non-Awakener, know something even the Saintess didn't?
And her reaction—his name felt awkward on her tongue, even more than mine.
Raising a bunch of questions at once, the Saintess continued.
“He was the one who kept me under near-constant surveillance before we entered the gate...”
The shocking revelation drew everyone's eyes to Grandpa Dante.
The silent Grandpa Dante finally spoke.
‘Grandpa Dante... were you deceiving me...?’