Chapter 104
Chapter 104
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 104
Chapter Title: Kruger's Wastrel
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"Is he called the Kruger family's utter wastrel?"
Bervert spat the words at the church informant who had brought him the information, his tone laced with disbelief.
"So, the bastard who dared to ruin my plans is none other than the infamous good-for-nothing from the Kruger bloodline in Raves."
Not only was he a wastrel's spawn, which was absurd enough.
Bervert trembled with rage, grinding his teeth.
"And his Trait is utterly worthless too?"
The audacity. The sheer audacity.
The moment he heard the facts uncovered through the church's intelligence network, Bervert couldn't contain his fury. He hurled objects around the room and jammed his perfectly manicured nails into a pillow, yanking out feathers.
"What a truly worthless piece of trash."
His face was top-tier in a different way from Gadia's, and the Kruger bloodline wasn't bad either. He'd considered making him pay for ruining his plans in other ways.
'But his Traits are just Arrogance and Wealth?'
Was it that when anger boiled over, laughter spilled out instead?
Bervert threw and smashed things, tore pillows and sheets, but his rage wouldn't subside. At some point, he burst into mad laughter, his eyes wide enough to tear.
"Ha, Traits like that? What's the point of even being alive? Completely useless and worthless."
Bervert bent at the waist, cackling.
How could someone born with infinite potential sprout such pathetic talents?
Wealth, something money could simply buy.
Arrogance, nothing more than an innate personality quirk.
To manifest as Traits would require an unimaginable fortune and equally ironclad stubbornness for an ordinary person.
But if those were the only two Traits for someone under the Kruger name...
"How utterly useless is this guy?"
Now buried in a bed piled high with feathers, Bervert cackled.
"Now I get it. How the potion wore off."
"How... do you mean?"
At the noble girl's question—she knelt in fear, head bowed—Bervert rubbed his teary eyes with a finger and spoke.
"He wasn't trying to find the real one to begin with."
He'd laughed so hard he was out of breath. Bervert steadied his breathing and continued.
"He really meant to kill her."
How could someone that incompetent have seen through the potion?
Absurd.
More likely, it didn't matter if it was real or fake—he intended to kill anyway.
It was commonplace, after all. Ugly deeds between blood kin over succession rights.
"A talentless, uncultivated fool driven by greed got lucky."
He didn't know exactly how he'd tried to kill her, but being from the same family as Gadia, he'd know her personality and Traits inside out.
Using that knowledge, he'd employed poison or an artifact to strike. But with a 50% chance, he'd picked the fake Gadia.
And through some torment or terror inflicted on the fake, the potion had been dispelled.
"No way he manipulated his Traits, right? Can a noble really have no talent at all?"
Bervert muttered at the unbelievable info, prompting the church informant who'd briefed her on Adelrian to speak.
"It doesn't seem so. The rumor has already spread quietly among the nobles staying in Raves."
"Hmm, is that so?"
Bervert pressed and rubbed his lips with his fingertips, then grinned.
"Well, a place like the Kruger family has no need for self-destructive misinformation like that."
What gain would they get from spreading rumors about the Traits of their sole legitimate heir?
It had to be true. Just Wealth and Arrogance.
"Annoying. My plans derailed by a greedy, incompetent wastrel's patricidal stunt."
Bervert's eyes gleamed sinisterly.
"I won't forgive him."
Amid the feather-strewn bed like a sea, Bervert laughed dizzily.
* * *
I watched Rachel giggling and scribbling on the blackboard alongside Leaf.
'The User's Eye definitely came from Rachel.'
It wasn't just a guess from the mail she'd sent right before coming here.
When I looked at Rachel through the User's Eye, her info glitched out.
And the moment I applied the User's Eye to her, she reacted, muttering about mana scents.
On top of that.
'Both Chaser and the doppelganger potion contact had Evil God Cult titles.'
Chaser was the 'Evil God Cult Enforcer,' and Professor Liana's fake was the 'Evil God Cult Puppet.'
The Evil God Cult called themselves the Holy God Church and proclaimed worship of the Star's Owner.
Later, when they rampaged, people feared retaliation and avoided calling them out directly.
They referred to them vaguely as "that religion" or such, as if naming them summoned something taboo.
Amid that, only Cain's party openly called them the Evil God Cult. So seeing "Evil God Cult" in the User's Eye pinpointed who gave this Trait.
'But watching her now, she doesn't seem that impressive.'
Was that the power of Play?
How extraordinary must Play be to preserve her identity until the world's end?
I looked at Rolling Stone—who seemed to have skipped chunks while writing—and Brainless Rachel, then spoke.
"Deadline's one week from now."
Everyone's eyes turned icy at my smiling words.
No, wasn't one week plenty generous?
They were the types who could master anything from scratch better than experts in a week.
Feeling slightly wronged as I glanced around, Luna approached first.
"So, how are we preparing?"
I'd never gambled much with dice, but I smiled confidently.
"Luna, I've got a plan, so just wait."
"What about me? Honestly, cards are kinda weak for me. You get it?"
Rachel squatted in front of me, resting her head on the table. I smiled.
"Confident in anything else?"
"...Who knows?"
"It's a bit dirty, but why not play fair?"
Rachel chewed her lip at my words. Sure, I called her Brainless Rachel all the time, but she was a dragon.
Even if this Play concept was a martial artist who didn't use magic with intelligence around 2, she was originally a transcendent being beyond common sense.
Her gambling weakness was obviously part of this Play's setting.
She looked so suspicious now, but if she wanted, Rachel could grow enough to drag someone across worlds.
"You trust me?"
"Uh... that's a bit."
Her ruby-like eyes, shimmering like they held inner light, wavered slightly.
I reached out, stroked her head, and smiled again.
"I'll trust you?"
You'll have to pledge body and soul in loyalty, right?
"...Sigh. Fine, I'll give it a shot!"
She groaned in conflict for a moment, then shot up as if resolved.
Alright, Rachel's settled.
―Administrator, you're trusting me too, right?
As Rachel left, Leaf sidled up.
They weren't even mad at my unilateral bet and seemed full of enthusiasm instead.
'Thanks.'
Watching Leaf sit before me and pop a snack from the table into her mouth, I rested my chin and met her eyes.
"Of course. You're the least of my worries in this bet, Leaf."
Leaf's game was memory matching.
Different from the casino version. Casino was like slots—press at the right time for matches.
The one with Dmitry used 40 picture cards laid out; match the pairs.
In Japanese terms, nerve-wracking like Mahjong where you only see backs—memory was key.
Dmitry probably bet overconfident in his Trait. And I'd accepted knowing it from our game.
'But Leaf's a golem to begin with.'
Made as a commander unit, her stats were solid.
Mostly skewed to regeneration, but others were decent too.
"I'll just tell you the game type."
―Yes, please.
"Huh? Me too!"
"Can we do one more round too?"
"Seniors, juniors. Let's do it together."
"Candy as coins again?"
I'd meant to brief only Leaf, but suddenly everyone gathered—from thief tag to my crude doodle of Buruma Fire, then hastily made Jenga courtesy of Cain.
Holding my now-empty candy jar, I smirked.
"No more Jenga without me?"
* * *
"Make the dice body from platinum, inlay the pips with diamonds and sapphires."
I stacked gold on the table as I spoke, and the jeweler rubbed his hands nonstop, bowing with a grin.
"How long?"
"To craft something this intricate and beautiful, at least..."
He peeked at me, flexing fingers like counting. I pulled another prepped gold pouch from my subspace and set it down.
"Three days, sir!"
I nodded satisfied and stood.
"Where to next, sir?"
"Ah, let's grab a bite. Mouth's dry."
"Heading to the Magic Tower."
Answering Zero and Rachel, I pulled a codex from my subspace and flipped through.
Mostly blank pages.
My arsenal was limited, so filling it up in the capital made sense.
Capital meant not just attack spells—sleep and such auxiliaries too.
Gold would drain, but even if I didn't use them, Kai would spam them.
"While we're here, sell some useless artifacts?"
"No, why sell? Even useless ones might come in handy someday."
"If none of us can use them, that might be fine, Adelrian."
I nodded at Zero and Rachel's replies.
Staying awhile, so offloading my useless artifacts was smart.
Plus, pin down Rachel for sorting artifacts from Valbus.
Keep seal-breakers or continent-style Monkey's Paws—instant miracle ones. Random appearance changers too.
Most artifacts instinctively revealed use on touch, but some stumped me.
Thinking of ditching mana-stone hand drills or skintight leather armor like the five Earth guardians might wear, I entered the magic district.
"Why'd you come with me? Go with Cain. I wanted to head to the library with Luna and Leaf."
Rachel followed with hands clasped behind her neck, sauntering and grumbling. I glanced at the varied Magic Towers and turned.
"Cain has his own errand."
Luna and Leaf to the library as Leaf wanted. Cain to the aesthetic salon on my orders.
Like an Earth salon—simple reason.
'To raise stakes.'
Cain's looks were reliable, but ideally, Deburoa-level to maximize.
I smiled faintly, heading into a Magic Tower when a faint lily scent brushed my nose.
Turning, I spotted a woman with long, curly white hair walking nearby.
The lily afterscent lingered, then scattered on the wind.
A face I'd definitely seen before.
But no immediate match in memory, so I looked away and entered the tower.