Chapter 51
Chapter 51
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: penny
Chapter: 51
Chapter Title: Supplying the Tribe
-----------------------------------------------------------------
“What the hell is all this…….”
Hula and Luna’s family, who had come out to watch, gaped in astonishment.
I opened Krueger’s ring and dumped all the food I’d stockpiled onto the middle of the clearing.
Sacks upon sacks piled up almost like a small hill.
From basic grains like wheat, corn, oats, and barley to long-lasting potatoes and sweet potatoes, dried bread and carrots, and even supplementary items like apples, and essential seasonings like sugar and salt.
“Don’t you think you made the right call signing that contract after something like this?”
Hula, who had ultimately pressed her thumbprint onto the divine contract, nodded at my words.
And as I began stacking gold coins into chests, her eyes nearly bulged out of her head.
‘By the way, is that kid Luna’s youngest sibling?’
A beastkin peeking out from behind a distant tent, showing only their face.
But their face had leopard patterns, and their ears were rabbit ears.
‘A hybrid?’
If I ever make it to a big city, I should pick up a book on beastkin.
I pretended not to notice the child who glanced our way before ducking back behind the tent, then slipped my hand into my pocket as if reaching for something and opened my subspace to pull out the Siren.
“It’s me. Any progress on what I told you?”
Holding the Siren and addressing Alkaido, his voice came through only in my ear, as if I were wearing earphones.
[As you instructed, young master, we plan to open a branch near the Chabid border to monitor logistics and actively operate merchant caravans.]
“No days off until we get at least one merchant-related trait.”
I smiled as I watched Hula dreamily caressing the chests, oblivious to her own future, her eyes fixed on the food and gold.
“Chief, what is all this?”
Just then, four people who looked like members of Hula’s tribe approached her, and she began explaining.
Including the leopard-patterned man I’d seen earlier, there was one new face.
‘A water buffalo?’
A sturdy build and bulging eyes. Massive water buffalo horns protruded from both sides. One horn looked broken and had its upper part reinforced with steel, while the other had faint patterns carved into it.
He wore rough cloth clothes, but he couldn’t hide his bulging muscles—if he hit me with that child’s-head-sized fist, I’d be done in one blow……
A double-headed axe as big as his torso hung on his back, giving off an intimidating aura, but Kain stepped forward slightly, his competitive spirit ignited.
“Back off.”
I snapped at him, and the man, who now seemed to have heard Hula’s explanation, alternated between looking at the piled supplies and me before thumping his chest in greeting.
“I am Dyamid, warrior of the Patina tribe. So you’re the Concluder spoken of by the prophet.”
Not Savior?
I fell silent at the unexpected term and looked between Hula and the great warrior Dyamid.
“Something about ending the yoke or whatever. I don’t get it since it’s too deep for me. But at least he said you’re not the enemy. Hahaha.”
I just laughed along as the buffalo-man roared with laughter. As long as he said we weren’t enemies, that was enough.
The reason I was a Concluder instead of a Savior was probably because I’d arrived and provided support before Chabid completely fell apart.
That was my guess for now.
“But tricking the chief into stamping that contract is too much.”
He spoke with a smile, but there was an odd pressure to it.
As Dyamid took a step toward me, I gestured for Kain, who was about to step forward again, to hold back, then shrugged.
“What about it?”
“Your human ways might be different, but for us, the chief has plenty of duties. Hula’s still young and needs to work even harder to earn trust.”
So that’s why she’d been leading people around the plains to hunt and monitor poachers despite being chief.
I chuckled at Dyamid, who snorted hot breath through his nose.
“The contract I made with her now will only solidify her position, not undermine it.”
At my words, Dyamid crossed his arms as if demanding an explanation. He was over two meters tall—looking up made my neck ache.
I tilted my head slightly and spoke in a relaxed tone.
“Stepping away briefly? For a top tribe like yours, the chief being gone for a short while should be fine. And during that time, what if Hula learns as a merchant and leads her own small caravan?”
Hula had stepped up for Chabid in the first place. If even one caravan didn’t gouge prices, the others would start adjusting theirs, even if just a little.
And if they banded together to pressure Hula’s caravan, they couldn’t touch her militarily with the top tribe behind her, or cut off supplies with the Krueger family—me—providing them.
They couldn’t block her sources without expanding their own operations massively, which would only give Hula justification to rally other tribes.
‘Even if the other merchants complain to the Krueger family, I have ways around that.’
Just say we’re not fighting over a small pie—we’re making the pie bigger.
After stabilizing food, margins were higher on luxuries, indulgences, or construction materials anyway.
Once Chabid showed signs of progress, complaints would vanish.
“The food and gold I’ve given are aid for that purpose. From Hula’s perspective, even if she fails, she only loses a bit of time. Worth it, right?”
“Yeah, you’re right, Dyamid. We’ve been huddled up too long…… Sometimes you need to take risks to gain something.”
Hula approached and added her piece, and the great warrior Dyamid fell silent for a moment before thumping his chest in salute.
“Honestly, even after hearing the prophet, I doubted you. Why give us this golden opportunity for nothing? But thinking it over, I can see why.”
Hula chimed in with a slightly regretful tone, and Luna, who had been helping load the carts with the others, came rushing over.
“Our young master isn’t that shameless!”
Wait, what?
“Young master has grand plans and is supporting Lady Hula for the future, so don’t misunderstand.”
“I-is that so? But…….”
“And the strongest one here keeps standing around—what are you doing? Get to work.”
Luna saw me as some amazing person? …Well, not entirely wrong.
It was an investment for the future, after all.
I watched as Luna dragged the great warrior Dyamid away, then turned back to Hula.
“Anyway, use that food to put out the immediate fires. Spend the gold freely where it’s needed, and add it to starting the caravan.”
“Yeah……. And thank you. I’ll work hard to become a real help to your future.”
I just smiled at that.
* * *
“Are you sure you don’t have more? We could go by ourselves.”
Holding the reins tightly in one hand and skimming through the codex with the other, I asked, and Luna shook her head.
“It’s fine.”
Good, then… I glanced at Zero, who was riding a wild horse with gray fur dotted in white, after giving Luna’s family my bay mare.
When we’d first left Labyrinth City, I’d been distracted by the attribute stone enchantments, and after that, traveling with Hula had made it hard to find the right moment.
‘Time to scout Zero.’
I hadn’t brought him just to be a cooking slave.
[Zero—Doppleganger’s Beginning and End]
Main Traits: [Clone (D+)] [Kindness (A+)] [Cooking (S)]
Hidden Traits: [Protean Form (A)] [Dignity (C-)]
Cooking had risen to main trait status, kindness had gone up, and dignity had dropped. Probably from being babied as the youngest.
And that Protean Form. Unclear what it was, but considering Zero was a doppleganger, I guessed it related to physical changes.
‘He didn’t even consume any corpses, and he’s still in that form.’
Just in case, I’d kept Zero’s original body in my subspace.
‘So if I killed that body, would another corpse remain, or not?’
Zero would probably burst into tears and run if he knew. But it could be useful in many ways.
‘If I just discarded a bit of conscience, I could kill and revive him as needed…….’
Honestly, if my trait wasn’t Affluence but something like Psychopath, I’d have tried it.
“Uh, why’s it suddenly chilly?”
“The weather’s mild, and there’s no wind……?”
As Zero shivered, I casually turned my gaze toward the distant horizon.
‘No, not the horizon. What’s that?’
Had we gone deep enough into Chabid? Instead of a flat horizon, something like mountains shimmered faintly at the edge. It looked less like a normal range and more like volcanoes, rising slenderly.
The visible horizon was about 4-5 km away, usually.
But if only the tip of what looked like a mountain was visible at that distance, it had to be much farther.
As I tried to look away, Kain spoke up.
“Fog.”
“Indeed, it’s thick fog starting right from that point, and it doesn’t dissipate, sirs.”
“It’s weird…….”
Fog?
I threw my gaze toward where Zero was pointing.
“Fog?”
“Well… I’m not sure if you could even call that fog, young master.”
No. The reason I’d phrased it as a question wasn’t that……
I couldn’t see the fog.
Or more precisely, I could see inside it.
Like faint smoke? Not the dense kind that blocked everything as Luna and Zero described—instead, so thin you wouldn’t notice it without focusing.
I gazed at the cave-like entrance far off, and the orcs and lizardmen patrolling nearby.
About seven visible. Circling the cave mouth, they seemed deliberately placed by the ruins’ owner.
Anyone stumbling into monsters in that fog would panic and flee rather than fight blind, effectively funneling people into the ruins.
‘Gambler Valbus.’
I murmured the name of whoever awaited us in those ruins and let out a low breath.
“We should leave the horses here.”
“Then I’ll stay and guard them, Lord Adelrian.”
“No.”
I smiled and refused Zero’s quick offer. Useless for now, but he needed experience tagging along.
‘A doppleganger lordling couldn’t possibly be incompetent.’
I glanced at Zero tying the horses to a nearby tree with a sullen face, then at Kain heading toward the fog.
“What’s up?”
“I sense presences flickering in and out. This fog is disrupting the flow.”
He drew his sword from its sheath, wrapped it in aura, and slashed the fog.
It parted like living cotton at his strike, then slowly reformed.
“Something alive is definitely inside, but this interference makes it hard to tell how many.”
I gave Kain, muttering about needing more training, a cold look.
What the hell was up with the protagonist? That fog was magically generated—piercing it made *him* the freak.
“Shall we head in?”
As Luna hesitated then came to my side, I nodded and opened the codex.
“Making One’s Strength Meaningless.”
No need to reveal I could see through the fog clearly. Wouldn’t give the gambler any leverage later.
That guy had artifacts barring units with luck traits from entering ruins.
Pretending ignorance, I cast Faz Shield on Kain, Luna, and Zero, then formed up with Kain and Luna in front, me in the middle, and Zero at the rear, all linked by a long rope.
“If the rope breaks or you get separated, stay put.”
I nodded at Kain, who added that I’d come find them, and stepped into the fog.
“You can barely see your fingertips if you stretch out your hand.”
“It’s scary…….”
I pushed Zero, who’d stuck close to me, away slightly and spoke.
“You come back to life even if you die.”
“That was just once, and if I die again, maybe not…….”
Oh, right.
Or maybe an insane cooldown.
As I pondered, Kain halted and pointed his sword tip forward.
“Something’s coming.”
He dropped the rope, shifted his weight forward, and lunged, swinging his sword.
Even in the fog’s poor visibility, he precisely severed the lizardman’s tail whipping toward his head.
The severed tail grazed Luna’s cheek as it passed, and she dropped her rope to advance.
“No sounds, almost no sound at all, and I can’t see ahead.”
Did the fog muffle noise too? A battle right nearby sounded like faint echoes from afar.
I watched to intervene if Kain or Luna faltered, but then……
‘Gaaaargh!’
An orc’s scream pierced through, somehow audible.
I ducked under an axe swing, then sprang up, slamming a kick into the orc’s center as Luna did.
‘She’s so cute, but a monster pulverizer…….’
Words from before the dungeon entrance flashed by.
And Kain had passed right by earlier without comment—seemed like she was doing great.
What the hell had those two been up to…….
Dizzy with shock, I closed my eyes.