Chapter 40
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 40
Chapter Title: Elected as Leader!
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Opening the box unleashed a towering golden pillar of light.
Sir Mancha snapped my wrist in his grip.
"Wait! We need to settle how we're splitting this first!"
Distribution.
At those words, I scanned the squad members.
The rat, whose hand had been severed, and Baturi too—both staring at me with dead seriousness.
Even the air thrummed with tension, and my instincts kicked in.
'This golden pillar is something so incredible that a missing wrist doesn't matter.'
'It's life-changing loot!'
"Shouldn't Rat and Baturi focus on treating that injured wrist first?"
Sir Mancha cleared his throat with a gruff harrumph.
Baturi thrust out her cleanly severed wrist and clicked her tongue.
"It's cut too clean—even a healing blessing can't fix this. We stopped the bleeding, so that's enough."
...Isn't that way too tough!?
Rat, on the other hand, trembled violently, looking utterly unnerved.
"N-No one's gonna notice if one of us vanishes here... as long as we all keep our mouths shut."
Crunch.
Rat gripped his staff tighter.
Glance.
Sir Mancha eyed the lance discarded on the floor.
Baturi scanned everyone's faces with a grave expression.
And I was drawing the most stares.
'Right now, I'm in the best position.'
Everyone else was hurt.
Me? Barely a scratch, weapons intact.
If I turned on them here, dunked the whole party, and claimed that golden pillar's prize?
But ironically, my advantage could become my weakness.
'What if those three team up without me?'
I'd be the one getting dunked in this sewer.
"......"
"..."
"......"
"......"
The tension was thicker than when we'd fought Acam Erdar i.
Hard to believe we'd just been fighting tooth and nail to survive together.
Is that just how the world works?
A few days of training don't make strangers into family.
'Thieves' top cause of death: murdered by party members!'
'Stay like this, and I might get taken out by these guys!'
Time to decide—now!
"Nobody move!"
Snap!
I slammed the box shut.
Clank!
Then I locked it with the three keys I'd grabbed from the potion box earlier.
A perfect seal.
Sir Mancha let out a sigh.
"Wh-What the...?"
"We just took down the Acam lord—wouldn't want to ruin it with friendly knives in the back. That'd make it all a pointless death!"
"Ahem, knives in the back? Hardly."
Sir Mancha twisted his wet mustache between his fingers.
The tension eased a fraction.
"How about we split it clean—four ways even?"
I proposed the fairest option.
Sir Mancha clicked his tongue.
"Anything from that golden pillar is bound to be priceless. Stuff like that takes forever to fence, and it always stirs up trouble."
"Then?"
"How about this? Everyone writes their name on a slip, we draw 'em, and whoever gets mentioned most takes the golden pillar item?"
A vote?
Sounded reasonable, but if we all wrote our own names... wouldn't it be pointless?
"Sounds good to me."
Baturi nodded.
Rat stroked his chin, gauging reactions.
"...Rat... Rat Ferry... says it's a solid idea too."
Suddenly, I wondered.
Does that rat really hear from Rat Ferry?
Or is he just bullshitting freely, claiming "Rat Ferry said so"?
As those thoughts swirled, slips of paper were passed around.
Rat handed out brushes too.
Scribble-scribble-scribble.
We each wrote a name and pooled them.
"I'll check."
Sir Mancha unfolded the slips.
"Yo... Yor? Who's Yor?"
"That's mine! Yor!"
"I can't write worth a damn."
Soon, Sir Mancha opened another.
"This one's Yor too."
"Whoa!"
Two votes for me already!
My legs shook with giddy excitement.
But anxiety crept in too.
What if someone contested the results?
"Third paper—Yor again."
More votes than I expected?
No need to check the fourth.
Three out of four—elected!
Just to be sure, I opened the last one.
「Yor」.
My name again.
"No wayyyyy!!!"
Unanimous!
Yor elected!
A first in my life—something hot and swelling welled up from deep in my chest.
"My name's on all four!!!"
"R-Rat Ferry kept nagging me to write yours..."
Rat scratched the back of his head.
Sir Mancha cleared his throat too.
"I was gonna ditch Rat and Baturi anyway. But getting greedy over loot? I'd just be a pathetic old man, not a knight."
Slide.
Baturi placed a hand on my shoulder.
"You saved my life. Didn't know what everyone else was thinking, so I voted for you to back you up. Looks like we all felt the same."
No way!
First time getting this kind of recognition—tears pricked my eyes.
In that moment, I glimpsed the path to the thief I wanted to be.
'A thief who steals hearts!'
'I've set foot on that path!'
I tucked the four slips with my name into my pocket.
Then I said to everyone.
"Even if I starve to death someday, I won't pick your pockets!"
My heartfelt shout.
Everyone's faces turned subtly awkward.
"So what is it already? We're dying to know—show us."
"Y-Yeah! Rat Ferry's curious too!"
Clank.
I unlocked it and opened the box.
Whoosh!
The golden pillar shot skyward again.
What could be inside, shining so brilliantly?
The item in my hand.
"A hand bone?"
It was literally a hand bone.
Neatly gathered fingers from the wrist, almost like a trowel.
The wrist had a handle, and text floated up.
「Bone Dagger – Piercing Hand」
「A dagger radiating sinister energy」
"Could that be the 「Virales's Bone Dagger」?"
Sir Mancha acted like he knew.
"You know what this is?"
"There was a martial artist named Virales long ago. Legend said his fingers pierced steel plates and split boulders."
But one day—
Someone killed Virales and cut off his hand.
That hand... this one?
"...Dunno if it's real, but it doesn't suit me anyway."
Baturi grimaced.
Rat took a hesitant step back.
"G-Gives me the creeps."
Does it?
Swipe.
I swung the dagger through the air.
Whoosh.
It cleaved the wind with a razor-sharp whistle—not ordinary at all.
"There's a Sun Cult rosary with a symbol? Mind if I take this?"
Baturi picked up a wagon-wheel necklace from the box.
Beside her, Rat grabbed a fountain pen.
"Rat Ferry, you want this fountain pen?"
"I'll take this medal."
Sir Mancha claimed his share from the box too.
Everyone seemed satisfied enough.
#
Rejoining the main group, Weasel yammered loudly.
"I knew you'd pull it off, bro! Those corpse bastards look like puppets with cut strings—wobbly and weak!"
Taking down Acam Lord Erdar i had helped the main group.
"Plenty injured, but no deaths! Impressive work!"
Weasel slapped my back repeatedly.
His eyes soon locked on the dagger at my waist.
"New toy while I wasn't looking? Looks top-shelf!"
Weasel's eyes gleamed with greed.
Sharp eye—he knew quality on sight.
"Long story!"
"Anyway, Patrol found the exit, so let's head there!"
"Ooh, that patrol guy?"
"Patrol's no match for us thieves, though. Kekekeke."
Nightfall was approaching.
We cleaved through Acams to find the escape magic circle, evacuating the worst wounded first.
"Weasel, you go first."
"You not coming, bro?"
"Gonna stick around a bit longer."
"What more you gonna do?"
Weasel clicked his tongue like he couldn't comprehend.
But in my eyes, those visible Acams looked ripe for the picking—couldn't tear myself away.
So I stayed behind alone.
As the chattering squad vanished, the security faded, but a strange lightness settled in.
'Farm more Ether here, and my graduation score'll skyrocket, right?'
Shing.
Drew my throwing knife and hurled it at a patrolling corpse.
Splat!
—Ughhh—
Hit the head, but didn't one-shot.
With blood-poison damage, maybe?
"《Shadow Companion》."
Summoned my shadow too.
Swish.
Swish.
Splat, splat!
Throwing knife doubled the damage.
This time, the corpse dropped on one hit, spilling Ether.
"Shadow Companion makes it a one-shot."
What about this dagger?
I thrust the bone dagger at a charging corpse.
Crunch.
Insane piercing power—beyond expectations.
Tattered armor or not, it punched clean through.
"Dagger's straight one-shot?"
In the game 'Night Diver', thieves picked either ranged throwing weapons or close daggers—no dual wield.
No such limits here.
Throwing knife and dagger.
Dual wield!
Ether doubles up!
Clink!
Clink!
Corpses standing dumbly without their lord's control.
One-shot 'em and scoop coins!
'This is fun!'
'This simple grind's got me hooked!'
"Ugh, rotten corpse stench. Gonna puke."
"Dummy, breathe through your mouth."
"You sure it's really here?"
Huh?
Voices suddenly.
What?
Coming from not far from the exit.
I halted, ducked into a corner.
Soon, Erdar is with dual swords cleaved through Acams.
'Damn it! Demon blood here too...!?'
This was Acam turf—no Erdar is supposed to come!
Why do these bastards keep messing with my life?
'Screw it, just bail.'
As I turned to go—
One dropped an unmissable line.
"You sure Ballara has it?"
"Yeah, our treasure."
"We have to recover it no matter what."
Ballara—the Acam Erdar i I killed?
He had treasure?
The Erdar is had gone straight to the lord's room.
Found Ballara's mangled corpse in the underground waterway.
But the shock came next.
"I... am... Acam... Savior... of... Life."
Acam Lord Ballara—supposedly dead—rose up.
Why's this guy reviving!?
He danced with his bone swords, far sharper and fiercer than when we fought.
Too fast to track with the eye.
An Erdar i clicked his tongue.
"What's this 'ascended one' supposed to be?"
"Can't even muster half his living strength."
"Turning into a mere corpse—embarrassing."
Fuck, that's half his living power?
Mind-blowing truth.
The dual-sword Erdar is easily dismembered Lord Ballara's limbs.
They rummaged his pouch—and—
"It's gone. The 'Skull Key'."
"What? Gone!?"
"Search harder!"
"Without it, we can't open 'that door'!"
Skull Key...
The one I looted from his pouch?
Clearly, this key wasn't just for the bone box.
'Amazing intel!'
'This points to something huge!'
Then, an Erdar i spotted a shattered glass vial on the floor.
"Potion bottle. Smells like blood. Recent."
"That guy took it? He's close."
"Find him!"
Fuck!
Time to run!