Chapter 68
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 68
Chapter Title: Date #1
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068 – Date #1
068 – Date #1
Swishhhh-.
Rain finally fell from the darkening sky.
The smell of rain, wet soil, and the ashes left from the flames hung in the air.
A snake as massive as a mountain curled its body to regulate its cooling body temperature.
The countless scars and pus etched into its scales seemed to speak of a harsh life.
‘Sabrannik!’
This sudden, vision-like sight.
I realized that massive serpent was Sabrannik.
Probably the Sabrannik of old.
Before he became an idol?
Someone approached that Sabrannik.
“…My goodness, what an enormous snake.”
It was a little girl.
Around ten years old, perhaps.
Her face was caked in grime, with only her black eyes shining brightly—like a baby rat.
Compared to the gigantic serpent Sabrannik, she truly was the size of a rat pup.
“—A sacrifice?—.”
Sabrannik opened its mouth wide, as if to swallow the girl whole.
But instead of hunger, the snake sought to satisfy its curiosity.
“—Aren’t you afraid of death?—.”
“…I am.”
“—Then why don’t you run?—.”
“…If I, the sacrifice, go back to the village alive like this… something even scarier will happen.”
Sabrannik gazed at the girl.
I saw her through Sabrannik’s eyes as well.
Now I noticed she limped, her body covered in wounds.
Traces of severe abuse.
“—What’s your name?—.”
“…Zmei….”
With that, the scenery around us shifted in a flash.
Shhh-.
It felt like thick black fog lifting, and when I came to, I was standing in the strategy room.
‘Was that just now Sabrannik from the days he was called one of the Three Evils?’
The atmosphere was completely different from the bone-eating serpent Sabrannik.
He seemed far more ferocious and ruthless.
“Nimble! Come on, we need to register you as an explorer!”
Hammer beckoning Nimble.
Nimble glanced at me cautiously before asking.
“Yor, didn’t you say the weekend comes in a few days?”
Weekend?
Come to think of it, the weekend was a few days away.
This weekend was supposed to be total rest with no schedule?
“Why the weekend?”
“I was hoping you’d come with me to that village near the Great Wall then.”
“Village?”
“I want to see how the humans here live.”
Nimble wagged her tail languidly and dashed off.
Felix clicked his tongue.
“Living the good life with a date, huh?”
Date—wait, was this really a date invitation?
My brain felt fried from this first-time experience.
“Felix, what should I wear? Hmm?”
“How should I know? Hammer, I’ve got business to attend to, so I’m heading out first.”
Felix also dashed off.
Before I knew it, I was left alone in the strategy room.
‘So what now?’
Judging by the sun setting lazily, it was around 5 p.m.
A bit early for dinner.
‘Let’s look up how dates work in a book!’
I headed to the library to satisfy my various curiosities.
Erdari Sauriel was reading a book, with Sir Saxon watching her very carefully.
Spotting me, Sir Saxon beckoned.
“Young Yor, is it true that Erdari is connected to the imperial family?”
The fact that the kid ‘Isaiah’ we rescued was imperial royalty was now public knowledge.
But even I was uneasy about that kid hanging around with Erdari Sauriel.
“Sir Saxon, please keep watching that Erdari so she doesn’t do anything foolish.”
“You bet! I will! Down with the Erdari!”
“…Down with the Erdari?”
At that moment, Sauriel’s ears perked up.
Damn it!
Erdari must have good hearing with those long ears!
I deliberately shouted at Sauriel.
“Ahem, you know—Sauriel! We agreed you wouldn’t come out of your room carelessly!”
Everyone would freak if an Erdari wandered the Great Wall.
Someone might even die.
“Hee hee hee, sorry. I got too bored.”
She was reading a book titled [Epic of the Empire’s Founding]—the kind that looked like it’d make you yawn just glancing at it.
I frowned, and Sauriel added an explanation.
“It’s pretty interesting. The witch Zmei meets the Emperor, you see.”
“Witch Zmei?”
Witch Zmei.
Zmei—!?
The name I’d heard in Sabrannik’s dream.
Suddenly, I grew curious about the contents of that book.
Sir Saxon jumped in like he’d been waiting for this.
“Zmei was the court archmage who felled the Three Evils alongside the founding heroes and laid the empire’s foundations. She’s the one who built the Magic Tower too!”
The witch Zmei who defeated the Three Evils.
The sacrifice girl who met Sabrannik, Zmei.
Could they be the same person…!?
Whatever the case, I absolutely couldn’t mention Zmei in front of Sabrannik.
“Ugh, I’m dying…”
That’s when Hermit appeared in the library.
She was wrapped head to toe in bandages, looking like a total mummy.
“Hermit! You’re alive!”
“Urk, newbie, I was gonna talk to you about my condition anyway…”
“To me?”
“Clear your schedule this weekend. Let’s make some half-mana potions and recovery talismans together… urp…!?”
Hermit bolted off somewhere in a hurry.
This weekend?
‘Nimble asked to go to the village near the Great Wall this weekend.’
“Attention! Salute to Director Jeremiah!”
“Sir—!”
“Uh, good work, everyone.”
Director Jeremiah had visited the Great Wall.
Ezekiel the Brigadier General was with him.
“Young Yor, good work on the mission.”
Ezekiel the Brigadier General smiled at me.
That beautiful smile melted away all my fatigue.
“Isaiah, time to go home.”
Ezekiel the Brigadier General extended a hand to Isaiah.
Isaiah ducked behind Sauriel with a whoosh.
“…I’m not going back to the palace…”
“Hmm, why not?”
“……”
Isaiah clamped her mouth shut.
Ezekiel the Brigadier General’s smile vanished in an instant.
“Isaiah, this isn’t a request. It’s an order.”
“…B-but at the palace, I can’t live with Sauriel.”
Isaiah’s eyes turned to me.
The look of a kid in distress seeking help from an adult.
I was in a bind.
What could I even do here?
Then Ezekiel the Brigadier General smiled.
“If it’s Sauriel’s issue, I can take care of it.”
“Really? Then I’ll go back!”
Isaiah’s face lit up.
Could a face that cloudy turn that bright?
Anyway, Isaiah and Sauriel packed their things.
“Yor, see you later! I won’t forget your name!”
Isaiah waved wildly at me.
“Uh, I guess that’s an honor…”
“Just treat me casually!”
Smack smack—.
Isaiah slapped my back.
Then she whispered to me in a sly tone.
“I might have some favors to ask you down the line, Yor.”
Eek—.
No thanks.
I grimaced, and Isaiah puffed out her chest confidently.
“Think of it as me owing you one! If I become Emperor someday, I’ll repay it tenfold!”
Yeah, right.
Isaiah left the Great Wall like that.
Maybe because I’d grown a bit attached, it felt bittersweet.
“Now then, Young Yor, let’s talk for a bit.”
As I watched their retreating figures, Ezekiel the Brigadier General beckoned me.
I went to the reception room for a private talk with her.
Thump thump-.
My heart raced.
Why?
Because when I was heading to training camp, Ezekiel the Brigadier General had said, “If you graduate well, I’ll grant you a wish.”
I hadn’t had the chance to use that wish voucher.
But now I could.
‘Any wish at all? Really?’
Date me—.
Would she grant even that?
But such thoughts quickly faded from my mind.
Glance—.
I looked at Ezekiel the Brigadier General’s chest.
The golden eagle-shaped button stood out familiarly.
‘Imperial crest.’
Ezekiel the Brigadier General was imperial royalty, just like Isaiah.
That’s why everyone groveled before her.
‘Me dating someone like her…?’
‘A petty thief like me with imperial blood? Over a mere verbal promise?’
I knew better than anyone that was impossible.
This world wasn’t kind to me.
‘The Brigadier General and I live in different worlds.’
Even so—.
My heart kept pounding because of that slim ‘what if’.
“Young Yor, I have a favor to ask. Is that okay?”
“A favor?”
“You’ve seen it yourself, but Sauriel seems to be having a bad influence on Isaiah. The imperial council wants this handled swiftly.”
Handled swiftly—.
My blood ran cold.
“Handled swiftly… you mean…?”
“Discreetly and cleanly. I think you could manage it, Young Yor.”
The world seemed to shake for a moment.
Sweat beaded on my back and underarms.
Discreet and clean handling.
Did thieves at this Great Wall do that kind of work too?
“It’ll be a tough opponent, but you won’t be alone, so it should be fine.”
Someone besides me?
That’s when I remembered Felix had been missing for a while.
“…Do I have to?”
Even for me, taking out someone I’d just waved goodbye to felt off.
I was a thief who stole things, not an assassin.
But refusing Ezekiel the Brigadier General’s proposal didn’t sit right either.
Turning it down would surely earn her dislike.
So I gauged her reaction carefully, and she sighed softly.
“It’s the imperial council’s decision. Your party’s mission was to rescue Isaiah in the first place. Sauriel’s safety wasn’t part of it.”
“……”
“Or is there some reason the Erdari Sauriel can’t die? You, of all people—who’ve suffered plenty tangling with Erdari—should know their danger best.”
True enough.
But still, snatching away a kid’s family didn’t sit right with me.
Was it because I was an orphan?
I was empathizing too much.
Plus, Sauriel was Erdari, but she didn’t seem that bad.
She was one of the kindest people I’d met.
‘What if Isaiah becomes Emperor later?’
‘What if she finds out I killed Sauriel?’
That would be the worst.
“Brigadier General, you said you’d grant my wish.”
“I did.”
“Since you promised to grant my request, please pull me from this. Or make the whole thing never happened…”
“Young Yor, are you sure?”
Sure?
Of course not!
I hated wasting my wish voucher on this crap.
But I had to survive this minefield first.
Soon Ezekiel the Brigadier General smiled.
“Alright, I’ll try persuading the imperial council again.”
“Really?”
“I did promise to grant any wish of yours.”
“Ooh…!”
“I think Sauriel still has plenty of utility left too. She was the third ascendant, after all.”
Third?
How high was third among Erdari ascendants!
To think Sauriel was such a dangerous Erdari—.
As I wondered if I’d misjudged her, Ezekiel the Brigadier General pushed her chair back with a scrape.
She approached me and whispered softly in my ear.
“Honestly, I thought you’d ask for a different wish.”
“A different wish…”
“But that might’ve disappointed me a little. I like people who exceed my expectations.”
Ezekiel the Brigadier General smiled.
Her mysterious violet eyes glanced at the corner of the reception room.
Rustle, rustle—.
A spider was building its web, tiny as a fingernail—kind of cute.
Ezekiel the Brigadier General seemed to think so too, as she held out her hand to it.
Shhh-.
The spider climbed onto the back of her hand.
She gazed at it intently and said.
“Young Yor, in your explorer life, has there been any woman you fancy?”
“…Pardon?”
In that instant, countless faces flashed through my mind.
Nimble, Sister Germain, Instructor Rose, Master Estelle….
“If not, I’d like you to hang out with me this weekend.”
A weekend invitation from the Brigadier General.
‘No way, is this a date—!?’
It felt like choices appeared before me right then.
1. Explore the village with Nimble over the weekend.
2. Spend the weekend with the ailing Hermit.
3. Accept the Brigadier General’s offer.
Damn it—!?
This was the first time in my life I’d been this screwed by overlapping schedules.
Argh, my brain feels like it’s splitting—!