Chapter 95: Sepia Rivayden 5
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 95: Sepia Rivayden 5
After spending an hour patting Sepia’s head yesterday, I returned to the dormitory and sank into deep thought.
No matter how much I think about it, something is off.
Lately, I’ve been acting on my emotions far more frequently than usual.
One might wonder what the problem is, but one of my core traits is Poker Face. While it usually prevents my emotions from surfacing, it’s a double-edged sword; if those suppressed feelings ever hit a breaking point, even I can't control the resulting explosion.
Of course, my Poker Face has shattered before—like when I was dealing with Rophri, or when I discovered Mordor had kidnapped that child—but those were situations where anyone would have lost their cool.
But meeting Baron Ashro during the mission, and now this business with Sepia...
When I encountered Baron Ashro, I ended up threatening him while literally free-falling from the back of a wyvern. I had been furious in the game when I saw him spreading drugs through the village, but that shouldn't have been enough to crack my Poker Face in reality.
Even telling Sepia that I knew about the Betzdo Pattern was, in hindsight, far too emotional. My original plan was to let her discover the Betzdo on her own and then intervene just before she reached her breaking point.
There were likely only two reasons why I was acting so impulsively lately.
Either Poker Face isn't working, or its effect is weakening.
It hadn't disappeared entirely. In fact, this situation was actually favorable.
If I can learn to perfectly regulate Poker Face...
The Emperor had perfect control over his Domination trait. If I could toggle Poker Face on and off at will, I would no longer have to worry about suppressed emotions eventually exploding.
Was I worried about showing my feelings? Not at all. On the contrary, the idea of being able to do whatever the hell I wanted was exhilarating.
"What, you already know. So why are you asking? Are you trying to pick a fight with me right now?"
Behind my mask, the corners of my mouth curled up, refusing to come down.
Darun. I’d loathed that bastard’s guts ever since I first encountered him in the game.
* * *
"……"
While everyone else stared at Loki with wide eyes, his mouth showed no signs of stopping.
"If you're not trying to pick a fight, then why did you call out to me?"
Darun’s hands trembled violently, but he couldn't find the words to strike back. Watching this, Sepia felt a strange mix of catharsis and anxiety.
Darun was currently the frontrunner to become the Rivayden Family Head. Lania was still young and sickly, and Sepia herself was not only unrelated by blood but also lacked the merchant's intuition that Darun had cultivated.
"Ah! Or did you come to see me because of my magic tools? I suppose if it's the Rivayden family, I could trust them with the distribution..."
"Y-yes, exactly."
Darun was startled by the sudden shift from blatant hostility to a potential business deal, but he managed to stammer out an answer.
Is he one of those types?
Darun figured Loki’s behavior thus far had just been a crude power play. There were people like that—those who tried to seize the upper hand through a battle of nerves before a deal even began.
Fine. As long as he could secure the rights to sell those magic tools, he could endure this level of insult. Once the contract was signed, he could deal with the brat later.
"I didn't originally plan on making money by selling magic tools, but..."
On the surface, Darun listened intently to Loki’s words, but inside, he scoffed. He had seen many people before who pretended to be uninterested just to gain leverage. Deciding to rip Loki off as much as possible, Darun opened his mouth.
"Then, for starters..."
Darun began to drone on about the trade, peppering his speech with hollow compliments about the magic tools Loki had created. Sepia watched the scene in silence.
To be precise, she couldn't say anything.
She understood why Loki would want to trade with Darun. If he could partner with the Rivayden family through Darun, Loki would undoubtedly make an astronomical amount of money. Logically, it made sense, but...
I hate this.
She hated Darun for talking to Loki, and she hated herself for being unable to do anything about it. There was nothing she could do right now. Even though Sepia was a member of the Marquis Rivayden household, Darun was the superior merchant with a much stronger standing.
Just as Sepia was sinking into a pit of helplessness while listening to the conversation—
Thump.
She felt a weight on her shoulder. Startled, she turned her head to see Loki’s hand resting there.
"Hold on a moment."
Loki, having naturally placed his hand on Sepia’s shoulder, cut off the eagerly talking Darun. Then, he rubbed his temples as if he were nursing a migraine.
"Ah, my head starts hurting whenever I hear such complicated talk. So, you can just talk to Miss Sepia about the trade on my behalf."
"...If your head hurts, I can find someone better!"
Startled by the mention of Sepia’s name in the middle of their negotiations, Darun spoke urgently, not even realizing his voice had risen. He was making this deal to increase his influence within the family; if Sepia handled the trade as Loki’s representative, her influence would be the one to skyrocket.
"Did I use words that were too difficult? I'm saying I'll trade with the Marquis Rivayden Household through Miss Sepia."
Loki emphasized the "Marquis Rivayden Household" rather than Darun, but the agitated man failed to notice the nuance.
"...I don't think you understand, but there are many people more capable than that girl—no, that woman! If you just do as I say without her help, you can make much more money!"
Sepia also stared at Loki with blank eyes. She didn't want to admit it, but Darun wasn't wrong. Sepia could facilitate a deal with the Marquis household, but unlike Darun, she knew nothing about the merchant business. He could make so much more money trading with Darun than with her, so why...
"Is your memory a bit poor? I told you just a moment ago. I have no particular intention of making money by selling magic tools."
"……That."
Darun was left speechless. Loki’s claim that he didn't care about the money... that wasn't just a lie to gain leverage?
As Darun stared blankly at Loki, whose hand was still resting on Sepia’s shoulder—
"……!"
In an instant, Loki vanished from his sight. Darun, who took a certain amount of pride in his skills as a swordsman, hadn't been able to track Loki’s movement at all.
"Ugh."
Darun grimaced at a sudden pressure on his shoulder. Before he knew it, Loki had appeared beside him, placing a hand on Darun’s shoulder and whispering into his ear so only he could hear.
"What I'm saying is, there is absolutely no way I'm selling a single magic tool to you. You can understand that much, right?"
Only then did Darun realize the truth. This guy had no intention of trading with him from the very beginning.
"If I trade through Miss Sepia, her standing will rise quite a bit, won't it?"
Darun couldn't deny it. The magic tools this guy made were no ordinary items.
"Whose shoulder do you think you're putting your hand on!"
Just then, a burly man standing right behind Darun shouted at Loki.
"Are you asking because you're actually curious? The person I have my hand on right now is... wait, what was your name again? I don't usually memorize names I don't need..."
Loki was speaking to the burly man when he turned back to Darun, looking as if he truly couldn't remember the man's name.
"Take your hand off him this instant!!!"
The burly man lunged, reaching out to grab Loki’s hand. Despite his massive frame, he was surprisingly fast.
Whoosh—
However, the man’s large hand caught only empty air, failing to even graze Loki’s sleeve.
"Tch."
The burly man clicked his tongue and looked around wildly to find Loki.
"I'm behind you."
Whoosh!
Hearing Loki’s voice, the man swung his hand again, but once more, he grasped nothing but air.
"I really dislike being touched. Especially by men."
The burly man looked at Darun, and Darun gave a silent, sharp nod.
"It looks like you two just shared a secret glance. You're not in that kind of relationship, are you? Ugh! Hold on! I accidentally imagined it for a second. Gross."
"As your Academy senior, I'll teach you some manners."
The burly man glared at Loki, a large axe now gripped in his hand. Even under that murderous gaze, Loki simply shrugged as if it were nothing.
"Ugh! That line is so cliché. I'll give you 7 points. Out of 100, by the way. I'll give you one more chance as a special favor. Don't you have any lines that are a bit more original?"
Boom!
Boom!
Boom!
The burly man swung his massive axe at Loki repeatedly, but Loki dodged every strike effortlessly, his hands still tucked casually in his pockets.
"Do you usually wear glasses?"
The man knew Loki was talking just to rattle him, so he tried his best to ignore the taunts and keep swinging. But no matter how much he tried to focus, his axe never hit, and Loki’s voice came through loud and clear.
"Does silence mean no? You keep swinging your axe at such strange places that I just had to ask."
No matter how strong someone's mental fortitude was, being mocked while the opponent dodged every attack without even taking their hands out of their pockets was bound to shake them.
"So it's not that you forgot your glasses... that's even more tragic."
"Aaaaaagh!!!! Die!!!!!"
With a thunderous roar, the man coated his giant axe in mana and slammed it down from above.
K-BOOOOOOM!!!!
With a massive explosion of sound, dust billowed in all directions.
"Huff... huff..."
The man panted heavily, praying it was over. A moment later, the dust obscuring his vision cleared.
Loki was standing perfectly balanced atop the axe embedded in the ground.
"No matter how I look at it, your eyesight is terrible. Why don't you try visiting a hospital? I'm saying this out of genuine concern."