Chapter 36
Chapter 36
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 35
Chapter Title: The Priceless Desk
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“No!”
At Rachel’s sidekick’s words, Chris freaked out and tried to stop her.
Rachel tilted her head quizzically.
“Why? There might be something important in here. But you can’t open it because you haven’t found the key, right, big brother? Wouldn’t it be better to just smash it?”
“That desk is incredibly expensive!”
Rachel finally turned her gaze to the desk.
It was certainly giving off a subtle iridescent sheen, suggesting it wasn’t made from ordinary materials.
“Hmm. It does look pricey.”
“It’s valuable, all right. More expensive than the same weight in gold.”
Abyss chimed in with an explanation. Without thinking, Rachel let slip a comment.
“What a waste of money! Ah, my bad.”
The thought of using materials more expensive than gold just to make an office desk had made her swear.
“Rachel, you need to calm down a bit.”
Chris stepped closer to stop her from smashing the desk open to get at the drawer.
“I’ve been doing my absolute best to help you today, big brother. And now you’re getting on my case over one little desk?”
“It’s also Father’s memento!”
“But there might be evidence in here that could save your life, big brother. If you come any closer, you’ll regret it.”
“You’ll be in big trouble if you break my stuff.”
Deyner crossed his arms, his eyes gleaming. He was looking forward to the fight.
Abyss stepped back. But his eyes were gleaming just like Deyner’s.
Rachel clenched her fists, feeling betrayed by her brother and Abyss.
Chris didn’t think Rachel, who was much smaller than him, could really trouble him. He charged at her, planning to subdue her and drag her to their uncle.
But Rachel clenched her fist and leaped into Chris’s arms like a flying squirrel. Then she jabbed him right in the solar plexus.
“Guh!”
Chris doubled over, gasping for air and writhing in pain. Rachel crossed her arms and looked down at him.
“I warned you you’d regret getting close.”
Abyss clapped at the sight. The sound was remarkably clear and cheerful.
“You’re really tempting. Wanna come work for me? I won’t make you do anything dangerous.”
Rachel shot Abyss a glare.
“No thanks. Let’s just smash that thing.”
“Oh, about that!”
“?”
“We can open it without smashing it.”
Rachel clenched her fist.
‘I was just yelling at Chris over that drawer, and now he says we can open it? And with that refreshingly smug look on his face I’ve never seen before?’
Rachel grabbed him by the collar.
“You could’ve said so earlier!”
“You didn’t ask.”
“Ugh!”
She had him by the collar, but because Rachel was so much shorter, she ended up dangling there.
Rachel let go of his collar and tried to punch him in the solar plexus like she had Chris, but he gracefully twisted away, dodging her punch.
“You’re so feisty, like a cat.”
“Blech!”
His overly cheesy line made Rachel pretend to gag. He shrugged with a sleazy grin.
“Guess you’re too young to appreciate my charm.”
“That’s not your real personality.”
“Who knows? An information broker has to be able to act any role. You can’t just judge me because you haven’t seen it.”
It made sense, but coming from him, Rachel wanted to argue anyway.
She backed away from him and sat in a chair.
“Then hurry up and open the drawer.”
Abyss pulled something like a candle from his pocket and pressed it to the keyhole.
It melted smoothly and got sucked into the hole. At that moment, Rachel’s stomach churned.
“I’ve noticed this before, little miss. You seem sensitive to mana? Your face sours every time I use a magic tool.”
“Huh?”
She’d never heard that before.
While Rachel was at a loss for words, Abyss continued talking as he maneuvered the barely-there handle inside the keyhole.
“If you want to be sure, you’d need a proper check, but I’d bet you have high mana sensitivity. The more I see, the more I want you.”
Abyss muttered the last part, unable to shake off his lingering regret.
Soon, a clicking sound came, and the drawer slid open.
“A key?”
What came out of the drawer was a small key.
Rachel felt a sense of déjà vu.
It reminded her of horror games where you find a key to unlock something, only to get another key inside.
For the record, those games usually got bad reviews.
“A key for a key, huh.”
“What kind of key is it?”
Deyner, bored of his sister rifling through papers, showed intense interest in the key. He looked like he was imagining a treasure vault.
“Do you know, big brother?”
“No.”
Chris was completely sulking. He answered without even looking.
“You’re still mad because we didn’t break the desk? Keep it up, big brother, and I will smash it.”
At Rachel’s words, Chris turned his head.
She was a cousin he’d barely met a few times, but based on her actions so far, he had a feeling she’d actually do it.
“Just look at it!”
Rachel beamed innocently as Chris grudgingly approached. He peered at the key in her hand with a pout.
“Do you recognize the key?”
“Hmm.”
At Rachel’s question, Chris rolled his eyes, on the verge of remembering. He mumbled “hmm” a few times before stomping his foot.
“I got it! It’s the key to the storeroom. When we moved from the old mansion, we put the old stuff in the basement storeroom.”
“The basement storeroom, huh?”
“Are there treasures in there?”
Rachel and Deyner asked at the same time.
Deyner seemed eager for treasure hunting, but Chris shook his head.
“No treasures. Just genealogy records and books we don’t read anymore.”
She had a hunch. Even if nothing else, the genealogy and old books were definitely what Rachel had been looking for.
“Genealogy? That sounds interesting.”
“You’re curious about that stuff?”
“Yeah! If you don’t need it, big brother, can I have the key?”
“Do whatever. You little brat.”
Chris replied while rubbing his sore solar plexus where Rachel had hit him. Rachel grinned back.
“Such foul language, big brother.”
“Is your attitude polite?”
“Nope.”
Rachel readily admitted she wasn’t being polite.
At first, Chris had seemed suspicious and awkward since they’d barely met, but after two days traveling by carriage and chatting, she realized he was an easy mark.
Rachel teased Chris a bit more, then glanced at Abyss. He stood up.
“Hand this over to the judge. Not the military police. It has to be the judge.”
Abyss stacked bundles of documents on Chris’s arm as he spoke.
Overwhelmed by Abyss’s presence, Chris nodded.
“Then let’s go together. How do we get to the storeroom?”
“Go out, turn right, there’ll be stairs. Go all the way down to the basement.”
“Got it.”
“I wanna go too!”
Deyner tagged along, curious about the storeroom even without treasures.
Leaving Chris behind, the three exited the study, with Chris’s explanation following.
“There are a lot of doors, but the storeroom is the one with the face with closed eyes—the mouth!”
“What kind of nonsense is that?”
Rachel wanted to ask more about Chris’s weird description. But,
“You’ll know it when you see it.”
Abyss muttered that and took the lead.
Rachel gave up asking and chased after Abyss.
After leaving the study, about five meters ahead was a corner to the right. Stairs appeared as they turned.
The three headed down the stairs. As they descended, Abyss clicked his tongue. His expression looked deflated.
Rachel, walking beside him, couldn’t help but ask.
“Why the long face?”
“It’s just... thinking that the son of someone who was once my rival turned out so soft.”
He didn’t specify exactly how, but he seemed steeped in futility.
“Come to think of it, why did you get into this line of work?”
“Didn’t I tell you before?”
“That wasn’t the right relationship to pry into personal history.”
Abyss just raised an eyebrow at Rachel’s response, showing no other reaction.
Guessing he didn’t want to talk, Rachel sped up to walk ahead. Then suddenly, Abyss’s voice came.
“......I’m looking for a certain Black Sorcerer.”
Rachel stopped and turned. Abyss wore an angry expression.
“Black Sorcerer?”
“Yeah, the one who wiped out my hometown.”
His murderous glare made Rachel flinch. His rage was real.
“That’s how I ended up here. That’s the whole story.”
Even as he said it, she doubted that was everything.
There had to be more to how Abyss got here, but he clammed up after that.
“You still haven’t found him?”
“I almost had him.”
Rachel understood the situation from those few words.
‘Almost had him.’ Meaning, he didn’t.
Probably because Paris Emporus had died.
“Sorry.”
“You were just doing your best to survive too.”
“What are you two even talking about?”
Deyner, who’d been listening, cut in.
The man said he’d almost caught the Black Sorcerer, then his sister suddenly apologizes, and the man acts like he understands.
Unable to follow, Deyner asked, and the two looked down at him.
Worried Deyner might go off track, Rachel met his eyes and explained briefly.
“This guy was after the Black Sorcerer, but because of me, he couldn’t catch him. That’s the story.”
“You almost had the Black Sorcerer, but then my sister asked for your help and you let him go?”
“Something like that.”
“Why’s that my sister’s fault? If you lost him for that reason, it was fate anyway.”
Deyner shot Abyss a dirty look.
Even without much reason to fight, Deyner didn’t like Abyss much.
Abyss let out a cheerful laugh at the boy glaring at him.
“You’re right.”
Deyner and Rachel tilted their heads at his sudden smile.
He chuckled even more at the siblings’ similar looks.
“What’s so funny all of a sudden? Wind in your lungs?”
“I realized I was arrogant.”
“What’re you talking about?”
“I thought I’d let a fish that was almost hooked get away. Turns out, I never even had a chance to hook it.”
Even with the explanation, Rachel and Deyner couldn’t figure out why he was laughing.
“You two siblings are really something.”
Deyner pointed to his temple and twirled his finger, and Rachel nodded.
‘He’s lost it.’
‘Yeah, seems like it.’
The thought passed between the siblings.
For a while, only the sound of footsteps echoed on the stairs.
At some point, Abyss picked up a torch lighting the stairs.
Rachel kept descending, watching the shadows flicker ahead.
After a long walk, their feet finally reached the bottom.
“We’re down!”
The basement, untouched by people, reeked of damp, musty air. It definitely felt like something was lurking.
Before walking the corridor, Abyss pulled out holy water and lightly sprinkled it on himself and the siblings.
“Thanks.”
“Places tainted by black magic, you never know what might happen.”
She agreed.
Through Abyss’s repeated caution, Rachel became convinced his hometown had been destroyed by black magic aftermath.
‘Why wasn’t an incident like that reported?’
After learning Paris Emporus was a Pseudo-Contractor, Rachel had checked temple records for black magic incidents.
But there was no record of a whole village wiped out.
‘If it vanished without a trace, maybe it was a tiny hamlet of slash-and-burn farmers.’
Thinking that, Rachel walked the corridor. There were many doors in the basement hallway.
“So where’s the storeroom?”
At Rachel’s question, Abyss—who’d said you’d know when you see it—stayed silent.
Even seeing them, he couldn’t tell.