Chapter 98
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 98
Chapter Title: Friends Aren't Eternal. (10)
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I've never liked that guy since we were kids.
Not that he was any good at anything—hell, just the fact that he was quietly scraping by in the back alleys pissed me off.
Because the back alleys are a place where if you don't act, you die.
It's not like the world where normal people live.
If you're looked down on, you get robbed. If you don't rob others, you starve. Death lurks everywhere.
But in a place like that, he survived without ever taking a single proper action.
The bare minimum begging, the bare minimum eating.
He never stole from anyone, had no presence, owned next to nothing—so no one stole from him either.
An alien existence.
You could call it his way of life, but whatever—I just couldn't stand it.
He didn't fit in the back alleys at all.
Still, he was the only kid my age, so I looked out for him in my own way.
Or maybe I just wanted to feel superior by doing it.
Whatever.
The fact was, I was better than him.
But... after that day.
Everything changed.
"That Kane kid got taken in by Marquis Harkur?"
"What? The hero Harkur?"
In the city where we lived in the back alleys.
A man named Harkur had come to rule it anew.
He'd risen from commoner stock, achieved massive feats, and earned a marquisate.
A role model for commoners.
Honestly, I admired him deep down. I wanted to be like him someday.
Of course, I could never match a hero like him.
But I harbored the desire to succeed on my own terms, just as greatly.
And yet.
The man I looked up to.
Had stopped by here, in the back alleys.
I was out pickpocketing in the square at the time, so I just barely missed him. What a shame.
No, that's not the issue.
He came here... and took Kane with him.
What the hell? Did he take that loser to make him a slave?
Since he's a kid, maybe raise him into a loyal servant?
What the...?
So much for rising from rags to riches.
Once he became a noble, he's no different from the rest.
Good thing I wasn't there.
Poor Harkur, though.
Dragging around a worthless wimp like that.
Betcha he's regretting it already.
Kane's gonna get his ass beat every day.
Whatever. Not my problem anymore.
...That's what I thought.
Then one day.
"That Kane guy? Totally hit the jackpot."
"Saw him the other day. Dressed in fancy silk, shopping with the marquis."
"Fuck, I'm jealous. Why didn't he take me? I know I could do the job great!!"
What? No way.
Impossible.
I thought it was bullshit.
But... I saw it too.
Kane laughing happily in the square with Marquis Harkur.
What the hell does that good-for-nothing have going for him?
Is he just faking a pretty face?
Nah, if that were it, Kane would've looked miserable.
The guy was thriving.
Well-washed, well-fed, well-dressed.
This skeleton who'd only eaten enough not to die had put on some healthy weight.
His grimy black skin was scrubbed clean and pale now.
Looked just like some charity case getting handouts from a do-gooder noble.
I'd heard stories of kind patrons or nobles helping starving back-alley kids.
Thought that shit was just fairy tales.
Never imagined it'd happen right in front of me.
...To someone else.
To that timid little shit.
Why? Why? Why?
Why him of all people?
Why not me, who can do everything right?
Ah, I get it. I wasn't there that day.
So he picked the only kid he saw.
If I'd been there.
He would've chosen me over that half-assed loser.
I'd be the one in fine silk, laughing in the square...!!
The power, money, strength I craved.
All of it... would've been mine!!
A deep rage boiled up from the pit of my stomach.
I wanted to run up to Marquis Harkur right then and tell him to take me instead of this trash.
...No. Wait.
Don't think like that.
Yeah, that guy's just a pitiful thing who needs handouts to survive.
I'm different.
I can seize everything with my own strength.
Right here... in this filthy back alley.
I'll become way greater than that Kane who only knows how to leech off others.
"...Brother Carlson's heading to Trason, right?"
They said it was a land of even greater opportunity than the Empire.
A place where even punks like us who only knew how to steal could make it big.
I'd follow Brother Carlson to Trason.
And there... I'd climb to heights that loser Kane could never dream of.
And you, Harkur... I'll make you regret it.
Regret not choosing me, the real talent.
After leaving the Empire for Trason like that.
Brother Carlson and I got swallowed by Trason's money and had to bail.
Trason wasn't a land of opportunity.
It was just... a place where the rich got richer.
A shithole even worse than the Empire.
That's when the neighboring Mera Union caught my eye.
Not as cutthroat as Trason, but freer than the Empire.
Plus, they had these councilor nobles.
Seemed perfect for pulling strings.
But Brother Carlson opposed it.
Said we should just go back to the Empire.
No way.
"If we run now, we'll end up as nobodies—back-alley crooks. Even if I fail, I'll take another path."
Leaving Brother Carlson and a few others behind, we reorganized and headed to the Mera Union.
We smashed rival crime groups, absorbed them.
Pulled in local councilors left and right.
And after about ten years, we'd swallowed the entire underworld of one city.
Illegal drugs, weapons, contraband—you name it.
We sold it all.
Money piled up beyond belief.
Power? Not just in Shassen—nobody in the Mera Union dared ignore me anymore.
Not even the central Seven Councilors, the top dogs.
Criminal or not, I'd made it big.
On a whole other level from some guy coasting on noble handouts...
[Hasler's Troll Lord Incident: Hero Jenny Harkur and Adventurer Instructor Kane Take Center Stage!]
"......"
Something felt off.
I'm the one who made it big.
So why's his name and face all over the world news?
Ah, Jenny Harkur.
Nepo baby from the Harkurs again?
What a pathetic, ugly bastard.
[Dragon Battle: All Thanks to Instructor Kane...]
"Hahaha, you slimy fuck. Living it up without me, huh?"
That's what I thought, for sure.
That he was still just a leech who couldn't do shit on his own.
But why...?
Why does this piss me off so much?
Why does it feel like my name should've been in that Kane article instead!
"Heh heh, hilarious."
What nonsense.
I've got more money than him.
More power.
More influence.
Nothing to envy.
I'm way better.
"......"
Still, it just rubs me the wrong way.
So when I find that fucker, I'll kill him.
Not jealousy or anything.
Just... he pisses me off.
I'm the leader of 'Scar'.
King of the Mera Union underworld.
If I want you dead, you're dead.
So... since you came here of all places, you die by my hand.
Normally I'd run from that hero chick Rin, but killing you alone won't take long.
I can handle it solo.
Send the organization goons away, kill you myself, then bounce.
Alright then.
Time to see my old back-alley pal's face after all these years?
#
Rin and Soma headed to what they suspected was the organization's hideout.
Kane had wanted to come along originally.
But Rin insisted it might be dangerous and left him behind, going just the two of them.
Of course, with Kane's skills, he'd be fine—but the request was technically for Rin.
Soma was tagged as the accompanying adventurer.
Kane was really just there as an instructor, so if they told him to sit it out on-site, he couldn't argue.
And even if Kane had leveled up his abilities, he couldn't guarantee total victory against humans.
Fighting monsters and people were worlds apart, after all.
From Rin's perspective, she didn't want Kane getting hurt over some criminals, so she'd asked him to wait.
"...It's awfully quiet."
Rin and Soma arrived at the supposed hideout.
But the building, which they'd pegged as the base, had an eerily quiet vibe.
A rundown ruin on the verge of collapse.
Word was their hideout was in the basement.
Yet there weren't even patrolling organization members around—hell, not even the usual back-alley vagrants.
Unnaturally quiet.
"...Think it's a trap? Maybe a fake-out pretending to be the hideout."
Soma voiced the concern, and Rin thought it might be possible.
But.
"So what if it is?"
The opponent was Rin, the hero known in some circles as the Witch of Ice.
"Mana... freeze everything solid. Ice Field."
"Mana... freeze everything solid. Ice Field."
⟨ Ice Field ⟩
Craaaack—
As she chanted and unleashed the spell.
The dilapidated ruin was instantly blanketed in pure white ice.
Even the stairs leading underground were frozen solid white, so the basement below was probably the same.
Easy to guess.
"Trap or not, just freeze it all and done."
"......"
Soma stared at her in stunned confusion at this wildly unconventional solution she'd never imagined.
"Don't worry. I tuned it so anyone with decent mana won't die. If this isn't the hideout, we torture a survivor for info."
She delivered the utterly unhinged line in a cold, businesslike tone.
Soma felt a disconnect from the shy, smiling girl she saw around Kane.
"Anyway, let's head in."
"Y-yeah..."
Soma and Rin stepped onto the frozen stairs and descended.
But something was off.
"...Nobody here."
Not a soul.
You'd expect frozen corpses at least, but not even a body.
They checked deeper in case they'd holed up, but it was just thick frost everywhere.
No sign of a single person.
In other words...
"Empty?"
It had been empty from the start.
Bad intel?
Or did they catch wind and bail?
Either way, strikeout.
"...Tch, back to the guild for now."
"Yeah, let's."
They needed to wrap this up quick and head back to Hasler.
But somehow, it felt like things were getting messy.
And during that time.
A threat was closing in on Kane, left alone.