Chapter 3
Translator: True Detective
Chapter 3: Why Are You Coming Out of There
“Everyone open your ears and listen carefully. A precious guest will be visiting the arena soon.”
A few days ago, Bardick gathered the gladiators and said this.
It’s a story unrelated to me. Since I’m not an official gladiator, but a disposable gladiator slave.
But curiosity is curiosity.
Holding a mop and pretending to wipe the floor here and there, I naturally approached that side.
“May I ask who is coming?”
“It’s the young lady of the Edelheid family.”
“E-Edelheid?!”
Wow! Crazy, Edelheid!
To think such a great person is coming!
‘What is Edelheid?’
Actually, I have no idea what it is. Everyone was making a fuss, so I just tried copying them once.
I mean, I don't even know what kind of world this is or why I fell here, you know?
Even if I wanted to get information, I’m in a position where I can’t take a single step outside the arena.
I pride myself on being more oblivious to the ways of the world than a princess in the imperial palace.
‘But it sounds like I’ve heard it somewhere.’
I probably picked it up from conversations between spectators or gladiators, just like now.
The gladiators buzzed.
“What business does a child of such a great noble family have in a shabby place like this...?”
“What? This bastard, are you saying my arena is shabby right now?”
“S-Sorry, sir! It was a slip of the tongue!”
Bardick clicked his tongue.
“I heard sponsoring gladiators is the trend among nobles these days.”
“Sponsoring?”
“Yes. They support a gladiator, and it seems they feel vicarious satisfaction when that gladiator wins.”
I understood immediately.
Simply put, it’s a sponsorship.
Just like pro sports teams receive corporate sponsorship and run with logos on their uniforms.
Nobles give money and equipment to gladiators, and gladiators become their horses and win.
The nobles I know are a breed that lives for honor and dies for honor, just like scholars of the Joseon Dynasty.
As a gladiator wins consecutively and gains fame, the eye of the sponsor who recognized them will also be praised.
It’s nothing difficult, a thoroughly business-like story.
“The young lady of Edelheid will watch your matches. Anyone must catch her eye. Only then will even crumbs fall to you! Everyone do your best. Dismissed.”
Behind Bardick, who threw huge bait and disappeared, the whispering of the gladiators remained.
“Hey, what exactly is good about being sponsored?”
“I know because I came from working at another arena, but they customize exclusive equipment for you and give you victory bonuses. A gladiator sponsored by a count received 10 gold coins every time he won.”
“T-Ten gold coins?!”
As far as I know, 1 gold coin would be a month's living expenses for a commoner family.
And 10 of such gold coins.
It’s a huge sum that allows gladiators who live day to day to dream of a future.
‘How much was my ransom again?’
Was it about 50 silver coins?
If I win one match, I can buy 20 of me.
It hits me again how fucking cheap my ransom is.
“Ha, what if I get sponsored?”
“Wake up. Why would a ducal family sponsor us? There are plenty of gladiators in the world better than us.”
“You never know. Maybe she has the insight to recognize my shining potential.”
“You’re talking shit.”
While saying that, everyone seems to be secretly expecting it.
It’s a Duke, after all.
The highest among the five ranks of nobility.
Since I’m from Earth, I don’t really feel how great that authority is, but anyway, it must be huge.
A ducal family as a backer?
‘This is a life turnaround.’
It’s even a noble young lady. I’ve seen them often in illustrations in romance fantasy novels.
Truly a flower in a greenhouse.
She must be incredibly pretty.
‘I wonder if she’s interested in slaves, not gladiators?’
I can’t fight for real, but I’m confident I can be good at sucking up.
“What is it, Irion. Were you eavesdropping on our conversation? Why, are you interested too?”
Around the time I was imagining being chosen by the young lady of a ducal family, the gladiator Alex spoke to me.
I hate this guy.
He always picks a fight with me.
“No, not really.”
“What? Ha, look at the way this rude bastard talks.”
Alex mumbled something, then hawk, ptui! spat out phlegm.
No, this son of a bitch, I just mopped there.
I immediately wiped it with the mop.
Oh come on, there are chunks left on the floor.
Alex glares pathetically at the noisy gladiators.
“Anyway, these bastards, making a fuss like girls. They say she’s a young lady raised preciously in a ducal family, but she’s just a brat smelling of milk. Sponsorship my ass, she’ll obviously just cry and go home.”
That is also true.
Even I am fighting forcibly because I’m a slave. I still tremble when I encounter a demon beast.
But a noble, a girl, and even a child?
We shouldn't worry about her crying; it’ll be fortunate if she doesn’t wet herself. If she soils it, I have to clean it up.
I’ll show generosity and overlook the small stuff. But the big stuff is a no-no.
The arena is unusually busy today.
From servants to slaves, everyone is in the middle of tidying up the arena. As Bardick announced a few days ago, it’s because the young lady of a ducal family is visiting.
Wiping dust off window sills, clearing cobwebs, polishing the floor.
The scenery is like an army scheduled for a division commander's visit.
‘And I am one of those soldiers.’
Generally, gladiators aren't made to do menial work. Especially on days when there are matches.
But I am a slave, not a gladiator. Even though a match is scheduled a few hours from now, I am cleaning.
As if to say, since you’re going to die soon anyway, let’s extract as much as possible.
‘Sigh.’
Is there a need to work hard when there’s no reward? I waved the rag roughly, half-heartedly.
“I never dreamed that the Princess would take an interest in gladiator fights. I am Bardick, the manager of the arena.”
Bardick’s voice came from beyond the corridor corner.
It seems that Princess has arrived.
To think Bardick would show such a polite attitude. It certainly is a world where rank is a gangster.
“Where are the gladiators?”
“They are waiting in the waiting room. They are eagerly waiting only for the Princess to come.”
Soon, the rumored Princess appeared from the corner, guided by Bardick.
“............Huh?”
Upon seeing her face, my time stopped for an instant.
Jet-black hair coming down to her waist. Green eyes that seemed to have pressed down the green of the forest.
Her pale white skin contrasted with the dull arena, shining unrealistically.
Like a porcelain doll crafted with great care by an artisan. Her resolution alone is different.
She is definitely someone I’m seeing for the first time.
But it wasn't a face I was seeing for the first time.
“...Renoa?”
The villainess extra of the raising simulation game <Lady Maker>, Renoa Edelheid.
She was in front of me. She’s much younger than the appearance in my memory, but there is no mistake.
‘How is she here?’
There’s no way a game character possessed a body like me, so there’s only one possibility.
No, shit, was this inside a game?
“Renoa...?”
In an instant, Renoa’s green eyes flashed fiercely as she stared at me with a sharp gaze.
Only then did I realize my mistake. In my panic, I inadvertently called her name out loud.
I hurriedly covered my mouth, but I couldn't pick up the words I had already spat out.
“My Lady?”
Renoa started walking towards me, paying no attention to the knight’s call.
—Click, click.
It’s a normal walk, but to me, it looked like a viper coming to strangle my neck.
A terrifying pressure.
Eventually, Renoa stood in front of me. Eye level similar to mine. Renoa was about half a span taller than me.
It hits me again that I’m fucking short.
She’s on the small side too.
“You, what did you say just now?”
“Y-Yes? What do you mean?”
“You just called my name.”
“W-Well? I don’t know anything about that. I, I really don’t know anything......”
There was quite a distance, but she heard that. Her hearing is truly good, perhaps because she’s young.
“What is the matter, My Lady?”
“Why are you doing this, Princess? ...Irion? Is it you again? Don't tell me, did you commit rudeness to the Princess?”
To make matters worse, even the escort knight approached. Behind him, Bardick too.
I’m doomed to escape safely.
“He called my name.”
“This boy did?”
“Yeah.”
The knight looks down at me from a much higher gaze.
“Is what the Lady says true?”
“T-That is... I didn’t do it on purpose......”
Renoa’s position in the game <Lady Maker> is clear. The villainess commonly seen in romance fantasy.
A typical third-rate villain who interferes with the protagonist’s path at every turn, commits atrocities blinded by jealousy, and eventually meets a miserable ruin.
However, the concentration of her villainy was quite dense.
Pouring boiling tea on a maid’s face, gouging out people’s eyes because she didn’t like their gaze, throwing people into beast cages just because she was bored.
A villain who enjoys people’s despair and screams as entertainment. That is the character Renoa Edelheid.
‘But of all people...’
Of all people, I caught the eye of that Renoa.
Unlike modern South Korea where social status doesn't exist, this is a rigid class society.
But a slave dared to mouth the name of a noble, and a Duke's daughter at that? And that target is Renoa?
I’m just fucked.
You can consider it a direct train to hell.
“Answer truthfully. I asked if you mouthed the Lady’s name.”
What do I do?
What do I do?
What do I do?
Cold sweat flows down my spine like rain. Chills run through my body as if I caught a cold.
It was then, as I trembled like I had PTSD.
—Slap!
“Ugh...!”
My vision flashed.
Along with the burning sensation felt on my cheek, my wretched body lost its balance and planted itself ungracefully onto the floor.
My mouth burst and the fishy taste of iron spread.
“This crazy bastard! Who do you think you’re in front of to run your mouth carelessly? Are you crazy to die!”
It was right after that I realized Bardick had slapped my cheek.
He screamed at the top of his lungs while mercilessly kicking me as I lay fallen.
“This bastard! This son of a bitch! Bastard who would stab his master in the back! Die! Die!”
—Thud! Thud!
I curled my body like a shrimp to protect my vital points as much as possible.
Around the time I thought I might be beaten to death like this, Bardick gasped for rough breath and turned sharply to Renoa.
“Princess, Sir Knight, I apologize for causing disrespect. What are you doing! Apologize quickly!”
Maybe because I was beaten. Unlike the stiffness just before, my body moves well now.
I bowed my head and apologized while lying flat on the floor.
“......I am sorry.”
“I apologize once again. This guy is so uneducated that he doesn't know manners. I have no face. I will educate him properly.”
“Hmm.”
“More than that, Princess, didn't you say you wanted to look around the gladiators? The waiting room is right next door! Please come this way!”
A gaze piercing the back of my head as I bowed low. Fortunately, Renoa passed by me and disappeared into the waiting room.
Only after a bit more time passed could I stand up.
I immediately ran to the well and drank water.
Only when cold water entered did my faint mind become clear.
My whole body throbs from being beaten by Bardick, but mere pain wasn't a big deal.
“Here... was a game world?”
Has it been half a year since I came to this world?
Anyway, it’s not like I just possessed it, quite some time has passed.
But because I was trapped moving from slave life to slave life for that entire half year, I couldn't get information.
Well, I might have heard a region name or family name by chance.
But how many web novels have I read, and how many games have I played until now?
Be it game names appearing in novels every time, academy names, region names.
I know them vaguely, I don't remember every single one.
At least now, it came to mind because I saw Renoa’s face directly.
“This is really fucking unfair...”
Not only starting as a slave from the beginning, but dragged to an arena to fight for my life?
There are so many kind and pretty heroines in this world, but why near a villainess?
And I got marked by that villainess?
Okay, analysis complete.
I understood perfectly.
“I can’t live. Let’s die comfortably.”
Why suffer like a dog trying to get liberated? It’s over if I die.
Yeah, this is right.