Chapter 301
Chapter 301
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Translator: crow
Chapter Title: Coaxing (2)
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"This is no time to be dawdling!"
Bam!
One of the wardens shot to his feet, slamming the table.
"What the—!?"
"What's gotten into you all of a sudden!?"
"All of a sudden? You call this sudden? Are you seeing and hearing the same thing I am?"
He jabbed a trembling finger at the wriggling lump of flesh with its mouth.
"Look at this, you monster! Repeat that wish you just voiced. And this time, make it more detailed!"
The wardens adjusted the Desire Orb so its mouth faced straight ahead.
If the Desire Orb voiced a target's deepest wish on their behalf—
Right now, it was spouting something entirely different from before.
A strand of hair from its previous victim was still caught between its teeth.
The warden sliced open his palm with a knife and dripped blood onto it.
A completely different voice leaked from its mouth.
The voice of the Blade Custodian whose hair it had consumed.
Mmm.
Mmmph...
The flesh smacked its lips.
The warden hurriedly fed it more blood to continue.
The chaotic air in the tent had settled into calm.
Even the warden who'd jumped up had calmed down and returned to his seat.
"Yes... this is it."
The wardens nodded in satisfaction.
A hero's tale of infinite gratitude for the present he'd seized, dispelling the fog of an uncertain future.
Thoroughly realistic and humble.
"Something must've gone wrong before, no doubt!"
It was convincing enough to solidify that belief.
"A villa by a lake, eh... Funny, I've got just the spot."
The wardens were already prepared to grant his modest wish.
At their signal, the warden made one final cut to his palm and fed it to the orb.
"What the hell! Is there something wrong with your blood!? Stop feeding it sweets!"
"Why are you snapping at me!?"
"Hey, enough! Don't lose your dignity! But seriously, what nonsense is this!?"
Like a carriage veering off as the coachman yanks the reins, the tale careened wildly.
They let go of the composure they'd barely clung to.
From the story of a simple man reclaiming normalcy—
Why had it suddenly become the demon king's dream of world-ending apocalypse!?
"I'm pretty damn confused, so let me get this straight. What the hell is this monster's definition of 'modest'?"
"It's based on the target's own values."
"Then this—"
His finger irritably jabbed at the Desire Orb.
"The owner of that hair thinks this is modest? A demon swordsman clashing with a hero, flipping the world upside down!?"
"Not demon swordsman and hero. Demon sword and holy sword, he said."
"Same damn thing!"
"...Fair enough."
The wardens were baffled.
If the orb had consistently spouted mad ravings, they wouldn't be this confused.
But a diligent man's tale, treating world-ending as a humble wish?
"...Pretend that didn't happen and move on."
"Mm. Sounds good."
"Maybe the hair got contaminated somehow—"
"Good point!"
"As long as the orb isn't broken, the next one should work fine!"
Clean consensus.
They unanimously buried the uncomfortable bit.
"Ahem, then next—"
One warden pulled a strand of hair from his pocket.
"Who's this one?"
"Sir Coltrin of the Ares Knights."
"Coltrin? Never heard of him—"
"Mm. Not from high nobility. I recall quite a stir when Lord Ares brought him into the order."
"Oh ho. A man with a backstory, then?"
"Men with backstories usually burn with strong desires."
"Spot on. Sir Coltrin doesn't show it, but he's got a deep inferiority complex about his origins."
"Lord Ares's knights are the heirs of Devrien... Bound to be stacked with elites, so no surprise."
The wardens exchanged knowing smirks.
A lowborn knight plagued by inferiority.
Easy prey for these power-wielding high nobles.
"Sir Coltrin probably wants to rack up solid achievements, earn 'honor,' and gain recognition from his peers, right?"
"You know it. From what I gathered, he hasn't notched a proper feat since his knighting—"
"Oof. Basically a nobody, then? They say there's nothing more vital to a knight than honor."
"If I were him... I'd be desperate. Itching to snag some flashy achievement, anything to save face."
"Flashy achievement, huh. Tricky—"
"Tricky?"
"Yeah. So many ideas come to mind, hard to pick one—"
"Ah, so 'tricky' means—"
"Exactly. If we pull strings, handing a promising young knight a neat little feat is child's play."
They plucked the caught hair from the orb's teeth and fed it the new one.
"As expected."
The wardens nodded.
Sir Coltrin's current straits seemed dire, just as predicted.
A modest wish.
Desperate enough to take any achievement, pronto.
"You mentioned assembling a subjugation force soon, right?"
"Yeah. Some lunatic mage's holed up in my woods. Word is, he used to be a magic tower master."
"Ex-master mad mage! Overkill for a desperate low-rank knight!?"
"Exactly. Sir Coltrin will be thrilled—"
"What the—!"
One warden couldn't hold back and drew his sword.
"Calm down!"
"How can I!? It's toying with us!"
"Dragons... Those mighty beings vanished ages ago, didn't they?"
"This makes no sense! How is meeting a dragon to brag your exploits and get validation a modest wish!? Just seeking out a legendary creature is borderline delusion!"
The Desire Orb glimpsed desires the target clearly felt and recognized.
In other words...
This low-rank knight truly prioritized meeting a dragon to share his tales.
"What kind of lunatic dreams this big and calls it life's goal!? This isn't romance, it's ignorance! Pure ignorance!!!"
They writhed in frustration.
The wardens spent a while ranting vulgarly about knights.
"No! That's not the point! Something's clearly wrong!"
One pointed at the Desire Orb.
"Fine, say a knight dreams childishly of dragon validation! But calling it modest? Even a dense knight wouldn't think spilling to a dragon is simple!"
"Right! Dragons aren't your next-door neighbor!"
"Obvious! This ugly thing's deceiving us!"
"Or maybe it's faulty. Magical items like this are finicky."
"Your blood must be off. You're so fat, it's probably thick as syrup—"
"You picking a fight!?"
The wardens converged on the orb being defective.
The Desire Orb worked its mouth.
It looked somehow indignant.
"Now, now. Everyone, calm down."
Amid the frenzy, a middle-aged woman stepped forward to soothe them.
Lady Melida.
As a high noble, she commanded respect even among the wardens.
Above all, she was the Desire Orb's owner.
"We've clearly seen and felt this orb's power. We can't dismiss its potential just because of a few misses. How do you plan to coax the expedition—the hero's party—without it?"
"..."
The wardens regained their reason.
They knew Melida's influence in noble society, and that most stemmed from the orb.
The mysterious treasure that elevated her.
They couldn't casually abandon its boundless utility.
"I've owned this thing long enough to know. The Desire Orb is fully functional."
Convinced by Melida's firm assertion, they fed it the last strand of hair.
From the Graniteforge Guild's master smiths.
Melida nodded.
"It's done for."
She was convinced the orb was broken.
More believable than the expedition being a freakshow.
"Damn it, the Desire Orb breaks down in a pinch like this!"
Someone slammed the table hard.
Thud.
The orb rolled off from the impact, hitting the floor.
Its working mouth looked indignant somehow.
"What now?"
"Let's wait for the banquet guests first."
"The hero and the expedition leaders attending together... No way they're just there to eat."
The banquet attendees were the craftiest old nobles among the wardens.
Even fellow wardens felt drained talking to those sly foxes.
They'd hold their own against the expedition brass and extract meaningful intel through pressure.
"We can plan next steps once we have their report."
And so...
As the wardens huddled in the tent, stewing in awkward silence—
The knight guarding the entrance poked his head in with a report.
"The expedition's priestess wants to see us?"
The wardens recalled the glimpse they'd caught of the young priestesses while approaching the expedition groups.
Young and innocent girls.
"..."
They exchanged glances.
They'd spared them as a bare minimum of conscience, but with the situation dire, face-saving was a luxury.
"Let her in."
They ushered the priestess into the tent.
"Thank you for sparing your valuable time."
High Priestess Akirin.
She beamed innocently at the wardens.
Brief small talk ensued, exchanging pleasantries.
Eventually...
Akirin began preaching her faith's doctrines to them.
At the wardens' prompting.
Nothing disarmed believers' wariness like exploiting their faith.
They struck dignified noble poses, pretending to listen to the naive priestess's sermon.
And as they pondered when to sink their fangs into that exposed nape—
"Thus, any impure being can be reborn pure in His presence."
High Priestess Akirin began listing the great being's miracles.
Succubi turning human just from proximity—
Turning demons into spirits to command—
"Good lord..."
The wardens' faces had stiffened.
They'd figured the heretical priestesses with the hero's expedition were at least proper—
But a cult?
Succubi this, demons that?
These weren't ignorant villagers—did they expect anyone to buy such nonsense?
Warden Melida suddenly felt irritation surge.
The broken Desire Orb came to mind.
Along with its absurd babble.
She sneered sharply at the fanatic.
"If He's so omnipotent, He could wield the holy sword and demon sword to remake the world, right?"
"Exactly! You're ready to serve Him!"
"?"
She'd been praised as an exemplary student.