Chapter 71
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 71
Chapter Title: An Eye for an Eye
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“—Are you an idiot? No, you must be a simpleton.”
“Ugh… That’s a harsh thing to say to your master who just cheated death, Parsha.”
“If you don’t wish to hear harsh words, then you shouldn’t have wandered off and gotten spotted by the Fifth Young Master.”
“But I was hungry…”
“Which is why I told you to stay put until I returned with food.”
“Ugh.”
Perhaps it was because of his broken arm.
Or perhaps he had nothing left to say.
The boy, wrapped in bandages, groaned as he lay in bed.
The dark elf maid stared at her master with a blank expression before finally speaking with a sigh.
“Enough nonsense. Just eat this and focus on recovering.”
“Whoa, meat!”
Having barely survived on roots from the vegetable patch after their butler embezzled their living expenses and fled, Dion’s eyes went wide, forgetting his pain.
“How did you get this? You can’t grow meat in a garden.”
“The kitchen happened to be short-staffed. I simply helped out and received this as payment.”
“…If the kitchen staff gave you meat, you must have worked incredibly hard.”
“It is the price I pay for having a worthless master who cannot even support his own personal maid.”
“Ugh, I’m sorry…”
“I have no need for apologies. If you truly feel sorry, then become strong.”
A million apologies or thanks, worthless as they were, would change nothing.
She stated it plainly.
Parsha continued.
“That is your duty as my master, and it is the only thing you can do for me.”
It was fine to bow your head meekly now.
But one day, you must become strong enough to repay the Fifth Young Master for what he did today.
You must survive the succession war.
The dark elf spoke with the same expressionless face she’d had since he was a child.
But for some reason, that day, her gaze felt incredibly deep and heavy.
Looking at her.
Dion…
“—What a nostalgic dream.”
He groggily sat up in the old bed and let out a lazy yawn.
***
A purple-haired girl, bound in chains and a straitjacket.
The Vault Keeper muttered to herself.
‘Truly, this is the worst.’
Of course, it was a sentiment she had muttered almost daily since she awoke.
When she met her new master.
When she was shown no respect.
When the trial was postponed.
From top to bottom, there was not a single thing that pleased her.
And yet, the reason she now felt there was a bottom beneath the bottom was singular.
“Pray tell, why must I be cooped up in such a filthy place?”
“Because it’s the best hiding spot?”
“I mean to ask why we must hide in this manner!”
From the wooden planks barely covering the gaping holes in the wall to the old bed that creaked with every movement.
The dim magic stone lamp that looked like it would go out any second, and the musty smell that assaulted her nose.
Its only redeeming quality was that it was relatively spacious.
Otherwise, the room was unbelievable for an inn, more reminiscent of a garbage dump. To the incensed Vault Keeper, Dion replied nonchalantly.
“Can’t be helped. It’s dangerous for us to be seen right now.”
“If you knew it was dangerous, you shouldn’t have started this in the first place!”
“Eh, it’s a little late for that.”
“Is that what you have to say after dragging someone into this absurd fight?!”
“Yep. Because I’m your master, Shuttle.”
“Gah…!”
The Vault Keeper fumed.
She hadn’t paid much mind when Dion and Parsha had attacked the investigation team in the City of Veiled Mist.
Whatever the reason, fights among intelligent species were commonplace.
If anything, she had been slightly impressed.
Despite there being three high-ranking Awakened Ones, Dion and Parsha had eliminated them with a surprise attack and easily wiped out the rest of the team.
She hadn’t even needed to step in.
…Although, in her current state, she would have struggled to handle even a single Horned Rabbit.
The problem was singular.
Their fight hadn’t ended there.
In the roughly twenty days since the first attack.
They had passed through four cities.
They had eliminated eight high-ranking Awakened Ones, and about a hundred others in total.
To achieve such results in a short period, they had to endure a forced march so intense it was nearly crippling.
From cheap inns to slums, and even secret passages in the sewers.
They had used all sorts of shabby lodgings to avoid attention, traveling to the most remote places.
And as the Vault Keeper, who was dragged into this forced march simply because Dion was her master, she couldn’t help but feel wronged.
“Well, I get your complaint. It would have been nice if the bluffer had found us a more comfortable hideout.”
“What more does His Lordship want from me…?”
“Concealment is a given, but a secret passage for emergencies and clean facilities for bathing would be nice.”
“A hideout isn’t a luxury inn or a secret base, you know? I had a hard enough time preparing even this place on short notice.”
“I know. That’s why I’m staying here without complaint, right?”
He said he had no complaints.
But he looked more than accustomed to it; he looked comfortable.
The Vault Keeper shouted at him.
“I will concede on the matter of lodging. But what is this food?”
“What’s wrong with roasted Horned Rabbit?”
“What kind of noble eats monster meat like a barbarian?!”
*Hmph.*
The Vault Keeper turned her head and glared at the golden-brown roasted rabbit meat.
If it were just this once, she might have let it slide, chalking it up to poor circumstances.
But for twenty days now…
No, ever since they first met.
From Horned Rabbits to Stone Deer, Fanged Birds, monster fruits, and even Mushroom Rats and Earthworms.
Having subsisted on all manner of grotesque monster meat or fruits, she protested with all her pent-up frustration.
But…
“What’s wrong with monster meat?”
“…?”
“…???”
Naru looked genuinely puzzled, as if he didn’t see the problem, while the Vault Keeper blinked at the boy.
Watching them, Dion chuckled before speaking.
“In the era of the Old Kingdom, where our Shuttle is from, they didn’t really eat monster meat.”
“What? Then what did they eat in the Old Kingdom if not monsters?”
“What an absurd question. Normal animals, of course.”
“What?! How could you eat something so precious? Most nobles are lucky to taste rat meat once in their lifetime!”
“Are all the nobles of this era barbarians?!”
“Not really. It’s just that normal animals are rarer than rare items.”
Dion smirked.
When the Old Kingdom fell due to the Labyrinth Overflow, intelligent species weren’t the only ones who suffered.
The damage to flora and fauna, which were vulnerable to magic contamination, was even more severe.
As a result, most animals and plants turned into monsters, and those lucky enough to survive were hunted to extinction by other monsters.
It was only natural that monster meat became the staple food for intelligent species.
This was especially true since the few strains of wheat and rice that miraculously avoided contamination were considered luxury goods due to the lack of land for farming.
“It wasn’t this bad a few hundred years ago… How dreadful.”
Perhaps because the explanation was so shocking, the Vault Keeper was aghast. Dion smirked at her.
Then, *swoosh.*
He held out a hand and said.
“It’s not that dreadful. We should be glad there’s anything to eat at all.”
“You speak so lightly for someone who has never starved.”
“Hm? I have starved before, you know.”
“…Weren’t you a noble, Master?”
“Every family has its outcasts.”
*Heh.*
Dion let out a dry laugh.
Then, after neatly preparing a leg of the Horned Rabbit.
He wrapped it in a napkin and handed it to the dark elf maid, who had placed it in his outstretched hand, and casually asked.
“Parsha, do you remember?”
“What kind of nonsensical question is that, sir?”
“I’m talking about the time our butler embezzled our living expenses and ran away, and we almost starved to death because we had no money for food.”
“You exaggerate. You only went hungry for two days.”
“Ahaha. That’s because you managed to find us something to eat. Otherwise, we really might have starved.”
Dion chuckled.
For him, who had lost his mother and her family at a young age and suffered all sorts of abuse for his late Awakening, this was nothing.
If it weren’t for the support funds the Vlad family occasionally sent, he would have starved to death long ago.
Moreover…
“If we’re counting, you’ve been on the verge of freezing to death more often.”
“Eh, that was nothing. You always warmed me up with your own body heat, so I was toasty.”
“I concur that the time you were nearly poisoned was more dangerous.”
“Yeah, if you hadn’t tortured all the maids to find the antidote, I might have died then.”
“The most dangerous was when you were beaten half to death by the Fifth Young Master, however.”
“That was a close call. If you hadn’t risked your life to block him, getting half-beaten yourself, it would have been really dangerous.”
“It was all because you were so disgracefully incompetent and pathetic, my lord.”
“Ahaha, I was a bit of a pushover, wasn’t I?”
“It was so bad the servants even placed bets on when you would die.”
“Huh? They did?”
Always with an expressionless face.
Spitting only sharp, venomous words.
Watching the boy happily chat with the dark elf maid who had protected and cared for him his entire life.
The Vault Keeper muttered in a daze.
“Just what kind of pathetic family do you come from, Master…?”
“Uhm.”
Should he defend the great magical family of Unlight?
Or should he be surprised by the harsh realities of the family, which were worse than the rumors?
Misinterpreting Naru’s indecisive, darting eyes as an affirmation, the Vault Keeper sighed.
‘To come from a family so pathetic it’s hard to even speak of… Truly, this is the worst.’
He looked shabby.
He rolled around in cheap lodgings.
But since he had a member of the noble elven race as a maid, she had believed he must be a high-ranking noble.
To think he was from a fallen noble family with no real pedigree.
Having learned a truth she wished she hadn’t, the Vault Keeper’s eyes narrowed.
‘Yes, I must do something about this, and quickly.’
“Hey, bluffer, any movement from the ruins yet?”
“No, aside from security being tightened, there’s nothing to report.”
Whether he knew what was on the Vault Keeper’s mind or not.
Dion asked while munching on a Horned Rabbit leg, and Naru scratched his rabbit ear as he answered.
Then, as if he had just remembered, he said.
“Oh, but there is a strange rumor coming from the Unlight family.”
“What rumor?”
“The Mad Demon has declared this the work of a traitor and is ranting about finding them and tearing them apart, along with their entire family.”
“A traitor?”
“Yes, it seems he suspects an internal information leak.”
“Brother Ren is certainly looking in the wrong place.”
“I… suppose so?”
As Dion smacked his lips.
And Parsha’s ears perked up.
Naru wore a strange expression.
Calling it the wrong place was one thing, but it was a reasonably logical suspicion.
Without the information Dion had provided, it would have taken even the Guild’s intelligence network some time to locate the people Ren had dispatched.
But Dion himself nonchalantly continued.
“A shame. I thought they would have started suspecting us by now.”
“Well, it’s because no one would normally imagine you’re the one behind all this, my lord…”
Dion’s infamy as the shame of the Unlight family was bottomless.
Although he had turned the Soma estate upside down, he had vanished immediately after, so few even knew of the fact.
If anyone, whether outside or inside the Unlight family, suspected Dion was behind this, they would have to be one of two things.
A genius paranoiac.
Or a madman with no common sense.
Therefore, it was only natural that there was no reaction yet.
As Naru was lost in thought, Dion spoke casually.
“Hmm, can’t be helped.”
“Are you going to make a move first?”
“I’ll watch the situation for a few more days. If there’s still no reaction, I’ll just have to raid the ruins and run.”
He wondered just how long Ren could hold out.
Muttering with a bright smile, Dion thought for a moment before speaking again.
“In that case, someone needs to go out and get more supplies, and run some errands.”
“Ah, then I’ll…”
“I shall go!”
The girl, who had been listening intently, interjected with wide eyes.
Dion tilted his head at the Vault Keeper.
“You, Shuttle?”
“It is my duty to assist you, Master.”
“Hmm, you’re already doing enough by helping with the housework and laundry.”
“Th-that is my natural duty, of course. Besides, you know my abilities are helpful for shopping, do you not, Master?”
“That’s true.”
Was it because he found it strange that she, who until just a few days ago had bristled and snapped at every command, questioning if he was treating the great Vault Keeper of the King of the Dark Grotto like a slave, was now volunteering?
He stared at her for a moment.
Then, Dion smiled brightly and nodded.
“Alright, then you and Parsha can go.”
“Leave it to me!”
“…Me as well, my lord?”
“Yes. Shuttle still doesn’t know her way around.”
“…”
“I’m counting on you, Parsha.”
*Swish.*
As Parsha took the errand list Dion held out with an expressionless face.
The Vault Keeper wore a triumphant smile.
‘Finally, a chance to change masters!’