Chapter 101
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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 101
Chapter Title: Scene 101: Rank and Name
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In a dingy tavern at the mouth of an alley, "Angel's Drinking Habits."
A rather unfamiliar sight was unfolding in this place frequented by burly mercenaries and off-duty soldiers.
Clink.
"Down it."
"D-Down it...? What do you mean by that...?"
"What else? Chug it down your gullet."
At Blanche's question, Helga tossed the contents of her glass straight into her mouth.
!
...
"Mmm! This feeling seeping down my throat!"
"Indeed...."
Blanche peered into her glass with curiosity, then, just like Helga, downed it in one gulp.
"...Guh?!"
The moment it hit her tongue, a nose-clearing pungency made Blanche grimace.
In contrast, Helga calmly refilled her empty glass.
"Isn't this liquor too bitter?"
"Bitter?"
Helga snorted.
"You're only saying that because you've had it easy your whole life. After all the hardship I've been through, it just tastes like sweet juice now."
"Is that so?"
Helga and Blanche sat at a dim table in the corner of the tavern.
As the only female patrons in a place reeking of manly sweat, all eyes naturally turned their way.
"Haa.... Thinking of our Count right now with that woman just twists my guts."
"Watch your tongue. That's disrespectful to our lady."
"Aw, come on. We can talk like that between us."
"Not even between us. Our Lady Bella is the daughter of the Izarkhel Duke family. Mind your manners even in private like this."
"Tch. You think only your lady's nobility matters? I'm from a notable noble house myself."
Lost in old memories, Helga fiddled with her glass.
"What about it? These days, I've tossed aside status and all that to work under the Count."
"Ah, of course, even if I'd kept my noble status to this day, it wouldn't compare to the lady's. And that beauty of hers? It's straight-up cheating. Way more stunning than the rumors. Your lady, I mean."
"Her heart is several times more beautiful."
Blanche said it proudly.
Seizing the moment, Helga asked her a question.
"Bit late to ask, but what's your deal with our Count? You said you were enemies last time."
"Not enemiesmore like a fated grudge."
"Same difference."
Helga raised her glass.
"Let's clarify friend from foe. Honestly, I don't buy that you're a real threat to the Count. Am I right?"
Taking Helga's question, Blanche fell into thought for a moment.
Deep in Blanche's heart lingered hatred for the Ruelverta family.
The past of being used as an assassination tool by them, having a beast's heart implanted in her bodyit was a wound that would never fade.
That grudge wouldn't vanish until the Ruelverta family was destroyed.
But when asked about her enmity toward Tristan specifically, Blanche couldn't answer easily.
After their rooftop clash at the department store, she'd been watching him.
His cold, curt demeanor remained, but he wasn't the ruthless villain she'd imagined.
Even so, Blanche couldn't fully drop her guard. That was entirely because of the Ruelverta name he bore.
He was the head of the family that had ruined her life.
That disconnect left Blanche with no choice but to say this:
"...I've made a promise with the Count. To witness his end with my own two eyes."
"Oh my? What a coincidence. I've sworn to guard the Count's final moments myself."
Helga drained her glass heartily.
"Fine. If that's how it is, I respect it."
She poured more and held it out to Blanche like a toast.
"Sorry for jumping you out of nowhere last time. How about we wash away all the bad blood between us with this one drink, starting now?"
Blanche quietly took the glass Helga offered.
"Sorry, but isn't that glass a bit too small to wash away everything?"
"Pardon?"
"This much seems just right."
Blanche set down her glass, picked up the bottle beside it.
"You wouldn't know, but my life hasn't been smooth sailing either."
She began chugging straight from the bottle.
Over half full, the liquor vanished down her throat like magic.
Finally setting down the empty bottle, Blanche said,
"The liquor's sweet."
Helga stared blankly at Blanche, who looked refreshed now, perhaps from the booze.
"You got me good.... Acting weak in front of the kids earlier, and now this side of you...."
"Hmm. They're cute kids, aren't they? I just can't help doting when I see children...."
"Heh heh.... They call you mama, and now you want one of your own?"
"...Honestly, I don't know."
Bella had given the former assassin Blanche a new life. Nothing fancy, of course.
Just a normal life, like anyone else's. Someday meeting someone she loved, marrying, starting a family.
But Blanche still found it hard to imagine such a life.
"I'm not sure I even deserve it, or if such a chance will ever come my way."
Blanche muttered darkly.
Helga ordered more and poured into her glass.
"You sure say some weird things."
"Weird?"
"No way you don't deserve it. No matter what life you've lived, you deserve happiness."
"Deserve happiness...."
Blanche muttered darkly again.
As she went to down her glass, Helga spoke up.
"I know what you're thinking right nowsnap out of it. I told you already? I'm gonna be the Count's last. If you wanna bear his kids that bad, wait till I've had ten first."
"Cough, cough?! W-What?!"
Blanche nearly spat out her drink.
"Why would I bear the Count's children?!"
"Huh? Then whose kids were you planning on having?"
"Not the Count's! There's no reason for that!"
"Heh heh. Playing shy?"
"It's not that! You're the shameless one! Talking about having ten kids like it's nothing...!"
Blanche stammered in fluster.
Helga, meanwhile, was utterly nonchalant.
"Kids that look like the Count? The more the better. Ugh, just thinking about itthey'd be so cute. Heh heh heh...."
"You really planning to marry the Count? If so, that's truly regrettable, but... our lady has feelings for him."
It was an unwelcome reality, but what Blanche said was true.
You could tell just from Bella's attitude around Tristan.
"Probably.... Things keep going like this, they might actually get married."
At Blanche's warning, Helga replied in a tipsy slur.
"Fine by me. The woman who bears the most of the Count's kids gets to be the main wife, right?"
"No, what kind of nonsense...!"
"And marriage doesn't matter. I'll get closer to the Count than any wedded wife."
"You...."
Blanche unwittingly covered her face.
Shyness or booze, she didn't knowher cheeks burned.
How could this woman say such embarrassing things so casually....
That was when Blanche had that thought.
"Hey. Don't just play among yourselveslet me join in."
A bearded man approached their table.
Clearly hammered, he could barely stand straight.
Blanche addressed him politely.
"Sorry, but we're planning to relax just the two of us tonight. So...."
"Ah, then I'll just sit for a bit. Okay? You two do your thing. I'll just watch."
The man dragged over a chair and plopped down uninvited.
His lecherous gaze fixed on Blanche and Helga.
More precisely, on their bodies.
"Ahaha.... It's been a while since someone's picked a fight this blatantly."
"What?"
The man eyed Helga's body with a sticky stare and said,
"What're you gonna do about it? Huh?"
The man stood from his seat.
He slammed a hand on the table, looming threateningly over Helga.
"Hard to find a pretty thing with a body like yours."
"Thanks for the compliment. But hearing it from a guy like you just sours it."
"Keek. I like that spirit. I love breaking tough flowers like youack?!?!"
"Oh dear. Is that so? I love snapping the fingers of thugs like you."
Helga had grabbed the man's finger and twisted it.
"You were ogling my legs earlier, right? Wanna die? Or do you not wanna live?"
"W-What's the d-difference aaagh?!"
Having twisted the finger, Helga smashed the screaming man face-first into the table.
"What if you wear out my legs just from staring? Gonna make it up to me?"
"N-No, staring doesn't wear them out aaagh?!"
The man screamed each time his finger bent further.
But even under Helga's mercilessness, his bravado didn't break.
"Hey! Fuck! Let go! You know who I am?!"
"We met before or something? Doesn't ring a bell."
"I'm a soldier of the infamous Aslan! You touched me, you're not getting out easy!"
"Oh ho....?"
An unexpected name dropped.
Helga and Blanche's eyes met.
"Then you know who I am too."
"How the fuck would I know that, you bitch!"
"State your rank and name."
"What...?"
Helga pulled something from her bosom.
Resembling a black strap, she fitted it over her left eye.
It was the eyepatch Helga had worn from her soldier days in Aslan all the way to vice-captain.
"State your rank and name. Unless you've got a cock jammed in your skull."