Chapter 100: Chieftain (1)

Chapter 100: Chieftain (1)

༺ Chieftain (1) ༻

“I’m back, Granny.”

“You came back ear— What happened to you?”

Unbecoming of her, Kasa Garda was startled.

Seeing her granddaughter always come back drenched in sweat was a familiar sight for her, but returning with bruises and injuries covering every corner of her body like this was not a common occurrence, even from her perspective.

Without a doubt, she had been in a fight and returned utterly battered.

While such incidents used to happen relatively frequently in the past, they had become fairly rare recently.

“Did you become like this after training with that guy?”

Kaya asked with an incredulous voice.

Basic exercises to improve Dowd Campbell’s stamina was something she had already been making Riru supervise everyday.

Even the person in question had his doubts about why he was spending his time on such physical training rather than learning proper ‘techniques’, but due to Kasa’s stubborn insistence, it had continued everyday.

Anyway...

Getting injured to this extent from just that much training was absurd. After all, even Riru was pouting, denying her suspicions, as she shook her head.

“Obviously not.”

“Then how did you end up in this state?”

Riru fell silent for a moment at Kasa’s question.

She was clearly in deep thought, pondering whether it was right to consult Kasa about this.

“...Hey, Granny.”

“What is it?”

“...”

Riru pursed her lips with hesitation for a long while, before finally managing to speak.

“...That Lady Tristan. Do you know about her?”

“I’ve heard of her. Isn’t she well-known throughout the entire continent as the swordsmanship genius? What about her?”

“What is a good way to train if I want to fight and win against her?”

Kasa’s expression was filled with questions.

“...Why against her?”

“It’s just... I somehow ended up fighting her once.”

Riru stroked her chin in contemplation as she continued.

“...I thought I could become immediately stronger if I fought against her.”

There wasn’t much time left until the end of the Hunter’s Night which also meant there was not much time left until she could directly confront the Chieftain.

In that case, she needed to try out every possible means that could make her stronger.

And...

It wasn’t like that was the only reason either.

“Also...”

Riru, who was about to continue, let out a sigh instead.

In her mind, the incident from earlier came rushing back.

The unidentifiable power that Dowd Campbell had used to engrave that sentence on her arm.

[Cooperate. Death if don’t. Save me.]

—She was sure that was what he said.

But, the problem was...

Depending on the interpretation, it could be seen as a slightly different sentence.

It could potentially mean that if Dowd Campbell ‘himself’ did not ‘cooperate’, he would die.

So...

Combined with his usual tendencies of being ‘scared’ of Eleanor, quite a novel conclusion could be drawn.

“I’m not certain yet, but...”

Riru fidgeted awkwardly.

“I feel like someone is getting threatened.”

“...What?”

As Kasa responded in a bewildered tone, Riru pouted.

“...You know...”

Her embarrassment was abundantly clear, but, without a doubt...

“Wouldn’t it be pitiful if someone were to be forced into marriage against their own will?”

Her determined ‘will’ was more than apparent in the tone of her voice.

Honestly, if one guessed how the Chief Blacksmith in charge of the Hall of Flame would look like, it was normal to think of a rough and rowdy old man.

However, surprisingly, the person responsible for managing the equipment of the best educational institution of the Tribal Alliance was light years away from such an image.

For one, it wasn’t even a person.

[User Recognition. ID Verification. Elfante 2nd-Year Exchange Student Dowd Campbell. Welcome to the Hall of Flame.]

“...”

Description: Gauntlets with various effects from the usage of all kinds of high-quality materials.

[ ▶ Dragon Scales: Receives Endurance that never breaks or wears out in any situation. ]

[ ▶ Ectoplasm: Displays a very high fusion rate with various Special Powers. When enhancements or buff skills are casted on the equipment, the effect is doubled. ]

[ ▶ Starsteel: Highly resistant to various curses and reacts most sensitively to the divine. ]

[ ▶ Adaptive Leather: Automatically copies the target’s attributes when struck. On the second hit, automatically weakens the target’s attribute. ]

‘It’s perfect.’

This was why until now, I didn’t use all the materials I collected right away and waited for Sephira instead,

It was because the properties of all the materials I inputted were perfectly integrated.

No cap, this should easily match the ‘Holy Sword’ that Iliya would obtain in the next chapter.

Of course, it couldn’t compete with the Holy Sword’s full potential as it was the protagonist’s exclusive weapon, but it was definitely still an excessively good equipment for just one person to receive.

It would never break, could be enhanced more easily than your average equipment, had curse resistance and was sensitive to divine power.

And, most importantly...

The feature at the end that ‘weakens the target’s attribute’, was...

An ability that could practically snipe Tatiana.

The name was quite funny, though; It almost felt like I needed to place stones on the glove.

‘...Riru will probably be pleased if I bring this to her.’

The reason I made two pairs was because one of them had to be given to Riru.

If that person received such a fine piece of equipment, she would undoubtedly be deligh—

System Message

[ Special Interaction between the ‘Blue Devil’s’ Vessel ‘Riru Garda’ and the ‘3⁄4̶̛͙̦͎͖͈̘̔͑͛͋́̊́̃̂̐̊͋̎̕Æ̷̬̩̲̲͓̹͈̗̕À̸͈̮̜̹̤̥͘Ì̴̛̫͌̽̀̊͑̕̕͘͝͝Ḁ̸̢̗͈͙̦͙̤̰̤̲̭̈̎͂̓̔̑́̍̊̃͑́̚͘͝Ü̶̳͖͂̽̂̇͌̃̓̈́͠’’s Vessel ‘Eleanor’ unfolds. ]

[ The frequency of contact between the two Vessels will increase! ]

“...”

Okay first, I could understand very well why Riru couldn’t be a lady.

Still, what was fortunate was that the nuance of the system window suggested it was not a particularly threatening situation.

If it was an event that posed a threat to my life, this bastard, considering its features, would have already warned me to go and stop it quickly.

‘...Well, a point of contact should have been formed.’

Not only did they clash on their own when I didn’t bridge any gap between them, but they also interacted several times even without my involvement.

However, considering Riru’s personality, she wouldn’t want to meet Eleanor for some time since she lost so overwhelmingly to her just a while ago. As such, it was a mystery to me why their frequency of contact would increase at all.

Why in the world would that happen?

“Ah, you are here.”

As I was lost in such thoughts, a very unpleasant voice resounded in my ear.

When I turned my head, I saw Tatiana.

As always, she had her machine-like smile on her face.

“...”

I didn’t know why, but this bitch, who had been silent until now, had suddenly revealed herself in front of me.

She probably wasn’t intending to have a battle right here and now in an effort to kill me. After all, she would think that her head would immediately fly off due to Eleanor the moment that she did.

Until some means to ‘suppress’ her were created, the possibility of any armed demonstration here was very low.

As I frowned slightly, Tatiana spoke in a light voice.

“The Chieftain will soon arrive at the Forge of Struggle. Everyone is preparing for the welcome ceremony.”

“...Is that so?”

I guess it was around that time.

After all, the news about that man visiting here had been circulating for a few days now.

“And...”

Tatiana smiled.

“He apparently wants to see you first, Dowd Campbell.”

In contrast, my expression crumpled even further.

‘...She’s already letting me make contact with Alan?’

No matter how I thought about it, I couldn’t understand the reason for that.

That was a hidden card which was normal for this bitch stash away. She didn’t need to reveal it to me already and leak such information.

“Ah.”

However, Tatiana remained indifferent to my expression and just continued talking.

“On your way there, can you bring Riru Garda and Kasa Garda with you?”

“...”

“The Chieftain wishes to see those two as well.”

Truly, that sentence wasn’t pleasant to the ears.

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1

Korean slang for revolutionary technology that is far beyond its era.