LRAB Chapter 15: To the Capital of the Empire (2)
Chapter 15: To the Capital of the Empire (2)
Chapter 15: To the Capital of the Empire (2)
Chapter 15: To the Capital of the Empire (2)
“Wow...”
Lien’s eyes sparkled as she looked around, her gaze wandering from one sight to another, her head shaking in disbelief, almost comically.
Well, truth be told, I wasn’t in a position to judge.
It was only natural.
Scenes I had only seen through a monitor.
Experiencing them in person, seeing with my own eyes, feeling with my heart, and walking through with my own feet, was indeed a novel experience.
“Have you been here before?”
Lien asked me curiously.
It wasn’t an unreasonable assumption, after all.
Somehow, I had ended up playing the role of a guide.
I murmured to myself as I looked around, noting what was still here and what had disappeared.
Moreover, it’s not like it was a secret worth hiding.
It would be more suspicious if I knew my way around without ever having been here.
“I’ve been here once before.”
“Then, have you ridden something like a train? I heard it moves on its own! And it doesn’t even need to be told what to do!”
Lien, caught up in her excitement, raised her voice, only to become embarrassed as she attracted the attention of those around us and blushed like a tomato, bowing her head. Upstodatee from
The looks we received from the people around us seemed to carry a sense of superiority.
As if they were thinking, ‘Look at the excited country girl,’ or ‘Such an uncivilized commoner.’ It was almost transparent what they were thinking.
‘...Well, it could just be my paranoia.’
If the problem outside the capital was the terrible public order, here it was something else, despite the good public order.
Or rather, was the problem that the public order was too good?
The rate of criminal arrests was incredibly high.
It would probably surpass the figures of any modern developed country.
Because not only criminals were caught.
Was being a commoner a crime?
It wasn’t for no reason that I spent a fortune on replacing my worn-out clothes.
In the previous game, wandering around the capital in clothes worn to tatters increased the chances of encountering unpleasant random quests.
It was simply because the nobles found it offensive to share the streets with someone looking like a beggar, so they’d pick a fight.
Of course, if you dared to talk back, you’d be thrown into jail for insult right away.
‘And that would’ve been game over.’
The mysterious imperial prisons were infamous for prisoners dying of ‘natural causes’ halfway through their sentences.
There were tales of guards colluding to trade organs, or making prisoners kill each other for entertainment. If someone was pretty or handsome, they’d play with them before killing them to destroy the evidence.
‘Why does such a wretched country prosper?’
I couldn’t help but wonder. In the previous game, I brushed it off as just a game mechanic, but could there be a reason?
After all, this is a world where gods and magic exist.
Perhaps some mechanism has been keeping the empire from collapsing long ago...
“Siel, Lien.”
I heard footsteps behind us.
I stopped my wandering thoughts and whispered quietly to them.
They were both quick-witted, apparently catching the gist of my words without an explanation.
‘Turn right in this alley... then left here...’
We twisted and turned, desperately trying to remember the map as we moved.
And then... we reached a secluded crossroad.
“Excuse me, girl. Could you spare a moment?”
A sleazy voice sounded from behind, as if it had been waiting for this.
Yes, I saw this coming.
That’s why I deliberately chose hooded garments for them, but it seems we still attract unwanted attention regardless.
“Don’t worry. It’ll be over quickly.”
The burly man spoke as if I was invisible, his intentions blatantly obvious.
[Hahahaha...]
It was only the noise of a wolf beside her, laughing and chattering about something amusing, that was annoying.
“Are you okay?”
She asked, but Lien still seemed lost in another world, unresponsive.
Siel remembered what Ian had told her about Lien.
Piecing together the wolf’s joyful chatter, the conclusion was simple.
Lien was a dangerous entity.
Always on the brink of losing herself.
But, what did that matter?
To her, none of it mattered.
Even if Lien went berserk and killed everyone, it wouldn’t matter as long as Ian was alive. Whether the world ended or not was irrelevant to her.
‘As long as I’m with Ian, I’m happy. Though it’d be better if I could stay alive too.’
In any case.
Even in such a dazed state, Lien wouldn’t harm Ian. She seemed more inclined to protect him.
That was enough.
“Eat it up.”
Siel mustered the minimum strength required to dispose of the corpse.
She cleaned the blood-soaked black robe with a spell she learned from her mother and then woke Ian.
*****
I rubbed my eyes as I got up from the ground.
Thanks to the healthy body, I didn’t feel any particular pain. It seemed I hadn’t been injured either.
“Why are you asleep again?”
I tried to wake Lien, who was lying next to me, and attempted to piece together what had happened.
Fortunately, it wasn’t a difficult task.
All I had to do was ask the person who had awakened me.
“Did he run away?”
Yet again, what I received was an explanation missing context.
I turned to Siel once more for a more detailed account.
“I kicked him.”
...Again, an explanation lacking context, but it was easy to understand.
Well, a kick would hurt.
Vital spots are vital for a reason.
Especially since Siel, not being a man, wouldn’t empathize with a man’s unique pain. It must have been a merciless full swing.
I was worried that the man might seek revenge for such an act, but what’s done is done.
‘Anyway, it’s a relief.’
Lien finally got up, asking what happened and if everyone was okay, clearly out of the loop.
This time, we really would have been in trouble if it weren’t for Siel.
‘It’s come to this, after all...’
Somehow, it feels like everyone who gets involved with me ends up on a misguided skill tree.
Lien can defend but not attack first, and Siel, wasting her talent, is contracted with some low-level demon from who-knows-where.
A sigh naturally escapes me.
Was this really the right decision?
Is it okay to come to a place as perilous as the capital of the empire?
It seems our party might be weaker than I thought.
Worries start to flood in, but... now that we’ve come this far, there’s no turning back.
In the end, despite the unease, we have no choice but to press on.
I helped Lien to her feet and we once again set off towards our destination.
After all, the streets of the empire are fraught with dangerous characters; it’s a problem.
I wonder how upright citizens like us are supposed to live with such unease.
[T.N. - Join Patreon to support the translation and to read up to 5 chapters ahead of the /Jade43 ]