Surviving The Game As A Barbarian Novel - Chapter 728
Chapter 728: Traitor (2)
The art museum of District Four had been abandoned, left without a custodian because of the Noarkan invasion. There, a woman who had visited its halls by herself a few times in the past was going around putting the art pieces on the walls into her sub-space.
“Um… Ms. Emily?”
“I’m not stealing them.”
“Pardon?”
“If we just leave them be, people who don’t even know their worth may damage them…”
“A-ah… Right… Of course.”
“I’m certainly not thinking of taking them for myself and hanging them up in my home. I’ll return them if they ask for it. Understood?”
“Yes, I understand,” Auyen said. “But that wasn’t what I was going to talk about…”
Embarrassed, Amelia let out a dry cough, then commanded, “Speak.”
“Well, it’s nothing much… Oh! I’m not trying to press you for an answer either! I just… I want to know what our plans for the future are…”
Amelia put her hand to her chin in thought. A beat of silence later, she answered, “I’m thinking about it.”
“Pardon?”
“We can stay like this for now. There’s no need to rush. Be patient even if you’re frustrated.”
“No, no! I’m not frustrated or anything!”
“Then that’s good.”
With that, Amelia continued to wander around the dark museum, and Auyen helped her from the side.
“Are you not taking that one?” the latter eventually asked.
“Those are trash. It’s said that when the artist was alive, he did all sorts of monstrous deeds with young girls.”
“Let’s burn them.”
After burning the legacy works, Amelia leaned on a wall to rest, and Auyen didn’t bother her with words for quite some time.
The silence stretched on, long enough for the light outside the window to snuff out. Then, Auyen spoke up in a choked voice.
“I’m sorry, Ms. Emily…”
Sorry about what?
But Amelia understood even without him specifying. She let a smirk grace her lips.
“Are you talking about when you got separated?”
“Yes…” he admitted. “If I didn’t fall behind back then… we wouldn’t need to hide by ourselves like this.”
The day the main force abandoned them, Auyen was at the front lines when an arrow hit him, but he couldn’t dodge it and ended up being left behind. Amelia saw it happen and immediately turned around to help him, and although she succeeded in saving him, they ended up separating from the other clan members. The two then traveled together while trying to avoid hostile encounters as much as possible until finally arriving at this museum in District Four.
“I’m sorry I dragged you down…”
“Don’t say sorry.”
“…Pardon?”
“You should say thank you in times like this.” Despite saying it, though, Amelia couldn’t help but chuckle at herself.
Say thanks, not sorry…
It was something she would’ve never said in the past, back when she was so full of hatred.
The thought brought with it a sudden pang of longing. Not just a simple feeling of missing someone, but an emotion with a specific subject at its heart.
I hope he hasn’t done anything reckless…
Although her attention was dominated by her worry for him, that didn’t stop her from realizing something.
This feeling was more than wanting to see someone in the way she “wanted to see” her older sister.
Instinctively, Amelia crouched in the corner where the least light hit her. A moment later, she straightened up and made her way to the window, where the light of the moon shone brightest into the room.
At first, she didn’t like this spot. Seeking out darkness was a habit she learned young. The darkness comforted her the most while bright places always felt uncomfortable for some reason.
Still, it’s not so bad.
Quietly, as she embraced the gentle light of the moon, Amelia mumbled to herself under her breath.
“Emily Raines.”
A new name that was created because she didn’t want to cause any trouble.
Originally, she was satisfied knowing she could live with that name in the sun. Had she always been such a greedy person?
“Amelia Rainwales.”
For the first time in a very long while, she said her name with her own mouth.
Maybe.
Maybe her time of living in the shadows was coming to an end—
Just then, she noticed something odd with her body and quickly activated her ability.
Self-Replication.
However, the ability that was as familiar to her as her own body didn’t activate.
“I got too greedy.”
She knew the reason far too well.
***
[You have entered the area of Nullification. All essence skills are sealed.]
***
Traitor.
I couldn’t help but flinch at the word as my ears perked. It was the instinctual reaction of any human who lived in a society, really.
It’s a little late to chase after him, anyway…
I decided just to give up on chasing down the Corpse Collector full-stop. However, knowing it might be a trick, I made my warning clear.
“You’ll meet a painful end if you’re lying.”
I wasn’t saying that just for show, and thankfully, she seemed to get the picture.
“O-of course… But it’s fine! I’m not lying at all!”
“Then talk,” I ordered, jumping straight into the meat of it without dancing around the issue. Vivian gulped, then got straight to it.
“Arua Raven! That former wizard ally of yours is the traitor!”
Hoh, so Raven was the traitor…
My grip on the hammer tightened as soon as I heard it. It may be obvious, but it wasn’t because I felt betrayed or anything like that.
“You’ve wasted my time.”
I gave up my chase for this nonsense?
Yeah, if I just quickly deal with her head-on right here and now—
“I saw it! I saw it with my own two eyes!” the Wailing Witch stammered.
Saw what?
While I was just becoming more and more convinced that she was trying to buy time, surprisingly enough, her mouth was faster than my hammer.
“When the Royal Capital of Karnon is burning! You definitely said this while looking at her: ‘I never expected to be betrayed like this…’ That’s what you said!”
I blinked at her. “Do you need some medicine or something?”
“N-no! I know it sounds weird, but… Agh! Just a second! Lower the hammer! I can explain it.”
“Ten seconds.”
“Sorry?”
“Nine, eight…”
When I ignored her and just started counting down the seconds, Vivian rushed to explain herself.
“I-I don’t know if you know, but there’s a rank 1 dark magic called Future Sight, and I used it. Oh, of c-course, I couldn’t do it by myself! We barely succeeded after gathering together other dark wizards and getting a lot of support—”
“The only thing you need to be ‘getting’ is getting to the point.”
“We used that magic to prophesy if we would succeed or not in this, and the spell ended in failure! We saw Karnon burning, but we couldn’t see the death of the king—the most important part—and instead saw something random!”
“And that random scene was Raven betraying me?”
“Yes! That’s right! That’s why I said I saw it with my own eyes!”
Hmm… I guess I could hear her out a little more.
“Thirty more seconds,” I obliged.
“Huh? I’m telling the truth!”
“And I’ve given you time to convince me that it’s the truth.”
“You want me to prove to you in thirty seconds that I’ve told you the truth? Just how…?”
Hmm, who knows?
“That’s for you to figure out,” I informed her. All I needed to do was prove that I stood for gender equality if I didn’t get a suitable answer after the time limit passed.
Seconds of silence passed between us as I continued to count down. She seemed to be stuck on how she could explain herself within the thirty seconds…
“Fifteen seconds have passed.”
Vivian only began to speak after half the time had already passed. “I can’t prove it no matter how I go about it.”
“Ten.”
“Maybe if you give me more time.”
“Nine.”
“But it’s impossible within thirty seconds.”
“Eight.”
“So I’d rather use that time—”
“Seven.”
“—to convince you—”
“Six.”
“—of why you shouldn’t kill me.”
“Oh?”
Wow, perhaps I should’ve expected it of a wizard. She was pretty decisive.
“That’s a good response,” I complimented. “Fifteen more seconds.”
Since I couldn’t be bothered to count aloud, I switched to counting down in my heart, and Vivian used that time to continue her assault.
“You’re trying to go to the barbarian holy land, right? I can get you there without any interference.”
“I’m confident I can get there by myself.”
Of course, things could get pretty messy in the process, but there was no need for me to introduce a new variable by getting the help of a woman who was originally my enemy.
Vivian seemed to have expected my response, as she immediately countered, “Communication. If you have me, you can overhear the communication between the executives.”
“Hmm…”
“Just knowing their overall movements will be helpful to you. It wouldn’t just be their strategic plans either. You’ll be able to learn immediately if something happens to your allies.” When I still didn’t respond, she added, “That’s all I have. If you say you don’t need this either, I have nothing else to offer you.”
Okay, so that was it.
“So… What will you do?”
That was a little cheeky of her, but I could tell it came from a place of deep fear.
No one was truly stoic in the face of death. No one in the world.
It was for that very reason that I’d been so affected by that choice back then.
“I’ll postpone your judgment for now.”
Since I couldn’t stay here forever, I grabbed Vivian like a package and returned to the city wall. I wanted to talk to Raven about something too, anyway. First, however, I needed to make sure of something.
“About that traitor thing,” I began.
“Yes?”
“Don’t tell anyone about it. Understood?”
“Y-yes! Of course! My lips are sealed!”
I wouldn’t say sealed. She confessed everything, even things I didn’t ask for when her life was in danger.
When we returned, I found Raven and Astarota standing in front of the slightly opened gate.
“Mr. Yandel!”
I nodded at Raven’s greeting. “Looks like things got resolved over here?”
“It was easy,” she confirmed. “As soon as you left, most of the corpses here lost their strength.”
Hmm, maybe he couldn’t control them properly because he was so busy running away? Who knew, really?
After we exchanged greetings, Raven’s gaze moved toward my shoulder.
“But that woman… It’s her, right?”
“Ah, you’ve met her before, right?”
“Even if I hadn’t, I probably would’ve known anyway.”
“Ahaha… Hello?” the Wailing Witch said awkwardly. “It’s been a while, big sis…”
“Big… Big sis?”
“Huh? Am I wrong? I’m pretty sure you’re older than Mr. Yandel here…?”
Raven was momentarily lost for words at the Wailing Witch’s brazen attitude. “Just… Just call me by my name. I don’t remember giving you permission to call me that.”
“Ahaha… Understood, Ms. Raven.”
Since it wasn’t something to discuss in the open, we continued our conversation in a nearby building.
There wasn’t much to explain: I caught this woman while I was chasing the Corpse Collector, and she convinced me she’d be useful to me. Excluding the part about the traitor, the entire story could be summarized in those two lines.
“So that’s the problem now, I’m guessing? Whether to use this woman or to eliminate her and whatever trouble she’d bring.”
“Yeah. I brought her here because I wanted your opinion first.”
“Hmm… Then shall we confirm what she offered as collateral for her survival?” Raven approached Vivian. “So you can connect to the Noarkan high-ranking communications network? Let’s see it. Maybe your connection authority has already been stripped from you.”
“Hehe… That’s probably not gonna happen.”
“So let’s confirm it. We’ll need to know how important the messages being exchanged are.”
“Sure.”
At Raven’s request, Vivian quietly pulled out a black mana crystal and connected to the communications network. It activated without a hitch.
“Zibne, Tera, Didibar.”
“What are they saying?” I asked.
“It’s military code. Not even the Department of Intelligence would have figured it out yet.”
“I see… I wondered why you connected so easily to the communications network. You were confident we wouldn’t kill you right after you showed us.”
“I’m not that much of a moron, you know?”
“Whatever, translate it. What are they saying?”
“Area 5-3, palace soldiers, talks of congregation, observe… That’s what they’re saying.”
Raven and I silently met eyes. We both knew immediately where 5-3 was. I was the one who asked for the soldiers to cause a distraction tomorrow morning, after all.
Wiretapping… She might be pretty useful.
Still, since I needed to confirm her skills, I asked her to translate all the orders we heard.
“Area 13-2, small-scale battle, request for reinforcements.”
“Area 5-1, strengthen barricade, request for soldiers.”
“Area 13-2, clear successful, thirty-one enemies defeated.”
“Area 4-2… Huh?”
I noticed then that she suddenly flinched.
“What does it mean?” I pressed, approaching her to let her know not to get any funny ideas.
Vivian looked troubled as she said, “Area 4-7, L, two intruders discovered.”
“What does that mean? And why did you flinch just then?”
Carefully, she answered, “Area 4-7 is in District Four… Um… Those two intruders… They are probably your allies, Mr. Yandel.”
I paused. “And what’s L?”
“Ricardo Lüchenprague. It’s the letter that refers to our captain…”
Damn it.
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