Chapter 41

The Snake that Swallows Gold, Dieta.

She is a well-known merchant in Cambria. Although eccentric and often acting on whim… her sole focus is always on gold.

A life for gold only.

Her interest, hobbies, concerns, everything ultimately aims to earn more gold. A girl seemingly born only for gold.

Some say she has the makings of a great merchant, while others point fingers at her as a money-grubber. Many have their own opinions about Dieta, but there’s a common consensus.

Dieta Arbenia is a natural-born merchant.

Her talent as a merchant is genuine.

No one can deny that fact.

Dieta has proven it with her life. Five years. That’s how long it took Dieta to become the head of a leading merchant guild in the city.

From an abandoned girl of the family, she achieved this feat without relying on her family’s power. An undeniable success story, unbreakable by any means.

However.

The path she took to establish such a feat was anything but beautiful. She did not hesitate to employ any means necessary to earn gold. Hence, she earned the derogatory nickname, The Snake that Swallows Gold.

A girl living only for gold.

A swindler in a girl’s guise.

At least in this merchant’s district, no one is unaware of Dieta Arbenia being such a figure.

“……”

“……”

Following Dieta, Najin felt a sense of discomfort. The fact that no one approached him was not strange, given the presence of his benefactor…

‘But their gazes are too sharp.’

The stares felt chillingly hostile.

Not just wary, but often contemptuous. Najin was familiar with such looks. It was the same look given by the ‘upper world’ people who visited the Underground City, Artman.

“……”

Najin silently watched Dieta. Today, as he was Dieta’s escort, she walked a step ahead of him. Her back was lively and spirited.

Humming.

Humming a tune, Dieta walked lightly through the merchant streets. Occasionally looking back, she smiled at Najin as if the piercing stares didn’t bother her.

……Somehow.

Najin found her smile eerily familiar.

Where had he seen such a smile? Contemplating this, Najin silently followed Dieta.

“Tsks.”

A clicking sound.

It wasn’t made by Dieta. Both Dieta and Najin stopped walking. Looking towards the source of the sound, there was a man approaching from the opposite side.

Dressed in clothes reserved for nobility.

Accompanied by a knight bearing the family crest.

Najin recognized the man as a noble. He had often encountered such figures in the city. Although Cambria was relatively loose in social distinctions, and nobility held less sway, basic recognitions were still made.

There was no need to bow to a noble, but Najin knew it wasn’t wise to cross them or provoke their displeasure.

‘Best to keep a distance from nobility.’

That was the common talk among adventurers.

Interactions with nobility, requiring formalities, were generally unwelcome for an adventurer. While ambitious ones might seek associations with nobility for significant quests, more often than not, it ends badly.

After all, to the inherently noble, adventurers are just disposable tools.

Hence, when a noble appears, adventurers usually wait for them to pass by. But Dieta was different. Even though she was a noble’s offspring, she had been abandoned by her family. She didn’t wait for the noble to pass but continued walking.

Thud.

As Dieta and the noble were about to cross paths, the approaching noble clicked his tongue again.

“Cambria must be pleasant indeed.”

Looking at Dieta with disdain.

The noble muttered as he glanced at her.

“A whore abandoned by her family, standing tall in front of nobility. That’s unimaginable in the capital.”

A clear insult to Dieta.

A vulgarity unimaginable among nobility, but Dieta’s face, turning to meet the noble’s eyes, was utterly serene.

“Do you know me, son of Count Fraunkel?”

Dieta spoke in a soft voice.

She knew every noble who entered the city, their family, and background. The young noble before her was Danor Fraunkel, the son of Count Fraunkel.

A noble from a family insignificant compared to the Arbenia ducal family.

But as Dieta was a ‘foreigner’ discarded by her family, Danor provoked her. Yet, Dieta only smiled in response to his cheap provocation. She had heard it all before.

“Why, am I wrong?”

Danor sneered with a twisted smile.

“Despite using your looks to win the favor of Duke Arbenia… you were ultimately discarded. Everyone knows you’re no different from a whore, aren’t they?”

Danor scoffed, and his accompanying knight also let out a laugh. Dieta just smiled in the face of their insults. Danor clicked his tongue and turned away, not getting the reaction he wanted.

“Shameless wench without honor or dignity.”

As Danor was about to leave, Najin spoke up.

“Ah, I remember now.”

The guard beside Dieta.

Najin exclaimed, surprising her. Dieta turned her head to look at Najin.

He had been watching Dieta’s face all along, seemingly oblivious to Danor and his knight.

Najin now smiled in a peculiar way.

Mimicking or remembering something.

Dieta’s eyes widened as she saw his smile. Though physically different, Najin’s smile resembled hers. It was the same smile Najin always had in the Underground City, Artman.

‘Familiar, indeed.’

A reflection he had seen in mirrors, spilled blood, and glass cups. A resigned, contemptuous smile, unusual for the top merchant of the city… which is why Najin hadn’t recognized it immediately.

“You…?”

Dieta, with wide eyes, was about to speak when…

“Such frivolous men. Birds of a feather flock together. Just because you carry a sword doesn’t make you a knight…”

Najin’s voice stopped Danor and his knight. They halted and turned to look at Najin.

“What did you say?”

Danor questioned, but Najin didn’t respond. Instead, he looked at the knight and muttered,

“Respect your opponent. Avoid mockery. Shun insults and embrace humility.”

The virtues of a knight.

“Aren’t these the virtues a knight should uphold?”

Najin spoke emotionlessly.

“You’ve just violated at least four of them. Are you sure you’re a knight?”

The knight, incredulous, opened his mouth,

“You dare discuss knightly virtues before me?”

“Well, do you need to be someone special to recite virtues?”

“Such an insult! A non-knight discussing knighthood before a knight is…”

“You don’t seem to have become a knight by skillful swordsmanship. What kind of knight are you?”

“……What?”

Najin’s eyes half-closed as he pointed at the knight’s waist. The sword tied there showed no signs of use. A sword untouched.

Provocation, and insult.

The knight’s brows furrowed, and his master’s expression crumpled. Realizing the situation had escalated, Najin pressed on.

“Why is your tongue so loose?”

Najin tapped the hilt of his sword, speaking flatly.

“If you’re so confident, come at me.”

And so, the situation reached this point.

The knight, sword drawn in the middle of the main road.

And Najin, nonchalantly flicking the tip of his sword at him.

Watching this were Dieta and Danor, the knight’s master, with contrasting expressions. Danor’s face was twisted in displeasure, while Dieta, though taken aback by Najin’s sudden action, couldn’t help but let a smile slip through.

The situation was peculiar.

It was an insult that could have been ignored as usual. An insult always heard and could have been brushed off as always. But Najin’s response to such an insult was refreshingly new to Dieta.

There wasn’t much to gain from acting this way.

Why was Najin behaving so erratically?

Dieta couldn’t understand. It didn’t seem like he stepped in just because his master was insulted…

“Come at me, boy.”

“I’ll pass this time.”

“What…?”

Amidst Dieta’s confusion.

“I believe I handle a sword better than you.”

“You insolent…!”

The duel began.

The infuriated knight lunged at Najin.

“No matter his confidence, he’ll soon be humiliated. With a master like that, her subordinates can’t be any better.”

Confident of victory, Danor sneered. Ignoring his smug voice, Dieta watched Najin.

‘Was he always like this?’

Wasn’t he more reticent and reserved?

Dieta had thought of Najin as a rigid and emotionally restrained individual. But the Najin before her was different. Lighter, more provocative, with a livelier smile.

As if something had triggered his true nature to unfold. The trigger wasn’t hard to guess. The smile he had shown her earlier.

“……”

Dieta silently recalled that smile.

Surprisingly similar to her own. A smile of shared sentiment. It was hard to believe it was merely an imitation.

‘What exactly…’

Dieta looked at Najin.

A youth with likely a false name and age, but the smile he showed at that moment was real.

Clang!

Najin’s and the knight’s swords clashed.

Obviously, the knight, though having reached the level of a Sword Expert, didn’t draw his sword aura. His pride wouldn’t allow it.

He intended to bring down this audacious boy purely with swordsmanship.

To show the difference to this impudent youngster.

With that thought, the knight swung his sword.

But Najin easily parried it. As he did, his expression grew colder.

‘The knights I know.’

Are not like this.

Their swords are not this light, nor this frivolous.

The knights Najin knew and saw were not like this. Aren’t knights supposed to be noble beings with honor and pride? The knight before him showed no honor.

Nor pride.

Only stubbornness was evident.

As Najin stopped merely parrying and stepped forward, the knight was pushed back. Najin continued to advance, and the knight, sweating, began to retreat.

Watching this, Danor’s complacent expression vanished. The knight’s face too contorted.

Clang, clang!

Najin’s swordsmanship was already in full swing.

His eyes easily read the trajectory of the knight’s sword. To bring down Najin with pure swordsmanship would only be possible for priests dedicated to swordsmanship from the Order of the Sword.

Not for a knight who neglected his training.

Najin’s sword was neither light nor sloppy.

“Ugh!”

The cornered knight’s sword flickered. A gleaming radiance. Seeing the knight break his stubbornness to draw out his sword aura, Najin clicked his tongue. Just as the sword aura was about to form, Najin reached out.

Grab.

And grabbed the knight’s wrist. Then, in a single breath, the budding sword aura scattered. The spectators, even the knight himself, didn’t understand what happened at that moment.

-Wow.

Only Merlin realized.

What Najin had just done.

-This guy is insane, isn’t he?

Merlin chuckled.

Using his mana cultivation technique that absorbs external mana, Najin intercepted the mana surging from the knight’s body towards his sword.

Confused by the failure of his sword aura, the knight’s wrist was twisted by Najin. Then, using the pommel of his sword, Najin struck down on the knight’s hand.

“Argh!”

The knight dropped his sword.

Najin, still holding his sword, and the disarmed knight. The outcome was overwhelmingly clear, even without anyone declaring it. The murmuring of the spectators grew louder.

“What is this…!”

Danor’s face turned red.

The wide-eyed knight.

Amidst the determined winner and loser, Najin walked towards Dieta, who was watching him. He looked at her quietly.

Her expression was a mix of bewilderment, exhilaration, and disbelief. Looking at Dieta’s natural expression, unmasked, Najin spoke briefly.

“It’s quite alright.”

“…What?”

“I said it’s better than your face earlier.”

Dieta blinked blankly.

Even after his victory in the duel, Najin had remained expressionless. But seeing Dieta’s changed face, he smiled.

Najin’s reason for causing this trouble was simple.

He just didn’t like it.

He didn’t like seeing Dieta, who shared the same smile as his former self in the Underground City. Only after seeing her changed expression did Najin feel genuinely relieved. He extended his hand to the seated Dieta in a casual escort gesture, as taught by Pasion.

Deita was always the one to extend her hand first, but this time it was Najin. Dieta blinked in surprise, then burst into laughter.

“Truly an interesting person.”