I Pull Out Excalibur

41 – Street of Merchants (3)

Dieta, a snake that swallows gold coins.

She’s a well-known merchant even in Cambria. She has her quirks and often acts out of self-interest, but… all of her interests ultimately come down to earning gold coins.

A life solely for gold coins.

Her interests, hobbies, and everything else are all just ways to earn gold coins. A girl seemingly born only for gold coins.

Some call her a giant and others accuse her of being blind to money. Many people have their own evaluations of Dieta, but… there is one common point in those evaluations.

Dieta Arbenia was born to be a merchant.

It is an undeniable fact that her talent as a merchant is genuine.

Because of that fact, no one can deny it.

That’s why Dieta has proven it through her own life. Five years. That was the time it took for Dieta to become the leading figure of the upper class, representing the city.

A girl abandoned by her family, achieving everything solely with her own strength, without relying on her family’s power. Her achievement, worthy of being called a success myth, cannot be torn down by anything.

But.

To achieve that success, the path she walked cannot be called beautiful even in empty words. Because she didn’t hesitate to use any means and methods to earn gold coins. That’s why she is called “the snake that swallows gold coins.”

A girl who lives only for gold coins.

An old woman disguised as a girl.

At least in the Street of Merchants, everyone knows the fact that Dieta Arbenia is such a presence.

“······.”

“······.”

As Na Jin followed behind Dieta, she felt a sense of unease. Unlike earlier, there was no one talking to her, which wasn’t strange since there was a sponsor beside her right now, but still…

“Their gaze is piercing.”

Their gazes were incredibly eerie.

It wasn’t just a simple restraining gaze, but rather a contemptuous one. It was a gaze that Na Jin was familiar with. It was the gaze that the “upper class” people from the underground city would send her way.

“······.”

Na Jin silently looked at Dieta. Today, she was accompanying him as his escort, so unlike usual, Dieta was walking a step ahead of Na Jin. His back was lively and cheerful, unmatched by anyone else.

Hmph, Hm.

Humming a tune, Dieta walked lightly along the merchant streets. Occasionally, she would turn back and smile at Na Jin. As if the gazes that flew towards her meant nothing.

······For some reason.

Na Jin found Dieta’s laughter strangely familiar.

As Na Jin silently followed Dieta, she pondered where she had heard that laughter before.

“Tsk.”

A click of the tongue could be heard.

It wasn’t a sound that Dieta made. Both Dieta and Na Jin stopped walking at the sound. Looking towards the direction the sound came from, there was a man walking towards them from across the street.

Dressed in the attire only allowed for nobles.

Accompanied by knights adorned with their family crests.

Na Jin could tell that the author was a noble. She often came across such individuals as she traveled through the city. Although Cambría had a relatively loose distinction of social class, the authority of the nobles was still respected to some extent.

There was no need to lower her head just because she met a noble, but Na Jin knew that it would be better to stay away from them or provoke their sensitivities.

“It’s best to keep your distance from nobles.”

That was a story that circulated among adventurers.

Getting involved with nobles who required formality was not favorable for adventurers. Of course, those with ambitious goals aimed for higher positions and performed significant missions while involved with nobles, but it was common for things to go wrong and their reputation to be ruined.

To the ones born noble, adventurers were nothing more than disposable pawns.

That’s why when a noble appeared, adventurers would usually wait for them to pass by. However, Dieta was different. Even if she was once discarded by the noble family, she was still a member of the noble caste. She didn’t wait for the nobles to pass by, but continued walking.

Thud.

In that brief moment when the noble and Dieta were about to pass each other, the noble clicked his tongue again.

“So Cambría is to your liking, I see.”

A gaze as if looking at a bug.

The noble murmured while glancing at Dieta.

“The discarded courtesan walked proudly in front of the aristocracy. Unthinkable in the capital.”

Clear insult directed at Dieta.

Amidst unimaginable verbal abuse exchanged between aristocrats, Dieta, who tilted her head to meet the eyes of the aristocrats, was anything but peaceful.

“Do you know who I am? The son of Viscount Fraunkel?”

Dieta spoke in a soft voice.

She knew all the nobles who entered the city, their lineage, and their backgrounds. The young noble in front of her was Dano Fraunkel, the son of Viscount Fraunkel, originally a member of a family barely worthy of presenting a business card to the Arbenia Marquis.

However, Dieta, merely carrying the aristocrat’s business card, was an ‘outsider’ abandoned by her family, prompting Dano’s provocation. Dieta only smiled at the cheap provocation; she had grown tired of such attempts.

“Well, am I wrong in my words?”

Dano raised the corner of his mouth.

“Despite trying to gain recognition from Viscount Arbenia with my appearance, in the end, being a discarded woman is no different from being a courtesan, isn’t it? It’s a well-known fact.”

Dano sneered, and the bodyguard standing beside him also chuckled. Despite the insult directed at her, Dieta just continued to smile. Dano turned his head, annoyed by her lack of the desired reaction.

“That woman has no honor or dignity. What did you expect?”

As Dano was about to pass by,

“Oh, I remember.”

The bodyguard standing beside Dieta.

Najin uttered a short exclamation. Dieta’s expression changed at the unexpected voice. Dieta turned her head to look at Najin.

Najin, who had been looking at Dieta’s face all along, now had a refreshing expression as if he had just remembered something.

“I’ve seen you somewhere.”

Najin continued to look at Dieta.

From the beginning, it seemed as if he was not aware of the presence of both Dano and the bodyguard.

Najin, who was playing with the corner of his mouth, showed a smiling expression.

As if imitating something or remembering.

Dieta’s pupils widened as she looked at the smile. Although the appearance was completely different, the laughter that Najin was now producing was similar to Dieta’s. It was the characteristic, resigned laughter that a worn-down person always had in the underground city.

‘It feels strangely familiar.’

In the mirror, in the flowing blood, in the glass, it was the expression that was always seen. A unique, pathetic laughter of someone who had worn down and given up. It didn’t match with Dieta, the most successful top figure in the city. That’s why she hadn’t recognized it immediately.

“You…?”

Just as Dieta was about to say something,

“What a vulgar man. Have fun playing among yourselves. Just because you carry a sword doesn’t mean you’re all knights.”

Danor, who had paused for a moment at Najin’s voice, looked at Najin with a sneer. The knight also chuckled in response to his master’s laughter. However, Najin didn’t pay any attention to their voices.

“Let me ask you one thing.”

Najin looked at Dieta and asked.

“Can you handle it even if there’s an accident?”

“What are you planning to do?”

“Just because I don’t like it.”

Najin smiled, only looking at Dieta. It was bewildering for Dieta, who couldn’t know Najin’s true intentions.

“Well… as long as you don’t mess with the nobles, it should be fine, right?”

Just as Dieta muttered those words.

It’s fine as long as you don’t touch the nobles. That’s how Najin interpreted it. It didn’t matter what the knight standing beside the noble did.

“I guess knights are so lighthearted.”

Najin murmured loudly.

Danor and his escort knight, who were walking, stopped in their tracks. They turned back to look at Najin.

“What did you just say?”

Danor asked.

Najin didn’t answer that question. Instead, looking at the escort knight, not Danor, Najin murmured.

“Respect your opponents. Keep your sneers at a distance. Stay away from insults and embrace humility.”

The virtues of a knight.

“Isn’t that what a knight should uphold?”

Najin said expressionlessly.

“Just by breaking four of them, you’ve already violated more than just a knight’s code. Are you really a knight?”

In response to Najin’s question, the knight opened his mouth as if he couldn’t believe it.

“Did you just lecture a knight about his virtues?”

“Well, do you really need to be so grandiose when reciting virtues?”

“It’s a mockery. Someone who isn’t a knight discussing knights in front of knights…”

“It’s not like you became a knight by wielding a sword skillfully. So what are you now, a knight?”

“……What?”

Najin, with wide-opened eyes, pointed to the knight’s waist. There were no traces of handprints on the sword hanging there. The sword didn’t show any signs of use.

Provocation, and humiliation.

The knight’s eyebrows furrowed, and his master’s expression became wrinkled. Realizing that the situation had escalated, Najin pushed the knight even harder.

“Why is your tongue so long?”

Najin spoke calmly, tapping her sheath expressionlessly.

“If you’re so confident, come at me.”

Indeed.

The situation had escalated.

2.

A knight drawing his sword in the middle of the street.

And Najin, flicking the edge of her blade at that knight.

The expressions on Dieta, who was watching the scene, and Danor, the owner of the knight, were completely opposite. Danor had a displeased expression, while Dieta felt flustered by Najin’s sudden aggression but couldn’t help but smile at the laughter that escaped her.

The situation was strange.

It could have been brushed off as a usual insult. A mockery that Najin had always endured, one that could be ignored. But Najin’s act of confronting the insult head-on was refreshing to Dieta.

There was no immediate gain from doing so.

What prompted Najin to take such action?

Dieta couldn’t understand as a servant. It didn’t seem like Najin was defending her owner from the insult…

“Come at me, brat.”

“I’ll let you take a hit.”

“What…?”

In Dieta’s puzzled thoughts…

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

“You arrogant…!”

The duel had begun.

The knight, wide-eyed, charged at Najin.

“I don’t know what confidence makes you act like this, but you’ll soon regret provoking me. Since my owner looks like that, it’s clear you won’t be supervised by anyone below.”

Danor, confident of victory, let out a mocking laughter. As Dieta listened to that seemingly self-assured voice with one ear and let it slip through the other, she looked at Najin.

“Was he always like this?”

Wasn’t he more reserved and silent?

Dieta had thought of Najin as someone rigid and restrained in their emotions. But the Najin in front of her was different from the usual. A young man who was light-hearted, provoking his opponent, and laughing more vividly.

It seemed like something had triggered and unleashed his true nature. It wasn’t difficult to figure out what that trigger was. The laughter he had crafted just moments ago in front of her.

“······.”

Silently, Dieta recalled that laughter.

An astonishingly familiar laughter that resembled himself. Laughter even with a sense of homogeneity. It was difficult to simply consider it as an imitation.

“What on earth…”

Theita looked at Najin.

A young man who seemed to have false age and name. But the laughter that appeared in that moment was genuine as much as anything else.

Kaaah!

Najin’s sword clashed with the knight’s sword.

Naturally, the knight who clashed swords with Najin was a figure who had reached the realm of a sword expert, but he did not unsheathe his sword. His minimal sense of self-respect did not allow it.

He would make Najin kneel with only his swordsmanship.

He would show the difference to this arrogant imp.

With that thought, the knight swished his sword.

However, the sword that the knight swung was effortlessly deflected by Najin. As he parried the sword, Najin’s expression gradually turned colder.

“The knights I know… They were never like this.”

This is not how it should be.

The sword should not be this light or frivolous.

The knights that Najin knew and saw were not like this. This was not the knight that Najin dreamed of. Weren’t knights noble beings with honor and dignity? The knight before his eyes did not exude any honor.

Nor did he possess any dignity.

All that could be felt was stubbornness.

As Najin deflected the sword, he took a step forward. The knight was pushed a step back. Najin continued to advance while the knight started to retreat, sweating profusely.

The composure disappeared from the expression of the knight’s owner, Danoor. The knight’s face contorted as well.

Clank, kaah!

Najin’s swordsmanship had already entered a trajectory.

Najin’s pupils easily read the path that the knight’s sword traced. To make Najin kneel purely with swordsmanship, it was only possible for the priests of the sect devoted to swordsmanship.

It was possible against a knight who neglected his training.

Najin’s sword was neither light nor sloppy.

“Kuk!”

The sword of the knight, cornered, sparkled. Glittering radiance. And as if breaking his own resolve, Najin licked his lips while watching the knight who was trying to unsheathe his sword. Just before the radiance took the form of a blade, Najin reached out his hand.

Snap.

And then, he grabbed the knight’s wrist. Then, with one breath, the sword that was about to pierce through rose into the air. Neither the spectators who were watching the scene nor even the knight himself knew what had happened in that moment.

-Wow.

Only Merlin realized it.

Najin, what on earth is he up to now?

-Is this guy completely insane?

Merlin let out a dry laugh.

Najin’s mana-absorbing martial arts from the outside. Utilizing it, Najin intercepted the mana trying to extend the sword from the knight’s body.

Najin twisted the knight’s wrist in confusion as the sword did not come out. Then, with the sword in hand, Najin swiftly struck the back of the knight’s hand.

“Ugh!”

The knight dropped the sword.

Between the knight who lost his sword and Najin holding the sword, the overwhelming result was evident without the need for judgment. The murmurs of the spectators watching the duel grew louder.

“What is this?”

Danoir’s face turned red.

The knight widened his eyes.

In the midst of the determined winner and loser, Najin moved towards Dieta, who had been watching him. Then he looked at Dieta silently.

A mix of bewilderment, satisfaction, and incredulity on Dieta’s face. Najin, who looked at Dieta with a natural expression without a mask, spoke briefly.

“It’s not too bad.”

“Huh?”

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

Dieta blinked blankly.

Najin, who remained expressionless even when he won the duel with the knight, smiled when he saw the changed expression on Dieta’s face.

The reason Najin caused this commotion was simple.

Just because he didn’t like it.

He didn’t like Dieta, who was laughing like himself in the underground city. After seeing the changed expression, Najin reached out to Dieta, who was sitting, as if feeling refreshed.

It was a simplified escort he learned from Passion.

Although Dieta was always the one to extend her hand first to Najin, now Najin extended his hand first. Dieta, blinking as if in disbelief, burst into laughter.

“You’re really an interesting person.”