Translator: Wan ED/PR: Solarin
60. Party (7)
The player patissier of the bakery in front of the Eungwnag School’s west gate, ‘MITRON’.
The words of the Person he serves.
Crows.
Riddle-like words and situation.
The person, who spoke, the content of the words, the background, moved in my head like pieces of a puzzle.
The biggest clue was what Yong Jegeon said.
— She said that if you wander around wearing the crow mask, you have to respect the favorite taste of the Crow Demon King and the human he cherishes.
— I can tell you. The human that Demon King-ssi cherishes just happens to be in Eungwang District.
Before, Yong Jegeon relayed the words of Ungnyeo of Grief, and added a few other words.
I got two clues from what Yong Jegeon said.
First, the human that the Crow Demon King cherished was in Eungwang District.
Second, the existence of the favorite taste that the Crow Demon King and the human he cherishes has in common.
The hint related to that favorite taste appeared in an abstract manner in the game.
The ‘shining thing’, the ‘thing that’s very polarizing’.
I couldn’t form a guess with just that, but the word ‘polarizing’ bothered me.
— Because there is a Crow Demon King, whose taste very very much doesn’t match with mine and recently I noticed someone related to him.
Weren’t the beings who matched well with Yong Jegeon’s taste were rather rare?
Doesn’t even his fellow dragons takes a step back when Yong Jegeon was smiling ecstatically?
Anyway, it seemed like it was a fact that the taste of the Crow Demon King and Yong Jegeon misaligned.
Yong Jegeon’s only friend said some things about Yong Jegeon’s taste.
— That’s because my drinking partner hates sweets. As I wasn’t excited about drinking it alone, there was no opportunity to drink it, even though it was good alcohol.
— Yong Jegeon? If that bastard without friends comes to play with our descendant, shouldn’t he be thankful and drink it? What is he being picky about?
At the tigers’ drinking party, where Kim Sinrok prepared alcohol and side dishes, he mentioned Yong Jegeon’s taste.
Yong Jegeon hated sweets.
Then shouldn’t the Crow Demon King’s favorite taste be sugar, or in other words, products made out of sugar?
‘Assuming that’s right, this patissier, who lives in Eungwang District and is related to sweets, would be the Crow Demon King’s representative. Then it would all add up.’
The person in front of my eyes right now was a patissier, chocolatier and sugar craft artisian.
This patissier was a sweetness magician, who made Han Yi, who unlike Mok Uram, spent reasonably, overspent.
If the Crow Demon King loved sweets, it wouldn’t be strange for him to cherish this person and make him into his representative.
‘Hwang Jiho said something when he first saw this patissier.’
On the Teacher Day, when we visited MITRON to buy snacks to eat with teacher Ham Geunhyeong-nim.
Hwang Jiho, who saw the patissier for the first time that day, said this:
— He seems to have received a powerful blessing from a Jin. Who?
It wasn’t strange for a famous Player and for MITRON’s patissier to receive a Jin’s blessing.
So I didn’t bother with it very much and let it go.
‘I guess that Jin was a Demon.’
I didn’t expect out of all the Demons, he would have received a blessing from the Crow Demon King, Sillentium.
The decisive thing was the question this patissier ask me in the past.
‘He suddenly asked a strange question that day.’
October 3rd, the morning of the tigers’ birthday party.
At the time, the holidays overlapped and MITRON was scheduled to be closed, but thanks to the patissier’s considerations, I was able to order a cake.
When I came to receive the art-like cake, the patissier asked:
— Isn’t it cool? Isn’t it a pretty and sweet artwork?… Excluding the fact that it easily melts if the temperature is high, isn’t it perfect?
— What do You think?
When at that question I answered ‘I think it’s cool’, the patissier didn’t accept the payment and gave me the cake as a gift.
It’s clear that that question was some kind of test.
‘It was a test to check whether I respect the demon king’s favorite taste or not, huh?’
And I had a guess why the patissier, who was the demon king’s contractor, spoke, revealing his true identity as he appeared in front of me.
When I suggested a deal to Sillentium, who interfered in the otherworld during the first practice lesson, he said he will come to meet me in a little bit.
— When will You make a deal? You won’t be able to receive an item card with that appearance.
— It’s difficult to take action in the Ho tribe’s divine realm. Before season changes, you will meet with my contractor as a proxy sooner or later.
According to those words, it seemed he aimed for a time when I was outside of Eungwang District, and there weren’t other Jin people around, to come meet me.
As the first practice class was held in September, and right now was October, just before Halloween, the Crow Demon King kept his word.
I spoke up to the patissier, who was looking at me, waiting for my answer.
“Hello. You’re that Person’s representative, correct? According to the promise, You came to meet me before the season changed, eh?”
Considering the chance that the patissier wasn’t the Crow Demon King’s representative, I spoke leaving room for interpretation.
As if all my guesses were correct, the patissier replied with a smile.
“As I heard, You’re polite and clever. I expected You to be surprised or not recognize me.”
Putting aside being surprised, what were you going to do if I didn’t recognize you?
As if answering my doubts, the patissier added a word.
“Supposing that student Jo Uisin wasn’t able to recognize me as the representative of that Person, I would be at a loss for how I should introduce myself. In addition to that, I would be rather disappointed, so I’m glad.”
Hearing those words, I saw some similar sides to the patissier and Sillentium.
During the first practice lesson, the demon king also threw a difficult problem at me, he checked whether we match in taste through the patissier, and right now the person was being sounded out with ambiguous words.
I guessed the demon king and his representative like to test people.
“Do You plan to make a deal here?”
“No, isn’t the chance that student Jo Uisin left the country and went overseas with a precious item low?”
If there was no item window function in the Other Dimension Future Suitable Modification’s Exclusive Menu, it probably would be the case.
There probably was some kind of method for me to go around with that item card for a chance that I would have use it right now, but there was a high chance that it would be a blunder to go around with the item I planned to make a deal with on me.
“Even if Student Jo Uisin says he has the item right now, if I’m found having an UR rank item I didn’t have before entering the country, things would get complicated. I have no plans on making the deal right now.”
The patissier firmly revealed he has no plans on receiving the item card right now.
Then why were we talking?
“In fact, the Person I serve received an invitation for the Halloween party. I plan to participate in the party on that Person’s behalf.”
The Fomori Demons invited the Demon King, Sillentium?
As the Fomori Demons obtained the treasure of the Danu god tribe this time, they probably wanted to gather as many party guests as possible.
In that situation, it may have been a natural thing to send an invitation for the high-ranking Demons, who were hailed as demon kings.
“Doesn’t student Jo Uisin being in Britain right now means he plans to participate in that party?”
I suddenly had an ominous premonition.
He had no plans of talking about the deal, so why Sillentium’s contractor was suddenly calling me to talk?
‘No way, are you planning to ask for ‘that action’? Usually, there would be no problem with that, but right now is not a good time…! No, there is a chance it’s not it, I shouldn’t make hastily conclusions.’
I held onto the hope and asked:
“… Can I ask what is the content of the message?”
“You’ve probably heard that all participant of this Halloween party have to wear a mask.”
The patissier completely crushed my vain hopes.
“Please wear the crow mask at the party.”
My vision darkened.
Do you mean I have to use the crow mask related to ‘that word’ in front of my Playable Character, the Phantom Thief Neon?
Not long after an article comparing ‘that word’ and Phantom Thief Neon in the school newspaper?
There is no way that the Phantom Thief, who read everything related to the phantom thieves, didn’t see it.
It was clear that he was burning with a clearly useless spirit of rivalry.
‘No. The connection between ‘that word’ and crow mask wasn’t revealed to the public. Even if I wear a crow mask, there is a chance he may not know the person behind ‘that word’ is me.’
While thinking positively, I nodded to the patissier words, but I couldn’t erase an ominous feeling.
Because the Phantom Thief Neon had always had good instincts for strange things.
* * *
The hideout of a certain phantom thief, who was just named.
The wall was filled with holographic screens reflecting the notice letter on the Big Ben.
The boy, who consumed all his superpower wave on sending the enormous notice letter was completely exhausted and defenseless, but his mood was high.
It was because, thanks to the notice letter, he made a name for himself as a phantom thief.
“Congratulations on making a name for Yourself as a phantom thief, Phantom Thief Neon.”
At Seodol’s words, the Phantom Thief Neon smiled brightly.
When Seodol looked at him, the Phantom Thief Neon’s smile seemed weak because he didn’t have even a bit of superpower wave left, but he was energetic.
Perhaps because he really liked the name Phantom Thief Neon, he was burning with enthusiasm.
“Thank You. I’ll show actions worthy of a phantom thief to maintain the name of a phantom thief.”
“I’ll cheer for You.”
Seodol personally brought things to eat and drink to Phantom Thief Neon, with a happy heart.
If the Phantom Thief Neon was absent from the Halloween party due to deterioration of his condition, he wouldn’t make a spectacle.
Because Seodol couldn’t let it happen, he did things he usually didn’t do.
“Don’t You have other request for me. I don’t like to only help You with the notice letter production and stepping back.”
“I already received a lot of help from designer Seodol… Ah, I do have a request.”
The Phantom Thief Neon, who looked endlessly excited, made a serious face.
Matching him, Seodol also seriously leaned his ears to his request.
“Please find a person wearing a crow mask at the party.”
“… Crow mask?”
At the word ‘crow mask’, Seodol thought of the Crow Demon King right away.
If we talk about the person wearing a crow mask at the party held by Demons, it would be someone with a connection to the Crow Demon King.
“For what reason You’re searching for a crow mask?”
Phantom Thief Neon replied to Seodol’s question.
“There is a chance that the person wearing a crow mask is a certain phantom thief.”
“… A phantom thief?”
Was phantom thief such a common job?
He guessed there was one more strange child besides this Phantom Thief Neon.
While Seodol thought like this, the Phantom Thief Neon spoke:
“The phantom thief who was named by Korean press earlier than me, Red Wall Phantom Thief!”
“Ah, I also know about that Red Wall Phantom Thief. Was he wearing a crow mask?”
Seodol recalled the existence of a certain phantom thief, who broke the Fantasy Gate[1] and turned Korea upside down at the beginning of the year.
Because the Players he bestowed blessings to were involved in the Fantasy Gate settlement process, Seodol paid attention to that incident.
However, even when Seodol traced his memory, he didn’t recall anything related to a ‘crow mask’.
The Phantom Thief Neon turned on the device and pulled up a file to explain.
‘Isn’t that the Fantasy List that was circulating at the time? It seems more content was added to it.’
What the Phantom Thief Neon took out were materials containing personal details of the people connected to the Fantasy Gate.
As if the Phantom Thief Neon did additional work on it, the descriptions, newspaper articles, photos and etc were linked to each person’s name.
The Phantom Thief Neon opened on ‘Choe Pyeondeuk’ page and showed him a certain article.
In the photo of the article, was a blurry figure wearing a crow mask.
“This incident is related to the disappearance of a certain person connected to the Fantasy Gate. A suspicious person wearing a crow mask appeared in that place.”
That said, it couldn’t be immediately concluded that the person wearing a crow mask was the Red Wall Phantom Thief, right?
Seodol thought so, but the Phantom Thief Neon’s passionate speech continued.
“It’s an international rule that the phantom thief uses a mask or a monocle to cover their face! The previous time he must have used Yeom Junyeol-ssi’s face, and the next time he probably used the crow mask.”
“… There is such a rule?”
“And my instincts are telling me the Red Wall Thief acted as a phantom thief wearing a crow mask after this too. And the phantom thieves can sense each other.”
At the Phantom Thief Neon’s answer, Seodol’s thoughts fell into a maze.
Phantom thieves can sense each other?
If I also wanted to have those phantom thief instincts, I have to act as a phantom thief?
The Phantom Thief Neon beseech Seodol, who was trying to have distracted thoughts, again.
“If You discover a crow mask, please hold him back, or please tell me.”
*~*~*
[1] Gate — slang for ‘controversy’
Translator’s note: I can think of two other people who like to speak ambiguously and test people. For some reason, they also have a relation with food.
Patron thank you note:
Thank you patron, Nobody, please accept this Pinguicula planifolia’s flower as a token of my sincere gratitude.
Thank you patron, Al, please accept this Pinguicula moranensis’s flower as a token of my sincere gratitude.
Thank you patron, Dust, please accept this Pinguicula agnata’s flower as a token of my sincere gratitude.
Thank you patron, Maru, please accept this Pinguicula alpina’s flower as a token of my sincere gratitude.
Thank you patron, kamisonk, please accept this Pinguicula balcanica’s flower as a token of my sincere gratitude.
Thank you patron, Kasimir Ilmonen, please accept this Pinguicula caerulea’s flower as a token of my sincere gratitude.
Thank you patron, Tara Hess, please accept this Pinguicula casabitoana’s flower as a token of my sincere gratitude.
Thank you patron, Ice, please accept this Pinguicula elizabethiae’s flower as a token of my sincere gratitude.
Thank you patron, anonymous Kofi-supporter, please accept this Pinguicula esseriana’s flower as a token of my sincere gratitude.
Thank you patron, Hematite, please accept this Pinguicula grandiflora’s flower as a token of my sincere gratitude.
Thank you patron, Deflubs, please accept this Pinguicula moranensis’s flower as a token of my sincere gratitude.
Thank you patron, Rose Marie, please accept this Pinguicula ionantha’s flower as a token of my sincere gratitude.
Thank you patron, inkwell, please accept this Pinguicula laueana’s flower as a token of my sincere gratitude.
Thank you patron, TheFloorGuy, please accept this Pinguicula macroceras’s flower as a token of my sincere gratitude.
Thank you patron, Akemidy, please accept this Pinguicula orchidioidesc’s flower as a token of my sincere gratitude.
Links to support this translation and access to 8 advanced chapter (Patreon & Kofi)
> Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/LibraryKeyTranslations
> Kofi-Euro: https://ko-fi.com/wanthetranslator
> Kofi-USD: https://ko-fi.com/wanthetranslatorusd
Did you see a mistake? 🐞
Leave a Reply