HPDBC Chapter 43
Chapter 43
[Translator - Night]
[Proofreader - Gun]
Chapter 43
"If you tell the truth, I'll give you this."
"T-That..."
"Alright, I'll be generous. If you tell the truth, I'll make this for you every day during snack time for the next week."
"Gasp?!"
At my shocking proposal, the elf's eyes darted around wildly.
She seemed to be in extreme distress.
Technically, since her employer was Melissa, she wasn’t obligated to obey me.
However, I was also duty-bound to catch her after she had run away.
"Don't worry. You won’t be treated unfairly because of this. Melissa is the one who did something wrong—you'd only be passing the truth along to me."
"I-I don't know anything, Young Master."
Oh.
So she’s still loyal to the head of the household.
Well, if she had given in this easily, I might have been disappointed.
"Alright. I'll add coffee cookies to the deal."
With that one statement, she was utterly defeated.
"I think... the Lady mentioned going to pray..."
See?
Don't assume all I make is ice cream.
Satisfied, I handed her both the ice cream and the coffee cookies I had prepared in advance.
Her face was a mixture of guilt and the pure joy of tasting such exquisite snacks.
"Anyway, don’t worry. You didn’t confess directly, and if Melissa has any sense, she won’t hold this against you."
"Y-Young Master... you really don’t understand people’s hearts."
Ignoring the elf maid's small rebellion, I grabbed a wooden practice sword and a smoke bomb before heading out.
Just then, a panicked servant came running towards me and shouted excitedly as soon as he saw me.
"Ah! Young Master! I have an urgent report, but the Lady isn't here..."
"I’ll fetch her, so just report to Melissa later."
I kept walking, completely ignoring the servant’s desperate cries.
Who would come all the way to this rural backwater?
Even if someone did, unless it was an imperial noble or someone of similar status, I had no intention of paying attention to it now.
I couldn't forgive Melissa for running away at such a crucial time.
A church, huh?
She wasn’t exactly a devout believer, so there was no way she had gone there to pray.
In fact, our church didn’t even have a priest currently residing in it.
It was just an empty building where the local villagers occasionally went to seek peace of mind through prayer.
There was no way she had gone there for that reason.
Which meant the reason was obvious.
But hiding there wouldn't make her hard to find.
After all, it was a place where she and I used to hide when we got into trouble as children.
Sure enough, the church showed no signs of recent visitors—it was locked up tight.
So much for "free prayer."
The people of Cascadia preferred to pray privately anyway.
"Melissa?"
I stepped inside the church and called out to her.
No response.
"Melissa, tonight’s snack is a brand-new ice cream flavor."
Still no response.
A worn-out chair, wooden statues, and a goddess statue stood at the center of the church.
Sigh.
After all I do for her, this is how she repays me?
I placed a hand on one of the walls.
Creak... Crackle...@@@@
Only the sound of old wooden planks creaking echoed through the empty church.
No real changes occurred.
This was the secret space we used to hide in when we were kids.
Leon smirked and waved a thick stack of documents in his hand.
Processing paperwork was one of her more taxing duties, but ever since training had begun, it had practically become her only refuge.
“......”
“You’re going to do it, right?”
In the end, Melissa strapped on the monstrous training equipment—something called a training tool but better described as a torture device—that Leon had prepared.
Then, with a rare, pitiful expression, she teared up and pleaded.
“Leon... No, Brother... I’m really exhausted...”
Seeing her sorrowful face, Leon let out a sigh, stepped forward, and gently took both of her hands.
Then, as if comforting a crying child, he smiled warmly.
“Stop the act. Because after this, you have to do this too.”
Leon nonchalantly pulled something out of a prepared sack.
A needle threaded with string and a handful of beads with holes in them.
“W-what is that?”
Feeling a sense of unease, Melissa instinctively took a step back.
Leon calmly tossed the beads into the air.
And then—
Pa-pa-pa-pa-pak!!
In an instant, he threaded the falling beads with the needle.
“The key to the Heavenly Demon Divine Sword is flexibility and precision.”
Though it was a technique that unleashed an overwhelming force, that was only the result.
The process required not brute strength but rather flexibility and fine control.
Melissa stared blankly at the sight before her.
“That’s your task.”
“...How?”
“That’s for you to figure out. Oh, and once you get a little used to it, I’ll add debuffs like confusion or paralysis.”
“How am I supposed to do it under those conditions?”
“When you reach a state of extreme aura control, you gain resistance to curses. Don’t worry, I’ll adjust the difficulty.”
Leon’s training was missing a screw.
It wasn’t structured training but rather a nightmarish regimen, seemingly built on practical combat experience.
Melissa felt the blood drain from her face.
At this rate, she genuinely felt like she was going to die.
‘Think! I need to find a way to get out of this...!’
They said that humans could display superhuman abilities in life-or-death situations.
A sudden realization struck Melissa.
“Ahem! I would love to continue training, but I have an unavoidable issue to deal with first.”
Seeing Leon’s expression slightly sour, she cheered internally.
“What is it?”
“As you know, we’ve received ownership from the royal family. But mining operations require a massive amount of money. Do you realize? Given our current financial situation, our family doesn’t have the initial capital to manage and extract resources from the mine.”
Though it was a ploy to escape, it wasn’t entirely false.
In fact, it was her biggest concern.
Mining?
That required money.
The problem was where to get the initial funds for development.
Loans were an option, but she didn’t have anything she was willing to risk as collateral.
As Leon stroked his chin in thought, she smirked internally, feeling triumphant.
That is, until she saw what he did next.
“Don’t worry about it.”
Leon pulled out an enchanted pouch from his coat, and Melissa froze.
Thud-thud-thud-thud!!
A mountain of treasures spilled out from the bag, their origin unknown.
It turned out that the loot from Tyvel Cascadia’s underground mansion was far greater than what Melissa had been aware of.
“We’re filthy rich. Just focus on training.”
“You... You lunatic... Just where did you rob all this from?”
“Where else? Tyvel’s estate. That bastard had a ridiculous amount of secret funds stashed underground. I kept it for an occasion like this.”
His grin felt like the smile of the Grim Reaper.
[Translator - Night]
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