LIEWYB 25

Chapter 25

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What… is this?

A strange feeling, like something was grabbing my head from the depths and pulling me straight up to the surface.

That odd sensation naturally jolted my eyes open.

“Ugh…”

A splitting headache hit me, followed by a violent coughing fit.

“Cough, cough!”

After spitting out water I had been drinking for a while, I finally could breathe properly.

Gasping for breath, I looked around. Then my eyes met with a man who was watching me intently.

“Hup!”

Wha—what? That startled me.

Rolling my eyes wildly at the unexpected situation, I suddenly recalled my last memory: falling into the sewer water.

I thought I was dead. Was I spared from deletion, or death?

But if I did fall into water, why was my body completely dry?

Could it be because of that man?

“Wh-who are you…?”

I hastily asked the man, scanning him quickly.

He wore a dark red robe covering his head completely, and his face was hidden behind a black mask, so other than his red eyes, I could tell nothing about him.

But before his suspicious appearance, what caught my eye was the system window hovering above his head.

‘Suspicious… Knight?’

I’d never seen a name tag like that before. Was there a character called Suspicious Knight?

I’d met plenty of knights along the adventurer’s route—holy knights, royal iron-blood knights, and so on—but never a Suspicious Knight.

Also, why was he so terrifyingly silent?

Feeling weird, I shrank my body, but the man suddenly pointed at himself with a finger and asked,

“Are you talking about me?”

Well, yeah, who else could it be?

I wanted to say that, but one survival rule in Arc was to avoid quarrels with suspicious people.

So, I awkwardly smiled and replied,

“Ha ha, yes. You. Knight… sir…”

“My benefactor.”

“Huh?”

What’s with this guy? Is he crazy? First, I tried to check his info through the system.

But…

[SYSTEM] Cannot access information on the ‘Suspicious Knight.’

· Unlock condition: Build trust relationship by completing a quest.

Surprisingly, the system gave no info on him—not even a name.

Crazy. I knew dozens of red-eyed men.

In Arc’s high freedom, even a shopkeeper uncle could be a husband candidate.

Top marriage endings had candidates like the crown prince, princes, grand dukes, counts, and common endings had apprentices, pawnshop owners, repairmen…

Ah! Considering non-human races, there were even more candidates.

Anyway, just counting men who could wield weapons and disguise as knights, there were at least five.

While tilting my head, the man spoke again.

“Aren’t you thankful?”

“Huh?”

“I saved you from dying.”

He spoke informally from the start?

It was a bit irritating, but I quietly said,

“Th-thank you…”

“You speak more normally than I thought.”

“Huh?”

What did that mean?

Did he think I’d be panicked after waking from drowning?

When I looked at him, he said shortly,

“No.”

After that, silence.

Unable to figure out the heavy silence’s cause, I replayed our conversation.

He had emphasized how I owed him for saving me.

So…

“I want to repay you for saving me, but I don’t really know much except pickaxe or shovel work.”

His robe twitched slightly at my words.

What? Was he surprised?

“I don’t want to do pickaxe work. First…”

He ordered,

“Reveal your identity.”

What identity? I have none.

…But actually, there were quite a few things I could say.

Would it help if I revealed who I was?

Just as I was about to bluff, the system window blinked, warning me.

[SYSTEM] ‘Suspicious Knight’ holds absolute dominance here.

To talk equally with ‘Suspicious Knight,’ your notoriety must be 500 or more, or a trust relationship must be formed.

Your notoriety is not high enough to ignore the ‘Suspicious Knight’s’ orders.

Then a message that seemed designed to annoy me appeared.

[SYSTEM] ‘Suspicious Knight’ regards you as a ‘crazy madwoman!’ Trust towards you approaches zero!

Rejection failed! Request automatically accepted.

No, I get that I can’t refuse revealing my identity, but why am I a crazy madwoman?

I just fell into water, so why?

While wondering, my mouth opened automatically.

“Uh, I, I am…”

It had been a while since I was forced by the system, so it annoyed me, but luckily I still had the freedom to choose how to introduce myself.

I could say I was the vessel, but he probably wouldn’t ask that.

Next, I was the adopted daughter of the Ulmer Duke family, or lastly, a mana crystal seller.

Probably the most normal answer was ‘adopted daughter of the Ulmer Duke family.’

But…

‘He seems suspicious, but he looks somewhat wealthy.’

Even now, my money-minded brain was calculating as it scanned his attire carefully.

I took the opportunity and quickly answered,

“I’m a merchant handling important goods… ha ha ha.”

“A merchant?”

His voice dropped dryly. But my mental calculator had already drawn conclusions.

‘Notoriety over 500 means a very important figure, right?’

In the game system, the higher the notoriety the daughter accumulated, the more she could challenge important or high-status figures.

Ulmer Duke’s opposition required a notoriety of 300, but this guy demanded 500 or more.

This meant the ‘Suspicious Knight’ probably had overwhelming power.

So, was it necessary to go through the sewers to enter the palace? With such a good buyer appearing before me?

Just thinking about almost drowning made me want to postpone going through the sewers again.

It felt safer to start small like this and gradually add more clients.

“What are you selling? Doesn’t look like you have anything.”

“Ha ha, want to see?”

Basically, it was you—my mana crystal buyer!

“I have very high-quality goods.”

With a practiced mechanical smile honed from years of social life, I took out the mana crystals.

I had deliberately picked smaller pieces, but anyone who knew mana crystals would quickly notice they were top-grade.

“……”

As expected, the knight was silent.

I couldn’t see his expression behind the mask, but I knew he was very interested. If he wasn’t, he’d have told me to put them away.

Our conversation hadn’t been long, but his bluntness made it clear he didn’t care about appearances.

Wait.

Something suddenly came to me as I looked again at his status window.

Though ‘Suspicious’ was tagged, he had no tags like ‘Fool Detector’ or anything harmful to me!

Thump, thump…

My heart raced with hope that this trade might go smoothly.

Though the first meeting place was a lousy palace sewer, starting this way wasn’t bad.

At least better than selling to that idiot empty-shop owner.

I still gritted my teeth remembering selling hastily at half price to that scammer.

Though suspicious, I didn’t need to run a buyer background check here, right?

Smiling pitifully, I started my sales pitch.

“If you buy, I’ll give you a good price. Ha ha ha.”

But…

The man’s answer was much firmer than I expected.

“I refuse.”