IWRIT-15

Chapter 15 – The Owner of the Golden Onion… No, the Golden Armor

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Nashu Shumel.

Better known by her nickname…

Shushu.

The sixteen-year-old girl was an ordinary orphan.

She had been sold to slave traders as a child…

And had lived as a maid ever since.

The only unusual things about her…

Were that she was half-dwarf…

And, because of her exceptional strength, she handled all the unpleasant chores everyone else avoided—the laundry room, the storerooms, and every exhausting job in between.

B-But… I’m a maid.

I really am…

Why me?

Why a knight?

Naturally…

She was utterly bewildered.

When the Head Maid had summoned her with a deathly pale face, saying the Lord wished to see her…

She’d assumed it was a joke.

Even after entering the magnificent office…

Nothing felt real.

Not even when she saw her Lady’s face—

So beautiful it hardly seemed possible for such a person to exist.

Everything felt like a dream.

Even when she was told to become a knight.

This has to be a dream…

Right?

Thinking that…

She secretly pinched her thigh.

Her Lady didn’t disappear.

Instead…

That elegant white finger simply pointed toward the onion-shaped golden breastplate.

“This is the armor you shall wear, Nashu Shumel.”

…I don’t understand.

What is she talking about…?

Am I being punished because I’m terrible at my job?

If so…

Wouldn’t it be easier just to dismiss me?

Why make me wear strange armor and drag me into the Tower…?

Fighting back tears…

Nashu stammered,

“M-My Lady…”

“I-I don’t know what I’ve done…”

“But I’ll do better…”

“I’ll eat less…”

“I’ll even sleep less…”

“S-So… could you please not take me into the Tower…?”

The Lord didn’t so much as raise an eyebrow.

“This is not a proposal.”

“It is an order.”

“You will obey.”

“…Uwah…”

At last…

Nashu burst into tears.

Her Lady remained merciless.

“Stop crying.”

“Answer me.”

“Will you obey my command?”

She didn’t want to.

Not at all.

But what choice did a mere maid have?

Shivering…

She slowly nodded.

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[Nashu Shumel’s Loyalty has increased significantly.]

[Nashu Shumel’s Affection has decreased significantly.]

[Nashu Shumel has entered your service!]

Duration: Permanent

Loyalty: 60/100 (…)

Affection: -30/100 (…)

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Camellia smiled with satisfaction.

Heavy-handed or not…

She had successfully recruited Nashu Shumel.

Her Loyalty’s higher than I expected.

Why?

Curious…

She opened the detailed information.

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Reasons for Loyalty Increase

• Failure to obey the Lord will result in death! +30

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…I’m not going to kill you, Shushu.

Honestly…

She understood why the girl thought that.

Even Camellia had to admit this recruitment was rather forceful.

But neither she…

Nor Nashu…

Had time to spare.

Camellia glanced sideways at Nashu’s newly added character profile.

The true reason behind her actions lay there.

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Curse of the Golden Bloodline

(Active)

“May every descendant of House Baldur be cursed!”

The curse born from a dragon’s dying breath has yet to lose its power.

If you neglect your training…

Your soul will be devoured by madness.

Activation Condition: Below Level 10

Time Remaining: 26,280 hours 30 minutes 10 seconds

※ This curse cannot be removed.

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There it was.

The curse that transformed her into a Berserker…

If she failed to reach Level 10 before adulthood.

In the game…

The Curse of the Golden Bloodline activated early in Year Three.

Always immediately after the Lord returned from a dungeon expedition.

That was where countless players quit.

By Year Three…

The game had usually settled into a comfortable rhythm.

The territory practically managed itself.

Your party was strong.

Everything felt stable.

You even started thinking,

“So this is the famous brutal dark fantasy?”

“Honestly… it isn’t that bad.”

And so…

Without a care in the world…

You entered the Tower as usual.

You gained levels.

Found some nice equipment.

Returned to the castle.

Then…

Something felt wrong.

The cheerful background music had vanished.

A cold…

Unsettling melody echoed instead.

The NPCs who usually bustled through the halls…

Were nowhere to be seen.

Even your idle companions had disappeared from the reception hall.

Then…

The cinematic began.

On a first playthrough…

It couldn’t even be skipped.

All players could do…

Was watch in growing dread.

Almost mockingly…

The camera moved with agonizing slowness.

First…

An empty corridor.

Then…

Bloodstains smeared across the staircase.

Signs of desperate battle.

Finally…

The corpses of NPCs…

And the companions you’d left behind.

…Oh, you’ve got to be kidding me.

Right around the moment players started screaming and pulling at their hair…

The camera suddenly spun around.

Behind the Lord…

Stood a maid.

Covered head to toe in blood.

Holding an axe.

Giggling.

“Heeheehee…”

It looked like something straight out of a third-rate horror movie.

Before you even had time to curse…

The cinematic ended.

Combat began immediately.

You’d just finished a dungeon.

Your HP was nearly empty.

Your spell slots were exhausted.

Your equipment was half-broken.

And then the game forced a boss fight.

The first time she’d experienced it…

Camellia had genuinely thought the developers had gone insane.

If your luck was especially bad…

It resulted in a complete party wipe.

Even winning came at enormous cost.

Couldn’t you simply reload?

She’d already explained.

The event always occurred after returning from the dungeon.

Reloading meant losing anywhere from thirty minutes…

To several hours of dungeon progress.

It was exactly the sort of event that made players scream,

“To hell with this garbage developer!”

…before uninstalling the game.

Some players even killed Shushu in advance just to skip the event.

Camellia herself had tried everything imaginable.

Turning Shushu into a zombie before leaving for the dungeon…

Then reviving her afterward.

Casting Soul Preservation.

Triggering the event under different conditions.

Locking her in the underground prison while letting her grind levels against monsters.

And countless other experiments.

None of them worked very well.

Because while she remained a maid…

She could never officially become a companion.

Yet here…

Reality was astonishingly simple.

“You’re my companion now.”

One sentence.

Done.

Then…

Let’s see how strong our Shushu is with her soul still intact.

Excitedly…

Camellia opened Nashu’s Status window.

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Nashu Shumel

Level: 1

Class: None

• Strength: 16

• Vitality: 14

• Dexterity: 12

• Intelligence: 6

• Wisdom: 4

• Charisma: 10

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Level 1…

And she already has 16 Strength?!

Even her Dexterity…

The stat governing accuracy and precision…

Was an impressive twelve.

Sure…

Some of her other attributes were lacking.

But those only mattered to weaklings.

When you possessed enough strength to tear apart a bear…

And the Vitality to support it…

Most problems solved themselves.

What about her Trait?

Is that unchanged too?

Camellia quickly opened another window.

Thankfully…

It was exactly as she’d remembered.

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Accident Prone (Tolpatsch)

(Active)

Trying your hardest only to fail again and again…

Is a truly tragic thing.

However…

An accident-prone person can spread failure to others as well.

Sometimes…

Chaos itself becomes the wind that changes the world.

• Chance of receiving status ailments is fixed at 50%.

• Chance of inflicting status ailments is fixed at 100%.

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Wasn’t it beautiful?

One hundred percent.

In a world ruled by dice…

Nothing was more magnificent.

Silence.

Fear.

Stun.

Sleep.

Whatever status effect Nashu inflicted…

It would always land.

So crying wouldn’t help, Shushu.

You absolutely had to level up.

Otherwise…

Neither of them would survive.

With that thought…

Camellia declared,

“Have you finished crying?”

“Then let us begin today’s work.”

“H-Hic…”

Ignoring the girl desperately trying to suppress her hiccups…

Camellia looked toward Rohengrin.

“Can you train her?”

The knight answered awkwardly.

“If Your Ladyship wishes me to take her as a squire…”

“I can do so.”

“But admitting someone completely untested into the Order…”

“The other knights will object.”

“So…”

“You refuse to obey my command?”

“My Lady…”

“Do you truly intend to bring that girl into the Tower?”

“…And wearing…”

His gaze drifted toward the golden onion.

Then he tightly shut his eyes.

Not out of despair.

The breastplate had caught the sunlight and was shining so brilliantly it was blinding him.

Camellia also did her best not to look directly at it.

“Yes.”

“I do.”

“…Understood.”

“If that is your will…”

“I shall obey.”

Rohengrin clearly had much more he wished to say.

But ultimately…

He bowed his head.

Jehar offered no objection either.

More accurately…

He seemed too shaken to object.

“…So…”

“There truly was a child like this…”

Though he struggled to remain calm…

His voice trembled.

As expected of both an Archmage…

And the future mastermind…

He had already recognized the secret hidden within Nashu’s bloodline.

It’s only natural he’d be shocked.

The Golden Clan was one of the oldest dwarven families in existence.

A lineage possessing authority rivaling—or even surpassing—that of royal houses.

Its bloodline was so precious…

There weren’t even any cadet branches.

Which essentially meant…

The odds that a lowly maid was secretly the daughter of some great duke…

Were astonishingly high.

In reality…

She’s the duke’s granddaughter.

That was precisely why killing Nashu dramatically increased the difficulty of every Golden Clan questline.

I wonder…

Will raising her properly change those quests this time?

Adding another variable to her growing list…

Camellia spoke.

“As Steward…”

“How could you possibly know every servant within the castle?”

“It is only natural for you to overlook one.”

“Do not concern yourself.”

“But the fact that my Lady knew…”

“While I remained ignorant…”

Jehar trailed off.

Rohengrin was watching him strangely.

Even Netanel’s curiosity was impossible to hide.

Only after a long silence…

Did Jehar finally sigh.

“…If it is what my Lady desires…”

“My duty is to make it happen.”

“I shall assist the Captain of the Knights to the best of my ability.”

And just like that…

Nashu’s fate was decided.