Chapter 1-36 : The Girl Gets To Know The Dark Elf (part 2)
「The reason why I left my village and came to this city was… A human… A man… His name is Gerald Noymer… He was my benefactor, but… also the person who betrayed me…」(Ingrid)
「…..」(Elle)
Elle didn’t understand what Ingrid meant, but she silently continued listening without asking while hammering the chisel.
「One day, that man came to my village half-dead. He was bleeding and was badly injured. His brown coat looked red because of his blood. The long beard on his face and his thin, dirty body showed that he hadn’t been eaten and bathed in a long time. I was the person who found him by the river, crawling slowly toward the village that day.」(Ingrid)
Ingrid continued telling the story.
The man named Gerald Noymer was on a mission to search for ancient ruins at the request of a nobleman. He got into an accident in an old ruin and was trapped for months before he managed to get out.
As the person who found him dying by the village, Ingrid, who was sixteen years old at that time, was in charge of taking care of that man at the village chief’s order. She provided him with food and medicines while also taking care of her siblings at the same time.
「I became even busier because of him, but I still looked after him wholeheartedly because I kinda liked him back then. The reason was because he praised the magic tools I made, saying they were amazing tools.」(Ingrid)
Her family and her neighbors always told her to stop making pointless stuff and practice archery more instead. They never acknowledge the magic tools Ingrid made.
The only person who praised her tools was Gerald Noymer, and as a craftsman, she couldn’t be happier to hear his praise. She felt like she had finally found the person who completely understood her, though she never thought it would be a human. Not her parents, not her siblings, not her friends, but an outsider.
「After Gerald had fully recovered, he told me he had a brilliant idea. He said he would open a magic tool shop in the royal capital and asked me to come with him and help with the shop. He said that my magic tools would sell very well in the city.」(Ingrid)
「And you agree.」(Elle)
「Yeah, but as a matter of course, my family was against it, especially my parents. They tried to convince me that I had been deceived by that man, but I thought they said that only because they didn’t want me to leave. They had to look after my siblings if I left after all. It’s not that I hate my family, but I was still young back then. I wanted to go outside and see the world, so I agreed with Gerald and came to this city with him.」(Ingrid)
「So, that’s how you ended up in this city. What happened next?」(Elle)
「Living in a big city like this was not as confusing as today since there was no ID card system back then. However, it was still difficult for a country bumpkin, especially if you were a dark elf like me. If it wasn’t for Gerald, I wouldn’t have survived here.」(Ingrid)
「Now I understand why you said he was your benefactor, but… You also said he betrayed you.」(Elle)
Ingrid shifted her gaze downward. Elle could feel sadness in her eyes.
「Yeah… He did… 」(Ingrid)
「Would you mind telling me what happened? Well, if you think it can make you feel better. You don’t have to, of course.」(Elle)
「I don’t mind telling you.」(Ingrid)
Ingrid continued.
As soon as they arrived at the royal capital, Gerald received a huge amount of money from the nobleman who hired him.
Investigating old ruins was a life-threatening job. In fact, he almost died from it. However, the pay was huge. It was a high-risk, high-pay kind of job.
Thanks to that, it didn’t take long for him to open a new magic tool shop with a decent workshop inside.
「I was blown away the moment I saw the workshop for the first time. It was totally different from the small and dirty workshop I had in my home. I was so happy thinking that that amazing place would become my workplace.」(Ingrid)
From that day on, Ingrid started working for Gerald, making various magic tools. She did all the work producing the goods, while Gerald would promote and sell them.
「We made a good team back then. We supported each other. I really didn’t feel anything strange and kept working hard for him.」(Ingrid)
Ingrid’s magic tools sold very well, and Gerald’s shop became famous in just one year. His business began to grow rapidly and generate large revenues.
「Thermal insulation magic pots that keep food warm, refrigerated magic storages that allow you to keep food much longer, magic faucets that can produce hot and cold water, and many other magic tools. The products I came up with were sold like hotcakes one after another. Gerald was overjoyed and praised me. I was happy for him, but then… he changed…」(Ingrid)
Gerald made tons of money from his shopー from Ingrid, to be exact.
He became richer day by day, and his lifestyle began to change drastically until he stopped coming to the workshop to see Ingrid.
He seemed to be busy enjoying his life. He made expensive purchases, went to the opera, played with women, and started gambling and drinking.
Meanwhile, Ingrid’s life remained the same. She lived a simple life in her small room on the second floor of the shop.
「He was so busy with his lavish life that he forgot about me…」(Ingrid)
「But, he still paid you, right?」(Elle)
「He did, but… One day, I talked with the person hired as the clerk. She was a twenty-year-old woman. We talked about our wages, and… she was shocked when I told her how much I was paid.」(Ingrid)
「Shocked?」(Elle)
「Yeah. Considering how high the shop’s sales were, she thought Gerald paid me around 50 gold coins a month, but actually, he only paid me no more than 30 copper coins a month.」(Ingrid)
At that moment, Ingrid learned for the first time that she had been working really hard like a horse for low wages.
「Wait, that’s so unfair!」(Elle)
「Thirty copper coins was a decent amount of money for a young country bumpkin like me, so I didn’t complain. But, as you said, I thought it was unfair, so I went to Gerald’s mansion to talk with him. I wanted to discuss my wages with him, but above all, I wanted his apology for deceiving me and treating me, his business partner, so unfairly. But… Guess what he said.」(Ingrid)
「He didn’t apologize to you?」(Elle)
「No… Instead, he said that he no longer needed me…」(Ingrid)
「What?」(Elle)
「He totally looked like a different person at that time… By the way, do you know what a patent is?」(Ingrid)
「Patent? I remember reading about it in a book. It’s like the right of owning an invention, isn’t it?」(Elle)
「Correct. You need that right to sell your inventions, especially magic tools, to the public. I was young and ignorant back then, so I had no idea about it at all. Gerald knew, and he owned the patent for all the products sold in his shop, not me, the person who actually made them. In other words, he stole my ‘ideas’.」(Ingrid)
Ingrid had worked in Gerald’s shop for five years. During that time, Gerald had claimed the patent for hundreds of inventions that Ingrid came up with and built up enough wealth to live a lavish life.
He no longer needed her because he could reproduce her magic tools and sell them anytime he wanted.
「Either he was blinded by money, or he had been planning all that from the beginning, I don’t even know. I thought he was a good person, but… He betrayed my trust… Probably because I’m a dark elf… He threw me away when I was no use to him like an old rag.」(Ingrid)
「How could he do that to you…? That’s horrible…」(Elle)
「Even worse than dark elves in storybooks?」(Ingrid)
「Yeah… Humans are the worst…」(Elle)
From Ingrid’s story, Elle learned that people could do cruel things even to those who saved their lives.
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