How to survive as a beggar count

Chapter 5

Hunting requires hunting tools.

I came to the Impera family’s warehouse to see if there was a decent dagger I could use.

Until before Ian was born, the Impera family was a well-off house.

Now everything was taken, but there were still many treasures collected from dungeons under the Count’s domain.

The previous head of the family, Ian’s grandfather, had a hobby of collecting treasures.

The reason the Impera family had a feud with the Benner family was because the previous head of the family had stolen artifacts from them.

As a result, the Impera family’s warehouse had many useful artifacts.

[Volates’ Pearl] [Riteba’s Holy Grail] They had stolen many things.

After the death of the previous head of the family, the Impera family walked the path of decline, starting with a territorial war against various domains.

Ian was now left dealing with the consequences of the family’s past.

The remaining treasures were mostly used for paying Ian’s drinking debts.

“Hmm.”

The warehouse was filled with all sorts of junk artifacts.

Boxes that might have contained precious jewels were thrown open, and empty scabbards were scattered around, with nothing inside.

The only things left were unsellable trinkets.

It likely hadn’t been like this originally.

It was probably due to the territory war compensation or Ian rummaging through what looked valuable, and this was the result.

“Useless. This bastard.”

Flipping through the clutter to find a useful artifact, something caught my foot. It was a book, covered in dust.

When I wiped away the dust, I felt an eerie aura emanating from it.

“This is…”

The cover was made from leather stitched together with thread. The shiny, white surface didn’t look like ordinary leather.

“…It’s human skin.”

As I stared at the artifact, a light suddenly emanated from my left palm.

The light gathered over the artifact, and a description of the artifact’s name and power appeared.

“That’s interesting. It’s not like a beam projector or anything.”

When I opened and closed my left hand, the text disappeared and reappeared in a repeating cycle.

Curious, I did it a few more times before reading the artifact’s description again.

[Necronomicon: A secret book containing the essence of ancient knowledge. According to rumors, the author of this book is said to be an entity not of this world.]

-When used, it permanently fixes the target’s dark magic rank at 5.

The book that drove Ian Impera mad. An artifact with the incredible ability to raise the target’s dark magic rank to 5.

However, it is a sinister item that demands a heavy price.

The cost is the caster’s soul.

“This is why it didn’t sell.”

The artifact, which was taken to the neighboring territory to be sold but couldn’t be because it was too malicious.

“If you’re going to sell your soul just to raise your rank by a bit, what an idiot,” I muttered.

Thinking back to the depictions of the afterlife in Rank’s Rise to World Conquest, I realized just how steep a price it was to give up one’s soul.

Ian probably had no idea about this when he used it.

“Just for a little rank increase, you sell your soul? What a thoughtless bastard.”

The more I held the Necronomicon, the more the ominous aura around it grew.

It was useless to keep such a thing. It should be burned immediately…

Wait, no. If I burn it, I might incur the wrath of that demon.

The situation was already precarious enough.

If I caught the demon’s attention now, things would only get worse. It was better to leave it locked up safely in the warehouse for now.

“…It might be useful later.”

I suddenly got curious.

What would happen if someone with a magic rank of 6 or higher used this item?

Would their rank drop? Permanently?

I’ve seen debuff items that temporarily lower ranks, but never a permanent one in any of the novels I’ve read.

I wasn’t sure if it was even possible, but I couldn’t bring myself to burn it just in case.

I carefully stored the Necronomicon in a box and placed it in a corner.

Then, I went back to sifting through the reports.

“…This is it.”

[Altea’s Dagger: A dagger used by the legendary thief Altea when they were young. It is extremely sharp, so children should be cautious.]

-Increases the user’s swordsmanship rank by 1. However, if the user’s swordsmanship rank is 3 or higher, this effect is nullified.

Rank 1 is something you can easily get just by swinging a sword a few times.

It was a piece of junk with a fancy name.

But for my urgent needs, it wasn’t so bad. It was better than nothing.

I considered looking for other artifacts, but nothing seemed more useful than this.

I tucked the low-level dagger into my pocket.

“I’ll come back and check again later.”

***

[Large Horned Boar sighting on the back mountain of Krizel village. Request for extermination.] As expected, the request to hunt the horned boar had been submitted.

It had been over a month since the submission. Even considering how slow the bureaucracy could be, a month was too long.

“Can’t blame them for complaining.”

“Why the sudden interest in the request?”

Ilen, who had secretly taken the request from Aemon’s office, asked.

Ian had always avoided territorial affairs.

It was strange for him to suddenly ask for a request like this. No one would have guessed he was planning to go hunt the boar.

“Nobles sure are something…”

“I was just curious. Is there a problem?”

“No, no! I was just curious!”

“Right.”

Ilen, who had snuck documents out of Aemon’s personal office, seemed a little nervous.

After all, she had seen Ian’s reckless behavior up close more than anyone else.

But what of it? On the surface, I was Aemon’s son, and I had every right to look at the petition.

I had gathered my hunting tools, roughly figured out where the prey was, and now all that was left was the hunt.

“U-uh… Your Highness? Just to be sure, you’re not going after the horned boar mentioned in the petition, are you?”

There was worry in Ilen’s eyes.

She was a year younger than Ian by age, and yet, it was her who was worried about me. She feared I might do something reckless and end up dead.

Should I be grateful, or annoyed?

“Don’t worry about it. Should I report every little thing?”

What I actually wanted to say was “You don’t need to worry about it,” but it came out in Ian’s usual tone.

I couldn’t help it—what I said may be stuck in my mouth, but I shouldn’t let my personality get affected by it.

“Ah… I’m sorry.”

“…It means there’s nothing to worry about. I don’t want to die just yet. And keep this secret from Father. Put the petition back where it was.”

“…Huh? Mmm. Alright, Your Highness.”

Her face still looked confused, but since it was the master’s orders, she didn’t ask any more questions.

***

“This is the place,” I muttered.

A forest thick with underbrush. It looked like no one had passed through here in ages, as there was not even a footpath.

Nearby, there was a sign, smeared with red paint, nailed to a tree.

A boar with horns and a person, both marked with a large ‘X’ across them.

It seemed like a warning—if you wandered in carelessly, you’d be killed by the horned boar. Even a blind person could probably understand that.

According to the petition, the hunting grounds should be around here.

Krizel Village.

A poor village that mainly relied on foraging for mushrooms and fruits in the mountains.

I remembered occasionally offering rare mushrooms when I was young.

Other than that, the village didn’t collect much in taxes.

The population was small, and even if they tried foraging, it wouldn’t bring in much money.

Naturally, it had been neglected by the Impera Duchy.

[A large horned boar sighting on the back mountain of Krizel Village. Request for extermination.]

The petition I had taken from Aemon’s office was simple—just a request to deal with the boar that had appeared in the village.

However, Aemon had ignored the petition and left it untouched.

There was nothing to be done.

Most likely, other urgent matters had taken priority due to the holes in the national finances.

There were no regular soldiers to send, so Aemon would have to handle it personally… but he was simply too busy.

It had already been almost a month, so it was likely that the boar had grown even larger by now.

“Ugh…”

If I had dealt with it a month ago, it would have been easy to take care of.

This was all Ian’s fault. If that reckless bastard hadn’t been wasting the taxes on gambling, this would have been dealt with long ago.

This is what happens when the higher-ups are rotten; it makes everyone below suffer.

Crisp.

Ignoring the warning sign, I stepped into the thick brush. The long grass brushed against my clothes as I moved.

With one hand gripping Althea’s dagger, I scanned the surroundings. By the way, this was quite a useful little dagger.

Humm…

A faint vibration came from the dagger as a light breeze swirled around it. That was the sound only a blade finely sharpened could produce.

“Not bad.”

A dagger that grants a +1 to swordsmanship rank for its wielder.

For someone as weak as me, it was a glimmer of hope.

With this, even with my low rank, I should be able to deal some damage to the boar.

“Pig meat…!”

Pork! Samgyeopsal! Sirloin! Pork hocks! There’s nothing to waste about a grateful creature like this.

“Just wait. I’ll eat you down to the bone.”

I licked my lips as I started preparing to face the boar.

Horned boars typically had low intelligence. They were so stupid that they often got their horns stuck in trees and died.

Because of that, they were a valuable food resource for mountain animals, but occasionally, some smart ones would appear, and those were the real problem.

The smarter the boar, the longer it would live, and the bigger it would get. And the bigger it got, the more dangerous it became.

These boars would start hunting other animals with their huge size, becoming a headache.

In a mountain village like this, it was important to hunt horned boars regularly.

“First, I need to set up a bait.”

I looked around the trees for anything that could lure the boar.

The people of Krizel Village had been too afraid to enter the mountains recently because of the boar.

As a result, ripe fruits were hanging from the trees all around.

“Tsk.”

The fruits were so plump that I almost bit into one without thinking.

‘No.’

If I wanted to eat my fill later, I needed to resist now. Besides, these fruits were unfamiliar. They looked like apples on the outside but felt mushy inside, which made me hesitant to eat them.

I remembered the advice from the book I’d read for boar hunting and gathered the fruits needed.

[In a deserted place like this, horned boars are a valuable food resource. While lacking a weapon, it’s not impossible to catch them. If you understand their habits, hunting them is easy.
Boars have very poor eyesight but an extremely sensitive sense of smell. Using crushed fruit as bait will make hunting them a piece of cake.]

‘Piece of cake? How hard is that, really.’

I chuckled to myself at the thought.

Catching a boar is tough, in any world—be it South Korea or the Impera Duchy.

I picked up the fruits that had fallen to the ground, those that had ripened too much and burst, releasing a sweet fragrance.

I gathered them into a pile and began smashing them with a large stone.

Soon enough, I had a basket of something resembling jam.

I spread it along the path the boar was likely to travel.

Now all I had to do was wait.

I considered setting a trap, but I decided against it.

The boar was a clever beast that had survived for a long time. A simple trap might raise its suspicion.

Instead, I poured the fruit jam on the ground and climbed a tall tree nearby. My arms ached, but the many branches made it possible to climb.

Now, I just had to wait for the boar to come.

With my swordsmanship rank so low, I wouldn’t be able to land a proper blow. But if I could strike with my weight from this height…

Penetrating the boar’s hide shouldn’t be that difficult.

Grrr…

“Ugh.”

My stomach growled, having not eaten for a while.

“When is this damn pig coming?”

Grrr…

From somewhere, I heard an odd noise.

“Heh! You’re not going to be a noble, are you?”

From a distance, a boar with long horns was approaching, sniffing the air.

It was clearly a very old one, as it was huge.

The closer it got, the bigger it seemed to become.

Thud… Thud…

“…Huh?”

It was only when it got right up to me that I realized just how massive it was. Maybe I should have brought a spear instead of a dagger.

‘…What? Why is it so big?’