WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Dionysus
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ I Picked Up the Protagonist’s Heroine ◈
Chapter 10: Outside Story (1)
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The day of the Subjugation Festival dawned.
This year’s festival began at the kingdom’s western border.
Countless houses, including House Hasgard, gathered to display their military strength.
Not only nobles, but adventuring parties, mercenary groups, and religious orders as well.
Anyone confident in their strength had gathered there.
For several days, the kingdom’s soldiers had provoked the monsters by invading their territory.
Once the enraged creatures crossed the western border, the festival’s participants would slaughter them.
Humanity was under the mistaken belief that monsters were its only enemies, so this was a festival to control their numbers and demonstrate the kingdom’s prestige.
“Heh heh... Daywin. You’ve become quite a good rider now. Back in September six years ago, you kept falling off and worrying this eldest brother of yours.”
The eldest Hasgard glanced my way.
He was talking about Daywin’s childhood, before I possessed him.
Why did he talk like some historian?
Don’t recite the exact date too.
It gives me chills.
“But, Daywin.”
His smile suddenly faded, and he lowered his voice.
“Did you really bring an Academy student? There must have been better escorts...”
“Brother, you didn’t know? She’s someone our youngest has recently begun sponsoring.”
The middle Hasgard spoke smugly to the eldest Hasgard.
He sounded as though he was proud to know even trivial details about his youngest brother.
I had no idea why they competed over things like that.
“Hmm... I think we should split up here.”
A little later, Dyer quietly announced it.
He was right.
From here on, each of us would lead our own forces to hunt monsters.
“Then, Daywin, tell us right away if you’re in danger. I’ll come at once.”
“Youngest! Don’t forget that your brothers are nearby!”
Hearing that made me realize it again.
Me...
No one really expected anything of me.
“It seems like they don’t expect much from you...”
Ester, riding with me, spoke quietly from behind.
“Though it’s the same for me.... Everyone is so impressive... I still don’t know whether I’m truly needed....”
Ester muttered so quietly I could barely hear her.
She looked swallowed by unease, completely lacking confidence.
If this were Ester from the game, this would have been when she excitedly declared, “It’s time to show what I can do!”
It seemed the tsundere would never return.
As I felt sorry for her, goblins came charging toward us in the distance, raising clouds of dust.
Goblins.
The enemies of this Subjugation Festival.
They were not especially dangerous monsters that needed urgent extermination, but for this festival, someone had deliberately killed their chieftain and enraged the goblin tribe.
It made me feel apologetic for being human.
“Ester, we’re going to follow my second brother.”
“Uh... Aren’t we splitting up now?”
“My second brother is terribly scatterbrained. We should help him a little.”
“Ah, yes.”
“So, Ester, I’m counting on you.”
Perhaps my expression changed without me realizing it as I spoke, because Ester stared intently at my face.
“Ah... Yes.”
The Subjugation Festival.
Today.
I could never forget this day.
I thought the memories would fade with time, but every time summer returned, regret and sorrow only piled up.
On this day in my previous life, my second brother died.
* * *
The day of the closing ceremony.
Before the Subjugation Festival began.
“Lucia, I’ll be away for a while because I’m going to the Subjugation Festival.”
At those words, Lucia raised her eyes, darkened by deep circles.
Lucia.
A third-year member of the Swordsmanship Department.
One of the five heroines.
A girl whose days and nights had been reversed.
And a member of a criminal guild operating in the pleasure district of the marquisate.
“Master Karma is going to the Subjugation Festival?”
“Of course, I won’t be killing monsters. As always, I’ll be killing people.”
The man called Karma grinned.
With a shaved head that seemed intended to show off his clean hairline, he spoke as his green eyes gleamed strangely.
“Lucia, do you know of House Hasgard?”
Hasgard.
Lucia had heard that name recently.
“My name is Daywin Hasgard.”
She had not merely heard the name. She had met his gaze and even spoken to him.
He was the strange person who offered a scholarship to her, someone whose grades had hit rock bottom because she slept through class every day.
There was no way she could have forgotten that name already.
“...I know it.”
“You do? That’s unexpected. I thought you wouldn’t know them since they’re border nobles. Do you know them personally?”
“No.”
Strictly speaking, she could say that she did.
But Karma’s mood felt unsettling somehow, so she gave a dry answer.
“That’s good, then. The target of this job is Hasgard’s second son. They want him killed during the Subjugation Festival.”
Karma, the guildmaster, casually tossed out the words as though it were nothing.
Lucia felt as if her heart had dropped, but she struggled to keep her expression from changing.
‘The second son. Which son was that man?’
“Who commissioned it?”
“You’re coming too? I’ll tell you if you are.”
“...Lucia has remedial classes at the Academy.”
She had been exempted from remedial classes thanks to Daywin Hasgard, but she lied without a change in expression.
“This job is rather interesting. Apparently, Hasgard was the name of a war hero who distinguished himself in the war against the undead long ago. He became a count in one stroke for that service. My guess is... the client might be a follower of a necromancer.”
“Why bring up something from a hundred years ago now...?”
Snap!
As soon as Lucia finished speaking, Karma snapped his fingers.
“That’s the interesting part. If the client really is a follower of a necromancer, why now? If it were hatred or revenge, shouldn’t they have tried to kill them long ago? Well, as long as I get paid, that’s enough for me.”
While Karma rambled on, Lucia recalled something that had happened at the Academy.
A conversation she had accidentally overheard while passing the chairman’s office.
“As you said, Laward possesses talents unseen in an age. But I have no intention of giving up on the other students.”
“Even if those five are merely underachievers right now.”
“Please trust the students a little more.”
Lucia had overheard Daywin persuading the chairman.
His voice was strong, full of confidence and conviction.
At first, she had not intended to eavesdrop.
But the moment she heard Daywin’s voice, Lucia stopped walking without realizing it.
She wanted to listen a little longer.
She wanted to keep hearing the words of someone who believed even in a person mired in the gutter, someone who had joined a criminal guild.
She had become so entranced by Daywin’s words that she missed her chance to leave the corridor.
Careless enough to nearly give herself away, for an assassin.
‘I don’t know which son he is.’
‘But.’
“Do you have to go...?”
“Hm?”
“I have a bad feeling.”
“...About what?”
“It could be a trap.”
“Well, that’s possible. But it’s a job big enough to take that risk.”
“If it’s because of the fee, I’ll work more. Even if I have to cut back on sleep...”
“Hm? This is the first time you’ve acted like this.”
Karma tilted his head, then soon wore a cold expression.
“Of course I have to go. The reward is no joke, considering the target is a count’s house.”
“That’s why it’s dangerous.”
“Ha... Lucia, do you even know how much money is riding on this job?”
“I don’t, but...”
“You know that no matter how many other jobs you take, they won’t even compare to this one.”
“Still, if I work several times harder...”
“Even if you did, you’d still have a long way to go before covering your siblings’ shares. Your siblings, who know nothing but how to eat and shit. Who do you think took them in and raised them?”
The moment he mentioned her siblings, Lucia had no choice but to fall silent.
“Should I throw them all out on the streets? Three little girls in the pleasure district. Do you think they’d last a day without my protection?”
“...”
“In your current situation, you can’t possibly do the work of three people. Or you could quit that pathetic Academy and work all day. You don’t want that either, do you?”
Karma lowered himself to meet Lucia’s eyes.
“Ah, Lucia. Don’t make that face. It makes me the bad guy again. I really want to treat you all well. If only you wouldn’t defy me so pointlessly.”
“It’s not as though I wanted to be here...”
“Yes, yes. It’s no one’s fault. If we have to blame someone, blame your parents, who had children in my guild and died on you. It would be easier to resent them, Lucia.”
He patted Lucia’s shoulder and walked past her.
“Move aside if you understand.”
Once Karma used her siblings against her, she could no longer resist.
It was true that he was looking after her younger siblings.
Lucia could not take responsibility for them by herself.
They would literally end up on the streets, begging.
Especially in the Sixth District of the marquisate, known for its terrible security.
And she knew that if she angered him further, he would strike not only Lucia, but her siblings as well.
He always had.
Lucia stared at Karma’s fist, swinging rhythmically with his swaggering steps.
That hand kept her from leaving the guild.
And that hand would kill Hasgard’s second son.
‘...That doesn’t mean I can pretend I know nothing.’
Since she was exempt from summer remedial classes, she had gained time to move.
Enough time to follow Karma to the Subjugation Festival.
* * *
Back in the present.
The Subjugation Festival had begun in the middle of a green forest.
“Hm?”
Romans came to his senses and looked behind him.
Daywin, who had said they would each lead their own forces, had started following him.
‘Did he get scared after seeing actual goblins...? Monsters seen only in books and stories are surely more intimidating when they’re right in front of you.’
Fear.
That seemed reason enough for Daywin to suddenly stick to Romans.
‘It’s his first time, so it can’t be helped. I was startled the first time too. Yes, Daywin. Stay behind me instead.’
Romans nodded and pulled his reins.
His troops soon reached the goblin-infested forest.
Though they were weaker than humans, this was now the monsters’ territory.
A forest thick with enormous trees.
Romans swallowed as he imagined goblins lying in ambush above them.
“From here, reduce speed and advance slowly. Those with shields, move to the front! Prepare for an ambush!”
To block arrows from the trees, soldiers holding tall shields filled the front line.
Thud!
As the soldiers at the front raised their shields and changed formation...
Whoosh!
Goblins hidden in the trees fired their arrows.
They intended to sow chaos before the formation could be completed.
“Behind the shields! Don’t let the line break!”
Romans’s soldiers moved as they had been trained.
They had expected the goblins to take the high ground and fire arrows, so despite the confusion, they quickly formed ranks.
Crack! Thwack!
The shield-bearers at the front withstood the volley of arrows.
‘...Why are there so many?’
But something was strange.
Thwack!
An arrow slipped past a shield and buried itself in a soldier’s arm.
The soldier let out a brief scream, and Romans gritted his teeth.
The Subjugation Festival was exactly that, a festival, not a war.
Accidents sometimes caused casualties, but it was meant to include amusement.
Yet...
‘There are too many... This is ominous....’
Romans Hasgard took cover behind a shield.
The resistance was fiercer than expected.
They did not even know how many goblins there were yet.
Even if they broke through this assault, there was no knowing how many more might be gathered deeper in the forest.
‘I don’t like this. Something... is wrong.’
At the same time, Daywin turned his head slightly and met Ester’s eyes.
“Ester, have you ever heard of House Hasgard?”
He asked Ester the same question someone had once asked Lucia.
Caught off guard, Ester thought for a moment before shaking her head.
“Well, actually... no....”
“Of course not. To the protagonists, our story isn’t even a substory or a side story.”
“...Pardon?”
“It is probably no more than an irrelevant rumor. A rumor that does not matter if it vanishes and is forgotten, one that merely passes by.”
Daywin suddenly began speaking of strange things.
“I’m sorry, Patron. I don’t really... understand.”
Daywin merely smiled at Ester’s words.
“Forget it. Like I said, it’s only a rumor.”
House Hasgard had nothing at all to do with the main story, and it was never even mentioned.
The descendants of a forgotten hero were unnecessary to the protagonist and heroines.
But one extra remembered.
An extra who survived until the end of the world remembered that inconsequential story with painful clarity.
In his previous life, Daywin awakened remarkable holy power, but he skipped the Subjugation Festival simply because it was bothersome.
He spent that day alone at the estate, passing the time in leisure.
He could never forget that day, which should have been peaceful and relaxed.
“Daywin, don’t be startled when you hear this.”
His eldest brother, always bright and full of energy, faced Daywin while swallowing tears.
“Romans has left us. It was an accident during the Subjugation Festival.”
Dyer bit down as though he would shatter his molars, suppressing the emotions boiling inside him.
Things might have been different if Daywin had come to the festival.
If the youngest, beloved by the goddess, had been there, perhaps he could have twisted the tragedy aside.
Dyer and Daywin both knew that.
The eldest brother’s lifeless eyes seemed ready to pour out blame at any moment.
Daywin thought his understanding had finally come to an end.
If you had been there.
If you had not held back your strength.
If you had not lived so pathetically.
“Daywin.”
Daywin squeezed his eyes shut, expecting the words to follow like a dagger.
He wished time would stop just like that, but regrettably, Dyer spoke.
“It’s a blessing that you didn’t come.”
He pulled Daywin into a tight embrace and spoke with desperate sincerity.
His eldest brother did not measure the future that might have changed if Daywin had come.
Far from blaming Daywin for staying away from the festival.
“I’m glad you’re safe.”
He felt relief.
Even as Dyer was dragged into unbearable rage and grief, he wanted his one remaining younger brother to be somewhere safe.
It was enough for the eldest son to remain in hell.
“Ester, I’ve never felt so ashamed in my life.”
Daywin would have preferred to be blamed.
Only then did he decide to live properly, but by then it was too late.
Romans’s death was only the beginning of the tragedy.
From that point on, House Hasgard slowly approached the path to ruin.
After collecting his thoughts, Daywin raised his hand toward the sky.
The moment he sent a prayer upward...
Boom!
A brilliant pillar of light broke through the clouds and surrounded Daywin.
“Patron...?”
Ester shielded her eyes with the back of her hand from the sudden flash.
When the light faded, Daywin had changed astonishingly.
Pure white.
Daywin wore armor as white as snow.
The symbol of a paladin who had received divine will and stepped onto the battlefield.
The power possessed by the last paladin.
Hummm...
A ring of light floated behind Daywin’s head.
A halo.
Proof that he had been chosen by the goddess.
From this point on, it was a story unrelated to the protagonist.
It was the story of an extra alone.
While the protagonist stood in the spotlight, extras busily moved behind the stage.
No one looked there.
No one cared.
There were no choices, and no bonds were formed.
It left no trace toward the goal of preventing the end of the world.
I knew that.
But.
I could not let this event pass by.
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