WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Dionysus

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ I Picked Up the Protagonist’s Heroine ◈

Chapter 12: It Becomes a Completely Different Story

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Whiiiine.

A spirit flew straight at the assassin.

Boom!

A tremor shook the earth.

But this time, it missed.

A silhouette stood firm amid the dust.

Had they dodged in that instant?

They were no pushover.

What a nuisance.

“...Ha.”

With a nasty grin, they casually set down the goblin stone axe.

Then.

Whoosh!

They drew a hidden dagger and aimed for my arm.

Clang!

My armor kept my arm from being severed, but the impact made my shoulder go numb.

“...Looks like you gave up pretending to be a goblin.”

“You don’t seem like someone I can take down with a stone axe. Whew, this is tense. A crisis, a crisis!”

They drew another dagger from their waist and switched to a dual-wielding stance.

Whoosh!

In an instant, they were behind me.

They had been in front of me just moments ago.

“When was it? I once fought a paladin. I said one thing about the goddess, and they drew their sword and came charging at me. Honestly, can’t someone make a joke?”

I sensed them trying to provoke me by insulting the goddess, but I ignored them.

I had never been devout in the first place.

“Even after their ankle was severed, they got back up through sheer willpower. Paladins really are tough. But that’s all you people have. You’re durable, but slow as hell.”

Whoosh!

They changed positions again.

“See? I told you. Slow.”

They lowered their stance and darted in.

Swish!

At the same time, their dagger shot for the back of my knee.

Crunch!

It happened in an instant.

I turned and deflected it with a piece of armor, but if I had been even slightly slower, my leg would have been cut off.

“Tch.”

Just as quickly as they had come in, they widened the distance again.

The back of the knee was an area my armor could not cover.

They knew how to deal with an armored opponent.

So they had not lied about fighting a paladin.

Clang! Clang!

After that, their daggers each slashed across the armor on my arms and legs.

Their movements showed the confidence that they could cut me anywhere if they wanted to.

They had not pierced through yet, but it was only a matter of time.

They relentlessly targeted my joints.

And they were moving even faster than when they had first approached.

“You really aren’t any different from the other paladins. I told you, you and I are a bad match.”

They pointed at my damaged armor and sneered.

“I thought you might be unusual, but you’re still within my expectations. Against someone fast like me...”

They were coming again.

The moment I thought that.

“You can’t do anything!”

Their dagger flew toward my throat.

Then.

Flash!

A flash burst from my hand, stealing their sight.

It was the basic spell the priest at the monastery had demonstrated, a spell that created an orb of light.

“Argh! You cowardly bastard!”

They covered both eyes with one arm and swung their other arm wildly.

“And you call yourself a noble knight after this...!”

“Was an unclean paladin outside your expectations?”

Hummm...

Meanwhile, the spirits had finished preparing.

Four spirits hovered around me.

The buff I had placed on them was “Heightened Detection.”

It was an enhancement spell that maximized the senses.

Normally, it was used to detect and track hidden enemies or mana.

But by stacking its effects, it could do more than that.

For example, it could read the speed of that fly-like bastard.

Swish!

As they recovered from the flash and began moving again, the spirits’ gazes followed them.

As though connected by invisible threads, they twisted their bodies in whichever direction they moved.

Ready to react at any moment.

While I blocked their daggers with my armor, the spirits adapted to their speed with their greatly enhanced detection.

Now I added more buffs.

Defense Up.

Accuracy Up.

Movement Speed Increase.

Clang!

When they thrust their dagger, one spirit threw itself forward and deflected the attack.

“What...?”

Buff magic was the very identity of a paladin.

The roles the spirits performed changed according to their buffs.

While tracking their movements, the spirits had become tougher, more accurate, and faster.

In other words.

From this moment onward, the spirits would become moving shields.

The assassin charged with both daggers held in a reverse grip.

They approached again, but.

Whoosh!

One of the spirits blocked their path.

Just before they collided with the hardened spirit, they had no choice but to retreat.

They regained their balance with a startled expression.

They tried closing the distance again, but instead of my throat, their dagger only struck a spirit.

No matter how quickly they moved, the spirits kept up with their speed.

They had already reached the point they intended to strike.

“Blowing up the goddess’s spirits, using them as meat shields... The more I learn about you, the less faithful a paladin you seem. I wonder why you haven’t been dismissed, but whatever. This is fun. I’ll tell the others when I get back.”

“Sounds like you have plenty of friends in the afterlife.”

“Ha. Are you just going to keep blocking?”

They spoke as though they had plenty of leisure, but their breathing had grown rougher than before.

Hummm...

One spirit that had been moving to block them returned to its place in front of me.

“From what I can see.”

As I began speaking, they fell silent.

Or perhaps they were simply catching their breath.

“Your specialty seems to be quickly closing in and swinging your blades, but my spirits have already adapted to your speed. Yes, just as you said.”

Shffft.

The spirits formed a line and confronted them.

“You and I are a bad match.”

The moment I finished speaking, the corners of their eyes tightened.

This time, I approached them.

Naturally, the spirits around me followed.

Shing!

I drew the sword at my waist and took my stance.

It was a third-rate longsword that had been lying around the house.

I wasn’t a craftsman, so I did blame my tools sometimes, but it would be enough to cut off his head.

Let’s finish this.

Whoosh!

As I swung my sword, they bent backward at the waist and evaded the slash.

They dodged with an acrobatic movement and reflexively launched a counterattack.

Thud!

But it was blocked by a spirit once again.

They countered from a posture that looked like some sort of stunt, but when that failed, they were left looking ridiculous.

That reflexive counterattack.

It became their weakness instead, throwing off their posture.

I could not lose the exchanges in close combat.

The spirits handled all the defense while I focused solely on attacking.

It made for a far more convenient fight.

Just like this.

Slash!

All I had to do was wait for an opening and cut them down.

“Ghk!”

A vertical slash.

I cut their jaw and neck at once, but it was shallow.

I had intended to take their head in one blow, but they barely managed to evade even that.

Instead, the tip of my sword sliced through their mask, and it slowly slipped down.

The face hidden beneath their hood and mask began to emerge.

The moment I saw it.

I stopped breathing.

A shaved head and green eyes.

And that detestable expression.

...They were the leader of the guild Lucia belonged to.

There had been a clue here.

A clue hidden in the Subjugation Festival, one that could have let me realize this world was a game.

Their name was...

Karma, was it?

By not attending the Subjugation Festival, I had lost more than just my second older brother.

Because of one wrong choice, I had missed my chance to realize the truth of this world early on.

I had thought the Subjugation Festival had nothing to do with relationship events.

I had thought no choices would appear and no affinity would change.

But perhaps many things would change now.

“Did Lucia come too?”

“No, Lucia is... Wait. Who are you?”

“Then it doesn’t matter.”

The Laward-Lucia scenario began when Laward dealt with Karma.

In other words.

If I killed this bastard beforehand, Laward and Lucia would never end up together.

The very basis for it would disappear.

“Perfect.”

Now that I knew the assassin’s identity, I no longer had to worry about them dying before I could confirm who was behind this.

Clack.

I grabbed one spirit in my hand and moved it over the blade.

Shhk.

I moved my hand as though spreading oil over it, infusing the spirit into the sword.

As the buff placed on the spirit transferred to the sword, its blade turned orange and began to hum.

The remaining spirits moved as well.

Two spirits attached themselves to my right and left greaves.

The last one attached itself to my left gauntlet.

I remembered how they had shattered the ground to close the distance before.

Crunch!

Imitating that movement, I caught up to them in an instant.

Whoosh!

At the same time, the spirit attached to my left hand moved at tremendous speed and thrust out the sword.

“What...?”

They could not continue.

Slice.

The sword strike, accompanied by sword aura, severed their neck in one blow.

Their headless body dropped to its knees and collapsed with a heavy thud.

The third-rate longsword could not withstand the mana contained in the spirit and began melting away in drops.

With the sword I had hastily brought from home, containing a spirit even once was the best I could manage.

I turned around and checked the corpse.

Blood gushed from the hollow neck, staining the green grass red.

“...Hmm.”

Searching a corpse was unpleasant, but I had to collect the loot.

If my memory was correct, they were a boss with rather generous rewards.

A mid-boss character.

If Laward did not have sufficiently high stats, they could not defeat Karma, and their relationship with Lucia would reach its limit.

But when they killed Karma, numerous Lucia endings opened up, along with additional rewards.

There should be a key somewhere.

As I turned the body over and searched its pockets, something caught on my fingertips.

This texture was paper.

It was not the key I had expected, but I pulled it out and checked it anyway.

The paper was an assassination contract.

It said that a vast amount of gold would be paid for assassinating Romans Hasgard.

The sender was the Death God Cult.

Fanatics who followed necromancers.

Their symbol was clearly written on it.

They stood on the opposite side of the Goddess Church, gathering and hiding beneath the name Death God Cult.

By the time I learned of their existence in my previous life, the war had already begun.

Until now, I had thought the force that commissioned House Hasgard’s destruction had been one of the territories bordering the Hasgard County.

I had thought they had done it to seize Hasgard territory.

But I was wrong.

Those who targeted House Hasgard were followers of the hidden mastermind.

We had been prey for something far greater.

This was a completely different story.

I had been an extra, but perhaps I had not been a minor one.

Since no one remembered my face, I could become anyone.

Passerby No. 1, Villager A, even a tree.

While the protagonist stood in the spotlight and gave a brilliant performance, an extra busily changed into another role behind the curtain.

Then they returned to the stage as someone else.

This time, I might have a rather significant role.

Squeeze.

I clenched the assassination contract tightly in my fist.

Now I knew.

Now that I knew the Death God Cult had been active far earlier than expected, I could trace them in reverse.

I could strike back.

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