WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Dionysus
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ I Picked Up the Protagonist’s Heroine ◈
Chapter 18: We're Taking Over These Streets Again
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“Stop.”
I stepped in because if I let this continue, someone really was going to bleed.
“Lucia, stop.”
Lucia had somehow lifted a chair.
She was moments from a chair shot.
Scrape.
Lucia reluctantly put the chair down.
Though she had not completely let go of it.
“Should I call this lively?”
The marquess, who had silently watched the farce from the back, spoke.
“It is a little quieter now... Daywin, I would like you to tell me about this boy.”
He was obviously referring to Laward.
Then again, I had not expected Laward to become such a killing machine either.
The marquess must have been dying of curiosity since this morning.
“He is someone I am raising.”
Laward had been picking out cookies for me when he heard that. He grinned, looking pleased.
“That was an impressive performance. Honestly, I had my doubts at first... but I look forward to seeing more from you.”
Pat.
Marquess Fred patted Laward on the shoulder.
“Yeah, whatever.”
Laward openly showed his displeasure and brushed the marquess's hand away.
“Do as you like.”
Ah, right.
He had always been such an ill-mannered bastard....
His attitude changed so drastically around me that I sometimes forgot.
In the game, he had come from the slums, knew no manners, and spoke casually to everyone.
Of course, I had socialized him somewhat by now, so he had acquired the ability to use respectful speech....
But around adult men other than me, his slum habits occasionally slipped out.
That bastard probably had some sort of backstory, just like the heroines.
“Laward, mind your manners.”
“...I apologize.”
After that, Marquess Fred went on about District 6's future, but I had already achieved my goal, so I did not listen closely.
Instead, while idly looking around out of boredom, my eyes met those of a statue of the goddess.
Looking at it somehow brought back an old memory.
Not from my time as a Paladin.
Not from the days when I lazed around at home, either.
It was from much earlier than that.
It felt as if I could hear a vivid voice coming from that lump of stone.
“Are you really not going to do a second playthrough?”
It was something a junior from university had said.
The developer who had created this world.
“There are so many events you have not seen yet, Senior! Actually, you have missed most of them!”
“I am not doing it. It is not my type.”
Especially considering the heroines' ages.
“Just try a second playthrough. There is even a character modeled after you, Senior. Are you not curious what they are like?”
“You... did not get my permission...?”
“Haha.”
“I never noticed at all... There was a character like that?”
“There was. But you did not meet them. Thanks to you going straight for the hidden ending route in one go.”
As I looked at the statue, a conversation I had never once recalled suddenly came back to me.
It felt as though the memory were being pulled up from somewhere deep below, as if I had dug a well.
“You did not even encounter the villains I created.”
The developer's official word.
I had definitely heard something like that.
“Villains... What exactly do you think I am...?”
018
After wrapping up my conversation with the marquess, I headed to District 6.
Houndry's hideout.
Karma's room.
A place that could now be called my room without issue.
Click.
Lucia, who had followed me, shut the door and stood beside it.
...It was around here.
I pressed the brick whose location I had found at dawn.
Rumble.
As the bricks around the safe rearranged themselves, Lucia carefully spoke.
“Is that why you became Karma? To take possession of the safe?”
“That is part of it, but not all of it.”
“Then is it a desire for conquest?”
“Conquest?”
“I heard that in the past, there was a custom of beheading an enemy commander and taking their family or subordinates.”
“...I have no such barbaric tastes.”
This was the lonely rebuttal of a man whose life's goal was to steal all the protagonist's women.
“Besides, if that were the reason, you would be included among those being taken.”
“Lucia is prepared... though.”
She was saying something insane again.
Do not get drawn in.
It was the exact same pattern as when we first met.
If I took the bait here, she would surely counterattack with, “That is not what I meant. Lord Karma, you are vulgar.”
And Lucia had just said something far more important.
The part about beheading an enemy commander.
“...You knew all along?”
“Mm... yes.”
Lucia slowly nodded.
“I was at the Subjugation Festival too, but I could not help you. I am sorry.”
“You have nothing to apologize for. There was no need for you to help. More importantly, your younger siblings?”
“They are sleeping in their room.”
“I thought they would want to leave immediately. That is surprising. You can live elsewhere if you want. I will give you money. I am opening the safe anyway.”
“Houndry is not dangerous anymore.”
“Is living in a criminal organization not usually the most dangerous thing...?”
“I like it here now.”
For some reason, Lucia looked relieved as she said that.
Scrape.
The secret safe appeared while we spoke.
I searched through the safe again, this time properly inspecting the things I had only glanced over at dawn.
“Hmm.”
“What is it?”
Rustle.
I examined the pile of unorganized papers I had passed over earlier.
There was another black envelope.
The stationery showed signs of having been torn apart and pasted back together.
At a glance, it looked like miscellaneous junk, or trash.
Some of the writing could no longer be read because it had been torn, but it was enough.
The name written on it alone was enough of a clue.
Amelia.
The Death God Cult had demanded two lives from Houndry.
One was Romans Hasgard.
The other was Princess Amelia.
One of the five heroines.
A second-year student in both the Magic Department and the Swordsmanship Department.
The torn envelope was an assassination contract for Amelia.
“The fact that the envelope was torn must mean it was refused.”
They had intended to throw it away, but kept it as evidence for now.
No matter how much they liked money, touching the royal family was suicide.
They could not have ruined Houndry, which had been maintained for four generations, over a single contract.
The fourth Karma had accepted only the contract to assassinate Romans Hasgard and turned down the other one.
They might have even laughed at the Death God Cult and told them to know their place.
But in the game, that event happened.
Laward rescued the kidnapped Amelia, and their romance began.
Perhaps that was the canon.
Even I, who had seen an ending triggered only by lowering the heroines' Affection Levels to their lowest, had saved Amelia.
I had no choice but to save her.
However, the fourth Karma, Houndry, had refused the Amelia job.
Then would the event I saw in the game not occur in this world?
No.
The game never said that Houndry had committed that crime in the first place.
In other words.
The Death God Cult had sent contracts to guilds other than Houndry, and another guild had accepted.
There were people who had agreed to that madness.
“...Ha.”
Something urgent had come up.
“Lucia, I need information.”
* * *
A shabby tavern.
Amid loud curses and the stench of cheap ale, a Houndry guild member named A sat alone at a table in the corner.
“Damn it.”
A roughly set his wooden cup down.
Foam spilled over and wet the back of his hand, but he did not bother wiping it off.
The liquor he had poured down his throat tasted like plain water.
No, it was worse than water.
It gave him no sensation at all, as though his tongue had gone numb.
Only a few days ago, a single cup of that cheap liquor would have washed away the day's exhaustion.
But not now.
‘Because I have tasted that...’
A looked down at his right hand.
The power that the new Karma had bestowed upon him that day.
The purple haze that had entered through the crown of his head and raced through his body as if it would burst every blood vessel.
The sensation of becoming intoxicated with that power and running wild remained seared into his mind like a burn.
“Huff...”
A took a rough breath and lifted his cup again.
He forced the drink down his throat, but liquor could not fill the void.
Reality, which had come after that overwhelming exhilaration, was too dull and powerless to endure.
Withdrawal symptoms.
Yes, it was addiction.
Jingle.
New customers entered along with the cold night air.
“Hey, owner! Bring us some drinks!”
A loud shout shattered the silence.
Four men.
Their collars bore cat insignias. They were members of Lowcat, another nuisance in District 6.
A lowered his head slightly, conscious of them.
He only stared blankly at the empty cup in his hand.
“Huh?”
But they ended up noticing A's presence.
“Boss, does that guy sitting in the corner look familiar to you?”
The man's voice was grating.
The four pairs of eyes fixed on A's back.
“...You are right. I smell dog fur somewhere.”
One of them approached and Bang! slammed A's table.
The empty cup rolled onto the floor from the impact.
“...”
“It is him. This bastard is a Houndry dog, is he not?”
The man chuckled and turned A around by the shoulder.
The smell of alcohol stung A's nose.
“You spat on Lowcat hospitality because you did not like how you were treated, only to join the nearly ruined Houndry? What a sight, you traitorous bastard.”
Traitor.
It was not wrong.
A had originally belonged to Lowcat.
But he had grown tired of petty thievery in the back alleys and the thug work of shaking down weaker people, so he had left on his own.
He wanted power.
That was why he chose Houndry.
‘A little while ago... things were not like this.’
Memories of the past flashed through A's vacant eyes.
Before Marquess Fred led his soldiers to wipe out Houndry.
And when the fourth Karma was still alive.
Petty criminals like Lowcat would run at the sight of Houndry's insignia alone.
The nights of District 6 had belonged entirely to Houndry.
A had wanted to live as a predator beneath the shadow of that power.
He had not even hesitated to betray his comrades and enter the arms of the enemy.
“You are following someone you do not even know now, right?”
A's eyebrow twitched faintly.
Not missing that slight reaction, they eagerly began talking.
“Everyone has heard the rumors. After getting beaten senseless by the marquess, the scraps that remained gathered together and appointed some nobody who came from who knows where as the fifth Karma.”
As he spoke, another man beside him laughed in agreement.
“Only fifty people. And the new Karma's origins are unknown.”
They mocked A right in his face.
“Is it not obvious? They picked up some no-name punk, set him up as a puppet, and are congratulating themselves.”
“Shut your bullshit!”
An unbearable rage burned through A's mind.
Houndry's future, the path he had chosen, could not be like that.
Crash!
The chair fell backward, and bottles rolled across the floor.
A lunged like a beast and grabbed the collar of the Lowcat man who had been snickering before him.
“What do you know? That person... that person is!”
Whoosh!
A threw a punch.
Yes, he only needed to show them.
If he sent this bastard's jaw flying and crushed the heads of the ones screaming in terror...
Tap.
“...Huh?”
But he was weak.
A was weak.
When Houndry had been strong, he had strutted around relying on the guild's influence. Without the black haze Karma bestowed, all he could do was throw unsteady punches.
A was that pathetic a man.
* * *
Staggering, A barely moved forward with a hand against the wall.
“Urgh...”
The metallic smell of blood filled his mouth.
His ribs seemed cracked, and a stabbing pain struck him whenever he breathed.
They had shown no mercy.
After gleefully beating a sandbag that could not resist, they spat on him and left.
‘Serves me right.’
A looked up at the night sky through swollen eyes.
It was miserable.
That was what it felt like to have his forgotten place made clear to him.
The fourth Karma had trained Houndry.
They had given them swords and driven them hard every day, making their bones and flesh strong.
But the fifth was different.
If the fourth Karma had made them rely on the fourth Karma, the fifth Karma had made them dependent on him.
“Just one more time... that power...”
A limped into a familiar alley.
He intended to find Karma immediately and ask for the power to take revenge on Lowcat.
But the moment he entered the hideout.
“Huh?”
A stopped.
The first-floor lounge was packed.
One, two, three... every remaining Houndry member was there.
Without understanding why, A squeezed between them.
They were not drinking or chatting as usual.
As if they had made an appointment, they remained silent, their eyes fixed on the center.
“Is everyone here?”
Karma emerged from the darkness and spoke.
That distinctive voice was not loud, yet it rang clearly in the guild members' ears.
“I will give you your first mission.”
As Karma slowly turned his gaze, it felt as though he looked at A standing by the doorway.
His bloodied face.
His swollen eyes.
His split lips.
It felt as though Karma had taken them in before looking away.
At the same time, Karma, Daywin, thought:
“The Death God Cult must have subcontracted the job to another guild somewhere in District 6. The problem is figuring out which one.”
The back alleys were already full of trash.
There was no time to investigate them one by one and gather intelligence to identify the culprit.
There was no time, and there were too many suspects.
There was only one way.
“We will find out once we beat every last one of them.”
All he had to do was capture every suspect, hang them upside down, and shake them dry.
One of them would certainly have the contract.
They would start with the guild Lucia had said was most likely.
“We are hitting Lowcat.”
Karma casually tossed out those words.
“I will give you as much power as you want.”
Purple mana rose from his fingertips like heat haze and quickly filled the hideout.
Hummm.
At that moment, A's pupils shook.
‘Ah...’
A trembled.
‘As expected... Lord Karma.’
He took a ragged breath and looked up at Karma.
Declaring that they would strike Lowcat meant they would reclaim Houndry's infamous reputation.
It was conquest itself.
The servility vanished from A's eyes.
In its place, enormous ambition heated his chest.
‘Houndry... will rule these streets again.’
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