WETRIED TRANSLATIONS

Is It Bad That the Main Character’s a Roleplayer

[Translator – Aren]

◈Chapter 277 Tell Me (7)

I held my breath as a heavy presence brushed against the edge of my senses.

‘So even the vermin have started to move.’

No. That wasn’t something I had detected first. They had told me. They had declared themselves that they had descended upon this place.

Something like “I’m here, so you will give me your full attention.”

‘So, the Exile has drawn their sword, huh?’

Did it frighten me? Well, not really. For some reason, I didn’t feel any fear at all.

There was no basis or evidence for it, yet confidence endlessly welled up inside of me that even if that thing came right before me, I would still be fine.

‘What will you do now?’

But at the same time another certainty struck me.

While I might be fine, even if things continued like that, Richa wouldn’t be.

‘If it goes on like this, your homeland will fall.’

…Munmund wouldn’t be fine.

“You might feel a bit dizzy… so I’ll apologize in advance.”

Ignoring the burning pain through my body, I hoisted Richa onto my back and braced my legs. I had to keep pretending that I was a wizard. That fact had never left my mind.

“Here we go.”

But honestly, pretending to be a wizard was just another way of saying that as long as it looked like magic, anything would be fine, right?

I filled the area around me with dark lines of Arcane Power, and, in that state, I began to tear through the forest at a breakneck speed.

No matter what anyone else might say, this was magic.

* * *

Emerald pressed a hand against her stomach, feeling hunger gnawing at her. Her throat was dry, as if it had been struck by a drought lasting dozens of days.

“How pathetic.”

But she knew that this was nothing but an illusion.

Emerald swung her blade against the orc charging at her. The great sword, as large as a grown man, sliced through the air, cutting lives short in that instant. Fountains of blood gushed out.

Whack! Crimson blood drenched the stone wall. Morning light spilled over it, laying a golden veil over the horrid scene.

“Drop the rope.”

“Y-yes!”

“Jardin, you climb up first.”

“…Yes!”

At that moment, those standing atop the wall hastily let down a rope. Jardin threw aside every burden and grabbed it, climbing upward.

Thanks to the battlements protruding out on either side, the only danger lay in the rear—or the front, depending on one’s perspective.

Kruaaaaaah!!

Of course, Demons wouldn’t just sit idly by while their prey was trying to escape. Led by the orcs, other Demons began to rush toward Jardin.

“Pray, you wretched things.”

But in this situation, the only one clinging to the rope and climbing was Jardin.

“Pray that in your next life, you are born knowing your place.”

As the wizards unleashed a barrage of spells, slaughtering the Demons from the rear, Emerald grabbed Bernstein’s hilt in reverse, letting the sword hang loose. The blade, tinted in amber true to its name, was imbued with a great amount of Arcane Power making it glow like molten lava.

A bluish aura began to rise from her body, strengthened with Arcane Power.

Step One. Her waist twisted sideways, and her right arm holding Bernstein curled inward. The blade spun counterclockwise with her motion, deflecting the orc’s ax.

Slice! Less than a second later, Emerald shifted her grip with great skill and swung again. Held in a proper grip now, the sword cut cleanly, decapitating the orc.

Step Two. As the severed head flew to her left, her sword swung to the right, intercepting another Demon.

A Goblin. Her blade carved a diagonal line through the lowly creature, slicing off its forearm and its head.

Step Three. Her left hand drew Bernstein’s hilt across before she thrust it to her right. Thunk! The second orc’s skull was pierced through.

Emerald dragged the blade upward, splitting the skull from within as she lifted it, catching the orc’s weapon just in time to fling it upward. Gravity finally sent it crashing down.

Step Three and a Half. Having exerted the exactly right amount of force, Emerald led the falling ax to strike the Demon right before her, a Sammokgu.

As it started to writhe about after being struck by the ax, Emerald raised her heel.

Step Four. Her body spun like that of a dancer, and her longsword, slightly longer than most of their kind, seemed to blossom. Shwaak! Blood sprayed outward, painting that deadly blossom in crimson.

Swish. The hem of her skirt that had flared in a circle with her spin gently fell back down. Her pure white clothes didn’t bear a single stain of red.

“Otherwise, every breath you draw would be a waste.”

Flick. With a single motion of her wrist, every drop of blood clinging to her blade was swept away. Her body, which had only moved forward four steps, returned to its original position in a single leap.

“Burn them!”

“Kill them!”

At her command, the wizards spewed out fire once more. The Demons that had been closing in on her were either engulfed in flames or gave up, desperately scrambling to preserve their lives.

The spell wasn’t enough to burn them all to ash but served as a good deterrent.

“……!”

However, even as the fire drove the Demons back, Emerald’s expression hardened. Her head turned in a different direction, her bluish hair rippling along with the motion.

“What kind of Demonic Energy is this……?!”

On the wall above, priests started to scream all at once.

“Priest?”

“Sound the bell immediately—!”

But Emerald completely ignored their screams. She gripped her sword tighter, straightening her posture.

Grrrrrr.

Perhaps having noticed that her attention had been elsewhere, the Demons, who had been hesitant at first, started to let out hollow growls. Was it a foolish delusion that reinforcement had arrived? Or was it the mere ignorance of creatures that simply didn’t know fear?

“Wretched vermin……”

It was laughable as well as infuriating.

Emerald’s fine eyebrows arched in disdain, seeing those pitiful things act like this before her.

Boooom!

“……!”

“An earthquake……?!”

At that moment, an intangible wave began to roll in from the forest. It wasn’t an earthquake, since the ground wasn’t trembling. Nor was it an explosion, since there wasn’t a flash of light or debris flying around.

If anything, it was pure pressure, a pressure filled with a certain intent, like a dragon’s roar.

“…It disappeared again.”

However, it didn’t linger for long. The menace, so palpable it had made her fingertips tingle, faded in an instant.

While the Demons flinched, Emerald’s fingers, which were right around her blade, loosened.

“…How ominous.”

“Wh-what’s going on……?”

“Everyone, quiet……! No more useless chatter!”

“Dame Emerald, now is the time!”

Whether they were frightened by that vanishing Demonic Energy or something else, the Demons didn’t seem to be willing to attack any longer. Seizing the opportunity, Emerald gripped the dangling rope. The knots tied into it gave her footholds to stand on as she climbed.

She kept her sword unsheathed, ready to ward off any surprise attacks by the Demons.

“It seems hunger and thirst aren’t the only things troubling Munmund.”

Emerald could hardly climb while fending off the attacks from behind, so the soldiers above took the rope and pulled it upward, while she merely held on.

Neeeeigh!

Crunch!

Of course, the price was steep. The pack horses left behind without her or Jardin’s protection were immediately devoured by the Sammokgu. It was a loss they had to accept.

“Welcome back to Munmund, Dame Emerald……!”

“Yeah.”

Still, she had safely made it atop the wall. For that alone, the lives of the packhorses had been well spent.

Emerald buried their deaths beneath that simple justification.

“Emeraaaaaald!!”

Instead, a new presence came rushing toward her.

Emerald thrust Bernstein forward. Golden hair, gleaming brightly in the dawn light, abruptly halted just short of the tip.

“Whoa, what the hell?!”

“What do you think you’re doing, Topaz.”

“It’s been a whole year, and that’s how you greet me?”

“Rest assured, I would act the same even if a hundred years had passed.”

“Cold… so cold!”

How this wimp of a Knight had been granted the name of a jewel was beyond Emerald……

She ignored that guy's whining and tossed Bernstein forward. Her squire, Jardin, quickly caught it.

It seemed like he had been drinking, seeing that a few droplets from the waterskin had spilled over his other hand.

“Soldier, where is the Lord?”

“On the wall by the Stern Tower.”

“Good, understood.”

She was quite exhausted from forcing her way through the Demons’ encirclement, but as a Knight, she couldn’t put off her report. Especially since she had confirmed with her own eyes that the circle had already closed completely.

Leaving the whining Topaz behind, Emerald headed toward the Stern Tower.

“I’m hungry……”

“I’m so thirsty……”

Several soldiers shuffled past, complaining about hunger and thirst.

“You still treat that sword rather roughly.”

“…My Lord.”

She also encountered Munmund’s young lord. By the law of this city, he would one day become her direct superior.

Though if she left this place before then, that day would never come.

“Even though you accepted the blade out of necessity, it grieves me to see it handled so harshly.”

“…I will take it to heart.”

“Please, I beg of you.”

Emerald narrowed her eyes at the admonition she received the moment she had returned.

“If you dislike seeing your cherished sword in another’s hands, you could simply ask to have it back……”

“Dame Emerald……”

“Let us go.”

If there was any solace, it was that she would never have to serve him as her superior.

Emerald’s teal eyes, glancing beyond the walls toward the Demon-infested lands, glinted with an icy light.

.

.

.

“That Knight’s face grows more unpleasant each time.”

“My Lord……”

“Ah, ah. I know. You don’t need to remind me. One shouldn’t treat a Knight, let alone a Senior Knight, so discourteously.”

Meanwhile, having let Emerald go, Munmund’s young lord, Gunther, scratched at his head. His hair, a deep indigo only rarely seen on the entire continent, shifted through his fingers as he did.

“But what am I supposed to do if she looks this unpleasant to me?”

“Basic courtesy is to keep oneself from showing it, my Lord.”

“Damn it, but I treat everyone else but her just fine, don’t I?”

“And what use is that if the most valuable of our talents is the one you treat the worst?”

Gunther scratched his head more vigorously at his retainer’s words. “That action is also quite unseemly, my Lord. It makes you look rude.” The Knight that was supposed to just guard him was stricter in this reproach than his father ever was.

“Damn it, does it not anger you? Bernstein is not a sword to be handled so lightly!”

“What care does a sword deserve? A sword is just a sword. As long as it can cut well, that’s all.”

“But still!”

“My Lord, let’s be honest. It’s not that you dislike seeing Bernstein being treated like cold stew. It’s that you resent Sir Amber’s keepsake being treated that way.”

“…Damn it, you take Dame Emerald's side even knowing that?”

“Public duty and private feelings are two separate matters.”

But the worst part was that his bodyguard wasn’t wrong. That was the problem. Gunther knew full well how foolish his behavior was.

“…That sword should have gone to Atya.”

“Yes, it should have.”

“If not Atya, then Alya. No, she doesn't wield blades. In that case, it should have been passed to Fasha instead.”

“Normally, that would have been the case.”

“But… but, damn it all……”

“…My Lord.”

After all, what was so strange about a sword whose rightful owner and heirs were gone ending up in the hands of someone who could make good use of it? Was that better than burying it in the ground?

Moreover, Dame Emerald, like Sir Amber, possessed great Arcane Power, yet was a skilled Knight. In other words, she was the one best suited to draw out Bernstein’s true qualities.

As such, it was only natural she should inherit it. Truly, it was only right.

Truly… Truly……

“…Could they really be dead?”

“I cannot say.”

“Sir Sapphire, answer me. Do you believe they are truly dead?”

“…….”

Gunther urged his guardian Knight to answer. After a long silence, the Knight’s face darkened.

The Knight who bore the name Sapphire had long, deep blue hair, falling around their face like a cascading waterfall.

“Otherwise, my Lord, there is no reason they would not have returned here.”

Gunther’s expression crumbled.

“Yes… Of course. If they still lived, they would surely have come here by now.”

“…I know there are many suspicious points to their disappearance. But, my Lord, you cannot cling to the dead. You must think of the future.”

“…Yes.”

And yet, he was the young lord, someone destined to become the commander who would guard this land. Still, Gunther couldn’t hide the dejection in his gaze as he looked upon the wall.

The very walls where his idol, his friend, and his sworn siblings had vanished and yet were still teeming with soldiers.

“…The men complain of hunger and thirst more than usual.”

But when he looked closer at the soldiers’ faces, it became very clear that the situation wasn’t good.

Gunther frowned, placing a hand over his stomach, parched and gnawing with hunger for a while now. There was no way for it to be normal for so many people, himself included, to all be suffering from these things so suddenly and all at once.

“You as well?”

“…Yes. I haven’t said anything since it was still bearable, but you feel it too, my Lord?”

“This situation might be due to a curse.”

“I shall check.”

Though something like that had never happened in Munmund before, if one just looked at other places, the cause was surprisingly easy to find.

“…I can only hope that it’s not.”

“It’s too soon to tell.”

“But you already half believe it, don’t you?”

“……”

One of the two Great Demons present on the Northern Front, a carrion-eater that lay beneath lotus petals and in marshes that grew reeds, devouring corpses. Or the beast that swallowed rivers, causing drought and famine.

The Plague Bearer, Erysichthon.

“Post guards near the granaries and the wells.”

Wherever Erysichthon appeared on the Front, people in the area would be struck with baseless hunger and thirst. No amount of food or water would relieve it.

A thirst that could never be satisfied, a hunger that knew no end, eternal gluttony. That was Erysichthon’s curse.

“That’s for the best.”

“Well, Father would likely have already given the order.”

Erysichthon’s curse would only let up temporarily when suppressed by Divine Power. The moment the priest would withdraw their hand, it would return instantly.

Thus, if one wished to resolve this somehow, there was only one way. One had to endure until Erysichthon withdrew from the battlefield. Until then, protecting the granaries and wells was their biggest priority.

Gunther pressed his temples.

“…I’m worried that the guards might lose their reason and deplete everything themselves, though.”

“We have no other choice. We must pick only those with the strongest self-control.”

“Damn it. When reinforcements come from the North, we’ll have to beg them to send only those who’ve dealt with these kinds of situations before.”

“Why not stand guard yourself, my Lord?”

“Come on. Do you really think I’d last? I’d be the first to lose myself and dive into the wells or empty our granaries.”

Gunther knew himself well. If he were put on guard duty, it would only be a matter of time before he gave in and plundered their food reserves. Even he knew that he wasn't someone with exceptional mental strength.

“Th-there’s a man!”

“……?”

But while he was busy mocking himself, a commotion broke out along one part of the wall. Soldiers on watch were clamoring in alarm.

“What’s going on?”

Gunther ordered his guardian Knight to stay behind and confirm whether it really was that curse that made them act this way before making his way toward the commotion on his own. The sudden appearance of a superior seemed to have greatly bewildered the soldiers.

“I-it’s……”

“…The scouting party has returned.”

“What?”

What did they just say? The scouting party had returned? Through the Demons’ tight encirclement that even a senior Knight had barely managed to pierce through?

Gunther pushed through the crowd of soldiers, his heart overflowing with emotions he couldn’t even begin to name. The survival of a scout was welcome news, but to think they could break through that swarm of Demons was completely unbelievable.

“…Atya?”

But when he peeked his head out from behind a soldier, he thought his eyes deceived him. After all, the face he had so longed to see was placed right next to the scout’s.

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