Is It Bad That the Main Character’s a Roleplayer? - Chapter 284

WETRIED TRANSLATIONS

Is It Bad That the Main Character’s a Roleplayer

[Translator – Aren]

◈Chapter 284 Tell Me (14)

Gunther doubted his eyes for a moment. The sight of turquoise hair whipping in the wind while blood splattered in every direction felt far too surreal to him.

No, that scene itself wasn’t so surreal. Dame Emerald butchering Demons and spraying their blood everywhere wasn’t anything new to him.

But, but this time……

“Father……?”

The one who had just died wasn’t a Demon, right?

Thud.

The severed head of the man struck the ground. It didn’t shatter like a smashed watermelon, but the skull caved in, and another spray of blood followed. Strands of aquamarine hair spread across the ground.

“Treason!!”

“The Lord has been struck down!”

“D-dame Emerald!”

In an instant the air was filled with screams and shouts, but all of that seemed so distant to him. Almost dreamlike.

Gunther instantly fell to his knees. “M-M-Miss Knight, why–?” He vaguely saw Dame Emerald’s squire cough up blood, betrayal in his voice, but as Gunter’s gaze dropped lower, that figure vanished from sight.

Instead, he saw someone’s head coming towards him.

“F-fath–.”

He reached out toward the face framed by dark-blue hair. But his trembling hand never touched it, halting in midair.

The face of the man, who seemed as if he hadn’t realized that he was dead yet, glared up at him with a fierce look in his eyes.

“F-father.”

Was that expression unfamiliar to him? No, it wasn’t. The Lord had always worn the same look whenever he faced Demons. He also wore the same expression whenever he looked at Gunther in disappointment.

So he’d say it felt more familiar than unfamiliar to him. It was a look he hated the most.

“Father……”

But to die with that expression on his face wasn’t something he had ever imagined happening.

If someone had to die, he had always thought it would be him, not this man.

Why?

“Young Master, fall back! You lot! Protect the Young Lord! The rest of you, inform Sir White Jade……!”

Why……?

“Uuuurgh!”

“Everyone, fall back, fall— Urgh!”

“She was hiding her true power all this time……!”

Gunther raised his head in a daze. One body collapsed without its head, another soldier toppled with his chest run through, three more with severed limbs, and four with gaping wounds in their torsos or skulls.

And at the center of it all stood a single Knight.

“Emerald! Why, why this treachery—!”

“Ah… Treason, is it?”

Those who had barely managed to survive and formed a shaky circle around her screamed with hoarse voices. To that, the Knight with the teal hair only deepened the smile plastered on her face.

That face, once as expressionless as a doll or as hollow as a mask, finally looked like a person's. Not in a good way.

Her languid sneer rattled hearts to their core, sowing fury deep inside of them. It was a smile that ignored the rage, grief, confusion, and sense of betrayal her actions had evoked in those around her.

“I don’t consider it as such, but call it what you will. Treason, betrayal… Those mere words won’t change your fate. I shall at least grant you the freedom of speech on your final journey.”

“Emerald!!”

“However, I will no longer permit you to call me by that name.”

That damn harlot, she seemed to look upon everyone, even Sir Sapphire and Dame Topaz who had rushed to this place along with a mass of elite soldiers, as though they were completely worthless.

She acted as if none of them were a threat. As if to her, this entire situation was nothing more than a trivial incident.

“You traitor!”

“Dame Topaz, don’t rush in–!”

“Do not call me by some title bestowed upon me by mere mortals. Such words are an insult and a degradation to me.”

Ah, how arrogant she was. How utterly prideful.

“I am the Morning Star of this land.”

However, by that very arrogance, Gunther was able to uncover the other’s true identity.

This was neither an ally of theirs nor a normal person but an inherently evil being that embraced one of the original sins, a bearer of one of the Seven Deadly Sins.

* * *

The soldier beside me, though his face had hardened, did not abandon his post. He seemed to believe that keeping an eye on me, a supposed wizard of unclear allegiance, would bring more security than having one extra spear on the wall.

Well, considering that even the Archmage can topple a building if you just give her enough time to chant, it wasn’t an entirely unreasonable judgement.

When the line between ally and enemy wasn’t certain, vigilance was the safer course of action.

“That bell is the signal for a Demon invasion, isn’t it?”

“…It’s not an invasion signal. It means there’s a high chance of it, so the citizens should prepare to evacuate.”

“I see… Well, I can only hope the damage won’t be too great.”

And so, I completely abandoned any thought of moving. Not because I believed this coming battle wouldn’t cause significant casualties.

“Forgive me.”

“…What do you mean by that apology?”

“Don’t worry, it’s not because of a guilty conscience or something. I just… feel sorry that I can’t lend my strength.”

I chose not to get involved for my own sake. Even knowing that many would die, even knowing that something with Demonic Energy rivaling a Great Demon was drawing near.

I wouldn’t act.

If I did, suspicion would fall on me.

To help them, I would have to reveal my power. And if I did, my true identity would be exposed. In a place like this, I wouldn’t have the chance to cover it up by using Disguise again, like I did in Behen.

So, I absolutely could not interfere.

I……

“I want to help… but it greatly pains me that I can’t.”

I would not help this city.

“I never wanted to become this kind of person.”

Unless the true Demon Knight promised something so great it was worth bearing all this forever.

“…This feels truly miserable.”

I clasped my hands together. The fact that I had to go this far, just to try and get home, was utterly devastating.

『I love you, son.』

『Thank you for being born.』

But you need to understand. You need to.

I, too, had wanted to be someone I could be proud of……

“Please.”

Don't let me sink into something more pathetic and miserable than this. In front of the ringing bells, I prayed. Standing not too far and not too close, just where I could still see the soldiers moving along the wall, I let the ramparts serve as my altar.

I felt as though I could hear screams in the distance.

* * *

“…So you were a Demon worshiper after all.”

Klaus, known in Munmund by the name of Sir Sapphire, the name bestowed upon him.

He instinctively sensed that this very moment was the greatest crisis the city had ever faced.

“A distasteful accusation. There exists no being on this earth greater than I, so how could I worship anything besides myself?”

It was not merely because of the Demons gathering outside of the walls. These kinds of sieges had happened countless times before.

Even the assassination of the Lord, though tragic, was not something the city couldn’t withstand. Munmund had long since prepared a line of succession to ensure leadership in case of the sudden death of their Lord and commander.

“…A truly arrogant statement.”

Nor was the betrayal of this head Knight. Munmund had countermeasures laid down for even that. A city whose fall would expose every settlement around it to great danger had no other choice but to come up with this many precautions.

“After all, only someone who knows neither their place nor their limits would be capable of such words.”

In other words, if taken one at a time, each of these events could be called hardships, but not disasters. Had they come separately, Munmund would have been able to endure.

But now that they had happened all at once, the city was now like a lantern before the wind.

“Yes… Sapphire, you were one of the few in this city of fools with a head that could somewhat work.”

“……!”

“But in the end, that makes you no more than slightly clever.”

Klaus frowned. His taunt had met no reaction. Talking about the other’s sky-piercing arrogance and lofty words had failed to shake his opponent in the slightest.

“And besides……”

Clang!

“……!”

“Topaz. You are as clumsy and weak as ever.”

The sudden strike from Dame Topaz at a moment when she seemed to be distracted had been stopped with ease. Though not large for a Knight, she looked down upon the world with that cold gaze, mocking the caught blade as if it were nothing.

“Did you think silencing that noisy mouth of yours would somehow make your vulgar recklessness disappear?”

Her words, said in a voice that made it seem as if she was singing and as graceful as a crane’s step, were steeped in poison, dripping a sense of defeat into every ear that heard them.

“Emerald……!”

“…I told you not to call me that.”

That being, whose smiling face was replaced by a chillingly cold gaze, put more strength into her arm. Though it was a clash between a sword held in both hands and one held in one, both using half-swording techniques, the deadlock instantly shattered.

Emerald. That was when the reason Emerald had been called Emerald came to Klaus’ mind.

Topaz specialized in slaying beasts. White Jade was a skilled tactician and commander. And Sapphire himself, who had no overwhelming strength but no weaknesses either.

And Emerald, a specialist in combat against people. Undefeated to this day.

The way things went, Topaz would be in danger. Klaus dug his heel into the ground and leapt forward.

“Hmph.”

Topaz too held her breath, moving her body fluidly, preparing for her next motion.

The deadlock that had tilted against her lost all meaning as her blade, slipping aside, flowed smoothly into a thrust. If the traitor didn’t evade, she would be skewered; if she tried to dodge, Klaus’ blade would cut her down.

“Truly, you are astonishingly foolish creatures.”

But their foe was struck by none of their attacks.

The hand that had discarded the amber-colored blade was enveloped in a blue haze and caught Topaz’s sword barehanded. Even with her body reinforced, the edge was still sharp, which led to the white gloves she was wearing being faintly stained with red, showing that her skin had been cut.

Clang!

And Klaus’ sword was knocked violently aside by a main-gauche, a parrying dagger that flashed from beneath the billowing, black skirt she wore.

“My Lord! Sir White Jade and several Knights were poisoned… Urgh!”

“Hmm. So he’s finally dead. If there had been more poison, I’d have sent you all off cleanly together with him… How unfortunate.”

But redirecting a deflected strike into a new attack was a basic skill.

Klaus clenched his teeth as news of the most senior head Knight’s, a skilled commander, death reached his ears. Topaz, too, abandoning her pinned blade, wrenched a sword—half-stolen—from a nearby soldier to continue her attack.

“You bastard, you even resorted to poison!”

“…Betrayal followed by cowardly and petty tricks. I can’t believe how far you’ve fallen!”

And yet, something about this made Klaus feel uncomfortable.

Killing White Jade with poison was one thing, but ignoring the two other head Knights, himself and Topaz, only to strike at ordinary soldiers first seemed strange to him.

“How is the use of poison cowardly or petty? If you were wise, you would not have fallen prey to it.”

That the Lord himself hadn’t been poisoned was understandable since he never ate without having every dish tasted in his presence first.

As for the Young Lord, he had been starving since yesterday. Poison wouldn’t have crossed his mind.

“Or is that not so?”

And as for not poisoning all the Knights, well, that was somewhat understandable, too.

Munmund’s security was so strict they even inspected the belongings of head Knights. So even if she somehow managed to smuggle poison into the city, it couldn’t have been much.

Especially since the traitor had only returned yesterday. There shouldn’t have been enough time for her to stockpile more. So it made sense for her to prioritize certain targets. Yes, everything made perfect sense up to that point.

But to leave two head Knights alive, and instead kill ordinary soldiers was pretty illogical.

“Traitor……”

Unless the ones left alive had already pledged themselves to the traitor?

No. That couldn’t be. Seeing Topza rampaging around with such fury made it pretty obvious that she hadn’t sided with her, which made things even weirder.

“Wait, don’t tell me……!”

“Oh, you’ve noticed?”

So in the end, there had been a reason for her to kill ordinary soldiers and Knights before the head Knights.

And if one thought of the greatest difference between the dead Sir White Jade and the two who were still alive……

“Damn it, evacuate the Young Master at once!”

“As expected, you are quite clever.”

It was the ability to command. An ability to see the battlefield as a whole and adjust it accordingly. No doubt the dead Knights had been chosen in order of their ability to lead.

“And yet at the same time, so hopelessly foolish, completely unable to save anything.”

“Dame Topaz, leave this to me! You must protect the Young Master……!”

Because if there was no one left to oversee the defense, then even if they killed the traitor, all that awaited them was the city’s collapse beneath the hordes of Demons outside their walls.

Klaus realized this, so he shouted immediately, but their enemy moved faster.

“You know you cannot possibly stop me, and yet you still cling to hope.”

Bam! His opponent’s kick slammed into Klaus’ chest. Crack! He didn’t die, but he felt ribs snap.

“I’ll be borrowing this.”

At the same time, the weight at his belt was gone. The spare dagger he carried, just in case, had been taken.

“……! Young Master! Get back!”

Even Topaz had been thrown aside, unable to prevent their foe from advancing. Klaus turned frantically toward the place where the Young Lord had been.

He was being taken away by some soldiers to safety. He was already quite some distance away.

“Did you know?”

But was that distance truly enough to protect him?

“Young Lord, I have never liked you.”

Emerald’s dagger plunged into the eye of an elite spearman within her reach, bursting through the gap the helmet didn’t cover.

Crack!

Having slashed through another soldier’s throat, blood sprayed around.

It slipped precisely into the gap between the helmet and chainmail. Severing vessels and bone alike.

“Run! Young Master, hurry!”

Of course, Klaus and Topaz charged after her immediately. However, the traitor’s killing of soldiers wasn’t simply to break through the ring around him.

Each corpse would fall into the living, tripping them up and forcing momentary hesitation. Even when the living soldiers tried to clear the path, they couldn’t move without any delays.

The speed with which the traitor advanced by cutting down soldiers far outpaced the time it took for allies to even recognize the danger and step aside.

“So die. That will serve this world better.”

In a matter of moments she had completely breached the encirclement, the traitor’s blade reaching the Young Lord.

“Stand by your words.”

From the east, the rising sun cast long shadows across the battlements.

* * *

「❖ Munmund for_」

「❖ Mun_」

「❖ #@**@#…」

「❖ $%……」

「❖ %#$………」

「❖ ………forgive me

∎ Eliminate the threat to Munmund