WETRIED TRANSLATIONS

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

[Translator – Aren]

◈Chapter 290 Something Convincing (6)

Whoosh.

I quietly pulled out the sword with my body drenched in blood. The blade, where black Demonic Energy and amber sparks mingled, resembling a burning log, was still burning.

Thud.

Meanwhile, the figure left completely sprawled out after the sword was withdrawn made a wet, squelching sound. The corpse lying amid the mud was filthy, yet still so white that it looked strangely out of place.

The red blooming from one side of her chest almost looked like a flower.

‘For something made by humans, it’s a pretty decent sword.’

Ah, this was really brutal, seriously.

Vowing never to fight another Knight again, I swept my gaze around me. Because of the Demonic Energy I just released—had been released?—the battlefield had come to a temporary standstill.

As for why they had suddenly frozen, who knew. I figured it was probably along the same lines as what I had tried in that forest a few days ago.

In other words, they had realized a higher-ranking Demon had appeared and gotten scared.

What I could actually see supported that guess as well. Every time my gaze shifted, they shrank back and bowed their heads. No matter how I looked at it, that was the behavior of weaker beings utterly overwhelmed by something stronger.

Some were even edging their feet backward, as though trying to decide whether or not to flee.

‘Should I burn them all?’

However, looking for an opening to escape and actually tucking tail and running were two entirely different things.

I watched the creatures wavering between me and the massive beast looming behind them. They merely watched us for cues and made no attempt to move recklessly. They had stopped attacking the humans, but they had yet to withdraw from the battlefield itself.

In other words, if I wanted to remove them from this battlefield, I would have to take further action. Though I had no idea how much more power I would need to expend to drive them away.

‘Should I make that insect bastard regret not withdrawing its forces?’

Truthfully, chasing them all away would be a problem too.

Leaving good and evil aside and considering only my own gains and losses, it would be better if some of them remained instead of leaving completely. It wasn’t that I wanted this city to remain in danger. It was because there was a chance the real Demon Knight might simply wipe his mouth clean and pretend he knew nothing.

There were plenty of people in his world who, after you saved them from drowning, demanded you hand over your belongings too.

‘With your permission, I could erase every last piece of trash interfering with this game.’

So.

A situation I could resolve by stepping in, one that remained somewhat threatening to the city yet posed no immediate danger of invasion.

To put it bluntly, I wanted some Demons to remain so that I would be left in a stronger position during negotiations.

I knew it was an incredibly selfish wish, but still.

「That would be a breach of the contract.」

‘Oh, and exactly which part would be a breach?’

「You’re trying to use your power right now……」

‘Why would using it for free, without demanding a price, be a problem? If you were going to object like this, you should’ve stopped me from intervening just now too.’

「…This and that are different.」

‘I don’t see any difference at all. Is it wrong to bring victory out of goodwill and clear away the trash out of goodwill?’

「I’d sooner believe he kills people with a smile than believe you’re acting out of goodwill!」

But of course, it wouldn’t be that easy, would it? Right. How could it possibly be?

‘Ah, ahahaha! Ahahahahaha!! Right, of course. You’re not wrong. Me acting out of goodwill? As if something like that would ever happen!’

If anything only ever turned into one individual’s favor, that wouldn’t be a world at all……

‘But are you going to refuse because of that? I’m offering to deal with all that trash threatening your city. I’m saying I’ll burn every last one of them to ash without asking for anything in return. And you’re still going to refuse?’

「……!」

‘You don't want that, do you?’

I raised a blood-soaked hand and covered my face. Only then did my entire body, slashed by a sword, burst open by a whip, and gnawed on by insects, begin to throb. It hurt this much even with my pain sensitivity adjusted, so I couldn’t begin to imagine how painful it actually was. Not that I particularly wanted to.

‘So, little brat, keep your mouth shut. You already chose your beloved hometown over the people dragged into this because of you, so don’t start pretending to worry about him now.’

「……!」

Instead, I looked through the gaps between my fingers at the writing that had just appeared.

[ Ta ke ou t Ra tel ]

[ Le t’s clea r up th e are a ]

[ Yo u don’t wan t our con ver sa tion inter rup ted eit her, ri ght¿ ]

No… Could that even be called writing? It burrowed into my brain like a voice and engraved itself upon my ears like letters.

[ I pro ba bly ca n’t dea l with th at fa tty up a hea d ]

[ Bu t if I bu rn aw ay all t he tra sh ar oun d us ]

[ It shou ld bu y yo u enou gh ti me to hea r the tru th ]

I wasn't particularly surprised by the bizarre phenomenon. Of course I wasn’t. How long had it been since I learned that something besides me lived inside this body? Why would this be enough to shock me?

Besides…Thinking back on how this vermilion sword had been sucked into my hand earlier and how the Demonic Energy had suddenly erupted against my will, the identity of the being speaking now was pretty much obvious.

[ Yo u’ve inves ted thi s mu ch al rea dy. Yo u don’t wan t it to en d with out hea ring th e tru th, do y ou?]

Now that the truth had finally been put on the table, those fucking bastards who had only stood by and watched were finally beginning to interfere.

[ Do n’t wor ry ]

[ I wo n’t tou ch the ci ty ]

What pissed me off, though, was that tone, as though a ‘lol’ ought to be tacked onto the end of those words.

From that alone, I could tell that the one who had spoken through the system window and the one babbling now were separate beings. Going a step further, their respective decorum, or lack there of, allowed me to distinguish the real Demon Knight from the Demon as well.

[ Wha t ar e yo u do ing? ]

[ Hu rry up an d ta ke it ou t ]

[ I’ll sup por t yo u ]

The one in the system window had at least apologized, so that one probably wasn’t the Demon. This rude bastard who had boiled etiquette alive and eaten it had to be the Demon.

“Ah, so you did have a tongue after all. You avoided conversation so thoroughly that I assumed you were some dog-food maggot with neither a tongue nor ears nor even the basic capacity to hold a conversation.”

[ ……. ]

But when I thought about it, the real Demon Knight had summoned me here because of this Demon in the first place. Didn’t that make this thing the single greatest cause behind this entire shitty situation? This fucker was seriously laughing at me through text now.

My hands trembled before the fragment of my enemy I had finally encountered. The words fell silent for a moment, then continued.

[ Sh all I ju st lea ve, the n? ]

“The way you resort to threats the moment things don’t go your way makes it painfully obvious how you’ve lived your life. Also, if you’re going to tell me to take something out, shouldn’t you tell me what that something is? Ratel? How am I supposed to know what that means if that’s all you say? Or what, have you spent so long parasitizing someone else’s body like some washed-up loser that you’ve started throwing around words only you understand?”

[Yo u s ure ha ve a pr ett y wa y wi th wo rds ]

“Thank you for the compliment. You’re absolutely terrible with words, though. Can’t even manage proper spacing.”

Running my mouth for the first time in a while made me feel refreshed, though I also felt like my anger was rising.

Watching the string of text fall silent again after hearing a little criticism, I organized everything I wanted to say to that bastard. There was so much I wanted to spit in its face the moment we met.

[ Your zw eihänder ]

[ Take it out ]

There really was a lot, though I wasn’t sure I’d be able to get it all out.

Even now, my insides were boiling. If I saw its face directly, I’d probably get even more pissed off.

[ Spr ead th e De mo nic Ener gy wh ile swi nging th e sw ord ]

Still, I couldn’t ignore its instructions. The Demon and the real Demon Knight were both still complete pieces of shit, but the people behind me had done nothing wrong.

[ Rem emb er ]

I planted the amber sword upside down in the ground and extended my empty hand into the air. The zweihänder materialized in the space between my fingers. The grip I had grown accustomed to over nearly a year soon filled my palm.

Whoosh. The black flames clinging to my body flowed into the zweihänder.

[ Th e Demo nic Ene rgy ca n’t mo ve ahea d of th e swo rd ]

[ An d th e swo rd can ‘t mo ve fa ster th an t he De mo nic Ener gy ei ther ]

[ Th e swo rd an d De mo nic Ener gy mus t be swu ng at th e s ame ti me ]

The words entering through my ears were somewhat abstract. I had no idea what it actually wanted me to do.

[ It wi ll bu rn as fa r as th e De mo nic Ener gy spre ads ]

But I understood the next part clearly enough. So I could designate the range? Good. I liked that quite a bit.

I gripped the sword firmly with both hands.

“What concentration?”

[ Th ree tim es wh at yo u use d in th e fo rest. ]

“Good.”

If I emptied out all the Demonic Energy I had, that should be about right.

I swung the sword.

* * *

Driven mad by thirst, some died trying to drink the Demons’ blood. Unable to endure their hunger, others bit at everything around them without distinguishing friend from foe, only to be devoured themselves.

Some collapsed with their organs eaten away while trying to drive off the flies, moths, and maggots covering their bodies. Others clawed frantically at themselves as the plague those creatures carried rotted their flesh away.

In that scene of madness, where having one’s body torn apart, melted, or severed by a Demon would almost have counted as a peaceful death, Gunther heard a metallic ‘clang!’

The sight of the sword belonging to the one fighting the traitor shattering happened to lodge itself in his vision.

“N-no—”

Clatter.

Seeing it all had probably been coincidence. Amid such chaos, catching that exact moment and the scene beyond it could only have been another trick of chance.

However, the fact that the amber sword abandoned by the traitor caught against his foot was inevitable, and the fact that he was able to pick up Bernstein and throw it without interference from the Demons was undoubtedly fate.

“Atya!!”

The sword, which should originally have fallen 3 or 5 meters in front of the wall, was caught by a black line and sucked toward the place he had meant to send it.

“Young Lord!”

Kyaaarrrrgh!

However, in the brief instant before the sword reached its destination, Gunther had to pay the price for disregarding everything else. The Demon behind him turned its claws toward him. Or at least, it should have.

Thud.

The weight of the air changed in an instant, and the claws that should have reached his neck stopped a paper-thin distance away from it.

[Runrunrunrunrunrun.]

Kyaaarggh!

[WrathishereWrathishereWrathis.]

And it wasn’t only that one. The Demons that had half overrun the wall began retreating one after another, each screaming in terror.

“The Demons are retreating!”

Though bewildered, the soldiers thrust their spears at them, but few fought back. Like a swarm of frightened rats, the Demons threw themselves down from the wall and crawled across the ground.

“Ah…….”

It was then that the sword holding a fragment of dawn was momentarily dyed in night before returning once more to the colors of daybreak.

Pitch-black sparks scattered like ash, while the vermilion blade, shining brightly enough to sting the eyes, blazed like a torch. It was the flame piercing the traitor’s heart.

“It’s the Amber Knight……”

“That’s Sir Amber……”

“Sir Amber has returned……!”

The surviving soldiers fixed their gazes upon that vivid light. With the Demons retreating, there was nothing left to prevent them from doing so.

Those who remembered the vermilion flames wept, while those who did not sang praises to God.

“A-a Demon…It’s a Demon, but……”

“O God, w-we……”

The priests who had received God’s power were much the same. Though they agonized over the height of the contradiction unfolding before their eyes, they stared blankly at the hope that had arrived alongside it.

“God, why have you bestowed such a trial upon us……?”

The bishop, one arm torn off by a Demon, murmured as tears streamed down his face.

“Bishop.”

“…Young Lord.”

“The people……”

Gunther trailed off and swept his gaze across the top of the wall. The trained soldiers had been reduced to a third of their original number, and even among those survivors, most were wounded.

“Please treat the people.”

“…We do not have much divine power remaining.”

If they treated everyone here, the priests would no longer be able to use their power. In other words, if they had to face the Demons again before recovering, they would be unable to borrow God’s strength.

“…I don’t believe that to be our enemy.”

They would have no means of keeping the one standing beyond the wall in check.

“Is that because it resembles Sir Amber or Sir Amber’s children?”

“…No. It’s just…I just.”

“Young Lord…….”

“…I know. Damn it, I know I shouldn’t make a decision based on nothing but vague faith. I know this is a gamble, but… It’s not like leaving the soldiers untreated will let us beat him.”

But would keeping him in check even mean anything?

“Can we defeat someone like that by conserving our strength now, Bishop?”

Gunther helped the bishop to his feet as he watched part of the world silently evaporate. Even in that brief moment, he could clearly see the army of evil they had barely managed to withstand vanish without leaving so much as a speck of ash.

All of it had been accomplished with a single swing of a sword.

“This isn’t a decision I’m making emotionally. I thought it through before deciding. So, Bishop, let’s just…save the soldiers.”

“…Yes.”

Watching the bishop smile hollowly, Gunther forced strength into his trembling legs. Now it was time to restore order atop the wall.

“U-uh!”

“……?!”

Suddenly, something resembling bone surged up from beyond the wall.

* * *

I watched the zweihänder melt into a white, viscous substance, then surge upward and form a cocoon around me before closing my eyes.

Any attack that might come in would now be completely blocked, assuming what that Demon bastard had said was true. So it was finally time to have a proper conversation.

My vision was swallowed by pitch-black darkness, and I began to fall.

[Hello, Gretchen.]

「…….」

And when that fall ended, I could finally see the beings who had dragged me here.

[This is the first time we’ve properly seen each other face-to-face, isn’t it?]

「…I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.」

A figure wearing a goat’s skull like a mask and a gray-haired boy with tears filling his eyes stood within a world of red and white.

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