Is It Bad That the Main Character’s a Roleplayer? - Chapter 302

WETRIED TRANSLATIONS

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

[Translator – Aren]

◈ Chapter 302 Proof (7)

"Stupid Ironwall, idiot Ironwall, the biggest moron in the whole damn world……”

Deathbringer dropped to his knees before the solid wall of divine power. His hands, which had repeatedly struck and pounded against it in an attempt to break through, had turned bright red and looked ready to bruise at any moment.

"You’re really going to regret this……”

But the place that hurt even more was somewhere inside his chest, somewhere deeper than his heart.

"You damn Ironwall……”

Ah. Would it have been better if they had talked more?

Instead of taking it easy and thinking, ‘There’s no way we'll run into him again anytime soon,’ would anything have changed if he had pushed and pestered the Inquisitor a little more?

If, instead of dragging his feet because he was afraid of what answer the Inquisitor might give, he had found the courage to step forward, then maybe……

But the Inquisitor hadn’t been the only one in pain after the Demon Knight disappeared. Nor had Deathbringer been the only one who hesitated to talk because that pain ran too deep.

It wasn’t like only one of them didn’t know how to objectively understand one’s own feelings, was unfamiliar with talking things through with others, and ultimately chose to bottle everything up alone.

In other words, this was a result they could never have avoided no matter how hard they tried.

It was the conclusion born from several people like that happening to meet one another.

Because they would never cross each other’s walls, all they could do was sink into their own swamps and slowly die.

Forever staring at a door that would never open no matter how many times they knocked.

"What are you doing?”

"......?"

Forever?

"Is rolling around in the dust your hobby? Or did you finally figure out your place and decide to flatten yourself against the ground?”

Instead of someone who merely knocked on a door that wouldn’t open, Deathbringer looked at the person who simply smashed the door apart. He stared at the kind of person who lived, however the hell he pleased, and barged in wherever he wanted, regardless of whether someone else was sinking into a swamp and dying.

"...What the hell is wrong with you?”

And he gave his assessment in a single sentence. Did that man have no emotions at all? Had working metal all his life turned him into iron too?

"What?"

"The Ironwall went off to kill Sir Demon Knight…and you seriously don’t have any thoughts about that?”

"Ah, she went to kill him?”

Deathbringer ground his teeth. She went to kill him? She went to kill him? She went to kiiiilll hiiiiim?? Anyone listening would think she’d gone to the market to buy side dishes……!

"Even a snake has warmer blood than you!”

"Snakes are ectotherms. I’m warmer.”

"You think I didn’t know that when I said it?!”

“Then don’t use an analogy that’s factually wrong.”

But Meister truly was a man made of iron who lived entirely on his own terms. After correcting the strangest possible thing, he causally picked at his ear.

"Whatever. Where did she go?”

"...Why are you asking?”

"You said the Inquisitor went to kill the Demon Knight. Aren’t you going after her?”

"And what exactly could I do if I did……?”

"So you’re just going to stay here because of that?”

"......"

At the pointed remark that struck right at the heart of the issue, Deathbringer fell silent like a bear with its mouth full of honey. Infuriating as it was, Meister was the kind of person who, in more ways than one, only ever said things that were technically correct.

"...Then why are you going?”

"I've got a commissioned item to deliver. I should give it to him before he dies.”

"I’m an idiot for even asking.”

"So, are you coming or not?”

"...I’m coming.”

Deathbringer answered sullenly, carefully stacking his mounting resentment in one corner of his mind. Knock, knock. At the same time, his hand tapped against the divine barrier that still hadn’t disappeared. It was the barrier imprisoning him.

"But because of this, I can’t really……”

Tap.

Before he could finish speaking, something was tossed toward him. They were decorative items like cufflinks, epaulets, brooches, and sash ornaments.

"...What are these?”

But what made them unusual was not the fact that they were accessories. It was the fact that they had passed straight through the divine barrier and fallen in front of him.

"Normally, you’re not supposed to let someone else try on a commissioned item, but I doubt the client’s going to complain, so let’s be flexible.”

Deathbringer hurriedly picked them up and fastened them all over his body.

"That one goes on your boots. That one goes in your ear. Just think of it as one piece per joint.”

Meister kindly told him where each item was supposed to go. He was suddenly about to end up with pierced ears, but he was in too much of a hurry to care. Deathbringer fastened one accessory for each part of his body.

"But are those things really going to let us run through the Demonic zone?”

The moment he judged that he had put everything on, Meister crooked a finger at him.

"No clue.”

It was a gesture telling him to come out, so Deathbringer silently obeyed. With a strange sensation, his hand passed through first, then the rest of his body slopped out after it.

"Then how did you get down here?”

"I told them I was coming to get you, so they let me through.”

"You didn’t think about what came after that?”

"Nope.”

Is this really okay? Faced with Meister’s shameless confidence, Deathbringer was left speechless.

"Then…What are we supposed to do?”

"The Inquisitor probably just walked there, right? No reason we can’t do the same.”

"Through the Demonic zone? The Demonic zone where Demons can jump us at any moment?

"...Hmm."

Right. That place was the Demonic zone. Meister tilted his head as though he had genuinely failed to consider that. Is that guy really a Grand Master? Deathbringer slapped his own forehead at a thought that crossed his mind at least five times a day.

"...If walking there is a problem, then we can just bring the horses.”

“How are we supposed to bring the horses here?”

Part of the wall had collapsed, sure, but could a horse even get through that? Even if it could, they would have to lead it through slowly. Would the people around them really just stand there and watch?

Deathbringer raised a realistic problem, and Meister completely ignored every single point he made.

"Who knows? We don’t know that yet.”

As he said that, the person he looked toward was a man with dark-blue hair and an expression that suggested that he might have a few screws loose.

"...Huh?"

* * *

At just a few words from me, the green eyes trembled. Like paint dropped onto a blank sheet of paper, those eyes, whose shades differed ever so subtly, grew even paler beneath a single tear that welled up and fell.

"I know this is an unreasonable request. But, Inquisitor, I……”

How heartbreaking it was.

Forcing my increasingly ragged breathing back under control, I moved my tongue. Just one chance was enough. I wouldn’t shamelessly ask for two. Just once. Just once.

"No.”

But some apologies become too late even when you don't want them to. Even if you wish otherwise, the situation and the decisions made within it inevitably make them so.

Just as leaving Bemurchen had been something for which I had no other choice, and just as it was unavoidable that each of us would prioritize our own problems over the other’s.

"I’m…I’m the Hero, after all. Someone bound to follow the oracle and carry out God’s will.”

Therefore, my apology was too late.

"I cannot save you.”

Naturally, inevitably, it had become too late.

"...I see."

But Inquisitor. Even if there was no helping the fact that I wouldn’t be given a chance to atone, what would happen to you after you killed me?

The you I knew, the one I could see right now, didn’t look like someone who could possibly go on living normally after killing me.

It felt as though the word ‘Hero’ would swallow you whole and you would lose your own life to it.

Are you really all right with that?

"I’m sorry.”

There were so many other things I wanted to tell you besides an apology. That you must not equate one of the concepts that made up who you are with your entire self. That you must not confuse suffering with purpose.

But judging from my vision growing hazy, my body had already reached its limit. It felt as though I might die from blood loss before the Inquisitor even brought her maze down on my head.

"D-don’t apologize.”

"No. I have to.”

Still, that would be better. Better than the Inquisitor receiving a wound that would last for the rest of her life because she had killed me.

"...I’m sorry."

"Demon Knight, I……”

Imagining a future that might not be the best outcome but could at least be the lesser evil, I repeated the only words I could still force myself to say.

As for simply telling her the truth, that there was more to the Demon Knight than she knew, I gave up on that after thinking it through. The Inquisitor hadn’t made this choice because ‘I’ was the Demon Knight. There was no helping that.

If telling her wouldn’t change her decision and would only deepen the Inquisitor’s guilt, then leaving with my mouth shut was the wiser choice.

"I’m sorry."

But even so. Even knowing there was nothing I could do about it, the ones weighing on my mind were the Inquisitor who would be left behind wounded and the boy who would never be saved.

I blinked as I looked at the blurred faces of Faust and the Inquisitor. [It ends like this? Like this?] The hysterical screaming ringing beside my ear really did manage to make me feel miserable right up until the very end.

"I’m sorry…I couldn’t save you.”

「...It’s okay.」

[If it was going to end like this, if this was how it was going to turn out……]

But her screaming didn’t stop at merely making me feel unpleasant. 「You......!」 I didn’t know what she was trying to do, but Faust called out to the Demon in alarm.

「You think I’m going to let you escape?!」

[You damn brat, let go! I am absolutely not dying here!]

「I won’t let you go!」

[You damn little brat……!]

Ah, seriously. That goddamn Demon bastard was causing trouble right until the very end.

[You think your soul is still the same as it was at the beginning? You really think you can stop me with that shattered soul?!]

Already on the verge of death, I watched the Demonic Energy inside me begin swirling violently as well and coughed up what felt like a bucketful of blood. “Ah.” The Inquisitor let out a startled sound, but I no longer had the leeway to pay attention to her. My vision had blurred so badly that I couldn’t see what was in front of me anymore.

「If you don’t mind, could you use that?」

[...You fucking bastard!!]

But there was only one thing I could still hear clearly.

「With the contract in place, me restraining her, and so little time remaining, I think it would be almost impossible…but you never know what might happen.」

[Cut the bullshit! You want us all to die here?! Not me, no damn way! Do you think I survived that Hell just to end up like this?!]

「If your heart bursts here, you'll definitely die. Even if the Hero doesn’t move, even if we don’t have to wait here in constant fear.」

[No, no! Don’t even think about trying it, Gretchen!]

Faust’s voice had become strangely calm, while the Demon’s shouting had become almost a scream.

「I’m saying this just in case, but I’m alright. Really.」

[No, no, Gretchen. Please don’t do this. You’re already dying anyway, so what’s the point of making it happen sooner?! You wanted to save the brat, and now you’re going to do this?! Really?!]

「Your salvation was far more than I ever deserved from the beginning.」

[I don’t want to die!!!]

Was that entire exchange sad? Or was it satisfying?

"...Don’t cry."

I wasn’t crying. I didn’t have the right to.

This ending was tragic, and I felt sorry toward the Inquisitor. Yet despite that, I also felt the relief of finally approaching the end and the exhilaration of finally going home. A train hurtling forward without offering me any choices was agonizing, and yet comforting at the same time.

"It’s not your fault."

「It isn't your fault either. So, kind one, please wake up now.」

Ah, still, Inquisitor, I’m sorry that I’m leaving you with this kind of trauma right until the end. But at least this has to be better than making you kill me yourself.

「I pray that this nightmare won’t torment you for long……」

As though entranced, I recited the keyword that would activate the magic in my chest protector.

"I want to go home……”

Ah, I wanted to go home.

* * *

"I want to go home……”

Watching his vacant eyes slowly lose focus, the Hero, the one who had been the Hero, threw her mace aside without thinking. Clang, clangclang. The metal rolled down the sloping pile of stones, and her now-empty hand reached toward him instead.

"N-no……”

She hurriedly cupped the dying man's cheek. Haah. The faint breaths she could barely hear were growing weaker by the moment. Death was trying to take him away.

"No. No. Demon Knight, no……”

That alone, she didn’t want to see. She was supposed to kill him, and everything that had reduced him to this state had come from her own choices, but even so, she didn’t want to see it.

The heart finally shattered its grave and burst free. ‘Don’t die. Don’t leave me behind. How could I ever……’.

"I'm sorry. I’m so sorry. I-I…I……”

The Inquisitor sobbed as tears spilled down and she embraced the fallen man. ‘I have to kill him.’ The responsibility of being the Hero pressed down upon her, but that was all it could do.

In the face of truly losing him, duty flowed away with her falling tears and was forgotten.

‘I asked if you were sure you wouldn’t regret killing Sir Demon Knight, you idiot!!’

Instead, the warning that that slick troublemaker had shouted at her kept resurfacing in her mind.

He had been right. She regretted it. Deciding to kill him, attacking him, everything she had done that left him in this state…she regretted all of it.

In the end, she had been someone incapable of becoming the Hero.

"I was wrong, Demon Knight……”

But if she couldn’t become the Hero, then what value did she have?

If she couldn’t fulfill the mission God had entrusted to her, then what meaning did her existence have?

"I……”

...She didn’t know. She doubted whether she had ever possessed the qualifications to be the Hero to begin with. Could someone who was so swayed by affection that she couldn’t even kill the Great Demon before her truly be a Hero? Had it really been right for her to become one?

"I never should have become the Hero.”

God must surely have seen some possibility within her when he chose her as the Hero. But she had been far too inadequate to accomplish what God had commanded. Worse still, she had failed even to save him.

In the end, all that remained was the miserable reality of having become neither one thing nor the other.

"Someone like you should have been chosen as the Hero instead……”

Aah. Why had God chosen her? Why had He singled her out and placed such an unbearable burden upon her shoulders?

If the Demon Knight had been chosen instead, he would have done better than she had.

“Lord, please…Please……”

Faced with helplessness so profound it sank into her bones, the Inquisitor reflexively called upon God. Even though it was God who had commanded her to kill him, she couldn’t do anything else.

The faith she had served her entire life had no substitute, so despite knowing full well what she was doing, habit made the prayer spill from her lips.

"Please, Lord……”

But an unconscious habit and the misery of consciously recognizing it were two different things. Still holding the Demon Knight in her arms, she swallowed her choking, broken breaths.

The fact that there was nothing she could do at this moment except pray to God only made her feel more wretched.

She couldn’t heal the Demon Knight, save him, or promise him a future.

Because every action she took would instead kill the Demon Knight.

"Then take my life instead and save this person.”

Why did they have to end up like this? Still looking at the person who remained her idol, she bit her lip.

Why did they only ever have to keep missing each other like this? Even after learning that the devotion with which he had disregarded his own life was really nothing more than self-abuse, she still clung to this person who remained a part of what she admired.

"He never chose to harbor a Demon of his own will, so please grant him the chance he deserves.”

The Inquisitor still wanted the Demon Knight to live. She wanted his dependable back before her, and when she was forced to choose something, she wanted him to choose in her stead from among the choices that remained.

Because he was the person she admired, her idol, someone like a beacon showing her the road ahead. Because he was the person who had helped her keep moving forward without having to lead everything herself as the Hero.

Even if all those teachings had begun from a misunderstanding, she had undeniably been able to change because he was there.

So.

"Lord, please……”

‘Because you were my hero. I want you to live.’

"Aah……”

But she wouldn't be able to save him. He harbored a Demon, and she was a priest. She possessed no power capable of saving a Demon’s vessel.

Clatter.

"I knew this would happen."

Because she had no power to heal her own hero.

“I told you you’d regret it, you damn ironwall……”

"...You."

"Wow, he’s actually still alive.”