WETRIED TRANSLATIONS

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

[Translator – Aren]

◈ Chapter 304 Proof (9)

Even with the atrocity of grinding someone’s masterpiece right in front of its creator playing out before him, Meister somehow managed to regain his composure.

That absolutely didn't mean he was any less pissed off.

It was simply that what happened next stirred up even greater curiosity than his anger.

"That......."

Centered around the Demon Knight’s body, he saw a torrent of energy erupt, so violent that no mortal could hope to imitate it. The flow was rough enough that he could see it even without his glasses.

Craaaack.

And within that torrent, the Demon Knight’s body slowly began to change. His arms and legs, buried beneath the earth and crushed beyond recognition, began to melt like water and burn like fire.

Whoooosh. His body, released into liquid Demonic Energy, annihilated the obstacles in its path before gathering together again in place. It looked little different from rebuilding a smashed clay doll.

The blood and flesh that had been plastered against the ground were kneaded back into their original form by the Demonic Energy. In other words, the leg Meister had thought would never work again had been restored completely.

Not only that, even the scratches and torn wounds regenerated as fresh flesh filled them in. The blood spilled during the process disappeared, while his ragged clothes were engulfed in flames and were currently being recreated into a brand-new form.

"That’s cheating.”

Soon, the Demon Knight had completely returned to his usual state. Meister’s impression after watching the entire process could be summed up in just those two words.

"...I won’t deny it.”

It was a brief assessment, but even the Demon Knight expressed a degree of agreement. It was also an expression of his displeasure at this Great Demon, not some low-ranking Demon, possessing this absurd level of regenerative ability. Humanity would have been in serious trouble if every Great Demon had abilities like this.

"So why did you have that sword?”

"...I just realized that I had it myself.”

"Is there anything you actually know?”

"Well……”

Had he still not regained his memories? While Meister wondered that, the Demon Knight stood up and briskly dusted off his clothes.

"Why are you here?”

Of all the things he could’ve asked first, that being the question was kind of funny. Though from his perspective, it was understandable that he’d be curious.

"Because I started traveling with the Hero?”

"You......?"

"I figured traveling with her would be the fastest way to meet you again.”

"...Me?”

Meister shrugged and pointed at the things attached here and there to the Demon Knight’s clothes. Whether he had regenerated them knowingly or without realizing it, he had somehow managed to leave the accessories intact around his collar.

"Once I’ve been paid, I have to deliver the commissioned goods.”

"What are these?”

"Equipment that filters divine power. One or two pieces can be missing, but wear all of them if you can. The effect applies by body part.”

While he was at it, Meister handed over the earring-type item as well. A dangling type or a hoop wouldn’t suit him, and Meister figured he’d hate wearing one anyway, so he made it as small as possible. A simple stud.

Though seeing that he already wore an ear cuff on the rim of his ear, Meister supposed that style might have worked too.

"More importantly, when I stopped hearing any eyewitness reports, I figured you must’ve been sticking to the middle of nowhere. Turns out you were traveling around in disguise instead?”

"......?"

At the questioning look in his eyes, Meister tapped the corner of his own mouth. On the Demon Knight, that was where the scar would normally have been. Apparently, he was hiding it with a magic tool right now.

"Ah."

The Demon Knight’s hand went to his ear cuff. Click. The moment he removed it, the scar at the corner of his mouth appeared.

"I didn’t know you knew how to disguise yourself.”

"......"

It was surprising, but when he thought about it, it made enough sense. His distinguishing features were absurdly distinctive. From the standpoint of someone on the run, hiding them would hardly have been an option.

"Whatever. If you don’t know why you had my weapon, then at least tell me why you smashed it. Did you really have to do that right in front of the guy who made it?”

Whatever else happened, he at least deserved to hear why his sword had needed to be destroyed right in front of his eyes. Meister stubbornly dragged the conversation back to its previous subject. The Demon Knight parted his lips with a subtly awkward expression.

"The weapons disappeared because they were offered as sacrifices for my…recovery.”

"So it doesn’t have to be a human sacrifice.”

"As long as it possesses value.”

"Hmm."

"...And the reason I had them was probably because of the Demon. If she secretly stashed them away to use as a trump card in Bemurchen, then naturally I wouldn’t have known about it.”

Fortunately, this time he received an answer that was more or less convincing. Meister narrowed his eyes.

"But you still haven’t gotten your lost memories back?”

"No. I recovered some of them.”

"Then you broke out to find the rest?”

"...Yes."

If the silence before his first answer had lasted one second, the silence before his second was closer to three. At that point, the quiet wasn't because he was choosing his words. It was the hesitation of someone deciding whether he should say it at all.

"Did you find what you were looking for?”

"Yes."

"Then I guess you’ll be leaving again?”

Well, Meister could understand that much. He thought about the situation the Demon Knight was in and about everything he would have to face from here on.

The Hero had ultimately failed to harm the Demon Knight, but the Temple would be different. The bastard probably knew that too, which was likely why he had waited until after sending the Hero away before restoring his body.

"...I…”

"I don’t care. We can just say you suddenly revived and ran away. End of story.”

There might be people who doubted it, but that suspicion wouldn’t be enough to tighten a noose around his neck. There wasn’t a single shred of evidence.

"But before you leave, answer this.”

Before letting the Demon Knight go, however, Meister brought up the decisive question that had led him to join this party in the first place. This was one thing he absolutely had to hear, even if it killed him.

"Why did the old man help you?”

"......?"

"I’m talking about why Azure Lake let you go and said he had no right to stop you?”

"...He said that?”

At that, the Demon Knight narrowed his eyes several times before finally closing them. A span of time neither particularly long nor particularly short brushed past and disappeared.

"What?"

"You might be all right to tell……”

And when the Demon Knight’s mismatched eyes opened again, Meiser waited for his answer.

"I’m not the soul that originally lived in this body.”

"...What?"

Even if that answer was completely beyond anything he had expected.

Clatter. The multipurpose knife fell to the ground.

* * *

I ignored the Demon whining that I was stuffing her back in the moment she finished replenishing my Arcane Power, spouting bullshit like I had no conscience whatsoever. I had already expected her to have some hidden card up her sleeve, but the fact that she really did have one made me realize all over again that this bastard was absolutely not someone I should ever give another chance to.

"What the......."

Besides, I had just dropped something of a bombshell myself. I calmly watched Meister’s face crumple.

For the record, that statement may have been short, but it was a decision I reached only after thinking about it deeply.

"The original owner of this body tried to stop the Demon but lacked the strength to do so alone and decided to borrow someone else’s power. As a result, I came to inhabit this body.”

After all, if I wanted to reassure the Inquisitor that she didn’t have to kill me, I also needed to give her grounds substantial enough to believe that. And as far as grounds went, ‘There were circumstances behind this, so it’s okay now' was naturally more convincing than 'I suddenly became able to control the Demon.’

The fact that I had already heard most of the truth and would soon be able to hear the remaining details as well also played a part in my decision to confess. Before, I hadn’t dared make up some careless excuse in case the truth came out later and contradicted it, but that wasn’t really a concern anymore.

"So…you’re saying something like a spirit summoning was performed on you? You?”

"...You catch on quickly.”

Of course, I could probably leave without convincing the Inquisitor at all. If I holed up somewhere out in the middle of nowhere, surviving another 9 years wouldn’t be completely impossible.

But I didn’t want to do that. Whatever happened over the next 9 years, I wanted to properly mend the relationship between that girl and me before I left.

If I hadn’t known, that would be one thing, but now that I did, I couldn’t knowingly leave after hurting a child who was already wounded all over again.

"Ah, it’s nothing special. There used to be research into whether the tide of war might improve if they summoned the spirits of the strongest veteran heroes in history into new bodies and deployed them in battle. Ah, and you know the ‘heroes’ I mean aren’t the Heroes the Temple talks about, right? Anyway, historical heroes.”

The story I ended up hearing in the midst of all that resolve, however, was utterly ridiculous.

Summoning historical heroes and making them fight? That was totally that thing. That game that turned King Arthur into a woman.

"...That sounds kind of disrespectful to the dead.”

“If they’re willing to cut open the bodies of living people, you think they’d shy away from kidnapping one dead person’s soul?”

"So, did it work?”

"You think it did?”

So it failed. That was actually a bit of a relief. Unfortunate for humanity in the present day, maybe, but even so, telling someone they still had to work after dying was a little much.

“But if you were summoned like that, then why are your memories……?”

"...The Demon tampered with them. During the process of summoning me into this body, she scattered most of the memories I possessed. Not only that, she mixed in the original owner’s memories as well, so……”

Anyway, I quickly spat out the excuse I had prepared in response to Meister’s question. Whatever else I might reveal, confessing to the whole roleplaying thing was something I would rather die than do. Dying of embarrassment was absolutely off the table.

「......?」

...Wait. Now that I think about it, he’s here. And the Demon knows too.

I looked at the miniature boy clinging to my forearm—He had come out earlier so I could explain the weapon sacrifice—and staggered for a moment. F-f-f-fuck.

「U-um……? A-are you feeling sick?」

"Hey, is something wrong?”

"...No."

I clenched my teeth and covered my face, which felt like it was about to burst into flames. He saw me acting like that at the beginning. I even did that whole Demon act in Jacrati, and these two saw all of it?

I suddenly wanted to die. Of course I did. Knowing that this little kid had watched my entire ridiculous performance made me want to skip crawling into a mouse hole and just smash my head into a plate and die.

「Is the Demon doing something? I’m sorry, I should’ve kept a better eye on her……」

I should've died earlier. I’m really sorry, Inquisitor, but I should've just died!! I squeezed my eyes shut against this humiliating, deplorable reality. I felt like I was going to cry. I wasn’t joking. I genuinely did.

「I’ll go back inside and keep watch for now. I’m really sorry……」

And Faust immediately blamed himself first, which somehow made it hurt even more. That wasn’t the problem.

That really wasn’t the problem……

"Are you sure nothing’s actually wrong?”

"...I’m fine."

I’m not fine. I want to die.

Even after Faust disappeared, the sudden wave of embarrassment only got worse, and I repeatedly scrubbed both hands down my face. Somehow this felt more painful than when I learned the truth behind the contract. At least that had been someone else’s fault, so I could resent them for it. This was my own fault, so I didn’t even have anyone to blame.

"Right, whatever. So what effect did mixing the memories have?”

"...Because of that, I suppose I spent quite some time trapped by only those memories.”

Fortunately, Meister didn’t press me to reveal the whole truth. The conversation moving on at least saved me somewhat. The humiliation still hadn’t subsided, but it was better by about one grain of sand.

“So you realized in Bemurchen that those memories weren’t actually yours?”

"Tower Master Azure Lake played a large part in that. I had already felt something was off even before then, but without him, I probably would’ve realized it much later.”

At least my excuse was coming out fairly well even in the middle of all this. No, actually, there was no reason it wouldn’t. It was basically the truth after all.

To be completely honest, what I was explaining now wasn’t all that different from the truth anyway.

Yeah. It was true that, at first, I didn’t know I had been summoned into this body. It was true that I possessed the original owner’s memories—though they were really only at the level of character settings I had provided to the game company—and it was also true that I had spent the past year clinging to those settings.

There was a slight sense of distance from the exact truth, though. It wasn’t that those were the only memories I had and so I clung to them, but rather that I had those memories and willingly clung to them.

It was still an excuse based on fact, with only a little distortion mixed in.

So as far as this part was concerned, I could hold my head high. I really could.

[You’re really damn good at covering your ass.]

Shit, no, I’m not. I want to die.

"Shut up before I kill you, Demon……”

"......?"

I raised the hand I had only just lowered and covered my face again. This was seriously embarrassing……

"Is the Demon talking to you or something?”

"...Yeah."

"Any chance it’ll lead to something like another rampage?”

"No. Absolutely not.”

"Guess you can control it now.”

"Yeah.” 

“Then that’s enough.”

Ah, does embarrassment eventually break through its limit and leave you feeling almost detached instead? I answered bitterly, having reached a state of enlightenment.

At least I was genuinely glad that the person in front of me was Meister.

"More importantly, when you realized there was something wrong with your memories, why didn’t you tell the people around you? Maybe not everyone else, but at least your party would’ve believed you.”

Like I said earlier, he didn’t dig too deeply into matters I refused to talk about. It could be a little troublesome when he sharply poked at holes in my story, but that also meant he was easy to redirect onto another subject.

"...I thought that even if I told them, all I’d gain was a little sympathy, and I still wouldn’t be able to avoid execution. In the worst case, I thought they might even take it as another deception by the Demon.”

"Fair. It’d piss you off if they started going on about how sorry they felt for you when they weren’t going to help anyway. But I guess you don’t think that way now?”

"You’re a cool-headed and rational person. I thought you would objectively judge whether what I said was reasonable and realistic. Even if complete trust would be impossible without concrete proof, I believed you would at least give me a chance to prove it.”

And when I thought about it, having him point out holes wasn’t necessarily a bad thing either, since I could use those questions to improve the quality of my explanation. By answering Meister, I continued reinforcing my story.

"That’s right."

Looking somewhat pleased, Meister nodded.

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