WETRIED TRANSLATIONS

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

[Translator – Aren]

◈ Chapter 327 If Only I Could (13)

"If you’re not going to drink, want a cigarette instead?”

"You smoke too?”

Maybe Daniel was shocked to discover that Meister apparently indulged in every bad habit under the sun. As for me, his offer sparked a brief but intense internal struggle.

"...You have some?”

"Yeah."

I’d been craving a cigarette these past few days as well… No, but I’d already quit. I couldn’t just start again.

"...It’s not my body, so it kind of doesn’t feel right to just smoke with it.”

After a lot of agonizing, I turned him down, saying that I couldn’t do it with a body that wasn’t mine. It felt wrong to just do whatever I felt like doing when I was in someone else’s body, especially when cigarettes were nothing but harmful to you.

「I-I don’t mind……」 

What? When did he wake up? Well, I guess it was about time for him to slowly wake up now that four days had passed.

I let go of my lingering temptation without a second thought as that timid little kid watched me. Yeah, I couldn’t smoke right in front of a kid anyway.

"That brat was the one who dragged you into all of this shit without a second warning. You really think he’d complain about something like that?”

"He probably wouldn’t, but I still don’t think it’s right.”

"You really make life more exhausting than it needs to be.”

"I don’t think this counts as making life unnecessarily exhausting, though……”

That was when Daniel backed me up. Meister, who’d been drinking all by himself, swept his gaze over the two of us and furrowed his brow.

"You bastards would join a monastery even without a god……”

I couldn’t tell whether that remark counted as an insult or a compliment. Interpreted one way, it basically means we were pushovers, but interpreted in another, it meant we led pure, simple lives.

Daniel also seemed confused whether he should be focusing on the blasphemous part about ‘there being no god’ or the implied compliment that he lived an upright life. Well, since we’d gathered to have a pleasant conversation, he eventually decided to take it as the latter and let it slide.

"Ah, right. Take this back.”

Anyway, Meister, looking pretty fed up with us, tossed something at me. It was a bundle I’d seen before.

"This is……”

I slowly unwrapped the leather around it. Handkerchiefs, headbands, and all sorts of strange things spilled out.

They were all things people I’d helped had given me. That was when I remembered I’d dumped this bundle on Meister when I was running away.

"You still had these."

“It’s not my stuff, so I can’t just throw away someone else’s things without their permission, now can I?”

"...Even though they’re nothing but junk?”

"Well……”

Among them, I found a white string bracelet with a faint greenish tinge.

"Sure, it was all useless junk you didn’t need while traveling. But you knew that and still kept carrying it around with you. Doesn’t that mean those things had enough sentimental value to you to be worth carrying around?”

Something in my chest tightened at the sight of the things I’d once thought were gone, only for them to find their way back to me in the end.

"...Maybe they did.”

I quietly looked at them, then ran my fingers over each one before putting them back into my inventory.

This one was something I got in Tatara, this one was given to me by a hostage and an adventurer who I’d rescued when we captured those pirates, and this one was from Jacrati……

I’d handed some out to children and gotten rid of others whenever I found a good use for them. Even after reducing the pile again and again, there still were so many things left.

As I kept putting away these random things whose amount never seemed to decrease, I absentmindedly fiddled with the string bracelet. It was a strange feeling, realizing just how many things I’d received from people I’d saved.

Clatter.

Then a dagger slowly slipped off my lap. Tap. Daniel reached out and caught it before I could.

"Here you go."

"Thanks."

I took it from him, gripping it properly. Judging by the ruined state of the blade, it didn’t seem to be one of the daggers I’d actually used as a weapon.

Where did I get this thing?

「Ah........」

P. B.

The moment I noticed the initials engraved on it, the kid let out a gasp. Something about it felt kind of familiar.

'...You know this, don’t you?'

A dagger with initials engraved on it. I was a little confused at first, but after hearing the kid’s reaction, I remembered. I found that thing in that ruined cabin.

"What’s wrong?"

"...Is something the matter?”

Apparently my demeanor seemed off to them, because instead of reminiscing, my face had gone rigid the moment my fingers ran over that dagger. To the point that those two felt the need to speak up.

'Is this connected to me somehow?'

I briefly raised a hand to them, then pressed Faust for an answer. 「...No.」 After hesitating, the kid finally managed to respond.

「It’s nothing you need to worry about.」

'...If it’s hard to talk about right now, you don’t have to.’

It wasn’t something I needed to worry about, but it was enough to make that kid gasp like that, so I instinctively understood.

This was tied to something the kid had done or gone through before I possessed this body.

'But if you think this might end up causing trouble somehow…then you need to explain it to me later, even if it’s only briefly. Got it?'

As long as it wasn’t going to cause a problem right away, there was no rush to explain. Though if he kept quiet and something happened later, then yeah, I’d probably be pissed.

Taking that into account, I gave him some time. The kid slowly forced the words out one by one in a trembling voice.

「Ah… No. I’ll… I’ll tell you now.」

'You don’t have to force yourself.'

「No. I need to say it now.」

His voice lost some of its trembling and grew a little firmer, then he fell silent for a moment. 「This item is connected to that person too.」 That person. My gaze reflexively rose.

"...Why are you looking at me?”

Daniel’s face had grown serious, seemingly wondering if something had happened to me. I suddenly felt unable to continue speaking.

「...If you’re okay with it, could I tell him myself?」

'...What do you mean?'

「Like last time…when I directly spoke with Brother Gunther.」

I’d already been told that doing it just once had cost him a month of his lifespan. When he said he wanted to do it again, I nearly crushed the dagger in my hand.

'I can pass on what you want to say.'

「I know. But…having you say it for me and apologizing to him myself are different. I…I want to apologize to him properly. Ever since that day, I’ve… kept thinking about it.」

But the child was surprisingly stubborn. And unnecessarily determined.

‘No.'

「Please.」

'I’ll pass it on.'

「I want to tell him myself.」

I’d thought the kid would run as far as he possibly could whenever he had the chance…but when the only thing at stake was his own lifespan, he was terrifyingly bold. It was hard to believe this was the same kid who’d taken a whole year to tell me the truth.

Seriously, his spirit was indescribably fierce. He could afford to hang back a little when it came to these kinds of things.

"...This isn’t actually something serious, right?”

"Erm, is it perhaps the Demon……?”

"...Not the Demon. The original owner of this body spoke to me for a moment.”

"Then......."

"He says this thing…has something to do with you.”

At that, Daniel dropped the snack he was holding.

"With me?”

"So, he’s been begging me to let him personally explain what this is, what happened back then…and apologize to you.”

"Huh? What? He can switch places with you too?”

"...I see.”

Daniel’s expression grew extremely complicated. Meister, on the other hand, kept casually chewing on his snacks and drank his booze as if nothing had happened.

"There’s a problem though."

"....?"

"Just to make it clear, if I grant his request, there are no consequences for me. The Demon won’t cause any trouble either.”

"Then……?”

"But it shortens the original owner’s lifespan. I don’t exactly know how it works, so I can’t be certain…but he’ll lose about one month for every 2 hours.”

"Oh."

"...A month."

His expression grew even more complicated. Daniel squeezed his eyes shut, clenched and unclenched his fists several times, then let out a heavy breath. His expression made it kind of hard to say anything to him.

"So I think it might be better if I simply pass on what he wants to say…but if you want, I’ll switch with him. This is between you and him. What do you want me to do?”

Still, I had to say it. I carefully watched his expression as I added a few more words. Finally, Daniel’s hand reached over, snatching away Meister’s cup.

Gulp, gulp, gulp. Bang.

The bottom of the cup slammed against the sofa armrest with a loud bang. Meister, whose drink had suddenly been stolen from him, shot him a glare, but neither of us paid him any mind.

"...I’d like to hear what happened that day right away, but hearing it at the cost of someone else’s lifespan doesn’t seem right to me.”

"I see."

"...I’d feel just as uncomfortable having to borrow the mouth of someone who has nothing to do with this. I know you haven’t done anything wrong, but…I’m not confident I could keep my emotions under control while hearing the story.”

"I understand."

"So just…tell him I’ll hear him out later. After you return and he gets his body back, I’ll listen to him then."

"I will.”

Daniel looked a bit more at ease now that he’d fully drained a cup of alcohol.

「B-But……」

'Don’t worry about it. You can accept this much consideration. Besides…whatever you did probably wasn’t something you actually wanted to do. You can feel sorry toward him, but you don’t need to beat yourself up over it.'

Freed from being stuck as the middleman as well, I picked up some food with a much lighter heart. I didn’t really want anything heavy, so I went with a bit of dried fish.

'...I’m only saying this now, but when I told you to atone to him, I just meant…that you should work through your guilt, sort out what happened, and find the courage to talk about it. I wasn’t blaming you for everything that happened.'

「.......」

'It was my fault for saying things that you were bound to misunderstand. I’m sorry. But Faust, I really mean this… all the misery we’ve been through isn’t your fault. I told you before, right? That bastard Wrath is the root of it all, so hardly any of this is your fault.’

Ah, but since I didn’t know exactly what had happened between them, it was pretty hard for me to comfort him with complete confidence.

I thought back on what I knew about Daniel’s circumstances.

All I knew was that ‘his parents were killed by a Demon whose personality kept switching back and forth and who wielded black fire.’ The part about switching personalities had made me assume that Wrath and Faust had been fighting for control when Daniel’s parents got caught in the middle and died.

Of course, Faust had no reason to deliberately kill Daniel’s parents, nor was he the type of person who’d do it. So Wrath was almost certainly the one responsible for all this.

'So Faust, you’re ultimately just another victim too. That Demon is the root cause of everything, and you're just another person who got dragged into this. Don’t grovel before us just because you want to apologize. You don’t have to. You must’ve been hurting too, just like we were.’

Working off that hypothesis, I gently tried to reassure the kid. Was this actually the right thing to do? How would I know? It’s not like I was some kind of therapist before. I could only hope it would have a positive effect.

[Hmm. I seeee… But kid, did you know? Ratel can hold a soul for a little while as well.]

Goddammit, this crazy bastard, Wrath.

Crunch.

It seems I got so pissed off by that bastard that I crushed the dried fish in my hand into powder. The kid, who’d been listening quietly until now, cautiously spoke up.

「...This sounds like you’re trying to scam us again.」

[I’m telling you this entirely out of goodwill, okay?]

「I don’t trust you.」

[...I did bring it up because I wanted to piss off Gretchen. But it’s true that Ratel can hold a soul for a little while. Want me to swear on my name?]

「If you swear there aren’t any side effects either.」

[You’ll be under some temporary pressure when you transfer into Ratel, so you'll lose a little of your lifespan then. Other than that, there really isn’t anything. The amount of lifespan you lose is the same as when you go outside in spirit form. Ah! If you stay inside Ratel for more than 3 hours, your soul will keep getting thrown out because of the abnormal body you entered, but I wouldn’t exactly call that a side effect, right? It’s more of a precaution. So other than that, there are no ‘side effects,' I swear on my name. There, happy?]

「Hmmmm...」

[Ah, come on, I even swore on my name!]

If one looked at her behavior up until this point, wasn’t it quite obvious why no one trusted her? And what the hell did she mean? She just brought it up to piss me off? This fucki…goddamn bastard.

"What now?”

"What is it?”

"...It’s just so damn agonizing that that Demon bastard won’t fuck off to hell for the next 9 years.”

"What the hell did it say?”

"She taught the kid something bad.”

"...Would you like me to sprinkle some holy water on you?”

"...If only I could splash holy water on just that Demon bastard.”

The problem was that I’d get hit too. Damn it. Daniel and I both lamented that at the same time.

「...Can I do it?」

'...You’d still lose lifespan doing this, you know?'

「B-But not that much. And she said I’d only lose some when I transfer into Ratel, so at worst it’d probably only be a few minutes… Really……」

Do you seriously not think losing any lifespan at all is a problem? I put a hand to my forehead.

「I-I’ll really say what I need to say and come right back, so please……」

'...Hold on. Let me consult with the others first.'

If it cost a whole month of lifespan, obviously I had to stop him. But when it was only a few minutes, it was hard to justify my intervention. Then again, just letting him do it didn’t really sit right with me either.

After agonizing over it for a while, I explained the situation to Daniel. He also looked greatly conflicted now that the cost had dropped from months to minutes and eventually even pulled out his rosary.

"O Lord, forgive these selfish thoughts of mine……”

It seemed like he felt guilty that he’d started wavering the moment the cost dropped to minutes. Meister glared at us with a look that basically screamed, ‘Just let him do it already.’

"It’s not a whole month, but just a few minutes. Just let him.”

"B-But it’s still his lifespan……”

"That kid's going to feel like shit if he has to wait to apologize for 9 years too. Just hear him out. If it were me, I’d rather lose 10 minutes of my life and get it off my chest than have to wait for 9 damn years."

"B-But……”

“The stress from bottling it up will probably shave more time off his life anyway, you damn frustrating bastards.”

Meister’s words weren’t exactly wrong. So after a long period of deliberation, Daniel and I came to a decision.

"Let’s allow it just this once, on the condition that we never allow it again.”

"That sounds fair.”

Knowing Faust, there was a good chance he’d decide that having to pay just a little of his lifespan meant he could do it whenever he wanted. But little things would add up, and if he kept doing it, he might end up dramatically shortening his lifespan.

Taking that into account, we offered a compromise with restrictions attached.

「Okaaay……」

Faust agreed, his voice sounding slightly disappointed. We did well imposing that condition. Otherwise this might have ended in disaster.

"Alright. Get in.”

I retrieved Ratel, which I’d been using as a lamp holder for the past 4 days, and set it on the floor. Pop. Faust’s soul sprang out of my hand, hopped over in quick little steps, and slipped into Ratel.

Wriggle. The mochi-shaped surface of Ratel rippled, then swelled outward and gradually took on a new form.

「...Did it work?」

A boy who looked as if he’d been carved from marble blinked his pupil-less eyes.

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