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

Chapter 104: Existence (6)

“I-I…!”

The primitive arena that had manifested around the Martial King began to tremble.

Although he wasn’t sure about the reason behind this, it was undoubtedly nothing good for the Martial King. What was bad for the enemy was an opportunity for him.

“I’m not a loser!”

The Martial King threw Kankan aside and turned toward the Deathbringer. He didn’t know whether Kankan was alive or dead, but that wasn’t important at the moment.

What mattered now was not wasting this opportunity that Kankan had bought them by stalling for time.

“You sure talk a lot for a loser who isn’t even a warrior anymore!”

With that, Deathbringer quietly moved forward under the protection—kind of—of Berserk.

With the Demons and even the Martial King focused on her, no one would pay his movements any attention.

“Hah, Berserk doesn’t waste her time on the weak!”

Berserk simply let out a snort, completely disregarding the Martial King. There was still a chance the attention would shift toward him, but it didn’t.

Although it was difficult to tell whether she was sincere or just trying to provoke him, her words had an outstanding effect on him.

“Where are you going? Come back here right now!”

As she approached the Sandworm, seemingly wholly unconcerned with the Martial King, he furiously leaped forward.

“Face me, face me right this instant!”

“Hey, get lost! That Demon’s mine!”

This seemed like the perfect example of unrequited love. Deathbringer controlled his breathing and relaxed his body, observing the Martial King.

His skin was flushed red with anger, but his mouth was closed like a clam, and his limbs merely trembled without moving an inch further.

This showed beneath the anger and jealousy, there lay a deep-seated fear and a sense of impending defeat.

“Berserk!!!”

The reason was unclear, but did it matter? Many people became the head of a snake because they didn’t want to become the tail of a dragon.

Yet because he lacked strength, the Martial King had resorted to all sorts of tricks just to become the head of the snake, unlike the person standing confidently before him as someone who’d become the head of a dragon without using any sort of tricks.

Crash!

In the meantime, Berserk was clashing with the Sandworm. She tore through its body and smashed its head in with her halberd, a sight worthy of putting her in the ranks of superhumans.

“…!!”

And precisely because of that, a certain someone couldn’t help feeling even more agitated.

It was only natural that small fish would get eaten if they tried to swim with the big fish. If one couldn’t accept one’s limits, one would inevitably become frustrated and carried away by their own emotions.

Swoosh.

And the moment emotions were allowed to cloud judgment, the Martial King could no longer be considered his opponent.

Anyway, If he didn’t seize this opportunity after the whole table had been set for him, wouldn’t he bring shame to the name ‘Deathbringer’?

Swish.

With no one paying him the slightest bit of attention, he finally managed to position himself behind the Martial King.

His body, lowered close to the ground so the Demons flying in the sky couldn’t detect him, seemed like a shadow and moved with controlled precision, even adjusting his extremities so the Olgoi-Khorkhoi couldn’t notice him.

His shallow, elongated breaths didn’t even contain heat anymore.

“How… How could you—!”

At that moment, the Martial King could no longer contain his anger and moved forward. It was the moment he’d been waiting for.

Deathbringer’s footsteps moved forward, obscured by the Martial King’s ruckus. It wasn’t particularly difficult for him. He had already done this quite often and even used this skill once before when he helped subdue the Demon Knight.

Compared to that time, the Martial King seemed almost cute to him.

“Berserk!”

Bam!

The Sandworm stopped moving and lay still on the ground. Even then, this person who still couldn’t dare challenge Berserk was shouting from a few steps away.

“I-I’m…!”

A blade that didn’t reflect even a single ray of light was resting against his throat.

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“What a cowardly loser.”

“…!”

Though the Martial King stepped forward to turn his body, it was already too late. The assassin, who’d failed to anticipate a recovery and missed his first chance, gambled his life once more.

Instead of choosing the path of avoidance, he chose the path that ensured his opponent’s death. Without resorting to any tricks or poison, he only had faith that his blade could slit his opponent’s throat.

“Kurgh!”

And that belief was rewarded. Although the arm holding the blade got caught by the Martial King and he got thrown to the side, blood was spilling down his neck like water from a fountain.

Once that point had been reached, there was no way that he would survive, no matter what he did.

“Until the very end.”

The Deathbringer had won.

Crack. The false illusions that had spread everywhere completely shattered.

“Damn, this hurts like hell…”

He rubbed his body, which had struck the debris of a broken building.

He had been thrown into a pile of fragmented rocks, so his back and everything else were throbbing with pain. It was already fortunate enough that his skull hadn’t been smashed in.

“Uurgh.”

Well, the arm the Martial King had grabbed appeared to be broken, though.

Deathbringer moved his somewhat okay hand to grab the blade he’d dropped when his arm was broken.

Bite!

Intense pain shot up his leg.

“Son of a—!”

Right, he’d thought he could get through this without being touched by a single Demon. He was actually lucky enough to have not been bitten once so far.

Crunch, crunch.

However, becoming Demon food immediately after overcoming such an ordeal felt just too unfair.

He grimaced as he looked at the Olgoi-Khorkhoi crawling around him. Even if he could swing his blade to kill them, one had already attached itself to his arm.

He couldn’t move his arm properly due to its paralysis venom.

“Goddamnit…”

Was he fortunate enough that his tongue could still move freely? No, even his tongue seemed to be slowly growing numb and stiff.

He squeezed his eyes shut as he saw more Demons gather around to devour him.

“What? Already dead?”

Slash!

He felt a splash of fluid from the Demon that had bitten onto his leg, the one on his arm, and the ones swarming toward him.

“Sti… ll.”

He managed to move his eyes slightly. Someone coated in the Demons’ bodily fluids was looking down at him. Behind her was the corpse of a Sandworm as big as a mountain.

In that short time, she’d managed to tear apart that powerful Demon.

“Al… ive…”

He wondered whether she was holding back her laughter or something. Her amber eyes widened.

“Hah! Yes, that’s right! The person who brought that loser to his knees shouldn’t be in such a pitiful state! Come on, if you’re alive, get up quickly!”

Was she crazy? How many people could move their bodies, let alone stand, after being bitten by an Olgoi-Khorkhoi?

However, Berserk didn’t have any such common sense. She simply grabbed him and pulled him up.

His stiffened body was limp like a broken doll, but Berserk held him up with just her strength by gripping him by the back of his neck.

“Can’t you just overcome this low-level paralysis poison with your willpower alone?”

“…”

That person was one to spout nonsense transcending humanity. While the Demon Knight appeared to lack sympathy, he wasn’t one to act so recklessly.

“Kan… Kan is…”

Nevertheless, she was the one who saved him. Because of that, Deathbringer chose to overlook her ignorance once. The fact that there was an even more urgent matter to attend to right now also played a part in it.

“…still… alive.”

Fortunately, he could still hear Kankan from the other side. He was being supported by someone barely clinging to life, but he was still alive.

One could only enjoy victory when still alive to experience it.

“…Let’s go. To… the… rear.”

And to properly secure the lives they’d barely held onto, they needed to go to where they could find some healers.

They retreated to the designated location, tending to their wounds along the way.

* * *

* * *

As it turned out, the Inquisitor’s side was also attacked. Twice, actually.

The first time, Deb had noticed and went to help; the second time, it seemed the kimchi dumpling had handled it on her own.

While there were no casualties, they had been so busy that they couldn’t afford to help anyone else. Besides, she didn’t even know I was fighting atop the wall.

“I should have paid more attention…”

“Be careful. You’ve used too much Divine Power. You should rest now.”

Moreover, because she had been casting blessings on the whole wall the entire time, this girl looked utterly drained. Blaming her for not supporting me while she looked like that would make me an extremely bad guy.

I just checked whether the Inquisitor was safe and went down. I had something to report to the Archmage.

“You’ve come at a good time. Did anything happen? Are you okay? But why did you come alone? Did you get hurt, by any chance…?”

“The Great Demon came.”

“…!”

Judging by what I’d seen on my way here, it fortunately seemed like nothing significant had happened here. While some people had tried to intrude, they were all repelled by the barrier.

I saw some charred corpses in the hallway where the wizards were positioned, which served as evidence.

“What do you mean by that?!”

However, it was also pretty alarming that they hadn’t noticed the Great Demon appearing on the city walls.

“I think… I get what you’re trying to say. Seeing that the Great Demon just retreated, there’s a chance they’ll launch another attack. You should just stay here, or rather, go to where the Temple’s people are and—”

“I told you what I had to, so I’ll take my leave.”

“Wait a minute, where are you going? If you’re thinking of providing support, forget about it. There is no way this Great Demon would hide somewhere obvious. They managed to hide themselves deeply once already; they can always do it again. It’ll be less dangerous for you if you just stay here…”

“Dangerous?”

I thought about the soldiers and commanders on the front lines, who’d reported that the damage was far less than expected, and the chaos inside the city I’d seen from atop the walls.

I even thought about that Demon who said it would be best just to maintain the status quo and that we should leave it at that.

“That thing is nothing but a pile of dust made of deceit and lies. Its touch can’t even reach me.”

“…Did you make that judgment on your pride?”

“…I attacked it several times with Arcane Power, but I failed to do any damage to it, either. It was like a mirage.”

As for maintaining the status quo, well, that had nothing to do with me, so I couldn’t make a decision about that. However, I knew there were certainly casualties because of this fight, even if there were fewer than usual.

No matter whether there were fewer than usual, the fact remained that people were injured and killed during all this.

So, wouldn't that be reason enough for me to intervene? Especially since the fight wasn’t completely over yet, and a few Demons were still flying around.

“It mentioned something called a ‘nested Nightmare’ that it granted to its sacrifices and that they’d reached their limits. We can’t fully trust what a Demon says, but we can’t completely disregard it, either.”

“…If, as you say, it primarily uses illusions, your attacks don’t work on it, and theirs can’t harm you, then there’s no need for you to waste any more strength on it.”

Also, there was nothing I could do about that Great Demon. As the Archmage said, I would only waste my energy if I tried to fight it any further.

I lacked the capabilities to do anything more. It wasn’t like I believed what that Demon said, but I thought if it had any way to cause me any real harm, it would have done so as soon as we encountered each other rather than wait for the next opportunity.

“But that’s only if we view this positively. If the Demon were to…”

“Don’t try to tie me down with mere possibilities.”

I interrupted the Archmage. I appreciated his concern, but this was just a bit too excessive. Had we considered these possibilities, we wouldn’t have come to this land in the first place.

“…It said it wants to maintain the status quo, but that probably isn’t true. We should remain cautious.”

“…I see. Understood. I’ll be on guard against any further invasions.”

Once I made my position clear, the Archmage ultimately relented. However, that didn’t mean that he just let me go easily.

He tried to object again when I mentioned that the seal had broken. Had I not passed on some more information about the Great Demon and stubbornly insisted, he likely would have locked me up, one way or another.

Even so, I couldn’t avoid him telling me to only go out with the seal. Anyway.

Even if he hadn’t asked me to do that, I would have had to replace the seal anyway. Considering I got permission to go out in return, it wasn’t such a bad exchange.

Now, no one could say anything.

* * *

“H-How did you…?”

I arrived at the rear, located beyond the city center.

“Get to the infirmary.”

While crossing the city, I quickly ushered some people I picked up on the way to the infirmary.

“Have you seen a dark green-haired Curety or Red Mane?”

I learned later what those two did. I heard that Deb went off to find the traitors and left the city wall with Kankan.

They’d probably been searching through the last defense line, but now that it had collapsed, if they weren’t hiding in some building, they were most likely somewhere around here.

If anything, I at least needed to know whether they were still alive.

“Ah, those guys. I saw them heading to the infirmary earlier.”

The infirmary? Right, even though they went inside the city, tons of Demons were rampaging about, so they could have gotten hurt…

“Are their injuries serious?”

“Uhm, quite…”

If even the civilians who’d come forward to treat the wounded could remember them, how badly had they been hurt?

I walked quickly to the infirmary. It was a bit difficult to find them with so many injured people there, but thanks to Deb noticing me first, I didn’t have to look around for too long.

“Ah… Mister, you were safe after all.”

But why was Deb’s arm like that? Why was it in a splint? And why were there bloodied bandages around his leg? I thought he might have gotten injured, but I expected it would have been just a scratch…!

Wait, what was that on his face? Was that Demonic Erosion?! Had he been bitten by a Demon?!!?

“I was a little worried when I saw that black mist, but fortunately, it doesn’t seem like you’re injured.”

I looked beside Deb, who was smiling. There was Kankan, whose entire body was wrapped in bandages and missing an arm.

I clenched my fists.

If even Kankan ended up like this, there was no way Deb could have been safe. That was probably also why his arm got broken.

Did that mean the meat dumpling almost died while I was playing around with the Great Demon on the city wall?

Really?

“Erm, Mister.”

Of course, unless it was part of the plot, they wouldn’t just kill off one of my teammates. It wasn’t my fault that I had been tied up in that situation before.

I mean, was there even a single person who would just leave the boss monster be and randomly go somewhere else? There was always the chance of them attacking the moment you left them alone, and you could never know when they might transition to a new phase or something.

But still.

“Are you angry…?”

Still, it bothered me.

Even more so because I hadn’t seen them, especially Deb, who was on the somewhat weaker side, getting injured and suffering so much. And although you couldn’t say we were, Kankan also ended up losing his arm and would now suffer from a permanent disability.

“Mister?”

I didn’t remember the Inquisitor, who was suffering from overusing her Divine Power, having any part of her body broken, at least.

How dare these trash mobs touch one of my dear teammates, whom I’ve become somewhat attached to over the past few months…!

“Erm, ah! If you’re worried about the Demonic Erosion, there’s no need. They have enough medicine here, but the situation is fairly severe right now, so they just delayed the administration…”

That punk thought I was worried about that? I was just annoyed that he went off somewhere and got himself hurt.

Flutter.

“Wh-Where are you going?”

However, since my character setting wouldn’t let my emotions show on my face, I turned sharply on my heels.

Actually, I started thinking I should keep my distance more from now on. I mean, my setting was that I didn’t want anyone around me, but if I got angry simply because someone got hurt, what would be the point of all this?

“Mister?”

I left the room Deb was in and walked into the city.

“Oh! So, you’ve survived, as well!”

Just so you know, there was no special reason for this. It was just that this Great Demon rekindled my hatred for Demons, and leaving that thing alone would absolutely go against my settings.

“Where are you going?”

“Get lost.”

A-Anyway, that’s how it was.

“Berserk just asked you where you’re going, though.”

Yeah, that was none of my business.

I casually brushed past Berserk, who I happened to come across, as if swatting away an annoying fly and crossed the defensive line. Someone tried to stop me, but they appeared to just be pretending for some reason and ended up letting me through.

“Aha, you’re going out to hunt Demons! Alright, as a Norda warrior, I can’t miss out on something like that. Berserk is coming, too!”

It was time to clean up all the rats in the city.