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

Chapter 67: From the Very Beginning (2)

Although I had told everyone to hold back, it was actually pretty easy to defeat the slave traders—probably Vipurit’s people.

It probably was because I killed one guy with my first blow, blew off the upper bodies of six more with a [Slash], and leaped over the carriage, killing them all before they could even react.

“Did you already take care of everything?!”

“Demon Knight!”

“Wow, look at this sea of blood.”

Did they try keeping their distance as I told them to, but then changed their course again? I saw three people running toward me.

I shook off the blood and grabbed the one lucky trafficker who was still alive.

Bam.

“Kuhuk!”

I threw him before the Inquisitor as she ran toward me.

“This guy…”

“He’s well on his way down to the underworld. Hmmm. Hey, can you keep him alive somehow?”

“I can, but is there a need to?”

“There’s no reason to keep him alive, but shouldn’t we get some information out of him before killing him?”

“That’s… You’re right. Wait a second.”

“You just have to cure him enough that he can talk.”

Ah, good, good. I really liked that the dumplings could think for themselves without needing me to tell them what to do.

Seeing the dumplings acting on their own, I turned my attention elsewhere. I was now looking into the faces of the hostages who were questioning whether I was their savior or just their executioner.

“It’s fine now.”

At times like this, Windhand should be the one handling these matters. Upon seeing his brown skin, dangling earrings, braided hair, and body unique to a sailor, their eyes softened a little.

“Everything’s fine now.”

“…You’re.”

“…We’re reinforcement from Jacrati. You don’t have anything to worry about. Just focus on getting out of here alive first.”

He hurriedly checked over the people’s faces and conditions. Their cheeks were sunken in and their eyes seemed dead, as if they’d been through a lot.

The children in the carriage were no different.

“Let me remove your shackles first. I need a key for that…”

“S-Save the children first!”

“Please release the kids first! I beg of you!”

“…Don’t worry. Of course, we’re also going to release them, as well, but we’ll still need a key—”

“Get lost.”

“…?”

Did we really need a key for that? If there’s no way, you just have to make one.

I wrapped my hands and legs in Arcane Power and grabbed the iron bars. Creak. I managed to push aside the bars like curtains.

I learned this technique while testing how much my damage increased when I applied Arcane Power to my body.

“Uwaaah.”

The children, who were still obediently keeping their eyes closed, finally opened them slightly after hearing strange sounds around them and let out shouts of exclamation.

“Wh-What?!”

“Has Mister actually transcended the realm of mortals…?”

“Wow, so one can do it like that! I’ll help, too.”

While I was making a gap for the children to escape through, the Inquisitor grabbed tightly onto the chains tied to the carriage and connected to the captives.

“You’re not going to rip them apart with your hands, right?”

“It’s still a bit too much for me to do that with my bare hands for now!”

“For now?”

She held on to the chains tightly with one hand and raised her mace with the other.

“Wait a second, what did you mean it’s still too much for you for now…?”

Clang!

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The moment the mace came down on the chains, they broke apart instead of getting pulled down. It was because the way she gripped the chains and the force she struck with were just that strong.

She didn’t even use her Divine Power.

“…This is crazy.”

“…Wow, I shouldn’t mess with her.”

I was also surprised by that.

I was praying the kimchi dumpling would leave her mace and Divine power at home if she faced me again. No, she should also leave her strength out… If she landed a hit on me with any of those things, I feared not even my bones would be left.

“But even if you break the chains, you’d still have to untie the shackles, right?”

Regardless, her action held little meaning. Although they had gained some freedom of movement, they’d have been able to do it themselves once their shackles came off, anyway. In short, she just wasted her time and effort.

“Huh.”

Damn it, that scatterbrained fool. However, her absentminded side also seemed pretty cute…

“Come out.”

“Eek!”

It was now time to take the children out of the carriage.

Rather than just pushing apart the bars, I instead ripped them out. Some of the connected boards also got torn out in the process, so the hole was now much wider.

With that, anyone could enter and exit with ease.

I quickly dulled the torn part with a knife before taking two steps away from the hole. The children initially hesitated a bit but eventually started coming out one by one, starting with the older children.

They were all nice kids, so the children who got out first even helped those who came after.

“Maya!”

“Dad!”

At that moment, someone called out to one of the children who’d just gotten off the carriage. Deb was still removing the man’s shackles with a wire.

“Oh, thank Lord Sea Dragon, thank you so much…”

“Daaad.”

As soon as his shackles were removed, the man ran to the child and embraced them. The kid, about three or four years old, opened her arms wide and hugged her father’s face tightly. Despite her being at an age where her cheeks should still have some baby fat, they were quite noticeably sunken in.

I wanted to cry.

“M-Mom…”

“Uncle…”

“Cinta.”

“Nadine, come here.”

Following that child, others also began calling out to their loved ones.

Exactly half of them acted like that. The remaining kids just cried, as if there was no one among the adults who they knew.

“Damn it….”

Windhand wiped his face seeing this. Deb also continued to remove the shackles wordlessly, though his expression was the same as Windhand’s.

“Erm, I know who has the key…”

At that moment, one of the children quietly spoke to me. He seemed to be a very brave and smart child. Not only did he dare to talk to me, but he also offered the information we needed right now.

“Who.”

“A Middle woman with a hooked nose and warts… She wears a red bandana over her forehead.”

Was there someone like that among the traffickers?

I razed through them like a storm, so I didn’t really know whom I cut down or the details. I was just very angry.

Hmm. Could it be the person I cut down first?

Going by race, gender, and the process of elimination, they seemed to be the one.

“…Understood.”

Good. Well, I should check that woman’s pockets.

I looked down at the child. He was so small, making me feel especially heartbroken. I wanted to praise him for doing such a good job and feed him lots of different delicious things.

“…”

But how could I do that? My right arm twitched before I finally turned around.

Suddenly, I noticed the whole place was completely soaked in blood. While they didn’t see me killing those guys, they did see the corpses littering the area.

I felt a bitter taste spread through my mouth.

Jingle.

Still, my guess hadn’t been wrong. I obtained the key bundle from the person I had killed first. With it, we could accelerate the speed at which we released the people.

* * *

* * *

“What should we do now?”

However, another problem made itself known. We couldn’t afford to take care of these people.

“We can’t just leave them here like we did before. They don’t even have a fence to protect them.”

Of course, we’d saved many people on our stay here. Since we had destroyed ten strongholds, the survivors’ number probably had already exceeded triple digits.

However, it was impossible to protect them all.

We trusted someone would come to take them away. While it wasn’t safe here, we determined it would be better to leave them in the strongholds where they could at least protect themselves.

But what about them? The situation here was too bad for us to leave them behind simply because we couldn’t afford to protect them.

There was nothing we could call a geographical advantage, no roof to keep away rain, and not enough food to let them survive on their own.

The crucial thing was their lack of defensive measures. They hadn’t the means to avoid the beasts that roamed the forest and the plains.

“If we leave them behind, there’s a high chance that they will die.”

Even the Inquisitor was of that opinion. They were correct. Even normal animals would be dangerous to them, and those wandering these lands now were demonized beasts. If an ordinary person came across them, they would most likely die without being able to fight back.

“But aren’t we too far from the last stronghold to escort them there?”

“──!”

However, a sound suddenly reached my ears.

Because it overlapped with Deb’s voice, I couldn’t entirely tell if it was just that… Strangely enough, though, it sounded really annoying.

“But we can’t just leave them. Moreover, there are far too many kids among them.”

“I know that, but…”

I quickly raised my hand. The gazes of those three discussing passionately now landed on me. They probably recognized it as a signal to shut up, so they didn’t say another word.

“──!”

I heard it again. Although it was quite muffled due to the distance, I was certain. It was the voice of a person.

I immediately rushed forward.

“Mister?!”

“Why can’t this bastard ever tell us what he plans on doing…?”

“I-I’ll have to go as well. No, but the people. However…”

“I’ll go ahead first. You guys stay here and protect the people!”

“E-Ehem. F-Fine, I’ll leave it to you, then! If you cause him any trouble, I’ll kill you on the spot!”

“…You guys sure are accommodating to that bastard.”

That third one was quite backbiting. It seemed like Windhand was trying to criticize me, but our dumplings were still doing their best.

I ran across the land, my mind at peace. With each step, I moved faster through the air.

“Run! You can’t stop!”

And finally, the voice’s source came into view. It was a group of about fifteen people, a family of foxes chasing after them.

Their eyes were completely red, probably due to the Demonic Erosion, and their bodies were the size of wolves, so they looked rather threatening, as well. Even more so because they were running as if their stamina were endless despite the several arrows embedded in their bodies.

“…! A person…?”

As I ran toward them, I made eye contact with the one in the lead. I ignored them. I stamped hard on the ground, which lifted me into the air.

“What—!”

Baaang!

Having successfully jumped over the group of people, I was now in front of the foxes.

I drew my scimitar before slicing upward, cutting down a fox

Then, I gently turned my sword before making a diagonal slash from the bottom to the top, though the direction I cut was different from usual. The body of the little fox running at me was torn to pieces.

After bisecting the small thing vertically, I rushed forward one more time.

My final target was the male fox at the rear.

Stab!

The male fox trying to bite me died instead, my sword in its maw. I pulled out the sword, which had passed through its mouth to pierce its brain, followed by massive streams of blood.

Flop. The fox’s huge body spread over the floor.

“All the foxes are dead…”

“How did those sturdy bastards…”

For some reason, many arrows were stuck in its body. It seemed these people had attacked it.

As I cleaned the sword, I tried to confirm something more than obvious: to my eyes, the sword I held diagonally appeared slightly crooked.

As I’d just randomly picked up that sword, I had nothing to say, even if it broke then and there.

“Erm, so, who might you be?”

Just when I thought it had fallen eerily quiet, the person in front of the group approached me and took the initiative to talk.

She had wheat-colored, almost white hair, sharp eyes, and some bone fragments hanging from her pointed ears.

Swish. I smoothly returned my sword to its sheath.

“None of your business.”

I was honestly far more curious about these guys.

Despite being chased around by those foxes, they were unusually heavily armed. All of them were carrying swords, after all.

Moreover, some of them smelled similar to Windhand…

Were they pirates?

“Mister!”

I heard another voice, albeit unaccompanied by any footsteps. The other people also turned their heads in shock, raising their weapons in the voice’s direction.

“Hey there, why are you so fast to draw your weapons?”

However, Deb sure was rather bold at the weirdest of times. He spoke calmly, not caring how many eyes focused on him or whether swords pointed his way.

“What is this about? Demons? Did you come here to kill them after hearing all the noise from the road?”

Deb succeeded in conveying a similar message without saying any curse words.

“And, oh, these people…”

Only now did Deb turn his head. I didn’t know whether he genuinely just noticed them. I doubted it.

“Who are you?”

Maybe he even pretended they were unimportant only because I was there.

“…Sigh. I’m Blue Moon Watia. I’m a pirate by occupation… And I’m currently serving as the temporary leader of the resistance.”

It seemed after spending time with Windhand, I’d learned to recognize other pirates as well.

“Resistance?”

“Yes, the resistance. It seems you haven’t heard the news yet, huh? The resistance is a group to overthrow Vipurit and the pirates under him. More precisely, to protect the people from those bastards.”

Blue Moon spoke as she glanced at me.

“We’re looking for some people whom they kidnapped… So, if you have the time to spar, can I ask you to help us?”

“Are you so sure of our identities to say that? Aren’t you even going to suspect us?”

“Not only did this guy save me, but he also killed all those Demonic beasts, right? Tsk, if it were those Vipurit bastards, they would have left me to die. They would just sprinkle that powder on them and leisurely walk away from the beasts.”

Was Blue Moon just quite easy to get answers out of, or did Deb only pick questions that would always lead to useful answers?

Thanks to her words, I gained more knowledge, such as there being an active voluntary army, both pirates and civilians were part of it, and Vipurit’s gang had a way to avoid those beasts.

“Is that so?”

“So, what do you say? If you want a reward—.”

“Take them.”

And honestly, I already pretty much knew what was going on. Deb might still want to dig for more details, but I had already figured out the situation.

No matter how one looked at it, the ‘kidnapped people’ Blue Moon was talking about were the group that we were currently protecting.

I would be very grateful if their organization took them away.

“What?”

“I said that you should take them.”

“…??”

After saying these words, I turned around and retraced my steps. I fully trusted Deb to solve this problem alone, which made me move without hesitation.

“…Erm, those people you are looking for, I think we already found them not too long ago.”

“What?”

See! Deb handled it!

“How about you come with me to look at them first?”

“R-Right…”

It seemed we’d reached a compromise benefiting both parties. However, my personality was the worst, as always.

“Huh, you’re back? Where the hell did you run off to… Sister Watia?”

“…Suriya? Are you really Suriya?”

“…Damn, I was so worried after hearing we lost contact with you after you went to check out Montata. So, you’re seriously still here!”

“Bloody hell, what are you saying? My damn little brother!”

As if God had arranged it, a sibling reunion took place.