Get Over Here, Char

Flash.

The world had gone pure white, and in the moment it found its colors again, standing in an unfamiliar place was no longer unfamiliar at all. Yes. That was how it was supposed to go.

Except.

"Char! What are you doing? Get over here!"

A small blond boy with blue eyes was beckoning at me with easy familiarity, and that was a very different matter. The words were nothing like the common tongue I had studied until now, and yet somehow I understood them.

And then—

"Young Master Vartus, you can't do this! They're saying the war with the greenskins could start any moment!"

My mouth moved on its own and threw the words out.

"So what? The war hasn't started yet. I'm just going to the hill out back for a bit."

"Big brother! Big brother! Me too!"

"I wanna go too!"

Two even smaller children, cut from the same cloth as the boy, latched onto him, and his face only grew more confident.

"See? My little brothers are bored to death. We're just stepping out for some air."

"The timing makes it dangerous, young master."

"That's what you're for. You'll protect us, Char."

"Ha……."

My body sighed of its own accord and nodded, and the boy broke into a brilliant grin and headed for the bolt-hole at the foot of the castle wall.

What in the world is going on?

While my body spoke and moved without me, my mind scrambled, and only one thought came of it.

Don't tell me I've possessed someone.

A so-called role-playing quest. I had heard that when adventurers undertook promotion quests on the upper floors, a rare few of them played the thing out as if they had possessed some person from the past. The deep floors, that is.

This is Floor 5! The Novice stretch!

Floor 5 was supposed to be a maze. You picked your way through labyrinths and traps and killed an elite monster—that was the ordinary fifth floor, as I understood it. It was the whole reason I had thought of Klinsmann's underwear, of all things, as insurance against status ailments.

And yet.

What is this!?

My bewilderment changed nothing. The scene kept unfolding. The boy, Vartus, and his brothers slipped out of the castle with a speed that did not belong to children their age and ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠ran like the wind itself.

"Ahahaha!"

"Big brother, wait up!"

"Brother!"

It was no figure of speech. They were actually wrapping the wind around themselves as they ran.

Spirits?

Even Vartus, the oldest-looking of them, seemed ten at the outside, if that. The younger brothers, smaller still, wound wind spirits about themselves with practiced ease and flew along the mountain path. In half a day the children crossed not only the hill behind the castle, but the mountain beyond it, and the one beyond that.

So that's how you apply it.

I was staring, wide-eyed, with the strange feeling of being taught by children, when my consciousness tore free of the possessed body and shot up into the sky—as if to take in every surrounding feature with the mountain the Vartus brothers were running as its center. Far off in the direction they were heading, a vast green tide came marching slowly across the plain.

What—!?

From the smallest goblins to orcs and trolls, and ogres largest of all, green-skinned humanoid monsters were advancing in an army. Worse, a detached force of several hundred was already climbing the mountain immediately behind the one Vartus and his brothers were racing across. The moment I registered them, my vision widened and fixed on the greenskin column.

"Raktus!"

"Ha!"

A massive orc in iron plate over every vital point, astride a giant wolf, swinging an axe that flashed blue. Even at a distance, the pressure rolling off him was terrifying.

Stronger than that demonkin... I think?

Dozens of wolf-mounted orc riders centered on him, and hundreds of goblin warriors besides. The instant I took them in, the System's voice rang out.

Ha. It really is a possession quest.

I sighed, and my vision snapped narrow again, back into the eyes of the escort running with the children. At once I shouted.

"Young masters! Wait!"

This time the words were entirely mine. A language I had never heard, and yet—because it was a quest, I supposed—it felt as if the System were translating for me on its own.

"What!?"

"It's dangerous!"

I held the bewildered children where they were and triggered my trait on the quest window hanging before my eyes.

Please. Don't let it be some impossible quest. Please.

I had a bad feeling. And sure enough.

"Ah, goddamn it!"

The worst possible quest had snapped shut on me. As if a possession quest on Floor 5 weren't enough, the Perfect Clear conditions amounted to waging a war by myself. I was still sighing when Vartus tilted his head and came closer.

"Char, what's wrong?"

Which meant—

This kid is the hero Vartus?

The name of the city I lived in, and of the royal house. Their founder. One of the heroes who had saved humanity, a legend who had climbed into the heavens and become a god. Unfortunately, that was the end of what I knew—one short scrap someone had once told me about where the city's name came from.

Damn it. I should have learned more about Vartus.

The regret came, and did me no good.

"I asked what's wrong."

"Uncle Char, why?"

"Why?"

Only when the little brothers—the ones I figured for Balthazar and Kartus—turned curious eyes on me did I drag myself out of the useless thoughts.

"An orc great warrior and his detachment are coming over that mountain right now. You have to go back immediately."

I had wanted them to take it seriously. Instead Vartus and his brothers' eyes lit up.

"What!? Enemies?"

"It's a war!?"

"Whoa!"

They didn't feel a shred of the danger that word ought to have carried, and my chest went tight.

"But how do you know!?"

"The, uh, spirits……."

"Oh, then we'll look too!"

"……No, don't look—just—!"

I roared it, and only then did the children flinch.

"Go back at once. I'll take the rear so the greenskins can't come after you."

Send the liabilities back first. Then figure out how to deal with the enemy. That was the plan.

"I wanna fight too!"

"Me too!"

"Big brother, me too!"

The heedless little brats made me clutch the back of my neck.

"Does war look like a game to you!?"

The shout tore out of me before I could stop it.

Chwira!

An alien voice carried from far off. My head whipped around on its own. Past the near ridge, a green goblin was pointing this way and screaming, and right behind it orc riders on wolves came tearing over the mountain.

"Damn it! Run!"

Their feet pounded the ground. Fortunately, the children actually listened this time. Maybe because this threat was one they could see.

"Run!"

"Ah—ah!"

At Vartus's word they ran for all they were worth.

Like this, then?

When I mimicked the way they wrapped the wind spirits around themselves and ran, I felt the Volante Footwork surge, unmistakably faster. There was no time to enjoy the unexpected growth.

"Kuracha!"

One of the orc riders, conspicuously fast, had already crested the ridge and was charging at a frightening speed. A glance at his gear: not quite the captain's level, but a gleaming steel weapon. Even at a rough look, he was a different class from every monster and beast I had faced so far. Clearly just one of the captain's men, not the captain himself—and he looked like an elite.

On Floor 5? Are you kidding me!

I screamed it on the inside. Reality did not change.

"Keep running!"

I shouted and stopped, turning the other way. From slightly higher ground, I decided to take the pursuer first.

One of them, at least……

Should be doable. I turned and set my stance with that thought, and suddenly the sun went dark.

Ugh!?

The wolf had leapt from well ahead and soared all the way above my head.

Keong!

"Kracha!"

The giant wolf's claws raked, and the spear of the orc on its back stabbed in the same instant. The force of it was murderous.

Hup!

I instinctively flung myself back out of reach. Then, in the gap as the wolf landed, I charged and sprang. One blow—the power of the leap and the thrumming spear gathered into a single strike aimed at the orc warrior's neck.

Got—

I saw the eyes of the orc, who had not yet recovered the spear he had thrust, fly wide.

Then a shock hammered me from below, and my body spun through the air. The instant I realized it was the wolf's foreleg that had hit me, the orc warrior reset his stance and thrust again.

Tch…….

I twisted, trying to slip as far clear as I could with the wind spirit, but I had to brace for a heavy blow.

……You think I'm going down alone!!

I wrenched my whole body around and drove the spear back at the orc. I was trusting Edelin's longspear, Attack +9—put another way, a spear that carried the force of Strength 9 or higher even in a glancing poke.

And in that moment a fierce ribbon of wind bound the orc's spear. At the same time strength flooded my stance, as if a foothold had appeared in empty air, and my wavering spear lanced true and punched through the orc warrior's throat.

"Kkh……?"

The question in his eyes was mine as well.

"Kyaaaoo!"

Flame burst across the face of the wolf as it thrashed, sensing its rider's death. When I saw the earth seize its legs, I had no choice but to understand why.

Thanks!

I landed and drove ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the spear into the wolf's neck, and only then did the System's voice come.

An elite, all right.

There was no time to savor the level-up. I looked back, and sure enough the children were a little ways off, throwing their arms up and cheering.

"Run!"

I could hardly scold them for not fleeing when I was the one who had just been saved. I could only hope they would spend the breath those words would cost on one more step of distance. ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠And so, borrowing even the wind spirits' strength, we tore along the mountain path like madmen.

But there was nothing to be done about the howls behind us drawing steadily closer.

Keong!

Keong! Keong!

Awooo!

A glance back. This time no fewer than three orc riders had latched onto us.

Not like this.

I had felt it the moment I saw the quest. One fight made it certain. This was not a quest you settled by fighting it head-on.

In that case—

"Into the woods!"

I shouted and steered the children into forest that didn't even have a path. I hid them in brush where the sunlight was reasonably blocked.

"Don't make a sound! And once they're gone, you know what to do, right?"

I left them with that and was running out alone when I saw Vartus, with an urgent motion, slip something into my arms. There was no time to worry about it.

"Over here, you sons of bitches!"

I cut the other way—a wide swing that actually curved back toward the direction the detachment was coming from.

Keong!

Watching the orc riders bend their course toward me, I felt relief more than anything. The quest, or my conscience? Either way, the choice was already made. All that remained was the gamble.

If I can't run, I dive in and hide.

Luckily, I had the stealth shroud Kim Hyun-shik had "given" me. An absurdly simple plan, and the odds didn't look high.

Hide, then ambush.

Beyond that, I couldn't see another way to pull off ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the Perfect Clear.