62. Trust Me
62. Trust Me
Chapter 62. Trust Me
Silence......
Right after Redeia vanished with a horrific scream.
Only silence remained in this space.
Except for me, who knew this would happen, everyone wore faces of considerable bewilderment.
"Wh-What in the world has happened?"
Count Garghent stared at me with a half-dazed look.
I gave him a brief answer.
"That is the price of recklessly crossing dimensions. Though she went around flapping her own mouth, calling herself the Dimensional Witch, in truth she was nothing more than a petty thief trespassing through the gaps between dimensions."
"Then... the witch has received her punishment?"
"Exactly. Now she will be trapped in another dimension, unable to emerge. Forever. Her whole body will be torn to shreds in that dimension she so carelessly trespassed."
I deliberately looked at those two vampires, Count Molen and Count Soleon, as I answered.
Naturally, both of their eyes trembled fiercely.
They must be terrified.
They'd staked everything on Redeia and schemed this far, and now that very Redeia had vanished.
Under my gaze, Count Molen and Count Soleon looked at each other.
Then they chose the path of fleeing by flinging themselves away.
"I shall not forget this day's work!"
"Let us meet again next time......"
With a smirk.
The two transformed into a swarm of bats.
Diaz, Andrew, and the paladins and Inquisitor Jephron, who had been fighting them, were thrown into confusion.
It was because they had no means to pursue the fleeing bastards flying upward.
But I stood still, leisurely folding my arms.
Finding themselves about to lose the enemies right before their eyes, they looked at me.
Jephron and Andrew seemed the most impatient.
"S-Sir Rohan!"
"What do we do about that? Help us out a little!"
I answered them with a jerk of my chin instead.
Padadak!
Transformed into a swarm of bats, they flew far and away......
Then reappeared from the opposite wall.
"Ah!"
"The veil was still... up?"
That veil made it difficult for us to come and go too.
But it was no different for them.
'The only ones who can come and go freely are me and Redeia.'
I could make a path with my sword.
And Redeia was the master of this magic.
Of course, since Redeia had vanished, this magic would soon disappear as well.
"Redeia is trapped in another dimension, not dead. For now, that is. By now her body is probably being split and torn apart in that other dimension, so she'll be breathing for roughly 10 more minutes. And this veil will also hold for about 10 more minutes."
Hearing my words, Count Soleon and Count Molen realized they couldn't escape for the moment and descended back to the floor in their original forms.
With deeply scowling faces.
I tossed them a word of advice.
"If you manage to run well for 10 minutes... you might just survive?"
"Krrgh......!"
"Damn......!"
* * *
Count Molen and Count Soleon did not help each other.
They must have known well enough.
That even though they stood side by side as allies... neither was a seed worth trusting.
Both of them, that is.
As I stood watching with my arms folded, Count Garghent asked me.
"You don't need to help?"
"They need time."
"For what?"
I pointed with my chin at Diaz and Andrew.
"Those two. They're still inexperienced now, but in the future, they'll be talents worthy of becoming great walls against the demons."
"......You stepped back for the sake of the future, then?"
Hearing my answer, Count Garghent smiled subtly.
I glanced at him.
"Why are you smiling?"
"Now I understand."
"......?"
"You really are... good at judging people. The alchemist Marco. I met that friend in person too. He was a tremendous talent. Him as well... and those two as well. Around you, people who shine brighter than the stars constantly gather. But... do you know what surprised me even more?"
"I wonder."
"That all those people believe in you as solidly as iron, without exception. Buying a person's heart is not that easy, you know. That's something I, even at this age, still haven't managed to do properly."
"I was just lucky."
It sounded like a show of humility, but it was truly the truth.
Because I was just lucky enough to know their futures.
And I had simply used that to offer them what they needed a little sooner.
However, Count Garghent wore an expression that didn't quite believe my answer.
"That's not something achieved by luck. Those talents wouldn't stand by your side without any thought. And neither would I."
Since he insisted on not believing it, I had no intention of stepping forward further to correct him.
"That statement implies you are one of those geniuses yourself."
"Haha. Does it end up like that? It turned into me praising myself with my own mouth. Well, what do you think? In your eyes, do I appear to be such a talent as well?"
I didn't particularly hide it.
For someone like Count Garghent who hides himself well, opening up about oneself first was actually one of the ways to get closer.
"Of course. I intend to make you one of my people as well."
"Me? Hahaha. Not you becoming my person, but I become yours? I never even thought such a method could exist. Alright. You can think that way. Hmm. Give it a try, then."
He laughed with an amused face.
I could already see it.
That he had already largely come over to my side.
Since I had approached through his granddaughter from the start, after all.
I answered with a smile as well.
"This time, I shall prepare a new set of earrings."
"Hahahaha. I can't refuse that, can I? I look forward to it."
Then I turned my head away.
'The combined forces of Andrew and Jephron look like they'll win quickly, so I can stop worrying.'
But I could feel through my Third Eye that his gaze kept sticking to my back.
* * *
Diaz shot toward Count Soleon once more.
Tadat!
At that, Count Soleon's face went pale.
'How could I, who climbed all the way up here......!'
He had sold his pride and climbed to the peak of the nobility.
He had sold his soul and gained this body that surpasses humans.
But contrary to his expectations, even becoming a High Vampire did not grant him true immortality.
To survive, he constantly needed fresh human blood.
He had despaired.
He hadn't gained eternal life, and the thirst for blood did not stop.
A thirst unimaginable when he was human continuously tormented him.
At first, he had procured blood using slaves.
But that only worked once or twice.
As he continued seeking human blood, before he knew it, ominous rumors had spread.
[Count Soleon devours humans.]
[Count Soleon offers sacrifices to demons.]
[The smell of blood never ceases near him.]
He was suddenly frightened.
Because it was obvious that at this rate, someone from the Order or the Royal Court would surely come.
And if it was ever discovered that he had become a vampire......
Nevertheless, he didn't give up.
Count Soleon poured all his power only toward his goal.
It was then that he met the Dimensional Witch, Redeia.
Appearing before the utterly cornered Count Soleon, in his eyes she was an existence almost akin to a god.
Because she resolved all the matters that had been hopeless until now.
And she had even presented a method to achieve true immortality.
Hadn't even the gods never granted his wishes to such an extent?
From that moment on, Count Soleon became Redeia's loyal right hand.
For her, he casually threw away others' lives.
He even cut off the head of his own child.
Thus, he had come all this way, offering every kind of sacrifice.
Now with just a little more, he was about to obtain immortality......!
But was he to die so futilely here?
'This cannot be!'
He was determined to survive this.
Just 10 minutes, if he endured exactly 10 minutes, a path would open.
To buy those 10 minutes, Count Soleon wagged his cunning tongue.
"That Leahnoa you so desperately want to avenge! Aren't you curious about why she was so strong?"
As expected.
Meomchit.
Diaz stopped in her tracks.
* * *
Diaz furrowed her brow.
"What nonsense are you......"
Before she could even finish her words, Count Soleon opened his mouth again.
"Leahnoa lacked the qualifications of the Seven Knight Orders. Swayed by my temptation, she drank a wondrous potion made with Redeia's magic. Of course, countless human souls were contained within it."
"......!"
"I delivered it to Leahnoa, and she ultimately consumed it. It's a laughable matter. Claiming to do good deeds, yet swallowing people's souls. Even so, is she truly qualified to be called a hero?"
Confirming that Diaz was slightly shaken, Count Soleon did not stop that silver tongue of his.
"If you kill me, the Royal Court will search my study. Then naturally, the fact that 'Leahnoa is no hero' will all be exposed. Will that be alright? However, if you let me live and go, I will eliminate all that evidence. You can kill me afterward, can't you?"
In order to escape right now.
He coaxed Diaz gently.
"This is your last chance to protect Leahnoa's honor. I guarantee you. If what is in my study spreads throughout the world, she will fall lower than trash. For the sake of your close friend, how far can you go?"
Diaz bared her fangs and twisted her face.
"Lies!"
"Lies, you say? Is that truly so?"
At that, I intervened in the middle.
"Indeed they are. They are lies."
But Count Soleon was not shaken.
"Just 5 minutes. If you stop that fellow for just 5 minutes, I will erase all the data, Diaz. This is your last chance to erase your friend's shame."
However, I was not shaken either.
As Count Garghent had said, because I believed in her, just as she believed in me.
"Leahnoa received that potion and agonized over it. But ultimately, she did not swallow it."
Diaz's gaze turned toward me.
"Is that... true?"
In the original story, Diaz wanders for a long time to find the truth about Leahnoa, though I don't know where she heard it from.
Pouring a lot of energy into that matter, crumbling and rising again.
Getting entangled with the player, experiencing all sorts of things, and completing an entire narrative.
And building a friendship with the player in the process.
But why should I wait for all of that?
Now that she's already become my person, is there really a need to go around in circles?
When I already know the answer?
I thought there was no reason to leave a shortcut unused and deliberately take the hard way.
So to Diaz's question, I simply nodded.
"Trust me."
At that, Diaz pressed her lips firmly together and nodded back.
"Understood."
And as she turned back around, her gaze was now completely hardened, without any trace of doubt whatsoever.
Enough to startle even Count Soleon.
"D-Do you think I am fabricating false words right now? No! Absolutely not! You are letting your last chance slip away! You'll regret it for the rest of your life!"
Seeing his words grow longer, he must have been very desperate.
However, the look in Diaz's eyes had already changed.
"I will end my revenge right here!"
"Y-You damn! This crazy bitch!"
With certainty, Diaz performed, for the first time as I had taught her.
That technique her future self would use......
The one she had never succeeded in even once until now!
Papak! Shaaak! Puk!
She perfectly executed it, growing one step further.
"Khuhk... this can't be......"
Count Soleon's head flew into the air.
How to Live as a Broken Character in a Game
Chapter 62. Trust Me