The Jailer (1)
"Huh. It doesn't hurt?"
I examined my body from head to toe.
Despite being thrown from a moving wagon at a fairly good speed, I didn't have a single scratch on me.
Hey! You there! Don't move!
From far in the distance, the faint voices of the jailers drifted toward me.
"...Not the time to be admiring the view."
There was no leisure for idle commentary. Whatever the reason I couldn't feel pain, it could wait.
A quick look around revealed a single road flanked on both sides by dense thickets — excellent cover for hiding a body.
I bolted straight into the underbrush.
Every stride clanked the chains binding my wrists together, which grated on my nerves, but there was nothing to be done about it.
"I need to get as far away as possible."
I pushed off the ground harder, accelerating.
Whiiiish!
Was I always this fast?
The scenery around me streaked past at an unbelievable pace. And strangest of all — the faster I ran, the better I felt.
Apparently, this body had seen a fair amount of training before I got it.
After running like that for who knows how long—
"Hah... hah..."
Drenched in sweat, I spotted a small lake up ahead.
My throat had been getting parched, so the timing couldn't have been better. Without a moment's hesitation, I padded up to the water's edge.
Bloop! Bloop!
But the lake was acting strange.
Steam was rising off its surface. It was boiling.
Instinct told me drinking from it was out of the question.
"But if it's that..."
I looked down at the chains binding my hands. To survive what was coming, these had to come off — and the only way to do that was to dunk them in that lake.
Then a thought occurred to me.
The jailer's beating didn't hurt. Neither did falling off the wagon. I wasn't hurt at all.
I'd been itching to test it ever since. If what I suspected was actually true—
My entire journey ahead was going to change drastically.
My deliberation didn't last long.
After scanning my surroundings, I picked up a sharp stone lying on the ground.
Stab this into my thigh, and I'll know for sure.
The ordinary me never would have even entertained the thought. Harming my own body? Unthinkable.
And yet, why was I acting so boldly?
The answer came to me quickly enough.
It's that reward, isn't it.
Boldness — the reward I'd received when I fell from the wagon. That had to be why I could act now without a shred of hesitation.
"Here goes."
I drew in a breath.
Then, without ceremony, I drove the sharp stone hard into my thigh.
Crack!
"...!"
The stone split clean in two.
My mouth hung open at the unbelievable sight.
"Whoa. I really didn't think it would...!"
It was the moment everything I'd suspected became reality.
Before I was transmigrated into the world of Death Knight, I had activated a cheat code.
And considering everything that had happened so far — plus what had just occurred — there was no doubt about it. The cheat was applied to the character I'd possessed, too!
Wait a second. Doesn't that make me invincible?
The corners of my mouth began to curl upward.
It was the moment hope appeared.
Games, in the end, have an ending. But what if you played toward that ending with invincibility?
"Kukukuku— Hahahahaha!"
Clearing the game was only a matter of time.
I strode straight up to the lake and plunged my hands in.
Ssssssss!
The chains began to melt into soft, dripping ribbons. And of course, my hands were perfectly unharmed.
Before long, the last of the chains had dissolved. I pulled my hands free and stretched.
"Now that's more like livable."
Perhaps it was the easing of tension, but hunger started creeping up on me. My throat was pretty dry, too.
"Time to find something to eat."
The forest stretched on, vast and endless. The jailers would need quite a while to track me down in here.
Under the beating sun, I wandered the forest in search of food.
By my estimate I'd walked a considerable distance, yet I still hadn't found anything edible.
Damn it. What good is high defense if I'm starving to death right now?
I was trudging along, grumbling to myself, when—
Thud.
Something caught my foot.
"...!"
I stumbled backward, eyes going wide. Looking down, I saw a cold, lifeless corpse hidden beneath a blanket of fallen leaves.
"A-a corpse..."
For a split second, my heart lurched and dropped. I hadn't expected to stumble across a dead body in a place like this.
But that, too, passed quickly.
"...Whew."
My mind settled into calm. This, too, was surely the work of Boldness.
At the same time, the dead man's clothing caught my eye through the gaps in the leaves. For a corpse's outfit, it was in remarkably good shape.
It's a little grim, but...
It was certainly better than the prison garb I was currently wearing.
I brushed away the leaves and changed into the man's clothes.
"I don't know who you were, friend, but I hope you've gone somewhere better. Your clothes will see good use."
With a light bow of the head, I pressed onward.
.
.
.
After walking a while longer—
"That appearance... no doubt about it. Dreamberries."
Standing before me was a fruit tree of tremendous value to my current situation.
The Dreamberry was a fruit that existed only in the world of Death Knight, prized for its powerful restorative effects on health and stamina. In the game, the cardinal rule was simple: whenever you spotted one, you picked it, no questions asked.
I began climbing the tree without hesitation. That, too, seemed like something only possible thanks to Boldness.
"Just hang on a second."
Little by little, ever so slowly, I climbed until I finally reached the top, where the fruit hung heavy.
Reaching out carefully, I plucked one.
"You look like the tastiest of the bunch."
I bit straight into it.
Juice burst across my tongue. I could say it with certainty — this was the best fruit I had ever eaten in my life.
And just like its in-game effect, I could feel my fatigue washing away.
So. What now?
During this brief moment of rest, I needed to think seriously about my plans going forward.
I would be grateful for the defense cheat until the day I died. But defense alone couldn't clear this game. To beat this absurdly brutal difficulty, I needed an attack stat to match my defense.
Still, I wasn't worried.
"The means to make myself strong are scattered all over this world."
I was a veteran of this game — over four years of investment. I already knew the locations of all the essential core items and every one of the heroines.
Granted, I'd only ever seen those places as graphics on a screen, so I had no idea where in this world they were or how to get there. But that was fine — as long as I shook the pursuit, I could always ask the people around here.
"First things first — I need to meet her."
If I could find her, everything would get much easier.
Having settled my thoughts, I ate five more Dreamberries before finally preparing to climb down.
"A wagon...?"
The moment I was about to descend, I spotted a single wagon standing on the road far below.
For an instant I wondered if it belonged to the jailers pursuing me, but I shook my head. Judging by how heavily it was loaded, it belonged to a merchant — or perhaps some nobleman's son on a journey.
"If only I could hitch a ride on that wagon..."
Slipping out of the jailers' sight was only a matter of time. I flashed a grin.
"I'd say we've rested long enough. Shall we be getting under way?"
Brozo the merchant spoke to the two mercenaries lounging in the shade.
"Sounds good to me."
"Let's move out."
The two rose briskly to their feet.
"Haha, with two gentlemen of your caliber kindly accompanying me, I, Brozo, couldn't feel safer."
For a merchant, there were two cardinal rules. First — trust. And second — trust. Delivering goods on the promised date, every time. That was the only road to becoming a great merchant, and no shortcuts existed.
That was why he paid a premium to travel with mercenaries of renown. If even a single variable could be erased from the equation, the price was cheap enough.
"Hey, we just get paid to do a job. Kahaha!"
"Haha, but a bond once formed is a bond nonetheless, isn't it? I do hope we meet again in the future."
Brozo was one of those men who believed coincidence did not exist. So even for the most fleeting of encounters, he gave his all, in the hope that fate might bring them together again someday.
"Well, as long as you call for us."
The mercenaries said it lightly, but something in their faint smiles suggested they were genuinely pleased. This man was, without question, a decent sort.
"Right then, let's depart."
Just as the mercenaries were about to climb into the cargo hold—
Tap.
"Huh? Why are rocks falling from the sky?"
Dozens of small pebbles began rolling down from the hilltop. And at the same moment, a faint tremor rose up through the ground.
"...Something's shaking, isn't it?"
"So I wasn't imagining it."
Brozo poked his head out through the wagon window.
"Is something the matter? You haven't boarded yet."
"Hmm, it's nothing. Let's go."
"Right, what trouble could there possibly be?"
GUUUUUMBLE!
But the trembling beneath their feet only grew fiercer.
Sensing this was no trivial matter, the two men drew their swords.
Shhhing!
"Something's coming."
"...Pardon? Something's coming?"
Brozo looked back and forth between them, his face tight with anxiety.
"Please hide yourself for now. We'll scout the area and—"
He never finished the sentence. And for good reason.
"...!"
CRUUUUMBLE!
Over the crest of the hill, an enormous boulder was hurtling down with terrifying force.
"D-damn it all!"
"Get out of the wagon, quickly!"
The boulder, gaining speed as it came, was barreling toward them far too fast. Moving the wagon, weighed down with heavy goods, was already hopeless.
"N-no!"
Brozo hesitated to leave the wagon. The cargo hold was crammed with the delivery goods that were his very lifeblood. If the trade scheduled for today fell through, he would be betraying the trust that defined him as a merchant — and his dream of becoming a great one would dissolve into nothing.
"C-couldn't the two of you do something about it?"
Brozo pleaded desperately, but the mercenaries shook their heads.
"If it were men causing trouble, we'd handle it a hundred times over — but there's nothing we can do about that boulder! So get out here, now!"
"I-I can't. That cargo is worth more to me than my own life!"
"Oh, for the love of—!"
Seeing the state of him, the two mercenaries swiftly hauled him down from the wagon.
"No, wait—!"
Brozo was dragged bodily away by the pair. He stared at his wagon with the hollow, despairing eyes of a man resigned to the inevitable. In a few short moments, that wagon — and the goods loaded atop it — would be smashed to splinters.
He might save his life, but as a merchant, he might as well be dead.
CRACK!
That was when it happened.
From the thicket across the road, a man came bursting out — and walked straight toward the oncoming boulder.
"Wh-what is he doing?!"
"Hey, get back! Are you insane?!"
Both mercenaries roared at the top of their lungs, but the man paid them no mind whatsoever.
"Damn it, I can't just watch this...!"
Everyone present was certain that in a few moments, the man would be crushed beneath that colossal stone in a scene too gruesome to witness.
And then, at last, the boulder reached him.
KRRRAK!
"——!!!!!!"
Every soul there stood frozen, mouths agape, staring blankly at the man.
And they had every reason to.
Contrary to everyone's expectation that he would be mercilessly flattened, it was the boulder that had split clean in two — slamming into the ground on either side of him.
"......"
A stunned silence fell over the scene in an instant. Of course it did. A rock — no, a boulder — easily ten times the mass of a grown man had struck him, and split apart.
"Who might you be, my lord?!"
Brozo demanded, his eyes shining brilliantly. At that moment, he felt as though he were standing face to face with a hero straight out of legend.