Obelisk Raid (8)
"Who are you?"
I couldn't answer that question easily.
Of course I couldn't. Telling Erinn that I was a young man from twenty-first-century South Korea would have made no sense whatsoever.
This was the world of the game Dungeon in Evil. A country called South Korea had never existed here, and it never would.
And if I tried something like, Actually, I can see all of your information. I've awakened the Sharingan — well, the blade pressed to my throat would probably finish the job before I got the words out.
"…I'm…"
"…"
"At the very least, I'm not someone from the Demon King's army, the way you're suspecting."
I said it firmly.
"If I were, would I have helped you at all? I'd have just watched for my chance and looked for a clean exit. Honestly, even if I'd done nothing and just sat there, I was only the porter to you people. There wouldn't have been any reason to suspect me."
Since I genuinely wasn't some spy for the Demon King's forces, I spoke with more confidence.
"My actions themselves are proof that I'm not a Demon King's agent or anything of the sort."
Erinn listened, narrowed her eyes slightly, then withdrew her sword.
"…Keep talking. Then who exactly are you supposed to be?"
Smart girl, as always. At least she could follow a logical argument — that was a relief.
The problem was that explaining who I was… well, there wasn't really a way to explain it. Like I'd already thought, I couldn't just say I'd come from South Korea.
"But does that really matter right now?"
"It matters."
Erinn answered without hesitation.
"If you're not Allen, then everything is completely tangled."
"…Tangled."
I looked at her.
"I think I'm the one who should be saying that, not you."
"……"
Whether she failed to grasp the implication or understood it perfectly and chose silence, Erinn said nothing.
"…Of course it would be for you too. I don't know what you were hoping for, but from the way you're talking, things clearly didn't go the way you wanted."
It was almost certain that Erinn had used some kind of soul-swapping magic.
What she'd probably wanted was to pull in an Allen from some other point in time because something had gone wrong with the current one… which, if you thought about it carefully, made no sense at all — but that seemed to have been the idea.
Except just as the me at seven in the morning and the me at seven in the evening were the same person, the Allen of the future and the Allen of the present shared the same soul… and somehow, that had resulted in me ending up in this body instead.
Erinn was probably frustrated that things hadn't gone her way. But she had to know I had even more reason to feel wronged. That was probably why she was staying quiet now.
"So you understand how I feel, right?"
"……"
Erinn gave a small nod. Then, brow faintly furrowed, she asked again.
"Then who on earth are you, and where did you come from?"
"That's… honestly pretty hard to explain…"
I wrestled with how to put it, then decided that clearing the Obelisk came first. If I said the wrong thing now and shattered what little trust remained, I'd never make it with this party to the place where the hidden piece was waiting.
Even if I could go after the ones in other locations on my own…
This one I had to get now. If some other hero's party cleared the Obelisk later, the hidden piece would vanish with it.
"How about we clear the Obelisk first and save the rest of the conversation for later? You need to take this place down anyway…"
I recalled what Erinn had said earlier — that she'd already known about the problems here, but not about the final one.
"Things have changed a lot from what you know. Doesn't that make it pretty risky to just push ahead with the information you've got?"
"……"
"I've got my own reasons for clearing this Obelisk. So do you. So whether I'm who I used to be or not…"
I held her gaze.
"The fact that my abilities help with the Obelisk raid is still true, isn't it?"
"…Hah."
Erinn let out a long breath. Then she sheathed the Holy Sword she'd withdrawn and spoke.
"You're just as slick-tongued as Allen."
"…What?"
When had I been slick-tongued? I'd been giving the best answers I could.
"All those things you did — sure, a lot of it was suspicious. You know why I kept thinking you were Allen anyway?"
"…Because I'm a good actor?"
"Don't make me laugh. If you were, you wouldn't have gotten caught."
Erinn went on.
"Your other habits were just too much like that idiot I know."
"……"
"That's why I believed you were Allen. But you weren't."
She looked at me with a faintly hollow expression.
"…That idiot hadn't changed at all."
Then she suddenly clenched a fist and muttered to herself.
"…Then why did I do something like that?"
"…Something like that?"
I echoed the words, but Erinn no longer seemed to hear me.
"What was I even trying to accomplish… when I stabbed Allen?"
…Stabbed?
I froze. The look on her face as she muttered those words was twisted with raw anguish — like someone on the verge of collapsing entirely.
For a moment, the urge to comfort her rose unbidden. Maybe it hit harder because she was always so playful, because her expression and her presence had never cracked like this before.
Erinn bit down hard on her lip. Then, quietly:
"…I'm sorry. I shouldn't be taking this out on you."
She continued.
"You must have been… plenty confused yourself. Yeah. It makes sense now. Why you didn't know things Allen should have known. Why you could act so differently from him."
A hollow laugh escaped her. Then her face twisted again, as if the pain had come flooding back.
She covered her face with both hands and spoke through a self-mocking smile.
"I… ruined two people's lives, didn't I."
Crack.
Pop.
Crack.
Only the soft sounds of the campfire burning down filled the silence. After Erinn's bitter words, I couldn't say anything at all.
She sat like that for a while, then seemed to compose herself. Her expression smoothed out, and she turned her head away, sitting quietly.
Just as my own thoughts were spinning, hers must have been too — starting with whether she should even tell the rest of the party about any of this…
…And what am I supposed to do now?
The truth was, I didn't have the luxury of sitting around empathizing with Erinn's situation. We'd agreed to clear the Obelisk together, but after that, I had no idea what came next.
I probably couldn't stay with this party. Erinn seemed to understand after hearing the circumstances, but understanding and keeping me in the party were two different things.
Just as Freya and Letisia had already started harboring doubts and questions, the other members would have planted seeds of suspicion toward me by now. No party listens to a commander who's lost their trust — and I wasn't stupid enough to stick around with people like that.
…It's a shame, though.
I'd worked pretty hard to get close to them. I'd been steadily building trust as a party member, or so I'd thought.
I never expected this relationship to collapse so completely, so soon.
All because of that clown bastard…
"Haa…"
If I wanted to find the other hidden pieces, I'd need enough training to build the strength for it… and that was going to take a long time.
The one silver lining…
Even if I left the party, one of them would be stuck with me whether she liked it or not. Regardless of whether I walked away, Caesius was bound to me until the Hero defeated the Demon King.
I could ask Caesius for advice on magic, take some commissions from the Adventurers' Guild… maybe build up my skills that way.
I was turning those thoughts over when—
"…You."
"You were calling me scrub before. Now it's just 'you'?"
"That was because I thought you were that idiot."
Erinn muttered.
"I figured if I acted the way I used to, maybe it'd jog some old memories…"
"……"
So all that bratty teasing had been an attempt to remind him of the way she'd needled him as a kid.
"Just calling you Allen… feels weird now, doesn't it."
"……"
Erinn gave a small nod.
"Though I'll still have to call you that until we finish the Obelisk, right?"
"…That's acting. This isn't."
"Fair enough."
This was getting complicated.
"……"
What was I even supposed to tell her to call me? Just dropping my real name would sound strange — it wasn't a Western-style name.
Ah.
Something came to me then. The game nickname I'd used when I played Dungeon in Evil. I'd been too lazy to invent one, so I'd just gone with the default the game provided, and that was…
"…Albrecht."
"…Your real name?"
Not exactly, but close enough. I couldn't exactly explain that it was a game handle.
I nodded, and Erinn murmured thoughtfully.
"Were you from the Estire Kingdom originally?"
"Huh?"
"Ah — the name just sounded like it was from that region."
She fell quiet for a moment, then spoke again.
"…I'm sorry, Albrecht."
"…What?"
"I dragged you into this war… pulled you out of a perfectly fine life and dropped you onto a battlefield. It's basically the same thing."
Erinn tossed a piece of firewood onto the dying campfire.
"So… I'm sorry."
"……"
For someone who usually swaggered around so arrogantly, she was remarkably earnest in moments like this — and surprisingly reasonable.
She had every right to be bitter that things hadn't gone her way, and yet the first thing she did was apologize to me. That said everything.
…Yeah. This was why she'd been chosen as the Hero. This was how she'd gathered people this talented under her own banner.
Capable people don't flock to someone with a rotten personality.
I was about to answer her apology when she spoke first.
"Once this raid is over, you can live however you want."
"…However I want?"
"Yeah."
"You're fine with that?"
She had to know the question wasn't just about whether she was okay with it. I'd taken over this body, but the original owner of it was still…
…her precious childhood friend.
But when she heard me, Erinn's mouth twisted into a bitter smile. It wasn't aimed at me. She was laughing at herself.
"…I don't care."
I couldn't find anything to say to that.
The look on her face as she said it was so desolate that I couldn't bring myself to throw anything back at her.
"…Don't tell the others anything."
"Huh?"
"I'll be the only one who knows your story. The others just went along with whatever I decided on my own… or maybe 'got dragged into it' is more accurate."
Erinn said.
"Just say you and I fought, and that's why you left the party. Once the Obelisk is cleared, you can leave without any trouble. You want to go back to a normal life, don't you?"
"……"
"If we told them the truth, it'd just shock them for no reason. So please. If you're going to leave, leave quietly."
She sighed as she said it. She had to know exactly how that sigh would land with me, and yet she still did it…
She probably doesn't even realize.
She was so emotionally overwhelmed she might not even notice she was sighing.
"…Before that, there's one thing I need to know. I got dragged into this, so I figure I at least have a right to understand."
"…What?"
I said it carefully.
"Why you tried to swap Allen's soul."
"……"
"If it's something you can't tell the others, I'll keep it secret."
I said it out of consideration for her. But the answer that came back wasn't what I'd expected.
"…I'm sorry."
"Huh?"
"I can't tell you. Not to someone who isn't Allen… someone who has nothing to do with what happened."
"I'm the one who got caught up in what you did."
"I know that doesn't make sense to you. But…"
Erinn closed her eyes briefly.
"…Those things are our party's shame."
"…Shame?"
"Yeah. It's not a story you tell outsiders. This isn't about my personal pride — it's about the honor of every member of this party."
She spoke almost like she was pleading.
"I know how awful this sounds, but please… try to understand."
"……"
My head was spinning.
Was the old Allen so bad that she'd call everything involving her childhood friend a "shame"?
Was that why she'd tried to swap his soul?
And because the old Allen and I acted so differently… was that why the others had treated the "changed" Allen — me — so well?
"…I know it's unreasonable. You probably can't just accept it."
Erinn stood up.
"I'll pay a price that matches. Think of it as compensation for the damage my actions caused you."
"…What?"
"You remember the bet we made?"
She looked at me.
"I said that if you became a real asset to the party, I'd give you what I promised before. You weren't the Allen I knew — but from the fighting in Belpaste onward, you clearly helped us a lot. That's a fact."
"I remember the bet, but you never actually said what you were going to give me."
"…I know. I assumed you were Allen, so I figured you'd remember what happened that day. But you didn't."
Erinn said.
"It's late, but I'll tell you now. Listen — and if you decide it's enough compensation… just nod."
I tilted my head slightly — and in that moment, Erinn clenched her fist. Then she grabbed the metal plate covering her chest and yanked it free with a clatter, setting it on the ground.
"…What are you doing?"
The pale skin that had been hidden beneath her chest armor came into view. She still had an undershirt on, so she wasn't bare — but the upper curve of a chest far too full for her small frame was fully exposed.
"…What do you think."
Erinn's face went bright red. I'd seen Letisia get flustered plenty of times, but this was the first time I'd ever seen Erinn like this.
"The reward I told you about. And the price I'm offering you now."
"…What?"
Even through the embarrassment, she didn't stop stripping off her armor. She unfastened the hard plates from her shoulders and set those on the ground too.
"…At least you're not as dense as that idiot Allen."
Unless I really was an idiot, there was no way I could miss what Erinn meant by "reward" and "price."
"I'm not asking you to take responsibility. This is compensation. A price."
Having cast off the stifling armor, left in nothing but thin cloth against her skin, Erinn asked:
"If you take this… can you understand?"