Chapter 6
Chapter 6
Ch. 6 .｡.:✧ Jill Diner (4) ✧:.｡.
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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: FusionX
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The initial trait, Guardian Knight.
This thing, its activation condition was truly troublesome.
I had that thought from the moment I saved Jill from falling into the hole.
They said the activation condition was “When protecting someone”, but even though I clearly protected Jill from danger, it didn’t activate.
Actually, I gained a certain conviction at that time.
Guardian Knight didn’t base it on the subject doing the protecting.
Whether or not the one being protected recognized that they were being protected was the true criteria.
With that conviction, I committed this act.
If I failed, my fate was to be stabbed by the rushing assassins and die, but
[Trait ‘Guardian Knight’ activates.]
[Stats]
[Strength: 9(x5) *Guardian Knight effect applied]
[Stamina: 7(x5) *Guardian Knight effect applied]
[Mana: 12(x5) *Guardian Knight effect applied]
[Agility: 18(x5) *Guardian Knight effect applied]
[Luck: 14(x5) *Guardian Knight effect applied]
I succeeded like this, plain as day.
I narrowly overcame a crisis of death.
I clearly chose the heroine conquest route because I didn’t want to risk my life defeating the final boss, but now I was risking my life protecting the heroine.
Wasn’t this completely putting the cart before the horse…
‘Stats quintupled. It’s a truly crazy effect.’
It was a trait that made me curse when I was shouldering the all-stat -5 penalty.
The performance was so immense that the measly penalty felt like nothing.
To the point I could lightly support Jill with one hand and move much more nimbly than the assassins.
With this, I could take down a dozen assassins.
‘…Only an idiot would think that.’
What were the odds of a modern person who had only swung a sword a few times winning against other-worlders who made a living through murder, in a cold weapon fight?
Obviously close to 0.
It wasn’t a problem that could be solved just because my stats were a bit superior.
If the amplification was a full 10 times, to the point of being too fast to see, then maybe, but 5 times was iffy.
I might be able to kill five or six of them, but I would probably soon get hit and die.
I even had to consider the fact that I was in a position of having to protect Jill.
‘The way out is blocked so I can’t run.’
Worried I might escape, the bastards were swarming the exit.
To break through that, I would have to fight while surrounded.
In the end, there was only one answer from the beginning.
“Please put me down-!”
“He’s charging at us!”
“Is he trying to break through from the front?!”
Pretending to rush forward, I gave a fake and accelerated backward.
Where I was heading was not the exit, but the empty coffin in the corner of the ossuary.
The coffin they had opened the lid of earlier.
The moment I slid in quickly, pushed Jill into the coffin, and shoved my body in as well,
“Kyaak?!”
Boom! Kwang!
“Huh?! The pillars!”
The mana bombs planted in advance during construction detonated, toppling all the thick pillars.
The ceiling, losing all its pillars in an instant, came crashing down,
“Uwaaaaah!”
Thud.
The ceiling settled down as if a lid was being put on the coffin.
Not even 3 seconds had passed since the explosion when the screams completely ceased and the surroundings became silent.
The assassins must have been crushed and killed by the thick ceiling without even a chance to think of escaping.
The plan was a success.
“…”
“…”
But now that the plan succeeded, the awkwardness made us speechless.
In the quiet coffin.
I opened my mouth, trying to break the awkwardness.
“How have you been, Saintess?”
“…”
Why did I do that?
The thoughtlessly blurted words made the atmosphere even more awkward.
There was no answer.
Fortunately, it was pitch-black so nothing could be seen.
If it was bright inside and I had to face Jill, it would have been twice as awkward.
“It’s you, Yoo-jin, right?”
“Yes, Saintess.”
“Could you explain what happened?”
“We’re trapped inside a coffin, just the two of us, in a situation where the grand cathedral that was just completed collapsed. It will probably take about half a day for the rescue team to be dispatched and lift up the ceiling, so we’ll have to stay like this for over 12 hours.”
“That’s not what I was asking…”
I knew exactly what she was asking.
She was asking by what means I knew the assassins would target this consecration ceremony, and how I infiltrated here and caused this massive explosion.
She might even be asking the source of the monstrous strength from earlier.
But I had no intention of answering honestly.
I couldn’t let her specify me as a possessor or regressor, so I had to act mysterious, pretending to have a power that vaguely foresees the future or something.
She probably wouldn’t believe me even if I told the truth anyway.
“You’re not going to tell me.”
“That’s right, Saintess.”
“Then can I ask why you’re doing this much for me?”
“Because if you die, I die.”
“You’ll be in trouble if I die? Why is that?”
“Well, I’ll have to think a bit more about that reason.”
Right before executing the plan, I was so nervous that I forgot all my lines.
I definitely prepared to counter any question Jill might ask.
I was worried I might have greatly lowered her affection by giving vague and idiotic answers to everything.
If I missed this chance, I wouldn’t be able to create another point of contact with Jill.
‘You idiot! Say something! Who’s going to think you’re the loner who just crouched at MT!!!’
But I just kept silent in the pitch-black darkness, unable to utter a single word.
I couldn’t see in front of me at all, but thinking that Jill was lying within tongue’s reach made me so excited and nervous I thought I would go crazy.
The 69 flattery lines I had come up with based on Jill’s personality had long been erased from my mind.
At this rate, my lips would be frozen stiff by the time the ceiling opened.
I felt pressured that I had to say something, anything, at that moment.
“Isn’t it uncomfortable?”
“Pardon?”
“You’re in a position lying on top of me, right? Your arms must be getting numb.”
“It’s fine.”
“It doesn’t look fine. Your arms are trembling.”
Tsk. Don’t provoke me.
If my strength gives out, I’ll fall right on top of you.
I didn’t want to get arrested on charges of assaulting the saintess just yet.
If I rotted in prison for about 10 years, I would completely miss out on conquering the heroines and everything, so it would truly be the worst-case scenario.
“Let’s lie down side by side.”
“There’s not enough space.”
“We can make space. Hup… There. Lie down next to me. Your arms hurt, don’t they?”
Jill turned her body to the side, making space by moving over.
And then she pulled me down, telling me to lie next to her, and I eventually had to come down, unable to resist any longer.
We ended up lying on our sides facing each other.
My arms and legs were definitely more comfortable, but because the horizontal width was shorter than the height, we ended up much more tightly pressed together.
Jill’s ample breasts were pressing down on my chest, giving an immense sense of pressure.
Not knowing where to put our arms, we placed them on each other’s waists, and our legs got tangled up, unable to move an inch.
In the end, to break through this awkward situation, I had no choice but to open my mouth.
“Should we… hug?”
“What? Why?”
I was met with fierce protest right away and shriveled up.
My hands that were about to wrap around Jill’s waist returned to their original position.
“I’m asking why.”
“I thought hugging each other would help maintain body temperature in case of hypothermia.”
“Hameln’s nights aren’t that cold this time of year.”
“The story would be different if our clothes got wet.”
“Why would our clothes get wet?”
“Are you confident you can hold your pee for 12 hours, Saintess?”
“…”
It suddenly became quiet again.
Jill’s breathing stopped, then suddenly intensified again at some point.
“I, I want to get out! I want to get out right now!”
“You can’t get out so stop flailing around!”
“If I use magic, somehow…”
“How are you going to lift up a ceiling that’s 2 meters thick all by yourself? Let’s just wait until the rescue team arrives.”
“…”
I had a hard time calming Jill down, who suddenly got excited and made a fuss.
Of course, having to pee while hugging a commoner she so abhorred.
She must have been so disgusted and embarrassed she wanted to die.
Ah, crap.
Come to think of it, would there be a woman who hired someone she showed peeing as her bodyguard knight?
I hadn’t thought that far.
“I, I guess there’s no choice. Let’s hug.”
“Let’s do that.”
Jill’s arm came in between my armpits and weakly pulled me in.
I wrapped my arms around Jill’s waist and hugged her even tighter.
So much so that Jill, startled for a moment, hiccupped.
Jill, who was already frail to begin with, had no choice but to do this to survive.
If we slept deeply now and woke up, we would probably hear the sounds of bustling from above.
Around then, we could return to our original positions, awkwardly separate, and get rescued.
Grumble…!
“Hey! There are survivors here!”
“Ah.”
“Oh.”
Right as I was thinking that, the ceiling was suddenly removed and bright moonlight shone down.
The moment our eyes met the countless gazes looking down at us, we froze on the spot.
We were so flustered that we couldn’t even think to untangle our arms and legs hugging each other, and just stammered meaninglessly.
***
The saintess assassination attempt incident went down in history as a case where the assassins planted by the anti-saintess faction idiotically set the fuse of the explosives wrong and all died crushed under the rubble.
The rescue team was dispatched a while (20 minutes) after the incident, and the saintess was found miraculously survived without any injuries.
They never imagined that the timing of the grand cathedral collapsing would coincide with the Holy Knights passing by Hameln, and the mages of the knights who rushed over would immediately carry out the rescue operation.
All my babbling about the rescue taking 12 hours ended up being in vain.
In the end, due to my fumbling and the remark that she would have to pee here, Jill’s affection for me took a sharp dive, and…
“Yoo-jin! What should I wear today? Is this better? Is it too flashy? How do I look?”
I was hired as Jill’s bodyguard knight.
Today marked one month since I was hired as a bodyguard knight.
“Well… Personally, my taste is the left one, but considering today’s event, the right one would be better.”
“Is that so? Then I should wear the right one. I’ll fold the left one neatly and put it away for later…”
I was puzzled myself.
Starting from seeing Jill’s shame, I thought I had done everything that would make her dislike me.
Even the swordsmanship I showed during the interview was pathetically lacking.
Nevertheless, without even asking any probing questions, Jill straight up asked me if I wanted to become her bodyguard knight.
Of course, there was no reason to refuse.
“Are you reading the secret book diligently?”
“Yes. I’m training whenever I have time.”
“Hehe. Keep at it. That swordsmanship looks the best even if it’s just for show. Yoo-jin, you don’t even need to be good at wielding a sword. You just need to know how to swing it convincingly.”
“…”
As expected, Jill had no idea about the power of the secret book she gave me.
The secret book passed down for generations in the Diner family, containing everything about the Thakia-style swordsmanship, was not just for show.
It was a hidden item that even added a trait.
[Trait: Thakia-style (lv.3)]
[You learn the forgotten ancient one-handed swordsmanship. Your understanding of one-handed swords increases.]
The moment I received the secret book and opened it, this system window popped up.
The ancient swordsmanship whose lineage had been cut off, Thakia-style.
Unlike modern swordsmanship that emphasizes a balance of offense and defense, it focused extremely on offense alone.
As with all such hidden swordsmanship, when the level rose and it fully bloomed later on, it would display immense power that devoured all existing swordsmanship.
All three main heroines each gave a swordsmanship trait, and the Thakia-style that could be obtained from Jill had the highest potential.
I thought it would probably play the biggest role in the later parts.
“It’s almost time to go.”
“How many minutes left?”
“10 minutes left.”
“Then I want to rest for 10 minutes!”
“Are you saying you haven’t been resting until now…”
Plop.
Jill sat on my lap, hugging my waist and snuggling up to me.
I had to slightly pull back my waist due to the stimulus of Jill’s large and warm presence pressing down.
I had long since stopped being surprised by such clinginess.
No, I actually shouldn’t be surprised.
Because I was the one who made Jill this way.
I had been pampering her, trying to take care of her mental state, using my knowledge of every little detail of Jill’s personality, tastes, and habits, and before I knew it, she started acting spoiled like this all the time.
“I really don’t want to go to the volunteer work. There will be so many grubby commoners if I go.”
“You’ll do great. I believe in you.”
“What do you believe in? I told you I hate commoners.”
“…”
It was a parade of lines that would have made me freak out in the past.
But seeing Jill like this, I just smiled and patted her head.
Because I had come to know her past.
Jill’s parents were a viscount couple who owned a small territory in the past.
The two people who greatly influenced Jill’s philanthropic spirit operated an orphanage with their private funds and released funds to protect the people of the territory whenever a famine struck.
However, the winds of the republican revolution began to blow in the Diner viscounty as well, and the people of the territory who had been indebted to the viscount couple were completely brainwashed by the words of a few agitators, overthrew the couple, and brutally murdered them.
The only noble who survived that chaos was little Jill.
It was a setting I didn’t know about either, but considering there was not a single mention of Jill’s parents in the game and it provided a reason for Jill’s hatred of commoners, it couldn’t be more appropriately added.
‘I hate stupid commoners so much! I hate even more those who are stupid but don’t even know they’re stupid!’
Of course, having such a past didn’t justify Jill’s hatred of commoners.
It just made one think, ‘Ah, no wonder’, and understand to some extent.
But that was enough.
Because all Jill needed was one person to whom she could show her ugly true face that she couldn’t show to anyone else.
A hypocrite who appeared to love and care for commoners but actually abhorred and was disgusted by them more than anyone else.
I could accept all the pain, sorrow, and suffering Jill poured out.
“They all smell, they’re disgusting, they’re annoying, I hate it. I really don’t want to go to volunteer work…”
“…”
Jill grumbled, rubbing her face against my chest.
Did she herself even realize?
The fact that her smile shone dazzlingly without a shred of falsehood when she actually went to volunteer and played with the children.
Wasn’t it said that even hypocrisy becomes virtue if continued forever?
Even if everything was revealed and the whole world pointed fingers at Jill, I alone would stay by her side until the very end.
That fact would never change.
“Ah right. We have to go to Petenburg next week.”
“…!”
Hearing that name now.
I flinched and trembled, For a moment, which was enough to startle Jill, who seemed to have noticed as she raised her head and looked up at me.
Yulia Petenburg.
It seemed that the appearance of the second main heroine was not far away.
“Isn’t that the Petenburg from ‘The Witch of Petenburg?”
“That’s right. But Yoo-jin, were you acquainted with the witch too?”
“Ah, no, I wasn’t.”
“No? For something like that, your voice sounded quite delighted?”
“……”
Jill whispered in a cold voice and intertwined her fingers with mine.
I was screwed.
I had been so excited that I forgot one fact.
The fact that all the heroines in our game came with a default setting of paranoia.
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