Chapter 32: For the Love of God, Don't Work With Adventurers
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 32: For the Love of God, Don't Work With Adventurers
The Knight's Affair, the sequel to Hero's Party.
The normal ending of this game has the protagonist, Mars, crushed under the rubble of a building in place of the heroine, only to be abandoned by her and his companions.
A death unbefitting of a knight.
Hence, the normal ending.
So, what about the true ending?
In the true ending, one of the Demon King's Four Heavenly Kings appears in the capital of the Prona Kingdom. The Heavenly King and his forces were powerful, and the armies of the Prona Kingdom were weak.
When most of the soldiers and knights had either fled or been killed, and the demon army was about to ravage the civilians, Mars appeared.
A demonic horde numbering in the thousands.
Facing them, a single knight.
It was an overwhelmingly disadvantageous fight by any measure, but Mars simply endured and endured.
For days and nights.
Morning, noon, it didn't matter. He fought on.
Though he couldn't win due to the overwhelming odds, he managed to prevent the civilians from being harmed until the heroes arrived.
Seeing the heroes and the army rushing in from a distance, the utterly exhausted Mars closes his eyes in peace.
The death of a great knight who burned his own life away to protect the people.
Of course, the NTR perpetrators steal all the honor and rewards, but that's not what's important right now.
What's important is why there's such a massive power gap between the protagonist of the normal ending and the protagonist of the true ending.
The reason is incredibly simple.
A dungeon located in the Esnate region of the Prona Kingdom.
Whether you enter that dungeon or not is what separates the normal ending from the true ending.
Some might hear this and ask if it makes sense to become so much stronger just by visiting a single dungeon.
As someone who has actually lived in a fantasy world, my answer to that question is, "Of course, it makes sense."
Modern people, accustomed to games, think of dungeons as nothing more than old sheds in the countryside, but reality is completely different.
Think about it.
This is a world where building a single small castle costs the lives of many people.
That's not a metaphor. It's a world where people are literally crushed to death by blocks of stone.
In a world like that, someone carves a hole into a mountain or digs deep underground, installs all sorts of traps, and kidnaps various monsters to create their own private ecosystem?
Do you think that's something that can be achieved with ordinary effort? Fuck no.
An average person couldn't do it no matter how hard they tried.
It's something only a transcendent being could accomplish.
Clearing a dungeon means inheriting the legacy left behind by such a transcendent being.
Whether it's a part of it or the whole thing, for an ordinary person, it's a life-changing opportunity.
That's why the word "dungeon" makes the eyes of adventurers and knights alike gleam.
Anyway, I had run nonstop to the Esnate region to obtain the magnificent legacy left by such an incredible person.
"This mountain is fucking huge."
I'm always struck by the considerable gap between the game and reality.
People walk around with actual brains in their heads instead of genitals, and a mountain that took only a few steps to climb in the game now looks incredibly majestic...
So now I have to search every inch of this majestic mountain range to find a well-hidden dungeon?
My heart swells with awe, doesn't it?
"Fucking hell."
I started climbing the mountain.
*
"Chief! Chieeeef!!"
"Son of a bitch..."
Woken by his subordinate's shout, the bandit chief spat out a curse. He'd been having a nice, dirty dream, and this bastard had ruined it.
He was about to smack the man, but seeing the urgent look on his subordinate's face, the bandit chief calmed his anger.
"What? What is it?"
"An adventurer! An adventurer has attacked!"
At the word "adventurer," the bandit chief's expression also turned serious. Most people think a bandit's natural enemy is the army, but that's wrong.
Unless the bandits cross a certain line, it's rare for a lord to dispatch soldiers.
The beings that bandits truly fear are adventurers.
Strange bastards who know the ways of bandits better than the bandits themselves. On top of that, they're crazy for money, so when they attack, they clean out anything that looks valuable.
Even if you're lucky enough to survive, you can't start over as a bandit again.
This was the greatest crisis of his ten-year career as a bandit!
"Dammit, how many? How many of them are there?"
The response would depend on the number of attackers.
Either fight them.
Or run.
"One!"
"One? Shit. Hey, pack your things, quick!"
The bandit chief didn't utter lines like, "What, just one? He must have a death wish!" Instead, he chose to jump to his feet and move swiftly.
Adventurers may be creatures obsessed with money, but they cherish their own lives dearly.
They don't pick fights they can't win.
So, a single adventurer attacking a group of bandits?
It was one of two things.
Either an idiot high on playing hero, or just a very strong guy.
And in most cases, the probability of it being the latter was overwhelmingly high.
"Got everything?"
"Yes, Chief!"
"Good, then let's get the hell out of here!"
"Yes, Chie—Gack."
A groan came from behind him.
The bandit chief knew instinctively.
If I turn around, I'm dead.
'No time. At this point, I'll leap through the window in a single jump.'
Beyond the window was the outside.
Once he was out of here, he'd have the advantage, knowing the surrounding mountain paths so well.
Imagining himself leaping through the window, the bandit chief threw his body forward. Thud! He didn't even get close to the window, instead falling flat on the floor.
'What the fuck?'
Why couldn't I make it? I know I haven't been working out lately, but I'm not that pathetic. Did something catch my leg?
The bandit chief turned his head toward his legs. Both of his ankles had been severed. Behind him stood a handsome, red-haired young man, presumably the one who had cut them.
'Oh, dear. Too late.'
If he'd been just a split second faster, he might have lived. What a shame.
'Is it because I'm getting old? My reaction time has slowed down.'
The bandit chief sighed and lay spread-eagled on the floor. He let out a hollow laugh at the adventurer's puzzled expression.
"What. You got something to ask? Sorry, but I don't have any hidden treasure."
"It's good to see you're not groveling. I don't need money, just some directions."
"Directions? To where?"
"A place where three large peach trees form a triangle, surrounding a pond in the center. Does that ring a bell?"
"I don't know about a pond surrounded by three peach trees, but I do know a place where a lot of peach trees grow."
"Oh. Good, someone who knows something this time."
"This time? You stopped by other places before coming here?"
"About three."
"And you killed them all?"
"Of course. They were bandits, after all."
"Doesn't your conscience bother you?"
"I don't think a bandit chief is one to talk. Enough of that, just give me the directions."
The bandit chief chuckled at Cloud's grumbling tone.
"Listen, kid, you're still young, so you might not know, but when you want to ask an enemy for something, you're supposed to leave room for negotiation. But you've already cut off my legs. I'm going to die anyway, so what reason do I have to tell you anything?"
"Because if you don't talk, I'll keep you alive and dump you in the slash-and-burn village down below. I heard you raised some hell in that village, didn't you? Extorted money, raped a young lady who was about to be married. I bet they'd be thrilled to see you if I dropped you off as a cripple."
"I stand corrected. You're a magnificent piece of shit."
The bandit chief told him the location of the area where many peach trees grew. In return, Cloud staunched the bleeding from the bandit chief's legs and then threw him into the slash-and-burn village.
For the first time in a while, Cloud was able to sleep in a comfortable bed.
*
After searching the area the bandit chief had described, I was able to find the hidden pond where the dungeon was located.
All that was left was to find three adventurers to explore the dungeon with me.
They didn't need to be extremely strong. I planned on clearing everything myself, anyway.
However...
'They can't be completely useless.'
As I've said before, this dungeon's clear conditions are as strict as its entry requirements.
The dungeon consists of 30 floors, and every fifth floor, you have to pass a certain check to proceed to the level below.
The check confirms only one thing.
The survival of the four people who entered the dungeon.
There can be no incapacitated party members. If there are, the door to the next level will not open.
You might think you could just regroup and try again, but reality isn't so forgiving.
Each person only gets three chances to enter the dungeon. Waste all three, and it's all for nothing.
Therefore, I had to filter out any adventurers who would drop dead at the slightest touch.
I went down to the city and found the Adventurer's Guild.
The woman at the counter had her brown hair tied back and exuded a mature, alluring aura. A beauty mark under her right eye gave her a seductive look.
I asked her to gather the best people available as quickly as possible.
She gave me a sultry smile and told me to wait for three days. And so, I waited for three days, and...
"Hey."
"Yes, Sir Adventurer."
"You wanna die?"
This woman had spectacularly betrayed my expectations.
"Is something the matter, Sir Adventurer?"
And she had the nerve to smile shamelessly.
"'Is something the matter?' What do you mean? I asked you to find me the best people available at or below my rank, didn't I?"
"Yes, Sir Adventurer."
"And I slipped you 2000 gold to make sure it was handled well, right?"
"Oh, Sir Adventurer, you should only say such things when we're alone...♡"
"Cut the crap."
"Yes, Sir Adventurer."
Her bashful expression was quickly replaced by a professional smile.
I pointed behind me with my thumb.
"If you have eyes, you can see what I'm pointing at. Right?"
"Yes, Sir Adventurer."
"And do those look like 'decent adventurers' to you?"
I glanced behind me.
There stood the three adventurers the receptionist had introduced.
"Ah, please! Not out here! People are watching!"
A teenage boy in the throes of puberty.
"Just stay still. Your bangs are a mess."
His mother, who looked strangely young despite having a son his age.
"A-Ahem! Seeing as we'll be working together, perhaps we should introduce ourselves..."
And a middle-aged man eyeing the young mother with a lecherous gaze.
I turned back to the receptionist and asked again.
"Are those supposed to be vetted adventurers?"
"Yes, they are. The beautiful lady's name is Zenia. She has been an adventurer for a long time. Unfortunately, she was widowed shortly after becoming pregnant with her child..."
"I don't care about her life story. Just give me their levels and ranks."
"Starting with Ms. Zenia, they are Level 23 A-rank, Level 16 B-rank, and Level 21 A-rank, respectively."
"...Really?"
Three versions of me from right before I tried to kill myself?
This might be better than I thought.