Facing the Fruits of Choice (2)
“You bastard— Hah! Demon Knight! Have you come to your senses?!”
Naturally, no miracle of logging out while asleep had occurred.
What greeted me instead was the Inquisitor and Dev squabbling and snapping at each other, along with the Archmage who looked down at me with wary eyes, having bound me in place with Binding.
“…Want to die?”
I wanted to smash something, but I had no weapon on hand. I glanced once at the chains binding my body, then fixed the Archmage with a look full of contempt.
She examined me for a moment before soon breaking into a gentle smile.
“I merely prepared just in case, so do not be too angry.”
The chains shattered into pieces and vanished. It felt exactly like watching my social standing crumble before my eyes.
“…….”
I gripped my sword and twisted my face into a fierce scowl, swallowing tears inside.
I couldn't even log out. I had planned to just kill the concept-personality a little for the remaining time and ride the immersion, but who would have thought a trial that overturned all of that would appear.
It was agonizing. Far too agonizing.
But now I couldn't even quit…….
Flutter.
I took a deep breath and completely threw off the blanket. As I sat up, the fabric that had been covering me was flung onto the dirt ground. A glance told me it was the Inquisitor’s—each of them had different colors, so they could be told apart.
But so what? This was all something they had brought upon themselves. Damn it, I had tried to change, but they were the ones who kept forcing the harsh treatment on me……!
“…Shall I cut out those insolent eyes before you turn your head?”
Just you wait until I survive this. See if I ever do concept-roleplay again. I never expected to reap the karma of a concept I did for fun like this.
“Hah, no, sir!”
And in this situation, she was beaming like that over such harsh words……!
I was pissed and heated in every possible way. Kimchi Mandu, especially you, you bastard!
Clatter.
Without hiding my boiling insides, I mounted the horse. The campfire had already been cleaned up, and there was no luggage thanks to the inventory, making it possible.
Ah, for reference, I have no cloak or blanket either. System-wise there is no need to worry about body temperature—if there were, it would display the temperature too—so I just sleep without. When the system puts you under, you do not feel the cold either.
One of the reasons it was hard for me to regard this place as reality. Of course, the biggest reason was this concept issue!
“Hyah!”
“Huk, My Lord, please wait just a moment!”
Ah, I don’t care! I want to do it again!!
“Demon Knight!!”
“My Lord!!”
Uwaaa!!
After racing in a trance, looking only at the horse, we had almost reached Tatara.
Perhaps because such a serious problem occupied my entire head. I did not feel much fatigue, but the others wore expressions as if they were about to die.
“Once we enter the city, where will you go first, sir?”
I won’t listen to Kimchi Mandu, won’t listen, won’t listen!
That was a lie; I meticulously calculated my action—ignoring her—to avoid the misunderstanding of being a demon.
After all, I was in the position of having been temporarily pos……sessed by a demon. If Kimchi Mandu hadn’t noticed—damn it, if only she hadn’t!—the demon that possessed my body might have harmed those around me.
But what about the Demon Knight’s past? His family was massacred by demons. In other words, perfect for trauma stimulation. Naturally, his nerves would be on edge, and that would manifest as thorns directed at those around him.
Like disregarding them or turning away. Pushing them away for the sake of others and himself.
But even as I interpreted it, my face burned with shame. Yet if I didn’t, it seemed I would face that situation from earlier all over again.
How did I end up in this mess? I wanted to drop the concept right now, but now I couldn’t even do that. I felt like I would die of embarrassment.
“Are we heading straight to the Meyble Merchant Guild……?”
Barely cooling my heating face, the Archmage—whose white fur had turned even whiter as if bleached—asked. It was the correct answer, but as expected I did not reply.
“Let’s go…….”
“Will you be all right, Mage-nim?”
“…I shall endure a little longer.”
I galloped at the lead, checking the appearance of Tatara that was gradually coming into view.
But the barricade placed on the bridge connected to the city stood out particularly. Things that had not been there when we left.
“……! People!”
Moreover, the guards on the post became bustling the moment they spotted us. Even though we had entered arrow range, no attacks flew, so it did not seem like hostility.
“Somehow, the vibe is not good?”
Dev must have seen the same thing, as he said what I wanted to say. What followed was the Inquisitor’s voice, stiffened hard.
“…I sense Demon Energy from the city.”
It was another way of saying we were screwed.
“Is that truly so?”
“I am not certain. However, this sensation…… I have only felt it when facing demons.”
Well, it was nothing to be surprised about anew. Since the quest told us to go to Tatara, it was obvious something would happen here.
∎ Move to Tatara
∎ Investigate the incident that occurred in the city
It was merely my role to figure out what would happen.
“You there, halt!”
A guard who ran out from the post stopped us. Of course, even without their words we would have stopped. The barricade—made by weaving logs into X shapes—was placed without gaps.
“Reveal your identities!”
I considered leaving it to the Inquisitor as I had done so far, but changed my mind. If I did not want my skull cracked by the Inquisitor, from now on I had to properly interpret the concept.
My hand pulled the adventurer’s plate out of the inventory.
Whoosh.
“Heok!”
When I threw the plate over the barricade, the soldiers flustered and caught it. The one who received it flinched, and the surrounding people hastily backed away as if it were a grenade.
“A-an adventurer…….”
Still, proving it was enough.
“Are the others all adventurers as well?”
“Ah, no. Wait, we do have adventurer plates, but.”
The Inquisitor briefly confused about her own profession, then simply presented both her holy relic and adventurer plate. The guards’ eyes became as big as saucers.
“You were a priest!!”
In the world view, priests seemed to be treated well overall, but their reaction felt a bit excessive. As if…… they had witnessed someone coming to save them while drowning.
“Th-then why have so few of you come?”
“…I cannot understand what you mean.”
“Pardon?”
And the next moment, the guard asked with trembling eyes.
“Did you not come after receiving the messenger……?”
The sound of the scale of things growing larger.
“…The priest and we have merely come to this city for some business. Is there some problem?”
The Archmage, restraining the Inquisitor with her hand, stepped forward and asked. From the moment she recognized the seriousness, her eyes no longer drooped with fatigue. Only coldness shone in both eyes.
“That is…….”
The guards looked at each other and then reported in a subdued voice.
“For now, please come inside and talk.”
After several guard members clung to it, the barricade created a narrow path.
“A messenger, huh…… It seems something serious has happened.”
As they let the precious horses pass first, the Archmage stroked her chin and spoke. Then a hand that quietly rose from the side was Dev’s.
“…It’s late, but may I say one thing?”
“What is it?”
“On the way here the whole time, I saw quite a few traces of fighting or bloodstains. At first I thought they were from bandits or wild beasts…… Tsk, looking at the guards’ words and the way things are going, it’s all suspicious.”
“How many were there?”
“Enough that the lord would have abandoned managing the highway for a few years?”
So, understand it as more incidents than average having occurred.
Moreover, unlike these three, I had one more piece of information. The second quest I solved here, that emergency rescue request.
Unfortunately, memories of the original work were useless. There was nothing like this there.
“Did you not see wrong? If the highway’s security really wasn’t managed, we should have been ambushed at least once.”
“Ah, who doesn’t know that? But the cops mentioned messengers, didn’t they. You stupid heretic inquisitor.”
“Wh-what did you just say? Stupid?!”
“Yes! Stupid!!”
The Inquisitor and Dev fought again, but that was a scene I had been watching for days. I easily ignored the two’s familiar war of nerves.
It was around then that the guard who had been gesturing for us to come inside opened his mouth. His helmet of better quality than the other guards cast a gloomy light.
“Those entering this city are not attacked.”
“I will cut off your wrist right now— What did you just say?”
“Those entering the city are not attacked, Priest-nim.”
As soon as I heard those words, the situation turning around came into view at once.
The demon contractors were leaving the incoming groups alone and capturing all those going out. Considering what I heard and saw when rescuing the merchant guild…… Probably intending to use them as sacrifices?
Ah, so that’s why the Meyble Merchant Guild talk came up. Because they touched the ones leaving from the guild?
But if they were scheming with the whole city, the guild would inevitably get swept up too in the end. I thought it was a different incident since only the guild was mentioned.
“What, so I was right.”
“Sh-shut up.”
“Then, what about those going out?”
The Archmage posed the question. She was investigating on my behalf, and I was very grateful.
“Thanks to a few who returned alive, we learned that all those going out are ambushed. Even so, we must request help…….”
“You kept sending messengers.”
“We thought at least one would survive and deliver the story.”
Well, if they intended to scheme with the whole city, isolating it would be the safest. If support came from outside, their plan could go down the drain, so they would have desperately blocked that side too.
I walked a step away from the party and quietly traced the full story of the matter. The closer we got to the city, the more my right arm itched.
“Are there no other peculiarities? And what about the barricade?”
“The barricade is something the lord ordered installed, worrying that the attacks might reach the city. And as for other peculiarities…… Missing persons have surged.”
“The temple, what has the temple been doing until now?”
“…The temple is currently in a situation where it cannot move.”
“Pardon?”
“The priests who first noticed the anomaly moved, but…….”
The guard instructed to open the gate at the end of the bridge into the city and spat out the remaining words.
“Most of them died while dealing with the demons that occupied the sewers.”
This was a somewhat coincidental story. Because my tutorial mission was cleaning the sewers.
But back then only goblins came out, yet now what had appeared that the temple suffered like that.
“Those vermin bastards…… their worthless schemes…….”
It seemed I would have to enter the sewers again. My nose was already suffering.
“You seem to have noticed as well.”
“Do both of you have something you are guessing?”
“It appears the demon worshippers are causing some incident. However…….”
The Mage’s gaze landed on the Inquisitor. Her voice naturally lowered to a level that would not reach the guards.
“In the worst case, we may have to abandon the city.”
“What……!”
“…Hey, Mage-nim. Is the situation that serious?”
“The situation itself is similar to what happened in Somon. The demon contractors are hiding and gathering sacrifices, and based on that they intend to cause an incident. However…… unlike Somon which stopped at around thirty, the ones used as sacrifices this time…….”
There would be too many to count. Considering those going out of the city were hit, at the least it would exceed the hundreds.
In other words, we would be able to see at least five Nuckers.
“Please enter. Priest-nim.”
“Ah, yes. Thank you for the help.”
“…It was only what we should have done.”
…But saying it like this makes it seem like nothing special. Who’s in charge of the balance.
“Um, Priest-nim.”
“Yes.”
“Will we…… be able to live?”
I stepped through the opened gate recalling the Nucker caught in two rooms.
“That is…….”
“Yes. You can live! You will live!”
From behind, the Hero set aside the mage’s words and spoke of hope.
“If the Goddess had abandoned you all, I would not have come to this place. So do not worry! There is still hope!”
And before those bold words.
Dong!
With a heavy bell sound, the city that had not changed much from when we left, but from which all vitality had completely vanished, unfolded.