Chapter 323: Role (3)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 323: Role (3)
The man had long, white hair, fine wrinkles, a friendly air about him, a straight back that didn't seem to belong to someone of his age, and blue eyes that seemed capable of seeing right through you.
"Hmm, this place is as dull as ever."
When I saw the old man, who looked exactly like he did in the community, I felt my heart sink.
Auril Gavis...?
Of course, I figured we could run into each other today. Amelia did tell me that the day her older sister died, this old man was there too.
Wait, why is this old timer here, then?
No matter how I looked at it, there was only one reason this old man would be here and not at the center of the incident.
He... came looking for me.
My heart started to pound faster and my mind was jumbled. How did he find me? Had he also figured out that I was Bjorn Yandel? And why had the community been closed for months? No, more importantly, what was he planning to do with me now that he'd found me?
As these questions ran through my mind, cold sweat started to trickle down my spine. It was at that moment that Auril Gavis cleared his throat and drew my attention. "Ahem." It seemed he didn't like the fact that I had just stopped and stared at him without saying anything. I had to do something.
Ugh, but what do I say? Okay, first, I need to act natural and greet him.
"Now, will you get out of the way?"
Huh?
"If someone as big as you is blocking the road, I cannot pass, can I?"
What did you say? Does he not know it's me?
This unexpected plot twist left me reeling, but luckily, this mouth of mine had told countless lies before and was thus able to respond on autopilot. "Ah, yes... You can pass, sir." That was an honorific I had not used once since inhabiting the body of a barbarian.
Auril Gavis smiled happily at this. "What a polite fellow. Or perhaps you're quick on the uptake? Either way, you'll live long." When I stuck to the wall to let him pass, Auril walked by, chuckling.
Step, step.
His footsteps got farther and farther away. Suddenly, a thought occurred to me. I may have instinctively gotten myself out of that interaction, but was it actually a good idea to hide my identity? Of course, it was just a passing thought. It wasn't like we were in the community right now; we were meeting in person. If I could hide my identity, of course I should. If Auril learned that I was Bjorn Yandel, that would invite all kinds of trouble once I got back to the future.
Yeah, I handled that well.
At the thought, my tense shoulders began to relax and I slowly began to process what just happened.
"Ah, I didn't ask one thing." Auril, who was walking away, abruptly turned around and gave me an intent look. "What on earth happened today that this place is such a mess?"
"The castellan teamed up with the palace and attacked Orcules."
"Oh? What a turn of events..." Despite his seemingly intrigued tone, I sensed no genuine interest in his voice. "Ah, and let me ask you one more question. A new barbarian came to the city recently, right? About five or six months ago..."
For a moment, I thought I was just imagining things, but upon hearing the second question, the difference in attentiveness became clear. Although his tone was casual, there was a deep, undeniable undercurrent of interest in his voice.
Composure, composure...
Calming my racing heart, I identified the best answer I could give here and smoothly opened my mouth to respond. "Yes, there was." It wasn't smart to lie here. Anyone in the city could answer this question anyway, so there was no point in deceiving him.
"Oh? Is that right? Can you also tell me where I can find him?"
"If memory serves, he was a part of the castellan's faction. So he's probably fighting in the east right now."
"Haha, you weren't just polite but also very friendly. And the name?"
"Pardon?"
"Ah, not you, that barbarian's."
"Bjon. I heard it was Bjon, son of Thor."
When he heard my answer, Auril nodded, and then gave me a friendly pat on the arm. "Thank you for responding. You seem busy, you should go now."
"Yes, I hope you also succeed at whatever you're after, sir."
Jeez, why does it feel so cold here?
Once the conversation seemed to be over, I gave him a brief nod and entered the passageway.
Step, step.
I could hear the old man walking away behind me, and as soon as the sound faded, I started running with all my might.
Whew. Almost pissed my pants.
***
Meanwhile, across the city, the silver-haired knight Jerome Saintred listened to a report from the royal army's adjutant wizard and nodded with satisfaction. "What's the situation on the eastern front?"
"As ordered, we are investing only minimal troops for the purpose of buying time, and we can withdraw at any time if contact is made with the enemy."
Jerome was pleased by the successful execution of his first-ever special mission as captain. He'd secured the Fragment of Records Stone, which was the primary goal of this mission, and he'd also achieved his secondary goal of reducing Noark's power by causing internal strife.
"Send word to the battle mages immediately. In ten minutes, we will rendezvous at the agreed-upon meeting place and return to Rafdonia."
"Yes, sir."
If the royal troops stationed in the east were withdrawn, Orcules would direct their anger at the already-dead castellan, and the civil war would begin in earnest.
"Um..."
Jerome nodded at the deputy's voice, signaling for him to continue if he had something to say.
Permission acquired, the adjutant asked in a cautious yet polite tone, "May I ask what the necklace you are holding is for?"
"You are not authorized to know that information," Jerome answered sternly, putting the necklace in sub-space.
The adjutant lowered his head to acknowledge his mistake. "Please excuse me. I saw you were holding a refined stone necklace and... I swear I had no idea it was related to your classified mission."
He was clearly trying to convince Jerome that his question was one of pure curiosity and nothing else, but Jerome flinched at his explanation. "Refined stone necklace...? What do you mean by that?"
"...Sorry?"
"Elaborate. Are you saying this necklace is made of refined stone?" Jerome pulled the necklace back out and showed his adjutant.
The adjutant's answer remained the same. "Yes, I'm sure of it. It's a magical device made entirely of a high-ranking, refined stone. Ah, a refined stone is a specially processed Rift Stone that makes it easier to cast spells—" The adjutant clammed up mid-sentence when he heard a disturbing grinding noise from his superior's jaw.
Composure, composure...
Calming my racing heart, I identified the best answer I could give here and smoothly opened my mouth to respond. "Yes, there was." It wasn't smart to lie here. Anyone in the city could answer this question anyway, so there was no point in deceiving him.
"Oh? Is that right? Can you also tell me where I can find him?"
"If memory serves, he was a part of the castellan's faction. So he's probably fighting in the east right now."
"Haha, you weren't just polite but also very friendly. And the name?"
"Pardon?"
"Ah, not you, that barbarian's."
"Bjon. I heard it was Bjon, son of Thor."
When he heard my answer, Auril nodded, and then gave me a friendly pat on the arm. "Thank you for responding. You seem busy, you should go now."
"Yes, I hope you also succeed at whatever you're after, sir."
Jeez, why does it feel so cold here?
Once the conversation seemed to be over, I gave him a brief nod and entered the passageway.
Step, step.
I could hear the old man walking away behind me, and as soon as the sound faded, I started running with all my might.
Whew. Almost pissed my pants.
***
Meanwhile, across the city, the silver-haired knight Jerome Saintred listened to a report from the royal army's adjutant wizard and nodded with satisfaction. "What's the situation on the eastern front?"
"As ordered, we are investing only minimal troops for the purpose of buying time, and we can withdraw at any time if contact is made with the enemy."
Jerome was pleased by the successful execution of his first-ever special mission as captain. He'd secured the Fragment of Records Stone, which was the primary goal of this mission, and he'd also achieved his secondary goal of reducing Noark's power by causing internal strife.
"Send word to the battle mages immediately. In ten minutes, we will rendezvous at the agreed-upon meeting place and return to Rafdonia."
"Yes, sir."
If the royal troops stationed in the east were withdrawn, Orcules would direct their anger at the already-dead castellan, and the civil war would begin in earnest.
"Um..."
Jerome nodded at the deputy's voice, signaling for him to continue if he had something to say.
Permission acquired, the adjutant asked in a cautious yet polite tone, "May I ask what the necklace you are holding is for?"
"You are not authorized to know that information," Jerome answered sternly, putting the necklace in sub-space.
The adjutant lowered his head to acknowledge his mistake. "Please excuse me. I saw you were holding a refined stone necklace and... I swear I had no idea it was related to your classified mission."
He was clearly trying to convince Jerome that his question was one of pure curiosity and nothing else, but Jerome flinched at his explanation. "Refined stone necklace...? What do you mean by that?"
"...Sorry?"
"Elaborate. Are you saying this necklace is made of refined stone?" Jerome pulled the necklace back out and showed his adjutant.
The adjutant's answer remained the same. "Yes, I'm sure of it. It's a magical device made entirely of a high-ranking, refined stone. Ah, a refined stone is a specially processed Rift Stone that makes it easier to cast spells—" The adjutant clammed up mid-sentence when he heard a disturbing grinding noise from his superior's jaw.
"So, I was deceived..." The adjutant involuntarily ducked his head. That was to be expected. Normally, Jerome was the type of person to laugh off paying one million stones for something worth ten thousand. "...Adjutant Avex, you lead the army back to the city first."
"Sorry? But, Captain Saintred, you—"
"I have work to do." Jerome stormed off without waiting for a reply.
The adjutant could only watch him go without a word. He had never seen his captain so angry.
***
An underground sewer system supplied Rafdonia's water and drainage. Anyone who had been down here thought the same thing. First, to say the stench was terrible was a massive understatement, and second, it was more complicated than a maze.
This place is just as nasty every time I come here.
After running down the straight passage for a long while, I climbed the ladder to reach the sewer. When I slid the steel disk that resembled a manhole cover to the side and headed up, a road that split off into four branches greeted me. Of course, I had no problem figuring out the right way. One of the paths still showed signs of the dozens of people who had already gone down it. I just had to use those tracks as a guidepost and follow their lead. The problem lay elsewhere.
Goddamn sewer.
Perhaps this was a section that was designed to only allow water to pass because, unlike the section I did my commission in, there were no walkways on the sides for people to use. Actually, strictly speaking, it wasn't that there weren't any at all, but the footpath was too narrow for a barbarian over six feet tall to walk on.
Even the sewer design is discriminating against barbarians now.
Splash, splash.
In the end, I had no choice but to walk through filthy water that reached up to my shins. After who knew how long of that, I began to notice remnants of a recent battle left on the walls. Most were sword marks carved into the stonework. They were all different depths, but all the marks had one thing in common: the cuts were very clean, almost as if a high-precision machine had been used to make them. As a result, I was able to pretty much infer the identities of the people who left the marks—the shallow ones would be Amelia, and the deep ones would be him. The head of Orcules, the Traitor—Ricardo Lüchenprague.
"Tsk."
It left a bad taste in my mouth. In the original plan that we were supposed to execute together, our goal had been to somehow shake this guy first and then enter the sewer afterward. That was because, based on what she could remember, when Amelia was reunited with her childhood self in the sewer, she was being chased by this guy.
But it looks like she wasn't able to get rid of him in the end.
Judging by the marks on the walls, it seemed she wasn't successful. Why did she do such a foolish thing, drugging me? The future wasn't something that would change just from something like that.
This girl is strangely straightforward when it comes to things like this.
In some ways, Amelia was similar to a barbarian. Though she was human, she was so stubborn that she never knew when to give up. And that wasn't all. Although she pretended to be logical, she wore her heart on her sleeve.
Kwaaang!
Just then, there was an explosion in the distance and the entire sewer system shook.
Dash!
I picked up the pace.
***
The human body had limits. No matter how much you exercised or how strong you became, there was a maximum amount of power your muscles would be able to produce. That was why essences were the bedrock of the adventuring profession. Because they existed, adventurers were able to fight against even giant monsters using powers that surpassed their natural limits. However, none of that mattered here.
"So, I was deceived..." The adjutant involuntarily ducked his head. That was to be expected. Normally, Jerome was the type of person to laugh off paying one million stones for something worth ten thousand. "...Adjutant Avex, you lead the army back to the city first."
"Sorry? But, Captain Saintred, you—"
"I have work to do." Jerome stormed off without waiting for a reply.
The adjutant could only watch him go without a word. He had never seen his captain so angry.
***
An underground sewer system supplied Rafdonia's water and drainage. Anyone who had been down here thought the same thing. First, to say the stench was terrible was a massive understatement, and second, it was more complicated than a maze.
This place is just as nasty every time I come here.
After running down the straight passage for a long while, I climbed the ladder to reach the sewer. When I slid the steel disk that resembled a manhole cover to the side and headed up, a road that split off into four branches greeted me. Of course, I had no problem figuring out the right way. One of the paths still showed signs of the dozens of people who had already gone down it. I just had to use those tracks as a guidepost and follow their lead. The problem lay elsewhere.
Goddamn sewer.
Perhaps this was a section that was designed to only allow water to pass because, unlike the section I did my commission in, there were no walkways on the sides for people to use. Actually, strictly speaking, it wasn't that there weren't any at all, but the footpath was too narrow for a barbarian over six feet tall to walk on.
Even the sewer design is discriminating against barbarians now.
Splash, splash.
In the end, I had no choice but to walk through filthy water that reached up to my shins. After who knew how long of that, I began to notice remnants of a recent battle left on the walls. Most were sword marks carved into the stonework. They were all different depths, but all the marks had one thing in common: the cuts were very clean, almost as if a high-precision machine had been used to make them. As a result, I was able to pretty much infer the identities of the people who left the marks—the shallow ones would be Amelia, and the deep ones would be him. The head of Orcules, the Traitor—Ricardo Lüchenprague.
"Tsk."
It left a bad taste in my mouth. In the original plan that we were supposed to execute together, our goal had been to somehow shake this guy first and then enter the sewer afterward. That was because, based on what she could remember, when Amelia was reunited with her childhood self in the sewer, she was being chased by this guy.
But it looks like she wasn't able to get rid of him in the end.
Judging by the marks on the walls, it seemed she wasn't successful. Why did she do such a foolish thing, drugging me? The future wasn't something that would change just from something like that.
This girl is strangely straightforward when it comes to things like this.
In some ways, Amelia was similar to a barbarian. Though she was human, she was so stubborn that she never knew when to give up. And that wasn't all. Although she pretended to be logical, she wore her heart on her sleeve.
Kwaaang!
Just then, there was an explosion in the distance and the entire sewer system shook.
Dash!
I picked up the pace.
***
The human body had limits. No matter how much you exercised or how strong you became, there was a maximum amount of power your muscles would be able to produce. That was why essences were the bedrock of the adventuring profession. Because they existed, adventurers were able to fight against even giant monsters using powers that surpassed their natural limits. However, none of that mattered here.
"Finally decided to fight?"
Amelia was seized by a feeling of helplessness. The boosts her essences gave her still coursed through her body and improved its performance, but all of her special abilities were sealed—Spring of Eternal Youth, a skill that greatly increased the user's Natural Regeneration in exchange for not being able to benefit from the potion or healing effects; Self-Replication, a skill that always gave her a numerical advantage in one-on-one fights; Power of the Abyss; Asura's Kick; et cetera. All the abilities that served to uplift her in battle had been rendered useless by this one man standing in front of her.
"...Why are you so obsessed with me?" Amelia finally asked the question she had been holding back. And it was a fair question because she couldn't understand it. She ran around the city for over two hours trying to get rid of this man, but he'd pursued her relentlessly, even into this sewer and its foul stench.
"Were my actions unexpected?"
Amelia nodded at the man's question. "Yeah, I really can't understand it. Instead of chasing after me, going after the castellan should be much more important to you, no?"
The palace and the castellan had joined forces to wipe out Orcules. But this man, their captain and strongest fighter, had left the front lines to chase after a woman he had no connection to? Even setting aside how that would turn out for her personally, she couldn't accept how this was playing out.
"What a ridiculous question." The man's smile was terribly cold. "A human woman with an awl-shaped aura that appears to specialize in daggers... All characteristics of the Order of the Rose."
"...Order of the Rose?"
"Are you going to deny it?"
Amelia was truly confounded. She knew what the Order of the Rose was, of course—a unit directly under the palace that was responsible for special missions such as assassination, infiltration, and covert operations. There were rumors that the unit was entirely made up of women, but that had never been confirmed.
"I guess you're a new recruit? Well, that's probably why you asked a question like that."
"I do not belong to the Order of—"
"Abandon the thought of living." Amelia made an attempt at reasoning with him, but it didn't work. "Because I have no questions for you." A sword flew at her, cutting off all conversation.
Amelia quickly activated her aura to block it. No, she thought she blocked it.
Slice!
Her right hand got cut off at the wrist and fell into the sewer, still clutching one of her daggers.
Whip!
The sword rushed at her again. The target this time was her left wrist. The blade seemed to sing with a cruel determination to cut down everything in its path.
Kwaang!
Amelia used her aura-filled dagger to parry the sword and then stepped back. But did he anticipate that, too? Taking advantage of the recoil, he swiftly switched targets, twisting his blade in a snake-like motion to dart at Amelia's neck instead.
"Ah...!" Between one moment and the next, Amelia found herself pushed against the wall, cool metal pressing into the skin of her throat.
Press.
When the man pushed the blade in, blood dripped down her neck, accompanied by a burning pain. "What a nice expression." Because her airway was blocked, Amelia couldn't breathe, let alone piece together a reply. "It suits you."
As she ran out of oxygen, her mind went blank.
Am I really going to die here? Then what will happen to Laura and my childhood self? If things were to unfold as I remember them, I should meet up with them injured but alive...
Amelia frantically scanned her surroundings as if searching for someone who could get her out of this.
...Yandel.
When she realized who she was looking for, Amelia found herself chuckling. There was no way he could be here because she had personally dosed him with a medicine that would knock him out for at least six hours. By now, he must have woken up, read the note, and arrived at the castle. Or, if he ended up waking up a bit earlier, he might have obtained that stone and returned to their original time already. No, there was a high chance he had already returned. This wouldn't make sense otherwise.
"Are you looking for a way out?"
No matter how hard she searched, she saw no way for her to escape. The moment his sword dug in a little deeper, her torturously prolonged life would finally come to an end.
"Pfft..."
In other words, history had changed. She was going to die here today.
The cause being... Bjorn Yandel's return.
She had excluded Yandel from this plan. There were several reasons she had done so. To start, she did not want to be indebted to that barbarian. Plus, she thought if he used the Fragment of Records Stone to return to their original world, he could alter the established timeline. After all, there had to be a reason that the legends said it was possible to change history. Surely, as an object of unknown origins and mysterious abilities, the stone would be the solution to her problems.
No, rather, she had just hoped it was. She was no different from a castaway on a lifeboat drinking seawater to quench her thirst. But surprisingly, it had worked.
"Why are you laughing?"
Press.
The man pushed the sword in a bit further out of displeasure. Death, which had always seemed to hang over her ever since she was a child, now felt a little closer.
So, he really succeeded in going back.
Amelia closed her eyes and began thinking.
"Suffer more."
What will happen to the Rainwales sisters once I die? Without me, someone will definitely get killed... Or, maybe it will all end well because I'm not there.
She'd never know how it would turn out. The thought made her both happy and somewhat sad at the same time.
The sword dug into her flesh a little more. She couldn't breathe, and her mind began to dull. It occurred to her that none of this mattered. She did her best, so she should be able to rest now.
But the moment she made up her mind to do just that, she heard a familiar voice from beyond the passageway. "Behel–ahhh!"
"Finally decided to fight?"
Amelia was seized by a feeling of helplessness. The boosts her essences gave her still coursed through her body and improved its performance, but all of her special abilities were sealed—Spring of Eternal Youth, a skill that greatly increased the user's Natural Regeneration in exchange for not being able to benefit from the potion or healing effects; Self-Replication, a skill that always gave her a numerical advantage in one-on-one fights; Power of the Abyss; Asura's Kick; et cetera. All the abilities that served to uplift her in battle had been rendered useless by this one man standing in front of her.
"...Why are you so obsessed with me?" Amelia finally asked the question she had been holding back. And it was a fair question because she couldn't understand it. She ran around the city for over two hours trying to get rid of this man, but he'd pursued her relentlessly, even into this sewer and its foul stench.
"Were my actions unexpected?"
Amelia nodded at the man's question. "Yeah, I really can't understand it. Instead of chasing after me, going after the castellan should be much more important to you, no?"
The palace and the castellan had joined forces to wipe out Orcules. But this man, their captain and strongest fighter, had left the front lines to chase after a woman he had no connection to? Even setting aside how that would turn out for her personally, she couldn't accept how this was playing out.
"What a ridiculous question." The man's smile was terribly cold. "A human woman with an awl-shaped aura that appears to specialize in daggers... All characteristics of the Order of the Rose."
"...Order of the Rose?"
"Are you going to deny it?"
Amelia was truly confounded. She knew what the Order of the Rose was, of course—a unit directly under the palace that was responsible for special missions such as assassination, infiltration, and covert operations. There were rumors that the unit was entirely made up of women, but that had never been confirmed.
"I guess you're a new recruit? Well, that's probably why you asked a question like that."
"I do not belong to the Order of—"
"Abandon the thought of living." Amelia made an attempt at reasoning with him, but it didn't work. "Because I have no questions for you." A sword flew at her, cutting off all conversation.
Amelia quickly activated her aura to block it. No, she thought she blocked it.
Slice!
Her right hand got cut off at the wrist and fell into the sewer, still clutching one of her daggers.
Whip!
The sword rushed at her again. The target this time was her left wrist. The blade seemed to sing with a cruel determination to cut down everything in its path.
Kwaang!
Amelia used her aura-filled dagger to parry the sword and then stepped back. But did he anticipate that, too? Taking advantage of the recoil, he swiftly switched targets, twisting his blade in a snake-like motion to dart at Amelia's neck instead.
"Ah...!" Between one moment and the next, Amelia found herself pushed against the wall, cool metal pressing into the skin of her throat.
Press.
When the man pushed the blade in, blood dripped down her neck, accompanied by a burning pain. "What a nice expression." Because her airway was blocked, Amelia couldn't breathe, let alone piece together a reply. "It suits you."
As she ran out of oxygen, her mind went blank.
Am I really going to die here? Then what will happen to Laura and my childhood self? If things were to unfold as I remember them, I should meet up with them injured but alive...
Amelia frantically scanned her surroundings as if searching for someone who could get her out of this.
...Yandel.
When she realized who she was looking for, Amelia found herself chuckling. There was no way he could be here because she had personally dosed him with a medicine that would knock him out for at least six hours. By now, he must have woken up, read the note, and arrived at the castle. Or, if he ended up waking up a bit earlier, he might have obtained that stone and returned to their original time already. No, there was a high chance he had already returned. This wouldn't make sense otherwise.
"Are you looking for a way out?"
No matter how hard she searched, she saw no way for her to escape. The moment his sword dug in a little deeper, her torturously prolonged life would finally come to an end.
"Pfft..."
In other words, history had changed. She was going to die here today.
The cause being... Bjorn Yandel's return.
She had excluded Yandel from this plan. There were several reasons she had done so. To start, she did not want to be indebted to that barbarian. Plus, she thought if he used the Fragment of Records Stone to return to their original world, he could alter the established timeline. After all, there had to be a reason that the legends said it was possible to change history. Surely, as an object of unknown origins and mysterious abilities, the stone would be the solution to her problems.
No, rather, she had just hoped it was. She was no different from a castaway on a lifeboat drinking seawater to quench her thirst. But surprisingly, it had worked.
"Why are you laughing?"
Press.
The man pushed the sword in a bit further out of displeasure. Death, which had always seemed to hang over her ever since she was a child, now felt a little closer.
So, he really succeeded in going back.
Amelia closed her eyes and began thinking.
"Suffer more."
What will happen to the Rainwales sisters once I die? Without me, someone will definitely get killed... Or, maybe it will all end well because I'm not there.
She'd never know how it would turn out. The thought made her both happy and somewhat sad at the same time.
The sword dug into her flesh a little more. She couldn't breathe, and her mind began to dull. It occurred to her that none of this mattered. She did her best, so she should be able to rest now.
But the moment she made up her mind to do just that, she heard a familiar voice from beyond the passageway. "Behel–ahhh!"