Chapter 29
Chapter 29
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 28
Chapter Title: Newbie Adventurer Bern (26) - Likes and Dislikes
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Childhood.
Alserus had admired adventurers.
He dreamed of charging fearlessly into unknown worlds in search of romance and treasure, gathering around a campfire with comrades to share stories, and effortlessly solving problems for those who sought help.
Alserus's father, a retired soldier, scolded him for such notions.
An adventurer was just a flashy facade, not a proper profession.
It would be far more stable to enlist as a soldier somewhere, and if he dreamed of rising high, he should endure the hardships and beg to serve as a squire to a knight.
Like any hot-blooded son, Alserus rebelled against his father's words.
He ran away from home, became an adventurer, and rose swiftly through the ranks with his exceptional talent.
He amassed a fortune that ordinary commoners could scarcely dream of in a lifetime and claimed the prestigious title of branch representative.
But that was the end of his dreaming days.
His skills, which had seemed boundless, began to stagnate and soon stopped growing altogether.
His earnings were substantial, but when he considered saving for old age during his brief heyday, it wasn't all that generous.
Above all, what brought despair and rage to Alserus was realizing that the fame he'd grasped was merely the judgment of a narrow pond.
No matter how they praised him as a Rank 4 adventurer or branch representative, to the elite nobles, Alserus was just a "useful commoner."
When he demanded a knighthood from a noble who smugly said, "Tell me what you want," Alserus would never forget the man's reaction.
Eyes and an expression filled with contempt and bewilderment, as if looking at someone oblivious to their place, demanding something far beyond their station.
Alserus was furious, but he couldn't vent that anger at the noble.
A knight stood by the noble's side.
Even if they were both Rank 4 and could manifest sword aura, that didn't make an adventurer equal to a knight.
A knight, trained systematically from childhood, nourished with the finest food, and inheriting family techniques and swordsmanship, possessed far more than any adventurer.
Even if their realms were similar, the knights' foundation was superior.
And even if he somehow defeated the knight, what then? What about the noble's other knights and soldiers? What if the nobles of Virka rose in outrage at a commoner drawing steel on one of their own?
Alserus was no longer a naive boy chasing dreams without a plan.
He was an adult, making the "wise" choice of an adult.
His pride was trampled, but safety and stability were secured.
And his wise judgments continued thereafter.
He ignored a lady's plea to save her daughter—because the abductor was from a noble house.
He turned away villagers begging him not to abandon them—because they couldn't offer rewards worth his party's prolonged stay.
When he encountered a lich on a seemingly simple request, he begged for his life instead of fighting to the end. He had no desire to die playing the hero.
He ended up cooperating in gathering living sacrifices as the lich's minion—no, "disciple"—but Alserus felt no guilt.
Adventuring was a profession far removed from honor to begin with.
What was the problem in discarding honor that meant nothing anyway?
"Hey, Alserus. Heard the news? That mage woman, Blanca—her staff broke, and she's fallen on hard times. Got kicked out of her old party, struggling to pay debts. Word is she'll be hired as a receptionist soon."
It was on one such day that unpleasant—but satisfying—news reached his ears.
"Is that so? Well, being a receptionist is more stable than adventuring. Better than risking your neck and ending up in a bad spot."
In truth, there was scarcely any connection between Blanca and Alserus.
But it was also true that her relentless pursuit of lich subjugation, doggedly charging ahead, grated on Alserus, who operated in the shadows as the lich's subordinate.
He had thought he might need to deal with her someday, so he gladly raised his glass to her self-inflicted downfall.
However.
Then one day, a strange young man appeared and turned everything upside down.
「It seems Phrensia's public safety is rather poor. Armed thugs keep coming at me, so I have no choice but to use some basic self-defense. I hope you take care as well, my lord.」
A madman who boldly provoked a noble—practically a king in his own territory—without hesitation.
A monster who toyed with Knight Gudrun, whom even Alserus couldn't guarantee victory against at full strength, as if handling a child.
Bern. Before Alserus could even launch any schemes, the red-haired adventurer resolved the Phrensia incident and went further, rousing the entire Adventurer's Guild to action.
The mage he thought had collapsed in despair now displayed monstrous abilities at his side, and people casually compared Alserus, who'd rolled in the adventuring world for decades, to this green rookie of less than a year.
Alserus outwardly played the magnanimous senior, delighted by a promising junior, but inside, he seethed with displeasure and anxiety.
That strength.
That unconventional path.
Even willingly joining the foolish girl's dreamlike delusions, unfazed by mockery.
He embodied the "romantic adventurer" Alserus had dreamed of as a boy but could never become.
Such a thing shouldn't exist.
No adventurer like that—straight out of a fairy tale—should exist.
If such a being truly existed, then...
Wouldn't Alserus himself just be a loser who compromised along the way?
Rationally and emotionally, Alserus had to kill Bern.
He had to.
Slash! Thud! Boom!
At the spectacle unfolding before his eyes, Alserus could only gape in stunned silence.
'What... am I seeing?'
With every swing of Bern's sword, hordes of magic beasts boasting steel-like durability toppled like cut stalks.
The party's tank, who blocked a charging magic-boar, had his limbs shattered by a single kick from Bern and rolled across the ground. The archer who loosed poison arrows had one returned with deadly precision, piercing his throat.
The skeleton mage's curse struck only the ground where Alserus had stood, not Bern, and the slime that corroded even steel was crushed by sword pressure alone, splattering its fluids onto nearby allies.
'This... this can't be real...!'
In this space where magic blocked all light, no one without the lich's prior spell could see an inch ahead.
Bern's vision must be pitch darkness.
Yet he effortlessly handled the assaults from hundreds of surrounding undead swinging and shooting blindly.
If Bern had swung aura around, overwhelming them with sheer power, Alserus might not have been so shocked.
But Bern had merely infused his blade with mana for reinforcement—no physical force imbued in mana itself, no armor-like wrapping for defense.
In other words, Bern's realm was merely 4th rank.
Yes, the same as Alserus.
An adventurer at the same realm was fighting this disadvantageous battlefield alone, relying solely on skill.
"Don't mess with me! Don't you dare mess with me!!"
Alserus glared wide-eyed and roughly drew a black orb from his bosom.
As the "disciple's token" from the lich emitted ominous mana that seeped into his body, grotesque sounds echoed from him.
Crack, crunch, snap.
His muscles swelled massively, veins bulging like spiderwebs across his skin.
Blood seeped from overstrained spots across his body, but Alserus, eyes mad with rage and excitement, ignored it.
Crunch!
With a mere leap, he cratered the stone floor and charged, swinging his sword at Bern with all his might.
Clang!
For the first time since entering this space, Bern couldn't fully block and was pushed back.
Emboldened, Alserus pressed relentlessly.
"What did I do so wrong?! Cooperating with the lich to survive! To gain even a little profit—what's the problem with that!?"
Was it because the lich's mana invaded not just his body but his mind?
Alserus spewed pent-up resentment in a frantic ramble, not even knowing why himself.
Bern parried calmly, undisturbed by the sudden outburst.
"Have you ever seen people desperately begging adventurers to protect their village from monsters, only to wash their mouths and refuse payment once safe!?"
"Ever fought a criminal gang for a boy who swore to repay you for retrieving his parents' heirloom, only for him to vanish without a word!?"
"Ever followed a treasure map from a senior adventurer who said you'd surely succeed, only to nearly lose everything and your life to a trap!?"
"Ever dueled for a noble lady tearfully refusing marriage to a brute unless you intervened, only to hear from her mouth that 'that lowly adventurer tried to force himself on me'!?"
With Alserus's fierce scream, his sword finally grazed Bern's body.
The spilling blood vanished into light particles upon hitting the ground, but no one here noticed.
"Talking romance just gets you hurt by cold reality! Dreaming of adventure just makes you prey for hyenas! You think you're any different!!"
The fiercer Alserus's onslaught, the more wounds accumulated on Bern.
Seeing it, excitement and dark satisfaction gleamed in Alserus's eyes.
Yes, the red-haired adventurer was the same in the end.
A little exceptional, a bit special-looking, but ultimately just another being doomed to break before the world's injustices.
This guy too, in the end, just like me—
"—Hm. Finished talking?"
Twirl.
Alserus's view flipped.
Like a judo throw with a sword, Bern twisted his attack trajectory and slammed him into the ground, then crushed his ankle as he tried to rise.
Alserus screamed like a beast, finally realizing no other sounds filled this space but his own.
A fleeting thought crossed his mind, which he desperately denied.
No way. That couldn't be possible.
To Alserus denying reality, Bern stated coldly.
"I told you. You won't die at the end."
Dazed.
Forgetting even the pain in his ankle, Alserus looked around.
The only standing figure in the darkness was Bern.
The rest, including Alserus himself, lay collapsed and rolling on the ground.
Bern's wounds weren't from failing to handle the attacks.
He'd simply allowed minor openings while annihilating the others alongside facing Alserus.
Gazing down at the broken-spirited Alserus, Bern said,
"I get that your life had plenty of twists and turns. No idea why you rambled it all to me mid-fight, but excitement can make people do that. And as for my thoughts on it—I don't particularly think you're 'bad.'"
Alserus, who never imagined affirmation from Bern's mouth, gaped in shock.
"Chasing a dream, a hard-to-reach goal, is incredibly tough. It's your life in the end—if you gave up, who am I to judge?"
Bern added that he had no right to lecture on diligence anyway.
"So, my hostility toward you isn't because you're bad or wrong."
"...Then what is it?"
"Likes and dislikes."
Without hesitation, Bern declared.
"You, who gave up your dream and compromised with reality. Her, who clings stubbornly despite the mockery. Which one appeals more goes without saying."
Silence fell.
Alserus's lips twitched, then he muttered hollowly.
"Misjudged you. Thought you were a hero from a fairy tale, but you're just an arrogant snob."
"I'll take that as a compliment on my humanity. Anyway, ready?"
"Ready?"
Bern pointed his blade at a certain undead.
A torso only, limbs severed clean off.
"From now on, answer my questions swiftly, accurately, and politely. Otherwise, as forewarned, I'll test every fate these friends met on your body."
Bern's tone was as serene as reporting the weather, making it all the more chilling.
"First question, then... Hm, no. Let me rephrase. Here's the first question."
In the impenetrable darkness.
Alserus swallowed involuntarily, feeling as if Bern's eyes—eyes that shouldn't gleam—flashed menacingly.