My Party Members Have Serious Personality Problems

As I said before, I had been dropped into the sequel of the game I'd been playing all along.

Honestly, I never saw it coming.

The game I played, God's Play, came from a major company famous for how solid its work was, and it had been running as a series for years. Each installment was set a hundred years after the last, a vast world carried forward on the back of a story that knew how to hold you.

Even back when I was playing, it was already the sixth entry — and aside from the classic hero-versus-demon-king plot, every series was packed with something new from the first hour to the last...

Looking at it that way, maybe it was only natural that I'd fallen for God's Play.

If I'd known I was going to possess someone inside it, I ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠wouldn't have touched the thing even if you beat me to death.

Anyway. I had fallen into the seventh series, set a hundred years after the sixth — God's Play: Demon King of Black Flame — the one I'd actually been playing.

Not even real information. All I'd ever heard was that it was in development, and that's the world I landed in...

Honestly, it stung. If it had been Demon King of Black Flame, the one I'd played like a madman, I would have cleared it with room to spare. Hell, even one of the earlier entries — Demon King of Nature, or Demon King of Wisdom — would have been far easier.

The original-work knowledge every transmigrator is supposed to lean on was sealed off for me from the very start. Of course it felt suffocating.

The regret lingered, useless as it was — until I laid eyes on the party members the Emperor had arranged for me, and the feeling blew away on the spot.

Flashy abilities.

The maid had shown me into the room. Looking over the status windows of the three women waiting inside, I let out a quiet breath of admiration.

In the Demon King of Black Flame series I'd played last, an endgame character's stats sat in the low-to-mid twenties. The average you needed for a no-hit perfect clear of the Demon King was the high twenties.

God's Play raises the endgame benchmark by about four or five points with every series, so the ceiling now should land somewhere in the low thirties.

By that measure, everyone here had at least one stat at mid-game level or better. Of course, clearing the game on raw stats alone was difficult enough — and with each of them piled entirely into a single specialty, walking out and clearing it tomorrow was even less realistic.

Still, this is what you'd call high-end personnel.

Regina hadn't been bluffing.

"What are you looking at?"

Their personalities, admittedly, left a little to be desired.

I pulled my eyes off Vivian — the small-framed half-elf mage glaring at me with a razor-sharp look — and took in the other two.

"......"

There was Saint Candidate Serena, beaming in an unblemished white nun's habit.

"...Haaahm!"

And there was Freyja of the Southern Tribal Alliance, yawning as lazily as a lion while her gaze drifted around the room.

Maybe it was only natural, with a game underneath all of this, but each of them was a beauty with a charm entirely her own.

Of course—

—they all looked like they'd be anything but easy to handle.

Judging by their statuses alone, they didn't ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠come here just to kill the Demon King.

Serena, smiling for no reason I could name. Vivian, glaring at me with open hostility. And Freyja, swinging one foot as if the whole meeting bored her.

"Um..."

...Could I really drag these three all the way to the end?

The worry was just seeping in when—

Ding!

A translucent window rose in my vision along with the cheerful chime. I opened it the way I always did.

Lines packed tight across the translucent pane. In practice, this quest system was the very reason I'd been able to grow so fast.

...A pretty useless quest.

The moment I confirmed the reward was affection, I rejected it on the spot. From experience, affection didn't mean much. Communication got a little smoother. That was all. In the game, high affection handed out synergy bonuses — better mana efficiency and the like — but reality had nothing of the sort.

I'd rather they'd given me a stat increase.

Those were the quests I used to pick up on the battlefield. Kill a few demons, gain a point in a stat. They'd been close to tutorial event quests, so heading back out wouldn't earn me the same stat-up missions... but thanks to them, I'd been able to build my strength quickly.

That was probably what Regina had seen through earlier — the quest system itself.

How does she even notice things like that?

It wasn't much of a secret, and it didn't really matter if she knew. Even so, the more I thought about it, the more her insight defied imagination.

Anyway.

"...Mm."

I still couldn't just stand here and say nothing. I didn't need to get close to them, but I ought to at least greet the people I'd be working with.

"Hey. Good to meet you all. Don't know if you've already heard about me, but I'm the Hero."

"...Hmm."

"......"

"Huh? You're the Hero?"

All three of them reacted differently. Serena rested her chin on her hand and gave me a sidelong look. Vivian's brow twitched as she glared. Freyja looked me up and down, puzzled.

"Hmm... I see. So that is the Hero."

"......"

"You're really the Hero? Looking that weak?"

Not a friendly reaction among them. If anything, the way they sized me up made me uncomfortable for no good reason. Right. Say what I needed to say, and be done with it.

"I slipped into casual speech before I meant to, so bear with me if it bothers you. On a battlefield, there isn't time to stand on courtesy."

I could be polite if I had to. But we were all going to be rolling around a battlefield together, and I had no intention of clinging to fussy manners. I'd seen plenty of people get themselves killed trying to be polite. I clicked my tongue once, then went on.

"Anyway, let's try to make this work. I'll have my shortcomings, and I'll probably frustrate you plenty, but I'm counting on you. Follow my lead when you can."

I wasn't much of a talker. That was as far as I could go. I'd said what I wanted to say. That should do.

A little awkwardly, I held out my hand. A handshake — let's look after each other from here.

When I finished, a brief silence settled over the room.

And then—

"The Hero's words? The only will I follow is God's."

"The Hero? You're a human either way. Why should I follow a mere human?"

"Forget that — are you actually the Hero? Some scrawny thing like this? I don't take orders from anyone weaker than me."

They answered with a fervent cheer of an entirely different sort than the one I'd had in mind.

I began to doubt Her Majesty's eye for people.

After that noisy, trouble-ridden first meeting with the members of the Hero's Party, I went out onto the terrace of my room in the imperial palace and leaned against the railing.

"Status window."

"...Hah."

Maybe it was because I'd just seen the others' windows. Set beside theirs, mine pulled a sigh out of me on its own.

"At this rate, when am I ever going to grow..."

Among the many ways to play God's Play, the build I was raising now was called a balance type. Weaker in raw firepower than dumping everything into a single stat, and slower to grow — but stable in equal measure. I didn't think I was growing wrong. I'd seen far too many people collapse on their own because they tried to rush.

"......"

And with the party I'd just been given, the path I was on was the right one. Their stats were all cases of extreme specialization, so I didn't need to worry about firepower — but someone would have to hold the balance in front of them.

Grow like this. Grow them, too... and I have to take down the Demon King. No matter what.

I opened the quest window at an unhurried pace. At a glance it resembled the sub quest from before, but this one was flooded with a forceful crimson, as if meant to press down on me. A silver border shone around it, striking enough to serve as ornament.

The first quest I'd received after falling into this world — the main quest that was both my beginning and my goal. I skimmed the lengthy explanation, then looked at the line near the end.

"......"

I could do it.

No — I had to.

"...I have to go back."

That was why I was still alive.

Done with the thought, I pressed my eyelids hard and stood. The night was still long. If I didn't want to be a burden on my new teammates, I had to keep training.

I took up sword and shield and headed for the training ground.

The daylight that might shine on me was still a long way off.