Chapter 25
Chapter 25
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 25
Chapter Title: The Protagonist is a Villain
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Thud!
"Guhk... Kk... Kehk..."
Erina's belly was smashed flat by another fist. If you peeled back her skin, it would probably be covered in deep blue bruises. Overcome by another wave of intense nausea, she dropped to her knees. Seeing her gasping for breath, unable to even draw air properly, I cast Heal once more.
Erina seemed unable even to stand properly from the pain. Healing took care of the damage, but the agony lingered as a nasty aftereffect. The more it built up, the more it broke a person down. Erina appeared to have finally realized she was in real danger. She clearly understood now that her reckless taunt could get her killed. Waving her hands frantically, she tried to stop me. It was a sight utterly unworthy of the haughty elf princess.
Pride meant nothing in the face of death. With desperate panic on her face, Erina cried out to me.
"I-I..."
"Silence."
⚡ SKILL ACTIVATED ⚡
Silence
Silences the opponent into [Silence].
"Mmph... Mmmph? Mmph?!"
I'd always wondered how the game's [Silence] debuff worked. The moment I chanted the spell, Erina's lips sealed shut, glued together. With a panicked expression, she clutched at her mouth and thrashed about. I spoke in a calm tone.
"Even like this, you refuse to cry surrender. No helping it, then. A duel is a sacred rite. Out of respect for that unbreakable spirit of yours, I have no choice but to inflict even greater pain."
"Mmph! Mmmpmph!"
Erina shook her head furiously, desperately trying to resist. I clenched my fist again and waved it in front of her eyes. Then, with slightly less force than the previous blow, I drove it into her belly once more.
"Grrrmmph!"
Erina crumpled to her knees, clutching her stomach as she rolled on the ground. To keep her from recovering her wits, I hauled her up and slammed another punch home. My fist sank deep into her gut, sending a thrill through me.
Bam!
"Gaaack... Mmph... Guhk..."
Erina's eyes nearly rolled back as she collapsed to the dirt. I cast Heal to ensure no permanent harm came to her body. Healers in this world were practically omnipotent. As long as you weren't dead and your limbs were intact, they could restore you to perfect health.
"Erina. Still with us?"
"Guhk... Krk... Mmph..."
Erina lifted her head and glared at me. She showed no signs of passing out just yet.
"Stop this, Lord!"
Aei couldn't stand by any longer and tried to intervene. I shot him a deeply displeased look. A sudden thought had crossed my mind. If the roles were reversed and that bastard was beating my face in until I couldn't eat, would he have stepped in to stop it? He'd probably only pipe up after turning me into a cripple.
"What exactly should I stop, Hero? We're in the middle of a sacred duel."
"Does winning or losing matter that much? Beating a woman like this..."
Why wouldn't it? A naked loli was on the line, for fuck's sake. This was why Japanese eroge protagonists were such worthless scum. The second there's an opening, they start preaching that women shouldn't fight, shouldn't be hit—real misogynistic hypocrites who build harems out of women anyway.
"Are you trying to tarnish the honor of the duel, Hero? Ending it on a vague note here would leave nothing but resentment between me and the princess. Is that what you want? Interfering in a duel I'm winning and shoving your morals down my throat—is that your way?"
"That's..."
"Step up, Hero. Don't insult the pride of a warrior engaged in combat."
"Mmph! Mmph!"
Erina shook her head as she struggled to rise. I kicked away the bow she reached for, grabbed her by the collar, and slammed her back to the ground. Aei hesitated to stop me. If I kept going, the 'heroic' Hero Aei would probably step in like a proper hero, so it was time to wrap this up.
As I pinned her down and raised my fist, Erina reflexively covered her face with both hands. But that wasn't the right move. She still had a ways to go in her lessons. With her hands blocking her face, her belly was exposed—and with her belly wide open, I unleashed a full-force punch right into it.
Boom!
Dust billowed up in a cloud. Erina began convulsing wildly, her body twisting while still shielding her face. Silenced, she couldn't even scream, and with me restraining her, she could barely move. She writhed for a long while, making strangled choking sounds like she was on the verge of death, until finally her whole body went limp and she passed out.
And then...
"She's out. My victory."
Erina's crotch was soaked through, but I decided to say nothing about it. Aei checked on the fallen Erina's condition, and I cast Heal on her. I left the minor scratches I'd picked up during the fight untreated. Was this what they called a victory with nothing but wounds to show for it?
Erina didn't wake until the next day. Surprisingly, she accepted her defeat cleanly. I'd expected her personality to produce excuses like "You just got lucky" or "You used dirty tricks," but not a single word of that came out.
Her straightforward reaction left me stunned instead.
"A loss is a loss. I apologize for my rudeness. I staked the name of Ahildern Erina, princess of Ahildern Kingdom, so I have no choice but to accept the result. That's what my name demands. And as promised, I'll leave the hero's party and serve as your territory's proxy for the time being."
"Think you can handle it properly?"
Erina scowled at my words.
"What do you take a kingdom's princess for? Can you even beat the Demon King? If Aei gets so much as a scratch, I won't let you off. And..."
Erina pulled a small vial from her bosom. It was glass, filled with a rainbow-hued liquid. Pointing to the potion—which looked unhealthy just to look at—she said,
"This is a secret medicine passed down in our kingdom. I swiped exactly one bottle on my way out. It heals any wound, and they say it's especially effective on men."
"Why give this to me...?"
"If Aei gets hurt, he can't use it alone, can he? You're a priest too."
I opened my Status Window to check the potion's details.
[Forbidden Potion] A recovery potion concentrated with forbidden secrets. Especially effective on men.
And so Erina handed me the Forbidden Potion. Now that it was in my hands, there was no chance Aei would ever use it. But what the hell was this stuff? There was no such potion in the game.
The fastest route to the Demon King ran straight through the neighboring territory of the Fat Blond Tanning NTR Lord. This path could go either way depending on your choices. If you ignored the Demon King revival prophecy for about four months, demonic poison would spread across the entire territory, forcing the protagonist's party into a massive detour.
But if you reached Lucius's territory within three months, the NTR Lord's land remained untouched by the Demon King's poison, turning it into a honey of a farming spot lush with blue foliage and green goblins. Bring one or more heroines into the NTR Lord's territory here, and you'd trigger the NTR attempt event.
Reactions varied by character, but it always ended with the lord heading to the afterlife. I'd wanted to take Sieri for this event to kill the lord off naturally, but dragging a level 10 nun along on the way to the Demon King felt like a bad idea, so I scrapped it.
As a result, the NTR fat blond slob saw only me and the hero traveling through and openly showed his disappointment as he cleared the path. Then he started trying his sleazy tricks on me.
"Lord Lucius. Have you properly appointed a proxy for your territory, by any chance?"
"Of course. ...Lord."
I fumbled since I couldn't remember his name. Too lazy to open my Status Window and check. The Fat Blond Tanning NTR Lord chattered on dramatically at my response.
"Oh dear. You haven't put the Knight Captain or Sieri in charge as proxy, I hope? You mustn't do that. By lord law, a proxy must hold a title of baron or higher..."
"Ahildern Erina, princess of Ahildern, is serving as my proxy. Thanks for your concern, but your interest in my territory feels a tad excessive."
At that, the blond pig shut his mouth. I wanted to get out of his territory as fast as possible and head straight for the Demon King. As we crossed the land, Hero Aei scolded me for my prickly reaction.
"He was just worried about you, Priest. Wasn't that a bit harsh? Saying it like that..."
"Hero, you can't judge people by their outward goodwill alone. If everyone lived with pure intentions, there'd be no need for religions like the Great Heavenly God Church."
"Still, I believe in people, Priest. You seem too cold."
"Keep believing like that, and you'll get stabbed in the back. Not everyone pretending to be hurt, sad, or pitiful is a good person. You should be more careful about trusting others, Hero."
"This isn't ending anytime soon. Shall we rest a bit?"
The sun was setting. No need to push night and day; better to rest at an inn once dark fell. Riding the territory's finest horses, we could arrive in three or four days.
We tried booking two rooms at the inn, but Aei suggested sharing one to save money since "we should economize in places like this." Shaking my head at his proposal—which seemed to forget my position—I insisted on two rooms and told them to bill it to my lord's castle.
Aei remarked on the scene,
"Priest, I'm not awkward or uncomfortable sharing with someone else..."
"I'm uncomfortable."
I had zero desire to share a bed with that dickhead. The protagonist hero hailed from a poor rural village, so penny-pinching was ingrained in him. I got it, but two guys in one room crossed the line.
I pictured it for a moment. Two men in one bed, bodies brushing slightly in the night, turning into this awkward bullshit:
"Oh, sorry about that."
"No, my fault."
Just thinking about it gave me chills. Glad to be sleeping alone, I burrowed into the covers.
The next day, and the day after that, we kept to separate rooms and continued our trip in frigid awkwardness. No monsters had spawned in this territory yet, apparently; we didn't see a single one along the way. Thanks to that, we'd reached the end still as stiff and uncomfortable as when we started.
It'd been less than three months since the prophecy. By my memory, the Demon King's level was around 30 now—easy enough for a party of three in the 20s to beat without issue. The hero and I were already mid-40s. At this rate, we could take the Demon King or even his grandpappy.
But that led to one problem nagging at me. With things like this, could I really backstab and kill the hero? The [Hero's Relic] I'd given him boosted his stats per the game system.
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