The Supporting Protagonist Goes to Work - 5
I am not a furry.
I am not a furry.
I am not a furry.
After roaring that three times inside my head, I slammed through the library doors and stormed out.
Meril's cries followed from behind, but I forced myself to ignore them.
The alpha Nepenthes, I had written off as coincidence.
Dorothea fused with a dog — I had let that slide too. I had already seen an alchemist fuse his daughter with a dog before.
But the moment I saw Meril, certainty hit me.
This dungeon was suspiciously, deeply wrong…!
Honestly, was his real name Furries instead of Felix?
The place felt shady enough to make that a perfectly reasonable suspicion.
"This is weird…! It's weird, I tell you! When I saw this in the original, it was a completely normal dungeon!"
"Contractor, this body can respect even those… particular tastes of yours."
"Sh-shut up!"
Trying to get close to Meril had been a calculated move — maybe it was a condition for extra rewards, or for unlocking a secret room.
I had absolutely not been kind to her because I wanted to end up with her!
"Why? Why does something abnormal happen everywhere I go?"
"That is your destiny. Accept it gracefully."
"No! I refuse to accept it — I won't accept it even if I die!"
"Foolish. Even if you do, your future will not change."
"I am normal…!"
A sudden question flashed through my mind.
Was I really normal?
I had slept with a dragon mother and daughter, and with a prideful dragonkin. I had made love with a woman who was both a Sword Saint and blind.
I had experienced SM play with an elf saintess, and I had even mixed bodies with a demonic sword for the sake of becoming a Grand Sword Master.
Could I really stand tall and call myself normal?
"Thinking about it carefully… I'm not normal, am I?"
"You only realized that now? How utterly absurd."
"I was free to live however the hell I wanted all along."
"So will you go back to the sheep?"
"No. I already ran away — why would I go back? I'm heading straight for the final boss room."
Having witnessed Meril's heat cycle, I was curious what situations awaited in the remaining two zones and the final boss room.
If something felt off the way the Nepenthes had, I would just tear it all down.
Once I steeled myself that way, my heart felt much lighter.
"Let's move on to the next zone."
"So what kind of place is next?"
"Let me see… next is…"
The next place was related to Felix's achievements.
In the age of war, across a continent of countless factions, he had defeated the Demon King alongside the First Hero and subjugated every power.
Felix's enemies had been countless, and only by overcoming every obstacle could he finally found a kingdom.
The place most familiar to him was the battlefield.
A place where blood, weapons, and cries of agony never ceased.
Ironically, it was also where Felix's prophecy and wisdom had shone brightest.
"It's the Field of Glory — a vast wilderness stretching out."
"A battlefield, then. This time we'll have to work our bodies rather than our heads."
"Right. But we won't be able to rampage like usual."
"Why is that?"
"This zone is a world created from mental imagery. In other words, we have to become characters who fought on the battlefields Felix experienced. So no matter how strong I am, or what special abilities I have, I'll inevitably be weakened."
"Th-then this body…"
"The bond can't be severed, so you'll still be with me — but all your special abilities will disappear."
"Ugh! To think this body will be reduced to a worthless ordinary sword… how unpleasant."
"That's the kind of zone it is. You'll just have to deal with it."
Honestly, I was anxious too.
Until now I had pushed through with my own power, but this time I would have to pass the trial as someone else.
If things flowed the way they had in the original I had seen, there shouldn't be major problems.
But if a different battlefield unfolded, I honestly had no confidence.
I would have to solve everything with nothing but my own ideas and will.
"Hoo…!"
"You're tense in a way unbefitting of my contractor."
"It's a place I can't guarantee I'll clear no matter what."
"It's fine. As always, you will be able to resolve it by your own power."
"I hope so."
Fog so thick I could not see an inch ahead.
I walked silently toward the entrance of the next zone.
As I walked staring straight ahead, my stride shortened slightly.
My whole body felt heavy, and my breathing grew labored.
Proof that I was transforming into someone else.
"This doesn't feel good."
"Agreed. To simply watch my power drain away in real time…!"
"Let's try to wrap this up as fast as we can."
Being on the same side as Felix basically meant victory was already in the bag.
As long as you carried out his orders excellently, you always won.
In Kang Junhyuk's case, he had become Felix's aide and led the war to victory.
In other words, as long as you did not do something stupid like charging at the front, you were guaranteed to survive.
"Oh!"
And I, too, had become someone of Felix's faction.
The emblem of the holy sword symbolizing the First Hero was engraved on the left breast of my armor.
I just was not one of Felix's close aides.
I had considered it fortunate that I was at least part of the command staff — but even that was a mirage dissolving away.
"Walk faster!"
I was walking through the middle of a jungle thick with trees and undergrowth.
Both my arms were bound with rope, and ahead of me, soldiers of the same faction were being led in a line like dried fish on a string.
Holding the end of the rope was a female warrior wearing only a leather brassiere and skirt.
A so-called Amazoness.
"You useless lot! Can't you walk any faster?"
"Gyaaah!"
Crack—!
The female warrior kicked the calf of a soldier who was dawdling.
With a single blow, the soldier's leg bone snapped, and he dropped to his knees on the spot.
"Hey, hey! What are you doing to important merchandise?!"
"They're so sluggish it's goddamn infuriating! Are you telling me to just put up with this?"
"Tsk! I don't know who assigned a washout like you to our squad, but she must have been brain-dead."
"If you've got a problem, go snitch to command."
"Forget it! You're already confirmed for transfer, so get lost."
"Yeees~"
That was right. I was starting as a hostage.
The silver lining was that I had been captured by Amazoness mercenaries hired by the enemy nation.
There was still a little time left before I was handed over as a hostage to the enemy nation — one of the failure conditions for the raid.
Even so, starting as a hostage from the beginning is a bit much, don't you think…?!
"I'd love nothing more than to help, but as things stand I can't do a thing."
Grrrr!
Was this the price for clearing the sheep's library far too easily?
The difficulty of the fourth zone was noticeably higher right from the start.
If I was not a hostage, escaping would take priority over the war itself.
And even if I managed to escape through all the twists and turns, I would still have to throw myself into a horrific battlefield.
Compared to Kang Junhyuk, it was absurdly unfair.
"Heh heh! That leg's completely ruined."
"Is there no way to fix it?"
"Given time it would be possible, but cost-wise it'd be a shame."
"Then there's nothing for it."
A squad-leader-class female warrior was talking with an old woman who looked like a doctor.
She shook her head looking at the man her hot-blooded squadmate had broken.
No hope, so she was giving up.
"Take this one to the executioner! Let him choose which body part he wants used as the execution method."
"Understood!"
"Eeeek! S-save me!!"
Executioner? Desired body part?
I did not know what that meant, but the words were terrifying.
If my body got wrecked by some mishap, I might die before even being handed over to the vassal state.
"Alright! The rest of you keep walking! As you just saw, if you dawdle you might end up like your colleague being dragged off over there — so you'd better behave."
Tension began to settle over the group at their comrade's death.
Everyone was on edge, thinking they might die pointlessly themselves.
And a short while later—
"Gyaaaaaah! The, the squeeze of the armpit…!!"
The death cry from far away doubled the tension.
There was a strange word mixed in, but that was not the important point.
Lives were in danger.
That alone was enough to keep everyone vigilant.
I'm going crazy…
"For now, I see no openings. Every last one of them is a properly trained female warrior."
So escape only becomes possible after we're imprisoned?
"That seems likely."
I let out a deep sigh at the reality that there was no way out.
If I had at least been free before being taken hostage, I could have planned something.
But I had been captured from the start, so I could not do anything.
Couldn't a dragon show up like in the prologue of some game I used to play and turn this place into a mess?
I found myself missing Rene and Breeze.
"Heh heh…!"
"Hm?"
"That guy's got a solid ass. Tonight's going to be fun…"
At the frivolous laugh from behind, I glanced sideways over my shoulder.
A slender Amazoness maiden was looking me up and down, practically drooling.
It felt like she was raping me with her eyes.
Still, the female warriors' faces were all surprisingly pretty, so it did not feel entirely bad.
Wait a second…?
My body had been swapped from head to toe by the mental world.
But the product created by Asmodeus, the Archdevil of Lust, remained unchanged.
Even the power of a demon who had lived for thousands of years could not be twisted, apparently.
For that reason, my holy sword was still very much alive and well.
If I play this right, this might be an opportunity?