Is It Bad That the Main Character’s a Roleplayer?
chapter-161

Chapter 161 Hasty Excuses (1)

Looking up at the sky, Deathbringer felt a fever rising.

“Are you alright?”

“Erm, yes, I’m fine.”

It wasn’t anything unexpected. While his condition had improved, there was no way such severe injuries could fully heal in just one day.

Despite that, he’d been walking around outside all day, exposed to the wind and weather. Even if someone had been carrying him, he was still outside.

“You don’t look so well. Your face is all red.”

“It’s probably because I feel a bit hot, that’s all.”

“Do you have a fever?”

“I’m not sure?”

“…Let me feel your forehead.”

“A-Aaah.”

So, how could his condition not worsen?

“Perhaps it’d be best if we head back.”

“That’s a bit… We haven’t enough spare manpower for someone to just leave.”

“So you’re saying you’ll endure it?”

“Please, at least let me watch.”

However, he couldn’t just back down like this.

He wouldn’t be much help even if he were completely healthy, but wouldn’t it be too miserable if he couldn’t even watch? Even though he was too far away to actually see anything, he still felt that way.

“If that’s what you want. But stay out of the cold, at least…”

“…So stubborn.”

So, despite the Archmage’s suggestions, he persistently stayed where he was. Of course, he couldn’t help but be a little annoyed at the sky filled with gray clouds.

“A-Aaah!”

But then, the person with the sharpest eyesight suddenly started shouting.

He strained his eyes to look in the direction that person was pointing in, but whether because his fever was clouding his vision or his eyesight simply wasn’t good enough, he couldn’t really see anything.

“A dot?”

“No, that’s…”

“Someone’s falling!”

However, it didn’t take long for the figure to come near enough for him to see it as well.

And shockingly, what he saw were two people falling while clinging to each other, and those two were none other than the Hero and Berserk.

The Archmage and priests hurriedly began chanting spells, conjuring a cushion of light and layers of air to ensure those two would land safely.

Thanks to their efforts, the two landed on the ground without any injuries. Of course, the injuries they already had were a different matter.

“Are you two alright?”

“M-Madam Archmage.”

“Berserk is fine!”

Before he could even ask anything, he was struck by disbelief.

What was that Berserk even talking about, covered in blood like that?

From the wounds scattered across her body, it clearly wasn’t just Demon blood. Some of her blood was mixed in there, too.

Moreover, if you looked more closely at her sturdy body, you could see that her veins were slightly more pronounced and her eyes bloodshot.

This meant that, even with the Inquisitor at her side, she was showing signs of progressing Demonic Erosion. She didn’t even have enough energy to cleanse herself of the Demonic Energy she’d been exposed to.

Moreover, the iron wall looked even more exhausted than she had during the defensive battle in Pa Enoch. Just how much energy had she expended? She looked about to collapse at any moment.

“Berserk, you need to take a Neutralizer right away. And you, Inquisitor…”

The Archmage and the priests, aware of the situation, immediately rushed over to take care of Berserk and the Inquisitor.

Berserk seemed to find it a bit annoying but didn’t refuse. At the very least, she seemed to understand the dangers of Demonic Erosion.

“Are you okay?”

“I-I’m fine. I’m fine, but… th-the Demon Knight…”

“Don’t push yourself.”

Conversely, the Inquisitor accepted the treatment without complaint but couldn’t seem to calm down.

“H-Hey, wh-what about Mister…?”

Deathbringer also began searching for the one whom the Inquisitor mentioned, the last person who should’ve been there but wasn’t.

He still needed to apologize for the wound on his cheek and repay the faith shown to him, but now, he couldn’t even utter a single proper word.

The Inquisitor pursed her lips.

“Hey, iron wall. Why aren’t you—”

“He’ll be down soon.”

Fortunately, he received a response from elsewhere: Berserk.

“What?”

“He’ll be coming down with that Guby Dog or Bobby Dig or whatever.”

He found it hard to believe that she’d only gotten the ‘by’ part right, but that wasn’t the point.

“Why is he…?”

“Ah, there he is.”

Before Deathbringer could even ask how someone could still be up there without the Inquisitor providing any footholds, his eyes instinctively followed where Berserk was pointing.

Something enormous was falling toward them, something they hadn’t noticed before while preoccupied with caring for the other two.

At first, it wasn't wholly noticeable given the perspective, but after watching for a bit longer, its massive size became evident.

“…We need to get out of here quickly!”

“We have to dodge it!”

If that thing fell directly onto them, it would probably crush them, so those who’d noticed it started screaming one after the other.

“Ah, there’s no need. It’s going to fall into that forest over there.”

But Berserk stayed calm.

“The Demon Knight isn’t stupid.”

That statement proved to be true.

Despite the people’s panic, the gigantic creature crashed several hundred meters away from them.

Of course, due to its enormous size and weight, the ground shook terribly. Even the heavens seemed to tremble. However, the damage was far less than expected.

Despite something so colossal falling into it, the forest surrounding where it had landed didn’t get destroyed, nor was the ground completely overturned.

“Just how…”

However, while the resulting physical damage was fairly minor, the shock the people received wasn’t.

“Let’s go.”

“I-Is that really a Demon?”

“Is that an actual Demon?”

“Yeah. Why do you keep asking? Are you all idiots?”

“…That’s not something you should be saying.”

Deathbringer, following the Archmage, the priests, and Berserk—the Inquisitor had fainted midway—slowly approached where the creature had fallen.

Neither the feverish heat overcoming his body nor its fog clouding his mind could prevent him from checking if a certain someone had survived.

“The Great Demon… is dead…”

“Is that really a Great Demon…?”

“My God…”

“Berserk wanted to kill it…”

But when he finally stepped onto the crash site, what Deathbringer saw was the corpse of a merfolk-like Demon—its upper body looked like a person, and its lower half was that of a fish.

Its length from crown to tail was so great that it couldn’t be taken in all at once, and even lying flat on the ground, its height could rival that of a mountain.

However, its torso, having been severed from shoulder to pelvis, was hanging loosely.

“Is this that Demon’s true form…?”

“Was the Great Demon of Envy supposed to be this huge…?”

“What terrible Demonic Energy. It will take some time to Purify it completely.”

“Was this really the doing of just three people…?”

No, no. This wasn’t what he wanted to see.

“M-Mister?”

Deathbringer barely managed to focus his clouded mind. The heat had now reached his throat, rapidly drying out his mouth, but he still had someone to find.

“I think he’s over there.”

“Why didn’t you say that sooner…?!”

“Did you find the Demon Knight?”

Fortunately, he quickly spotted the one he’d been looking for.

“Mister…!”

There sat the Demon Knight, leaning against a sword stabbed between the Demon’s brows. It would have been far more ridiculous if he hadn’t gotten spotted.

“Demon Knight, you—!”

“Wh-What’s wrong? Why isn’t Mister responding…?”

“Huh, did he faint?”

Covered in sharp wounds, blood pouring from his mouth, nose, and even his ears, the Demon Knight didn’t look so good.

“Mister!”

Deathbringer's pace quickened as he climbed the Great Demon's corpse.

He couldn't be dead. The Demon Knight couldn't possibly be dead. His thoughts, softened and muddled from the heat, were filled with only a single thing.

“Mister…”

And when he finally reached the top of the mountain-like corpse and stood right before the Demon Knight, he saw it.

His chest, faintly rising and falling.

He was alive.

At that moment, all the tension left his body, and the world around him suddenly faded to black.

* * *

An unprecedented event occurred in which a Great Demon was defeated without a single casualty, although three of the four injured were in a coma.

Meanwhile, Johanna, the aide of Young Lady Camborough, was wallowing in despair.

She couldn’t help her dear friend and lady, which was dragging her down.

“Give me a drink.”

And so she barged into a tavern she frequented after work. She felt she would die from deep sorrow if she didn’t drown herself in alcohol soon.

“Huh, Johanna?”

The inside of the tavern was pretty lively, with people gambling in one corner, someone holding a speech in another, and music playing in yet another. It was so packed that just finding an empty seat could be called a stroke of luck.

“Here, your usual.”

“Thanks.”

She took the drink handed to her by a familiar bartender and downed it in one go right from the start.

“Another!”

“…Aren’t you drinking a bit too quickly tonight? Did something happen?”

Despite having ordered her usual drink, the speed at which she was downing it had doubled, which naturally aroused some suspicion.

While refilling her glass, the bartender cautiously asked her a question, seemingly reigniting Johanna’s resentment.

Bang!

She slammed the glass down hard on the counter.

Her face went red with mounting anger and alcohol, and she bit down on her lip.

“I can’t talk about it.”

“It’s about the young lady, isn’t it?”

“Damn it all!!”

Fortunately, the bartender was quick to guess the reason.

It probably also helped that they knew Johanna would get even more upset than the young lady herself whenever she was mistreated by that damn lord and his wife.

“Our poor young lady…”

“Oh my… Did that wretched second son cause trouble again?”

“He did something last night…”

“Tsk, tsk, tsk. When will that fool ever grow up?”

Even without Johanna’s venting, they could have easily guessed what was happening.

Everyone in this city knew the young lady had fallen out of favor with the lord.

After all, the lord, who’d never even once brought the young lady to the market as a child, now took his second child to the market almost every other day, showering him with endless gifts.

So even the residents who usually paid no attention to the lord’s family couldn’t help but notice this blatant favoritism.

And was that all? It was no secret that while the young master’s wicked behavior was never reprimanded at all, the young lady would get severely scolded even for the smallest mistake. This was something the servants in the mansion had been gossiping about for a long time. However, despite all this, the young lady never once complained or rebelled against her family.

As a result, there wasn’t a single person in the city who didn’t feel sympathy for the young lady. She was the whole city’s soft spot.

“The lord needs to open his eyes. How could he neglect our dignified young lady for that irresponsible fool of a young master? Our poor young lady…”

“I don’t know…”

“When is that senile old man going to retire? The young lady is so much better at running this place. He should just pass on the title to her already.”

“I don’t know…”

“Wait, was the young lady mistreated again? Urgh, that stupid lord! He seriously needs a proper wake-up call like what happened in the neighboring city!”

“Why did you bring that up again, Dad…? Be careful. What if someone hears you talking about rebellion?”

“Well, someone has to speak up, after all! And what’s the worst that could happen if they heard me? It’s not like they could just start a massacre like they did in the neighboring city, right?”

“…Just make sure you never say this in front of anyone from Ednium, okay, Dad?”

“Do you think I’m stupid? Of course, I wouldn’t say that in front of them.”

Ednium. The mere mention of that city made Johanna’s anger surge once more.

Young Lord Ednium and the Skyflow Tiger immediately came to mind.

“Our young lady is so brave when fighting for our rights, but why does she become so weak when it comes to her own life…? Does she truly see those people as her family?”

“Exactly. They’re nothing but bastards.”

Johanna gritted her teeth as she listened to the conversation between father and son. How pitiful her young lady was. Not only was she born into a family of fools, but now her lover had also gotten involved in some mess. And what did he dare ask for? What about those who had gotten caught in the middle of all this? What had they done to deserve this?

“Anyway, we’re heading out. Don’t drink too much.”

“Yeah. Who will take care of our young lady if you get sick?”

“You all really don’t care about me, huh? Damn it. Give me another drink.”

“Of course. Another round coming up!”

Overcome with anger and bitterness, Johanna quickly downed her fourth drink and was handed her fifth. She was determined to drink herself into oblivion tonight.

“Damn it, all this trouble just because we couldn’t catch a single damn beast!”

However, just as she was about to finish her sixth drink, a shout, almost like a desperate scream, erupted from a nearby table.

“Ah, he’s at it again.”

“…What’s going on?”

“Huh? Ah, well, you know how there’s been a huge increase in wild beasts lately? They’ve been sending out a lot of adventurers and, of course, soldiers to deal with them.”

“…And?”

“Well, the daughter of that blond guy over there is an adventurer. The son of the guy across from him is a soldier. The problem is that they both got involved in this mess and…”

The bartender and staff were busy, so the situation was explained by a fellow customer sitting next to her.

However, instead of finishing her sentence, the customer simply made a cutting motion across her throat with her thumb. Johnna immediately understood what was meant without any further explanation.

“What, you bastard?!”

“If you soldiers did your job right, there’d have been no need to send out adventurers to begin with!”

“Are you done talking?! The adventurers volunteered to help and died because they lacked skill!”

“What are you saying right now—?!”

At that moment, their fight seemed to resonate with her.

Without knowing why the beasts attacked, it was only natural for them to vent their frustrations on those before them. It was heartbreaking when one lacked a clear target to blame for all this mess.

“…The real cause lies elsewhere.”

The issue was that the true culprit behind this disaster couldn’t be properly punished.

“Huh?”

“God damn it.”

The truth behind this matter wasn’t even to be revealed.

With no way to punish the perpetrator, the young lady and the lord himself had decided it would be better to cover up this incident and treat it as a mere disaster.

Although Johanna didn’t believe that was the right decision, she didn’t oppose it either. If that was her mistress’s will, her duty as a servant was to follow it.

Even if that meant witnessing the tragic sight of victims turning on each other, unaware of the true perpetrator’s identity.

“Just what are you guys doing, being so noisy?”

“Shit.”

“Hey, clean this up. It’s disgusting.”

And just what was that troublemaker doing here again?

Johanna almost instinctively spat out her drink but barely held it in.

Wouldn’t it be rather rude for someone serving the young lady to act like that toward her younger brother? Even if their relationship was the worst?

“Let go of me!”

Those two drunk and resentful guys about to fight each other were eventually subdued by the soldiers. Since it hadn’t come to a full-blown brawl, they were only held in place to prevent them from moving.

It was unclear whether this development could be considered good.

“This is driving me crazy. Even here…”

On the other hand, one voice seemed to be echoing her frustration.

Johanna glanced to the side. The customer who’d explained the situation to her earlier was now frowning deeply. Her gaze was fixed on the lord’s son, who’d just entered the tavern.

“Ah, found you.”

The young master even smiled brightly when he saw the customer beside Johanna. It appeared they knew each other, though she couldn’t say she’d heard anything about this before.

“Hey, Adventurer. Why did you refuse my escort request?”

“As I told you earlier today, I can't do it due to conflicting schedules. Even if you come to me directly to hire me, I can’t do it.”

Ah, now she understood why she didn’t know of their relationship. It seemed he was trying something new today.

Johanna cursed inwardly when she saw that the young master, who’d been shameless enough to bother every woman he could find within the manor and city, was now even setting his sights on adventurers.

The customer close to her, who’d grown very quiet when the lord’s son appeared, probably felt similarly.

“I personally came to hire you, so why can’t you just do it?!”

“Young Master, that’s—”

She didn’t want to get involved or talk to him, but she still was employed by the manor. Even if he wasn’t her direct superior, he was still someone she indirectly served.

So, Johanna stepped in to stop this situation from escalating any further. The young master’s eyebrows shot up as she intervened.

“Why are you—!”

“You son of a bitch!”

Suddenly, some bean stalks served there as side dishes came flying and hit the young master’s head.

Everyone around him widened their eyes in shock. They all seemed to be wondering if they had done it unconsciously.

Even Johanna glanced down at her hand, wondering if she’d acted without realizing it.

“Young Master!”

“Wh-What?! Who’s the bastard who—!”

“Well met, you damn bastard! You’re part of the problem, as well! If you and your ilk hadn’t wasted soldiers on your idiotic schemes to undermine the city’s rightful heir, my daughter wouldn’t be dead!”

“What?!”

“You killed my daughter!!”

Fortunately, it wasn’t Johanna who acted instinctively. However, that didn’t make the situation any better.

“What the hell are you talking about, you bastard?!”

“Die, just die already! You useless piece of trash!! Die!!”

“S-Stop him!”

“You madman!”

It seemed he hadn’t mentioned his adventurer daughter for nothing.

The man who’d lost his daughter managed to effectively shake off the soldiers holding him back and grabbed the young master by the throat.

His guards couldn’t even properly react.

“N-Noo!”

Johanna sighed as she made a mental note to ensure all these guards would get fired later.

This could no longer be resolved peacefully. That fool, so focused on his own suffering, would certainly punish this man.

“You, c-crazy bastard—!”

“Let’s just die together. Scum like you deserve to die!”

“You keep bringing up young lady this, young lady that! Do you think anything would’ve changed if she’d stepped in?! Do you really believe she could’ve done anything against that tiger monster?!”

He would punish the young master.

“What…!”

“You fools! She couldn’t have saved your kids, not even if your precious young lady’s mother came back to life! That beast bastard you worship, the Skyflow Tiger, is the one who killed them all—!”

“Young Master!!”

How did that crazy bastard even know about this?!

Johanna felt her last bit of drunkenness disappear instantly.

“The Skyflow Tiger…?”

“Why did you mention that name?”

It couldn’t be covered up anymore. The people, who’d been taught at the young lady’s constant urging to stand up for themselves and claim their rights, would never let this pass without a proper answer.

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