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

Chapter 163

Chapter 163

There wasn’t really a connection between the Great Demon and the young lord of Ednium.

However, since the subjugation battle had occurred in the forest within Ednium’s territory, he couldn't help but be interested as its young lord.

For that same reason, the young lord provided thirty of his soldiers as a gesture of cooperation, and the Archmage continuously sent detailed reports to both the Temple and the manor.

“We would like to ask you for your cooperation.”

So when news of the Great Demon’s corpse being swallowed by roots reached me, I—or more precisely, the people of the Temple supposed to accompany me there—first went to request the young lord come with us.

No matter how you looked at this incident, the only one who could’ve performed such an extraordinary feat was the Skyflow Tiger.

Moreover, the only person who could determine the Skyflow Tiger’s intentions without fighting it (as far as I knew) was the young lord.

To uncover the truth behind this matter in more detail, he had no choice but to accompany the people of the Temple anyway.

“I was planning to ask the Skyflow Tiger about the Demon, as you requested, but… I never thought things would turn out this way.”

Ah, he was referencing the Archmage’s request to ask the Skyflow Tiger about the “Agreement with Demons” thing.

However, before he even had the chance to ask, this disaster happened.

“…Just why did the Skyflow Tiger do that to the Demon’s corpse…?”

Well. I wasn’t a prophet or anything, only pretty familiar with the recurrent clichés.

But if I had to pick the most likely scenario, it’d be that these two had formed some sort of alliance. Even setting the Skyflow Tiger’s attitude aside, I wondered what kind of mutual benefit they gained from this agreement.

“…Uhm, erm, Sir Adventurer.”

After pondering how to address me, Leon, the young lord, seemed to finally find a fitting title.

I glanced at him but didn’t respond, as usual.

Deb, who usually covered for me in such social settings, and the Inquisitor, who often smoothed things over with her soothing way of being, were both unconscious in the Temple. However, I now had the achievement of defeating a Great Demon under my belt.

So, no one dared to complain about my rudeness as expected.

“I heard that… you, the Hero, and one more person fought against the Great Demon, just the three of you, before finally claiming victory.”

Anyway, after stating this, the young lord cautiously asked his question.

“…Was the Great Demon powerful?”

I didn’t know what brought him to ask this question, but it wasn’t like this was something I couldn’t answer.

“It’s meaningless to discuss the strength of something already dead.”

Because I was the one who’d won!

“I see.”

Of course, we also took some damage… but honestly, he should overlook that much.

Most of our injuries weren’t caused by the Demon but by the unusual circumstances of fighting thousands of meters above the ground!

Had we fought on the ground, the Inquisitor wouldn’t have fallen unconscious. I wasn’t exaggerating here; this was the full truth.

“I heard both the Hero and you, Sir Adventurer, fainted…”

No, what the hell? Wasn’t that crazy nitpicky?

Hey, Mister Young Lord! Why don’t you just go up several thousand meters in the air?! Do you think it was easy fighting up there and creating footholds without any help from the System?! Do you have any idea what it’s like dealing with altitude sickness and the unavoidable limitations of a person’s body?!

This was seriously unfair! Neither I nor the Inquisitor were weak!

I turned to look at the young lord, fuming inside.

Was my gaze perhaps too intense? As soon as our eyes met, the young lord started to tremble.

“If that thing had been on the ground, severing its neck wouldn’t have even taken ten minutes.”

That was a bit of an exaggeration, but what was the difference between ten and twenty minutes, right? It wasn’t as if we had to fight another Great Demon anytime soon.

With such cunning thoughts in mind, we approached the mass of roots.

It wasn’t like something out of Jack and the Beanstalk, but instead, many vines several meters in diameter tangled together to form a huge hill. It was pretty easy to distinguish from the rest of the forest's vegetation, as they were completely different.

“Then could you kill the Skyflow Tiger as well?”

Wait, what was he saying right now?

“Could you… kill the Skyflow Tiger without harming anyone else?”

This time, I didn’t just glance at him but turned my head and even hips to face him. The young lord directly met my gaze.

“Tha—”

“My apologies. Please pretend you didn’t hear anything.”

And just as I was about to answer, the young lord interrupted me.

Hah, damn. Was he joking? After saying everything he wanted to, he just told me to pretend I hadn’t heard anything? Excuse me, Mister Young Lord? Can’t you see how infuriating that is??

Since lives were at stake here, I let it slide.

“Young Lord!”

“Oh, you’re here. You’ve also come.”

After that, the young lord and I walked in silence. Fortunately, our destination wasn’t far off, so I didn’t have to endure this awkward atmosphere for long.

“I’m sorry for making you come to such a dangerous place.”

“Don’t be. It’s something I must do.”

“I’d also like to apologize to you. I wanted to let you rest a bit longer, but…”

I mean, this wasn’t even the Archmage’s fault, so why was she apologizing?

Ignoring the Archmage’s words, I approached the tangled vines.

Bers, wielding her halberd, was chopping through the vines as if possessed by a lumberjack.

It seemed she’d cut through some of these vines before we arrived, given the three stumps already at her feet.

“These vines are what I called you both here for. I was told they suddenly grew out of the ground and completely enveloped the Great Demon’s corpse without leaving even the smallest gap.”

“That’s…”

Bam, bam, bam!

Crunchcrunchcrunch.

So, that’s why these vines had grown into this oval, dome-like shape.

But what was that crunching I was hearing between the sounds of chopping?

“Berserk is continuously trying to cut through the vines to check what’s inside, but…”

I felt a bit sorry for the Archmage, but I was far more interested in that crunching noise than her words.

If I wasn’t just hearing things… it seemed to be coming from inside the vines.

“Had I known this would happen, I would have brought more soldiers. Cutting through these will be difficult with just this many people.”

“Erm, that isn’t necessary. If that had been the case, I would’ve told the messenger.”

“So?”

“Move it before it falls over!”

However, I couldn’t just focus on that.

I had to pay attention not only to the information the Archmage was providing but also to the shouts of the priests and soldiers trying to move away from the vines, so my surroundings were far too noisy for that, anyway.

It seemed they’d also moved aside what Bers had knocked down earlier, seeing that five vines were piled up at one side.

“These vines grow far too quickly, so cutting them down normally is effectively meaningless.”

…Wait a second. Five?

But there were only three stumps?

“It’s growing again!”

My doubts were resolved not a second later. As Bers was halfway done cutting through a vine, new ones sprouted from the severed sections.

They even pushed away Bers as they covered the other existing stumps.

“As you can see here.”

The Archmage shrugged while Bers, drenched in copious amounts of sweat, let out a frustrated “Uwaargh!” Clang! In her fury, she even threw down her halberd.

“Oh, you came at just the right time, buddy!!”

At that moment, Bers, wildly ruffling her hair, saw me and shouted.

“Do that ‘Whoosh’ thing you usually do!”

That whoosh thing? My [Slash] had gained an extremely undignified nickname.

“…Demon Knight, I hope you won’t be too harsh. I also thought your abilities would be more useful for this, which is why I called you.”

I could understand where they were coming from. While Bers’ single-target attacks were much stronger, I had more AOE skills.

It made sense that they called me to deal with this in one go to reach the corpse, considering how quickly these vines were growing, constantly throwing them back to square one.

“Is it impossible to burn them down with spells? Ah, are you afraid it might damage the corpse…?”

“No. I’ve already tried, but it didn’t work. I couldn’t leave a scratch on them.”

“Ah…”

I turned away from Bers, who was waving her hands quite vigorously, and took my position.

If I aimed my [Slash] too low, I’d end up severing the Demon’s corpse, and if I aimed too high, it might only expose a cross-section of some vines, so I had to choose my position wisely.

“Get out of the way.”

I also considered that the vines might topple over, so I shouted at those around me to move back. There was no doubt in my mind that I wouldn’t be able to cut through them, though.

While my body wasn’t in the best condition, it wasn’t to the point where I couldn’t use my skills.

“You should cut from around here.”

…Was she trying to help me? While everyone moved back, I stopped trying to gauge the right height myself and looked to where Bers was pointing.

Unlike me, who’d been unconscious and hadn’t even caught a glimpse of the Demon’s corpse, she’d probably watched it all night, so I thought it would be better to follow her advice.

“Leave.”

“Okay!”

But I couldn’t just leave it at that. After chasing Bers away, I tightened my grip on my Zweihänder. Crunch, crunch, crunch. Something was continuously making scratching and gnawing sounds beneath the vines near where I was positioned.

“I don’t know what this is, but…”

It wasn’t like I didn’t have any idea. However, I’d know for sure once I looked at it, anyway.

“I will bring the truth to light.”

* * *

Pushing back my guesses, I swung my sword. The sharpened, pitch-black Arcane Power extended from my Zweihänder’s blade, stretching into a massive blade several tens of meters long.

Whoosh! I felt my attack hit. I cut through them.

“Is that even possible…?”

“Incredible…”

“But why aren’t the vines falling?”

I cut through them, but why weren’t they falling? I slowly blinked, looking at the faint slash mark I’d left behind.

…Erm, this wasn’t that thing often depicted in manhwa where the cut was so clean that the target didn't fall into pieces, right?

“Hiya!!”

At that moment, something massive flew over my head. Boom! Bers gave the vines I’d cut through a strong kick.

Shake.

That did the trick. The vines began falling like dominoes. They were indeed falling, albeit a bit slowly, due to their weight.

“Let’s go!”

“…”

Still, since they were falling so slowly, we had more than enough time to get out of the way.

While Bers and I kept a safe distance, we didn’t go too far. We needed to stay here so we could look inside the dome’s interior before the Skyflow Tiger grew new bean vines.

“Aha, this is fun!”

This wasn’t particularly difficult. Those vines were collapsing much more slowly than the Sea Dragon moved.

Bam, bam!

After the vines fell to the ground, knocking up dust clouds, I hurriedly looked into the dome’s interior.

However, what was revealed was far more serious than I expected.

“…!”

“Oh, the Demon’s body is gone.”

“…It was eaten.”

I hadn’t been sure, but it seemed I’d guessed right.

That crunching was the sound of something being eaten, and that something was the Great Demon’s corpse.

“Are the vines not growing anymore?”

Well, either there was no need to regrow them because they’d already been discovered or because they were already done.

Personally, I suspected it was the latter. The only traces of Moby Dick were his hair, some silken strands, a fin, and a bit of skin.

“…?”

But what was that?

I jumped down, enduring the rancid stench. The overflowing blood soaked my ankles as if I’d stepped into a swamp, but it was bearable.

My legs carried me toward the place where some bones, flesh, and bits of intestines remained. It was where the Demon’s upper body should have been.

“Did you find something?”

Grab.

I pulled something out from the middle of all this.

“I didn’t know tigers ate corpses.”

In my hand was the tail of a white tiger, probably the Skyflow Tiger’s. It was larger than a person’s upper body, evidently belonging to a Primordial Beast.

* * *

“My apologies, Young Lady.”

Back in Camborough.

“It’s my fault for being unable to stop the young master, even though I was right there.”

Naturally, the residents who’d uncovered a fragment of the truth wanted to obtain it in its entirety.

That they’d only resorted to peaceful protests was probably out of consideration for the young lady’s honor, not anyone else’s.

This was her reputation, earned through years of silently fighting for the residents while covering up the messes continuously caused by the lord and his son.

“I will gladly accept any punishment.”

However, that didn’t change how her failure to control this information had led to useless conflict.

Johanna deeply apologized to her lady.

“There’s no need for you to apologize, Johanna.”

No. While it might not have been her responsibility, she still couldn’t stop it from happening despite being present, so this was absolutely her fault.

Rather than overlooking this matter because they were friends, it was only fitting that she be punished.

“No. I should take responsibility for this matter…”

“Ah, this truly isn’t your fault, so stop apologizing.”

“But…”

“I was the one who told him about the Skyflow Tiger in the first place.”

“What?”

Johanna was so flustered that she accidentally started speaking informally. After slapping her cheeks, she looked back to her lady.

Was it just her imagination, or did Mia seem a little happy?

“I didn’t do it for any particular reason. I was just, just… curious as to how the people would react if they found out the truth.”

Wait, after giving the people their freedom and rights, she was now curious about how they’d react? Was she joking?

Johanna desperately suppressed the emotions welling up in her, thinking that if this weren’t her lady, she would’ve hit her even once. She still couldn’t quite wrap her head around this.

“So, am I to understand that this was your intention…?”

“My intention… I wouldn’t go that far. It’s not like I can control what leaves that guy’s mouth. I just… left it up to fate. Whether he went around and talked about this or had enough brains to keep his mouth shut.”

“…And what if he hadn’t said anything?”

“Then I would have just accepted my fate.”

However, the more she heard, the worse she felt.

Johanna placed her hand against her temples, her heart now pounding for an entirely different reason. She really wanted to grab her forehead or the back of her neck, but she didn’t have the courage to do that before her lady.

“So, what will you do now?”

“Well, first, I’ll have to tell the people the truth they want to know: that the Skyflow Tiger is the culprit and why it did what it did.”

“Are you trying to… incite a hunt?”

“Oh no. I’m going to leave this up to fate, as well. It’s the Skyflow Tiger, after all. We don’t know just how much damage it could cause, so if the people don’t wish for it… I should just give up.”

However, no matter what the young lady wished for, Mia would absolutely respect the people’s will.

Even if it meant something within her would break.

“…Will the people be willing to take this risk?”

As such, as a friend, Johanna asked her a question. The young lady, Mia, noticed the slight nuance of her words and smiled.

“It doesn’t matter.”

“Why?”

“Because, quite honestly, I know they won't step forward. Even if they wanted to, they couldn’t kill that thing so easily, don't you think? Who knows what kind of consequences might follow because of this?”

“…Y-You!”

“I’m terribly twisted, aren’t I? But, please, just let it slide. They say pain and sorrow are halved when shared, right?”

“...Coming from someone who would usually claim it doubles.”

Mia didn't respond to Johanna’s reproach. And Johanna also stopped nitpicking any further. The words felt too bitter on her tongue to say anymore.

“…B-But what if, Mia.”

“Huh?”

“What if the people agree to hunt down the Skyflow Tiger, and no dire consequences are caused by it? What will you do then?”

However, the taste of regret was even more bitter, so she still asked one last thing.

In response to Johanna’s question, Mia pulled out a bottle of alcohol and a dagger from her drawer.

“What are you even asking? Of course, I would kill it then.”

She skillfully sliced through the neck of the bottle with the dagger.

____