Chapter 10 - I Didn't Know That (3)

"What... demons are, fighting each other?"

The Inquisitor looked at the one who had charged at the demon first. She was bewildered. He was a turncoat. Meaning, a person who had betrayed god by forming a contract with a demon.

"Why is a turncoat..."

Those who contracted with demons ended up no different from a demon's servant. While they wouldn't be bossed around by low-intelligence lesser demons, they couldn't be hostile toward them either.

And yet he attacked those demons without hesitation? He even obsessively searched for the main body regardless of whether his own flesh was being torn apart?

This, this was impossible. Something like this...

"No... that is not the case. Inquisitor. That man is not a demonic contractor."

It did not fall under anything she had learned.

"Pardon?"

"... To think I would actually witness a mere hypothetical possibility. Demonic energy as mana... hmm, what kind of events this will bring about in the future..."

The Inquisitor gripped her mace at the Archmage's muttering and serious expression. It was because she judged that the Archmage would know something.

"Please explain in more detail, Archmage."

"... Ah, of course. It is a hypothesis that only existed in theory even within academia, so you couldn't possibly have known, Inquisitor."

The Archmage stroked his staff with his thick fingers and gave her an answer.

"That young man... probably didn't gain that power by contracting with a demon, but by becoming a demon's host and learning to wield its power."

"A host... then... do you mean he has become a zombie?"

She had learned about zombies. Those who had their bodies stolen by demons and could no longer move by their own will were exactly that—zombies.

Literally living corpses, solely controlled by the parasitic demon. Those for whom death was the only salvation.

"Indeed. However, while a normal zombie is stripped of its ego by the parasitic demon, it seems that young man has suppressed the demon and taken control himself."

"What! There's no way that's possible!"

"What makes it impossible? Inquisitor, there is no such thing as impossible in this world. There are only things that are deemed impossible."

The Archmage smiled faintly as he looked at her shouting as if throwing a fit. It was a vague smile, almost looking like he was crying a little.

"Otherwise, what should we call this young man in front of us?"

At that moment, the man who had finally found the demon's main body chopped the snake to pieces. It was the moment a demon's power ended up killing a demon.

* * *

"Then now, as promised, I will tear that mouth of yours wide open."

Fully immersed in my concept with a joyful heart, I delivered my line.

"Wait, it seems there was a misunderstanding. I will apologize for attacking, so would you please listen to me?"

At that, the mage urgently tried to stop me. Now that I got a good look at him, he had quite the imposing figure.

"A misunderstanding? That's quite a funny thing to say. You attack me, treating me like those fucking little bugs, and it's a misunderstanding?"

He was incredibly tall. Seeing how my gaze landed at his neckline when looking straight ahead, he seemed to be at least two meters tall.

Or maybe he was of a different race. After all, 'Legend of Heroes' featured four races in total: Middle, Slender, Cutie, and Shaggy.

And the 'Shaggy' race, which were full beast-types closer to bipedal animals, had builds that large on average.

"Please, forgive us. There was demonic energy coiled around your arm, so we mistook you for a zombie parasitized by a demon. As a demon hunter you must know, but... someone turning into a zombie while retaining their ego is somewhat unprecedented, isn't it?"

Oh... how should I react to this. For now, it seemed like they were trying to smooth things over for the sake of the story, so it felt like I could get a little angrier.

After making that calculation, I tightly clenched my fist with a *CRACK*. I also contorted my face horribly, hoping it looked like a mix of anger, understanding, and self-loathing.

"What...?"

More importantly, I couldn't remember the lore about zombies. What was it? I felt like they were on a different level than standard zombies.

Judging from the phrase 'zombie parasitized by a demon,' I guessed it meant something like a host...? That seemed about right?

Whatever the case, from the perspective of someone with a complex about it, it wasn't a pleasant line to hear. Because it would really make them feel like they weren't human.

"If we had known you maintained your ego like a normal person, we wouldn't have attacked. We apologize."

CRACK.

Dropping the sword that had been resting on my shoulder, I gripped the hilt tightly. At the same time, I used my right hand to cover my eyepatch-covered right eye and my fallen bangs.

Immersing myself into the concept made those things inexplicably hateful, filthy, and horrific.

And I came to hate those people who had misunderstood me by exactly that much. Of course I didn't truly hate them, but that was the sentiment that washed over me.

In reality, I understood their position, and since I knew they were just NPCs anyway, I didn't feel much of anything, but at the very least, the concept I was roleplaying wouldn't be so forgiving.

"Hah, a zombie..."

Sometimes, when acting, there were moments when my vocal cords delivered lines on their own and my body moved independently.

Should I say the concept had left my hands and was moving of its own accord? It felt like right now was exactly that kind of moment.

"How dare... the likes of you treat me as such a thing."

Therefore, I immersed myself even further than usual and even raised my sword.

Of course, whether it was a bit too heavy to hold with one hand, my sword hand trembled slightly. I just desperately hoped that to others, it looked like I was shaking out of anger.

"... It is undeniably our mistake. If there is anything you desire, we will grant it if possible."

Ah, this probably wasn't the right time to say this, but this was really fucking fun. Because there were opponents—NPCs—who reacted and played along with me, it was even more fun.

It felt like I was coordinating a scene with my classmates back in my college days.

"Damn it. Grant it if possible? If I tell you to cut out your tongues, will you do it?"

"That is..."

"If you can't even do that much, cut the bullshit apologies."

How was I supposed to play other games now? No, why was I even thinking about other games. 'Legend of Heroes' and Deep Sea Pearl were gods.

Still, I hoped they'd at least patch the movement system and user accessibility.

"... If I had it my way, I'd rip off your jaws and hang them at the village entrance, but then there would be no difference between me and those demon bastards."

"... Hmm."

"Get lost."

Anyway, feeling ecstatic, I pretended to swallow the anger I had spat out on the surface. I withdrew my sword as well.

'Is backing off like this the right move?'

A brief doubt arose regarding my judgment, but I quickly found the answer to that as well.

Even without necessarily being conscious of the story, this was right. He hated demons, so he wouldn't want to act like one.

Honestly, yeah. Among the Demon Knight's official lore, I figured his sensitive and sharp-tempered nature stemmed from the anxiety of not knowing when the demon residing in his arm might go berserk.

In other words, since he didn't know when he might become a demon and kill people again, he acted fiercely right from the start to avoid keeping anyone close.

But would a personality like that genuinely get pissed off over a single misunderstanding and go for a mutual kill? Targeting a human, not a demon?

He'd definitely be super pissed, but as long as it was a misunderstanding, he wouldn't necessarily try to kill them. The idea that killing humans was something only demons did would be deeply ingrained in his mind.

That was my interpretation.

"..."

I sheathed my sword on my back and turned around. The quest included recovering proof of the hunt, so it was to collect that.

"Wait."

I bent down and recovered the snake's corpse. Timing perfectly with that, the priest's... I mean, the Inquisitor's voice rang out.

"... I apologize, too."

I thought she was going to say something about me taking the corpse, but since it was an apology, I was a little surprised.

"I... no, whatever I say would just be an excuse. I am sorry for attacking first. I sincerely apologize."

Uh... honestly, I never really cared. Judging strictly by the lore, it was an understandable misunderstanding.

Rather, I felt it was a miracle I hadn't clashed with the temple until now. Although later on, an oracle would be issued, so I wouldn't be able to clash with them even if I wanted to.

"If you desire compensation for this matter..."

Separately, the concept dictated that his opinion differed from mine.

"I don't need it, such petty hypocrisy."

So I just had to follow it.

"...!"

However, it was somewhat impressive how they were managing to drag this into a story despite the player being so uncooperative.

Of course, I suspected the original goal was to go beyond cooperation and actually become allies...

Hmm. I was a bit unsure about this. Since we'd even brawled like this, it didn't seem like we'd easily become companions. And I didn't even know if a companion system actually existed in the first place.

Above all, it was too sudden and out of nowhere. I was an enjoyer who liked pretty much everything, but normal players probably wouldn't like this kind of unannounced party addition.

"It is not hypocrisy—"

"Now, now, Inquisitor. Please calm down."

"Archmage...!"

Come to think of it, didn't I level up while killing that snake? I was torn on what skills to invest in.

Attack skills were pretty good, and seeing this incident, detection wasn't bad either. Alternatively, investing in the close-quarters martial arts tree to add more modifiers or raising defense seemed like a good idea too.

"More importantly, we should head back as well. We only stuck around because we failed to catch the demon, but haven't we finished the Purification?"

*Gasp*, right, Purification.

"... Understood."

When I discreetly opened the Purification progress window, it said 98%. Just as it sounded from their eavesdropped conversation, those two seemed to have gone around doing the purifying.

I was a little jealous of this. The Demon Knight class had no choice but to set things on fire to purify them.

It was a penalty of sorts for the Demon Knight. Thanks to that, despite having immunity to demonic energy erosion, the class preference was somewhat low.

The Priest class had a separate Purification skill, and other classes could just buy things like purification stones from the temple to use, but the Demon Knight couldn't do that at all.

"..."

"..."

... So, could someone tell me why those two were following me?

"You must be disappointed after suffering for a whole week."

"... Not exactly. It was something I ought to do as a servant of god."

Seriously, why were they following me? I had my world map open and was walking in a straight line toward the village, but there was no way the NPCs would know that.

Things were awkward between us, so wouldn't it be better to take a different path? Ah... was it perhaps because of the story?

"I believe, I told you to get lost."

Just in case, I decided to threaten them. The NPC reactions were so realistic, after all.

"I guess my words mean nothing to you."

Gripping the hilt of the sword at my waist, I slightly twisted my body. I subconsciously almost turned toward the right, but remembered the eyepatch just in time.

I almost ended up looking like a weirdo turning around with my eyepatch-covered eye.

"If we offended you, we apologize. It was not intentional."

The two people I looked back at had an orb of light floating around them. I wondered why they hadn't turned it on earlier, but the same went for me, so I didn't have much to say.

However, what caught my eye was that besides the orb of light, there was also something resembling a compass floating there...

"We were following a pathfinding magic. It seems the place we both marked is the same."

The navigation function was implemented through magic? I had suddenly become an overly self-conscious guy.

"..."

Still, the fortunate thing was that they weren't following me. If overlapping paths by walking in a straight line was the issue, I could just step aside.

I had nothing to resolve in that village anyway, nor did I have any intention of taking a wagon again. There was no reason not to part ways. Provided the system actually let us part ways, that is.

So I pretended to furrow my brow and changed direction. I had arrived here after riding a wagon for hours, so I would have to walk diligently to return to the starting village.

"Wait, where are you going?"

At that, the Inquisitor asked where I was going. Not feeling the need to answer, I didn't bother replying.

"Hey, the night forest is danger—"

But I couldn't tolerate words that bruised my pride.

"Perhaps to the likes of you. Do not force your standards upon me."

"... Still, it is not good to go alone."

No, if I had to pick the most dangerous thing in this forest, I'd probably pick *you*, so going alone would actually be safer.

Of course, voicing those inner thoughts exactly as they were would break my character, so I shouted fiercely.

"It seems your ears fail to serve their purpose as ears."

Fortunately, even after hearing that, the Inquisitor didn't hold me back.

I had no idea what kind of event this was, or what the story wanted from me, but in the battle between the system and my roleplay, my roleplay had won by decision. Ahahaha.