Chapter 254 - What If (2)

["Sir Kniiiight, look at this. The Great Chief gave it to me."]

["Are you remembering to eat while you work? Your lifespan's short enough already. Keep starving yourself and you'll be gone in a flash."]

So, here's the story of how I closed my eyes to escape reality and ended up sleeping until nightfall.

["Isn't it gorgeous? Heehee."]

["I heard you took food with you, so why are you half the size you were?"]

I massaged my temples for a moment, nursing the headache from my overlong nap. Yukkwi's remark made me want to laugh; he sounded exactly like a grandparent. Half the size? We'd only been apart for two days.

"... Didn't I explicitly suggest we limit our contact?"

That aside, why were they here? Just four days ago, I'd asked them to avoid visiting as much as possible. My reasoning had been that the Mountain Lord, who supposedly spent all his time in his nest, would only arouse suspicion by constantly going out...

["Oh, it's fine. Everyone thinks traveling across the continent gave me a taste for wandering."]

... So that was what they thought.

Well, someone who'd spent his whole life in the forest getting a taste of the outside world and turning into a walking enthusiast wasn't an unnatural progression, on the face of it. In that sense, it was perhaps only natural for the Priestesses of the swamp to misunderstand.

Unfortunately, that left me without a reason to refuse the Mountain Lord's visits. My brows drew together slightly.

["Have you had dinner?"]

I'd slept right through lunch, so of course I hadn't... but only an amateur would report all of that.

"I was just about to eat."

I lied without batting an eye. What food had I received today again? My hand was already rummaging through my inventory.

["Why not save that for daytime, when you can't light a fire?"]

But a single remark from Yukkwi stopped me.

A chill ran down my back.

["There's plenty of cloud cover today, so it should be fine."]

To explain where that came from, we have to go back to the afternoon two days earlier.

I'd been filling my stomach with preserved rations when Yukkwi saw me and asked why I didn't cook.

But who could possibly answer, "Because I can't start a fire or cook"? Never mind the persona; my own pride wouldn't stand for that.

So, after racking my brains, I'd persuaded him that lighting a fire during the day could give me away because of the smoke—which wasn't wrong...

["You said you eat fish. He caught some for you."]

["Heeheeheehee."]

And this was the result. I was cornered on all sides.

"... Lighting a fire in an enclosed space is—"

["What are you talking about? Obviously, you'd go outside to light it."]

"..."

No, um. You see, there are adventurers in this world who can't start fires.

There are even adventurers who can't cook over a campfire.

["What's wrong? You're acting like you can't cook."]

... Damn it!

"..."

["...?"]

"..."

["... Wait. Seriously?"]

No, seriously, hear me out. This wasn't entirely my fault, okay? Sure, I sometimes burned food back in the modern world, but I at least had the sense to turn down the heat when something seemed to be burning!

But here, here... you couldn't control the heat. You were supposed to turn it down when food started burning, and that just wasn't possible.

Under those circumstances, wasn't turning food into pitch-black charcoal really inevitable? It wasn't a problem with me. Anyone could make that mistake!

["Oh my. Sir Knight, you can't cook?"]

["Well... that's a surprise."]

But my valiant defense only echoed inside my head, never reaching them. I wanted to die of embarrassment.

["How were you so confident you could live on your own?"]

"..."

["Is this boy going to starve to death at this rate?"]

["Oh, we can't have that. Shall I get someone to look after you?"]

"... There's no need to go that far."

No, I wasn't quite that hopeless... Roasting was the problem. Boiling or simmering should still work. If I just had a pot, I really could do it. Hah.

As I continued arguing inwardly, I realized that the longer I went on, the more pathetic I became. It was a sad realization.

Sure, I always got the seasoning slightly wrong, misjudged the water a little, and slightly under-roasted or over-boiled things, but I still made edible food.

How had I ended up being treated like a hopeless cook, an alchemist of culinary disasters? Like a bumbling novice who'd starve to death if left alone?

["I'll grow some fruit here for you, at least."]

Mourning my obliterated pride, I gratefully accepted the sprouting fruit trees. I'd been worrying about what I'd eat once the preserved rations ran out anyway...

["Anyway, have you learned anything while you've been here?"]

"... Not particularly."

Meanwhile, the subject Yukkwi switched to was a problem in its own right.

I'd stayed here to think my way toward a solution, but I couldn't see any way forward.

"I tried converting demonic energy into magical energy, just in case..."

When I expended magical energy freely, demonic energy converted into magical energy whether I wanted it to or not. But there seemed to be an unbridgeable gap between doing that consciously and having it happen automatically.

"Never mind the side effects. I couldn't even work out how to do it."

Of course, in the process, I'd gotten the hang of concentrating magical energy into a single point and projecting it outside my body, but that was all. I truly had no idea how to convert it.

Forget side effects; I couldn't even get as far as trying.

["Hmm... then perhaps... sealing really is the only answer? I don't mean to discourage you, Sir Knight..."]

"I'm not sure..."

Still, there had to be a way of concealing demonic energy that I simply didn't know about. At least, that was what I believed.

"For now, I'll keep trying."

Otherwise, the account of my past activities I'd read in the report couldn't possibly have described such an easy existence, free of pursuit.

* * *

["Where does that certainty come from?"]

While the Mountain Lord went off to grow patches of edible mushrooms, fruit, vegetables, and grain nearby to keep me fed, Yukkwi asked me a question now that we were alone.

I couldn't tell what he meant. Even I, accustomed as I was to conversations with things left unsaid, first thought it came out of nowhere.

["You believe there's a way other than sealing, don't you?"]

Fortunately, Yukkwi seemed to realize that too. He hastily elaborated. Only then did I understand what he meant by certainty.

"This records the activities of the one who existed before I came here... In other words, this body's activities, not mine."

There was no need for a lengthy explanation. I pulled out the stack of documents I'd carefully kept in a corner of my inventory.

["The body's original owner?"]

"Yes."

Then I pushed it up before Yukkwi's eyes so he could read it.

Could Yukkwi read human writing? That question occurred to me a moment later.

["These are records? Huh. Technology's come a long way... Writing on something this thin and fluttery, rather than stone tablets or clay."]

"... It's called paper. It's expensive, so it isn't widely used yet."

["I see... Hmm, but Knight, there's a small problem."]

"What is it?"

["I can't read human writing."]

Sure enough, Yukkwi shook his head and confessed his illiteracy. Hiding my embarrassment, I brought the papers back in front of me.

"It records the original owner's activities, but very little stands out. Most of it is testimony that he devoted himself to hunting demons. He didn't interact with the people around him, either."

And even that only covered five years. Imagining the earlier records that had vanished, I lightly scratched at the letters on the paper with my fingertip. As an aside, I had to stop immediately when the paper started to pill—the quality was awful, though that couldn't be helped.

"But... he entered and left cities without any trouble."

["Hmm. So that's why? Why you're searching so hard, hoping there might be another way."]

"Yes."

["That's certainly worth thinking about. How did that human hide it?"]

Thankfully, Yukkwi pondered the very point where I'd found a glimmer of hope. Apparently, he too thought it was unnatural, and that there might be a possibility there.

["First, tell me more about what he did. Surely that isn't everything. Not with all those records."]

"Hmm..."

His activities. Reading it all aloud would take far too long, so I'd have to pick a few things. But which ones?

Should I focus on the things that had made me wonder why he'd done them as I read? Or the questions and speculations listed at the end of the report?

"First, the records only cover five years. And over those five years, his appearance..."

["His appearance?"]

I stopped explaining and thought fast.

Admit his appearance changed and that I found it suspicious. → Get asked why that was suspicious. → Explain that his new appearance matched the character I'd designed. → More questions from a perfectly normal person who knew nothing about games, much less role-playing a persona. → Total annihilation for everyone!

Cold sweat trickled down my spine.

"... He initially kept himself completely covered, but gradually revealed his face and appearance by replacing his equipment one piece at a time. As though luring a bird with breadcrumbs."

["That's strange... Why on earth would he do that?"]

If I showed any sign of panic now, it was over. Desperately maintaining a serious expression, I soothed my social dignity, which had barely survived.

Honestly, I'd rather die than live in humiliation...

["And?"]

"He mainly hunted demons and criminals, and apparently took all their bodies with him."

["What?"]

"The people who gathered the information speculated that he might have a fetish for corpses..."

["Idiot, those were obviously sacrifices!"]

"That was one of their theories too."

Though it had lost traction once I started traveling with the Hero. I swallowed that last part.

["He took the bodies for all five years?"]

"For the most part, it seems."

["Then there's no doubt about it. They were sacrifices."]

There were things even the information guild hadn't uncovered, but this was still something we could infer. I acknowledged it on that basis, and Yukkwi lamented.

["Yes. I'd been wondering about that. Even for a Great Demon, stealing a soul from another dimension is no easy task... But to think there was this hidden factor."]

"... Are you saying they brought me here by sacrificing those they killed?"

["There's no other way they could have brought you over. Even a Great Demon isn't all-powerful, you know."]

Suddenly, the file in my hands seemed heavy with the smell of blood.

"... How many would have been sacrificed?"

["Hard to say. I'd need to have offered sacrifices myself to make an estimate... Still, wouldn't it take at least several thousand? That's how difficult it is to break down the barrier between dimensions."]

At least several thousand... Well, adding up just the entries in the report would yield over a thousand. Even a simple calculation of twenty a month for five years came to twelve hundred.

And he hadn't limited himself to exactly twenty a month. Twenty was the low end; sometimes he'd caught hundreds. Accounting for deeds not listed in these pages, the number might be even higher.

So at least two thousand people. A bolder estimate might put it at three or four thousand.

And he hadn't only hunted humans, but demons too...

Without thinking, I tightened my grip on the documents. The thick stack of paper crumpled with a sound as though it might tear.

"... Would he have sacrificed the demons he caught too?"

["Who knows? But demons are living creatures, after all... Couldn't you use them as sacrifices if you wanted to? You yourself—no, that thing inside you—had no trouble sacrificing its own kind in that city over there, did it?"]

"...?"

When I gave him a look asking him to elaborate, Yukkwi shrugged his shell and explained.

It was a truth I had had no way of knowing: no one had told me, the intact city walls had hidden it, and I hadn't gone out of my way to look inside the city while escaping.

Is It a Problem If the Protagonist Is a Role-Playing Fanatic? (Serial)

Author │ Hae Inseol

Publisher │ Kim Juhyeong

Published by │ Jple Media Co., Ltd.

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ⓒ Hae Inseol 2022

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