Chapter 321 - Role (1)

Jerome Saintred, Commander of the First Royal Knight Order.

A young knight in his mid-twenties who had taken the position left vacant when the Blood Knight murdered the previous Commander.

“If I hadn't learned about the ancient shelter beforehand, this could have disrupted the plan.”

Brushing his short silver hair back from his forehead, he headed down the dark stairs.

STEP, STEP.

There was a simple reason he was beneath the lord's castle rather than in the eastern district, which had become a battlefield. The offer made to the lord—to turn a blind eye to this city in exchange for help exterminating them—was merely a pretext for bringing troops into the city.

The royal family had had another objective from the beginning.

The Stone Fragment of Records.

According to information from one of the lord's confidants, it was most likely kept on his person at all times as a necklace.

Of course, Jerome knew little about the object. But orders were orders. He had to obtain it somehow and return to the royal family—

TAP.

His descent came to a halt. He had spotted a corpse sprawled on the stairs.

The apparent cause of death was damage to the back of the head from a blunt instrument. The body was practically naked, as though someone had stripped away its equipment as well.

And the time of death...

'Thirty minutes ago, at most.'

He bent down and touched the wound, his expression hardening.

Someone had broken in ahead of him. Their target was most likely the lord hiding below.

Then was the intruder still down there?

Jerome broke into a sprint down the stairs.

Before long, the passage widened, revealing a stone door standing wide open. Beyond it, however, only the corpse of a grossly overweight middle-aged man awaited him.

This body, too, bore extensive signs of having been crushed with a blunt weapon.

'Whoever they are, they beat me to it.'

Biting his lip in frustration, Jerome swiftly examined the scene.

First and foremost, the Stone Fragment of Records was gone. Judging by the abrasion on the neck, it seemed to have been torn off by force...

'To think I had competition.'

His surprise at the unexpected development lasted only a moment. Jerome turned and hurried back the way he had come.

It was too early to give up.

'They can't have gotten far in thirty minutes.'

He had to find them.

* * *

Auriel Gabis had said:

[“A timeline that has been observed even once cannot change.”]

Sure, as he said, changing the future outright might be impossible.

But what if the observation itself had been wrong?

For example, what if I could make the young Amelia believe her sister had died? Then make the sister I rescued live in hiding for twenty years?

Wouldn't saving her be possible, then?

A thrill ran through my entire body at the thought, but I soon encountered a major obstacle.

[“That day, my sister died holding me in her arms.”]

Amelia had witnessed her sister's death right in front of her. She had seen her burn through her last spark of life, just as Dwalki had in Larukaz' Maze.

How the hell was I supposed to fake that?

I didn't have a clue. Amelia had killed countless people since childhood. Making her mistake whether her sister was alive or dead would be no easy task...

'Well, I'll work something out.'

It felt like I was back at square one, but I wasn't as lost as before. After all, hadn't the lord said as much with his last words?

Once I finished everything I had to do, the Stone Fragment of Records would activate on its own. In other words, there was still something I had to do here.

Then what exactly was the “role” I still had to play?

The answer was painfully obvious.

And so...

CRASH!

After a long run, I shoulder my way through the alchemist's door.

Maybe it had been unlocked...

So what?

Probability is nothing but numbers. That's why I've decided to give every moment of my life my all—

“Waaah!”

Huh?

“What the?”

As I burst in, smashing the door, I spotted an old man in a corner of the workshop recoiling in fright.

It wasn't Marpa Iphaello, the owner.

“Who are you?”

“Well...”

At my question, the old man's eyes began darting about.

He was obviously up to something...

'Huh?'

As I looked over his clothes, an unusual brooch on the front of his robe caught my eye.

“Are you an alchemist, by any chance?”

He flinched at my question.

That saved me the trouble of hearing his answer.

I took a step forward, keeping an eye on my surroundings in case he had guards hidden nearby.

The old man backed away, babbling excuses.

“Y-you misunderstand! This is a misunderstanding! I certainly wasn't trying to steal anything...”

“I see.”

No wonder he'd looked like someone caught doing something wrong. He'd come to steal something amid the chaos.

“I-if you keep this secret, I will certain—”

There was no reason for a lengthy conversation. It looked like he'd even left his guards behind so he could do some stealing.

THWACK!

True to his noncombat profession, the alchemist could do nothing as I dashed forward and brought my hammer down on the crown of his head.

“Wow, you've even got a subspace ring?”

Pressed for time, I looted only the alchemist's subspace ring and hurriedly searched the workshop. Before long, I found what I was looking for.

The prototype of Lete's Blessing.

A consumable with the insane effect of erasing an entire lifetime of memories when taken.

'Okay, that's the first thing I need...'

Now it was time to go find Amelia.

This world didn't have phones. We hadn't arranged a time or place to meet, but that wasn't a problem.

Six hours had passed since I'd fallen asleep, so by now she was probably...

'Right in the middle of being chased.'

I'd better hur—

“Found you.”

At the voice from the entrance, I hastily turned to see a silver-haired knight.

“Hand over the Stone Fragment of Records.”

Who the fuck was this guy now?

* * *

The Traitor, Ricardo Luhenpraha.

A swordsman once known by the epithet Sword Master.

Everyone who had seen him swing his sword or faced him in person said the same thing: his swordsmanship was fundamentally different from that of ordinary knights.

WHOOOSH!

Aura rippled at his sword's tip.

That in itself was nothing special. Kept to a minimum to conserve energy, the Aura radiated sharp menace, but that was all.

It neither exuded the mountainlike might of the Knight of Light's Aura nor changed shape freely like the Moon Knight's.

And yet.

SLASH!

His sword was considered superior to theirs.

Not because of his Aura, but solely because of the “way” he wielded it.

“Aaargh! S-spare—!”

Among the hundreds of explorers blockading the eastern district, not one could properly withstand a single stroke of his sword.

“I have to run...! Aaargh!”

If they blocked, he cut through their guard. If they dodged, his sword was already waiting at their destination, as if he had anticipated it.

To any observer, his swordsmanship was crude. There was not a trace of the flashy techniques knights pursued.

Yet Amelia couldn't tear her eyes away from his sword.

“L-Lady Emily. W-we need to run, too...”

Merely watching him, she could feel the wall separating them.

Killing people.

Swordsmanship honed ceaselessly to its ultimate limit in pursuit of that single purpose.

“What are you all doing? Get over here!”

As the one-sided massacre began, clan leader Felik Barker gathered his members and prepared to flee.

Amelia couldn't let that happen.

This moment was the very reason she had spent months associating with them.

“Felik Barker.”

“Hm?”

The moment he turned toward her voice, Amelia threw a slender needle into his neck.

“... H-huh?”

His body froze like a statue, his head still turned.

Amelia slung him over her shoulder.

“What the hell are you doing...!”

Belatedly grasping the situation, the clan members pointed their weapons at her, but that was no great problem.

“You betrayed us!”

It wasn't betrayal.

She had never considered them companions in the first place.

SLASH!

Amelia cut the throat of the first one to approach.

And sure enough...

“...”

“...”

The enraged explorers edged backward, seemingly weighing their options, then fled, abandoning their captured clan leader.

“Fuck it, I'm out!”

“... Forget it. Let's go!”

It was exactly what she'd expected. The Traitor was drawing closer, slaughtering people as he came.

They had no reason to risk their lives for their clan leader.

Unlike these two.

“... P-please let him go.”

The instant her younger self looked at her and spoke, a sudden swish of air came from behind.

Amelia twisted aside to evade the surprise attack, using the momentum of her turn to kick the attacker's wrist.

CLATTER!

The dropped sword tumbled across the ground. A girl stood there clutching her stinging wrist, bearing the pain.

Her sister, Laura Reinweils.

“Amelia, let's run!”

The moment Laura realized the situation was hopeless, she grabbed her little sister and fled. Amelia simply watched them go.

Her chest tightened before she knew it. She knew why those two had tried to rescue Felik Barker even after every other clan member fled.

It wasn't loyalty.

It was only because of the binding Felik Barker had placed on Laura.

[Unsound Contract].

It contained all manner of unfair terms, but one was key. The instant Felik Barker sustained a fatal injury, all of Laura's HP would be transferred to him.

That was why the two had stayed behind to confront her.

And yet, the reason they had fled without a backward glance the moment they failed...

'Me.'

It was Amelia herself.

In that brief instant, her sister had accepted her own death and acted to ensure that at least her little sister could escape.

Her teeth ground together. Her jaw had clenched without her realizing it.

Only three years separated them.

As a child, her sister had seemed bigger than any adult, but now she understood.

Laura had been only seventeen.

She must have struggled. At times, she must have wanted to give everything up and run away.

And so...

Amelia broke into a run, carrying Felik Barker, stiff as a log.

SLASH!

Toward the man who, like a predator among herbivores, pursued hundreds of people fleeing in terror, swinging his sword with workmanlike efficiency.

“...?”

For the first time, emotion appeared on the face of the man who had been swinging his sword without expression.

Curiosity.

Well, someone charging toward him while everyone else ran away must have seemed unusual. Especially with a grown man slung over her shoulder.

WHOOOSH!

The Aura in Amelia's dagger turned black.

It was [Power of the Abyss], the transformation-type Ability she had gained from the Essence of the rank-four monster Gravanich.

While active, this Ability replaced all resources, including nature power and dragon power, with Magic Power, roughly doubling their effectiveness.

Aura, which used mana, was no exception. For Amelia, born with small mana reserves, this Ability had proved invaluable.

But...

The blackness faded from her Aura, restoring its original color the moment she crossed a certain distance.

It was because of [Silent Decree], the Floor lord Ability possessed by the Traitor, Ricardo Luhenpraha.

This Ability nullified every Ability within a certain radius.

Yes. In simple terms...

'That should do it.'

Within this area, [Unsound Contract] stopped working as well.

Amelia tossed Felik Barker from her shoulder, and Luhenpraha cut him down with a single stroke.

SLASH!

With a brief sound of rending flesh, his body split in two.

Despite her private fears, [Unsound Contract] did not activate to heal his wounds.

'That's one hurdle cleared, at least...'

Amelia felt relief welling up. Back then, she had been fleeing with her sister and hadn't witnessed how Felik Barker died.

But she had no time to dwell on that.

Her objective accomplished, Amelia swiftly darted backward.

The man who had slaughtered dozens without a single word immediately pursued her and spoke.

“I may not know the details, but I can tell you used me.”

Apparently, he had pieced together the broad situation from the circumstances alone, and seemed angered by it.

Yet for some reason, a term the barbarian had once taught her kept circling through her mind.

It wasn't particularly pleasant-sounding...

Unfortunately, Raphdonia had no word that expressed so much so succinctly.

'What a place. Even its words sound strange.'

Without realizing it, Amelia spoke the words aloud.

“Fucking sweet...?”

She still didn't understand exactly what they meant.

Wasn't it an expression of gratitude toward an enemy who had helped you?