Chapter 345 - Comeback (4)

SoulQueen finally raised the white flag.

She seemed to have realized just how foolish it had been to think she could gain the upper hand over me...

“Pfft, what a ridiculous woman. You were so bold when he exposed GM, but the moment it’s about you, you tuck your tail between your legs.”

Queen silently endured Clown’s contemptuous words. Considering the standing she had built at the Round Table in so little time, she looked almost pitiful.

But...

‘It would be a shame to end things here.’

Simply accepting her surrender now would be foolish. SoulQueen seemed sensitive to the pecking order.

I should take this opportunity to impress it upon her properly, just as I had with the goblin I met in the cave the day I was summoned to this world.

Who was on top.

And who was beneath them.

“Why...”

I tapped the chair with my index finger again as I spoke.

“Should I?”

SoulQueen flinched at the brief question, then answered in a small voice.

“... If you stop here, we won’t act against you, Mr. Lion.”

She meant that not only would they refrain from banning me from the community, they would also let my earlier exposure of GM’s identity slide.

I smiled coldly at her uncharacteristically roundabout phrasing.

After all, didn’t that sound like an offer made to an equal?

“You still haven’t learned.”

As I spoke, I tapped the armrest again with my index finger.

There was one difference from before, though.

This time, I didn’t hide my displeasure.

“... If there’s something you want, please tell me.”

SoulQueen watched my expression as she pleaded.

So...

“There is nothing I want from you.”

She seemed utterly unable to understand me, so I spelled it out.

“Nor am I afraid of you.”

At least, that was how it looked.

Would I have charged at them with no brakes like this if I had even the slightest reservations about making enemies of the administrators? To them, I would look like nothing but an uncontrollable lunatic.

And so...

“I’ll ask one last time.”

I posed the question to SoulQueen again.

“Why should I?”

“Th-that’s...”

Naturally, she couldn’t give me a reason.

Everyone she had ever considered a potential negotiating partner must have wanted something. It was only natural that her normally silver tongue would freeze when faced with a type she had never encountered before.

But...

“I...”

She was a clever woman in many respects.

Threats didn’t work, and her opponent wasn’t even asking for compensation. He merely intended to keep punishing her, as though even this moment were an amusing diversion.

How could she persuade someone like that?

After a long struggle, she arrived at the answer.

Abandon the idea of persuading him.

And...

“I was... wrong...”

Ask for mercy.

The final recourse of the weak, who had nothing to offer the strong.

“Please, forgive me...”

“That foolish woman has finally realized her place, it seems. Pfft.”

Ignoring Clown’s sneer, SoulQueen lowered herself, just as I had told Stag Horns to do earlier.

Then she looked up at me and forced out the words.

“I’ll make sure... never to... displease you again... Mr. Lion... So please, forgive my mistake today...”

Honestly, it was quite impressive.

Even so, I hadn’t expected her to become this submissive. Had the idea that I knew all their identities shocked her that badly?

“...”

“...”

When I looked around, the members were silently glancing back and forth between SoulQueen and me. They seemed curious whether I would accept her apology.

‘That should be enough to establish the pecking order...’

I looked down at SoulQueen and spoke.

“Much better.”

Yes. That was more like it.

* * *

“Queen’s username is SoulQueen. And I will not reveal SoulQueen’s real name.”

I placed my hand on the Round Table once more to finish my turn, and received a green light.

“Whew...”

As though the tension had finally broken, the members watching the exchange let out heavy breaths.

SoulQueen was no different.

“Thank... you...”

Those words of gratitude must have felt like flaying herself alive with her own hands. I didn’t bother answering, and an awkward silence followed.

Stag Horns cautiously broke it.

“... What about the meeting? Are we continuing?”

My turn had brought the second round to a close.

Sometimes we went as many as four or five rounds, but ending the meeting at this point wouldn’t be unusual.

So what would they decide?

“I-I’ll stop here...”

Having paid dearly for her earlier bravado, SoulQueen said this while watching my reaction.

Somehow, I felt that if I told her not to leave, she would say, “Yes...” and stay...

But keeping her here wouldn’t change anything.

“Then I’ll stop here as well...”

Goblin, who had barely passed this round after getting two red lights, announced that he was bowing out. The meeting naturally moved toward a close.

‘Tsk, over already...’

It was a little disappointing that my return to the Round Table after two years and six months had ended in just two rounds, but there was nothing for it.

‘Still, now that I’ve shown my face, they should bring something more interesting next month.’

“... Pfft, then let’s all prepare a little more thoroughly next month. Ah, assuming Mr. Lion returns, of course!”

Clown pretended to address the other members while stealing glances at me.

It was almost cute.

What he really wanted to ask was whether I would come next time.

I rose smoothly.

Giving him a friendly answer wouldn’t have been very stylish, so I left the Round Table without responding to his question.

And then...

“Whew...”

As soon as I returned to Lee Hansoo’s room, I drew a deep breath and lay down on the bed.

I was quite exhausted, perhaps from using Bloodlust earlier.

‘I’m going to sleep like the dead until tomorrow evening.’

Of course, that was for my future self. My present self kept working on what I could do without resting.

First came organizing the information.

‘After the show I put on today, I doubt anyone will think I’m Bjorn Jandel for the time being...’

I reviewed what had happened at the Round Table.

My comeback performance seemed to have gone well, but it hadn’t been perfect. After all, I couldn’t keep playing dead and living in the shadows forever.

‘The moment people learn I survived, the same suspicions will crop up again.’

Of course, I had quite a few ways of dealing with that. My trip into the past had given me several cards I could use to bluff.

‘I can think about that when the time comes...’

The truly important matter lay elsewhere.

Actually, to be honest, it had nearly made me lose my composure during the meeting.

[“Wasn’t the original source that woman, Misha Karlstein?”]

Misha Karlstein.

Why had she spread that rumor?

[“Isn’t that the same thing? That woman is one of Lee Baekho’s companions now.”]

And how had she become Lee Baekho’s companion?

No matter how far I stretched my imagination, I couldn’t readily connect the dots.

Still, if I had to venture a guess...

[“Lee Baekho has the Stone of Resurrection.”]

That seemed likely to be the key.

For instance, it was possible that Misha had had no choice but to join forces with Lee Baekho to bring me back to life.

‘... Or is that just wishful thinking?’

Ha, couldn’t they have sent me back even a year earlier?

The weight of those two years and six months hit me anew, deepening my frustration.

But what could I do? This was how things had turned out.

‘Anyway, if Misha’s goal is to revive me... what does Lee Baekho want?’

Well, I didn’t know.

I still had far too little information. We were both Korean, but aside from that common ground, I hadn’t actually spent much time talking to Lee Baekho.

We had never even had an honest conversation.

‘... I’ll think about this again after I learn more about him.’

I closed my eyes and continued sorting things out.

GM, Auriel Gabis, Amelia, Noark, the royal family, and so on. There was no shortage of things to consider, with no clear place to start.

“...”

After letting my thoughts wander for a long while, almost like brainstorming, I returned to the computer and spent some time reading the posts I hadn’t checked earlier.

How much time had passed?

‘I thought GM or SoulQueen might send me a message, but apparently not.’

I moved the cursor without hesitation.

Looking more carefully wasn’t likely to turn up anything remarkable, and there wasn’t much time left before the community closed.

CLICK.

When I pressed the logout button, a flash filled my vision, and darkness soon settled over it.

A bedroom with every window boarded up, allowing not a single ray of moonlight inside.

“Hehe, you opened your eyes...”

Erwin was looking down at me.

* * *

Erwin Fornacci de Tersia.

The current bearer of Pureblood, and a contractor of the Spirit King.

In recognition of that, she had been granted the elves’ treasure, the Sacred Tree Bow. A member of the Seven Powers whose exploits in the war had earned her the epithet Blood Spirit Marquis.

And...

[“Pfft, what on earth is that crazy woman plotting?”]

[“Whatever it is, there’s going to be another bloodbath.”]

The only one of my companions who had devoted everything to avenging me.

[“No matter what anyone says, you’re Bjorn Jandel to me, Mister.”]

The woman who had told me it didn’t matter whether I was an evil spirit.

Yet it was difficult to feel grateful or moved by that devotion.

It was far, far too much.

Why, then, was she so obsessed with me?

At first, I had assumed it was because of her Fixation stat.

Goblin archer, Steel Hill Pursuer, Canibaro.

All three Essences she had absorbed had come with the Fixation stat. I had thought that losing another person close to her so soon after her older sister’s death might have been the trigger.

But...

“Mister... if you’re done sleeping... would you like to go for a walk? Th-the moon is beautiful tonight...”

That was Erwin from two years and six months ago.

With support from her clan that would put most noble scions to shame, she had already replaced most of her Essences.

The problem was that the replacements weren’t particularly positive either.

Patroller Ertes, found on Golem Island on the sixth floor.

That had given her Defense Mechanism +45.

Kalvan, a wolf beast with the peculiar trait of being nonaggressive during the day but attacking first at night.

That had given her Impulsiveness +30 and Distrust +30.

The grade-4 monster Metcrow had given her Possessiveness +24, while two other Essences had added Self-Control -30 and Deprivation +40.

Individually, those stats wouldn’t cause major mental problems, but with this many piled together, it was only natural that they would affect her daily life.

So after realizing this, I had been as careful as possible not to provoke her. I judged that if she snapped, the situation could spiral out of control.

Yes, that was how I had handled things until now.

But...

“Oh, right...! I bought a necklace, too... With this, I can tell where you are anytime, anywhere—”

I couldn’t keep putting it off forever.

And this wasn’t exactly my thing.

I roughly knocked away Erwin’s hand as she touched my body without hesitation.

“... Huh?”

She was visibly taken aback.

“M-Mister... are you a-angry? But... why...?”

Her eyes trembled in confusion as she searched for an outside explanation for my change.

“Come to think of it... some of the boards... in the living room were pulled loose.”

I had started pulling them off because I felt stifled, then stopped.

But had she interpreted it differently?

“Amelia Reinweils. It was her, wasn’t it...? She came here, didn’t she? That’s why you’re...”

After spinning that absurd fantasy, Erwin began trembling. Before I knew it, her eyes were gleaming with murderous intent.

Honestly, seeing her act like that in the middle of the night was enough to make my knees go weak.

But...

“Amelia didn’t come here.”

So what?

Running away because something was frightening or uncomfortable went against my principles.

When I was falsely accused and locked in the Guild’s underground prison. When I encountered the Dragonslayer in Larukaz’ Maze. Even in the battle against Noark, where I earned my reputation as TITAN.

I had survived because I always faced things head-on.

And so...

“Why... why on earth... are you still calling that woman by her name?”

I answered without hesitation.

“Because she’s my companion.”

Erwin reacted after a brief pause.

“B-but! I-I’ve told you over and over that you don’t n-need a woman like that, because I’ll be here for you from now on...!”

Yes, she had said that.

But...

“Why do you get to decide that?”

“Th-that’s...”

Erwin was at a loss for words.

I didn’t particularly feel sorry for her. Perhaps because I had been wearing the lion mask just a few hours earlier, the words came naturally.

“How impertinent.”

“...!”

Her eyes widened.

At that moment, I roused my resting muscles.

After all, what else would someone whose mental state was already unstable do next?

“... Who are you?”

“Bjorn Jandel.”

“L-liar... You’re an evil spirit...”

A pitch-black aura began rippling from her body.

It was the darkness spirit that had become her specialty.

My heart pounded wildly, sensing danger.

I had braced myself, but the pressure of actually facing her was immense.

Still, the more I felt it, the more I reminded myself.

‘Who am I?’

A barbarian warrior who had overcome every kind of hardship.

TITAN, Bjorn son of Jandel.

The only player to clear the original difficulty.

The supreme ruler of the Round Table, with the heart of a lion.

I clenched my fist.

The moment I recalled the identity I had briefly forgotten, my chest swelled and courage surged through me.

So, before that feeling could fade...

“I-it’s not too late, so tell me. S-say you just made a mistake because you were half asleep—”

“Erwin Fornacci de Tersia.”

I told her.

“There’s something wrong with your head right now.”

Yes, if something was wrong, I had no choice but to fix it.

“Enough talk. Come at me.”

In the way I knew best.