Chapter 26

“Ainar, whenever something happens, always consider the worst-case scenario first.”

Just see what happened only a little while ago.

Did we not burn with the light of hope when we accidentally encountered human adventurers?

The world won’t turn some specific way just because you want it to.

“The reason we were able to run from that place was because she let us go. She must’ve thought that she could catch us quickly if she wanted. So this is too early to feel reassured.”

The words are getting too long for her.

Let’s summarize around the main point.

“By now, she must be –”

“She must be secretly watching from nearby.”

This motherfucking…

No, I was guessing you were in hot pursuit at the worst.

I see, so there’s another abyss underneath the abyss.

Or maybe the problem is with my own intelligence.

“Bjorn!”

As Ainar and I put down our backpacks and prepare to fight, the woman emerges from the darkness.

Still unmasked.

“I’m sorry, barbarian.”

… What’s with this creepy bitch?

“Still, that last struggle was impressive.”

What about the power of the earth gnome or whatever? No, seems like she’s already been observing us for quite a while…

It doesn’t make sense, logically.

“… Why did you show up now?”

It’d taken me a few minutes after drinking the potion to be able to move.

Yet, why didn’t she aim for that gap?

While I’m waiting for her to answer –

“Ahhhhhhhhh!”

The yellow-haired man gets up from where he’d been thrown to the floor, and starts running with all his might.

Me and Ainar react a beat late, because all our attention is on the psychopathic bitch.

But…

Thwock!

A thin needle-like projectile flows in a straight line and pierces the blond’s neck.

Might it be poisoned?

Despite such a minor trauma, the blond trembles like an aspen in the wind, and soon falls down, limp.

And I realize –

This isn’t the time to be leisurely asking questions.

“Ainar!”

We don’t need many or complex words to communicate.

The moment I call her name –

Ainar pushes herself off the ground and leaps forward, as if she’d been waiting for my signal.

I am the same.

If you can’t run away –

What can you do except fight?

Claang!

Yet the pillager easily ducks under the swing of Ainar’s greatsword. And with a dagger, she blocks the mace that came swinging from the side in perfect synchronicity.

Claaang!

This crazy…

Just how many essences have you eaten?

Of course, the dagger that she blocked the mace with is still intact.

When the woman starts exerting force, my body starts getting pushed back.

“Stop doing meaningless things, barbarian.”

Well.

That sounds like a very difficult request.

Even if it’s pointless –

“Behel-raaaaaaaaaa!”

I am a barbarian.

Of course, my mind has not yet escaped the fetters of modernity.

Claaang!

I feel afraid every day, there’s no sign of getting used to pain, and I still keep trying to come up with a way to escape.

Nevertheless, if there’s one aspect where we are the same –

Claang!

If there is only one path left before me –

I choose to walk it and beyond it.

Without hesitation.

Claang!

As the mace collides with the dagger, I discard it and attempt a tackle.

She doesn’t budge, as expected.

You’re also just an adventurer, why are your physical abilities so high?

Sullen thoughts rise up out of nowhere.

But even if I can’t knock you to the ground, I can bite you and bog you down.

“Ainar! Now!”

Before the shout even leaves my throat, Ainar’s greatsword is already swinging in a beautifully clean straight line.

For the first time, the pillager bitch, who’s been expressionless the entire time, shows her emotions on her face.

“…!”

Upset, or annoyed?

Well, maybe it’s anger.

Thwock!

Pain erupts from my back.

Did she just stab my spine?

No, what about my armour?

Irrespective of my doubts, my strength drains away.

「The character has fallen into a state of [paralysis].」

I try to cling on to her somehow, but my body, which ran wild like a monster even after being stabbed in the neck, doesn’t listen to me at all this time.

Thwock!

Then the same sound comes again.

With a clang!, Ainar’s greatsword falls to the floor.

I force my pupils up, and see the dagger deeply embedded in Ainar’s wrist.

Even now, I want to…

Ainar is in pain, but doesn’t stop.

“AaaAAAA!”

Having lost her weapon, she swings her left fist instead of the paralyzed right arm.

Seeing her fighting spirit, I feel like I’m realizing it all over again. Why are barbarians, no different in appearance than a human a few sizes too large, treated as monsters by everyone?

But this isn’t a good match-up.

Whoosh!

The woman escapes the fist with flexible movements, and not stopping there, grabs Ainar’s wrist, twisting it…

Thud!

And throws her down on the floor.

Ainar immediately tries to bounce back up, but keeps slipping and falling.

Her arms, tendons showing, are trembling.

Seeing that, the woman sighs coldly.

“Give up. There’s nothing you can do once paralyzed by basilisk venom.”

It’s like a death sentence.

My head goes blank and my vision darkens.

Equipment, skills, experience…

There is a stark difference in every aspect.

Even when I run my brain ragged, I can’t think of any way to turn the situation around.

And when the word “death” is so bleakly engraved in my mind –

“I wish you could’ve heard me out this quietly.”

The woman bends over, and loosens my stiff hands still grabbing her trousers.

And continues indifferently.

“Barbarian, swear that you won’t reveal to anyone what happened today. Then I will spare you.”

… What?

After a brief silence.

The woman spoke again.

“I was thinking of making this offer from the beginning, but you ran away so quickly. Because I’m indebted to a barbarian.”

I could instinctively feel that this was my only way to survive, but…

I couldn’t understand it.

Looking at me lifting my head up so desperately, the woman explained briefly.

“As far as possible, I don’t want to kill a barbarian with my own hands.”

With her own hands…

Was that why she just watched when I fell for that yellow-hair’s trick?

So she didn’t have to get her own hands dirty?

“Bjorn… the pillager’s words. Don’t, believe… She just wants to toy with us.”

But even if you say that, I don’t have a choice.

If I’m just being fooled and toyed with –

What difference does it make in the end?

I asked, spitting out the blood that’d filled up to the tip of my throat.

“If we turn down the offer, what …?”

“Naturally, I’ll kill you. Because that was what I promised.”

“A promise… who the hell with?”

“That’s not for you to know.”

Her tone was the same as before, but somehow it sounded a bit harsher.

“Choose. I’ll give you a little time –”

“As a warrior, I swear upon my honour.”

No time needed.

It’s not like there were any other options.

“… Really, you are a bit odd.”

The psychopath who levelled a strange gaze at me for a moment, sprayed something on me.

Screeeech, a familiar pain.

No need to guess, It was a potion.

「You have taken a recovery potion (top).」

「The character’s state of paralysis is lifted.」

The stiff muscles loosened up, and strength gradually began to enter my body.

“What about you, barbarian girl?”

The woman looked away from me and asked.

Ainar gave her answer after a brief silence.

“… I refuse.”

“I see.”

The woman did not ask again.

She just nodded her head slightly.

However, I felt it more clearly within that action.

She didn’t take out her weapon, nor take any threatening action, but…

Now, this woman was going to kill Ainar.

And to prevent such a thing, there was only one thing I could do.

“… Ainar, make an oath.”

“Bjorn?”

“Didn’t you say you would follow me without question?”

“Even so, the oath of a warrior is…”

Fuck, how much do you have to protect your pride?

“Penelin’s second daughter, Ainar!!”

Ainar stiffened at my shout.

I lowered my voice, looked into her eyes, and spoke calmly.

“Trust me now. This is the right choice.”

After a brief and silent struggle, Ainar finally opened her mouth.

“… I understand. I will swear.”

“Good thinking.”

After that, Ainar made her oath, and the psychopathic bitch healed her by using up another potion.

Was this carrot and stick?

The feeling of being forcibly compelled to make a choice was the same as always.

So damn disgusting. So, fucking, disgusting.

“… Which floor?”

As soon as the treatment was over, the woman turned around and was about to leave, but I asked her before she could.

To this question that could be interpreted in infinitely different ways, the woman tilted her head for a moment and gave a brief answer.

“Eighth.”

Not even the fifth floor.

No wonder, so that’s how strong an adventurer she was.

Even ten of me together probably wouldn’t have been a match for this bitch.

But even so…

Squelch.

As I watched the psychopath disappear like smoke in front of my very eyes, I made a silent vow.

Next time, things will be different.

“Ainar, are you alright?”

“… I’m fine. I can get up by myself.”

Ainar pushed my hand away and stood up on her own.

I wondered if she was disappointed in me, but probably the person she was most disappointed in was not me, but herself.

Because barbarians have an honest side.

“…”

Ainar, with a complicated gaze, decided to let the problem rest for a while, and first checked up on my condition.

First, this…

Creak.

When the armour was taken off, one could see a hole the size of a dagger on the back.

The edges of the hole were very clean.

… ‘Aura’, maybe?

Motherfucker.

On merely the second floor, in so vast a place as the Deadlands, did we really come across such a monster? Dogshit!

All I could think of was that I needed to get stronger. I couldn’t afford to waste a single day.

Going home or whatever could come later, first I had to be able to protect myself in this dogshit world.

“Bjorn, what are we going to do now?”

“… Let’s go down to the first floor.”

The Deadlands wasn’t bad as a hunting ground.

But I had no intention of staying here with that crazy bitch wandering around. What if she changed her mind and came back?

“Is it… I get it.”

Ainar, who looked exhausted, followed my instructions without asking any questions.

Mental care wasn’t my specialty, but…

After all, if somebody is feeling so down, you have to say something.

When they look like their world is crumbling around them.

“Follow me.”

Avoiding most of the avoidable battles, we moved along the markers.

About six hours passed since then.

We were finally able to return to the portal that led down to the first floor.

Thud–!

This time I landed fine, while Ainar rolled on the floor.

It was a very bad fall, too.

But she simply got up slowly, as if nothing had happened, without a single moan.

“… Doesn’t it hurt?”

“It hurts.”

“Then…”

“I’m no longer a warrior, so what is this pain worth?”

… The situation was much more serious than I’d thought.

Was it so disgraceful to swear an oath as if you were begging for your life?

Well, it had been so in the game.

“A-, Ainar…?”

“What is it?”

“The warrior who survives is the strongest. One defeat isn’t the end of it all, it simply opens up the possibility of future victory!”

“It’s hard to understand if you use so complicated words.”

Although she intentionally spoke in a cheerful manner, Ainar’s voice was still gloomy.

“However, I think I somehow understand what it means to be a strong surviving warrior.”

“Is that so?”

“To overcome such humiliation and the urge to commit suicide every single moment, must mean that you are a strong warrior. Like you, Bjorn.”

No, I didn’t feel any of that though…?

Suicide? What are you, a samurai?

I didn’t originally mean something like that.

But I was happy to just go with it.

“You can do it, Ainar.”

“I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to get through this pain… I’ll try.”

“Yes, one day we will repay our disgrace.”

With sincere mutual support, we resumed our walk. And after deciding to camp in a suitable place, I asked Ainar to sleep first.

“I’ll wake you up in two hours.”

“… I will repay you for your consideration.”

My consideration…

She was half right and half wrong.

[07:39].

Going by the time, it was the morning of the third day.

I hadn’t slept in over twenty hours.

Besides, after going through a lot of things, the mental fatigue is enormous.

But even if I’d closed my eyes, I wouldn’t have been able to sleep for a long time anyway.

“…”

I wasn’t being driven by extreme impulses like Ainar, but…

Because I, too, felt just as dirty.

Similar to the pain of drinking a potion.

No matter how many times you experience this kind of feeling, you never get used to it.

Crackle.

Last time, when I’d been saved by that blond’s group, had also been similar to today.

The priest had looked into my eyes and refused to give treatment.

The swordsman had thrown the potion like a toy as if he didn’t care about the waste.

Even having watched it all, I’d still taken the potion and gulped it down while lying prostrate like a dog.

Of course, I was happy to have survived, but…

Some indescribable emotions were rising within me.

“Whew…”

I let out a long breath, as if trying to brush off my own thoughts.

What the hell was I doing?

It wasn’t like me to be swayed by emotions and to suffer from them.

Maybe it was time to slowly release them.

I closed my eyes and remembered the advice I’d been given by someone I’d admired as a child.

‘Remember, you are nothing. You can never be special.’

A magic spell that always made me feel a little bit better.

Yes, let’s use even this feeling as raw material.

As always –

That, would be a bit more efficient.

Editor’s Notes:

None for this chapter.