Chapter 85: Introductions

Chapter 85: Introductions

"I assume he isn't talking anymore."

Nathan crossed his arms before saying that. I let out a chuckle in response.

"Well, I guess it was never supposed to be that easy. But at least we now know that he does in fact exist."

I narrowed my eyes ever so slightly.

"Doesn't really feel like a noble with all the hiding he does. No wonder he turned out to be a vill-"

"Preposterous!"

When I was about to finish my sentence, I could tell Bryson was trying to take control, so I let him. It seemed he wasn't happy with my response. Nathan couldn't help but laugh.

"Preposterous? I don't see anything preposterous with that."

My face warped into a deep frown.

"Excuse me? How is that not preposterous?"

I couldn't help but laugh right after, which must've made me seem like an insane person.

"It's kinda strange that the villain is speaking like that."

"Villain? What is this ridiculousness! You are the bloodthirsty demon!"

I raised an eyebrow. Now that I think about it, Bryson hadn't actually done anything yet. At least, I'm fairly certain that he didn't do anything. Wait, there were rumors, so maybe...

No, no. That's not the point anyway. I should focus on important matters.

"Would you believe me if I said that you would've become a villain if it wasn't for the fact that I took over your body?"

"...Villain? How would I become a villain? Are you simply blinding and accusing nobles of being a villain? This is simply taking it too far!"

My eyelid twitched.

"It's nothing like that. More accurately, it's because my friend and I have seen the future. And in every single one of them, you become a villain. Someone that kills countless people and single-handedly found a way to invite a massive wave of monsters to come down upon the kingdom."

"Excuse me? I've hardly even used my position to acquire or create any businesses, yet you accuse me of such a thing?"

To be honest, I understood where the actual Bryson was coming from. I mean, just the fact that he had slowly saved up a hundred thousand gold just in terms of his allowance meant that he hardly spent money on anything.

Out of everything, Bryson definitely was not a greedy person, and with how there was practically no relationship developed with other nobles either (Carrot Top and Baby Man were far too weak to count), he definitely didn't care much about political power either.

But there definitely was one huge flaw, that was shoved into my face far too much.

His desire for power.

I already had a good guess as to why he had become the way that he did.

"I assume you've been with me for most of the time, so you should understand most things, correct?"

"Of course, I've witnessed your demonic acts of manipulation and savagery!"

Nathan was chuckling, but I just ignored him. A soft sigh escaped me.

"Do you recall Dark Arts?"

Nathan looked at me curiously, but remained silent. As for Bryson-

"Exactly! That's your demon arts, is it not?"

I shrugged my shoulders.

"Unfortunately, it isn't. I'm sure even you understand that my capabilities are still limited by what your body is able to do."

There wasn't a response for a good while. I decided to continue.

"With how crazy you were about getting more powerful, what do you think would've happened when you discovered your new ability?"

"...I would've used it."

I held onto the side of my head.

"And you remember the side effect of losing your memory, right?"

"I would not have used it to that extent."

His response, or I guess technically my response, made me laugh.

"I had initially denied using it and even went out of my way to find out what really happened. Would you have been capable of doing such a thing?"

"...Regardless, I would have never used it so much that it would have deteriorated my mind so! Don't be ridiculous, I'm not that foolish!"

I tilted my head to the side.

"But you saw how it ended up for them, did you not?"

"I am unlike such foolish peasants!"

A small smile formed on my face.

"Oh, you are so, so confident. But if that really was the case, that means you killed your own sister while in full control."

"Preposterous! I would never do such a thing, it is you that is manipulating her!"

This was something I had been a little bit unsure of, his relationship with his sister. I wasn't entirely sure if he actually cared about his family, but from this, it seemed he at the very least cared about his sister.

I decided to try and use that.

"You may not believe me, but I've seen countless realities where you've killed your own sister. And even if you hadn't, it wasn't because you had spared her, but rather that you were unable to."

"What kind of ridiculous nonsense-"

"I really hated you for that."

Nathan interrupted Bryson. He stared blankly at me, with cold eyes.

"What kind of brother even kills his own sister? Losing your memories is no excuse. You shouldn't have needed your memories to know that giving up your sister was wrong."

Although that was a bit unreasonable, it seemed to be rather effective as Bryson had quieted down. After an awkward moment of silence, I found my vocal cords moving on their own once more.

"...There is no reason for me to believe the word of demons." nove-lb(In

I smirked.

"Even if we can prove that we know the future? Actually, haven't we proven that already?"

"...You both are simply demons attempting to manipulate me."

I took in a deep breath before drawing my sword and placing it right next to my neck. Bryson struggled intensely.

'What are you doing? Stop, demon! Are you really willing to go this fa-'

"Hey, Bryson. I won't disagree about us being demons, but if you want any hope of your sister or you surviving, then you're going to have to depend on us."

A smile gradually formed on my face. The sword gently pricked into the gentle skin of my neck, causing a small trail of blood to fall down.

'Demon! Get rid of this sword right at this insta-'

"It seems you don't really understand your position here, Bryson."

He stopped struggling right after I said that. That made my smile grow even wider.

"For better or for worse, our goal is to... save the kingdom. If you try to make this difficult, then I will have no choice but to kill this body. And I don't particularly value the life we share, especially considering that I have already died once before."

Bryson didn't respond. As such, I decided to continue.

"You're a smart person, I know that much. Now tell me, do you think I am lying?"

'...No. A demon such as you could simply kill this body and inhabit another one. Of course it doesn't matter.'

Well, a misunderstanding was definitely forming, but I decided not to clear it up.

"Anyway, from what it sounds like, our goals aren't even contrary to one another."

'What is it that you demons want?'

A chuckle escaped me as I put the blade back in the sheath.

"To protect some people."

I let him control me again to speak.

"What?"

Nathan clicked his tongue.

"I'm going to be the one to protect Jess, since your sorry ass wasn't able to."

I felt a frown form on my face once more.

"Prepos..."

Though starting it with vigor, he quickly trailed off. It appeared he was quickly losing confidence in his words. Eventually, I spoke up.

"We've implied this many times before, but there are going to be a lot of calamities that will strike the kingdom soon enough. If we don't become powerful enough and gather enough allies, every single person will die."

"What will happen?"

I narrowed my eyes ever so slightly.

"For starters, there will be a mad noble from the Jestia family."

"There are quite a few crazy ones..."

A chuckle escaped me.

"To be more exact, it would actually be a commoner. One that has the ability to steal bodies from other people. The head of that family should act up soon enough."

"Then we should go there to stop them! Why are we here instead?"

I stood up and brushed the dirt off my pants.

"Think about it, do you really think anyone would believe us? This will be a problem we will have to solve ourselves, and we need power in order to do that."

Nathan also stood up.

"It's about time for us to go anyway."

We then dashed into the forest. The daylight quickly disappeared, as we made our way into the dark foliage, constantly stepping from side to side to avoid the trees. While we went, Nathan casually spoke up.

"By the way, the guy in my head keeps asking how you're able to talk with your body."

I simply shrugged my shoulders.

"I just let him do it, then he is able to do so."

After that, Bryson interjected as well.

"Is speaking not something trivial? Why would it be difficult?"

Nathan tilted his head to the side while running. There was a brief moment of silence before he spoke up.

"Hm. Interesting. I'm unsure of whose fault it is, but he is still unable to speak up."

Bryson spoke up.

"Even simple things appear to be difficult for you, huh?"

Nathan let out a short chuckle.

"Yeah, they are."

Probably not expecting that reply, Bryson was unable to respond. We were just left to push aside branches and make our way over the large snaking roots of trees. I didn't particularly care about the silence, so I just focused on making my way through.

There were quite a lot of bugs, but I didn't get a good look at any of them since I didn't particularly care about them. Though...

'Disgusting! What is that thing? This place... is even more repulsive than the slums!"

It seemed Bryson had a different opinion though. Right when I thought our entire trip was going to consist of silence, Nathan had spoken up in between steady breaths.

"Ugh, Natan is nagging me to give out introductions. Basically, he wants to say his name is Natan and that he likes talking with other people."

While he had a mask with a smile on, I could tell he was frowning, so I just couldn't help but laugh. Nathan continued on.

"...And since he wants me to introduce myself too, I'll just say I'm Nathan. That's all you really need to know."

Bryson tried to speak up, but because I was focusing hard on breathing properly, he was unable to.

'Introductions? What is the point of such a pointless act?'

Between labored breaths, I spoke up.

"Bryson says that's his name and that he has a lot of money."

'What? That's not what I-'

"As for me, you can call me Brian. I'm not too sure why, but I find it rather easy to give someone a good impression after talking to them for a bit. I guess that's what Bryson calls manipulating."

'Stop putting words in my mouth, you demon! I-'

Nathan let out a long sigh.

"Natan wants me to tell you that he says hi, I guess... and that he's really happy to meet everyone."

My eyelid twitched. I already knew that Natan was that type of guy, but despite being unable to hear his voice, I still felt tired dealing with someone like that. Bryson was still arguing, saying a ton of things in my head, but I just ignored them.

But before I was able to think about it further, a rather loud growl came from in front of us.

Nathan stopped, and so did I.

This part of the forest had fewer trees, and in front of us was a bear, standing in front of a cave. Except... it was a little big.

Just a bit over twice the size of a normal bear.

Ah, right. This was a magic beast.