CH 54

It was as if I was sinking deeper and deeper into a warm, heavy quagmire.

..It was pitch black and I couldn’t see anything, but even so, there was a comfort that made me want to stay here forever.

…Getttt uu-p!

..? Someone is shouting something from above the swamp – from the ground. It’s a muffled voice. I can’t hear it very well. But where is the point in listening to such things? There is no other place where I feel so at ease. I relax my body to sink further and further into the mud.

..Clink! Clink!

…Huh? Why?

Slowly, the warmth that had enveloped me left my body. And then, with a clacking of footsteps, it moved away somewhere else. It was terribly lonely.

…Don’t leave me… it’s cold.

It’s like when the sun is setting and the hand you’ve been holding is let go and the warmth left in the palm of your hand is snatched away by the cold wind. Yes, that was very… lonely.

…Lonely? That… where on earth did I have that experience? Holding hands? With who? Did I have a girlfriend…? Wasn’t I the one who only worked part-time to survive, and then just lazily played games every day… wasn’t that me?

Suddenly, a strand of silky golden hair grazed the edge of my memory… and there was a sound like sparks popping in my brain.

Wake up!

No, no. Yes… it’s not me now. I’m Gustav, reincarnated as a Royal Guard in a world of shit game. That’s who I am.

And I was fighting. For what? That’s obvious. To protect the person I love.

Wake up! Me! Gustav!

The voice I’ve been hearing for a while now is my own. It’s trying to rouse me from the ground. Yes, I have to get up. I scramble upwards through the heavy mud and surface as fast as I can.

…It’s dark in here because I’ve closed my eyes. I could only hear muffled voices because I was on the verge of losing consciousness. And then I realized who that warmth that had enveloped me all this time was… all of it.

I crawl out of the mud and reach out a big hand. To myself, on the ground, holding out my hand to pull me up.

…I’m gonna get up! Wake up!

─ ─ ‘Release and acquire active skills. ‘Self-healing’.

Speeds up recovery from state abnormalities such as poisoning, sleep, paralysis, blood loss – enchantment. Furthermore, if you recover from a state abnormality on your own, you temporarily gain resistance to it, and all of your stats are increased by ‘+1’.”

“Oh!”

The moment I regain consciousness, I open my eyes. Then I put strength into my trembling legs. I move. I move properly. I got up and ran out. Towards the great hole in the throne room where the Demon King had left. And then…

“Woooo?”

I grabbed the wrist of Princess Leia, who was just now throwing herself down to jump out of the hole.

──── 45 seconds to go until the gates of the underworld open.

“Gu, Gustav-sama? Oh no, I thought you were unconscious…?”

“What are you doing… princess?”

“!”

The princess turned her face away from me with a sad expression.

“Please understand, Gustav-sama… there is no other way.”

She speaks heavily and squeezes her voice out.

“There is no more time. The only way out of this situation is for me to die…”

I pulled on Princess Leia’s hand and hugged her body.

“Gustav-sama…?”

“If you insist on jumping off, then please jump off like this. Together with me.”

“W-what are you talking about?”

“If you insist on dying, I will die too. That’s all.”

“What a stupid thing to do!”

“I don’t care if it’s stupid!”

I shout.

“If you don’t want that… if you say you don’t want that, then don’t die. Live… with me… forever!”

“Huh?”

“I’m sorry I’m so selfish. But no matter what happens to this world, I can’t just let the princess die in front of me…!”

The princess looked down with an expression of mixed emotions.

…I’m a failure both as a Royal Guard and as a member of the SS. No, on the contrary, I am now the number one enemy of this country that threatens the kingdom with destruction.

I know. I know that I am a bastard who has no alternative plan to save the kingdom now, but only imposes his own selfish convenience… I know that.

But it wasn’t logic. It didn’t matter if I knew this wasn’t right. I couldn’t give up on the princess, no matter how many people I put at risk.

“I want to be with you all the time, Gustav-sama… but…!”

“Princess…!”

I hugged her body. I thought I would never let go. But the princess in my arms only distorted her expression, as if she was in great pain. I couldn’t do anything about it.

A stifling, painful silence gripped the throne room – that was the time.

“─ ─ Oi oi oi, just when I thought I had finally arrived at the battlefield, the Demon King has fled?”

The sudden sound of that voice made both me and the princess stop all movement. Then I turned my head towards the direction of the voice, towards the entrance to the throne room… I couldn’t believe that this was possible. My mouth was hanging open.

“Well, you must have been frightened by my aura and fled, demon king! You’ve got a pretty good eye for being afraid of this mighty hero, Ark Wilhelm Mirage, don’t you!”

The one who was beating his chest in a bluff that was obvious to anyone who heard it was Arc the Hero, the man who had not been seen in the courtyard for a long time.

─ ─ 19 seconds left until the gates of the underworld open.