CH 41.2

The place where I logged out last time is deserted. I can hear sounds of metal striking metal coming from outside. It’s similar to the noise I heard before when we attacked Clermont. This is the sound of battle, isn’t it? Did Commune and Weichsel actually go to war? If so, then Roseline is in danger. I hope she’s alright.

Even if I look at the map, I won’t be able to tell where Roseline and the others are from the markers. This function isn’t so convenient that you can use it to find a specific person. The places where people are gathered are near the palace entrance hall and one other location. Since Roseline is an important person, she should have a lot of people guarding her. It’s difficult to imagine that the princess would be in the entrance hall where the enemy is invading. So, by process of elimination, it’s highly likely that the other location is where Roseline is.

I start moving, trying to avoid encountering the green markers as much as possible. It’s hard not knowing who’s an enemy and who’s an ally. If I encounter them, it’s possible that I’d immediately get dragged into combat. But to get to the room that Roseline is likely to be in, I can’t avoid the crowded entrance hall completely. In order to not be overwhelmed by hopelessness, I start sprinting forward.

Thankfully, I don’t run into anyone. I probably look pretty stupid sneaking and peeking around corners to make sure there really isn’t anyone hiding there even though nothing shows up on the map. Soon, I’ll make it to the entrance hall. I can clearly hear the sound of fighting. I gulp in nervousness. Alright, let’s go.

With determination, I enter the entrance hall, and there’s a familiar group fighting there. It’s Havoc and the others. And one they’re fighting is… Irene?! She’s fighting on equal footing against multiple opponents. In that case, I should probably praise them for holding out against Irene, who’s high level after upgrading her class.

As far as I remember of their levels, Emilia was the highest at around 13. I didn’t check all of them, but the knights I partied up with in Commune were also around 10-20. Considering that, Emilia and the others should have about the same level of strength as the knights. Havoc seems to be the oldest one in the party, and although I don’t know what his level is, I doubt it’s much different from Emilia’s. But if that’s the case, it seems strange.

A 30-40 year old adventurer like Havoc should have fought and defeated way more monsters than I have. Of course, it’s possible that Havoc only became an adventurer just recently, but all things considered, his worn-out equipment and the atmosphere about him really makes him seem like an experienced veteran. It feels unnatural that despite this, his level is low enough that I can surpass him with just a few days of leveling.

In other words, maybe this means that it’s hard to level up in this world. It’s true that realistically, getting stronger the more monsters you defeat is pretty implausible. It’s not like strength is as clear-cut as levels in the first place. But in that case, it doesn’t make sense. Irene and Alexia were leveling up at the same rate as me. And they got stronger the more they leveled up, so I know that their levels do affect their strength even in reality.

It bothers me, but I’ll think about it later. They seem to be holding out somehow, but if it’s hard to level up as I suspect, then even if Havoc and the others have leveled up, I doubt they’ve even reached level 20. Irene, on the other hand, is over level 50. To put it bluntly, they’re no match for her. The fact that they’re even holding out right now is practically a miracle.

“Stop!” I shout. But even so, my voice doesn’t reach her. The battle doesn’t stop. But if I give up now, I don’t know why I even came this far.

I have to stop her! I close the distance between myself and Irene. Now is the time to use it.

I take the paid item, Certificate of Skill Restoration, out of my inventory and rip it up.

“Skill reset!”

All the skills that I built to specialize in attacks become unusable and the skill points are returned. Skill points are points that you allocate to skills. With this, I can rebuild my skills however I want!

My skill composition won’t be for injuring my opponents. It’ll be for rendering my opponents powerless without injuring them. I avoid selecting skills like Poison from Alexia’s skill composition that deal DoT damage as much as I’m able to, allocating my points to skills like Paralysis that prevent the target from moving and upgrading them to skill level 5. I’ll make full use of all the knowledge I’ve acquired up to this point to select the optimal skills for specializing in status ailments.

Before Irene’s attack reaches… It’s done!

“Chain Bind!” I cast as soon as I finish allocating points, binding Irene with magic chains. They’ve stopped Irene’s movements completely. If she had taken one more step, Havoc would have been pierced by her rapier.

“Chaos! …You?!”

“Chaos?!”

Havoc and the others look to me in surprise as Irene’s eyes bore into me.

“It’s been a while, Irene.”

“You… What are you doing here?”

“It’d take too long to explain, so to keep it short, I came to save my acquaintances.”

“You came to save them? That’s absurd. What are you saying? Why are you assisting Commune?”

Irene doesn’t even try to hide her hostility. It’s sad to see such hostility directed at my acquaintances, but I can’t stop her if she’s not doing anything to them. I tell myself that it’s unavoidable.

She doesn’t resist. She knows that in a paralysis state which renders the target unable to move for a fixed period of time, it’s pointless to try to move. This is a spell that Alexia has used many times, so she would naturally know the spell’s effects.

“Irene, please stop this.”

“Stop this, you say?”

Irene’s expression grows more severe.

“Don’t make me laugh! You think you can say something like that? You think you have the right to say something like that?!” she shouts. “You don’t know how I felt or what sort of resolution it took for Lady Alexia to come here!”

“Lady Alexia is here too?” I say, interrupting Irene’s criticisms. I look around, but the only ones I find are Havoc and the others, there’s no sign of Alexia anywhere. It seems like she’s somewhere else. I’ll have to go look for her later.

“It’s your fault.”

Her words pierce right through my heart. For an instant, I’m reminded of the scene from my dream.

“If it weren’t for you, Lady Alexia wouldn’t have changed like this!”

How did she change? Does she also blame me like Irene? I’m scared just listening to this.

“Leave, I will not allow you to stand in my way any further. I cannot allow you to meet Lady Alexia,” Irene gives me a clear rejection. It almost makes me shrink back. But if I just leave feeling dejected, then what did I even come here for?

“I won’t back down.”

I will stop Alexia and Irene and save Roseline and the others. No matter how much they don’t approve of me, no matter how much they reject me, I’ll hold my ground here in order to maintain my ego.

Her eyes downcast, Irene does not reply. I can’t understand what she’s thinking.

The magic chains disappear. The effect of Paralysis isn’t permanent. The effect’s time ran out while we were talking. At the same time, Irene starts moving. Her face is even more stern and cruel than usual.

She punches me in my right cheek. She put a lot of strength into it. I roll across the floor like a marble, feeling its coldness.

It doesn’t hurt, so I don’t pass out, but even if I don’t feel pain, I might die if my HP runs out. In a panic, I quickly check my HP. It’s fine, my HP hasn’t decreased as much as I’d expect from a huge attack like that.

The reason I didn’t take much damage despite the difference in level between me, a Magician with paper-thin defense, and Irene, a Berserker, must be because she wasn’t holding a weapon and punched me with her bare hands, so not much damage went through.

“Stand up. I know that something on that level wouldn’t take you down. We’re comrades who’ve fought together, after all.”

Her intimidating aura causes my whole body to freeze up. It was usually directed at monsters, but now she’s mercilessly directing it towards me. Faced with this, I think for the first time that I don’t want her to become my enemy. Not because we know each other, but out of pure fear.

Is there this much difference between a person who thought they were defeating monsters in a game and a person who has been taking lives all this time?

This is no joke. Since my character was reset for the official release, my level is far lower than Irene’s. If she fights me while picturing how I was back then, I’ll get killed.

I might die. When the reality of this sets in, I become panicked, and that panic fills my thoughts. To the point that it makes me want to log out and escape as soon as possible.

“Hey, wait!”

At that moment, we’re interrupted by a voice. It’s Liam. Irene glances over to him.

“I didn’t butt into your conversation since it seemed like you two knew each other, but I’ll back you up!” Liam says.

“I don’t really know what’s going on between you two, but I guess we’re stopping this pretty lady,” Havoc says.

“I’m not confident that I can fight against that monstrous woman without killing her, though! I might wound her a little, but bear with it!” Cornelia says.

“I can always heal her wounds afterward,” Emilia says.

“Why…?” Fallen into a state of terror, that’s the only thing I can force out of my mouth.

I don’t understand. They’re as low level as me. Even so, they’re still trying to fight. With their piercing gazes showing no fear, they’re trying to resist against an opponent who possesses overwhelming strength. And they’re even trying not to kill her because they guessed that I wouldn’t want them to.

Why? Aren’t they scared? They could die. I want to know how they could be so calm.

“It’s to pay you back for saving Havoc. Just wanted to try acting cool like that,” Liam, blinking in surprise, jokingly replies. “To be honest, I get scared all the time. If it’s something I can run away from, I’ll want to run away from it. I mean, we’re talking about an opponent strong enough to overpower all four of us combined. But we also have a reason for not backing down. We want to protect our friend’s hometown. So we won’t back down so easily. Let’s fight together just like back then, Chaos.”

Liam doesn’t look scared at all. Even so, it doesn’t feel like what he’s saying is a lie. Everyone is fighting to defend that line that they can’t back down from. In the midst of fear, they’re emboldening themselves to fight.

It’s the same for me. The reason I came back to this world is because I also had my own line I couldn’t back down from, something I couldn’t turn a blind eye to. Can I really just stay on my hands and knees doing nothing in spite of that?

Putting strength into my arms, I stand up. Knowing that I’m not the only one emboldened my heart which was seized with fear.

It may be true that I’m the only player in the world.

But I’m not alone.