Chapter 328: The Past Appeared, Wearing Goodwill on the Outside
Sunraku: "!!?!!!?!???!?"
I whipped my head back forward at mach speed, cold sweat pouring under my mask, my thoughts racing. Why? WHY? This is SLF, man! WHYYY??
Sunraku: "………!? ………!!?"
Calm down, calm down… no, no, no, wait. That's Fuckaria, right? That's Fuckaria!? There's no way this is just a miraculous design coincidence, right? Sure, the real one has elf ears and this one's got human ears, but okay, hair color, hairstyle, sure—but the deep blue eyes AND the tear mole matching? No way in hell! And more to the point, does this mean I've gotta guard this first princess? This! Face! Having! Woman!?
Sunraku: "Calm down. Steel your heart. I got through it. I got through it…"
Ugh, the memories of those days—forced to suck up to her irrational whims no matter what… the days of subquests cleaning up her messes… the days stuck in a constant disadvantage from tuning errors… the days walking through a world where the textures had collapsed from bugs… Ugh, uuuu…
Sunraku: "I might not make it…"
The muffler-Emul around my neck flinched in surprise. But gimme a break. Fuckaria is messed up, okay? Like, it makes you suspect they're reusing other characters' lines every five seconds.
Shit, is it 'cause I've been away from genuine trash games? My mentality's gone dull… Convert those hellish memories I just remembered into energy. I can do this. I can do this. I CAN kill this…
Sunraku: "Fuuu… The first one to attack."
Julian: "What…?"
Sunraku: "The first one to attack—I'll chase him to the ends of hell and beat him down. Numbers advantage, whatever, doesn't matter. The first one to attack… I'll absolutely destroy."
One against many—when the one says it, it's just bluster? But this body of mine bears Lycagon's Contusion. Add the titles I've racked up, and I've got enough pressure to make NPCs flinch. Honestly, if they'd just dogpiled me like a bunch of jobber mobs going "Surround him and waste 'im!", I'd be in trouble—but it seems the system read the situation just how I wanted.
Julian: "Heh… it seems they've sent someone skilled enough to make veteran knights hesitate. Very well—if that is the case, then I need only defeat the one who first turned their blade."
Aria: "P-Please be careful! Julian is a very strong Swords-man!"
Shut up. Quiet, or I'll smack you down. I barely held back from actually saying it out loud, with all my strength, thanks to that Fuckaria-identical face. Arms still crossed, I hopped down from Memento Mori. I rubbed my chin as a pretense and tapped the muffler a couple times—got the confirmation signal back. Good. The situation's still following the ideal flow.
Julian: "Third Knight Order… 'Killing Sword' Julian. I would hear your name."
Sunraku: "An avenging blade has no name to give to scoundrels."
Die Hard-san leveled his oddly long-bladed rapier and asked my name. Honestly, I don't plan to kill him, and having my name leaked leading to a kingdom-wide wanted list would be a problem, so I went with the anonymous route—but it seems he took it as a provocation.
Julian: "Hmph… DIE!!"
Die Hard-san bent his weirdly long rapier and took the first move. It was precisely aimed at the artery in my neck—if it landed, avoiding massive damage would be tough. Looking closer, his positioning was exquisite too. A stance where, if I dodged the first strike and moved to grab Memento Mori, he could instantly transition to a follow-up. And at the same time, a stance where, if the first strike hit, he could finish me with a guaranteed follow-up…
(Well, I've got Moment Sight and Levin Trigger: Hazard, so handling it's a breeze.)
I'd already started my prep the moment I declared the anonymous route. Die Hard-san may have moved first, but tactically, the first move was already mine…!! And Die Hard-san's got one more misunderstanding. Sorry to trick you, but as long as I stay in "this form," Memento Mori is nothing more than a prop.
Sunraku: "One-shot. Don't bite your tongue!"
Using Lethe Vanisher to boost the stun chance, and with Agatram's bonus plus Overflow speed, I punched straight through Die Hard-san's jaw. Maybe he never expected me to completely ignore the greatsword behind me and just swing. My fist sank into his chin with a shockingly perfect crit. Overflow State is essentially motion rampancy, processing 10 as 100—meaning a full-swing punch carries even MORE force…!
Julian: "Bguhheru."
Sunraku: "And… that was way too obvious!!"
Emul: "S-Sorta tingly there, wa… [Magic Edge]!"
Knight: "Gwaah!?"
The moment Die Hard-san's feet left the ground and he hung in the air from the uppercut, an optional par… Emul detached from my neck and fired a blade of magical force, scoring a direct hit on a knight who'd been sneaking up to harm the king and princess. He clearly never expected the muffler to turn into a Vorpal Bunny and attack—caught totally off guard, he went flying. And Die Hard-san? His eyes rolled back and he collapsed flat on his back, a stun check apparently landing. Without missing a beat, I stomped on the fallen Die Hard-san's chest and glared at the surrounding knights.
Sunraku: "Hear me, fallen knights! If you value this man's life, THROW DOWN YOUR SWORDS!!"
Threatening them by holding the boss hostage—one of the bastard Pencilgon's tactics. She used this to capture an enemy nation's capital with a small elite strike force within a year of launch, and successfully negotiated a hostage exchange right in the middle of enemy territory under favorable conditions for her own faction. That woman really is insane, huh…
Sunraku: "A cowardly act—ambushing and targeting His Majesty and Her Highness—IS WORTHY OF TEN THOUSAND DEATHS! That this man's life is not yet taken in this moment is by the Saint's mercy alone, KNOW THAT!"
Knight: "L-Let the commander go!"
Knight: "Coward!"
If that wins me the fight, I'll take it as a compliment. Stomp-stomping on Die Hard-san's head, I intensified my glare and stared down the knights surrounding us.
Sunraku: "Open a path. Or do you intend to heap the shame of watching your superior die on top of everything else?"
Even in games before SLF, there were some that sold themselves on the ability to talk to NPCs to a degree. Not the batshit crazy high-performance level of SLF, but the industry's AI had still advanced enough that mocking them would piss them off. Usually, you trigger processes with specific keywords, so experienced players figure out what role a character plays in the story and back-calculate their reactions…
But "knights" as a role always have "chivalry" as a key word.
The guilt of surrounding and assassinating a king and princess. The conflict of whether it's acceptable to let their captured commander—the one who should be giving orders—die. And above all, my pressure-laden bark was slugging their brain-AIs. A body with no head is the same as a corpse. Just a little shake, and…
Knight: "Tch… Fine…"
Way too easy. So easy it's making me nervous. If that bastard Pencilgon got serious, this'd be the Pencil Dynasty all over again. Honestly, I thought I'd have a slightly harder fight, but didn't expect a one-punch KO. What's up with that, Die Hard-san?
Julian: "Ugh…"
Sunraku: "Go back to sleep."
Julian: "Gweh."
Come on… come on… In this situation, making a clean getaway is impossible, so gimme the event flag…! I don't care if it's a meteor or a fissure, just COME ON…!
Emul: "………! Sunraku-san, something's coming, wa!"
Sunraku: "Hell yeah, there it is!"
WELCOME, TO THE EVENT FLAG!! Now, what's coming…?
???: "Karororororo…"
Sunraku: "Well now, if it isn't the rumored three-headed Tyranno-san."
I've heard about you. Got a battle-scarred "Scarred" variant that intercepted and wrecked a fifteen-man party of hardcore gamers, right? Heh, but I'm a seasoned player who's waged ferocious war against the Crystal Scorpions and brought down their golden picky-eater variant. For me to seize the reins of a rampaging indiscriminate genocide like you is child's…
In that instant, the three heads simultaneously raised a thundering roar, and the entire area—zero exaggeration—shook. Ah. This is impossible. Just on raw specs alone, isn't this thing beyond the Golden Scorpion? It's Lycagon-class. The light dwelling in those six eyes—is it hatred? No. The victor never hates the defeated. Then what's there is something more primal, more fundamental: pure combat instinct. A simple truth that it, itself, is the superior being—broadcast to everything around it by equally simple means… just that.
Besides, using humans as feed requires numbers… Oh, look. Right in front of me, a tasty herd that's at least got the numbers part down.
Sunraku: "………"
Lethal Secret Art: [Mirror of Fading], activate. With Lycagon's Contusion on me, if I just leave things alone, all the aggro's gonna shift to me… Do your best, Third Knight Order. Consider this aggro a cheer from me, okay? Treat it with care.
Sunraku: "If they can protect noble blood, then they should consider it an honor… ngh. Now, this way."
Using Faria Shock to forcibly steady my body—which had nearly reflexively delivered a chop to the first princess—I placed Emul on my head and, taking the king and first princess with me, attempted to withdraw from the scene.
Toravante: "B-But in this darkness…"
Sunraku: "Darkness? Ah… worry not. I may wear a mask like this, but I have good night vision. Both of you, pardon me."
Aria: "Ah…"
Haaaah… 'Just leave the first princess behind,' whispers the devil in my heart… and the angel's nodding along, the hell!? Damn it, I decide my own future!
The path we came from is blocked by the three-headed Tyranno and the Knight Order. Yeah, I've pretty much grasped the point of this quest…! Taking the king and first princess by the hand, I stepped forward into the deeper forest. Let's begin a fun, fun little survival adventure, shall we?
Sunraku's feelings toward Aria are basically like Kiefer on a second playthrough.
Less murderous intent, more the kind of cold treatment that goes, "I'm not feeding you any more seeds."