Is It Bad That the Main Character’s a Roleplayer? - Chapter 76: Don’t Do This (1)

Lukkwan fled with all her might. Some tried to stop her but refrained after their comrades told them to leave her be.

So she went down one, two, three floors before rushing into an empty room. There would have been far better hiding spaces had she looked more thoroughly, but after getting subjected to such pure malice, she didn’t have the peace of mind to do so.

She stuffed herself into a closet she never in her right mind would have considered, gasping for air. She was so scared that she was about to lose her mind.

The fear she felt right now was greater than what she’d felt during any other crisis…

“Ready or not, here I come.”

It seemed that person had reached this floor and now was moving along the hallway.

“Even if a rat bites you… Even if an ant bites you…”

She heard his slow singing resonating from afar. Lukkwan covered her mouth with her hand.

“Don’t make a move, don’t make a sound…”

The slow and even rhythm of his singing slowly neared the room she was hiding in, accompanied by the squeaking sound of doors opening.

She could hear several overlapping footsteps, but just one set stood out.

“If I hear a single squeak, I’ll catch you.”

And finally, the footsteps stopped before the room she was in. Squeak. The sound of its door opening was especially clear.

Step, step, step.

She could only hear a single set of footsteps entering the room.

Lukkwan held her breath as she cowered in her closet. A skilled thief wouldn’t allow their body to tremble even a little. This gave her hope that she might overcome this crisis.

Tak.

However, it seemed luck wasn’t on her side. The footsteps stopped right outside the closet she was in.

Creak.

The closet door opened, letting a thin ray of light into the space she was hiding in. Naturally, the one standing before the door, blocking some of the light, was the cause of the fear dominating her.

“…”

His gray eye stared down at her.

“…Ready or not.”

And then, ‘Clack’.

He closed the door once more.

“Here I come.”

The Demon, the person who might be a Demon, moved away again.

Her heart was still pounding.

* * *

Daaamn. That surprised me.

Perhaps it was because she was of the Shaggi tribe, half human and half animal, that her eyes glowed so brightly in the dark… If I hadn’t been prepared before opening the closet, I would have screamed as soon as our eyes met.

My heart was still pounding.

Sigh, but those guys in the hallway wouldn’t know I had opened the closet here, right? I really tried my best not to make any noise while opening and closing it.

I was praying they hadn’t noticed. I mean, I was checking all the rooms while under the assumption they wouldn’t look through them again.

“Hmm. It’s not here.”

I desperately acted out the new character I’d developed as I entered the hallway again.

I disappointedly tilted my head to the side in a manner typical for the character.

My cheeks felt a bit hot, seeing that I was already in my thirties and yet acted all cute before these kids, but I managed to hold back my embarrassment. I wasn’t the only one who’d have their head sent flying if they noticed what I was doing.

“Would you like to release that person?”

“Did you just ask me a question?”

And, urgh. I actually wasn’t so embarrassed about acting cute like this, but rather because I was forced to roleplay using an unfinished character setting all of a sudden.

A true roleplay lover had to handle even sudden role changes no matter what. However, the moment someone went, ‘Are you for real?’ I would immediately completely drown in shame.

Uwaargh. Universe, I beg you! Please help me save face…!

“Th-That’s not it, I─-”

Stab!

I didn’t let him finish before plunging my sword into his neck.

The atmosphere, which had slightly relaxed while I focused on the game of tag, became tense again.

“Does anyone else want to ask me a question?”

Come on, ask away. I would definitely kill everyone waiting for me in the hallway. They were the ones who made me play this second role, after all.

I would never forgive those guys who forced me to act like some great villain.

“No one?”

However, contrary to my wishes, no one came forward.

I tilted my head and narrowed my eyes. At the same time, I desperately looked at my Status Window, matching the timing.

I wasn’t really interested in my stats which automatically increased every time I leveled up. However, the status effect written right below them was like a punch in the gut and wouldn’t leave my head.

「※ You are afflicted with a special status effect (Arcane Overload). You cannot use skills until the condition is lifted.」

It went without saying that this was why I decided to roleplay instead of killing Vipurit right away.

I couldn’t use any skills right now.

“What a shame…”

No, it wasn’t just skills! Any use of Arcane Power was completely sealed. I was certain of that as I tried it before, and the only result was blood leaving my mouth.

In other words, I had to survive somehow in the middle of the enemy camp, relying only on my physical abilities.

And quite honestly, my chances of survival were very low under these conditions…

So, I had no choice but to play along with my enemy’s misunderstanding.

Going by what I overheard while pretending to still be unconscious to grasp my situation, I suspected things would become quite interesting if I took advantage of this misunderstanding.

Well, they did perform a ritual to awaken the Demon inside me… So, if they thought they succeeded, why shouldn’t I take advantage of that?

Of course, I couldn’t deny feeling my stomach twisting when I saw the ‘Arcane Overload’ notification after opening my eyes, having finished calculating my next move.

I’d been planning to just gather all the main forces of this group with my acting and wipe them out right away, but I didn’t expect that I would have to put on such a grand act…

Well, since they couldn’t simply turn off the player’s consciousness outside of the game, that was probably why they just gave me the ‘Arcane Overload’ penalty.

“It’s not in this room, either.”

I smiled brightly as I came out of the last room. I hadn’t smiled in quite some time because of the Demon Knight’s character setting, but now that I was doing it so excessively, I felt like my eyes and mouth were cramping.

I was exhausted.

“I’m bored, so I’ll stop.”

“We… We will catch the cat for you.”

“You won’t.”

I looked at that person who seemed to have gradually grasped my (character’s) pattern. To top it off, I replaced my bright smile with sharp irritation and shallow anger, like a child about to have their favorite toy taken away.

“You really haven’t any idea how to have fun.”

However, I shouldn’t hold this expression for too long.

I smiled again, put my arm around the shoulder of the one who had just spoken up, and whispered into his ear as softly as I could.

“There is nothing more fun than catching prey that thinks it is out of danger.”

“I-Is that so?”

“Of course.”

Hmm. Even to me, I seemed like a total villain with no morals. Good.

However, it would be a shame if I just ended it here.

“Look, like this…”

“Pardon?”

Swish!

“There is nothing more intoxicating than their faces reflected on the blade that stabs through them while they feel completely relieved.”

It was rather fortunate that I still had the strength to cut through a person’s neck without strengthening myself with Arcane Power.

I coldly stared at the guy whose vocal cords had been completely cut through, leaving him unable to let out even a single sound. That was a bit cruel, wasn’t it?

‘No, they are enemies.’

I wiped away the blood from my cheek as I removed my arm from his shoulder and put away the knife. Yet another piece of meat had been added to the collection found in this castle.

* * *

* * *

“Is Portugal still around?”

“…He has gone to the ritual site.”

“Is that so?”

For, Por… Hmm. I didn’t really mean to make fun of the guy, but the only name that came to my mind was Portugal.

Anyway, I remembered that guy who introduced himself as Fo-something.

If I remembered correctly, that guy had the same face as the one whom the Lord of Jacrati had begged me to kill.

However, why did he introduce himself as Fo-something instead of Vipurit…? Hmm. Was it a new nickname or something? Perhaps the name he used as a Demon Worshiper?

Wait, he also called himself one of the 72 Knights earlier, right? I wasn’t quite sure because something like that didn’t exist in the original game, but those 72 Knights might be referring to Solomon’s 72 Demons. They both had to do with Demons, after all, right?

“Please guide me.”

“…It’ll be my honor.”

“Are there any more of the 72 Knights here?”

Well, I had been throwing around a few theories here and there based on my fantasy knowledge, but there was nothing better than listening to a direct explanation from the source.

I was secretly fishing for information.

Anyway, I didn’t care much about why they were called the 72 Knights. What mattered was whether any more enemies from that group were in this city. Even if I had to retry, dying with that knowledge would make things easier.

“Bifrons and Naberius are also present.”

As I’d thought, there were more. There seemed to be quite a lot of them…

“Originally, Gamigin and Morax also planned on joining us…”

“But?”

“…Those two died while bringing destruction to Tatara.”

What now?

“They died while destroying the city?”

Did… Did I kill two named mobs without knowing? Of course, given the scale of that incident, it wasn’t too weird that one or two named mobs were among the enemies.

I was dumbfounded, like someone who just realized some delicious crab meat they had a while ago was actually king crab meat.

It was all fine, but I somehow felt strange about this matter. Those names hadn’t disappeared from the world.

“Hmm, okay… It can’t be helped. They’re already dead, after all.”

“I-I’m sorry.”

“Huh? Are you the one who died over there? Why are you apologizing?”

However, it wasn’t a loss for me.

I flicked around the dagger between my fingers. Unlike my brightly smiling face, my mind was overrun with many complicated thoughts.

“Or do you want to die?”

“N-Not at all!”

While scaring the already rather frightened one a bit more, I reached a decision.

First, the 72 Knights were obviously at the executive level among the Demon Worshipers. Given how even they were treating me as their superior and someone directly under Satan, it seemed the Great Demons were the highest-ranking entities.

“W-We’ve arrived.”

There was just another problem that arose from this.

That Fo-something greeted me as ‘Wrath’, and the Archmage talked about the Seven Great Demons before. The Great Demons’ theme was probably the seven deadly sins.

However, from what I could remember, none other than Satan was in charge of the sin of wrath. As chance would have it, Satan was also the name of the guy we were aiming to kill.

…Surely this wouldn’t have such a light novel development, like ‘I possessed a person with a Demon sealed in their right arm, but it’s actually the last boss!’, right?

“Open it.”

With just two words out of my mouth, the door was opened. According to the castle map I had received, this door led to the central garden.

However, after this place had been occupied and altered by the Demon Worshipers and Demons, this was no longer the central garden.

“You’re here.”

This place had long become a slaughterhouse.

If I hadn’t decided to stick by this new character setting, I might have vomited a little.

“Naberius, the 24th Knight, greets the esteemed Great Demon.”

“Sir ‘Wrath’, I’m Bifrons.”

I barely managed to take my eyes off that utter massacre and glanced at the two people approaching me.

Naberius was a fair-skinned, handsome man, and Bifrons was a freckled woman.

They were at least a billion light years away from the picture on the wanted poster I had seen. Neither of them was Vipurit.

Then, I guess that Fo guy really was Vipurit. There couldn’t be two unrelated people who looked so much alike, right?

“E-Erm.”

On another note, Naberius naturally bowed to me, while Bifrons, who’d been bowing quite crookedly, became very aware of me.

…Did I look like I would kill her if she didn’t bow properly? Had either of them asked this character a question, he would definitely kill them, but he wouldn’t take offense over lacking manners.

“It seems you are pretty satisfied with your hunt.”

At that moment, the Fo-guy, noticing the blood on my cheek, came to a conclusion. It seemed he was under the misconception that this blood was from Lukkwan.

Alright, I’d be happy if he was!

“The cat is pretty good at hiding, so it was worth my while.”

How great it would have been if my Arcane Overload disappeared at that moment. My lips started quivering as I witnessed someone having their neck slit right before me and their blood flowing into a dug-out hole.

If the seal on my skills were to be lifted now, I could take care of the most dangerous people in this region in one swoop. I felt a bit anxious as the notification only mentioned that ‘I couldn’t use skills’ but didn’t say how long I would stay that way.

“…But what are these?”

I suppressed those feelings and looked around this palace filled with the smell of blood. On the other side of the corpse garden were the living destined to get their throats cut and left to bleed out.

What particularly caught my eye were those among them wearing prison guard uniforms.

After checking their faces, the worry that my poor kids might have gotten caught disappeared. I didn’t know who they were, but they sure weren’t from my party.

That single fact comforted me a little.

“They are wearing the same clothes as those kids in the hallway?”

I asked as I stepped on the back of one of those kneeling people wearing prison guard uniforms, their hands tied with a rope. Bifrons was the one who answered.

“Although I told those guys to strengthen our security because the Hero was about to invade, they dared to disobey me.”

Could I interpret that as our kids having not been caught yet? I hoped so, at least.

“The Hero?”

“Just the empty talk of the foolish. She is but an insignificant brat.”

…Our kimchi dumpling was quite the fluffy kid, but her core was spicy and hard!? As one would expect from the enemy camp. Just wait and see. The first thing she’ll do is cut your throat.

“Is that so?”

I kicked the person I was stepping on before turning around.

“That sounds a little interesting.”

I had gotten so used to saying things I didn’t intend to that I had nothing to worry about.

“So, is the Hero…”

Wait a second. At that moment, my gaze traveled behind the (former) guard.

Shit. They were so small that I only noticed them now. There were kids not even in their mid or late teens but around five and six years old.

Even toddlers.

“…here then?”

Did my vision flicker for a moment there? Did my eyes turn red or something? I felt the sensation of anger reaching the top of my head, pulling at the nape of my neck—a feeling I hadn’t experienced in a very long time.

It was almost a miracle I finished my sentence. My throat seemed to tighten, and my eyes seemed to become hot. That was what one would call the heat of anger.

No, it felt like real fire.

“I-If you so wish, we can get her for you right away.”

I tried to focus my gaze as best I could on the black energy bursting from my right arm. I didn’t even pay attention to the clear sounds of explosions coming from afar.

“No.”

I needed to be patient. Patient. If I burst out now, what would have been the point of my acting? It wasn’t like I roleplayed like this once or twice.

Above all else, it wasn’t like I could save the kids by stabbing those guys right now. I didn’t have the strength to take them away or defeat all these enemies while protecting them.

“There’s no need for that.”

So, I had to be patient. It was more than obvious it would only harm those kids if I fought right now, so I had to be patient.

Be patient.

“But there sure are a lot of kids here, aren’t there?”

Be patient…

“Th-Those are the offerings for the dragon. As you know, such mighty demonic beasts aren’t satisfied with ordinary blood.”

‘Be patient?’

「※ A special status condition (Rage) has been created.」

「Rage │ Nullifies all status conditions except Rage and ignores any further status conditions placed on you.

The more you perform certain actions, the more your madness gauge will fill up.」

The black energy grew even stronger.

‘I can do anything now.’

To the point that even such exaggerated thoughts flashed through my mind.