Is It Bad That the Main Character’s a Roleplayer? - Chapter 89: I Want to Talk (5)

I’d given him the tip, so I didn’t really have any more business here.

I led Deb outside. There wasn’t much time left until our departure and the people were about to start their day, so we had to leave quickly.

“Are you going to the port? I’ll go with you.”

Windhand, who’d stood there for a while, was also headed for the port—of course, as the ship couldn’t leave without him—so he came along with us.

“Let’s go to the port.”

“Yes.”

“Geez, so many people have already gathered here.”

“But they aren’t coming up to us.”

The news that I visited this place seemed to have spread already, considering I could see several people snooping around.

However, none approached us, and the guide conscientiously only chose less populated paths. The Lord hadn’t chosen him for nothing.

Having put my worries to rest, I checked over the sword once more. As I drew it from its scabbard, it almost seemed to cut through the light, revealing its matte elegance.

It was very beautiful.

And very short.

“…Can you use it?”

Instead of answering Deb, I simply sheathed the sword again. I wouldn’t be able to use it at all.

“Take it.”

In that case, what should I do? It was a good blade, but I really couldn’t use it. I also didn’t want to sell it or let it gather dust in my inventory, so I should pass it on to someone else.

“What? Me??”

I tossed it to the meat dumpling and tried to soothe my aching heart.

I had already planned to buy him a replacement for his kukri anyway, so while I did feel somewhat disappointed, at least it didn’t go to waste.

Rather, it felt something like fate. While it was only an estimate, that sword was of similar length to the kukri Deb had used.

I couldn’t believe a sword perfect for him would appear right after his weapon broke. If that wasn’t fate, then what was?

What I felt disappointed about… Well, it was a shame it didn’t fit me at all, but honestly, it didn’t really matter. As long as I had enough materials, I could have another one made again.

As such, I could hand over the sword with ease.

“A-Are you really giving this to me?”

“Yeah.”

On the other hand, Deb went wide-eyed when I handed it to him. He seemed quite surprised, considering how he began asking me stupid questions.

“Really…?”

Then who else should I give it to other than you, huh? I couldn’t give it to Windhand.

Since I just kept moving forward without giving him a proper answer, he finally seemed to get the hint. Deb lagged behind for a little while but quickly caught back up.

“Th-Thank you, Mister.”

His ecstatic face made giving him gifts worthwhile.

“You’re here.”

Following our competent guide, we arrived at the port. It seemed the boat had already been fully prepared and was floating on the water with some people on board.

“Is everything ready?”

“Yes!”

“Then raise the anchor! Time to set sail!”

Finally, Windhand, who’d boarded the ship, raised his hand. The anchor was raised, and the oars began to move.

“Hey, look at this.”

“What?”

“Mister gave this to me.”

“…!”

“You didn’t get anything from him, did you?”

“Th-Th-That’s.”

The sound of those two dumplings arguing like two grade-schoolers echoed over the deck, mixing with the wind passing over the gunwale.

“Wait, wait!”

And just as the ship was moving from the dock and unfurling its sails, another person came toward us, jumping up and down.

The person now standing on the docks held a bag in his hand.

“Hanta?”

“Heeeeeeey—!”

At that moment, I pushed my body off the railing I was leaning against and left.

“The money you left behind is far too much—!!”

“Hmm?”

“Hmm, isn’t that the money bag Mister gave you?”

“How much did he tip you…?”

“Is there anyone crazy enough to tip seven million Gal—!!?”

“…??”

“…Seven million Gal?”

…I don’t know anything about that. Nothing at all.

“Mister?”

Ignoring everyone’s attention on me, I slowly walked downstairs. The next moment, another voice added to the ones coming from the dock.

“Sir Demon Knight! You left behind your reward for killing Vipurit!!”

…Damn it! All of them were so tactless, seriously!!

Couldn’t they have arrived a little later?!

* * *

After again threatening to kill the others if they wasted any more time by turning around, I locked myself in my assigned room, ignoring everyone who tried to talk to me.

I felt very fortunate that they’d given me a private room. Otherwise, I would have had to suffer quite a bit.

“…I brought you some food.”

Hmm, since when did a captain also do room service? Thinking back, he was probably the most shocked at that time, even muttering something like, “You seriously…”

No, I mean, I really couldn’t help talking like that back then because I was at risk of breaking character, but I never said I wouldn’t help at all!? As long as I found a way to help without breaking character, why wouldn’t I?!

Of course, since he didn’t know anything about that, he was probably thinking something like, ‘Why is that bastard so damn fickle?!’

Anyway, I didn’t want to be confronted about my actions like that, so I didn’t dare go outside and even had my meals in my room.

Well actually, the bigger reason was that my motion sickness would get a lot worse.

Honestly, I felt like throwing up all the time.

“Are you still sleeping?”

“…What is it?”

“I just wanted to tell you that we’ll reach the mainland soon.”

Still, time flew as I slept through each day. Sailing to the nearest city on the mainland, Canaves, instead of the distant Grü Teltz, probably also contributed to our quick arrival.

After touching my forehead to alleviate the dizziness that hit me as soon as I woke up, I hurried out.

The Archmage, whom I’d only met with a few times in the last few days, looked at me today with a lukewarm gaze yet again. His eyes were filled with satisfaction, as if looking at a grandson who’d done something great.

“…Do you want me to gouge your eyes out?”

“Haha, as if that would happen.”

I knew it would happen, so I planned to leave quickly.

I suppressed my emotions. If I got angry here, it wouldn’t do me any good.

“Once we arrive, let’s stop by the Magic Tower first.”

Fortunately, the Archmage cooperated.

I tried calming down as much as possible and focused on the new topic.

“The sealing sphere has been completed.”

Well, as my character, I would have to act as if I felt complicated about this matter, though.

“…”

Before, if I’d ever heard even a mention of a sealing device, I would have blown my top, asking if they wanted their tongues cut out, but… now that I had gone on a full-blown rampage, things were different. I’d also already heard about this matter before.

So, instead of asking what he was talking about, I turned my back to the Archmage and tightly gripped my right arm. I relaxed my shoulders and bent my back a little, making me seem quite distraught if viewed from behind.

But in reality, I felt a little confused, my mind filled with questions like ‘What is the sealing effect like?’ but also ‘It sure would be nice if it could permanently deactivate that Rage skill.’

“Don’t worry too much.”

No, I wasn’t really that worried, though.

At best, what was that sealing sphere capable of? In the best-case scenario, it could permanently disable that Rage skill, but that would be a different story if it also reduced my stats.

Erm… It surely wouldn’t do that, right? It wouldn’t reduce my stats, right?

It had been over two months since the start, so there was no way they would nerf me that early in the game.

“It’s just a precaution. It’s not like I don’t trust you…”

I stepped away from the Archmage before he even finished talking. Thud. I put a little extra force into my feet as I stomped down on the wooden floor.

“I know.”

I cut him off completely.

Thump, thump.

I climbed the wooden stairs leading to the deck. When I appeared, everyone, including the sailors, looked my way.

“You…”

Windhand had the most passionate reaction. He brought me my meals, but I didn’t really give him the chance to talk to me. There seemed to be dozens of things he wanted to say to my face.

“It would be best for you to turn away those disrespectful eyes before I blind them.”

However, my character wasn’t in a good mood right now. I growled and slowly approached the gunwale.

My hair swayed gently in the wind, tickling my forehead.

“Ah, Demon Knight. You came out!”

However, a certain tactless person approached me without knowing what kind of mood I was in. Although others seemed critical of me, she remained steadfast.

“Did you eat? I was so worried since you never came out of your cabin even once.”

Had the Inquisitor always been this sociable? I glared at her as she kept on talking before me.

I didn’t know whether this was because she had been just that worried about me or if this was a sign of her maturing.

However, one thing was certain…

“Demon Knight. Th-The thing is…”

Her eyes were sparkling with nervous anticipation as if she was expecting something.

“So…”

“Mister, you’re here!”

“…!”

However, before the Inquisitor could finish her sentence, Deb interrupted her. The blade I’d gifted him was hanging from his waist.

I really wanted to ask him if he liked the blade and if it fit in his hand well, but I kept silent due to my character settings.

Meanwhile, I could practically see sparks flying between the Inquisitor and Deb. I thought they’d gotten closer, but it seemed things had returned to normal.

“It’s nothing. I’m going to go help the others!”

In the end, the kimchi dumpling left first. Her reasons seemed sufficient: she was still carrying some heavy baggage in her arms, after all.

But why did her back seem somewhat lonely?

I looked around to see if there had been any problem, but nothing caught my attention.

I… Had I done something wrong…? No, she didn’t look at me as though I had, right? Weren’t her eyes too sparkly for that?

“Mister.”

After pondering it a while longer, the meat dumpling, who’d successfully kicked out the kimchi dumpling, started talking to me. “Prepare to dock!” As we got closer to land, the deck gradually got much busier.

“Well, erm. It’s not my place to say this, but…”

I watched the ongoing commotion with crossed arms, trying to appear cool. Standing beside me, Deb quietly whispered to me.

“What about the iron wall…? Erm… Don’t you have anything for her?”

With that one whisper, I immediately came to a realization.

I gave Deb something, so she also wanted me to give her something…!

The contents of a parenting book—I read it while researching something for my novel—saying one shouldn’t treat one child better than the other passed through my mind.

“What nonsense.”

“Right, as I thought.”

The only problem was that my character wasn’t the type to go around handing out gifts.

I reflexively responded negatively as I desperately wracked my brain. Deb went through a lot, but if I had to choose one person who had struggled the most, I couldn’t think of anyone but the Inquisitor.

It was thanks to the Inquisitor that my head was still attached to my body.

I glanced at Deb’s blade. I at least had an excuse to give it to him since it was useless to me and would have gotten disposed of otherwise. Because I’d given Deb a blade forged from dragon scales, it seemed I had to give the Inquisitor something similar…

Unfortunately, none of the Inquisitor’s equipment overlapped with mine. Also, giving her something like that as soon as I had it made sounded like a serious character break.

Then, should I just give her some food she liked… That wouldn’t work either, right? The conditions for that were wrong.

Right now, I felt even sadder than when I’d noticed the blade of the sword I had been looking forward to was far too short. There were so many things I wanted to say and do, but I couldn’t do anything because they were all blocked off because of my character setting.

How lamentable.

“Rather, some people from the Temple seem to be waiting for us.”

“They are the additional workforce.”

“Ah, Sir Archmage.”

“Of course, there should also be some among them who want to see the Hero. This incident was quite big, wasn’t it? Even though I wrote a report on all that happened, some still want to hear the details directly.”

“…Meaning, more work again?”

“Don’t worry, I’ll take care of this. In the meantime, you should rest more and recuperate first. Or maybe you could try deciding which city we should go to next.”

“Sounds good.”

Was choosing our next city important right now? I didn’t have anything to give to the Inquisitor…

I choked back my tears, unable to even apologize. Did I really have to treat my favorite the harshest? I was about to burst into actual tears here.

“Come on, you guys, get off!”

Still, I had to disembark. I listened to Windhand and jumped off the boat.

At a glance, I could see sailors of merchant ships loading supplies from the dock.

Step.

* * *

* * *

「Canaves」

And then, my feet touched the dock.

Maybe because I’d spent so much time on ships, the unmoving ground below my feet momentarily seemed unfamiliar. Was this the precursor to land sickness?

“Mister, let’s go together!”

While I briefly stood still to overcome my land sickness, Deb landed right behind me.

He always whined and said he wasn’t superhuman, but if one looked at him more closely, one would realize that he wasn’t ordinary, either.

“I’ll come, too…”

“You can’t do that! Do you want to leave holes in the dock?!”

“What?”

Meanwhile, the kimchi dumpling who tried following us down was caught by the scared Windhand.

That was fortunate. I didn’t know when she’d put on her armor, but if she jumped off the ship while wearing that, the wooden dock would definitely get smashed to pieces.

The face of the Archmage standing next to her seemed to have aged drastically in just a moment.

“Calmly climb down the ladder!”

“I got it…”

Under the supervision of Windhand, the Inquisitor eventually came down the ladder along with the Archmage.

Her actions were cute, but I couldn’t take her side in this matter.

“Don’t you have a brain or something?”

“Sh-Shut up.”

“Phew.”

Well, kids of that age usually wanted to copy what those around them did.

…Or was it like that? I remembered being twenty as if it were just a day or two ago, but seeing that it had already been a decade, I wasn’t so sure anymore. Well, it wasn’t that important anyway.

“Wait!”

I slowly moved to leave the port, but Windhand, who’d disembarked from the ship after the Archmage, called out to me.

“Damn it, I didn’t think this would be the last thing I’d tell you…”

Windhand’s words made me realize this would be his last moment with us.

Well, he wasn’t a member of our party and had circumstances that made it difficult for him to join us.

Unless we went back to Jacrati or somehow got tangled up with the pirates again in these waters, we wouldn’t see Windhand again.

“…”

So, I gave him a moment to speak. Windhand seemed to find it difficult to continue his words, perhaps because he felt nervous.

“If you have nothing to say, I’ll leave.”

However, my character setting didn’t allow me to treat anyone preferentially, even if it was the last time I would see them. I coldly turned my back to him.

“Thank you. That’s what I really wanted to tell you.”

Immediately after, a ‘thank you’ left his lips.

“Miss Inquisitor, I was kind of rude to you in the beginning, but I’m very grateful that you did your best for us until the end… My hooded friend, Sir Archmage… I also owe you both in a lot of ways.”

“…I only did what had to be done.”

“I didn’t really do anything, though…”

“It’s nothing.”

Once he started, the words continued to flow smoothly. The others looked quite embarrassed at his sincere words. I kept moving forward, though, as my character setting required me to continue forging my own path.

“And… Demon Knight, I’m most grateful to you.”

However, I had no choice but to hear his words.

“For saving my hometown and my family… Thank you so very much. No matter what anyone says, you’ll always be Jacrati’s hero.”

Was it because of those sappy words? I started to feel a bit embarrassed for some reason. I felt it would’ve been better for those words to be said to the Inquisitor than me.

“Are you still calling me a hero after seeing all that?”

To go along with those words, I gently grabbed my right arm and made to retrieve the horses.

“How ridiculous—”

“Is it…? When you saw me lying in that magic circle, the priests should have told you, right?”

What came back was a voice mixed with laughter.

“I don’t know your circumstances because I didn’t particularly listen to what those people said. However, I can at least say that I agree with what the Inquisitor said. From what I’ve seen, you never lose.”

I was caught entirely off guard.

“So, you’ll always be a hero. No matter what others say, you will always be a hero to us.”

However, to call it unpleasant, well, it wasn’t that big of a deal. Like mother, like son.

“All of us… We are ready to repay you this favor at any time.”

Although it felt somewhat cringey, it made me feel rather good.

“You can call on us anytime you need our help. Wherever you are… If you call us, I will gladly come running. Got it, Mister Knight?”

Shonen manga wasn’t popular for no reason, after all. Although, I could feel my face getting pretty hot right now.

“Wait.”

At that moment, the Inquisitor came forward. I didn’t know what she wanted to say, but it relieved me.

Now then, just say whatever you want! In the meantime, I’ll get out of this place!

“I… I also want to say something.”

Just as I was about to turn around and leave without saying anything more, the Inquisitor took a deep breath and loudly shouted.

“Regardless of the relationship between Jacrati and the Temple, crime is bad!”

I almost stumbled there.

“Huh?”

“So, wash your hands of piracy!”

“Wh-What…?”

“With your ability, couldn’t you help others without being a pirate?!”

“…!!”

“Do you understand?!”

I barely resisted the urge to burst into laughter. I could practically see their expressions despite having my back to them.

“…Damn, do you know I’d have to go to prison for 50 years to wash my hands of it completely?”

“I didn’t! But you can’t call it right, either!”

“Damn, guess you’re right! Haha! Okay, I got it! Next time we’ll see each other, I’ll be able to stand proud before you, Miss Hero!”

Ah, just when I was trying to escape this scene right out of a shonen manga, it only got worse. Well, I didn’t hate it that much, either.

* * *

“Miss!”

We gradually left the dock, receiving salutes from the pirates around us. The priests waiting at the port immediately came rushing toward us.

“We were waiting for you.”

I felt a bit anxious, thinking they’d come here to detain me or something, but thankfully, that wasn’t the case. They were just here to celebrate the Hero’s return and give her a warm welcome.

“But why are you here already? I should have said I would be stopping by the Temple later…”

“That’s…”

However, they hadn’t just come here to greet her, either.

“My apologies. There was a problem with the dragon corpse in our care.”

My… My reward!!