Chapter 4

Rickby blinked, seemingly at a loss for words.

“What?! Young Master…! Why would you suddenly make a decision like that—w-wait… Did you hit your head or something?”

I wasn’t crazy.

If there was one place on this battlefield that was safer than anywhere else, it was beside the Hero.

After all, this was a game.

If some miraculous awakening event were going to happen in the middle of this desperate battle, who else would it happen to?

The protagonist, of course…!

Naturally, I knew barging over and begging him to save me wouldn’t work.

No one on this battlefield would welcome Allen Kalstein. Considering all the trouble he’d caused over the years, there was no way he’d earned anyone’s trust.

But I had something to rely on.

Rickby Hegment.

A man who had conquered the mercenary world with nothing but his fists before being knighted.

The legendary brawler, Rickby Hegment.

He was one of the game’s transcendent-tier characters, beloved by players for his role as a pure melee damage dealer. I had poured countless resources into raising him to the maximum level myself.

If Rickby joined the vanguard, everyone would welcome him with open arms.

And my plan was simply to tag along behind him.

Of course, Rickby had no way of knowing any of that.

Instead, he stared intently at my head.

Judging by the way he muttered, “Did a piece of shrapnel hit him…?” he still seemed convinced I’d lost my mind.

“Don’t worry. I’m not crazy. Besides, weren’t you planning to do the same thing anyway? You were going to let me escape on my own before returning to the front lines.”

“W-Well… that’s true, but…!”

“Then taking one more person with you shouldn’t be a problem. Even if I went back to the fortress, do you really think I’d survive? The place is crawling with monsters!”

I shouted, pointing toward the rear.

Rickby’s gaze followed my finger.

He’d been too busy defending the front to realize it, but Fjord Fortress had already become completely surrounded.

I’d already known that from clearing this quest before.

Even inside the fortress—what everyone believed to be the safe zone—monsters would appear, slaughter soldiers, and destroy supplies.

Trying to survive by hiding there was already a lost cause.

Rickby might save a handful of people if he stayed…

But all he’d really accomplish was dragging out a hopeless battle and wasting what little manpower remained.

As painful as it was…

The best way to minimize casualties was to send Rickby Hegment back to the front lines.

“So quit arguing and take me to the Hero, Rickby!”

I kicked him in the shin as I barked the order.

The action came naturally.

It was as though Allen Kalstein’s body had acted on its own.

Even my tone had become rougher than I intended.

Looks like the original owner of this body—that delinquent bastard—had left behind stronger habits than I’d expected.

Ironically, that worked in my favor.

Rather than finding my behavior strange, Rickby simply accepted it as “the Young Master being his usual self.”

After stumbling from my kick, he hurriedly regained his balance and led me toward the vehicle he’d prepared.

The moment I saw it…

One thought crossed my mind.

That’s so Allen Kalstein.

“A Royal Mage…? Why is a Royal Mage here?”

“Huh? Well… we needed someone to cast invisibility on the carriage so the enemy wouldn’t detect us while we escaped…”

“There’s a battle raging outside, and you’re telling me a Royal Mage is sitting here just to make one carriage invisible?”

I was dumbfounded.

When every bit of firepower counted, Allen had kept a Royal Mage in reserve for his personal escape.

That trash…

He’d planned to run from the very beginning.

What kind of worthless scumbag was this?

As my anger flared, Rickby’s eyes widened.

“Young Master… I, Rickby Hegment, can hardly believe my eyes.”

“What are you talking about all of a sudden?”

“You’ve finally changed! You always yelled at us to handle the fighting ourselves…”

His eyes began to redden.

He clasped both of my hands tightly, clearly moved.

Had he mistaken this for Allen Kalstein suddenly maturing in the middle of a war?

Before long, he was showering me with praise, saying I’d one day become just like Duke Kalstein.

“I always believed the day would come when you’d understand the Duke’s true intentions! I swear on my life that I’ll protect you, Young Master!”

I frowned.

Instead of listening to his nonsense, I smacked him across the back.

“Save the speeches for later and move.”

Allen Kalstein was gone.

Now it was me inhabiting this utterly useless character.

No matter how much game knowledge I had…

Rickby Hegment would contribute infinitely more to this battle than I ever could.

Sure, I know the game… But there’s a huge difference between being good at a strategy game and actually winning a real war!

Most importantly…

We didn’t have time.

There wasn’t even an opportunity to prepare.

All I could do was trust the Rickby Hegment I’d spent so much effort raising and pray he could turn this situation around.

Together, we hurried the Royal Mage into channeling mana through the carriage’s magical engine.

As soon as it roared to life, we raced across the battlefield.

Beyond the snow-covered hills, monsters surged forward like a black tide.

Only thanks to the Royal Mage unleashing wide-area spells were we able to reach the front lines alive.

Not long afterward…

Through the swirling snowfall…

I saw a breathtaking flash of light.

“Helior…”

The trail left behind by the Hero’s sword still lingered in the air.

It was so beautiful it stole my breath.

A pure flame of purification that cleaved through evil itself.

Helior’s blade carved dazzling arcs of glory across the snowy battlefield as it annihilated monster after monster.

I’d admired the spectacular visual effects countless times in the game…

But witnessing them with my own eyes was on an entirely different level.

His ash-gray hair fluttered in the wind.

His armor was soaked in blood.

He looked like the very incarnation of valor.

For a moment, I stood there completely mesmerized.

Then Rickby’s desperate shout snapped me back to reality.

“Young Master! We’re in trouble!”

“H-Huh? What?”

“We can’t hold on any longer!”

I quickly looked around.

The monsters had swarmed around the carriage, causing the entire vehicle to rock violently.

Was it the magical engine?

Had its noise attracted them?

Like predators surrounding prey, the monsters encircled the carriage layer by layer.

Our escape route had been completely cut off.

“Damn it…!”

As they slammed themselves against the windows, trying to break through, thick beads of sweat rolled down the Royal Mage’s neck.

Rickby thrust his gauntleted fist through a gap in the window, desperately fending them off.

I’d made a mistake.

In the game, transport units never overturned.

Because of that, my judgment had been flawed.

No, seriously…

Wasn’t this supposed to be a game world?

As if the game’s penalties weren’t enough, now I had to account for realistic problems too?

What kind of unfair bullshit was this?!

At the very least, we have to make it to the forward outpost…!

I hurriedly opened the system window.

Since I had zero expectations for Allen Kalstein, I immediately pulled up Rickby Hegment’s status instead.

I rapidly scanned through his list of skills…

“Get the hell away from us, you damn monsters…! What should we do?! Give us your orders, Young Master!!”

Found it.

I turned toward Rickby to issue my command.

But at that exact moment—

“AAAAAGH!!”

“Young Master…!”

…Everything before my eyes turned crimson.

No.

It wasn’t the system window.

It was my vision.

A razor-sharp tentacle hung directly in front of my face.

Thick drops of blood…

And bits of flesh…

Dripped from its tip.

Something hot and wet spilled across my thigh.

A monster’s tentacle had pierced straight through the front windshield…

Passed through the Royal Mage’s head…

And stopped inches from my face.

“You insane bastard!”

Rickby seized the tentacle with his gauntleted hand and tore it off by brute force.

The monster shrieked.

The carriage lurched violently.

The wounded creature withdrew outside, while the Royal Mage’s lifeless body collapsed forward.

Rickby crushed the severed tentacle writhing on the floor beneath his boot.

“Are you all right?!”

…If we’d been three seconds slower—

No.

Even one second…

All three of us would’ve died.

Our heads would’ve been skewered one after another.

Thinking about it…

I wasn’t even sure surviving could be called fortunate anymore.

The Royal Mage was dead.

The carriage was on the verge of overturning.

A crisis…?

No…

Calling it a crisis almost sounded funny.

We were as good as dead already.

Monsters surrounded us from every direction.

Now they knew they could break through the windows.

No matter how powerful Rickby was…

There was no way he could stop all of them.

“Haha…”

No way…

Were we really going to die here?

A hollow laugh escaped my lips.

One wrong decision.

That was all it had taken.

Someone had died.

We were on the brink of annihilation.

More shocking than realizing I’d been wrong…

Was realizing someone had died because of my choice.

I… got someone killed.

…

The carriage tilted sharply, throwing my body sideways.

As my organs felt like they were being crushed, I clutched my head with both hands.

For a fleeting moment…

I even thought it would’ve been better if I’d died alongside the Royal Mage.

Then—

“Young Master!!”

Rickby grabbed me by the shoulders.

“Don’t give up! We can still survive…! We have to get out through the top hatch!”

I stared blankly upward.

Inside the overturned carriage, one of the windows was now facing the sky.

…!

I understood what he meant.

He was right.

There was still hope.

This wasn’t the time to drown in despair.

If I gave up now…

Rickby—the man who’d followed me this far—would die too.

Instead of whining about wanting to go home…

I needed to focus on surviving one minute longer.

I had to remember this.

Every mistake I made…

Could cost someone their life.

So…

Until the moment I died…

I had to do everything I possibly could.

“Hngh—!”

I immediately tore off a sleeve, wrapped it around my fist, and slammed it into the window with all my strength.

A jolt of pain shot through my hand.

The glass shuddered.

Then cracks slowly spread across its surface.

Behind me, I could hear Rickby and the monsters locked in a desperate struggle.

Ignoring everything else, I kept punching.

Finally—

Crash!

The window shattered.

Glass rained down over my head.

Shards sliced across my cheeks and forearms, but this wasn’t the time to complain.

Grabbing the broken frame, I pulled myself out before reaching back with bloodied hands to haul Rickby out after me.

“Haa… Hah… Why aren’t they attacking us?”

Something felt off.

I’d expected a life-or-death battle the moment we escaped.

Instead…

The monsters seemed completely oblivious to us, as though they were possessed.

That wasn’t exactly a bad thing.

Realizing their attention had shifted elsewhere, I signaled to Rickby, and we jumped down and started running.

A moment later, I glanced back.

The monsters had buried their heads inside the carriage.

The sickening sound of chewing echoed through the air.

Blood flowed endlessly through the broken opening.

From the driver’s seat.

…

…I didn’t need to know exactly what they were eating.

“Rickby!”

I shouted as we ran.

“Don’t stop until we reach the forward outpost! Even if I die, keep running…!”

We had to survive.

And we had to win.

The people who’d died on this battlefield…

Their sacrifices couldn’t be in vain.

At least one of us had to make it.

Even if it wasn’t me.

Rickby looked down at my blood-soaked fist.

Then he gave a silent nod.