Is It Bad That the Main Character's a Roleplayer?

Chapter 98: But There is Still Hope (7)

Why was that person who said I stunk here?

“And that’s what happened!”

No, wait, kimchi dumpling. I didn’t hear anything. What happened?

“The iron wall heard that guy say something and just brought him here.”

Fortunately, our friendly explainer Deb helped me out. The explanation I’d gotten was somewhat vague, and I didn’t hear all of it because I had to leave for the bathroom… but I managed to grasp the gist of it.

That guy probably started talking without consideration for others again and got caught red-handed, didn’t he? I knew that would happen!

Having discovered the hidden truth, I casually crossed my legs and looked at the person before me. Kankan, who was sitting in front of me, had his head bowed, sweat dripping profusely from his face.

The only seemingly calm thing about him was the single earring dangling from his ear.

“Look, I have nothing more to say. I’m very grateful for the treatment you provided for me, Miss Priest, but I’ll repay you for it in donations, so…”

“I didn’t treat you for money.”

Right, our Inquisitor only knew how to throw these kinds of fastballs. Honestly, if you knew her well, she was pretty easy to fool because she was so straightforward, but if you didn’t, she was exactly like a bulldozer.

“No…”

Thanks to that, Kankan couldn’t speak easily. I didn’t know whether it was because his initial cynical attitude went flying or because he couldn’t retain his composure when faced with the Inquisitor’s relentless pressure.

“I have nothing more to say.”

Or maybe he was just good at reading the atmosphere? I quietly observed him as he let out three coughs, after which he took a resolute stance. I could see some firm determination radiating from his eyes.

“We just want to know something. Perhaps we can even help you in the process.”

“I already told you there's nothing.”

The Archmage stepped forward and gently tried to probe Kankan. However, the more he tried, the more resolute Kankan seemed to become.

“While I don't want to seem disrespectful to the companions of the priest who saved my life, there's a limit to that. Would you please stop trying to put me in a difficult position?”

“Hmm. Since talking about it would put you in a difficult position, it seems there might be some truth to your life being in danger.”

“It's not like that…!”

However, sometimes, people were just too simple. What was he doing getting all worked up at the mere mention of that? People with enough insight would’ve immediately caught on.

“Then let me just ask you one thing: is that ‘difficult position’ related to the rumors circulating about the Martial King?”

“…!”

However, it was only good for us that he was like this. As the Archmage drove in the final nail, Kankan suddenly stood up.

His face was filled with the fear of someone who’d let something slip unwillingly rather than the anger of someone forced to speak.

“Stop.”

With his fist clenched tightly, Kankan glanced around. It wasn't entirely unexpected, as we knew he was being watched. He just did it a bit later than I thought, was all.

“If you do anything more, things might get dangerous.”

“Dangerous, you say?”

“You people have nothing to do with this!”

I slightly uncrossed my legs. Flutter. At that moment, the fringes of the fabric draped over the entrance to our room, in place of a wooden door, moved.

“We've caught them.”

It seemed that when he said he was going to relieve himself, Deb actually went to kill the people hiding in the bathroom.

“That bastard…!”

“U-Urgh!”

“Looks like he had a pretty long tail there.”

It wasn't just one guy.

I glanced at the people Deb had thrown before us before closing my eyes, acting as if I wasn't listening to their conversation. Even with my eyes closed, I could tell that Kankan was seething.

“So, now that we've caught all the rats, how about we have a proper conversation?”

The slow conversation finally made some progress.

* * *

* * *

“…And that's what happened.”

After finding and catching all his observers, we could no longer avoid getting involved.

Kankan also seemed to have realized that, so he no longer hesitated. He laid out all the details before us without leaving anything out.

“Such viciousness!”

Naturally, the Inquisitor was the first to fly in a rage. She was also the only one, actually.

“Hah. We came here to recruit some talent but ended up having to deal with some criminal cartel.”

“You seem rather pleased, even though you're talking like it's a bother.”

“There's nothing I find more gratifying than condemning those who cover up their sins with power and money to evade any judgment and punishment.”

“…I'm guessing all of you except the priest already knew, huh.”

“Not until this morning.”

Deb, however, simply shrugged it off. Considering his personality, his lack of reaction had felt odd, but it seemed he’d gotten some information on this from somewhere.

As expected, he knew how to handle things even without instruction.

“We should report this issue immediately.”

“We can't. It was the Lord who ensured this matter got buried.”

“…Even the Lord has no right to conceal these matters. He should also be punished.”

Kankan looked somewhat dumbfounded by the Inquisitor's words. If I had to put his gaze into words, it would be something like, ‘There's no way that's possible.’

“How naive. There's no way that'll work.”

Deb voiced what Kankan couldn't, given his unstable position. The Inquisitor raised her eyebrows at that.

“Why do you think it won't work?”

“We have no evidence.”

“But there are clear victims, aren't there? How about the families of the deceased?”

“Do you really think their corpses are still around? They would have already disposed of them by now. As for the families, if they choose to testify, they might end up losing their lives. Do you really think they would be willing to testify under these conditions?”

“But you said that we should condemn them!”

“We should, but not like that.”

If the law could solve crimes buried through political power, the chaos raging in the world would be cut by half. But because it wasn't like that, things were the way they were.

Thinking back on the series of events again, I realized even more that I couldn't stand behind the kimchi dumpling this time.

Most of the clues we’d found thus far were related to the Martial King. And now, the truth behind these incidents has been revealed to us.

However, was that really the end? We were on the Frontlines, so could our stay here truly end with just the Martial King’s corruption?

That couldn’t be possible. It couldn’t end like that.

If not even a single Demon were involved in the case, calling this place a ‘Frontline’ would be in vain.

“They’d surely have taken measures to silence all the victims. If we approach them carelessly, their safety could be put at risk.”

“…What if we ask the Temple to protect them?”

“No matter whether the Temple gets involved, if assassins and the like were sent out, protecting the victims would be difficult even for them. Not just believers can come and go into the Temple.”

“Th-Then what about this guy? Isn’t he a victim, too?”

“It might have worked out had he come forward after getting injured, but it would be difficult with how things are now, especially after he lost against the Martial King today. People would probably think he’s spreading malicious rumors rather than telling the truth.”

“Uuurgh.”

As the Archmage made the Inquisitor understand the reality of this matter, I continued to feel this subtle sense of unease.

We had yet to uncover the source of the Inquisitor’s ‘uncomfortable feeling’, which kept bothering me.

“Damn it, so you guys don’t know what to do, either? Had I known it would turn out like this, I wouldn’t have said anything.”

“Hey, Mister Red Mane. Do you think anything would have changed if you hadn’t said anything?”

“Those guys wouldn’t have paid attention to you anyway. Since we dealt with the people watching you, whatever decision you made, they wouldn’t have noticed either way.”

No matter how much I thought about it, those guys were definitely linked to Demons somehow. Seeing how Deb stayed silent, though, I started wondering whether it really was that big a deal.

But usually, things like that tend to come back to haunt you later on.

“…I didn’t succeed, so I’ll have to try again tomorrow.”

“…Are you talking about fighting the Martial King?”

“Yes.”

“No, but why…?”

“Unless we make him turn himself in, there’s no other way to bring this incident to light! With that in mind, we should at least force him to stop so he can’t create any more victims…!”

“Well, I’m sorry to say this, but I don’t think you’re up to the task.”

“@(%#*%#(!”

Was there truly no other way anymore?

“Is there no other way? Do we really have to leave that vicious criminal to his own devices like that?”

“Hmm.”

“Well, if your skills are up to par, we can make him stop by force like Mister Red Mane here tried. Of course, if you do that, it might alleviate the victims’ suffering a little, but making this matter public would become even more difficult.”

“That’s just revenge using a loophole in the law, though!”

“I knew you would say that, but there’s no method of resolving this matter that you would approve of.”

“Isn’t there any other way?”

“There is a possibility, but it would take a long time. It would be much faster just to sacrifice our social dignity. For example, we could fabricate, I mean, find and expose a certain secret of that guy that would make even the Lord no longer willing to protect him?”

Hold on. I felt like I caught a glimpse of the meat dumpling’s true intentions there, but that might have just been my imagination.

“It would be great if he were somehow involved with Demons… but that possibility is pretty low. Finding a flaw significant enough for the Lord, who even covered up his murders, to cut ties with him is…”

I suddenly broke into a cold sweat at the conversation’s sudden change in topic to conspiracy, intrigue, and politics.

Considering the Deathbringer’s background, it made sense for him to suggest it, but I felt a bit uneasy seeing him like that, given how different he seemed from what I was used to.

“Are you maybe aware of anything like that?”

“Erm, no. I just noticed things had gotten strange around him three months ago. Before that… Well, there were some incidents, but nothing big. Not to the extent you are looking for.”

“That certainly is disappointing. But what happened three months ago? Was there some kind of incident?”

“I don’t really know… We are friends, but we don’t exactly open up to each other about these kinds of things.

“Do you have anything else?”

“Well, this might be nothing much. But the Lord protecting the Martial King does so to protect the latter’s reputation and career. If we manage to destroy the Martial King’s career, the Lord won’t protect the Martial King anymore, so that would be another way, too.”

“I see.”

Deb seemed to agree somewhat with Kankan’s words, which made me feel even more unsettled. It felt like they were saying something like, ‘If we don’t have any facts to attack him with, we’ll just beat him using propaganda and fabrication!’

And if that happened, I was pretty sure the meat dumpling would have to fight the Inquisitor with his life on the line…

“Ah.”

“…?”

“Now that I think about it, I also felt some discomfort when looking at the Martial King. Do you really know nothing else about him?”

That was when the Inquisitor posed a question. Despite her straightforward personality, it seemed she wasn’t all too opposed to ‘Revealing an even greater wrongdoing’.

While she was 100% against fabrication, reporting something that actually happened was acceptable. After all, he would just be paying the price for his sins.

“Well… We have nothing on him for now, but you got the same feeling from the Martial King?”

“Yeah.”

However, she also felt discomfort from the Martial King? Ah, didn’t that practically reek of Demon!? He definitely made some sort of contract with a Demon!?

“Well, the Martial King’s skills suddenly skyrocketed around the time he became the champion. Taking that into consideration, it’s not surprising.”

“What are you talking about?”

Kankan, who was unaware of the ‘discomfort’ the Inquisitor had been feeling, asked with curiosity in his voice. Both Deb and the Archmage raised their eyebrows, figurative exclamation marks above their heads.

“After our iron wall came to this city, she claimed to feel a certain ‘discomfort’ from certain individuals. It’s not because of their actions or appearance or something. She said that she felt something off about them at first glance.”

“I see, so?”

“Since it was Miss Priest here who said it, I thought it might be worth investigating. Surprisingly, all those people had one thing in common, you know?”

“What would that be?”

“All of them experienced a sudden surge in power at some point. Just like the Martial King, who surpassed you five years ago and immediately went to take over the champion’s position.”

“Do you happen to know anything about this? We don’t think this is a coincidence. If so, if something else is involved in this…”

“There’s no scandal as big as the Martial King becoming champion through some tricks rather than legitimate skill. If this turns out to be true, even the Lord won’t cover him anymore.”

Thanks to Kankan’s explanation, I also obtained one more puzzle piece I had been unaware of. I might have acted as if I wasn’t interested, but shouldn’t they still share their information with me… I was glad I was here to hear this.

“…Well, I don’t really know about any tricks he might have used.”

Other than that, what the hell did this guy even know?

“But… I did find it strange at the time. It didn’t look like he’d done any special training or anything, but then he suddenly became stronger… Ah!”

Correction: it seemed he did know something after all.

“You mentioned coming across people you felt uncomfortable around, right? Were they all fighters?”

“From what I heard, yes.”

“Do you know their names and distinguishing characteristics?”

As if sensing that Kankan had noticed something, Deb immediately presented him with the data he’d gathered.

“…I can’t read.”

“…I’ll read it to you.”

While there were some minor issues, it was nothing that couldn’t be taken care of. It just took a bit longer.

“Right, exactly! All these guys were like that, as well! Despite not doing anything out of the ordinary, they just suddenly became stronger! I’m certain!”

“…Well, looks like we were right.”

“There’s no power in this world without a price. There must be something.”

“It doesn’t seem like they made some kind of deal with a Demon. What matters is what they offered in exchange for the power they received.”

And finally, we had found a way.

“Miss Inquisitor, Miss Inquisitor!! Are you here?!”

“…? What’s the matter?”

“Ah, there you are! Please excuse me!”

“Brother? What’s so urgent…?”

“Th-The beacon has been lit! The Demons have begun their invasion!”

Just when I thought we made progress.

Well, life wasn’t life if everything worked out perfectly!

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