Free Web NovelEven after clearing the Ian route tutorial, if Ian still failed to earn the others’ trust, they would begin pressing him to rejoin the king.
At that stage, refusal was no longer an option. Refuse, and the already fragile loyalty of the group would collapse completely. From that point on, no matter how many threats he made or orders he gave, no one would obey him. Desertions would begin soon after.
Either way, if you followed the king’s party, you were guaranteed to run into this massacre.
It was one of the worst events in the game.
It crushed the morale of everyone in the dungeon party and could even inflict status effects like Depression or Despair.
But the real problem came afterward.
If you witnessed the massacre event, there was a small chance of obtaining a three-star character.
Usually, that character came with Depression.
And that Depression was contagious.
“Is that even a thing?” frёewebnoѵēl.com
Could depression really spread like a disease?
The first time Ian played this route, he had carelessly let the newly depressed character mingle with the rest of the group.
Within a week, the entire dungeon party had gone down with Depression.
That run, naturally, had ended in disaster.
On the next run, he isolated the new character instead. No one else became depressed.
The character committed suicide.
Then the rest of the dungeon was saddled with a Guilt status effect for more than a week.
That was how Ian learned one simple rule:
Never leave a depressed character alone.
“Yeah. I figured it wouldn’t be that easy...”
There was only one reliable way to use the new character safely.
He needed to obtain Forgetful Herb from the Fairy Queen’s island and feed it to them.
That herb erased the memories causing the depression.
Once the painful memories were gone, the character would adapt to dungeon life and perform their role just fine.
The problem was that the Fairy Queen’s island was late-game content.
“Ah... Ah...”
“Priest...?”
Sema spoke cautiously to the dazed man.
The depressed priest, Yurian, slowly turned at the sound of his voice. At once, light returned to his eyes.
“Mage Sema? How... how are you—?!”
“Under Lord Ian’s command, we managed to drive the monsters back. We thought we were only buying time, but... what happened here?”
“Ah...”
Yurian covered his face with both hands.
“What a relief. Thank the gods. You lived. You all lived... We merely received what we deserved.”
“Eh?”
“His Majesty abandoned you as bait. It was a cruel, merciless decision. And I—I was too cowardly to oppose it. The gods sent monsters to punish us for that sin. And that person...”
“That person?” Ian asked.
Still drowning in tears, Yurian failed to notice that the voice questioning him had changed.
“Yes... I didn’t realize who he was until after he left. We hid behind the final defensive line, remember? And we sent a plea to the Vatican for aid. They did not abandon us. They sent someone. A man sent for our salvation...”
So who was that person?
Originally, the Vatican was only supposed to send an ordinary group of priests. There had been no one memorable enough to be referred to as “that person.” The pope himself, obviously, was never meant to come.
Ian felt a flicker of surprise—then sharp curiosity.
The story was unfolding differently from what he knew.
Had there been content in the game he’d never uncovered?
“A man beloved by the gods,” Yurian whispered. “One who carries out sacred duty in human form. Sir Keith, the Holy Knight.”
“Sir Keith!”
“...!”
A gasp swept through the group.
This time, even Ian went still.
Keith?
That character should never have appeared on Ian’s route.
Keith was a playable character—just like Ian.
“Wait.”
In the game, you never encountered other playable characters while controlling Ian. That had been a basic design rule. Presumably the developers had done it on purpose; if playable protagonists were allowed to roam freely through the world, the game would become far too easy.
Special characters were supposed to exist one route at a time.
That was what Ian had always assumed.
‘Is he really here?’
If so... did that mean he could recruit other playable characters?
For a split second, it felt like he’d stumbled onto some hidden route.
Then reason returned.
...No.
Ian snapped back to himself. He wasn’t some game-obsessed fanatic. The appearance of a brokenly overpowered character did not fill him with joy.
Sema, far more excited, spoke up first.
“So Sir Keith saved you! But then... why didn’t he take you to the Vatican?”
Yurian’s expression sank into bleak resignation.
“Because I am selfish. And filthy. I am unworthy to follow that man.”
“Eh?”
“That person...” Yurian’s lips trembled. “He truly lived by the words of the gods. When he arrived, there was one other survivor here besides me. Prince Eric.”
“Prince Eric!”
The crowd stirred.
Ian, however, did not even blink.
Eric had never survived this event.
“That person... believed Prince Eric was responsible for the deaths of the others. And... he was not entirely wrong. It was the prince who led us here.”
At that, people began to realize the conversation was turning in a deeply unsettling direction.
Silence fell.
“That person killed Prince Eric. I still do not know why he spared me. Perhaps he thought my blood was too filthy to stain his hands. I should never have abandoned the people in the castle. Before resenting Sir Keith, I should have seen my own sin. Ah... I should have stayed with them. {N•o•v•e•l•i•g•h•t} I should have followed them to the end. This is my sin. I am a sinner. Forgive me. Forgive me, Sir Keith...”
Yurian wept as if his chest were being torn apart.
Then, all at once, he collapsed.
Sema rushed forward and caught him.
“What... what do we do, Lord Ian?”
By now, everyone had understood one thing:
The knight from the Vatican—Sir Keith—had not come to save them.
If he had condemned those who abandoned the castle as sinners, then what did that make them?
The king’s slaughtered party had already shaken them. Now confusion finished what horror had begun.
Had the gods truly abandoned them?
There was only one figure left for them to look to.
The tyrant Ian.
‘......’
Every eye turned toward him at once.
Honestly, though, “hope” was too generous a word for what they felt.
Ian, meanwhile, was thinking about something else entirely.
Depression was one thing, but Yurian also carried that odd Guilt effect.
Had Keith inflicted that too?
‘That fanatic.’
Ian had nothing to say.
It was exactly the sort of thing Keith would do.
The five-star hero, Keith.
[Character]
‘Agent of the Gods’ Keith (★★★★★)
[Reputation]
Agent of the Gods, Holy Knight, Fanatic
[Skills]
Healing: LV.10
Enhancement: LV.10
Swordsmanship: LV.10
⋮
(Expand)
At first glance, Keith looked like the kind of character you could casually pick and coast to the ending with.
In reality, he was a trap hero.
The moment you started his route, your choices shrank to almost nothing.
‘That is not what one who follows the will of the gods should do.’
‘That is a coward’s choice.’
No matter what option the player selected, Keith would charge ahead according to his own principles. Playing him felt less like controlling a character and more like trying to play a game while reading an illustrated saint’s biography.
And yet Ian’s heart still kicked in his chest.
‘If Keith is here... then other playable characters can exist in this world too, right?’
For a moment, it truly did feel like a hidden route.
Then he dragged himself back to reality again.
No. That was beside the point.
He was not the sort of person who got excited just because some absurdly broken character had appeared.
Sema, still uncertain, called to him.
“Um... should we head back to the cave? There aren’t any more survivors, right?”
Even abandoning a depressed character came at a cost. Loyalty would still drop. The others would start thinking:
I could be discarded too.
Ian’s party loyalty was already skating along the edge of disaster. There was no reason to test how close they were to open revolt.
“Yes,” Ian said. “No one else.”
“Then let’s go.”
As he turned back toward the dungeon, Ian’s steps felt oddly light.
‘Who should I recruit first?’
Sema, walking behind him, grew increasingly troubled.
‘He really has lost his mind. What am I supposed to do?’
This new master of his had shown him, for the first time, how valuable his magic could be.
But there was clearly something wrong with his head.
Their entire party had been massacred. The Vatican’s knight had effectively condemned them as sinners. And yet Lord Ian still looked pleased.
As a mage, Sema did not especially care whether the gods judged him sinful.
But it was another matter entirely for his lord to be branded a heretic.
Even in a world like this, people still believed in the gods.
Sema did not want to see his new master’s head mounted outside the cave one day under the name of heresy.
The Southern Demon Duke received word that every monster he had sent out had been slaughtered.
He could not make sense of it.
“How?”
“Yes, well... it appears humans were responsible.”
The aged demon butler bowed his bent back even lower as he spoke.
“Were there not only a few dozen humans?”
“That is what I was told.”
“I do not understand. How could so many monsters be defeated by such a small number of humans? It makes no sense.”
“Yes. None at all.”
“Could one of my monsters have made a false report?”
“No, Your Excellency.”
The butler laid a hand over his heart.
In the demon realm, power was law. The strong ruled; the weak obeyed.
No demon under the Southern Demon Duke would dare lie to him—least of all some lowly monster not even worthy of being called a true demon.
And yet the Southern Demon Duke was the sort of lord who cherished even the lowliest of monsters as though they were his own children.
Had he been the kind of ruler who felt nothing for his subordinates, he would never have let those creatures feast upon the humans who fled into his territory.
He would have devoured them himself.
“My servants were slaughtered at their own banquet table,” the duke said. “How am I supposed to sit still after hearing that?”
“No, Your Excellency. You are not that kind of lord.”
“Prepare the carriage,” said the ruler of the southern lands as he rose. “I’m going myself.”
