The Villainous Noble Tried His Hardest to Break the Original Storyline, and Now the Heroines Are Acting Weird - 37-38

Chapter 37

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If things went according to the game, there were four Demon Lords to defeat. Of the remaining three, they were friendly toward humans and could be persuaded with the right approach. Maybe, depending on how it was done, even all four of them might be open to negotiation.

…Except for the Demon Lord of Wrath, who was portrayed as thoroughly evil. Negotiation with that one would be practically impossible. It didn’t matter how it was done. For me, clearing the game meant creating an environment where the Hero’s life wasn’t constantly in danger.

“You… You can defeat the Demon Lords? No matter how much damage they take, they don’t even get a scratch, you know? It’s said that without the Hero’s power, it’s impossible to hurt them.”

“I don’t know how things will turn out. But I have no intention of waiting around for the Hero.”

Because I couldn’t let my little sister live a harsh life. At the very least, if things followed the game, I knew that dealing damage was possible. Up to this point, I had managed everything using only my game knowledge. So I believed I’d be okay.

“You… You can’t wait for the Hero?”

“…Yeah. Even now, somewhere in this world, the demonkin are out there, spreading despair among people. …I don’t want to watch people suffer like that. …When will the Hero appear? …How many people will suffer while we wait? …I just couldn’t sit still after thinking about that.”

Having said that much, no one would suspect that the real reason was simply because I was worried about my little sister. I wanted to do something about the demonkin before fighting the Demon Lords.

The demonkin were under the protection of the Demon Lords, so they had the same auto-regeneration ability. If I could take one of them down, it would turn my theory into conviction—and then I could face the Demon Lords with hope.

But since the demonkin didn’t always stay in the human world, those chances didn’t come around very often.

“………Rubest-san, you’re… amazing.”

“I’m not really amazing. I haven’t accomplished anything yet. It’s Aifi, who goes around the city talking to people and helping them. She’s the truly amazing one.”

I knew that she regularly talked with the townspeople in various parts of the city. Even in the game, she was well-loved by everyone. I was sure many people had been emotionally saved by her.

“…! …Thank you very much. …I’ll keep doing my best, too… So that I can stand beside you…!”

“Hm? …Ah, yeah, well, do your best.”

Right now, Aifi had a lot on her plate. She still had to go through rehabilitation for her legs so I figured she meant that part literally. If Aifi got stronger, maybe things would be easier for me too. I really wanted her to succeed. I didn’t know how things would turn out for her, but the fact that her legs could move again definitely wasn’t a bad sign.

“I’ll do my best too, of course!”

Seeing Aifi’s enthusiasm, Sasha also clenched her fist with a smile on her face. Well, I couldn’t afford to fall behind those two either. I had to work even harder.

After that, I spent some time going to the dungeon with Sasha and training in live combat scenarios. But today, we had plans to do healing work in the morning. Apparently, Golsh-san knew a few people who had been injured by demonkin, and today we were scheduled to treat them.

I sat with Golsh-san in a room in the mansion, waiting. Eventually, three people arrived. One man, two women. All of them seemed to have injuries to their arms or eyes. The moment I saw them, I felt a strange sense of familiarity.

“Golsh, what’s this? Why did you summon us so suddenly?”

The man seemed to be the representative and addressed Golsh-san.

“Sorry for the abrupt call, Eld. I had something I needed to take care of…”

Eld, huh. After racking my brain, I remembered that he was a character from the game too.  Eld, Ruby, and Bruna. These three had fought the demonkin as Aifi’s subordinates. They didn’t have a major role. They simply took part in the battle to allow the Hero to escape, held off the demonkin, and were killed in return.

It wasn’t Aifi who had hired them. They probably had a connection to Golsh-san.

“Something to take care of? Some kind of job request or what?”

What were Eld and the others doing now, I wondered? Were they working as part of the anti-Demon Lord faction, or just ordinary adventurers? Golsh-san gave a wry smile at Eld’s question.

“Well, something like that.”

“I don’t mind a job request, but please, no more hassle than necessary, alright? Look at the state we’re in after the last one.”

Eld smiled and gestured slightly toward where his left arm used to be. He was trying to act cheerful, but the state of his body was pretty gory. Golsh-san lowered his gaze apologetically.

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Chapter 38

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“I’m sorry. I ended up putting all the responsibility on you…”

“No, no, don’t apologize. We did it of our own volition.”

Eld, of course, nodded, and so did Ruby and Bruna. It looked like Ruby and Bruna had lost an eye and an arm respectively. That happened in the game too. Ruby and Bruna each had an eye covered with an eyepatch.

“…What happened?”

Since the game didn’t delve deeply into this either, I asked Golsh-san, and he hastily opened his mouth to explain.

“Ah, sorry. They’re adventurers from this town. …Just the other day, they tried to suppress some rampaging demons in town, and ended up like this.”

“…Rampaging in town? So, the demons came here?”

“Yeah. Apparently they didn’t have any particular reason, but they said something about needing to harvest negative energy or whatever. They were subordinates of Bryunas. These guys fought to stop them, but this is what happened.”

The demons really did whatever they wanted, huh. Now that I thought about it, there was a random demon attack event in the game too. After the Hero became a wanted man, those events started popping up all over the place, forcing the Hero to make a choice.

Help, or abandon. That decision would affect the Hero’s virtue points, which would in turn slightly change the ending cutscene. Well, still, helping them on the first playthrough was tough. The demons were insanely strong and could easily cause a game over.

You had to prepare really well to stand a chance against the demons and it looked like those random events were happening in this world too.

I’m not the Hero, so I probably don’t have anything like virtue points, but… I wonder?

『All humans have virtue points.』

『Oh yeah? What’s mine looking like?』

『You currently have 100.』

『…Why is that?』

『It spiked when you performed the healing, so that’s probably the reason.』

Ah, I see. Then I guess my virtue points won’t plummet all of a sudden.

So the demon rampage events weren’t necessarily about chasing the Hero, but rather just part of their usual random incursions and now the frequency had increased.

“That’s how it is. But don’t worry about it. We’re not blaming you or anything. …By the way, who are you, anyway? You’re not Golsh’s kid or anything, right?”

Eld tilted his head. Well, considering they didn’t know me, that question was understandable.

“I’m the eldest son of the Fortas family, Rubest Fortas.”

“The Fortas family… So you’re from Ecleana! I’ve been there a few times myself. It’s a nice town.”

As I chatted with Eld, who wore a bright, friendly smile, the door to the room opened. Aifi and Sasha came in. Sasha was pushing Aifi’s wheelchair. When Eld turned his gaze in their direction, he tilted his head again.

“So? What’s with all the people gathered here?”

Just as Eld said that, Aifi gave a slightly mischievous smile. I understood what that smile meant right away. She rolled up to the front of the three, then stood up using the wheelchair for support.

In front of the three who widened their eyes in shock, she walked with light, lively steps, and then bowed politely. Eld, Ruby, and Bruna stared at her in sheer amazement.

“Wha—!? Aifi, you could walk!? You were hiding the fact that you could walk this whole time!?”

“No, not at all. I only just recently became able to walk again.”

“U-Uh… What do you mean? Your injury healed well somehow or something?”

“He healed me.”

Aifi said, gesturing proudly toward me and turning her gaze my way. Eld looked at me for a while, clearly struggling to piece things together.

“…Wait, are you some kind of amazing mage or something, Rubest?”

“…D-Don’t just brush it off with ‘amazing mage’ comment…”

“…No matter how amazing a mage may be… No one can heal legs that can’t move.”

Ruby and Bruna interjected as Eld gawked in surprise. Golsh-san smiled happily and nodded.

“That’s right. He is an amazing mage. And that’s why, I wanted to talk to you all.”

“…To us?”

Gulp. 

Eld swallowed hard. Golsh-san looked at him seriously.

“Someday…We might face a full-scale war with the demons. Before that happens, I want our house to be prepared. And for that, I’d like to ask for your cooperation.”

So Golsh-san had been thinking that far ahead. Personally, I had no intention of forcing anyone to fight.

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