When I Realized I Was the Game’s Protagonist, I Decided to Dump Everything on the Dark Hero

Please Rate this Novel 5★ on NovelUpdates!

Chapter 03: Leave the Backup to Me

“That… was a long journey.”

It had been a little over four months since I left Bose.

And now, I had finally arrived at Ornell, a town at the northern edge of Wyack territory.

Of course, I wasn’t done yet.

The territorial capital, Yankur, where Noir lived, was still half a month’s journey away.

The Duchy of Wyack sat right in the middle of Epinant Kingdom—between the royal capital and the Demon Forest that stretched across the kingdom’s southern border.

The northern half of the territory was vast farmland, supplying crops to the entire southern region of the kingdom.

Meanwhile, the southern half of the territory?

Nothing but barren wasteland.

The remnants of the Great Invasion that took place a thousand years ago.

Back then, a demon claiming to be the Demon King had launched an all-out invasion, leading an army of demons and monsters from the Demon Forest.

And their first target?

The Epinant Kingdom—the very kingdom that had a Hero.

The invasion came out of nowhere, and the entire southern region of the kingdom was obliterated.

The last line of defense before the royal capital was…

Wyack territory.

The Duke of Wyack—who was known at the time as the strongest warrior in the kingdom—held the line, suffering massive losses as he bought time for the Hero and reinforcements from other nations to arrive.

Once the Hero’s forces finally joined the battle, the final confrontation against the Demon King’s army began.

In the end, the Hero’s side claimed victory—the Demon King was sealed away, and his army was driven back.

But the damage had been done.

The southern half of Wyack territory, which had been the main battlefield, was reduced to lifeless wasteland.

Even a thousand years later, not a single blade of grass had grown back.

“At this point, that’s gotta be a curse.”

I mean, how the hell does something stay lifeless for a thousand years?

Even in the game, they never explained why.

Some of the magic in the game was crazy powerful, like summoning meteors or burning souls to ash (Meteor and Inferno). But even those shouldn’t have left permanent effects for an entire millennium.

Well, no point dwelling on it. If I get a chance to figure it out, I’ll look into it.

Otherwise? Not my problem.

Incidentally, the spell I’m working toward is that very same Meteor summoning magic.

There were actually stronger spells in terms of raw firepower.

But the problem was—

Some monsters had insane resistance to magic.

Meteor, on the other hand, was different.

It didn’t rely on magic damage.

It summoned an actual asteroid—a giant, fast, blazing-hot, ridiculously heavy rock.

Doesn’t matter if they’re immune to magic—if they get crushed under a giant rock, they’re still dead.

Even enemies that resist physical attacks would still burn or get flattened under its sheer weight and heat.

It’s basically the ultimate brute-force spell.

Of course, right now, I didn’t have nearly enough mana or skill to actually cast it. So for now, I was grinding proficiency using a basic summoning spell—Mana Spears.

I considered Mana Swords, but in the end, I went with spears since they had better reach.

Plus, it helped set me apart from Noir, who was a swordfighter.

So overall?

Pretty solid choice.

“Hmm… Yeah, I got nothing.”

Two days had passed since I arrived in Ornell.

And here I was, holed up in my inn room, stuck in my own thoughts.

See, something had crossed my mind during my travels.

What if Noir was also a reincarnator?

I mean, it’s not like I have to be the only one.

There are plenty of villainous noble reincarnation stories, and it’s not unheard of for a story to have multiple reincarnators.

That said, there were other characters who could also be reincarnation candidates, and if I started thinking about random mob characters being reincarnators too, I’d just go insane.

So I decided to scrap that line of thought entirely. Worrying about anyone other than Noir was just a waste of time.

Now, if Noir was a reincarnator—

It wouldn’t be a problem as long as he was aiming for the Allied Route.

In that case, we could team up and take down the Demon King together.

Leave the backup to me.

The real problem was if he was the “destroy the original plot” type of reincarnator.

If he killed the Demon King on his own, that would actually be great.

But if he saw Blanc as a problem too?

Yeah. That would be very, very bad.

Then there was the worst case scenario—if he was the “run away from the plot” type.

Because then? I wouldn’t be able to dump the Demon King problem on him.

What, he’s gonna settle down in the countryside, live a slow life with a heroine and a fluffy pet?

Hell no. You’re not running off and leaving me with this mess.

So yeah, I’d been thinking about all this the entire trip.

And yet…

“Who was the idiot who said, ‘Once I get to Wyack territory, I’ll figure it out right away’?”

Oh, right.

That was me.

I was sure that if Noir was a reincarnator, he’d either be an adventurer or using cheat-like knowledge.

That’s what I expected.

And yet…

I had nothing.

Not a single clue.

Worse, I barely heard anything about Noir at all. The most I got was stuff like “genius” or “the black-haired prodigy.”

That’s it.

Thinking about it, it made sense.

He was the heir to a ducal family.

Inside noble society, information about him was probably common knowledge.

But among commoners?

The flow of information was tightly controlled—whatever got out was what the duke’s house wanted people to hear.

The only real info I managed to dig up?

His age. Right now, Noir was nine years old.

Which meant?

He wasn’t an adventurer, since you couldn’t register until you turned thirteen and completed the Blessing Ceremony.

So using that as a way to confirm if he was a reincarnator was out of the question.

So yeah—I still had no clue if Noir was a reincarnator or not.

But knowing that he was currently nine years old?

That was actually a huge win.

Because that meant the main story wouldn’t start for another two and a half years.

So…

“Guess I’ll be using this town as my base for a while.”

I had more time than I thought, and if there was even a chance Noir was a reincarnator, getting too close to the duchy’s capital was risky.

If he noticed Blanc’s existence, he might start monitoring me or digging into my past.

And once that happened?

He’d definitely realize something was off.

“I probably stood out way too much on the way here…”

I mean, I was a kid traveling alone. Of course, I stood out.

I lost count of how many times I got targeted by bandits and kidnappers.

But hey, thanks to them, I got a ton of money and experience points.

I can even afford to stay at an inn now—all thanks to them.

So really… much appreciated. Now, rest in peace.

Same goes for that guy who lured monsters toward me, bringing me a steady supply of fresh meat. And the adventurer who kindly taught me about edible wild plants… before trying to rob me.

To both of you—thanks a bunch.

Now, rest in peace.

Of course, I did meet a lot of good people too.

But let’s be honest—it’s always the crazy ones you remember most.

That wasn’t the only reason I decided to make Ornell my base, though.

This area had plenty of good grinding spots for leveling up.

Right now, I had no idea what was going on—not even whether another reincarnator existed.

Which meant, if something went horribly wrong, I needed the strength to run away.

The territorial capital had a huge wasteland to the south, which meant fewer monsters.

There were some dungeons near the capital, but they were heavily monitored, and there was no way they’d let a kid like me inside.

So yeah, Ornell was the better choice.

“Alright, time to start training like crazy.”