〈QUEST COMPLETE〉 Infamy +1,000p
My insides were still boiling. Those pieces of trash. Kidnapping Luna, of all people. Luna was an NPC I was fond of. And setting all that aside, she was a truly kind, plucky apprentice cleric.
Originally, when I played the good faction, the event had some unnamed extra get taken instead of Luna. But because I’d burned the temple down so thoroughly, Luna had left it and ended up staying at an inn... and that seemed to be how she’d become their target.
Still, thank goodness I wasn’t too late.
I took a deep breath and checked the infamy points I’d gathered. The number that surfaced in front of me was 3,000p.
The 2,000 points I’d just earned offering up the souls of twelve heretics, and the 1,000 I’d received for clearing the sudden quest, “Offer 30 souls.” Maybe because of the peculiarity of their being heretics who served the Demon King, the score assigned per soul had been fairly high. The total that had piled up came to 3,000p.
Looking at that number, I barely managed to settle myself.
Right. The process was a mess, but going purely by results, everything worked out. I gathered plenty of points, and I protected the person I needed to protect. That should be enough.
I poured every point into raising my skills. The plan was to use those raised skills to destroy the holy knights’ warehouses, collect the points, and then grow Theo to eighteen.
Shane (half-demon, age 125)
Stats (□/10) Strength 6 Magic 5 Resistance 7 Agility 8 Accuracy 5
Skills Innate skills: Flame Lv. 3 → Lv. 4 Stealth Lv. 2 → Lv. 3 Disguise Lv. 1
Acquired skills: Locksmith Lv. 1 → Lv. 4
The points required climbed exponentially as skill levels rose, so nothing shot up dramatically. Still, Locksmith at level 4 put me in master thief territory, more or less.
With that, I really was finished preparing to lay hands on the holy knights’ armories.
I had 100 points left over after all that, and I set them aside just in case.
In any case, the warehouses had to burn tonight. The reason was clear. Most of the holy knights had left to put down monsters that had appeared near the capital. Back when I played as Rihen, I’d taken part in that battle myself.
What remained at their headquarters now were comparatively less experienced knights. Which meant a force I stood a better chance against. With Stealth grown to level 3, I could definitely make an opening.
To begin with, I wasn’t trying to subdue the entire order and win. I had neither reason nor capacity for that. The goal was a single thing. Set the warehouses on fire, ruin the equipment, and disappear as fast as possible. With that goal, my odds were realistic.
I’m sorry, knights. To make up for it, I’ll gather lots of points and buy you good equipment from the shop. Something far more precious than what I destroyed.
Repinal, Goddess of Dawn, please permit me to be a righteous villain again today.
Offering up a pointless prayer to loosen my nerves, I steeled myself.
Sentries stood in front of the holy knights’ armories tonight as well. Honestly, at some point they’d started to wonder what the point even was. Even warehouse seven, said to hold the least valuable stock, had layers of artisan-made locks fitted over it, and the warehouse itself was a structure cast not from ordinary iron but from an alloy mixed with special mana stone. No normal strength could ever break it.
Still, rules were rules. The knights on sentry duty that night traded jokes with one another as they guarded the doors.
“At this level, even the Thirteenth Commander couldn’t get it open.”
“Forget the Thirteenth Commander. Even the Demon King couldn’t.”
That was when it happened. A wind blew. A pressure, as though the air had suddenly sunk downward, fell over the ground around the warehouses. The flames of the lanterns wavered as one, then went out at a stroke.
“...?”
The instant the knights took up their guard and gripped their swords, the outline of a man emerged from the deep shadow in front of the warehouse. His face couldn’t be perceived. Only the pendant set with a red gem shone like a nightmare.
The Thirteenth Corps Commander had arrived.
“Enemy!”
The knights charged the moment the shout went up, but it was already too late. Black fire surged up like a wall and cut between the commander and the knights.
The commander stood in front of the warehouse without even turning his head. A black-gloved hand brushed over the lock. The mechanism came undone without a sound. No clicking of teeth, no grinding of metal. Just as though it had been open all along.
“What... what is this...”
While someone muttered it under their breath, the commander opened the door. The weapons piled inside came into view. Spears and swords, armor and shields. The arms the holy knights had prided themselves on.
The commander snapped his fingers. Black flames bloomed from every direction. The ominous fire swallowed the weapons, wavering strangely. The equipment burned with a low, unpleasant keening. Swords and shields lost their shapes one by one and collapsed.
The enemy didn’t stop. While warehouse seven came down, he was already moving toward his next target. Before the flames had entirely died, the commander vanished as if seeping into the darkness, and a few breaths later he was standing on the roof of warehouse six.
The knights reacted quickly.
“Above!”
“Mage, light!”
An orb of light rose into the air. The commander crouched low, leapt from the high edge of the roof, and changed direction in midair. A movement that would have been impossible for a human. His black cloak snapped in the wind and spread like wings.
The knights unleashed everything at once. Swords rushed in and spears flew. Arrows poured down like rain. It seemed like some had struck, and also like every one had gone wide. Either way, what was certain was that the commander still looked perfectly fine. The pitch-black shadow wavered and then melted into the dark.
“Damn it, where did he-”
Before the words were out, the door of warehouse six opened. This time the commander didn’t even go inside. He reached a hand through the half-open gap and simply dropped a single spark on the floor. Black flames rolled in like a wave.
Warehouse five.
This time the knights formed up in advance. A shield wall went up, and a magic circle reinforcing fire resistance was drawn on the ground.
“Stop him, whatever it takes!”
“By all means, try, if you can.”
The commander laughed low and raised his hand. Fire erupted from the ground and grabbed at the knights’ ankles. A momentary terror clawed at their minds, and the formation broke for just an instant.
The commander didn’t miss that split-second gap. He stepped onto the shield wall and vaulted lightly over it. The door of warehouse five opened. And once again came the sound of snapping fingers. Black fire burst out.
The last to burn was warehouse four.
The holy knights had already fallen into a panic. With their key personnel all drawn away, it was that much more devastating. Over the course of four warehouses burning one after another, the commander was never once properly pinned down. Attacks didn’t land, no demonic energy could be felt, and the place he appeared was different every time.
The fires burned in a chain, as though resonating with one another. Beneath a night sky as black as the commander’s uniform, four of the holy knights’ armories blazed away.
And at the center of it, the commander slipped back into the shadows. What remained was burning wreckage, knights who had gripped their swords and been able to do nothing, and the terror and sense of defeat that had lodged itself bitterly in every one of their heads.
“Ah, fuck, that hurts...”
Knights, are you planning to turn a man into a hedgehog?
I clenched my teeth and gripped the arrow lodged in my shoulder. When I put force into my hand, a pain like something scraping bone went through me. As the arrowhead came free, the blood that had been dammed up burst out.
“Haah, haah...”
Two in my side, two more in my thigh. I went through the same process and pulled them all out. My breathing turned ragged and groans slipped out of me.
I’d taken five arrows and held out on bravado alone, but now I really was at my limit. My muscles trembled with every movement, and every breath in felt like it was pulling the wounds open. My heart pounded, spreading the pain through my whole body.
I opened the shop window. The system recommended an item suited to the situation.
〈Looks Fine on the Outside, So It’s Fine? Cut-Rate Recovery Potion〉 100p
The product name made me uneasy somehow, but it was the only item my current points could buy. I drank it right away. As the bitter liquid went down my throat, the wounds closed rapidly. The torn flesh knitted together and the bleeding stopped. Marks that looked exactly like kiss marks were left behind, but that much was fine.
There was one problem, though. My body was whole again, but the pain was unchanged. A dull throbbing remained at every spot an arrow had come out of.
If I’d known, I’d have kept more points in reserve. I regretted it after the fact.
Meanwhile the knights had no attention to spare, busy putting out the warehouse fires. I could see them running here and there hauling water. I picked one of them and quietly followed him.
He was walking toward the well. As luck would have it, there was no one else there. I closed in fast and struck the back of his neck precisely with the edge of my hand. The knight went limp without managing a proper groan. I stripped off his helmet and armor and put them on, then stuffed the unconscious man into a nearby tangle of vines.
And then I blended in among the knights as if nothing had happened.
In front of warehouse one. Pretending to inspect the barrier, I laid a hand on the door and slyly used Locksmith. Unraveling the grain of the mana bit by bit, I undid the lock without drawing attention.
Just about when the barrier was nearly undone,
“Does an inspection normally take this long?”
A voice came from behind me. A knight who carried the weight of years, the most seasoned-looking of the lot.
“What was tonight’s countersign again?”
“...”
There was no way I’d know that. I pretended to think it over, then grinned.
“Long live the Demon King?”
Every knight’s eyes fixed on me at once.
“It’s him!”
And at the same moment, I tore the last of the barrier open. The warehouse door swung wide.
