I Obtained the Final Boss' Power

Chapter 28 : Emergency Situation (5)

Emergency Situation (5)

"Tutorial village?"

At that bizarre statement, Silia tilted her head in confusion.

"What do you mean by that?"

"To put it simply..."

After pondering how to explain, Louis spoke again.

"Have you ever read a novel, by any chance?"

"A novel?"

Silia, once a noble, had read countless books.

Especially novels—she frequently read them after her classmates at the academy recommended a few when she first enrolled.

"Of course, I've read plenty. There's more than one or two works I read because of my friends."

"In those novels, what sort of existence is the protagonist?"

"What do you think?"

The genre didn't matter at all. Even outside of novels, there's something protagonists are fundamentally expected to have.

"They're portrayed as special. Very much so."

Coincidentally, most of the novels recommended by her academy friends were romance stories.

It was usually the type where a powerless female lead found herself surrounded by countless men.

Yet, no matter how far the story was from battle, the protagonist's uniqueness always stood out.

Even if they started out incompetent, they'd eventually grow and become the key to every event in the end.

"What if there was a village where those protagonists were born?"

In Louis's original world, they called the protagonist something else: a playable character.

When creating a character in a game, there's always a starting point.

For Louis, his homeland, the domain of Seifert, was that starting place.

"Then you could go meet them in person."

"Do you know what they look like?"

"There's always a description of their appearance, so I suppose you could look for them with that."

Of course, as a character in a work, there's a face. But the game Louis played had been different.

Playable characters in this world could be customized.

Everything from the character's gender to appearance and even height could be set however the player wanted.

Otherwise, the protagonist was essentially a faceless character. In fact, even the protagonist's default name was never revealed.

From a player's perspective, it wasn't possible to confirm what the protagonist looked like within the world.

Even the protagonist's profession wasn't just one or two options, so there might not even have been a single protagonist.

"Yeah. It would've been nice if you could at least recognize the face."

"So... that tutorial village—is it actually the village you originally lived in?"

Louis smirked at Silia's sharp intuition.

The whole village now lay burned to the ground, and the lord was dead.

"It existed before, but now it's gone."

All that remained were pieces of ruined buildings scattered about. You couldn't even find traces of the villagers anymore.

The journey for the protagonists—who should have become heroes or outlaws—had been derailed too.

"But those protagonists haven't disappeared."

"What do you mean?"

As Silia voiced her doubt, Louis glanced toward his squadmates chewing on candy and smiling.

Silia quickly picked up on Louis's gaze.

"No way..."

"I'm only telling you since, thanks to the deputy-commander, we managed to drag that bastard Rejir over here. Of course, I'm sure you would've realized those kids were unusual anyway, even if I didn't say so."

No matter how sharp-eyed Silia was, her first reaction had been skepticism.

How could children who grew up in a peaceful village manage to defeat battle-hardened soldiers from the demon realm?

Even with training, how could they adapt to the demon realm?

The level of training needed to help those kids adjust would have to be absolutely extreme.

No wonder the duel earlier still felt unbelievable even after reconsidering it.

"So, what do you think? They don't look like ordinary kids anymore, almost as if they're protagonists straight out of a novel, right?"

"To be honest, it's still hard to believe that those kids are anything like protagonists, but their talent definitely isn't ordinary. But don't tell me all ten of them are extraordinary?"

The only ones who actually sparred were Dimo and Rio; Louis couldn't be certain about the rest, but he thought the likelihood was high.

"The very fact that they were drafted into the 7th Legion instead of being taken as slaves is proof enough. It means they've been identified as suitable for combat."

The 7th Legion conscripts people who have shown a modicum of skill or potential.

Special artifacts in the hands of slave traders measure this talent to determine whether a person should be used as a slave or sent to the legion.

Those crystal-ball-like devices had designated these kids as soldiers for the 7th Legion.

"There were survivors hiding underground in the village. My father, the lord, had prepared it as an emergency shelter, but the slave traders found it anyway."

All the residents who'd hidden in the underground shelter ended up dragged away by the slave traders.

Only ten among them were identified as suitable for the 7th Legion.

But why were only the children chosen? Even the slave traders themselves looked puzzled while using the artifact. Louis saw it clearly.

"So those kids were brought in like that?"

Silia clicked her tongue at the barbaric methods of slave traders who abducted homeless survivors.

But those slave traders had always been closely tied to the 7th Legion.

Past or present, they were people you couldn't do without, which left her feeling somewhat empty.

"But I guess that artifact didn't lie. Not a single one of them died after a month as trainees."

Trainee life in the 7th Legion was almost like a survival game.

The training was so brutally intense it could cost you your life, but these kids had survived it.

"So, I've been a bit regretful. I overprotected those kids during their month as trainees."

"And why is that a bad thing?"

Even trained mercenaries could easily die during training.

To have protected one's squadmates in that hell was hardly wrong at all.

But what Louis was considering was that the squad had experienced comparatively little danger.

"Because I stood at the forefront, these kids accumulated very little experience. So little that they couldn't even notice their own talent."

Louis took care of most of the issues, so the squad members were mostly protected.

Of course, unlike Louis, they could've died in an instant.

Protection was natural, but they had few chances to act on their own.

"The more I protected them, the greater their fear grew. Especially here—it's the perfect place to accumulate fear."

Under these circumstances, would their self-confidence ever fully blossom?

As a result, they could only believe themselves too weak to even catch beasts lesser than monsters.

"So their excellent talent was shrouded by fear."

"That's why, whenever friction occurred with the other soldiers, they'd panic. They just didn't know their own hidden strength."

It was only today that they'd finally demonstrated that strength.

Until now, Louis—being overwhelmingly strong—made it impossible for them to sense their own power.

They were like master-crafted blades forged by the finest master craftsman.

But if you've never actually cut anything, you'd begin to doubt whether you're a real weapon or not.

In that sense, Louis was an immovable mountain that could never be cut.

After swinging their blades at something impossible to cut for so long, they never built any confidence.

"In short, they were just unlucky with their matchups."

Still, thanks to this latest incident, they'd at least built a strong foundation.

After a month as trainees, their sense for the 7th Legion should be firmly grounded.

The tutorial originally meant to be completed around the domain had actually played out in that hellish month of training.

"Wait—then what about you?"

The squad was one thing. But a greater question now lurked in Silia's mind.

"Are you also one of those—protagonist-like types?"

There had been one constant in all Louis's explanations so far.

When talking about those extraordinarily talented squad members, Louis never included himself.

"Those kids are exceptional, but the most extraordinary one of all is you."

During the recent excursion, Silia saw Louis's outlandish strength for herself.

The way he toppled a demon she herself struggled with, as if it were nothing, still left her speechless.

And he'd said he protected his squad for an entire month of training?

In other words, he'd survived life-or-death training while handicapping himself by carrying them.

"It might be odd to ask now, but I'm suddenly curious."

For Louis, revealing his own identity was no big deal.

The problem was, he couldn't predict how he'd be treated if he let it slip right now.

Furthermore, there existed many organizations in this world that were mortally afraid of the Chaos Dragon.

The Holy Nation, which boasted as much territory and military might as the empire, was a prime example.

At this point, there was nothing he could really gain by telling her. There was something else he needed right now.

"Just think of me as an unusual soldier, elder sister."

When Louis replied with a bright smile, Silia's face immediately stiffened.

To win over the support of the officers, Louis always addressed them as if they were family.

By now, he did it by sheer habit.

"..."

Silia closed her mouth, looking dazed.

Had the things he said during their trip outside just gone in one ear and out the other?

No matter how many times she told him not to call her elder sister, he continued anyway, making her chest burn with frustration.

At this point, it was nearly an open provocation—something she couldn't lightly shrug off. In the end, Silia raised her hand, marked with a spell pattern.

'It's here!'

Finally, it's come! Louis cheered silently.

It would be the first time he received a sponsor's touch since returning from the excursion.

"Who said you could call me elder sister?"

"Huh?"

Instead of activating her spell, Silia grabbed Louis's cheek and tugged.

Of course, being Louis, he didn't feel any pain—but he was certainly puzzled.

"Schorry abow dis (Sorry about this)... Why not tortchure me? (Why not torture me?)"

"Torture? Even that's too good for you!"

Silia started pulling Louis's cheeks with both hands. Louis was dumbfounded at her sudden change in attitude.

She used to sponsor him so generously—why go soft now?

This made things a bit difficult, so Louis decided to push his provocation up a notch.

"If you don't like being called elder sister, I guess grandmother fits better! With all that white hair, doesn't that prove you're old?"

"..."

Silia's face turned deadly serious at those words. Something bubbling inside her felt like it was about to explode.

"So anyone with white hair has to be considered old?"

"Especially you, elder sister! Looks like you've got plenty of wrinkles too."

"Do you even know who gave me these wrinkles?"

Grinding her teeth, Silia forced herself to suppress her rage with all she had.

But the more she endured, the more her wrinkles seemed to grow.

If this went on, she'd truly grow old from stress soon. Even so, Silia kept holding it in.

"That's enough."

Silia let go of Louis's cheeks. Louis was greatly disappointed by Silia's remarkable patience.

Was it because the recent trip had made her more attached to him?

"And be honest with me."

Just as Louis wondered if maybe she really wasn't fit as his sponsor after all—

"This didn't hurt at all, did it?"

Silia showed Louis the back of her hand, engraved with spell patterns, her eyes sharp as if she'd caught onto something.

****

"Damn it!"

Having just been drafted, Rejir was still burning with resentment.

He believed he'd done nothing wrong, yet had been dragged to a place like this.

Worse, the timing couldn't have been worse.

Normally, there would have been a month of training, but with the stampede looming, there was no time for that.

With a horde of monsters soon to face, there was no spare time to train new recruits.

He'd heard well enough through the grapevine just how terrifying monsters from the demon realm were.

Because of that, Rejir couldn't stop trembling in mounting anxiety.

"Move faster!"

Currently, Rejir was scrambling with other soldiers to gather supplies.

He was trying to find gear—like a rucksack and a longsword—that suited him, but his hands were particularly slow.

"Why are you so sluggish? Want to die by my hand before you become monster food?"

Rejir boiled at the officer knight's comment.

"Do you have any idea who I am?"

"Who? Of course I do."

With that, the knight activated a spell.

"You're just another lowly soldier, aren't you?"

"Graaaahh!!"

An overwhelming wave of pain shoved Rejir down.

Though well-versed in magic, Rejir had no idea how to break free from it.

He doubted there was even a way.

"Wait."

Just then, someone stopped the knight's torture.

The knight jumped in surprise at the newcomer.

"Kadim, sir!"

With an officer above a regular knight making his appearance, the knight stopped at once.

This wasn't just any officer, either—this was Kadim, said to be the strongest among the officers.

"I'll be taking him off your hands for a while."

"Yes, sir..."

No one dared to object to Kadim's decision.

Thanks to that, Kadim was able to drag the collapsed Rejir away to a secluded spot.

"S-save me..."

Once Kadim dropped him onto the ground, Rejir barely managed to move his lips.

"Lucky bastard."

Kadim snorted and pulled a letter from his pocket.

"Huh?"

Rejir's eyes went wide the moment he saw it.

"I'll help you from now on. In return, you'll do as we say."

At Kadim's request, Rejir nodded his head vigorously.