Ch.126[Chapter 126] King of Roguelike

A wise person would ask this.

Since Alice and Sir Dominic are connected, attacking Alice could summon Sir Dominic.

This is correct, but there were two flaws in this reasoning.

First, Unryu Hime thought this movement was Sir Dominic’s special skill, but she didn’t understand the exact mechanism. Second, Sir Dominic and Hime were currently on a date, maintaining a friendly party status.

It’s common knowledge in Gacha Land that forming a friendly party prevents friendly fire and damage between allies.

And Unryu Hime, recognized by Sir Dominic as knowledgeable about Gacha Land, was bound by this common sense and couldn’t even think of attacking Alice.

Instead, Hime sought Sir Dominic using the benefit gained from forming this friendly party.

She utilized the feature that displays HP bars and names when team members are in the same area.

“Over there!”

Hime immediately turned on the party option and spotted a densely packed HP bar that looked like a barcode.

That density could never belong to a regular dealer—it must be Sir Dominic.

Hime jumped from rooftop to rooftop with Alice on her shoulder.

“My master is under attack!”

Alice cried urgently from her shoulder.

“I know!”

Hime had been speaking respectfully to Alice, but given the situation, she abandoned formality completely.

She watched the health bar that kept decreasing slightly before recovering again, guessing that Sir Dominic was fighting something.

With smoke hanging low and the alleys tangled like a maze, she couldn’t tell what Sir Dominic was fighting, but getting there quickly was the priority.

Leaping across building rooftops as if flying, Hime soon realized this was where Sir Dominic was fighting.

The HP bar was visible at its closest, and she could hear the sounds of clashing metal and flesh being cut.

“Next!”

Sir Dominic’s voice came from below.

From what she could glimpse through the smoke, Sir Dominic might be facing at least four opponents.

Hime bit her lip as she looked down toward where Sir Dominic would be.

“Alice, we’re going to rescue Sir Dominic now. Understand?”

“…Yes!”

As soon as Alice agreed, Hime took a deep breath and stood at the edge of the building.

Then she dropped straight down into the smoke below.

The smoke—white and seemingly fluffy, yet neither white nor fluffy—swallowed Hime.

…

“…Brigadier General Joseph.”

Sir Dominic glared at the woman dressed as an empress.

With her pointed hair and teeth—unique features even in Gacha Land—Sir Dominic immediately recognized her identity.

“Why are you there? With the people of Mountain Bridge Marsh?”

Sir Dominic raised his sword, wary of Brigadier General Joseph.

But Brigadier General Joseph only looked at Sir Dominic with sad eyes.

“That person desires you.”

“Desires me? Who?”

“You don’t need to know. It will happen simply because that person wishes it.”

Sir Dominic realized something was wrong with Brigadier General Joseph’s condition.

Her words and actions were arrogant and haughty, but her eyes—those eyes alone—shone sadly and pitifully, as if pleading.

“Choose.”

Don’t choose at all, her eyes seemed to say.

“Whether you’ll come under that person…”

Brigadier General Joseph raised her ornate sleeve to cover her mouth and smiled coquettishly.

“Or refuse and die.”

Sir Dominic understood the correct answer from Brigadier General Joseph’s eyes.

She closed her eyes at the same moment she told him to refuse.

There was room to consider this an overinterpretation, but Sir Dominic thought she was sending some kind of signal.

And Sir Dominic was a man who never looked back once he made a decision.

“I refuse.”

“You refuse?”

The expressions of the women surrounding Sir Dominic turned vicious.

To them, that person was like a god.

Sir Dominic, who not only “chose” when that person had already decided, but even “refused,” was worse than heretics, evil sects, or bandits.

“Empress! Please allow me to behead this man!”

But they couldn’t attack Sir Dominic immediately.

They were bound by a kind of taboo, believing they would be abandoned by that person the moment they broke it.

A choice appeared before the Empress… no, Brigadier General Joseph.

The option before the women was [Grant permission.]

And the option before Sir Dominic was [Forgive.]

Brigadier General Joseph struggled to reach the option in front of Sir Dominic, but by some inevitable force, she ended up pressing [Grant permission.]

Frustration filled her eyes.

It was too late to turn back now.

“Anyway.”

Whether he knew this or not, Sir Dominic simply rotated his shoulders while looking at the phantom-like women appearing and disappearing in the mist.

Sir Dominic was immersed in a completely happy feeling for the first time in a long while.

This was partly because he hadn’t experienced this level of crisis for some time, but…

“Opening! Die!”

When Sir Dominic smiled with a “hmph,” one woman, thinking he was distracted, thrust her sword.

The thrust was so textbook perfect that it appeared as a dot in Sir Dominic’s pupil, and it was a fatal blow for Sir Dominic, who lacked spatial awareness.

However, Sir Dominic swung his sword, connecting the flat sides like magnets, then moved his sword so that the guard of his sword touched the tip of the thrust.

“Huh?”

Using the difference in position like a lever, the woman’s attack was pathetically deflected sideways, exposing an opening where the tip of Sir Dominic’s sword pierced the back of her neck.

“Kyaak!”

Sir Dominic’s sword completely penetrated the woman’s neck, killing her before she could even scream, but the scream actually came from another woman.

Where was I in my thoughts?

Right. Sir Dominic was partly happy because he hadn’t experienced this level of crisis in a long time, but there was another reason he was smiling mockingly at them.

Rushing at the Sir Dominic of Feralant without thick leather, armor, sharp swords, teeth, or claws?

Sir Dominic was a knight.

And he was also a warrior who was happiest on the battlefield—in other words, one who fought like a madman.

Though he had been tempered by various experiences since coming to Gacha Land, including reuniting with his sister, his essence remained close to that of a war machine.

Sir Dominic wasn’t someone who overcame war through thought.

He was someone who continued battle through instinct.

And that instinct whispered to Sir Dominic.

That they were merely third-rate.

Sir Dominic continued to smile happily.

“…Attack!”

As if forgetting all formality, the women charged at Sir Dominic with their weapons.

Sir Dominic tapped the wall with the back of his sword, taunting them.

“Next!”

Just like a senior knight toying with a junior knight’s swordsmanship.

…

The battle between Sir Dominic and the armed women continued tediously.

Sir Dominic faced the women using his superior experience, while the women pressured Sir Dominic with their numbers.

Due to the nature of the alley, it was difficult for more than two or three to attack at once, so Sir Dominic had a slight advantage so far.

However, Sir Dominic was a tank, which meant his DPS wasn’t very high.

When Sir Dominic took down one, two would revive; when he took down two, three would arrive.

At this rate, Sir Dominic would collapse from exhaustion first.

But Sir Dominic still appeared fine and continued to taunt the women.

“Next!”

Sir Dominic kicked away a woman who had stupidly charged in without learning and died after being stabbed once each in the neck, heart, and solar plexus.

And Brigadier General Joseph just stood elegantly, watching Sir Dominic with sad eyes.

‘Why am I in the captured princess position?’

She thought to herself.

He had already cut down seventy-three women, but due to Gacha Land’s characteristic of revival as long as there was value, the number of kills meant nothing.

This also meant he still had to deal with more than seventy-three women.

Sir Dominic was gradually becoming exhausted.

But he didn’t show it.

Sir Dominic knew well that showing weakness in this situation would boost the enemy’s morale, causing them to charge like wolves.

Although he had no way to overcome the situation right now, he didn’t need to deliberately put himself at a disadvantage.

“Next!”

Maybe I should just die, he thought.

Even as he thought this, his hand had already taken another woman’s heart.

That’s when it happened.

“Master!”

The smoke swirled in a circle in the sky, and then through a small hole, a red-burning sky became visible.

And through that gap appeared a kunoichi and an anachronistic being.

“Ah.”

Sir Dominic realized his thinking had been wrong.

“Sir Dominic! We’re here to help!”

It wasn’t that there was no way to overcome the situation.

He simply hadn’t thought of it.

Unryu Hime and Alice stood on either side of Sir Dominic, taking battle positions.

The second round was beginning.