Ch.294The Acknowledging Princess NPC. (1)

[You’re applying the brakes.]

“Eh? Ragni, you’re saying you’re putting brakes on yourself?”

It was the day when Ragni received stats from the academy professors and assistants and trained in swordsmanship with Rey.

[Yes. Just between us here. Ragni’s stats are already higher than yours, Rey.]

“…Eh? T-then, does that mean I’m weaker…?”

[No, combat ability isn’t determined by stats alone. Simply put, my strength stat is higher than Master’s, but I have absolutely no confidence in winning against Master in a test of strength. That’s what skills are about.]

After Ragni returned to her duties as the Chancellor’s secretary, she showed Rey a momentary expression of confusion and despair. Rey told Gore about this. After all, the man they both cared for had told them that if something was troubling them or weighing on their mind, they should always talk with their companions first. Never suffer alone.

“I-I see. So I’m still strong?”

[In simple combat, you’re still stronger by about a 7:3 ratio.]

“Then, it’s natural that my swordsmanship is superior to Ragni’s?”

[That’s correct, but beyond that. She probably isn’t fully utilizing the ‘stats’ she possesses.]

When students at the academy did physical training, Ragni was often seen among them. Called “Assistant Rag,” she seemed to join in to help the students while also getting her own physical training and maintaining her figure. But she always tired faster than even the young students.

“Brakes… why would she put such shackles on herself?”

[…That’s.]

Gore knows. What kind of being she is, what her role was in the game, and what future awaited her. Master had told him, and it was visible in the [Status Window]. Therefore…

[Even to you, that’s difficult to explain. If necessary, I think it would be better if you asked her directly.]

“So it’s… a very, very personal matter of Ragni’s?”

Monster. Called that since childhood, rejected by her parents, ultimately a queen who killed her parents with her own hands. That’s who she was meant to become. Now, her desire to become stronger to protect Lady Ira and to stay by Master’s side is certainly not a lie. But…

[Yes. It’s such a personal matter that I don’t think there’s room for either you or me to intervene. If there is someone who could possibly resolve it…]

A man who could subdue even the queen called a monster and return her to being an ordinary woman. It would only be if Master accepted her feelings more deeply and affirmed her existence more positively. So the young girl once called a monster doesn’t want to be called that by the people who have become precious to her, and will continue to act childishly for a while longer. At least, that’s what Gore concluded that day.

*

-THWACK!! BOOM!!!

“Kuhak?!!”

“Strange. Was Jack’s movement like this? Somehow, it feels like someone who’s trained in martial arts?”

“Y-you fucking bitch!!!”

-CRACK!!!

“Khak?!!”

“You really don’t die, do you? Are you actually immortal? You stayed alive even when I shot through your heart with a gun. Don’t you have some kind of limit, or does your divine power run out?”

“I’ll kill youuuu!!! Kahak?!!”

“Alright then. Let’s see how far we can go until you die.”

My skill [One Who Stands Above] allows me to receive 50 percent of the stats from people who have been defeated by me or sworn loyalty to me. That’s why I always thought my growth was strange.

Among the academy professors and assistants, Gore said some of the stronger ones were humans above level 30, with average stats exceeding 20. Even taking just half, that’s 10 per person, and I had about 60 such people under me. I had thought many times that my stats should at least be comparable to Gore or Jack.

“What, what are you?!! Why, why are you so…?!!”

“If you tell me how to kill you, I’ll tell you why I’m strong. How about it?”

-THWACK!!

“Kuhak?!!”

And yet, I lost to Rey in swordsmanship. When I tried to learn something from the Chancellor, I only realized that the magical power gained through skills wasn’t my own strength. Even when I imitated and learned from others’ actions, somehow nothing quite clicked. The only combat styles that seemed to suit me were Rey’s swordsmanship, the shooting techniques I learned at the game center, and Jack’s martial arts.

“Y-you crazy!! What are you?! Your skill?!! Don’t tell me… you haven’t been using your skills until now…!!!”

The Saint, overwhelmingly beaten by me and staggering backward, immediately recovers her shattered face, broken arms, and legs. But watching her, I find myself thinking about something else.

‘I’ve been stopping myself from thinking. No, I’ve been imprisoning my body within my thoughts and keeping it still, is that right?’

The strong ones I know are Gore, Rey, Green Stone, the Chancellor, and finally Jack. In my common sense, they are ‘the strong ones of this continent.’ Of course, Jack, Rey, and Gore deliberately avoid making their names known, but they’re still among the ranks of the strong.

“W-what are you doing? Don’t tell me you’re ignoring me and thinking about something else?!!”

“Shut up. If you’re going to attack, do it quickly. If you’re giving up, surrender quickly. I have a lot to think about.”

I am not a strong one like them. And with my abilities, I cannot defeat them, and ‘should not’ defeat them. I had fixed that thought and refused to accept the external power entering my body.

‘…I was afraid. Of returning to the time when I was called a monster again.’

I understand immediately why I’ve been doing such a foolish thing. I should have been increasing the number of people under me to become stronger, using the stats I receive from them to grow even more powerful, and come here to resolve the empire’s discord. But I was afraid of returning to that girl, that princess who was once called a monster. In reality, I was acting like a villain, exploiting the discontent of the people.

“…Surrender? Me, to you? To someone like you?”

The Saint looks at me in bewilderment and lets her voice trail off, but I don’t have the capacity to focus on her voice right now.

Right now, I’m preoccupied with how to release all the power I feel in my body. How to use it. How to operate it.

‘Did Jack always have this kind of power too? Well, if he did, there’s no way I would have appeared as a monster to him.’

Literally, as he said. In his eyes, I would have just looked like an ordinary woman. The power I feel in my hands now, in my body as I take Jack’s stance, could surely destroy even the castle behind us if I swung with all my might.

I understood what that woman was babbling about when she realized I had one skill. She was called a monster for ‘just one’ [Skill], and rose to her position because of it. Yet I have multiple skills that even Jack fears, but I’ve been thinking of them as ‘separate.’

‘I’ve been refusing to handle [One Who Stands Above] and [Heaven-Sent Talent] simultaneously.’

Normally, I’d use [Heaven-Sent Talent] when shooting, [Wisdom of the Blue Ruler] when thinking, and only [Heaven-Sent Talent] mimicking Rey and Jack’s movements when evading or using a sword. All this time, I’ve completely excluded [One Who Stands Above], my true ‘power’ that I’ve been gathering, thinking that the movements they showed me were beyond a limit I couldn’t follow.

Gore had told me that if I recognize and activate the skills I possess, I can use them however I want. And I had always activated them ‘separately,’ stopping one when using another. Because my instinct was afraid. That the man I loved might come to fear me. That ‘he might look at me like that person did.’ That’s what I thought.

“Skills [Wisdom of the Blue Ruler] [Ruler’s Aura] [One Who Stands Above] [Heaven-Sent Talent]. I can use them all simultaneously.”

“…What?”

Seeing the Saint’s expression harden as she heard my muttered words, I smiled gently. Ah, really.

“Thank you. Thanks to you calling me a monster, I’ve realized how much of a ‘monster’ I can become, and how I can handle it.”

“W-wait. W-what are you saying?! You, what are you?! H-how m-many skills do you have?!! The ability bestowed by God to the chosen one, someone like you?!!!”

I had said I would tell her how to kill her if she told me, but I couldn’t help but let my voice overflow with genuine gratitude. With this, I can truly be by Jack’s side. I can be helpful. I can end this without getting my beloved companions involved in unnecessary matters.

-Click.

-Flinch!!

“You weren’t scared when I was hitting you earlier, but now something feels different?”

“You, what. What exactly are you? What the hell are you?!!!”

-WHOOOOSH!!!

The Saint, completely engulfed by the Ruler’s Aura I’ve just activated and feeling fear, begins to scatter demonic energy and divine power in resistance. I aim my gun at her with the gentlest smile I can manage. I wonder if Jack knew this too? That this weapon, this gun, was the only thing that didn’t constrain me and had been drawing out my abilities all along.

“So the gun doesn’t contain magical power, but [Skills].”

Despite the Chancellor’s guarantee that I had no talent for magic manipulation and my forced attempts to use it, the gun continued to increase its power in line with the enhancement of my skill, [One Who Stands Above]. It had been uniquely drawing out and using the power within me, even though I was afraid and disconnecting from it. It’s as if Jack, who gave me this weapon, is telling me not to be afraid.

“If you don’t die even when completely erased, then we’ll look for another method.”

“Stop this nonsense!!! I, chosen by the Pope, would never lose to someone like youuuu!!!!”

Contrary to her claim of not being a demon follower, the Saint begins to desperately shoot out black tentacles and clumps of divine power that seem to strengthen them, just like those who once overturned our carriage. As I gently pull the trigger toward her…

– ⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯!!!!!

From the gun barrel that until now had only emitted explosive sounds and shot out something like spheres, a blue beam of light shoots out, engulfing the black tentacles and the Saint.

Hmm, this feels like I only used about a third of its capacity…

-Rumble rumble rumble. Boom boom, CRASH!!

“…W-what was that just now?”

“Y-Your Highness?”

[-Occupation: Raid Boss (Ottoman Empire’s Slave)- Level: 450 Name: Ragni Bluemoon: 22 years old.]

[HP: 203,931]

[MP: 61,533]

“Hmm, I’ll need to practice controlling the power later. Hehe?”

Having consumed the Church’s Saint and erased half of the Marquis’s castle behind her with the bombardment, I stuck out my tongue slightly.