Ch.468Revealed Identity

With his shortened limbs and fur cloak, Fritz, sprawled on the snow, looked as adorable as a Welsh Corgi out for a winter walk.

Not that he was particularly cute.

“What are you? A non-Master rushing at me head-on—are you suicidal or something?”

As I pressed down on his back, blood spurted everywhere like toothpaste squeezed from a tube, soaking the surroundings.

Fritz’s body convulsed briefly before going limp.

Though knights in this world are supposedly much tougher than Earth humans, with this much blood loss, it wouldn’t take long for him to die.

If he had any hidden trump card, now would be the time to use it.

Magic, miracle, or divine power.

Whatever it might be, if he didn’t use it now, he’d just die like an insect.

“Kuhehe…!”

But instead of chanting some forgotten ancient destruction spell with his gaping mouth, Fritz burst into laughter with an idiotic voice.

I remained cautious, thinking he might finally do something… but he just kept laughing while bleeding profusely. Continuously.

What is this guy doing?

“To cut down your loyal subordinate who devoted his life to you without hesitation—truly a cruel act. As expected of a barbaric savage without blood or tears.”

“Oh, really?”

Since he still had energy to spout nonsense, I decided to make his limbs even shorter.

With a couple of flashes from Durandal, Fritz, who until moments ago resembled something like a seal, instantly devolved into something more like a larva.

He seemed to be trying to act like some evil mastermind by lowering his voice and laughing, but with his limbs severed and looking like a meat doll, he just appeared idiotic to me.

“Kuheu… This has shortened our conversation time. I won’t last much longer at this rate. What a shame.”

Fritz laughed nonchalantly despite being reduced to a worm-like state.

…His attitude gave me a sense of déjà vu.

Different from those fanatics who throw away their lives for their cause.

Those types usually call out to heaven or deliver lengthy speeches about their beliefs when facing death.

This person, Fritz, was different from them.

The way he joked and laughed so calmly in the face of death was just like…

Isabella.

Not indifference to life, but confidence that he wouldn’t die—that’s what I sensed.

Resurrection… probably not. Maybe someone like Isabella could manage it, but with skills like his, he’d just get slaughtered again in the blink of an eye if he tried to resurrect.

Then what could it be? With my blade at his throat, I reviewed the nonsense he’d been spouting.

There might be some clue in there.

So… he said his name was Fritz. No, more precisely, he said “this body’s name”?

Even after his identity was exposed, he kept mentioning that he was Lacy’s subordinate.

…I think I’m starting to get it.

Maybe it was because his struggling with shortened limbs reminded me of a mini-Isabella, but I seemed to understand the source of his composure.

This bastard isn’t in his own body.

Either he’s temporarily possessed someone else’s body to control it, or he’s remotely controlling it. That would explain all his words and actions.

The name Fritz must be the real name of the Crusader whose body was taken.

…So I’ve ended up dismembering Lacy’s subordinate. Though he was doomed once his body was taken by an enemy.

Still, it felt wrong to keep stepping on him, so I moved my foot off Fritz’s back with a sigh.

He said he’d track down the mastermind behind the citizen uprising… but instead got caught and ended up like this? That’s unfortunate.

Lacy will be sad. Or maybe angry?

Well… let’s postpone the mourning for later.

For now, I need to figure out this bastard’s true identity.

“You say our conversation time has shortened? That’s ridiculous. You weren’t planning to answer any of my questions anyway, were you? Like your objective, or your real name.”

“Ha, how many times must I tell you? This body’s name is Fri-“

“I don’t mean the body’s name, but the name of the one occupying the head.”

“…Hmm.”

Fritz… no, the one controlling Fritz’s body let out a soft exclamation.

Despite spilling clues from his own mouth, did he not expect me to notice? How much was he underestimating me?

I tapped the tattoo on his forehead with Durandal while pondering this bastard’s identity.

A red symbol emanating strange mana.

This seemed like a clue… where had I seen something similar?

Drawing deeply on my last cigarette, I cleared my mind and pieced together the clues.

A mage with possession or control abilities. A strange forehead tattoo.

The instigator behind Arad’s citizen uprising and, judging by his manner of speech, someone hostile to Lacy.

Who could it be?

Well…

…Ah, right. There was exactly one person.

I remember now. The tattoo design was slightly different, but there was definitely a character in the game who matched all these conditions.

He wasn’t supposed to appear at this point, but the original timeline had long since become meaningless, so that could be ignored.

“Valkers, right?”

I voiced my guess with a tone half-confident, half-doubtful.

Mein, Valkers of Discord.

He wasn’t a boss or anything, just a named character, which is why I couldn’t remember immediately, but Valkers would be capable of something like this.

It was exactly the kind of thing he would do.

“……”

He said nothing.

But sometimes silence speaks volumes. I was certain that his identity was Valkers.

After all, his expression was one of utter shock, eyes nearly popping out.

“You bug bastard. So you were hiding in the Holy State. I wondered how this mess started—it was all your doing. Right, for Valkers of Discord, manipulating citizens would be child’s play.”

“…How did you…!”

Valkers, who had taken over Fritz’s body, exclaimed in shock.

Though his voice was quite small due to the dying body, the bewilderment in it was palpable.

He clearly never imagined being exposed.

“Curious?”

I met his eyes with a smirk and extended my middle finger toward him.

“Too bad. I don’t plan on telling you.”

– Slash!

With a half-turn of my right wrist, a blue afterglow traced an arc across Fritz’s neck.

His head slid off smoothly. Fritz’s body, now with five exit points, lost all strength and collapsed.

I looked down at what used to be Fritz and shook the blood off Durandal.

In the end, I killed Lacy’s subordinate with my own hands, but knowing the opponent was Valkers, it couldn’t be helped.

Those subdued by Valkers’ power, “Alpha Male,” never return to normal.

Rather than being used as his puppet until the end, a clean death was probably better for him. Probably.

So it was Valkers… I didn’t expect to encounter him here.

Given his character, he’s probably long gone from Arad by now, but I’ll need to be careful going forward.

He’s not particularly strong, but his power is threatening—especially to me in my current state.

—-

Valkers of Discord.

A Mein who served the evil god Invidius, and true to his epithet “Discord,” a notorious mage who had committed all manner of evil acts even before becoming a Mein… that was his setting.

He wasn’t particularly impressive, just a mid-game named character, but due to the ending that occurred if you lost to him, he was popular among players with certain… unique tastes.

I didn’t share those tastes, so I usually just killed him on sight.

As one might guess from his strangely named power “Alpha Male,” Valkers was less a serious antagonist and more a character drenched in the developers’ malicious jokes.

His backstory made that clear.

The reason he earned the epithet “Discord” was because of a unique spell he developed when he was an ordinary mage.

A curse spell grandly named “Seed of Discord.”

It wasn’t the kind of curse that took lives, but in some ways, it could be considered even more serious.

The Seed of Discord, a curse that only affected women in a “specific condition.”

Those afflicted by this curse would…

Give birth to a child with black skin.

…Yeah. When I first read that setting, I thought it was an outdated April Fool’s joke. Literal black humor, you might say.

The Seed of Discord was a curse specifically targeting pregnant women, and what made it particularly vicious was that it showed no outward signs, making it difficult to detect.

Once afflicted by the curse, the child’s skin color would invariably be black, regardless of the parents’ race.

Not ink-black, but a very natural black skin tone.

It might sound like a stupid curse, but… it was a terrifying curse that could cause unexpectedly serious discord.

When a baby is born with black skin, what would people think?

That someone must have cast a curse? As if they’d think that way.

Though most were slaves in terms of status, black people existed as a race in this world.

The blessed moment of childbirth would instantly transform into a hellish scene of family destruction.

Even in modern society, this would definitely shatter a family, but this was a society with a class system.

Meaning it wouldn’t end with just the dissolution of one family.

Valkers typically targeted the wives of noble families where succession rights were important.

When a noblewoman in such a family gave birth to a black-skinned child, what might end with divorce or a crime of passion among commoners would likely escalate into a conflict between noble houses.

Apparently, more than a few noble families were wiped out after falling victim to his machinations.

Valkers, who produced endless discord, eventually tried to target royalty and was finally discovered and forced to flee.

Later, when his life was endangered by pursuers, he offered himself to an evil god and became a Mein…

It was truly an absurd setting in many ways.

Moreover, even the powers bestowed upon him after becoming a Mein were equally ridiculous.