Ch.7979 – A Strange Position

<79 – A Strange Position>

A hero is a figure who represents justice.

One who becomes a hero.

Must not commit evil deeds.

This is common sense that even a novice hero party would understand.

That’s why they fell into even deeper anguish.

“Alpha. Can you defeat that troll?”

Alpha puffed up his arms, as thick as Destroyer’s waist, and spoke confidently.

“Three seconds is enough.”

“Oh.”

“Until my back breaks and I die.”

Just showing off but completely useless bastard.

Destroyer cursed inwardly.

“Destroyer. Can you trick the troll to go back the way we came, or hire mercenaries to fight together?”

“Impossible. Look at that troll bastard’s gleaming eyes. If we try anything, he’ll throw that rock he’s holding first, smashing the carriage before anything else.”

The Destroyer, who was actually criticizing others internally, was just as useless.

To begin with, trolls are medium-sized monsters.

It would take a hundred armed soldiers poking it with ridiculously long 3-meter spears for three days and nights to barely kill one—an absurdly difficult extermination challenge.

And that’s assuming there are knights or shield bearers tanking from the front.

Without proper tanking, those hundred spearmen would become a buffet for the troll to choose from.

“We’ll just have to pick one and run through.”

“Is that really okay?!”

Destroyer was honestly taken aback by Niallatotep’s cool response.

“Hey, isn’t there something about losing your qualification as a hero if you act unjustly?”

“Justice is relative. If we recklessly take responsibility we can’t handle and cause even the coachman who could be saved to die with us, wouldn’t that be the most unjust end?”

Niallatotep was a practical hero.

“Let’s run over five people.”

“Are you serious?”

“Horses are timid animals. If we try to save five people and run over just one by taking the cliff path, they’ll be too scared to run at full speed. Then we’d be breaking the troll’s demand.”

Even Destroyer had to admit it was quite a sharp analysis.

Though questionable for a hero.

“If we try too hard to save a few people and everyone in the carriage dies too, then ultimately everyone here will die. Those who can survive should survive.”

The companions who could keep their lives thanks to this decision kept their mouths shut and followed the hero’s decision.

About the terrible sensation of the carriage trampling people, I’ll just say it’s a memory they don’t want to recall.

The troll kept its promise and let them pass safely.

After passing the fork in the road,

Niallatotep laughed in his characteristic way and said:

“We might have just met the smartest troll in the world.”

“It’s just a troll that gives crazy quizzes.”

“My, Destroyer. Haven’t you realized yet? The real reason why that troll is truly intelligent.”

At that time, Destroyer didn’t understand.

He just thought Niallatotep was an annoying guy.

What he had realized.

What he was trying to say.

Destroyer reached the same conclusion as Niallatotep only when he finished his adventure and was retracing his journey alone from the beginning.

“This was definitely the village.”

When he visited the trading village looking for the coachman from his memory and coincidentally met the coachman who had experienced the world’s smartest troll with him,

Destroyer exchanged awkward greetings with the coachman.

“I don’t see your companions.”

“Well, that’s how it turned out.”

“Since we’ve met by fate, would you like me to accompany you on your journey?”

“You’ve got quite the courage.”

Destroyer sat beside the coachman.

On the aimless journey along the road,

He had three exchanges with the coachman and finally understood.

What Niallatotep had realized back then.

* *

“Now it’s Oknodie’s turn again. Imagine yourself as the veteran hero Destroyer and ask the coachman three questions.”

“Destroyer really likes questions, doesn’t he!”

“Otherwise it wouldn’t be a problem.”

“Did he really ask three questions every time in reality?”

“Would he? If you keep being annoying, that counts as a question too.”

As expected, Destroyer’s adventure tales change with each telling.

This time too, an interesting story emerged.

‘Is the motif the trolley dilemma?’

A fairly famous thought experiment in ethics for modern people.

In choices with clear trade-offs, when one can change a crisis where many people would die into a situation where fewer people die through their own choice.

The experiment asks whether you would sacrifice fewer people by your own will, or stand by and let more people die.

‘A troll conducting ethical experiments on humans, what a strange troll indeed!’

But just as there was a hint in the story of the “Sheep That Doesn’t Decrease” from the first lecture, there must be a hint in this “Troll’s Dilemma” too.

The three questions are just to retrace and confirm it; I’ve already caught the hint.

“Does the coachman’s carriage have spare wheels by any chance?”

“Good observation. Then you discover spare wheels loaded on the back of the carriage.”

That confirms it.

The coachman wants to hide the fact that he went through the troll’s dilemma.

Even going so far as to make thorough preparations like having spare wheels.

“My second question. Were there people who took the shortcut ahead of the carriage this time too?”

“The coachman would answer yes.”

“Last question. Have the domain soldiers or the adventurer’s guild ever attempted to exterminate the troll?”

“The coachman would answer with considerable confidence that not as far as he knows.”

“That’s enough. I think I get it now.”

“Then try to guess.”

It’s not particularly difficult.

If the hint is related to moral questioning, then the answer must be related to that too.

“The troll’s ethical experiment ultimately made humans ‘accomplices.'”

“Righteous coachmen who tried to save their own kind even at the risk of their lives tried to run over just one person on the cliff path and all died.”

“Conversely, selfish coachmen who coldly decided to run over many people on the wide road to survive were able to escape alive.”

Destroyer nodded for me to continue.

“Actually, the troll’s dilemma isn’t in the fork itself. The cliff path is a ‘trap’ and the main road is the ‘answer.’ The real dilemma comes after.”

“Whether to report to the domain soldiers or guild that you cooperated with the troll’s ethical experiment and ran over five people, risking being branded a murderer, or to pretend this bizarre accident never happened and keep quiet to prioritize your own safety.”

“If you choose the former, the danger stationed near the trading village disappears but your safety is threatened; if you choose the latter, the danger to the local community remains but you stay safe.”

Risk becoming an enemy of human society?

Or risk allowing humanity’s enemy to persist?

The troll forces an absurdly intellectual dilemma.

And everyone who passes through this dilemma…

Is a coachman who ran over five people on the main road.

Those who chose selfishness over altruism toward their own kind are more likely to continue prioritizing their own safety rather than making self-sacrificial judgments later.

The surviving coachman becomes an accomplice and keeps quiet about the danger that exists on the road they traveled.

They might even actively conceal and distort information about those who died.

Because if their crime is revealed, they’re in trouble!

“Former hero Niallatotep realized this fact instantly from the beginning of the adventure, right?”

“Correct. I’m curious though. How did you realize it so quickly?”

“Because Niallatotep’s sense of justice differs from universal justice—it’s a selfish justice!”

I can understand because I’m a player.

In any story, if the player dies, you can’t see what happens next.

That’s why players with weak specs sometimes make choices they know are morally wrong or unjust.

I know this well because I played with all kinds of weak characters before I knew about rerolling.

Sometimes the weak must be cowardly and selfish to survive.

Niallatotep, though a hero, realized this and made a cold judgment.

Just like a “player” enjoying a game.

What a strange NPC indeed.

“If you had been born 15 years earlier and become Niallatotep’s companion, you would have gotten along very well.”

“Ew. I wouldn’t like that.”

“You could have had the honor of being a hero party member?”

“That’s only for weak people. I’m strong, you know?”

As I flexed my arm as if building muscle and grunted, the professor looked at me with a “this kid is cute” expression and said, “Yes, you’re strong.”

“Hm? Why is your face suddenly red? It’s creepy.”

“It’s not creepy! It’s just that, these days, whenever I say I’m strong, everyone calls me an orc, but you’re the first person to treat me so calmly about it.”

“Huh.”

Destroyer clicked his tongue and said:

“Tsundere student, troublesome.”

“Oh come on, seriously!”

That grateful feeling completely disappeared!