The SSR Spearman (Doesn’t) Hide His One-Shot Damage - Chapter 11

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 11

…Damn it!

“Kkrrrrrrk—!”
“Kyaaaaaah!”

The demonic monsters lunged at us all at once.

“Setanta, what’s going on!”
“Run that way! Into that side room, there!”

We bolted toward the front without a second thought.
I’d caught the location when the sparks flared up a moment ago.
That’s the confession room! The side chamber!

Bang!

I put every ounce of my momentum behind it and kicked the door.
Then I slammed it shut.

Bang!
Bang! Bang!

“Krrrrrr…”
“Krrk, krrrrk…!”

We tore off every chair and piece of furniture we could reach and stacked them against the door as a barricade.

“Phew…”

Back in the original game, whenever something went wrong during the chapel quest, I’d hide out in this side room for a while.
If you waited here long enough, the aggro would wear off, and then you could head back out and finish clearing the dungeon.

“Let’s rest here for a bit. We’ll head out once they’ve forgotten about us.”

At my words, Ailin gave a brief nod.

.
.
.

How much time had passed?

“Kyarrk, krrrrrr…”

Judging by the sounds still coming from close by, the monsters seemed to be prowling in front of the confession room.

In the meantime, Ailin had folded a strip of cloth into a neat point and was deftly wiping the blood from the joints of her prosthetic arm.

‘Does she have to keep it up like this every time?’

I watched her quietly for a moment.
Then, out of nowhere, a flicker of unease rose up in me, and my mood turned strange.

‘She wouldn’t betray me too, would she?’

…Like, turning against us for the enemy right before the final chapter.
I raised her well, and now she wants to kill me with all that newly gained strength…?

The very icon of betrayal.
Having possessed Setanta’s body, I found the matter all the more sensitive.

‘So no one gets any ideas, I should raise every Hero’s Trust Level to a sufficient level this time.’

Right away, I decided to make small talk.
I’d try speaking to her.

“Ailin, you were wielding a dull wooden sword earlier, weren’t you?”
“Oh, this one? It’s an iron practice sword specially treated to withstand mana to a degree. Surprisingly useful.”
“Why don’t you use the real blade you’ve got strapped behind your back? It looks like the better choice.”
“Ah…”

Ailin fell silent for a moment at my question.

“…I have my reasons.”

She answered curtly, then turned her gaze back to tending her prosthetic arm.
Hmm, her Trust Level must still be too low for her to speak openly about it.

【Curse of the Sun】
-Without a solid justification, one cannot wield a bladed weapon.

…Not that I didn’t already know everything, since I’d peeked at her Hero Info Window earlier.
For now, I decided to play dumb.

‘Well, it’s a bladed sword, so she probably can’t draw it under normal circumstances.’

Still, why would this Hero swear such an inefficient Geas?
She got her hands on a Mythic Grade weapon and still can’t put it to proper use. What a massive waste.

‘If only I were the one wielding that sword…’

The dazzling sight of Clau Solas, worn at her back, caught my eye.
From the hilt on down, it was the very finest of quality.
I could already imagine how it would feel, fitting snugly in my grip.

…Couldn’t I just transfer ownership of the sword to myself?

I stared at her absentmindedly.
Amid the occasional eerie moans of the Demonic Monsters beyond the confessional booth.
Only her still eyes held any stillness at all.

“…”

Just as I was trying to force my gaze away from the sword again, something happened.

“Setanta, can you truly promise you won’t go blabbing about this?”
“…!”

Ailin finally opened her mouth.
It seems she’s finally going to confide her secret to me.

“Of course. Not that I’m the type with a loose tongue, mind you.”

I was just snapping to attention, readying myself to listen closely, when—

Ding!

[TIP – The Sun Sword Clau Solas stands out above all other Mythic Grade weapons in performance.]

Huh?

[If the owner, Ailin, dies, ownership of Clau Solas transfers to whoever killed her!]

All at once, red system messages began floating up before my eyes.

‘What? What’s going on now?’

Ding, ding!
Ding, ding, ding!

Then crimson windows came pouring up, jostling over one another until they blotted out my view.

“Setanta. I cannot wield any bladed weapon.”
“…”
“Not without a solid reason, at least.”

[The target harbors a faint trust in you!]

Ding!

[If you ambush a target with high Trust Level, you can deal a fatal blow…]

“The moment I obtained this sun sword, a curse that cannot be lifted settled upon me.”
“…Pardon?”

Just then.
The red messages filling my vision vanished all at once.

“The longsword you carry, the spear, too. Every bladed weapon is beyond my use now.”
“…”
“…Such a Geas was forcibly carved into my soul the instant I took this sun sword.”
“Wait, hold on. You’re saying a Geas was forced onto you? The curse came attached to the sword?”
“Yes. Ever since I became this blade’s master, which you so coveted… I have become a half-hearted swordsman.”

My heart sank straight through the floor.
What on earth does that mean?

“I always believed I had a gift for the sword, and I trained for a lifetime to hone it.”
“…”
“Now I can’t even hold a dinner knife, so to speak.”

* * *

‘The moment you become the owner of Clau Solas, some bizarre Geas comes along for the ride, two for one?’

My head went cold.
An item with a gimmick like this… I’ve never heard of one, not even after clearing Hell Mode…

“Hoo…”

I took a deep breath and gathered my thoughts.

What if I had really hurt her, just as the red system said?
Then the Geas that blocks every bladed weapon would have passed straight to me, and…
Wouldn’t I have turned into a useless, trash-tier character who can’t wield a spear or a sword?
A chill shot down my back.

‘Now that I think about it, the Red System window was going wild even back when I was the Hero.’

Now it’s starting to make sense.
Honestly, that blood-red System window wants me to get a Game Over…

“Ha, a sword that forcibly casts Geas on its master? That’s truly horrible.”

For the moment, I kept my expression in check.

‘I shouldn’t get cocky just because I’ve collected three-digit endings.’

From now on, I’d go back to square one and approach everything with a fresh newbie’s mindset.

“A clear justification, huh… Ailin, then what exact situation makes the sword draw?”
“Honestly, I don’t know the exact conditions either. I’ve only managed to draw it once since then.”
“Oh? What was the situation?”

If I was going to make use of this Hero, it seemed wise to know the detailed conditions.

“Were you fighting a powerful demonic monster? Or saving a fellow countryman in peril?”

But Ailin’s answer was something else entirely.

“…I drew it while saving a citizen of the Empire.”
“Huh?”

Thinking I’d misheard, I stared at Ailin.
Her lips were pressed shut, her eyes lowered, and her gaze was stern and unyielding.
No matter how I looked at it, she didn’t seem to be joking.

“…When I should have been fighting for our homeland’s independence, the sword wouldn’t come out, not once.”
“….”
“Yet it came out to save a single child of the Empire who was being abused. A child of the Empire, the very one who reduced our nation to this…”

She fell silent for a while.
Then she murmured quietly.

“But I don’t regret that choice.”

Her face looked almost like someone making a confession.

“Wouldn’t the child being beaten have seen his father as nothing less than a plunderer?”
“….”
“So I’ve decided to believe that on that day, I saved a little Ailand with my own hands.”
“…No, isn’t that a sort of spiritual victory…”
“There’s no one who is an Imperial in every respect, is there? Please, just think of yourself as Ailand, my homeland, in at least some part of you…”

Ailin smiled bitterly.
I seemed to have a rebuttal ready, too.
Watching that subtle expression, I found myself at a loss for words.

“Once, I disagreed with an old comrade on this very matter. We parted ways after being called a traitor, and that was that.”

Soon she muttered as if to herself.

“…Finley. I wonder what he’s doing these days.”

Ding!
At that moment, a notification surfaced before my eyes.

[New Hero information acquired!]

‘Hm? A New Hero?’

No way…

[Bonus – An additional New Hero appears!]

Could this be one of the New Characters from the DLC they said would be added when Hell Mode restarted?
My heart pounding, I stared at the name Finley for a split second.

[Numerous Demonic Monsters have turned their gaze away from you.]

Finally, the Aggro has been lifted.

* * *

After coming out of the confessional.
We wrapped up the Demonic Monsters in no time flat.

“Setanta! This one’s the last!”

Fwoosh!
Following the arc of Ailin’s swing, shimmering golden Mana shot outward and burned the last Demonic Monster to ash.
Maybe because she no longer needed to play stealthily, the final strike seemed to have been infused with Mana.

“Wow, that’s some serious firepower.”
“Was that a compliment? I’ll take it.”

The gloomy basement of the Chapel flared bright for an instant, as if the sun itself had been dropped there, before sinking back into darkness.
Just as expected of someone famous in the Original Work for flashy skill effects.

“Anyway, we’ve taken care of all the Demonic Monsters here.”
“But the body that looks like that man’s daughter… we never found it.”
“…Here.”
“Hm?”
“There’s a secret passage here?”

Ta-da!
I stomped my foot and opened the passage leading to the second basement level.
Somewhere down here, a brown-haired imperial girl must be surviving alone, having locked herself behind iron bars.

“Let’s go in. I’ve got a feeling there’s a child in there.”
“…!”

I climbed down the ladder right away.
A few Demonic Monsters were wandering below, so I dispatched them without much fuss.

‘And if I press this corner block… oh, there it is.’

[Holy Relic Hidden Beneath the Cathedral Basement acquired.]

While Ailin looked away for a moment, I quietly pocketed the Holy Relic too.

【Moral Obsession (-)】

She’s a hero with a trait that’s far too honest.
I was afraid that if the Imperial Army started asking questions, it would all show on her face.

[The quest target is nearby.]

Good, everything’s going smoothly.
If I rescue the man’s daughter too, I can get Privilege Points as a quest reward.

‘It was a girl with brown wavy hair.’

Bang!
I flung open the door to the solitary cell where the girl was supposed to be hiding.

Inside this cell there’s an iron cage.
Within that iron cage, barely big enough for a single small child to squeeze into.
The only survivor who had locked herself away and lived through the demonic monsters should be right here.

“Little one, I’ve come to rescue you—”
“Krrrrk!”
“Ah.”

Shk!
The moment I opened the door, a monster lunged at me, so I severed its head on the spot and killed it.

‘You scared me there.’

I was about to head straight for the iron cage when—
…Tk.
Something snagged at my feet.

‘Hm?’

I looked down at once.
A small corpse, nothing but the upper half of a body, lay face-down there.

‘What’s this? Why is there a small corpse here…?’

Strange.
Were corpse objects originally placed on this map?

Tilting my head, I crouched down and turned the little body over to check.
The lower half had been torn away and eaten.
The face was frozen, twisted in terror.
Brown, wavy hair, soaked with blood and hanging limp…

Huh? This looks a lot like the quest target I was looking for.

“…Help me, please, help me.”

At that moment, a voice calling out to me reached my ears.

I snapped my head up and looked.
Inside the iron cage.
A red-haired girl with the tip of her little finger half-severed was trembling uncontrollably in there.

“…Huh?”

Something felt off.

‘The kid I’m supposed to rescue in this quest should definitely have brown wavy hair, right? Not red hair like that…?’

I stared at the child inside the iron cage with a puzzled look.

“I-I beg you, spare me… I, I really had no choice…”
“…?”

The girl began to speak in halting, trembling bursts, and her voice carried the unmistakable lilt of Ailand.

“Mom said… no matter what happened, she’d come to get me…”
“…”
“So she told me I had to survive at all costs…”

Swish-.
The girl’s eyes drifted past the iron bars.
Toward the brown-haired girl whose upper body was all that remained, the one who had caught on my heel a moment ago.

‘Huh…?’

Now that I looked closer.
The delicate back of the small corpse’s hand was covered in deep scratches and torn skin.
As if she had fought someone tooth and nail, only to be shoved out through the bars.

“Mom told me to survive.”
“…”
“She looked at me and told me I had to survive…”

The girl kept murmuring it over and over.
You have to survive.
I was told I had to survive.
No matter what happens…

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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