The SSR Spearman (Doesn’t) Hide His One-Shot Damage - Chapter 14

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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 14

* * *

“Imperial 7th Knights! Mission accomplished. Reporting to the Captain!”
“…”
“Knights lost: four dead, fifteen wounded.”
“And the results of the suppression?”
“No rebel casualties. No survivors!”
“…Adjutant, in a case like this, you should report everything, Ailander casualties included.”
“Ah! We took one prisoner alive, and the rest are all dead. He was a massive brute, so subduing him gave us a bit of trouble.”

The Captain closed his eyes for a moment and fell silent.
Streaks of gray ran through his hair. At length, he opened his mouth, his face plainly weary.

“Withdraw now. Tell them they may dismantle the collapse-prevention magic circles.”
“Eh? Are we not pursuing the rest, sir?”
“The order handed down this time was to suppress the rebels’ stronghold. Until a formal order comes down again, stand by and do nothing foolish.”

The adjutant stared at his superior with a blank expression.
Now and then, his commander made decisions that no one could fathom.
Still, he had always let such things pass, assuming there was a deeper reason behind them.

…Crunch.

Hm?
Then something strange caught the adjutant’s eye.

A small hand was poking out from between the heaps of stone, soaked in a pool of blood.
It was twitching. *Jerk-*, it moved.

“Sir, a correction! We’ve found one more rebel survivor!”
“…?”

At that, the Captain halted his steps and turned around.

“Look! There’s a hand moving out from under the rubble!”
“…”
“Judging by its size, it looks like a small child. How on earth is it still alive…? Huh?”

In that instant,
the adjutant doubted his own eyes.
Had his superior suddenly rolled up both sleeves and begun clearing away the stones?

“Sir?”
“…”
“Sir… Captain?”

Before long, the Captain carefully drew a red-haired girl out from beneath the rubble,
uncapped a potion bottle, and began pouring it over her.

“Sir? Why waste a precious potion on an Ailander rebel…?”
“Adjutant, this girl is a citizen of the Empire.”
“Eh…?”
“Didn’t you see it earlier? The missing child that the man who lost his daughter was desperately searching for.”
“Huh? But that man’s daughter is already—”
“…This girl is that Imperial citizen’s daughter. Do you understand?”

What is he talking about?
The adjutant’s eyes went wide.

“Captain… what on earth…?”
“That man is a lunatic who firmly believes his daughter is dead. So from now on, I intend to adopt his daughter.”
“….”
“This girl is a citizen of the Empire. And she will bear my family name.”

The adjutant’s hand trembled.

“Captain… no, Sir Lampad!”
“….”
“Please, reconsider! Even if the Captain has no children of his own, surely this is—!”
“…Adjutant, your daughter is two years old this year, isn’t she?”
“Eh…?”
“I truly wish to celebrate your daughter’s third birthday.”
“…?”
“What a pity it would be if she were to die suddenly before she ever reached the age of two, wouldn’t it?”
“Ah…?”

The adjutant felt as though every drop of blood had drained from his body all at once.
Had his superior finally lost his mind?
Could this truly be that great knight whose dignity had shaken the continent from one end to the other?

“Try to understand, Adjutant. Weak creatures must sometimes resort to even a show of kindness just to survive.”
“….”
“All of this is because I am a feeble man. Please, understand me…”

The Captain clutched the Ailander girl, who had lost one little finger, and kept repeating his apology over and over, again and again.
The sight looked almost like a child begging for forgiveness.

* * *

It was truly gone.

【Non-Killing(-)】
That wretched trait.

‘I never imagined it would be removed in such a violent way…’

Amid the scattered flesh and pools of blood.
Ailin rose above the corpse, its upper body reduced to a pulp.
Her glaring, feverish eyes bore a striking resemblance to the face I had seen in the boss illustration…

“It’s done. You can move now, Setanta…”

Rian turned his head, his face pale and drawn.
He, too, seemed quite shaken by Ailin’s appearance.

‘Still, the Non-Killing trait was successfully removed, so… this is a good thing, right?’

We had come so close to ending up with a trash SSR, but at least we’d avoided that fate.
I didn’t know whether to call that a relief or not…

“….”

Ailin remained silent.
She shook the blood from her iron wood sword with a quick flick, then moved off to a corner.

Inside the abandoned house, the stench of blood hung thick in the air.
An awkward silence settled over the room.

『My body… my body is—aaaah!』

Then, all at once, the Hero’s shriek rang out.

“Hero?”

I lifted my head and looked toward the center of the magic circle, where a plump, well-fed rat came into view.

‘It’s not just any rat. It’s an adorable hamster, isn’t it?’

Snatch!
I scooped up the chubby rat with my right hand.
It was solid and plump, and it felt wonderful in my palm.

『What have you done to me…! What did you do to me, Setanta-aaaah!』

Squeeeeak!

It squealed and squirmed like any rat would.
Somehow, though, its words were translated and rang out directly inside my head.

“Charles, you’re a rat now.”

『You piece of trash! As if destroying the world once wasn’t enough, now you’re after me too—!』

“I barely saved your life, you know. Now go on, thank me.”

I gripped the struggling creature tight and held it up in front of the Hero’s corpse.

“And say your goodbyes to your old body while you’re at it.”

『Bo-body…?』
『M-me… Can’t you return me to my original body?!』

Huh?
Come to think of it, if he turned a rat’s corpse back into a living rat with Dark Magic…
Could you make a living person out of a dead one, too?

“Rian, can you revive a dead person with the same ritual you just used?”
“…Impossible.”
“Why’s that?”
“The human body is far too complex, and far too large. Small animals are the limit.”
“I see.”
“Even that only worked because I offered up a Holy Relic as the price. And apart from me, no one else could perform a ritual of this caliber…”

Is he bragging that he’s a once-in-a-generation genius, just like that?
Well, it’s written right there in his Trait anyway, so I decided not to make a fuss over it.

『Setanta-aaaaah!』
『You garbage excuse for a man! You’re the one who killed me! And that knight lying over there in pieces—you did that too, you bastaaaaard!』

Sheeeeek!
Shrreek, sheeeeeek!

“What? I didn’t kill that one. And if we’re being honest, it was the Imperial Court’s knights who killed you.”

I calmly laid out the plain facts for the Hero, who was still flailing about in my grip.

“Your cause of death… was it from being crushed under that pile of fallen stones?”
“….”

At that moment.
Ailin’s eyeballs twitched and swung toward us.

“Oh. I was just having a little chat with Charles.”
“….”
“Can only I hear what this guy’s saying? Is it because he’s my familiar?”

Judging by their reactions, that seemed to be the case.

“By the way, Sir Perdi, when is that big guy going to join us?”

He’s a pretty high-performance SSR, too.
Besides, he’s my First-Draw Gacha Hero, so-.

“I’ll hold off the Empire’s men as long as I can, so you two head over there and escape!”

…At the end, I feel like I owe him a debt, so it really bugs me.
That’s why I have to bring him back no matter what-

“Perdi won’t be coming.”
“…What?”
“I sent out a crow earlier to check, and… it looked like he was taken prisoner.”

Rian continued with a dejected expression.

“They’re carrying out his execution tomorrow evening…”

Thud!
At that moment, Ailin slammed her palm against the floor.

“We have to go rescue him…”

The prosthetic arm gripping the Iron Wood Sword trembled violently.
With bloodshot eyes, she kept muttering, and she looked like a completely different person.

『I knew it! She’s come back to that face I remember!』
『See, Setanta! Everything we’ve seen of her until now was just an act!』

Squeak, squeak!
At that sight, Hero Rat thrashed in my grip and squealed.

“You wretched Empire scum.”

Smack!
I gave its rear a light flick with my index finger.

Eeeeeeek-!
The Hero let out a full-throated scream.

“Setanta-sama, if a familiar’s body is damaged, its master has to restore it using their own life force…!”
“Hm?”
“So, if you could please keep your friend’s punishments to a minimum…”

Rian gave me a worried look and explained earnestly.
In short, the current Hero is in an undead state where he won’t die even if his body gets crushed flat.
But to repair his body again, he has to draw from my life force, so I should be careful as much as possible.

‘Ah, so I’ll have to be careful not to squash the Hero Rat during combat.’

Squeak-!
I gave the squirming little creature’s rump one more pinch.
I decided to let the offense slide here.

* * *

After taking a short break.
We launched into the full-fledged operation to rescue Perdi.

“We need an accomplice. I hate to say it, but we have to go see Finley… that man.”

Rian opened his mouth, his face pale.
He must have nearly exhausted his stamina, because dark circles hung heavily under his eyes.

“First, I’ll cast Perception-Lowering Magic on all of you before we enter the capital.”
“…”
“Then we’ll ask Finley for help. I sent a crow ahead earlier, so he should have noticed by now.”

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

Finley…
That was the name Ailin had mentioned in the confession booth, wasn’t it?

“What sort of man is he? This Finley.”
“He was once a comrade who shared the same aspirations for the independence and rebuilding of our homeland, Ailand…”
“Ah, so an old comrade.”
“Though we’ve been parted for a long time now, for various reasons…”

Judging from Rian’s words.
It seems their views split long ago, between the radical and moderate factions.

“Still, he won’t pretend not to know us entirely. We were comrades who once looked toward the same horizon…”

He smiled bitterly.
The memories of those days didn’t seem to be very pleasant ones.

.
.
.

[Perception Reduction is currently active on the entire party.]

We made our way toward Finley’s residence.

『Guards! They’re here! Seize these filthy Ailanders at once!』

All the way there, the Hero kept squeaking and thrashing about.

‘This rat!’

Smack!
I gave the plump rump of the creature tucked into the side pocket of my Storage Bag a single swat.
Squeak! The Hero let out one yelp and then fell silent.

‘Phew… so the trait of being a magic genius wasn’t just tacked on for show.’

There were a few dangerous moments along the way.
Thankfully, perhaps thanks to Rian’s Perception-Lowering Magic, we passed through without being stopped at any checkpoints.

How long had we been traveling like that?

“No, can it be? Look who it is! Faces I haven’t seen in ages!”

The moment we reached our destination, a gentle-looking man with golden hair threw his arms wide and ushered us into the dim interior.
He was far more welcoming than I had feared.

Hmm, now that I think about it, I think I’ve seen a character who looked exactly like this in the original work’s concept art.
He never appeared in the game, so I assumed he’d been cut during development. And here he is, in the flesh.

“So, how have you all been? Ah, and there’s a face I don’t recognize.”
“My name is Setanta.”
“Yes, I heard the news… that the Underground City was wiped out. You must have been through a lot.”

As I shook hands with Finley, Rian stepped forward from the side, quietly but quickly.

“Finley, sir! I’m sure you already know why we’ve come here…!”
“Oh?”
“We intend to save Perdi at his execution today…!”

Instead of Ailin, who had been keeping her eyes fixed elsewhere the whole time,
Rian was the one who brought it up,

“Pfft!”

Suddenly, a laugh burst from Finley’s lips.

“Finley…?”
“Ha… ha ha ha ha!”

His cold eyes flew wide open,
and for a long while he laughed as though he could not hold it in.

“Ha… so you gathered up what little of our people remained, herded them underground, and wiped them all out, is that it?”
“Fin…?”
“You gave up on fighting back, all so the survivors could try to live on together…”
“…”
“And this is what it looks like when you lie down at the Empire’s feet? Like ants, every last one of you, trampled flat… Ha, ha ha…!”

Bang!

Ailin, seething, slammed her fist on the table.

“…Finley.”
“Ailin? You’ve changed quite a bit since I last saw you.”
“The only reason I’m not killing you this instant is that you’re one of the few kin I have left…”
“Don’t make excuses. Even if you came at me with everything you had, could you actually kill me?”

Finley gave a single shrug, lowered himself into a chair, and went on.

“The last time we saw each other, do you remember what you said to me, Ailin?”
“…”
“You called me a ghost.”

With his chin tilted slightly up,
a mocking gaze swept over Ailin.

“You said that someone who clings to the past and can’t even live the present might as well be dead…”
“…”
“Still, now it’s you who’s got the eyes of a ghost, don’t you think?”

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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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