The SSR Spearman (Doesn’t) Hide His One-Shot Damage - Chapter 20

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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 20

* * *

A string of Empire guest heroes were added to the temporary party.
Thankfully, none of them had a grudge with me, Setanta, from a previous run.

“It’s the Ailanders’ curse…! It has to be those bastards who put a curse on the Empire!”
“H-hey. Keep your voice down…!”
“Why? Did I say something wrong? Only those people could’ve opened the gates of hell that reek of this wicked energy!”
“Q-quiet… That man who took down the demonic monster earlier is an Ailander too…!”

Given that my origins had come to light from the few words I’d exchanged earlier,
quite a few soldiers were murmuring like that, openly showing their disdain.

‘I can’t exactly go through life without speaking at all. Ugh, this is a pain.’

Even within the same language, there are differences in accent depending on where you’re from.
And this… is harder to hide than I’d thought.

“You’re Setanta, right? With all the unsettling things happening lately, you must have been going through a lot.”
“…”
“But rest assured! I, James, don’t discriminate against anyone based on birth!”
“Ah, right.”

The Imperial Knight who gave his name as James was unusually friendly toward me.
He probably thinks he needs me to escape this Labyrinth.

‘Still, I’ve got a bad feeling about him…’

In a situation like this, it’s only common sense to side with whoever has the strength.
But it’s the kind of behavior that doesn’t quite fit a “proper Imperial Knight,” and that bothered me.

‘And James? Of all the names, why does this guy have to be James too?’

The leader of the three R-grade thugs who had swung an axe at me first to kill me.
His name had been James too.
All of a sudden, my mood soured.

“Setanta, have you seen any suspicious Ailanders recently?”
“…”
“The ones who spread Red Steam through the capital and carried out the bombing attacks…! This mysterious Labyrinth might well be their doing as well!”
“…”
“Ah, I’m not accusing you. It’s just that I’m tracking down the criminal acts of a few extremist Ailanders-”
“Thanks for trusting me. I have business with my party, so I’ll take my leave.”

I shoved away James, who kept clinging to me, and made my way over to my party.
It wasn’t only because of that awkward conversation or that ominous name.

“Find whoever took part in the raid on the Underground City and take your revenge!”

…This Quest couldn’t have appeared without any context.
Which means one of the people here must be the one who raided the Underground City.

‘But I have no idea which of those Imperial Knights took part. None of them have said which order they belong to, have they?’

The 7th Imperial Knights.
These were the very butchers who carried out the massacre at the Underground City.
…Could he be holding back his affiliation out of fear of retaliation? Because he found out we’re Ailanders?

I suddenly turned my head toward Ailin.

Her violet eyes had been fixed on the Blue Cloaks since earlier.
The way a hunter watches its prey.
Relentlessly…

‘…She’ll be fine, right?’

For now, the Madness Trait hadn’t triggered.
I’d still have to keep an eye out for any sudden trouble down the road.

“Shall we get moving?”
“R-right!”
“Yes! We were just thinking we should be going too!”

The moment I gathered my weapon and rose from my seat, everyone scrambled to their feet after me.
Then the Imperial Army’s gazes turned to me, as if they were waiting for a commanding officer’s order.

‘Is this because of the show of force at our first meeting?’

Or maybe it was a reversal of relations brought on by the Labyrinth, where survival was threatened at every moment.
It was genuinely unsettling.

.
.
.

How long had we walked?

“Um… Setanta. Are we really taking that young man on the verge of death along with us?”
“Hm?”

James edged up beside me and whispered quietly.
Following the direction of his glance, I saw Hecate struggling to support Achilles.
He seemed unable to move forward at all for quite some time now.

“Leave him be. He’ll manage on his own.”
“No, Setanta. We have to get out of this place urgently! Some of the soldiers have already progressed far into their mutations.”

James grew more and more heated, adding exaggerated hand gestures for good measure.
Maybe it’s because their base stats are low.
Many of the Imperial soldiers already had their bodies twisted out of shape here and there.

“Are we all really supposed to die here just to save one outsider from the Rom Federation who came for a few coins?”
“…Didn’t you say earlier that you wouldn’t discriminate based on birth?”
“Setanta, that’s not what I meant! Look at them. A burden who can’t even hold himself up, and a single weak woman.”
“….”
“Those vermin will end up dragging everyone down!”

Imperial Knight James, an N-Rank with a shit-brown border, started pouring out his heated argument that we had to cut loose the glittering SSR Hero.

‘What on earth is he talking about?’

I was too dumbfounded to speak.
So this is like…

‘We have to save the 1-star Birth Ranks, so we have to sacrifice the 6-star one?’

And they’re all Empire folk, so they aren’t on my side either.
…Plus a weak woman?
That’s the Hidden Route limited-edition SSR Hero, you know.

‘Unlike the open-minded Rom Federation, the people of the Empire are said to value the classics, pledge loyalty to the nation, and observe proper etiquette, if I recall the Setting Compendium correctly…’

Looking back now, it seems like a roundabout way of saying their mindset was outdated and fascist.

“Mr. Setanta! We need to shake off those useless parasites right now and find our own way out!”
“….”

I stared at James, who was spouting all sorts of vile nonsense with a kindly face.
Figures. Guys named James are never worth trusting.

“We have to leave these outsiders behind right now and go, just the two of us…!”
“So what Sir James is saying is that we should abandon these useless rabble and move on? Is that it?”
“Oh, exactly! You understand perfectly!”
“Then shouldn’t you start by slitting the throats of your own Imperial soldiers who are mutating?”

At my words, silence fell at once.

[Several characters are wary of you.]

Ah, there goes the mask.

“How dare that lowborn Ailander open his mouth with such a monstrous thing…!”
“Sir James! Why are you kowtowing to that man? We can get out of this Labyrinth well enough on our own!”
“….”

I could see James’s profile as he chose his words, sweat beading on his brow.
I glanced back over my shoulder.
Hecate was looking this way, her eyes brimming with tears.

Achilles had apparently been poisoned at some point, or otherwise lost consciousness, and was being dragged along the floor.
He was a large man, so it looked like a struggle for her to even take a single step while supporting him on her own.

‘Does that new character have low Strength? Maybe she’s an Agility-focused Hero.’

…Maybe it’s about time I lend a hand and make up for the Trust Level I lost earlier.

‘But if I want to be ready for whatever might happen, I’d rather keep both my hands free.’

What should I do with this?
Just as I was turning it over in my head,

“Give him here. I’ll carry him on my back.”
“…!”

Ailin snatched Achilles from Hecate without warning and hoisted him onto her back.

“Thank you for helping us earlier. The apple you gave me… though it broke apart, so I couldn’t eat it.”

Glancing at her, I noticed her expression had softened considerably from before.
Thankfully, it looked like the Madness Trait wasn’t manifesting and was subsiding.

“Th-thank… thank you, waaah.”

With Hecate’s tearful thanks ringing out as the last sound, a silent march continued on.
Ailin, carrying the sturdy Achilles, actually walked better than Rian, who staggered along and sometimes tripped over his own feet.

‘Shining brightly, aren’t they, the way she’s lifting him like it’s nothing.’

Though she’s a Balance-type, Ailin was a hero with fairly high Strength, after all.
If I leave the rest of the party to her from here on, I’d have plenty of room to act alone, I think.

Clomp, clomp-.
We kept walking like that for a good long while.

Every so often, the Imperial soldiers glanced sidelong at me and my party and muttered among themselves behind our backs.
But…

[You have reached the sealed door.]

“The door… the door’s locked!”
“There’s a lock on it that won’t so much as chip no matter how hard you strike it! We need to find the key at once!”

[TIP – To open a locked room, you must find the proper key-.]

“Everyone, stand back.”

…Krrk!
Clang!

[The sealed door has been unlocked.]

“Done. Let’s move on.”
“W-what just happened…?”
“A lock that didn’t even dent under my strike… and it just came apart like that…”

I gave them a little show, twisting the lock apart with my bare hands, and at once they all tucked their tails and fell silent.

‘For now, at least, I’ll get to travel in peace.’

We pressed on like that for a long while in a quiet free of complaints, until-

Kireek, kireek-.

The first trapped section came into view.

* * *

‘Arrow holes on both walls. A classic type, this one.’

The usual way to clear an arrow trap goes like this.

1. If the party has high Agility: dodge through with nimble footwork.
2. If there’s heavy armor: block and deflect the arrows with shields and plate, then pass through.
3. If there’s a Magic DPS with strong firepower: take it down from range, destroying the trap along with it, then pass through.

‘With this many wounded, the first method is out.’

Could we block them with shields, then?
But as the Hero Rat’s reaction a moment ago showed, the state of this Labyrinth is looking rather ominous, so honestly, I’m worried…

[The trap activates!]

“Aaaaargh!”

At that very moment, a scream rang out.

I looked up to see what the commotion was about.
A soldier from the Empire was clutching a shield with an arrow buried in it, wailing piteously.
Blood dripped steadily from beneath the deeply embedded arrow.

‘The arrow… pierced the shield?’

He must have tried to test it by holding his shield up in front of the trap, and the arrow had gone clean through it.

‘This trap’s difficulty is insane. It’ll punch through any armor, no matter how thick.’

Isn’t it common knowledge everywhere that the Labyrinth in Chapter 1 is just a warm-up?
But no matter how I look at it, this is not a beginner’s Labyrinth.

‘Then what about overwhelming it with firepower and tearing the whole trap out, trap and all?’

For starters, I’m a close-range Bamboo Spear dealer, so that’s out.
Rian can’t use magic for the time being.
Ailin… I doubt she has enough firepower until she draws Clau Solas, just like in the original.
What other options are there?

“It’s an arrow trap! I’ve heard that traps of this kind take time to reload!”

Just then, one of the Blue Cloak knights stepped to the front and began to shout.

“It seems the trap won’t activate without a living presence, so if someone charges through the front, everyone following behind will be safe!”
“…”

In other words, if we put a meat shield up front and bleed off the trap’s arrows, we could get through relatively safely.
…But would anyone volunteer to march into the jaws of death?
I eyed the knight with suspicion.

“And so! I insist we send the dying foreigner from another nation to the front and have him break through first!”
“What?”

This time, one of the N-Rank knights with a crappy brown-bordered card jabbed a finger at the dazzling SSR Heroes,
and started insisting that those guys should be used as trap fodder.

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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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