The SSR Spearman (Doesn’t) Hide His One-Shot Damage - Chapter 40

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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 40

‘What?’

For a moment, I froze like ice, thrown off balance.

‘And on top of that, she suddenly revealed her real name?’

Now, of all times?
This abruptly?

What is this…
Out of nowhere, it’s like ‘I’m the armored giant and she’s the oversized giant’ or something!

[Earn the Princess’s Trust]
-Earn the trust of Erin O’Murchadha Kivanach, the last scion of the Ailand Royal House.

[Caution! – The Hero’s name differs from their true name. The name will be finalized as recognized by the Observer.]

Ailin’s true name is Erin.
Her full name is ‘Erin O’Murchadha Kivanach.’

…That’s a name that bears the surname of the royal house the Empire wiped out, the kind that should never be spoken carelessly.
And yet she’s just saying it now…?

Ding!

[The Hero’s true name is not widely known.]
[With the surname removed, it will be difficult to identify the Hero’s true identity from the given name alone.]

“…!”

Then a System message surfaced.

“Do you happen to know? In the Kingdom of Ailand, by tradition, those with physical disabilities were never granted the right of succession to the throne.”

‘Right, he said she was completely excluded from the line of succession…’

So the last princess of Ailand, who grew up quietly in the background without ever showing her face, and who in the end was able to survive alone.
In other words, it means that the name ‘Erin’ alone would be hard to pinpoint.

‘Well, just as the name James overlaps with others, the name Erin would overlap quite a bit too.’

Still, wouldn’t it be wise to be careful?
No sooner had that doubt crossed my mind than—

“Hff…”

Rian looked back and forth between Ailin and me, his eyes trembling.
The way his eyes darted about gave off the feeling of, ‘Is Ailin acting a little strange right now or what?’

“…Sir James belongs to the Imperial Order of Knights, correct? Then do you know anything about the Red Steam bombing attack that was reportedly plotted in the Underground City?”

Ailin ignored our reactions and continued calmly.
As if it were nothing at all.
Without trembling in the slightest, without a trace of anger.

“In truth, we also want to know who the people plotting that attack are. Even if they belong to a different nation, they tried to indiscriminately harm countless people. Aren’t they truly wicked?”
“…Eh? Surely you don’t mean… Your Ladyship is…?”
“Oh, we’re not from the Underground City. If we had lived there, do you think we’d be standing here, all in one piece? We’d have died and been buried under the rubble long ago.”

Ailin smiled brightly at James.
It looked warm on the surface, but the smile was hollow.

As if she had buried everything of her life beneath that Underground City…
and now, like a ghost that had returned from the dead, she was simply walking among the living.

“We’d like to draw a firm line against anyone who would plan such a horrifying attack. It’s something no fellow Ailander could ever condone.”
“…”

From the way she phrased it, Ailin seemed to be speaking about Finley.
Not long ago, Finley had planned the bombing attack at the Execution Grounds, so it wasn’t entirely wrong of her.

Ding!

[James’s mental state has stabilized.]

Of course, James seemed to have taken those words in an entirely different way…

“Ah, ah…! That’s right! Those bastards deserved to die! They were a thing that had to be wiped out!”

James, as though he had just been thrown a lifeline,
brightened and eagerly chimed in with Ailin’s words.

“Yes, our Knights had no choice but to respond the way we did…! To plan an attack against so many citizens of the Empire, they had to be rooted out, no matter what!”
“…”
“Ah, so not every Ailander is the same after all…! My lady, you truly have a clear sense of what’s right!”

Ding!

[James is currently suffering from extreme tension and mental exhaustion, and his judgment has been somewhat clouded.]

[When this Hero is not in a normal state, the probability that they will disclose information unfavorable to themselves increases.]

“…”

Caught in the contradictions of his own self-justification, James had fallen for it, hook, line, and sinker…
while Ailin was playing a part to lead him into a trap.

‘This is a rather good opportunity to pry out some information.’

At first, I’d worried that Ailin had lost her mind and was about to do something strange.
But looking at it now, she seemed to be doing this on purpose.

‘This Hero really does commit his madness with remarkable cunning, doesn’t he?’

For now, I decided to keep watching their conversation.

“By the way, Sir James, how on earth did you end up kidnapped to that Nest?”
“…”
“How many days did you hold out down there? Ah, it must have been so dark you lost all sense of time.”

Ailin continued in a calm, even tone.
It was a conversation topic that had completely veered away from the matter of the Underground City.
She had likely turned the talk aside on purpose for a moment, so as not to arouse suspicion…

“It must have been terrifying. It was a place so dark you couldn’t see an inch in front of your face, wasn’t it?”
“Y-yes, that’s right! That place was truly, truly strange…! The more I cried out for help, the darker everything grew, and I felt the ground beneath me sinking away. It was almost as if… as if this Labyrinth were changing in response to my screams…!”
“…….”

Thanks to James, who poured out words like a machine gun as if he’d been waiting for the chance, the conversation flowed along smoothly.

How long did they keep up that idle chatter?
At last, Ailin brought up the real matter.

“Speaking of which, Sir James. Do you happen to know anything about the man who was taken to the Execution Grounds?”
“Ah, that vicious fellow? Of course I know him!”

The moment the talk turned to Perdi, who had stayed behind in the Underground City to buy us time until the very end and was eventually dragged off, reduced to a horrific wreck.

“…….”

The color drained from Rian’s face in an instant.

…Poke, poke.
I jabbed Rian in the side to get his attention.
We couldn’t let anything show, not now.

“Ah, so you’re well acquainted with that man. In that case, may I ask you something?”

Ailin didn’t spare so much as a glance our way. Her face stayed calm and gentle as she carried on with the conversation.

“Did that man on the execution platform say anything about his ‘accomplices’? We’d like to know too. Who on earth planned such an attack?”
“Him? Oh, that man… he was truly, truly a vicious one! No matter how hard they tried to dig it out of him, he wouldn’t confess a single thing.”
“…I see. So he held out to the very end, did he.”

The corner of Ailin’s eye twitched, just slightly.
But James didn’t seem to notice.

“Phew… Honestly, just thinking about that time gives me a headache.”

James buried his face in his hands as if in grief, and then, his voice trembling, continued.

“We suffered terrible losses too during the crackdown in that Underground City… Four of the Order’s knights were killed, no less.”
“…….”
“Three were cut down and run through by blades, and the last one was found in an abandoned house nearby with his skull crushed…”

Three of them were the knights I had killed.
And the remaining one—

[Ailin’s 【Non-Killing(-)】 trait will be removed!]

…So that was the killing that happened when Ailin shed her ‘Non-Killing’ trait.

“There must be accomplices. The bastards who planned that horrific deed are still alive, surely plotting another attack against our Empire’s people.”
“…But Sir James. Is the man on the execution platform truly guilty? You said he endured severe torture without revealing anything. Perhaps this is all a mistake.”
“No, from what I saw with my own eyes, I’m certain. They gouged out his eyes and he still wouldn’t confess a word! A man that stubborn must have been plotting a brutal attack!”
“…….”

Ailin stared hard at James.
Silent, and for a long while, perfectly still.

“…Sir James, your account is remarkably vivid.”
“Hm?”
“Remarkably vivid indeed. It’s as if you had carried out every step of it yourself…”

A heavy silence settled over the room.

“No, my lady, what I meant was—”
“….”

Ailin wasn’t smiling anymore.
Not her lips, not her eyes.
Her face had gone terrifyingly blank.

“A-ah, wait… I just… Wait a moment. You—? Surely you’re not from the Underground City…!”
“….”
“H-hic!”

James seemed to sense the shift in the air, and only belatedly clamped his mouth shut.
His legs trembled, quivering beneath him.

“….”

So the culprit is confirmed.

“Setanta, thank you for waiting so long.”
“Oh, don’t mention it.”

Shing.
Ailin drew the Iron Wood Sword.

“…I’ve been worried the whole way here, you know. What if you turned out to be an upright, decent man, I kept thinking.”
“W-wait a second? Hold on…?”
“But the moment I became certain you weren’t innocent, I was so relieved. Truly, I was.”

She didn’t even bother checking whether Clau Solas, sheathed at her waist, had been drawn.
She gripped only the Iron Wood Sword in her hand, tight.

“By the way, who’s behind this? Of course, I don’t imagine a lowly knight like you knows much about the Empire’s inner workings.”
“W-wait… Hold on a second…!”

James tried to scramble to his feet in a rush, but crumpled straight back to the floor with a thud.
Then his chattering jaw finally pried itself open, and he began babbling whatever came to mind.

“L-Lampad…! It was all Captain Lampad’s doing! I-I, I only committed the crimes because I was ordered to…!”
“Lampad? Yes, I’ll be sure to remember that name, too.”

The Iron Wood Sword, wrapped in Ailin’s golden mana, slowly rose above her head.
Like the sun about to rain down heaven’s punishment.

“Y-you lunatic…! S-Setanta, Mr. Setanta…! Please, hear me out!”

James clung to me desperately.

Thwack!
Of course, Rian kicked him, peeling him off me at once.

“You filthy bastard! Get away from Lord Setanta this instant! You… you did this to Perdi!”

Rian looked as though he might burst into tears.
His eyes were red-rimmed; clearly, Perdi’s story just now had stirred him deeply.

‘Game over.’

Now…
It’s time for James to finally become a good person.

“No, no… Pl-please, spare me, please spare-!”

Bang!
Ailin’s silver prosthetic arm seized James as he tried to flee and hurled him against the stone floor without mercy.
A moaning gasp, mixed with bloody froth, rose from his throat.

“…Moments like this make you people feel like a different species altogether. Even though you wear the same human shape.”
“Ugh…”
“I thought perhaps the Empire’s people had different blood, but that isn’t so. I’ve cracked open the skulls of several over the past few days to check, and every one of them was the same.”
“H-hic… hhk…!”
“…Which brings me to my point.”

A brief silence followed.

“Could yours be the same color, I wonder?”

Crack!

Ailin’s iron wood sword came down hard against James’s head.

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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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