……Damn it!
“GRRRRR-!”
“SCREEECH!”
The monsters immediately began charging at us.
“Setanta, what is happening?!”
“Run over there! Into that side room!”
We hurried straight ahead.
I had caught a glimpse of its location when the sparks flashed earlier.
That was the private chamber used for confessions!
BANG!
I put all the momentum from my sprint into a kick against the door.
Then I quickly slammed it shut.
BANG!
BANG! BANG!
“Grrrrr…….”
“Grrk, grrrrr……!”
We immediately tore loose a pile of chairs and other furniture and built a barricade in front of the door.
“Phew…….”
Even in the original game, whenever something went wrong during the chapel quest, I would temporarily take refuge inside this chamber.
After spending some time here, the aggro would eventually wear off. Then I could head back out and finish clearing the dungeon.
“Let us rest here for a little while. We can leave once those things have forgotten about us.”
Aileen gave a short nod at my words.
.
.
.
How much time had passed?
“Shriek, grrrrr…….”
Judging by the noises I could still hear nearby, the monsters seemed to still be prowling around outside the confessional.
In the meantime, Aileen had folded a piece of cotton cloth into a sharp point and was deftly wiping away the blood caught in the joints of her prosthetic arm.
‘Does she have to maintain it like that every single time?’
I stared absently at her for a while.
Then an uneasy thought suddenly raised its head, leaving me with a strange feeling.
‘She is not going to betray me too, is she?’
……For example, suddenly joining the enemy right before the final chapter.
Or trying to kill me with all those powerful stats after I had painstakingly raised her……?
After all, I had possessed the body of none other than Setanta.
The very icon of betrayal.
Naturally, this was something I could not help being especially sensitive about.
‘I need to raise every Hero’s Trust high enough this time that none of them will even consider getting any funny ideas.’
So, partly as small talk, I decided to strike up a conversation with her.
“Miss Aileen. I noticed you were using something like a blunt wooden sword earlier.”
“Ah, this? It is an ironwood sword that has been specially treated to withstand mana to a certain degree. It is surprisingly useful.”
“Why do you not use the real sword strapped behind your waist? That one looks much better.”
“Ah…….”
Aileen fell silent for a moment at my question.
“……There are circumstances behind that.”
After giving that short answer, she turned her attention back to maintaining her prosthetic arm.
Hmm. Was her Trust still too low for her to tell me the truth?
【Curse of the Sun(-)】
-You cannot wield bladed weapons without clear justification.
……Of course, I already knew because I had checked her Hero information window earlier.
For now, I decided to pretend that I did not.
‘Well, I suppose she normally cannot draw it because it is a bladed sword.’
Still, why had this Hero sworn such an inefficient Geas?
She had gone through all the trouble of obtaining a Mythic-grade weapon, yet she could not even use it properly. What a colossal waste.
‘If I could use that sword instead…….’
My eyes were drawn toward the magnificent Claíomh Solais strapped behind her waist.
It was clearly a top-quality piece, lavishly crafted all the way down to the hilt.
I could already imagine how perfectly it would settle into my hand.
……Could the sword’s ownership somehow be transferred to me?
I stared intently at her.
Amid the grotesque groans of the monsters occasionally drifting in from outside the confessional, only her quiet eyes seemed to hold the surrounding silence within them.
“…….”
Just as I forced myself to tear my gaze away from the sword—
“Setanta, can you truly promise not to spread this around lightly?”
“……!”
Aileen finally spoke.
It seemed she was finally going to reveal her secret to me.
“Of course. Despite how I might look, I am not the sort to run my mouth.”
I immediately snapped back to attention and prepared to listen carefully.
DING!
[TIP - The Sun Sword Claíomh Solais boasts unparalleled performance even among Mythic-grade weapons.]
Hmm?
[If its owner, Aileen, dies, ownership of Claíomh Solais will pass to her killer!]
A red System message suddenly appeared before my eyes.
‘What? Why is this thing acting up again?’
DING, DING!
DING, DING, DING!
More crimson windows began appearing one after another as if competing for space, until they completely obscured my vision.
“Setanta. I cannot wield bladed weapons.”
“…….”
“Not without clear justification.”
[The target harbors a small amount of Trust toward you!]
DING!
[Ambushing a target with high Trust allows you to deal a critical blow…….]
“The moment I obtained this Sun Sword, an unbreakable curse was placed upon me.”
“……What?”
At that moment, all the red messages filling my vision vanished at once.
“The longsword you use, and even a spear. To me, they are all bladed weapons that I cannot use.”
“…….”
“……That Geas was forcibly engraved upon my soul the moment I obtained this Sun Sword.”
“Wait a moment. You were forcibly placed under a Geas? The sword came with a curse?”
“Yes. Ever since I became the owner of this sword you were coveting…… I have become half a swordswoman.”
My heart sank.
What was she talking about?
“I always believed I possessed some talent for the sword, and I spent my entire life training.”
“…….”
“And now I have become someone who cannot even hold a table knife.”
* * *
‘The moment you become the owner of Claíomh Solais, some bizarre Geas comes bundled with it as a two-for-one deal?’
My thoughts went cold.
I had never even heard of an item with a gimmick like that, despite clearing all the way through Hell Mode…….
“Phew…….”
I took a deep breath and organized my thoughts.
What if I had harmed her as the red System suggested?
The Geas that prevented her from using any bladed weapon would have transferred to me along with the sword…….
Would I not have ended up as a completely worthless character who could use neither spears nor swords?
A chill ran down my spine.
‘Come to think of it, that red System window went berserk when I met the Hero too.’
I finally understood.
That damned crimson System window genuinely wanted me to get a game over…….
“Haha. A sword that forcibly imposes a Geas on its owner. That truly sounds dreadful.”
For the moment, I kept my expression under control.
‘I should not have gotten arrogant just because I collected endings in the triple digits.’
From now on, I would return to the basics and approach everything with the mindset of a fresh-faced beginner.
“Clear justification…… Miss Aileen, then under exactly what circumstances can you draw the sword?”
“To tell the truth, I do not know the exact conditions myself. I have only managed to draw it once since then.”
“Oh? What kind of situation was it?”
If I was going to make proper use of this Hero from now on, I needed to understand the exact conditions.
“Were you fighting a powerful monster? Or rescuing your countrymen from danger?”
Aileen’s answer, however, was astonishing.
“……I drew it while saving an Imperial citizen.”
“Huh?”
For a moment, I wondered whether I had misheard her and stared at Aileen.
Her lips were firmly shut, and her downcast eyes held their usual stoic look.
No matter how I looked at her, she did not appear to be joking.
“……The sword refused to come out no matter how hard I fought for my homeland’s independence.”
“…….”
“But it came out when I tried to save an Imperial child who was being abused. A child of the very Empire that reduced our country to this state…….”
She fell silent for a moment.
Then she murmured softly.
“But I do not regret the choice I made that day.”
Her expression almost made it seem as though she were making a confession.
“To a child being beaten, would his own father not have seemed like a marauder?”
“…….”
“So I decided to think of it this way. That day, with my own hands, I saved a little Ailant.”
“……No, is that not a kind of self-justification…….”
“No one is an Imperial in every aspect of who they are, would you not agree? I want you to think that anyone, in at least one part of themselves…… can be Ailant, my homeland.”
Aileen smiled bitterly.
I felt as though I had something to say in response.
But as I looked at that complicated expression of hers, the words simply died in my throat.
“There was once a time when an old comrade and I disagreed over matters like this. In the end, I was called a turncoat, and we went our separate ways.”
Then, almost as if talking to herself, she murmured.
“……I wonder what Finley is doing these days.”
DING!
At that moment, a notification appeared before my eyes.
[Information on a new Hero acquired!]
‘Hmm? A new Hero?’
Could it be……?
[Additional Bonus - An additional new Hero will appear!]
Was this one of the new DLC characters that were supposed to be added when I restarted Hell Mode?
My heart raced as I stared at the name Finley.
[Multiple monsters have stopped focusing on you.]
The aggro had finally worn off.
* * *
After leaving the confessional, we swiftly disposed of the monsters.
“Setanta! This one is the last!”
FWOOSH!
Golden mana surged along the path of Aileen’s swing and burned the final monster away.
Since there was no longer any need to play stealthily, it seemed she had infused the finishing blow with mana.
“Wow, that was seriously impressive.”
“Is that a compliment? I shall accept it gladly.”
The dim chapel basement suddenly lit up as though the sun itself had fallen into it, before gradually sinking back into darkness.
Just as expected from a character who had been famous even in the original game for her spectacular skill effects.
“In any case, we have dealt with all the monsters here.”
“But the body of the girl who appeared to be that man’s daughter…… We never found it in the end.”
“……Here.”
“Hmm?”
“Is there a hidden passage here?”
Ta-da!
I immediately stomped on the floor and opened the passage leading down to the second basement level.
The brown-haired Imperial girl should have survived down there alone after locking herself behind iron bars.
“Let us go through here. I have a feeling the child might be inside.”
“……!”
We immediately climbed down the ladder.
A few monsters were wandering around below, so we killed them without much trouble.
‘And if I press the block in this corner…… Oh, there it is.’
[You have obtained 【The Holy Relic Hidden Beneath the Chapel】.]
While Aileen was looking elsewhere for a moment, I quietly pocketed the holy relic as well.
【Moral Compulsion(-)】
She was a Hero with far too honest a Trait.
If the Imperial Army ever started questioning her, I had a feeling everything would immediately show on her face.
[The quest target is nearby.]
Good. Everything was going smoothly.
Once I rescued the man’s daughter as well, I would even receive Perk Points as the quest reward.
‘She had wavy brown hair.’
BANG!
I threw open the door to the solitary cell where the girl should have taken refuge.
There were iron bars inside this cell.
Beyond them was a tiny barred enclosure barely large enough for a single child.
The only survivor, who had saved herself from the monsters by locking herself inside, should have been right here.
“Kid, we came to save—”
“GRRRK!”
“Ah.”
SLASH!
The instant I opened the door, a monster lunged straight at me, so I immediately cut off its head and killed it.
‘You scared me.’
Then I started straight toward the barred enclosure.
……Tap.
Something caught against my foot.
‘Hmm?’
I immediately looked down.
A small corpse with only its upper body remaining was lying facedown on the floor.
‘What is this? Why is there a small corpse here……?’
Strange.
Had there originally been a corpse object placed on this map?
Tilting my head, I crouched down and turned the small body over to take a closer look.
The lower half had been devoured.
The face had stiffened in an expression twisted with terror.
And the limp, wavy brown hair was drenched in blood…….
Huh?
Does she not look remarkably similar to the quest target I was looking for?
“……S-save me. Please save me.”
At that moment, I heard a voice calling out to me.
I immediately raised my head and looked over.
Behind the iron bars—
A red-haired girl with half of her little finger missing was trembling violently inside.
“……Huh?”
Something was…… wrong.
‘The child rescued in this quest is definitely supposed to have wavy brown hair, is she not? Not red hair like that……?’
I stared at the child behind the bars in confusion.
“P-please, save me……. I-I really, I had no choice…….”
The girl began speaking haltingly in a trembling voice, and a distinct Ailant accent could be heard in every word.
“Mom said that, no matter what happened, she would come back for me…….”
“…….”
“She told me I had to survive until then…….”
Slowly—
The girl’s gaze shifted beyond the iron bars.
Toward the brown-haired girl whose upper body alone remained on the floor, the same corpse that had caught against my foot earlier.
‘Ah……?’
Now that I looked more closely—
The delicate back of the little corpse’s hand was covered in scratches and torn abrasions.
Almost as if, after a desperate struggle, she had been forced out from behind those iron bars.
“Mom told me to survive.”
“…….”
“She told me I had to survive…….”
The girl repeated it over and over.
She told me to survive.
She said I had to stay alive.
No matter what happened…….