Blue mana began gathering around the Hero like rippling waves.
[A new Geas is engraved upon the Hero’s soul!]
◈Geas◈
【Loyalty to One’s Enemy】
-You must obey Setanta absolutely. You cannot harm him either directly or indirectly.
◆ Geas Bonus : While carrying out the target’s commands, all stats receive a 25% bonus.
“Wh-What…… Setanta, what did you do to me?!”
The Hero trembled as he glared at me as though he wanted to kill me.
Yet, as if something invisible were blocking him, he could not charge at me.
‘Did the perk I used manifest in the form of a Geas?’
【Geas】
-A covenant of the soul that grants abnormal power in exchange for placing restrictions upon oneself.
Under this game’s System, swearing a Geas grants a hero additional stat bonuses.
The more difficult the imposed restriction was to obey, the greater the power it granted.
‘So originally, a Geas was a card used to maximize a hero’s abilities.’
But now it was a slave-making device?
Well, this did not seem like a bad way to use it.
“Setan…… Setanta! What the hell did you do?! Why do I have a restriction like this……?!”
The collar was on.
Now it was time to program the Hero’s behavior.
“Hero. Here’s my first command. No suicide. Survive at all costs. From now on, you are absolutely forbidden from dying.”
“……!”
Suicide prevention.
I engraved the most important rule first.
“And make sure you eat three proper meals a day. Don’t do anything reckless, and stay put in safe zones.”
“Ugh…… Uhhh……!”
“No drinking or smoking. No overworking yourself. Sleep at least seven hours a day, and go to bed before eleven at night.”
“…….”
“Oh, right. No fried food either. Fish and chips are forbidden.”
“……Ugh……!”
For reference, the Empire was established as having a rather horrific food culture, much like the British.
If I took fried food away from them too, I had to wonder what was even left to eat.
Still, the world would only remain intact if this bastard stayed healthy, so there was no helping it.
[The effects of the Geas, 【Loyalty to One’s Enemy】, restrict the Hero’s actions!]
‘That should be enough, right?’
As I considered whether there was anything else I needed to add-
THUD!
The Hero collapsed as though he had fainted.
‘Hm? Is it because I could only give him a little potion earlier?’
Now that I looked closely, his leg was still twisted at a grotesque angle and steadily leaking blood.
Even his hands and feet were as cold as ice.
He looked……
……like a corpse that was about to die.
“Grrrrrrrk!”
Meanwhile, several monsters had climbed onto the roof and charged at us, so I took their heads off.
If we stayed here any longer, the entire building would be buried beneath a horde of monsters.
‘I need to find a potion shop and save the Hero first.’
I immediately stood atop a spire rising from the roof and looked out over the Imperial Capital.
‘……That building nearby is the chapel. And that one in the distance should be the potion shop.’
The capital of an Empire that had amassed wealth through magitech and colonial rule.
The magnificent city was being engulfed by processions of monsters and collapsing by the moment.
‘Fortunately, most of the crimson vapor spread throughout the capital has already dissipated. We should be fine as long as I avoid the lowlands to the east.’
I immediately prepared to leave.
Every second counted.
.
.
.
With the limp Hero slung across my back, I traveled by leaping from rooftop to rooftop.
‘How much farther? Ah, that’s the blacksmith, so we’re almost there.’
TAP!
As I cleared the roof of the final building, my destination finally came into view.
“Grrrrrr…….”
“Grrk, grrr…… Kyaaaaagh-!”
As expected, the potion shop already had customers.
BANG, BANG!
One monster repeatedly slammed its head against a window with its mouth hanging wide open.
The other three wandered aimlessly in front of the shop.
They had begun mutating after coming into contact with the crimson vapor, but enough of their human forms remained to make them look even more grotesque.
‘Should I deal with them quickly and head inside?’
I dropped from the rooftop and landed lightly.
……SHNK!
I swung the longsword from behind them, effortlessly severing the necks of two monsters.
“Grrrrrr……!”
Another twisted its creaking neck around to look at me.
I cut that one down too.
The last charged at me, so I drove the sword straight through the center of its forehead.
‘I need to loot this place and get out before sunset.’
I roughly shoved aside the monster corpses sprawled in front of the door and turned the handle.
CREEEAK-.
A peculiar scent washed over me, a mixture of medicinal herbs and blood.
* * *
‘Huh? The shopkeeper is dead?’
The moment I entered the shop, I was greeted by a pool of blood.
A corpse lay sprawled on the floor, blood pouring from a hole in its chest.
Rather than having been attacked by a monster, the wound looked as though it had been inflicted by a sharp blade.
‘This character stayed alive throughout the original game…… Strange.’
The blood that had spilled out was still warm, so it did not seem as though much time had passed since the murder.
“Shopkeeper, I’m borrowing some potions!”
I hopped over the pool of blood occupying the center of the shop like a pond.
Then I hurriedly grabbed a Vitality Potion and poured it into the Hero’s mouth.
[A Vitality Potion has been used on the Hero.]
[The Hero’s condition has stabilized.]
“Ugh……!”
The Hero groaned in pain.
I spread the remaining potion evenly over the areas twisted by his multiple fractures.
Phew.
At least the immediate crisis seemed to have passed.
‘Come to think of it, I need an inventory if I’m going to carry potions.’
Curse Resistance Potions were especially essential for clearing the early stages of Hell Mode.
Physical mutations caused by contact with the vapor were classified as curses.
‘Oh, there’s something suitable right here.’
A leather belt slung across the corpse’s shoulder caught my eye.
It seemed to come as a set with a storage pouch.
‘Hmm……. Sorry about this, shopkeeper.’
SPLASH, SPLASH-
I stepped straight into the pool of blood, removed the equipment from the corpse, and put it on.
[You have obtained 【Belt-Fastened Storage Pouch】.]
Now I have an inventory too.
[Warning! - Immoral choices will decrease a hero’s Morality Value!]
I could raise the Morality Value I had lost later by completing good-deed quests.
For now, I searched the shelves and stuffed as many potions as possible into the pouch.
I rather liked the fact that with the owner gone, there was no one to make me pay.
‘Good. The Hero is alive, and I’ve stocked up on early-game potions without any trouble.’
Then next came recruiting party members.
‘There was something similar to a hero summon in the original game. I wonder if that applies in this world too.’
The so-called first-time-only three-hero draw.
Once the tutorial ended, the hero draw automatically began.
[Heroes with whom you share a bond will be favorably disposed toward you and can be recruited into the party more easily.]
Of course, it did not literally hand you heroes the way a gacha game would.
If their Trust dropped too far, they could betray you or even stab the protagonist.
‘Still, it would be reassuring if I got some decent ones.’
I would pass on N Grade.
Just as I was hoping for three R Grade heroes-
‘Hm?’
The sound of hurried footsteps came closer from the distance.
BANG!
The shop door suddenly burst open, and three adventurers rushed inside.
“C-Close the door! Now!”
“Grrrk, grrrrr-!”
The adventurers shoved back the monsters chasing them and violently slammed the door shut.
Then they dragged over every chair they could find and built a barricade.
Afterward, they took off their cloaks and began covering the windows.
‘They’re blocking the monsters’ line of sight to lose their aggro.’
But as I looked more closely……
All three faces were familiar.
‘Wait, those guys are……?’
My eyes widened with delight.
I had played this game too many times not to recognize them.
‘The trio of R Grade heroes. They look exactly like their in-game illustrations.’
Thanks to their strong early-game performance and overall reliability, they were staples of my early-game parties.
They might have been overshadowed by SR and SSR heroes from the middle of the game onward, but at this stage, they were perfect.
‘Did these guys come from my first-time-only three-pull?’
[……Some of the heroes’ Trust has been carried over.]
It seems that today……
I was fairly lucky.
* * *
“……That’s what happened.”
The trio belatedly discovered the potion shop owner’s corpse and recoiled in shock, so I calmly explained what had happened.
Meeting people I had seen countless times in the game under circumstances like these felt strangely moving.
“I see. So you merely discovered the body. Understood.”
“……?”
But somehow……
Something felt off.
“By the way, what about that merchant guild contract we were supposed to fill in for? I suppose we should assume it’s been canceled. Damn.”
“You mean the mercenaries who complained about the settlement ratio and eventually broke the contract using an ankle injury as an excuse?”
“Haah…… I thought we’d hit the jackpot by replacing those idiots. What a mess.”
They ignored me and began discussing matters known only to themselves.
As though I were invisible.
“The Empire is already in this state. Who even knows whether the person who was supposed to pay us is still alive? Just forget about it.”
“…….”
“And just when our luck couldn’t get any worse…… Damn it.”
Eventually, they turned toward me.
And their gazes……
……contained unmistakable contempt.
‘What?’
I stared back at them in confusion.
James, who seemed to be the leader of the group, abruptly approached me and asked,
“By the way, you have an Ailant accent. Are you from Ailant?”
“Me? Well, I suppose I am?”
According to Setanta’s background, he was from Ailant, a colony of the Empire.
So I answered truthfully.
[James is wary of you.]
For some reason, the atmosphere changed.
What?
Did I choose the wrong dialogue option?
“Tell me something. Was the owner of this potion shop already dead?”
“Hm? Like I said earlier, he was already dead when I entered the shop.”
“……But there was a wound in his chest. It looked very much like he’d been stabbed with a sharp sword.”
His gaze slowly shifted toward my longsword.
The sheath was still covered in bloodstains I had not had time to wipe away.
Of course, it was not human blood.
It belonged to the monsters I had killed.
[Mason is wary of you.]
[David is wary of you.]
[Warning! - Multiple heroes are hostile toward you.]
What?
Why are they suddenly acting like this?
[The heroes’ Trust toward you is dangerously low.]
‘Heroes from the first-time bond draw are supposed to be friendly toward me.’
Was a single bloodstained sword really enough to make them this hostile?
I was genuinely bewildered.
“I understand how this might look, but this is blood that splattered onto me while I was killing monsters.”
“…….”
“If you really doubt me, touch it yourself! The texture and color are slightly different from human blood-.”
“……Then why is your bag covered in blood when you haven’t been injured?”
“What?”
“The belt and pouch you’re wearing. Why are they soaked in blood?”
Silence fell.
[Warning! - The heroes harbor intense hostility toward you!]
What the hell……
……is it going on here?
Then a thought flashed through my mind.
‘Wait. It said my bonds with heroes from the previous playthrough would be carried over.’
Suddenly, everything made sense.
‘Could it be because I’m Setanta, and Setanta betrayed the Empire in the previous playthrough?’
Was that why these Imperial citizens were so hostile toward me?
……Just like the Hero?
Did I start the game with negative Trust?!
“We cannot simply overlook the atrocities committed by a murderer from Ailant.”
SHING-
James raised his axe.
“Wait, why are you suddenly……!”
Before I could finish speaking-
WHOOSH!
The enormous axe tore through the air.
“……!”
If I had not immediately leaned back, my head would have been split apart.
“Damn it……!”
I widened the distance between James and myself.
Then, just as I reached out to retrieve the Hero-
“Do not touch our honored guest, you filthy bastard!”
“……Huh?”
The other two quickly picked up the limp Hero and retreated into a corner.
“No, Charles is with me. Give him back immediately!”
“Get lost! From now on, this man will travel with us!”
They supported the Hero as though attending to someone of the highest status.
Their eyes were filled with almost painful concern, as though they were looking at something precious.
It was completely different from the dead-fish eyes they had given me.
‘They’re hostile toward me, but they treasure the Hero?’
……Because the Trust from the previous playthrough was carried over?
The whole thing was so absurd that I could only stare blankly at them.
Then-
BOOOOM!
The outer wall of the building collapsed.
Humanoid mutated monsters began forcing their way through the opening.
“Grrrrrk……!”
“Grrrk, Graaaaaah-!”
‘Damn it, did all the noise draw their aggro?!’
One of the R Grade heroes supporting the Hero was caught beneath the falling debris and flailed both arms wildly.
“Aaaaaagh-!”
“L-Let go! Let go of me! A-Aaaagh!”
Another man apparently had his trouser leg grabbed by the struggling hero.
He fell over as well, leaving the two heroes tangled together.
‘Now!’
I rushed forward and quickly grabbed the Hero.
……SNAP!
A monster’s jaws snapped shut on empty air.
“Grrrk, grrk!”
“Whoa…….”
Monsters were shoving their faces through every gap in the collapsed wall.
The shop would soon come down entirely.
‘I need to get out of here……!’
I hoisted the Hero onto my back.
Then, just as I began rising beside the tangled R Grade heroes-
THUD!
…THUD!
……THUD!
“Die, you murderer-!”
James charged toward me with bloodshot eyes and swung his axe.
“Huh?”
I lightly twisted my body aside and easily avoided it.
……CRUNCH!
With a heavy sound……
Blood sprayed upward from below and splattered across one side of my face.
“…….”
“…….”
[Mason returns to the Goddess’s embrace.]
[David returns to the Goddess’s…….]
With a single swing of his axe, the two tangled bodies had been severed at the same time.
“Uh……? Uhhh…….”
James stood trembling from head to toe, holding his blood-soaked axe.
His face looked as though the overwhelming guilt had driven his mind completely blank.
“I-I…… I didn’t mean to…….”
“……No, my three-pull?”
My first-time-only draw.
Two of the three were gone in a single hit.