It took an embarrassingly long time for Kaline to accept all of this. Even though his head had already finished the calculations, his heart couldn’t accept it.
‘The first penalty of the Predation ability. The strong-weak, weak-strong characteristic.’
He kills Hunters weaker than himself and devours their experience points whole.
But against Hunters stronger than himself, he can’t even push his blade in once.
Belsus personally showed his left hand in front of Kaline. The hand that had grabbed the blade aimed at my neck was clean without a single wound. Kaline wavered upon seeing the slowly opened palm.
I sealed away the laughter that was about to come out inside my mouth. I only sneered inwardly.
‘You completely wasted your efforts.’
No matter how much lingering attachment remained, he wouldn’t be able to drag out time any longer. Kaline himself knew that best.
‘You’re here disobeying the return order, aren’t you? In the game, you should have returned to the royal palace by this point.’
The time Kaline could be here had also ended.
The excellent knight’s face rapidly contorted. And then.
“Aaaaah—!”
A roar-like shout that couldn’t contain his anger burst out toward the sky.
The knight lost his composure and kicked the wall with his military boots. Bang! The wall broke through and stone dust flew in all directions.
The knight who had convulsed for a few seconds suddenly cut off his screaming.
He became a terrifyingly cold-blooded knight again without a single word, glared at Belsus as if to kill him, then leaped upward without averting his eyes.
Kaline left.
‘We… succeeded.’
Soon only Belsus and I remained here.
When the commotion occurred, the passersby had already fled without a trace. A suffocating silence flowed.
“…Should we go back?”
Pretending nothing happened, I was about to open the subspace door but stopped because Belsus was standing like a stone with his feet together.
“Are you hurt anywhere?”
Belsus took one step toward me.
For a moment, my vision was dominated as if a giant mountain was standing before me. Belsus, who carefully examined my nape and other places, slowly lowered his hand.
“…I didn’t know my place and dared to talk back to you.”
Sure enough, Belsus had returned to being a sucker and was reading my mood.
He was quite chilling earlier. But after the momentarily boiling emotions cooled, my heart sank with an ‘oh no’ feeling.
I thought I was the one reading the mood because I did something wrong, but it was reversed. Belsus was already bowing his head as if he’d been kicked out and shrinking like a sinner.
“Let’s go back and eat first.”
“I’m sorry. I don’t have the right to go back.”
Before I could stop him, Belsus knelt before me.
Ah, really. How should I comfort him this time?
Watching this man whose knees were so light despite having once been royalty, I felt a sense of disparity as the image overlapped with the ghost who had been intimidating so terrifyingly earlier.
I recalled that low and eerie voice from before.
“When you got angry, it was kind of, uh… thrilling.”
Belsus stared blankly.
Too flustered, Belsus opened his mouth and became a statue. So this expression is… Archer makes this expression when looking at me. Eyes that wonder if I’m crazy.
“Ah, sorry. I’m not trying to tease you. I mean, since someone who doesn’t get angry got angry, I thought, ‘Oh, he knows how to get angry too?’…”
The other party was too flustered and the atmosphere became awkward. I hurriedly added words to try to salvage the situation.
“It felt good.”
Seems unsalvageable.
I gave up on pulling out proper words from my mouth. I don’t know. It’ll be fine. Belsus is a sucker anyway. He won’t abandon me just because the landlord seems a bit strange.
* * *
—You didn’t tell Kaline you have the same ability too, right?
—Am I an idiot? Of course I hid it.
When Archer first made contact with Kaline, he didn’t say he had the same ability.
‘You know that saved you.’
Kaline would be very anxious if someone had the same ability as him. He would want to monopolize his ability. Isn’t it a belligerent type of ability?
He would have just killed Archer, who was weaker than him, on the spot and devoured all his ability and experience points.
Because of that, Kaline has no great interest in Archer.
‘That’s why you survived today.’
Although Archer was chased around for the crime of offending Kaline, it wasn’t a crime severe enough to chase him to the ends of hell and kill him.
In other words, Kaline was just looking for Archer too while searching for Belsus. Belsus was the main target, and Archer was a bonus.
Conclusion. When Kaline gave up on Belsus and retreated for now, he naturally gave up on Archer too.
Archer could finally leave the slums.
“Isn’t your ability too overpowered? Just feeding him one sandwich and that Kaline… If you keep eating food you made, do you keep getting weaker? Is that why you’re weak too?”
Archer chattered endlessly while we exited the slums side by side.
I decided to tell him the truth at this point.
“It’s a lie. That I can weaken people with food.”
In fact, the sandwich I gave Kaline was really just an ordinary sandwich.
I didn’t have the skill to apply debuffs with food.
Archer stopped walking and looked at me in shock. I shrugged my shoulders.
“I’m a farmer.”
“Oh right. You’re a farmer!”
“I’m a farmer, not a cook.”
If I had the farm ability and even food debuffs on top of that, it would have been overpowered as the saying goes. Belsus became better than Kaline just by eating well, sleeping deeply, and training on his own.
The reason I lied was just to instill courage in Archer to shoot at Kaline…
“Then… even if I had shot the arrow, it wouldn’t have worked on Kaline anyway. Since I’m weaker.”
I nodded my head vigorously. Up and down with force, nod.
“I tested your courage.”
“Is that even reasonable?!”
It turned out well, so instead of being grateful for being saved, this bastard kept whining.
Right. I tested Archer.
If he had shot Kaline, since the sandwich actually had no debuff function, Kaline was stronger than Archer. So the arrow Archer shot would have bounced right off his nape.
Then Kaline would have been furious.
If Kaline started seriously hunting Archer as prey, Archer would have no choice but to come to me for shelter while trembling. It would have been a good opportunity for me to enslave Archer.
‘Too bad he didn’t shoot.’
Well, I knew from his personality that he wouldn’t be able to shoot yet.
I came to the village near the slums with Archer.
Until the crops on my farm grew and I could be completely self-sufficient, I had been maintaining a channel to buy groceries from outside. While helping Archer in the slums, this village became a means of procuring ingredients to some extent.
“This is…”
Archer looked at the village name and looked around in circles.
What Archer recognized was correct. This is the village that appears in Belsus’s route.
After defeating Kaline, Belsus drags his tired body out of the slums and rests his weary body here.
Although he couldn’t properly appear because he just bought a little food and quickly left, the village atmosphere is decent.
However, since beggars flock and frequently attack, vigilance is needed.
Archer was stupid but not to the level of being unable to do anything. Even without me telling him, he quietly met with the village chief and had a conversation.
—Since beggars keep coming in groups and causing trouble… I hope you could help with the village defense.
It’s the proposal that comes to Belsus in Belsus’s route. The model answer is to refuse.
‘Of course. With the crime of being Kaline’s murderer, if he works in a nearby village, isn’t that like saying “come catch me?”‘
But Archer can accept this quest.
I bought him clean clothes to replace his ragged ones, and when he showed his bow and arrows and said he was a hunter, the village chief was completely fooled.
Above all, Archer’s skin was pale white and his blonde hair sparkled, giving off an aristocratic air, so he looked extraordinary in this rural village. The chief thought Archer was a master and entrusted him with village security.
‘Now he doesn’t have to worry about food and shelter.’
He secured a place to sleep and food, so now Archer can steadily level up by performing quests for combat professions.
Despite the situation improving, Archer only sighed deeply with a mournful expression.
“Am I ruined…?”
He must really regret the initial time wasted for about a week. He must feel like he’s fallen far behind. Since he’s separated from Kaline, he must feel everything is ruined.
‘Well, I don’t think so…’
Because Predation is a terrifying top-priority ability that can suddenly reverse the situation at any time.
That’s why.
Even though Archer desperately sends me looks wanting to stay with me, I don’t want to respond.
Archer knows it too. That he and I are competitors. That only one of us can win and remain in this world.
Honestly… that he might quickly overturn someone like me.
I turned away, leaving Archer who had to stay alone without a partner.
“Live well.”
Of course, I’m going to the subspace and won’t leave here immediately.
Of course, shortly after, I regretted speaking as if we wouldn’t see each other again as a joke.
“…Shit, are you abandoning me…”
Because when I turned around, Archer was bawling and I ruined my own eyes.
