## Chapter 115 – Soul Ascension Battle
“Serkaaa!! If you can’t save him, just do what that bastard says, you useless bitch!!!”
Roel’s scream, piercing through their friendship, was perfectly suited to the chaotic scene. The proud mage, oblivious to her own shame, was willing to sell out her friend’s mother.
“R-Roel. I, I…!”
Serka looked at me with eyes that seemed about to shatter.
Her robe was also stained with blood.
“Quickly!!! Do something!!! Anything!!!!”
…These bastards are putting on a real show.
If you want to live, show the kind of grit that would sell out your own mother. That’s what it means to be an adventurer. These young punks have been taking the world too lightly. Seeing this friendship fall apart made my anger surge again.
“Alright, speak! Tell me about your mother!”
I shouted loudly at Serka.
In this other world, a mother’s chastity is utterly useless.
Only true cold-blooded, human trash who are willing to sell out their parents can survive! Now that you’ve stained your hands with human blood, what does respect for your parents even matter? You can’t survive here without abandoning your morals! This is a harsh, savage, and barren other world!
That’s what I thought, and that’s how I decided to live, because I was an adventurer too!
Don’t underestimate my grit, the grit that made me kill people to survive, you goddamn troll bastards! I didn’t want to come to this other world!
—I’ll show you what a real troll is!
I!
Will!
Here!
“Show you!”
I shouted again, sharply. Even the monsters, who had been unleashing their primal malice towards humanity, stopped their rampage and looked up at me.
“If you’re an adventurer who lives by the sword, show some grit! Show me your determination to survive! Ah, but you live by your fists, so it’s fist-grit. Anyway! If you want to live, speak! And beg me!”
—Speak! Roel shouted, echoing me in her madness.
Custo had buried his face in the ground, trembling and calling out to God. The rosary in his hand looked so pathetic. I felt sorry for him. I had unintentionally thrown his harem into a fucking garbage can.
But I had already suffered, so what was I supposed to do?
Unfortunately, I’m not kind enough to consider other people’s situations when I’m angry.
Yes, Custo is definitely a good person.
I’m the one who put him in this shitty situation.
But.
But…
But!!!!!
Those two bitches!!!!!!!
Ruined!!!!!!!!!!
My ascension battle!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
“Tell me about your mother!”
I will never forgive them.
I pointed at Serka like a divine hero. The onrushing monsters, the fallen friends bleeding on the ground. She took it all in, her face filled with tears, and opened her mouth.
“…I.”
“Speak louder!”
“…My mother, Serka’s mother…!”
“Your mother!”
Finally, as if a dam had burst, tears streamed down her face.
Her mental state was already shattered by her friend’s betrayal.
“Is a dirty whore who sells her body in the back alleys!”
“Good! Very good! I’m starting to like you, Serka!”
She, too, fell into madness with a tone similar to Roel’s, reciting the words I had said. I kindly filled in the gaps in her memory, which were blocked by the flood of tears, and made her finish the sentence.
She answered diligently, and my satisfaction grew with each word.
And finally.
“—I love that kind of mother so much!”
Her passionate confession came to an end.
—Clap clap clap clap!
I applauded the best actress. Then, I immediately drew my sword and descended to the ground. From rock to earth, it was truly a divine descent.
“Good, Serka. From now on, your mother is a whore. Understand?”
“…Hic, y-yes, I understand…!”
“Then I will save you—”
The Desert Runners hesitated, sensing the ominous atmosphere.
I gripped my sword and lowered my stance. Strong to the weak, and contempt for the weak! If it’s in front of the weak, then I’m a match for ten thousand! I, Kim Katt, become stronger than anyone else against those weaker than me!
I will never lose to those chumps!
“—The child of a worthless whore.”
And I charged forward like a beast.
“I don’t know why I have to do this dirty work.”
My sword, gaining speed, was not something that such a pathetic, low-level monster could stop.
—Gwaek!
With the first slash, a Runner met its death. Then slash, slash, slash, and slash again!
“Evil be gone!”
In an instant, the corpses of the Desert Runners piled up. In that short moment of less than five minutes, five of them had been transformed into fresh processed food. The remaining ones cried out to their god and fled. There was no need to chase them. They ran faster than I could.
Thus, all that remained in the area were the half-dead Katt and his cheerful friends.
“Hey, Serka. Go take care of your friends.”
Serka just stared blankly at me. Even among E-ranks, I was an E-rank who was practically a D-rank. That’s what the difference in skill is like. Having learned swordsmanship from Karin and being able to execute a proper ‘slash,’ the necks of those things were nothing more than straw to me.
“…Yes.”
Serka, snapping out of it at my words, helped Custo up. Roel, who had barely survived, made some kind of low whimpering sound and stood up on her own.
“K-Katt… Y-you are…”
Custo, standing up, looked at me with an expression as if he were seeing some kind of demon. I didn’t have anything to say to him. And then he trembled and began to chant.
—Hwaak!
He cast a self-heal, beginning to heal the wounds on his body. With each flash of green light on his flesh, the bleeding stopped and new flesh grew. The process was slow and gradual.
“Hic… Hic… I want to go back now. Custo, let’s go back. Okay?”
Roel, approaching Custo, began to sob and plead with him. No, I saved you, and now you’re trying to give up on the quest? My fuse blew completely.
“You, you fuckers. Who said you could go back? Do you think you’re Jennifer?”
—Thwack!
Kicking the severed head of a Desert Runner, I said. The floating head fell back to the ground due to gravity. The sound of the thud made Roel and Serka flinch.
“We’re finishing this quest. Understand?”
However, no one answered.
“I’m asking if you understand, you fuckers!!! Why are you ignoring me when I’m talking!! Is it still a problem that I’m a barbarian? Is it a problemmmmm!!!!!!”
Overwhelmed with sadness, I roared.
How deep a world of discrimination I have walked. All the bastards I met were just throwing stones at me. I managed to survive thanks to a few kind people, but the discrimination still hasn’t disappeared.
Look, even though I saved their lives, they ignored me.
That’s it, I’m done. I raised my sword high.
To cut through this gray world of only sadness with this sword.
“N-no! Stop! Please stop…!”
“Hmm? Serka?”
Then, Serka, who had come close, grabbed my pant leg.
“I-I’ll do the quest… Hic, I’ll do it… So please stop…”
“Hey, why are you suddenly using honorifics with me? Don’t be so awkward, really.”
She looked so pitiful, trembling and crying, that I decided to put my arm around her and comfort her. It seemed like the mental shock was considerable, judging by the sudden use of honorifics.
“We’re not like that. I don’t like it when you try to draw a line like that.”
“T-then…?”
“Just be comfortable. Be comfortable. Okay?”
“…”
I put on a fatherly smile to reassure her and brought my face close to hers.
“Hey, aren’t you going to answer?”
“…Yes.”
“Yes? Yesss? Yessssss? I! Told! You! Not! To! Draw! A! Line!!”
“Kyaaaaak!!!”
“Just kidding, you bitch. Let’s go.”
After doing that much, the situation started to turn in my favor. Roel and Serka, terrified, agreed to do as I said, and even Custo, who was looking at me like a monster, followed my lead.
“Let’s go, let’s go!”
After all, when dealing with crazy people, I have to imitate a crazy person myself.
Look, just a little bit of being an asshole and they quickly become docile sheep.
“Let’s go! Hurry! Quickly. Let’s go!”
From now on, it’s the start of a fun ascension battle life.
Feeling good, I grinned and walked forward with vigor.
“Don’t make me wait!”
Of course, I stood at the very back in case of a backstab. I shouted and forced Roel to guide the way.
“Ah, right. Roel. Don’t you have anything to say to Serka?”
But as the situation began to return to normal, I was overcome with a rage that felt like my insides were about to explode. Wondering what to pick on this time, I suddenly remembered Roel shattering her friendship with Serka.
“…W-what do you mean?”
Roel looked back at me.
Her expression was trembling, as if she was afraid of me. I don’t know if that’s good or bad. A relationship with a mage is best when it’s subtle… Or maybe it’s better if she’s afraid of me so she doesn’t go around talking about me.
“No, think about what you said to Serka earlier. Is it okay to say those things to a friend?”
“What I said to Serka…?”
Roel had sold out her friend’s mother in agreement with my words earlier.
Looking at her face, which seemed to know nothing, it seemed that the two weren’t particularly close, and Serka was just accommodating Roel.
“Hey, Serka. That bitch doesn’t seem to know? She shouted at you to say with your own mouth, ‘My mother, Serka’s mother, is a whore.'”
“…It doesn’t matter, no, it doesn’t matter.”
“Really? Aren’t you two friends?”
“We are, we are… So please…”
“But she doesn’t seem to consider you a friend. I don’t like that, really. Isn’t that crazy? How can you do that to a friend?”
As I continued to throw logs into the dying embers, Custo turned to me and said in a trembling voice.
“K-Katt-nim… L-let’s forget the past… And focus on the future ques…t…”
“No, Custo-ssi. So, you’re just going to stand by and watch when the two of them are in danger of having their friendship completely destroyed? I can’t do that as a democratic citizen. After all, I’m partly responsible. I have to reconcile them.”
I called Roel to a stop and grabbed Serka’s hand, pulling her in front of Roel. In the spot I had created, the two women faced each other. One was the victim, and the other was the perpetrator.
“Alright, apologize and make up.”
And I grabbed both women’s hands and forced them to shake.
“Y-you’re crazy… This is crazy! You’re not in your right mind!”
“What was that?”
“You’re crazy, you’re crazy…! Hic, hic…! I can’t do this anymore! What did I do wrong! What did I do wrong to deserve this!!”
Just when I had forced them to shake hands, Roel burst into tears and collapsed. I felt like darkness was boiling up in my heart again. My heart grew cold, and the heated blood rushed backwards. The temperature of my body changed every moment.
Just as I was about to reach out, feeling the darkness of the abyss.
—Slap!
“Ro… Roel…!”
Suddenly, Custo unleashed his inner violence.
“Oh, my goodness!”
“C-come to your senses! Come to, come to your senses! Stand up…! Stand up and apologize to, to Serka…!”
“…Custo?”
He had slapped Roel across the cheek. Looking at him, it seemed like his handiwork wasn’t a joke? Was he making women listen by hitting them like this?
Hearing Custo’s rebuke, Roel literally burst into tears and hugged Serka, apologizing. Her earnestness seemed no different from that of any other pure girl.
“See? You can make up, right?”
Watching that, I stroked my philtrum with my finger.
It was truly a heartwarming sight.
“Alright~! Then, let’s re-form the party with renewed friendship! Let’s go, the Great Adventure to Find Konpeito! It starts now!!”
