Story of a Cannon Fodder who Firmly Believed He was the Protagonist, Misunderstood the Actual Protagonist as the Cannon Fodder, and Ended up Victorious
Translator: Tsukii
Editor: Frozen Ink
Read at Watashi wa Sugoi Desu!
Chapter 016 – Madness Infects [B]
The man said that without looking back at Ese and Kamase. Both Heppiri and the couple had already ran far away.
Fay drew his sword and confronted the existence in front of him. Ese looked at Fay’s back slightly. At that moment, Ese felt the time inside him stop for the moment.
That was… his childhood aspiration revived in his mind.
Ese had long admired heroes. Even though he always imagined himself to be a great person, it was, in the end, just his imagination. That was why he ended up living for enjoyment like a clown.
He planned to earn a decent amount of money, embrace a woman, drown in alcohol, and slack on his training at a level that wouldn’t make it obvious. He was trying to live his life comfortably.
But deep in his heart–
His legs naturally stopped.
Fay, who had his sword out, was confronting the monster. He was running in the opposite direction of Ese and others. The Abyss raised its left arm.
As he saw that, he jumped to the right in an instant. The Abyss’ arm smacked the ground.
Boom, and a crater was created. It produced a loud sound which couldn’t have been imagined to actually come from a fist. If they took that head on, then Fay, who didn’t wear any armor, would probably die.
However, he didn’t seem to have the fear of death and instantly closed the distance. The Abyss once again raised its left arm and tried to smash Fay.
Fay swung his sword in response to that. They practically made their move at the same moment, and Fay’s attack, which almost contained his full power, lost the competition in terms of strength against the Abyss’ arm and Fay was sent flying.
“Gaaah!”
As Fay was sent flying, the Abyss tried to follow up with another strike as Fay fell. Fay avoided the incoming attack by twisting his hip.
His robust body made such movement possible.
Fay managed to avoid the attack, but from there, the Abyss’ left arm and right arm were coming down onto Fay like rain. As for the hits Fay couldn’t avoid, he took them on with his arms.
He was blown a few meters away in an instant. He bounced on the ground like a ball before finally stopping near Ese. Fay’s right arm was probably broken. Also, the blow caused a wound on Fay’s forehead as he hit the ground which was now bleeding.
“You coulda just ran for it, ya know?”
“…Not yet.”
“…You ain’t winnin’ against that.”
“…I’ll win. There’s no way I can lose.”
“Yer too full of yerself. We’ve just finished signin’ up, ya know…? We shoulda gained more experience before we face off against that. Not to mention, yer right arm’s broke, yer all banged up, and yer head’s definitely not okay…There aint no way yer winnin’.”
“There’s no way I can win, huh…”
“…That’s right, so–“
“Kukukuku.”
“Somethin’ funny…?”
“I’m just getting motivated now. So you said there’s no way I can win. Then that means if I managed to achieve it, I would be a step closer to the limitless sky. I would climb to a greater height.
Kuku, I’m really getting excited about this.”
It was the smile of a strong person. The pressure he emitted was stronger and heavier than the atmosphere around. The Abyss also took a step back due to Fay’s smile and pressure. And it saw its enemy and roared.
“■■■■■■■■■■■■■！！！！！！！”
It was as if it tried to counteract Fay’s pressure. However, that wasn’t enough to make the existence in front of it take a step back.
It took a step back while Fay didn’t. Although the latter’s body was clearly battered, their figures were clearly different.
That figure fascinated those who saw it.
The Abyss’ roar summoned the hound-like demons. There were dozens of them.
“Fuh, shall we dance? Small fries.”
Ese drew his sword before he noticed it.
“Leave ‘em beasties to me. I can at least stall, so hurry up and end it.”
“…I see. But I don’t mind even if you run, you know? I can just kill them all myself.”
“Don’t mess with me, idiot. There’s no way I’ll let ya take all the delicious parts.”
“Do what you like. But I’ll take that one on my own.”
Fay pointed at the Abyss.
“Yer damn right! There ain’t no way I’m dealin’ with that! That’s why I said I’d stall by keepin’ these pups at bay.”
Ese retorted as if Fay just said a foolish thing. However, Ese blinked his eyes for a bit and laughed.
“Well, I might be done if ya take yer time.”
“You must be energetic enough if you can say such a thing.”
“I’m also here! I shall show you how scary I am when I get serious!!”
Kamase also drew his sword before he noticed it. Perhaps he got fascinated by the scene in front of him. He got inspired by Fay’s figure and drew his sword.
“We’ll deal with them and go home. I actually got ma own pup back home. I need to feed it later, so let’s make it quick.”
“Then I shall overcome the tribulation in front of me and return.”
“Damn, I just wanted to take things nice and easy! But can’t be helped! We’ll drink to this once we’re done!”
The two rushed toward the hounds. Fay was looking at the Abyss. He could already see his victory. The Abyss possessed a nucleus and they would be defeated once it was destroyed. Humanoid Abyss had their nucleus near their chest, and it would be Fay’s victory as long as he stabbed there.
However, it wouldn’t be that easy to land that strike. He’d likely get hit and it would then be over.
Fay chose to close the distance. He just ran straight at it while using his left hand to hold his sword. The Abyss also matched his timing to intercept Fay and prepared its fist. It launched its fist, which carried the momentum of its weight, toward Fay.
Fay received the impact with his right arm once again. Normally, the impact would likely send him flying to his death. However, he imbued his art to his right half and reinforced it. Yet he was still sent flying.
He was rolling on the ground once again.
It seemed to be Fay’s defeat, which was not actually the case. The Abyss’ heart was pierced with his sword. That one attack claimed its life.
“Ah? No way, ya done already!”
“We shall finish ours too!”
The pair cleaned up the hounds and approached Fay. The three managed to survive somehow.
“I gotta ask.”
“What?”
“First, why weren’t ya surprised when the Abyss showed up?”
“Fuhn, it’s natural to always expect irregularities to happen.”
“…Then how’d ya beat the thing? I don’t get it.”
“That thing is left-handed.”
“Eh?”
“His attack mainly focused on its left hand, so I focused my art to reinforce the right half of my body and tank the impact. Then before I was sent flying, I returned a hit, that’s all.”
“I-it’s coulda been right-handed too, right?”
“My intuition isn’t wrong.”
“…That’s a disgusting belief ya have there.”
In other words, what Fay did was a gamble. He wasn’t that good at operating his art. Therefore, he couldn’t be flexible with it. That was why he just focused it on the right half of his body. He couldn’t focus his art to a specific body part at a high speed. That was his gamble.
It was a mad rush between life and death.
This guy is truly insane, thought the pair.
However, Ese, Kamase, and the other three who escaped earlier managed to survive because of that. Although Ese and Kamase did feel Fay’s insanity, they had good will towards him because of that.
“F-Fay-kun! What happened to your arm! You make me so worried, you stupid!”
Once they returned to the royal capital, the pair saw how Fay was grabbed by the worried Yururu who pushed her chest at him, which made them think that this guy was an asshole after all.
■◆
Hm-, the new mission, huh. The members feel weird, though. They must be mob characters (conviction).
But I wonder why?
I somehow felt at peace like being in my own home… As if I was supposed to belong to this place…
Well, I was the protagonist, so there was no way I was supposed to be grouped with the dude with an ese-kansai-ben, a uselessly arrogant guy, and an uncle who speaks like a small fry.
We arrived at town. These guys didn’t do their supposed mission. Well, I could just do the job alone.
–I was the highly considerate protagonist after all.
Haah, nothing ‘ere (in ese-kansai-ben). It was boring-. Oh? Something appeared.
Abyss? It’s the first encounter event!!
Oh-, that was nice. Okay, Imma beat it!1
This bastard is strong… but I was the protagonist, so there was no way I would lose!!
Hah!! At that moment, thunder ran through my protagonist mind.
“Y-you see… uhm, it’s important to learn about your opponent during combat… you never know there might be hints somewhere… yes, something like that.”
Yururu-sensei!! I actually thought you were making advances at me as an opposite sex back then, but it was actually the hint for this situation! As expected of a master character!
So she was referring to hints in combat.
Now that I thought about it, didn’t it seem to be left-handed? It always attacked me using its left arm, uwah, Yururu-shishou! I thought you were consulting me about romance for a moment, but it was a needless worry after all.
Just as I thought of that, a helper came. Huh? You weren’t escaping? Perhaps he got fascinated by my valiant figure?
He applied friendship and hard work, which would lead to victory… Was that a protagonist…? Then what about me? Although I doubted whether he might be a protagonist, I had to defeat the enemy before thinking about it! My master would be proud if I managed to do so!
Although I couldn’t do much with my art, I could just move it to the right half of my body. Then I stabbed my sword at its heart, and it would be my victory!!
As expected of me, one wrong move and I might have ended up dead, though.
Well, there was no way my intuition would be wrong (random logic).
Hm? What was it?
“First, how come you weren’t surprised when the Abyss appeared back then?”
What were you talking about? I was the protagonist, you know?
Of course irregular things happen with me around. In the first place, wasn’t there a case where it was a mission said to be a beginner mission yet due to various circumstances, it became “It’s actually S-rank mission,” right?
I was highly conscious of being a protagonist, so of course my heart was always ready.
“I-it’s possible for it to be right-handed, right?”
Well, I was the protagonist, after all. There was no way that could happen. My intuition couldn’t be wrong. The bastard was left-handed.
My protagonist’s correction (intuition) told me that, so that must be the case.
■◆
There was a little girl who watched Fay’s group action from afar. It was Noir.
Oi oi, it can’t be… his madness infects others…
She intended to take action if something went wrong. She wasn’t here in the game version since she wasn’t suspicious of Fay there. However, since she marked Fay, she was here now.
In other words, Fay’s group would survive the ordeal either way.
Even though those guys only thought of escaping before, his madness affected them. He did nothing but show his back figure… and that made them also choose to bet their lives, you say? What kind of joke is this?
He… what does he think of his own life? How could he easily bet his life for the situation?! Is he not afraid of dying?!
Is that the reason why that Garethia girl is attracted to him? His figure, which didn’t fear death and continued to walk to better himself… was similar… to Gawain, that fool who abandoned everything in pursuit of strength…
She was once almost murdered by Gawain. Perhaps that was the reason why she could feel such an atmosphere from Fay.
However, his nature seems worse than Gawain, considering how his power prevails enough to infect others… Is it too early to consider him as a dangerous factor…? I don’t have much time to spare either, and there are tons of things I have to do… the only pawn who I could move right now is Sajinto… Once he is done with monitoring Arthur, I guess I should send him to monitor Fay immediately without any rest…
Also, the person who can move to investigate Fay’s past would be… I guess there’s only Sajinto now. Okay, I’m gonna leave everything to him.
With that thought, her figure melded in darkness.
Meanwhile, around the same time, Tlue was… already about to quit being paladin.
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He’s a nutcase and I love him for it.
Thanks for chap
Gotta hand it to mc he’s a madman who infects ppl with morale and fervor
Noooo poor yururu he came so close and still dismissed her liking him. Wow so the actual mc lost??
I actually want to see a illustration when he fearlessly smiles before he kills that monster… It givin me chills…
So the real protagonist is finally dropping out eh?
more like first tribulation struck him
Is he gonna make a super harem (without knowing it himself)?
kinda? but the person himself actually advocate of single partner romance and had no idea what is harem… at least such is my impression of Fay
I feel for Sajinto, she’s overworking the guy.
he still stuck monitoring arthur in the latest chapter though
the madness continues
and it will never ends!