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: ink
Read at Watashi wa Sugoi Desu!
Chapter 036 – The Person Who Goes to Prosthetic Eye Shop as if going to a Bar [E]
He walked through the corridor and reached the second floor. He looked around to defeat the demons. He explored cautiously.
There, he heard the sound of soil rising. It wasn’t just one, as it continued to grow in numbers.
Multiple mutated goblins emerged. There were fifteen of them.
Tork understood that the situation was bad and tried to leave. He rushed away to fire at them from a safe distance.
Tork fired arrows at the mutated goblins while he was running away. However, the arrows didn’t hit them. His hands trembled from fear. He couldn’t open up the distance, but he kept firing until his arrows were exhausted.
Tork was all alone. Moreover, he was filled with fear due to the multiple demons in front of him, making him unable to exert his normal capability.
Tork kept running away. He was returning to his ditch rat-self. He was dominated by fear, and his head was filled with the thought of protecting himself.
Tork’s field of vision narrowed, leaving him with no choice but to escape. And his sight was so focused on the goblins that were closing in on him that he didn’t pay attention to his leg.
A new goblin emerged below his feet, the lump of soil that protruded as they emerged made Tork lose his balance and fall over.
I have to run away! Hurry, hurry, stand up!!
His luggage fell. The little arrow he put for emergency, his bag of money… and—
I have no time to pick things up. I have to hurry and escape—
—The sword he got from Fay.
At that moment, Tork felt as if time had stopped. He was in an extreme state of concentration as if a choice was forced upon him.
He could just leave the sword alone and run away. But if he did, the boy named Tork would spend the rest of his life as the ditch rat and he would keep being looked down upon. It was like a bird that was given the assurance that they could fly, but chose to stay inside its birdcage due to fear.
It was the big turning point for his life that lacked stability. The sword fell in the direction away from him. Even if Tork picked it up, he could only run away. It was nothing but a cheap sword.1
It was something that was easy to replace.
It was that kind of sword.
However…
Damn it, why, why… did I…
Tork picked up the sword before he knew it. He even forgot that he had to run away. He was about to forget about it due to his fear, about the promise and expectation.
The memories came back… that day, the person he longed for entrusted Tork with the sword while being illuminated in the sunset.
That person walked on. Toward the sunset illuminated with gold. Perhaps it was to show the path Tork had to walk on. Tork’s figure overlapped with the person he longed for, and that golden back became even brighter.
That person wouldn’t look back. Tork was sure that person wouldn’t stretch out his arm or push Tork’s back to help Tork.
Tork was aware of it himself. He should have already noticed that. Even if they were only together for a short time, Tork could see that that person walked toward his future instead of stopping in the past, and that person would continue doing so.
The spectacle (Fay) in Tork’s head went on, leaving only longing and expectation. Tork could be satisfied with just that.
Even so… the figure that he longed for looked back. Even though Tork knew it shouldn’t be possible, that person he longed for (Fay) eyes met with Tork’s.
That person said nothing. He just continued to move forward. Tork wanted to chase after and catch up to that person who already walked far ahead, so Tork swung his sword.
“AAaaaaaahhhh!!!!!!!!”
Tork roared, he pulled his sword and swung it wildly, cutting down a goblin with that.
Despite all the expectation and trust placed on me, I foolishly tried to give up again… It’s regrettable, it’s embarrassing.
His fear toward demons didn’t disappear. He didn’t forget the fear that he was fighting all alone. Even so, the trembling in Tork’s arm stopped.
Compared to my fear of the demons, the fear of fighting alone… to turn away from what I have longed for is… scarier. I don’t want to give up.
He was always being looked down upon ever since he became an adventurer. Many parties avoided, insulted, and slandered him.
Even if he was despised and ridiculed, he laughed it off. He accepted it as it was.
However… I don’t want to stay that way anymore, that person gave his expectation to me. I want to become my future self.
Tork swung his sword. He kept running so he didn’t get surrounded. His legs possessed decent strength because he was running away all this time. He kept on running, observing the difference of each individual demon. There was a difference in where they stood.
They lacked the intelligence to coordinate. Therefore, he ran without stopping. He ran, and cut down the chasing demons one by one.
If Tork kept running and swinging his sword, he would be able to finish them one by one. He paid attention to his positioning and the individual difference of each demon, ensuring that they wouldn’t be able to catch up to him all at once, constantly bringing it to the state of one on one.
Sometimes, he threw stones at them, throwing sand to blind them, and cut them down when they were vulnerable.
I will change. I will win this battle. Then I will catch up to him.
He continued to run, occasionally making surprise attacks, and repeating it over and over. When he noticed it, there was a pool of blood, and he was stained with the blood of goblins.
—There’s only one left.
He ran, swung his sword, and moved his arm. He threw sand, punched, kicked, and hit the goblin’s head to crush it.
“Haah, haah…”
There were no more demons. It was something he achieved on his own. He was fighting in close quarters which he was weak at. When he realized that, tears spilled from his eyes.
Tork remembered how he was made a fool of, how he was about to give up, and how he saw that back after he was given expectation.
“There’s, no more… did I, do it…? Ah, uaaahh… uuuhhh.”
Tork was brought back to reality as he achieved victory. He finally remembered his fear now. However, he managed to overcome that and survived. He was really excited about that. He was really happy he could get closer to that back, however little it might be.
He immersed himself in the aftermath of the victory and shed tears alone. Without making any noise, he cried alone so as to not break the silence.
I will definitely… fulfill your expectations…
His fear didn’t disappear. He might stumble, despair over the high hurdles, or fall on the way.
However, the boy who stood there was no longer the boy who kept being ridiculed as the ditch rat.
◆◆
Diary
Name Aliceia
Amazing things have happened since the morning. First of all, I heard Mordred panting last night. She told me that she didn’t… but I definitely heard it. Well, I wasn’t fully awake back then so I couldn’t say for sure though.
I was a bit grossed out at how Mordred beat down Fay in the training. But the thing that made me feel worse was Fay’s eye surgery. I heard that connecting nerves was something extremely painful.
More than that, the pain of the old eye being scooped out would definitely be unbearable. Everyone was surely aware of that. It hurt to even just look at…
I was aware that Fay was amazing. I would definitely not say it out loud though… But that was exactly why I became worried about him, it made me think things like he would definitely be fine or he would definitely be able to handle it… it felt like I was pushing my burden on to him.
Perhaps Fay was just dragged into trouble because of my constitution, but I was still thinking deep within, that Fay would definitely be fine, or he wouldn’t blame me for that.
And like that, I was always going to the safest place possible, using the reason to learn of Fay’s strength as an excuse, and making him bear all the burden. Fay would definitely say that was fine for him, and that there was no need to be considerate or to feel pitiful on my own.
I… I actually wanted Fay to rely on me… just like how I relied on him. I couldn’t bear watching Fay hurt… It must be due to my ego to have such selfish thoughts.
………Or that’s how I got worried, but Mordred hit my head again. She rolled her eyes while saying how I made things unnecessarily heavy all the time and worried about the same things all the time.
I also felt the same myself. Even as I tried to make myself not care, I was always dragged down by such thoughts. Then I would get hit on the head again.
Even when I tried to hit her back, she avoided it easily. I really hated her. However, the fact that her words make sense made me hate her more.
Be it the matter of Fay or my goal to beat her down, I would still need to grow strong either way, such was the thing I reconfirmed.
◆◆
U-hn, there aren’t any events today. Well, I did get a series of events for the last three days, so perhaps the world is having a break for the day?
After the eye surgery, the surroundings were getting noisy as we went for lunch. As I wondered why, it seemed that one of the greatest forces in the city had come to the restaurant.
Heeh… weren’t they… Rhine and Barbara, were they? I remembered them since they helped me on day one. So they were one of the greatest forces in the city huh.
Well well well, I already expected that, though. After all, they had the major role of helping me on day one after all. There was no way people who did so were mob characters.
Then three of their comrades were coming along. I thought it was some sort of event, but since they didn’t involve themselves with me… I guess this was some sort of foreshadowing?
Perhaps this was some sort of character introductory moment for the event that would take place from now on?
Since I knew that, I wouldn’t bother with them. Let’s mingle when the time comes.
Then I explored the dungeon afterward. There was nothing big. We merely defeated 256 demons and the exploration of the day was over.
Huh? I felt something weird today. But I heard a loud voice somewhere when I was returning so I went there to check what happened. I found a pool of blood on the second floor. This… blood of demons.
…Was this some sort of foreshadowing?
It was to show that some sort of monster was here… and this was the foreshadowing that the protagonist would end up fighting with the one who was responsible for this pool of blood…
No, but… U-hn, I was quite used to the pool of blood myself… so it wasn’t something big, or something fresh to me. Things might be different if I spotted human corpses, though. These were just a pond of demon’s blood after all.
Well, there wasn’t much meaning in thinking deeply about this. I would just keep this in my mind. Well then, tomorrow would be my last day in this Free City. I would have to return to my duty as a paladin the day after tomorrow so I have to depart before then.
Since it was the last day, there should be some sort of major event for me, to the point that my blood would spurt out again.
I have to go to bed early to prepare for tomorrow!! Good night!!
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Also, Tsukii has picked up a new series called “A Story of a Cannon Fodder who Firmly Believed He was the Protagonist, Misunderstood the Actual Protagonist as the Cannon Fodder, and Ended up Victorious!” The title really says it all. Early access to more chapters for this story is available on Patreon.
I’m so proud of Tork, seeing some gamer tactics there (one of the more patient, tedious and less destructive tactics)
Sometimes his intuition is too scary!!
Fay really can change the role of someone in this world, he make the protagonist become a side character, and he make aliceia love interest become a potential partner character. What a crazy lad. Thank you for translation
I just love Fay’s optimism
Thanks for the awesome translation Tsukii!!
Damn… I am crying, ist sad and so heroic, rat boy now go forward, Aliceia now need stronger and far last day in free city? This noblvel is already come to end, it’s too sad bro.. we need author to prolong it.
I am salute for you rat boy, keep going to payback Fay,okay!
Thx for update
yeah, i look forward to that. the rat boy yet to reappear in the latest raw, so I’m curious how he become