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 037 – End of Sightseeing [A]
[“Fifth Day – Demons’ March”]
Free City. A place where one of the greatest dungeons in the world was. Various demons were there, including almost every species of demons that walked above ground, worthy of its name as one of the world’s greatest dungeons.
At the 34th floor of said dungeon, there was a man looking at the scenery, which was a thick forest. A monkey-like demon was climbing on a tree and staring at the man. A large bird with sharp eyes like a hawk was flying in the sky.
The man’s expression couldn’t be seen. It was because the man wore a mask. The black mask had two red lines extending from its eyes, which made it look somewhat creepy.
“…It is time for evil.”
He said so. He moved his hand as if he was waving at something. It was something that appeared to be light powder, something like butterfly scales falling in the forest.
“――◆■◆◆◆■◆◆◆■◆◆◆■◆◆◆■！！！！！！！！！！！！”
Furious voices that resembled roars. A group of furious roars echoed loudly as if it was trying to pierce the ceiling, and the impact of sound waves shook through the forest. The man who saw that grinned beneath his mask.
His smile showed pure malice. It grew deep, without any connection or deep reason. It was like how an innocent child crushed ants, cruelly killed other creatures, and dissecting frogs because they were curious about what was inside—
—Such was how pure his malice was.
The voices of the demons echoed in the dungeon. Demons began their march outside. The demons rarely left their territory, much less the dungeon.
As if they were being manipulated, they were being guided to the higher floors.
◆◆
It was a memory of a distant time. It was when she, Aliceia, was still a child. Her elder brother went missing before she knew it.
Her mother got very sad because of that. It was obvious, for one of her children had gone missing after all. The villagers comforted her mother. Her mother became confused, taking a toll on her mind.
Her mother was forced to blame herself. Her mother continued to blame herself for not watching her son properly. She fell into self-hatred to the point of insanity. Aliceia was desperately comforting her mother.
Aliceia lacked proper ethical values and her knowledge was sparse so she didn’t know what she should say to her mother. Even so, she still desperately comforted her mother. But that was meaningless. Her mother was losing weight out of depression, and began wanting to escape from her sense of responsibility.
That was why her mother began to blame Aliceia for it.
Aliceia caused her mother a great deal of trouble when she was born. She wouldn’t come out of her mother’s belly unlike Tlue who was immediately born when the time came, resulting in prolonged suffering for her mother.
Aliceia lost her father right after she was born. Shortly after Aliceia was born, the village was flooded by demons. Ever since Aliceia was born, her mother became vulnerable and sick often.
The village elder died after Aliceia was born. Her friend died. The village began to occasionally get attacked by demons. After Aliceia was born, heavy rain struck, ruining a part of the village.
After Aliceia was born… Tlue was gone. Day by day, burden and hatred began to be forced upon Aliceia. One day, after caring for her bedridden mother for years, during a certain day when Aliceia was ten years old.
[“—It’s all… your fault…”]
Aliceia’s mother pointed her finger at Aliceia and said that. It was despite Aliceia nursing for her mother every day. As things her mother had vanished one by one and her mind being driven to the corner, her mother pushed Aliceia away as she said that.
Aliceia stiffened and lost her words. Aliceia couldn’t accept the reality that was forced upon her, so much so that she thought she just mistakenly heard that. Aliceia asked her mother with a dry smile.
Why did her mother say so? She had cared for her mother for years. She had also worked hard to learn about farm work, learned about magic and sword to protect the village from demons, so why?
[“T-that’s a lie, right? Mama?”]
[“…If only, you did not exist… things wouldn’t have… turned out this way.”]
It was not a joke, a lie, a mistake, an illusion, or a nightmare. It was reality. As her mother began to take a distance from Aliceia, such things became widespread. There were people who listened to things that her mother said to Aliceia.
There was no way anyone would believe such a thing. Everyone thought Aliceia was a poor girl.
Indeed… At first, it was merely a distorted interpretation.
Even so… such words were told to Aliceia whenever something happened, making people’s consciousness remember it. They all began to think that Aliceia might really draw trouble to them.
A distorted interpretation became a doubt, and gradually turned into belief.
And when Aliceia knew it, she began to be avoided by people of the village. Aliceia’s existence was gone from the village. It was because she hated people’s reaction that avoided her and their awkward reaction filled with lies.
It was nothing but a belief. That was the true nature of her aggro constitution. It went away from common sense, forced by her mother’s blame, and it was still dragging Aliceia even now. That was why she sought to be strong, trying to find her elder brother, and return everything to how it was.
She sought for power that would allow her to prevail even if she dragged others into trouble that her constitution brought upon. That was the reason she came to the Free City. She was certainly getting stronger. Things that she experienced for the first time made her feel sentimental, happy, joyful, and she found the person she wished to be together with.
—Even so, Aliceia was still… blaming herself all this time.
“Ah, ah…”
Aliceia woke up with sweat all over her body. Ever since that day, she often had nightmares about her younger days. As she saw Fay and Mordred next to her… she felt a little relieved. Then as she got exhausted by the dream, she once again fell to sleep as if she fainted.
And once again, while being tormented by nightmares, she welcomed her fifth day.
◆◆
Early in the morning, Fay finished his training with Mordred. He parted with Mordred who proceeded to search for someone, while Fay went to explore the dungeon together with Aliceia.
“Hey… By the way, do you have any siblings?”
“Is there any reason for me to answer you?”
“Isn’t it okay? Just tell me.”
“…I have no such memory.”
“Does that mean you don’t have any?”
“I don’t know. At the very least, I don’t have any memory of having one.”
“I see… I’m also the same… they said that I have an elder brother, but I don’t remember him…”
“…I see.”
“…Yes.”
Feeling the awkward atmosphere, Aliceia stopped the conversation. She said nothing more from then on. Since Fay also didn’t talk initiatively, the silence continued. Aliceia thought as she walked toward the dungeon.
I wonder what kind of person my elder brother is… it is said that I have one, but I don’t know who he is…
Who was her brother? There was an older brother that her mother kept mentioning previously. Since she never got to know who her elder brother was, she never knew what an elder brother or sibling felt like.
She kept waking without being able to come for an answer. They eventually reached the guild. Then they had an unexpected reunion.
“Huh? Aliceia-chan, right?”
“…Barbara, is it?”
“That’s right, so you remembered me! Thank you!”
“…There’s no way I can forget one of the greatest forces in this city, right?”
“I guess that’s true… are you going to explore the dungeon from now on?”
“That’s right.”
“…Well, it’s your freedom if you want to explore the dungeon, but… U-hn… I think it’s better for you to not do that today.”
“Why?”
“…Something troublesome happened in the dungeon…”
“Something troublesome?”
“Yes… it seems the demons of various species on the 34th floor began to march toward the higher floors.”
“Demons of various species marching together?”
“It’s strange, right? To think those demons could move as one… and it is certainly weird they did so together with other species. Well, I heard there’s not too many of them, so it’s not that big of a deal for now.”
“So that’s how it is.”
“Yes…it’s just, while their numbers are small, there is never a case where those demons marched to the upper floors… I think something major is happening, considering there have been many earthquakes recently…”
“So things like this have never happened before…”
“Rhine formed a squad earlier and went to subjugate them. I think it’s better for Aliceia-chan to remain here and take a break for the day.”
“I see… how about you?”
“As for me… I would serve as the last line of defense in the unlikely case they managed to march all the way here, so I will remain here, but… I’m worried about Rhine, and I have a bad feeling about this for some reason. Rhine is the only member of my family I have left… that’s why I wanted to reinforce him with the guild executive when he left to subjugate them earlier.”
“I see… then I’ll be going.”
“Eh?”
“I’m also an adventurer after all… So I hate to think I could only bite my finger while watching the situation… Besides… that fool over there went to receive a quest from the guild staff and seems to be eager to go there.”
They turned their eyes toward Fay, who casually went and received the quest to be reinforcement for the subjugation from Marinne the pink devil. Barbara looked surprised when she saw that.
“…Eh?! Fay-chan is going too?!”
“I don’t think you should refer to Fay with –chan, really…”
“Is that so? But I basically call everyone with –chan, you know… well, but since it is Fay… I’ll try to shorten it… then make it into Fu-chan?” 1T/N: If it makes no sense, the japs spelling for Fay is FueI.2
“I won’t be responsible if he gets angry, okay.”
“O-I, Fu-chan!”
“I think he will definitely get angry.”
Barbara waved her hand at Fay. Fay didn’t react since he didn’t think it was referring to him. However, seeing how Barbara kept waving her hand at him while calling Fu-chan, he finally noticed that she was calling him, and Fay began to look at Barbara suspiciously with squinted eyes.
“…”
“Is it true Fu-chan intends to explore the dungeon?”
“Don’t act familiar with me… also stop calling me by that name.”
“Sorry, sorry. But isn’t it okay? Fu-chan definitely sounds cuter!”
“That’s not the problem here.”
“Rather than that, Fu-chan, it’s better for you to not explore the dungeon today.”
“…I refuse. I will go there.”
“…It will be dangerous, you know? For both Aliceia-chan and Fu-chan.”
“I don’t mind that…”
“U-hn…For the time being, there are other parties and groups that are heading there for demon subjugations other than Rhine’s groups, and the guilds are still recruiting reinforcement right now… In the first place, it’s your choice to accept quests and explore the dungeon…”
But Aliceia-chan is the person that Rhine likes, after all… Fu-chan feels somewhat similar to Rhine… so I like him quite a bit… I don’t want something to happen to them… Since I’m also worried about Rhine, I have no choice but to go anyway.
Barbara was filled with worry. In the first place, the march of the demons was reported early, and their numbers weren’t that big so while it might be dangerous, Barbara could just leave them alone since it was their own choice. Besides, there wouldn’t be any problems as long as Rhine’s group managed to defeat all the demons.
However, despite knowing the number of demons was small… Barbara seemed to feel something wrong about that, such was something that her instinct told her. That was why, despite her initially telling the guild that Romeo legion could handle it themselves, she had Romeo’s members standing by at the guild, while Barbara herself intended to go to the dungeon.
And, the two people in front of her were rookies. Moreover, she knew that the two were often caught in trouble. There was the lizardman case, the murder case, and the misfire incident. She couldn’t guess what might happen to them if she left them on their own.
Besides, both of them were people she had her mind on. She couldn’t leave them on their own.
“In that case… how about partying together with me?”
“With you?”
“Yes. I intended to go there on my own, but why not join me?”
“I don’t mind… but what about Fay… hey, he’s already gone to the dungeon!!”
“Eeeh?! Really, he is also similar in how impatient he is!”
The two hurriedly went after Fay. As expected, Aliceia followed the original scenario. In the game version, Barbara got worried about Aliceia who was Rhine’s favorite, so she went together with Aliceia to the dungeon to reinforce Rhine.
And just like the game scenario, both of them went to the dungeon.
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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.
Honestly im getting fed up with Aliceia. She keeps volunteering to dangerous mission but ends up freezing in fear.
Lizard one where she didn’t move so Fay ends up protecting her, The night killer dude where she failed to even fight back and just watched Fay fight whithout his five senses. And lastly the misfire incident where she failed to move in time so Fay blocks it. So let me guess, she would end up freezing again this time.
It’s a bit pathetic, but again, it’s a depression novel. She was a damsel, and supposed to be injured, r#$$$d, robbed, forced to undergo painful surgeru in her first week.
Barbara name girl will be Fay harem?
Yes/no?
Thx for update