Is It Bad That the Main Character’s a Roleplayer?

It was rare to find a wizard capable of seeing the essence of things without the aid of items. That was why he had come personally…

As expected, something caught his eye. Surging Azure Lake narrowed his eyes at the massive concealment spell that had no reason to be on a merchant company building.

“I should report this.”

“Did you find something?”

“Perhaps.”

If the purpose had been to protect products, they should have used a shielding spell. Who would cast a concealment spell instead?

Though both types of magic obscured what they covered, shielding was for protection, whereas concealment was for hiding. No wizard worth their salt couldn’t make this crucial distinction. A high-ranking company like Grindana certainly wouldn’t make such an error either. Had they been the type to put someone incapable of differentiating between shielding and concealment in charge of this, they would never have been able to become such a successful merchant company.

“I’ll stay and investigate further, so you should go and repor—”

Having grown even more suspicious, he began speaking to his escort, intending to use them as a messenger.

Then, accompanied by the illusion of something shattering, what had been concealed until now was revealed.

Clad in seamless silk robes and leather shoes, it carried a pouch forged from burning ice in which it sought to gather all the world’s wealth. However, the pouch was a bottomless pit; no matter how much one put in, it would never be sated. Its greedy hands, searching ceaselessly for treasures, knew of no way to make itself precious, leaving it only more miserable with every passing moment. Such was its nature.

Such was its “essence.”

“…We’re doomed.”

To “see” essence meant to perceive an abstract concept directly with your eyes, so no comprehension was as intuitive and undeniable as this.

As such, Surging Azure Lake struck his forehead upon recognizing the most extreme greed he had ever seen. With it even being cloaked in Demonic Energy, there was no need to say anything more.

“It’s a Demon.”

It was a Demon of Greed.

“Huh?”

“Prepare for combat. A Demon is conducting a ritual inside.”

Really, why did the world never go how you wanted it to?

“That’s…”

Combat wasn’t exactly his specialty. However, there were times when a person had to do things outside their expertise.

Ignoring his escort’s words, Surging Azure Lake fired a signal flare.

Whoooosh, pop, pop.

This signal flare notified the surroundings of an emergency with its excessively loud explosion, indicated the appearance of a Demon with its color, and even marked the location for reinforcements by leaving a bright, lingering trail.

“What’s that?”

“H-Huh! That’s!”

“A Demon! A Demon has appeared!”

“Wh-Where…?!”

“Get out of there and run this way! Now!”

Now, all that was left to do was wait for reinforcements. Evacuating people was just a bonus.

“Wh-Which way should we…?!”

“…! Get out of here!”

“Yes—Kurgh!”

Then, one of the porters following his lead out of the trading post died, a gaping wound in his stomach.

The people ahead of him rushed back in shock.

“…I was wondering why we’d been discovered already. Why are you here?”

The one among them who had killed the porter by piercing his stomach with her bare hands was a blood-soaked woman.

Surging Azure Lake vaguely recognized her by her hair color and imposing figure. She was the personal secretary to the head of the Grindana merchant company.

“Is the world trying to block my every path?”

At that moment, the secretary gathered Arcane Power in her hand. No, Surging Azure Lake saw its true nature: Demonic Energy.

“Otherwise, there’s no way you’d just show up here…!”

Enveloped in Demonic Energy, her now grotesquely huge, swollen hand raised its sharp claws.

When they’d met just two days ago, he’d seen no marks signifying a contract anywhere on her. He wondered whether she’d made one in that brief span. Of course, she’d likely forged her allegiance to a Demon long before then.

“I’ve never tried to block your path.”

Well, when he thought about it, even among merchants, her essence had been particularly greedy and dirty. It was rare, but not so rare as to be called nonexistent in this world, common enough that he had simply dismissed it during their past interactions.

So he should consider such things more next time… Consider… Wait. How many people in this world even had a clean essence, anyway? Especially in the world of commerce?

Surging Azure Lake started to reflect on his choices, but he gave up right away, deciding instead to just remember the flaw in “Eyes of True Essence”—that there was no way to detect those who merely followed a Demon without making a contract. Swoosh. The warrior serving as his escort stepped in front of him, ready to protect him.

“You’re blocking your own path.”

Most people had evacuated by now, so Surging Azure Lake threw an item imbued with explosive magic. Boom! This explosion signaled the beginning of the battle.

* * *

This seemed to be the first appearance of Arcane Power-consuming Merfolk.

After checking the fortress wall, which had fallen into chaos for another reason, I drew out more Arcane Power. It was to kill as many Merfolk as I possibly could.

Given their sheer number, it might not make much difference, but anyway.

“There are so many of them, those rotten fish…!”

Ah, stop yelling. My head was killing me already.

I clutched my pounding head. To successfully hit something with [Arcane Spear], I needed to identify my target, predict their next move, and fire my skill with precisely the right timing. There was no other way around it.

And with so many enemies to target right now, my head was almost overheating with all the calculations I had to do.

Honestly, at this point, I just wanted to dive into the sea and get them all with a horizontal [Slash]. If I got the height just right, I could probably take out a substantial number of them in one strike. It would be pretty risky and gruesome, but if I succeeded, it would be quick and efficient.

…It would be very gruesome and risky, though.

“It’s coming!”

With my sharp senses, I intercepted an incoming attack. Unlike before, I wasn’t too late this time.

Boom!

An explosion erupted in midair. The sound reached the turret, but it wasn’t enough to make it vibrate like earlier.

“You’re the best!”

“Are you a wizard? You don’t look like one, but are you actually one?”

Hey, hey, hey, hey. They shouldn’t pat my back like that. They were totally breaking my focus. I just missed targets with [Arcane Spear] because of them!

Ah!

I dodged an adventurer who was trying to hit my back excitedly. Meanwhile, the Merfolk kept coming, and I had to keep attacking as intensely as ever.

Splash!

Just then, the Merfolk tried to attack from outside the range I was covering. Their target was the bridge.

Boom!

Wow… Until now, I hadn’t really gotten a clear look at how they were attacking, but it seemed the legless Merfolk were just slamming their tails against structures with full-body strikes.

Crazy bastards.

“They’re going for the bridge!”

“Leave it! Focus on killing the ones right in front of us!”

I was at a loss for words as I watched the Merfolk that had slammed into the bridge fall back into the sea.

Did they really want to do that despite knowing their tails would get crushed and broken? They seemed as intelligent as people. Did they feel less fear because they were Demons?

“Well, at least things don’t seem much different from usual. With so many attacking, I thought a tsunami might come hit us this time.”

At that moment, an adventurer sitting next to me muttered something.

S… T… AY! Stop raising flags…!

Stop talking about tsunamis…!

Boom!

“…!”

See?! The moment he finished speaking, something blew up!

I lifted my head at the faint, strange sound. We’d been told not to leave our positions, but I had to check this.

I put some strength into my feet and leaped, passing through the ladder opening to the upper level. There was one more floor to go before reaching the roof.

“Wait, where do you think you’re going?! This is insubordi—!”

Thud!

I leaped again, finally reaching the top of the turret. From there, the sparsely illuminated night sea came into view.

“Get down from there! I don’t care how capable you are…!”

Thud, thud, thud.

The soldier who had guided me here and been left in charge of this place finally came up. He looked utterly furious, but I couldn’t spare him any attention.

“I told you not to move on your own! Get down right this instant…!

“Don’t you see that?”

“…What?”

Anyone who caught sight of what was floating on the night sea would likely react the same way.

“…What is that?”

During the day, the distant sea had been nothing more than an endless horizon, but now, something faintly resembling land had appeared.

A somewhat round, colossal landmass.

It appeared to be getting larger and larger, as if it were approaching.

“An island…?”

At that moment, the waves became stronger. Of course they would. Whatever that thing was, if it really was approaching us, it was only natural for the currents created by its movement to turn into waves surging toward us.

“This isn’t the time…!”

Then the soldier suddenly shouted. Was he really going to order me back to my position after seeing that? If so, his sense of duty was truly admirable.

Just as I thought he was about to do so, the soldier grabbed hold of a nearby device.

Click, cliiiick, click, cliiiiick.

It was a searchlight. Though primitive, it was remarkably similar to the modern version, except its cover had to be raised and lowered manually.

Additionally, the way he opened and closed the lid to send out beams of light in various patterns reminded me of Morse code from Earth.

Other cities still used simple beacons, so why was this place so developed?

“Whew.”

Anyway, I couldn’t just mess around while the soldier was busy with that.

I couldn’t go back down since I wanted to stay and observe… Actually, my location wasn’t all that important when it came to killing Merfolk.

Watching the landmass grow even larger, I summoned an [Arcane Spear] barrage. The spears fell like rain across the various turret areas, indiscriminately killing dozens, then hundreds of Merfolk.

With this, I should have taken out roughly three to four hundred Merfolk. This Raid’s MVP was undoubtedly me. Not that I wanted to be it or to be seen as useful or anything. Hmph.

“Fall back!”

While I was cracking jokes in my head to ease my tension, a signal came from the walls. It was a good decision.

Judging by the unclear distance between us, the approaching being was unimaginably large. If it reached us, the turrets would doubtlessly crumble like Jenga towers.

In other words, it wouldn’t even need to ram into us. A hard push would be enough to make everything collapse.

“Begin evacuating, starting from the lower levels! The rest, cover them!”

As if he’d completely forgotten about me, the soldier went down, leaving me behind. Those below trembled a bit at his shouts, but they started moving not long after.

The bridge, its supports battered by the Merfolk’s repeated assaults, seemed precariously close to giving out, but no one voiced a single complaint.

Well, yeah, taking even one more step was far more beneficial to surviving than wasting time arguing.

Now, what I needed to do was figure out how to deal with that thing. Coming up with a strategy was pretty difficult, as the poor visibility and darkness made it unclear what I was dealing with.

Still, something that big and flat would have plenty of places to stand on and fight. Although, just imagining that thing charging the wall and collapsing it was already daunting enough.

“It’s coming!”

“Run…!”

After breaking the skull of a Merfolk leaping up to destroy the bridge, I took care of the ones climbing up the tower.

Anyway, these things had an uncanny knack for picking up on signals. The moment they noticed we were retreating, they began swarming us.

“Go. I’ll cover you.”

“…Damn it. I hate people like you the most. Always defying orders!”

But at least people would survive that way.

I took what could barely be called a warning—since the person who said it looked more worried about me than angry—as I sent everyone away. [Arcane Spear] after [Arcane Spear] continued to rain down onto the ocean’s surface without letting up. It was like a rainfall that stole lives instead of warmth.

“Uwargh!”

While I was at it, I also paid attention to the nearby turrets. Seeing as people there were falling back, it seemed they’d received a retreat signal as well.

“Cross over!”

Fortunately, it didn’t take long for everyone to retreat.

After receiving the signal from the other side, I began preparing to leave the turret. My Arcane Power had fallen below half, so I needed to cross over and regroup.

“Argh!”

“Watch out!”

Boom!

The problem was… Yeah. Everyone had already crossed over, so the Merfolk decided to rush me all at once now. My head was hurting so much, and I felt feverish, so I tried to ignore them, but a few of those Merfolk managed to hit the bridge supports.

Craaaash. Just as I had been warned before, this bridge collapsed much faster than you’d expected.

“…!”

Before I could reach the other side, the bridge I was supposed to use collapsed beneath my feet.

____

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