Chapter 28
Once I was ready, I headed back downstairs to the first floor of the mansion, where Enrique was waiting.
The first floor was utterly silent, and aside from Enrique, there was no one else around.
“Hey, I’ve been waiting.”
“Sorry about that.”
“You bet. I’ve heard how things went up to this point, young master, but from here on out, we’re venturing into the unknown. So you’d better explain everything to me—”
At that moment.
Enrique turned toward me and his eyes flew open. “Huh?!”
He looked utterly disbelieving.
“Sorry to keep you waiting.”
“Th-That outfit… You’re the young master, right??? Wh-What in the world are you—”
His reaction was only natural.
The reason was simple: I was wearing an utterly bizarre costume, all in black, complete with a gray mask.
Incidentally, the outfit was an old one that had been stored away in the Duke of Randall’s mansion. It was a somewhat gothic ensemble.
The mask had also been gathering dust in the mansion’s storeroom until I rescued it and carefully painted it gray. It was a labor of love.
The result was that I looked like some suspicious character straight out of a story.
At a glance, I secretly thought I looked cool, like a noble dressed all in black, but frankly, anyone else would probably think I looked insane.
Nevertheless, I didn’t waver in the slightest. I answered Enrique as though this were perfectly normal.
“Enrique—I’m not the young master.”
“Whaaaat?!”
Enrique’s reaction was so good it made me feel great.
Anyway, I bet this guy could make it as a comedian, too.
“That’s right. My name is—”
As I entertained that pointless thought, I spread my arms toward Enrique, who stood there with his mouth hanging open.
“Genesis.”
Codename: 【Genesis】.
――This was my second secret plan, and the most ambitious one of all.
Well, the name could’ve been Genesis, Zero, or anything else, really.
The important thing was that it sounded cool.
In the first place, I’d planned to get through this event simply by carrying out my first secret plan—“say a bunch of vague stuff”—and then quietly fade into the background.
But there was a problem.
If I thought about it calmly, my first secret plan was far too unreliable.
Could I really avoid dying in the future just by saying whatever came to mind to Iris? Wasn’t that way too risky?
The same went for Sieg-kun, the protagonist.
Sure, Sieg-kun had miraculously survived being attacked by bandits in the story, but there was always a chance he could die because something went wrong.
The same went for Iris, the main heroine.
There was no guarantee that she wouldn’t die after being kidnapped by bandits.
To be honest, the world of “Last Aka” is insane.
As you’d expect from an 18+ game, the difficulty in the latter half is brutal, and the stronger people are, the crazier they seem.
For example, right at the beginning of the story, Mayor Gregorio was already dead set on seizing control of the benefactor who’d helped him—the Duke of Randall’s family. And the final boss was a monster with inexhaustible mana who had complete mastery over a special kind of spatial magic. For that matter, even the protagonist, Sieg-kun, was pretty nuts.
He was a mental monster who kept up basic training every single day for ten years without taking a single day off.
On top of that, the more he got beaten to a pulp, the stronger he became, so people on the message boards called him things like “a cute-faced Saiyan.”
It was probably because of that that he was able to beat the final boss to a pulp in the end.
That’s right.
Taking everything I’d learned into account, I couldn’t help thinking…
…Wasn’t this impossible without the protagonists around?
Even if I somehow avoided getting my comeuppance, if the protagonist or main heroine died, I couldn’t imagine us defeating the final boss or any of the other enemies.
More than that, Sieg and Iris were still at their starting levels. They were probably weaker than I was right now.
In other words, even if I alone survived and tried to live as a background character, the moment even one of the protagonists was gone, my glorious life as a background character might be doomed.
Only the protagonists could save the world from destruction.
“Genesis… you say?”
“That’s right,” I answered Enrique.
That was exactly why I’d come up with this plan.
I’d call myself the mysterious figure “Genesis,” save Sieg-kun and Iris for now, and stir things up in just the right way.
…However, there was just one flaw in this plan.
The strength of the enemy.
Even if I gave myself the most generous estimate, I was only about as strong as Enrique right now.
No matter how I dressed up in costume and tried to save Iris or Sieg, it wouldn’t matter if the enemy was too strong.
I’d be defeated in a flash, and that’d be the end of it.
But then…
The gods hadn’t abandoned me.
――That’s right.
Judging by my fight with Enrique just now, Gregorio’s organization wasn’t fully formed yet. Every last one of them was clearly low-level.
At this point, they were just a bunch of thugs.
Eventually, they’d become a powerful underworld guild that ruled all of Lyon, but right now, they were little more than a play gang.
I was certain I could pull this off.
I’d have this mysterious weirdo, “Genesis,” stir up the whole incident, then pin everything on him.
It was the only way.
Then, once everything was over, I could stroll in and say something like, “Huhhh? There was a guy named Genesis? I had no idea what was going on! I’m just a useless little me, so I should stay tucked away in my territory!”—and pretend I had nothing to do with it.
The name Genesis would vanish along with the Lyon Event.
And that was more or less the plan I explained to Enrique.
For some reason, he listened with a grave expression before asking me,
“I see. So, young master… after going to all that trouble and sacrificing so much of yourself, you’re still never going to step into the spotlight?”