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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: Wjin
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‘This should be enough, right?’
Her eyes had changed from before the bet.
The look that had seemed almost dead was now a little more alive.
It was a bit scary for some reason, so I couldn’t meet her gaze.
‘Did I do something wrong?’
It was Yuseora who accepted the bet.
And I had won that bet fair and square.
Even I wouldn’t have been able to block Yuseora’s last attack if I had made even a slight mistake.
‘Because Overload is originally that kind of skill.’
As I mentioned before, Seo Yoo Rang poured a total of 12 attempts into Yuseora’s swordsmanship build.
But there was a reason why Yuseora’s attempt to become the next Allen Blake ended at 12.
It wasn’t a practical build, but her challenge had borne some fruit.
‘The so-called Swordmaster Yuseora.’
It was an extreme type of build that treated Sacred Relics as consumables.
Originally, Overload was just an inferior version of other heroes’ abilities, with the penalty of consuming durability even when used in multiple instances.
However, the moment Overload was poured into a single attack, it turned into a vicious enhancement with the highest scaling.
An ultimate one-hit kill that was impossible to block even if you knew it was coming.
It had the disadvantage of consuming one Sacred Relic per attack, but from a tactical perspective, that wasn’t a big problem.
Trading one Sacred Relic for one Demon King was a pretty good deal.
‘The problem is…’
Such conditions had to be met.
It was questionable whether the Demon Kings would allow an attack with such destructive power, even if they knew about it.
It was impossible for Yuseora to create such a situation on her own.
‘So she needs a leader after all.’
And Yuseora’s goal was also a problem.
Her goal was to rebuild the guild, not to actively hunt down Demon Kings.
Of course, it wasn’t impossible to persuade her…
‘But it’s still unfamiliar.’
I had mostly acted alone until now.
There were some people I traveled with briefly, but it was temporary.
But persuading Yuseora here was a different story.
‘It means I’ll be taking her as a companion from now on.’
She was definitely a good asset.
But I wasn’t used to dealing with people like this.
That’s why I hesitated.
I glanced to the side and saw Yuseora.
She was still glaring at me.
I had no choice but to apologize to her first.
“Okay, I apologize for hiding my swordsmanship skills…”
“Constellation.”
“Huh?”
I thought she was calling me for a second.
I turned my head, but then turned away again, my face red.
It seemed she still had something to say to her constellation.
“I’m calling you. Constellation.”
Or not?
“Are you calling me?”
Yuseora raised the corners of her mouth and said,
“Yes, that’s right. You won the bet, so you’re my constellation now.”
I could feel that something was going wrong.
It was similar to what I felt when I was talking to Elsie at the restaurant.
‘Wait, this is bad, isn’t it?’
Elsie was already a handful, and now another one?
I couldn’t let that happen.
I had to fix this somehow.
“But the bet wasn’t really about who became whose constellation, it was more about me wanting you to realize that constellations aren’t that important.”
I began my desperate explanation.
“And through the bet, I also wanted to show you that your full power is stronger than you think. So the result of the bet isn’t that important.”
In fact, I had made the bet without even being sure if I could block Yuseora’s sword.
The result of the bet was meaningless.
But such excuses didn’t work on Yuseora.
“I know. But a bet is a bet. You are my constellation now.”
But I couldn’t back down here either.
If I backed down, I could easily imagine the hell that would unfold.
“Then I’ll give you a command as your constellation. From this moment on, I am not your constellation.”
“But didn’t you say that a constellation’s commands have no binding force?”
Damn it.
It always seemed to be like this.
I always tripped over my own words.
“Alright. I’ll be your constellation. Let’s say that.”
I had no choice but to accept it for now.
Strictly speaking, I was half a constellation.
But this wasn’t a good way to go about it.
“At the very least, how about we don’t use the term constellation? It might cause unnecessary misunderstandings, so…”
“Then what should I call you?”
Hmm, what should she call me?
First, I needed to change the atmosphere and drop the honorifics.
“How about we start by dropping the honorifics?”
It was awkward to keep using honorifics since we were on the same team.
In fact, some of the other team members had already dropped honorifics with each other.
So it wouldn’t be awkward if she and I dropped honorifics.
“Alright. Then can I just call you Seo Yoo Rang?”
It should have been awkward, but her confident attitude made it feel natural.
Rather, it felt strange because she was too confident.
It was true that I was her constellation, but I didn’t feel like I was above her.
“Yes, I mean… sure, you can call me that.”
It seemed like I was the one who was awkward.
Seeing me like that, Yuseora even burst out laughing.
‘This isn’t right.’
I tilted my head.
And I started thinking about how to handle this situation.
Then Yuseora stopped laughing and gradually became serious.
She asked,
“So, what should I do now?”
“What do you mean?”
“You’re my constellation. Shouldn’t you give me some advice about my direction or something?”
I realized it then.
I was below her.
But I didn’t feel bad about it.
“You saw it earlier. Your swordsmanship has a lot of potential. Just keep doing what you’ve been doing.”
As someone with a constellation’s memories, I was familiar with the role.
It even felt natural.
It was just that the object of it was a real person, not a game character.
“Swordsmanship… I know my swordsmanship is strong. But can I really rebuild the guild with this swordsmanship?”
It was a topic that had to come up eventually.
It was also a problem that had to be solved in order to make her my companion.
I understood her concerns.
To revive the guild, she needed the power to protect the merchant caravan from frequent monster attacks.
But her Overload wasn’t cost-effective for that.
But it was okay.
“Of course. Strong people gather under a strong leader. Unless it’s a really strong enemy, you won’t even need to step in.”
“I guess that’s true.”
She looked at me.
I didn’t know why she was looking at me like that.
But the conversation wasn’t over yet.
“But there’s one precondition regarding that strong enemy.”
“Precondition?”
“When I say strong enemy, I’m talking about Demon Kings.”
Her expression hardened.
“You don’t have to be so scared. If you focus on the guild, the Demon Kings won’t bother you.”
“Then why is it related to the Demon Kings?”
“Because even if you are fine, your guild won’t be. No, not just the guild, but the whole world.”
Yuseora looked like she didn’t understand.
It was a grand-scale story.
Even I felt that way sometimes.
But I couldn’t explain her without explaining this.
“It’ll probably be a long explanation. But before that…”
There was one thing I needed to promise.
It was a bit late.
“I’ll give you a command. Don’t ever mention anything you saw or heard here, including the fact that I can use swordsmanship.”
I couldn’t back down on that, even if I could on other things.
For some reason, Yuseora looked a little pale.
I did give her a bit of a threat, but not that much.
“Do you understand?”
“Yes, I understand…!”
She suddenly switched back to honorifics.
‘I don’t get it.’
I ignored it and began to explain how the world was being destroyed by the Demon Kings.
Since I was explaining based on the knowledge Seo Yoo Rang gained from the game, I didn’t know all the details, but the general information should be correct.
When the imperfect explanation was over, Yuseora asked,
“But if they are so strong that even you, my constellation, can’t handle them, then I…”
For some reason, she had returned to calling me ‘constellation’.
And unlike before, there was no playfulness in the way she said it.
I decided to address that later and answered her question first.
“I’m not as strong as you think I am. I was able to block your attack earlier because it was swordsmanship. If it had been another type of energy, I would have been erased. It would have been the same even if you had a 3-star or higher Sacred Relic.”
“Hmm…”
“Don’t look at me like I’m pathetic. You’re the one who’s abnormally strong. And you’re also one shot if you get hit in the head with an arrow, you know?”
In fact, she had been taken out in one hit by an arrow from me during the first mock battle.
On the other hand, I could distort some ranged attacks using the power of the wind.
“Anyway, to summarize, I’m planning to stop the Demon Kings. If you help me, I’ll help you rebuild your guild.”
I explained as best as I could why she should help me.
If she still didn’t agree after this…
‘It’s a shame, but I’ll have to ask the god to erase her memories.’
Judging from what the god of reality did, erasing memories within the ordeal didn’t seem that difficult.
And since I had a contract with him, he should agree.
But fortunately, that didn’t seem necessary.
She nodded with a serious expression.
“Alright. It seems like I have no choice but to follow your command, my constellation.”
That was good enough.
Except for one thing.
“But didn’t we already talk about the honorifics and how you were going to address me?”
“Did we? But you really do feel like a real constellation…”
“Still, no.”
Yuseora nodded, looking downcast.
This concluded things for the most part.
I spoke to the air again.
“Please send us out now.”
And I added one more thing in my mind.
‘Before that, you and I need to have a little chat.’
There was something I needed to settle.
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