I Reincarnated into a Game Filled with Mods – Chapter 197

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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: FusionX
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—Shing!

“Eek?!”

The instant the tanned woman turned around, Cecilia pressed her holy sword against the woman’s throat.

The woman, staring at the radiant golden blade, raised her hands in terror.

“Explain, Delta.”

Cecilia, maintaining her threatening posture, looked at me.

“Why does my holy sword react to this woman?”

She was right.

The holy sword glowed more intensely than usual.

“……Holy sword?”

“I did not address you. Nor did I grant you permission to speak. If you move or speak again without my consent, you will bear the consequences.”

The tanned woman flinched at the mention of the holy sword, then fell silent under Cecilia’s chilling threat, her eyes darting nervously.

There was no time to waste. I had anticipated this and prepared an explanation. I quickly stepped between them, pushing the flat of the blade away with my finger.

Cecilia, after a moment of observation, complied. The tip of the sword moved away from the woman’s throat.

However, her suspicion remained.

The blade was still lowered, pointed at the ground. If she had fully trusted me, she would have dismissed the sword entirely.

“You defend this woman.”

“I do.”

“There must be a reason. Speak. Why should I spare a woman who triggers my holy sword?”

Cecilia crossed her arms, perched on the edge of a nearby table, and crossed her legs.

Though still imperious, her willingness to listen was a significant improvement. Such behavior would have been unthinkable before.

“Because she is not what your holy sword reacts to.”

“Not what it reacts to?”

“Yes, Your Majesty. As you know, to what does your holy sword react?”

Cecilia, though giving me a look that suggested I was stating the obvious, answered.

“Demons. And the fools who believe in such filth.”

“Indeed. However, this woman behind me… What is your name?”

I turned to the woman. She was still visibly shaken, her eyes darting between Cecilia and me.

She spoke hesitantly.

“Margarita. You can call me Margarita.”

“Understood. Margarita is not a demon, nor a demon worshipper. Your holy sword reacts to her because she has been surviving by consuming demon corpses.”

Consuming demon corpses. A secret she clearly wanted to keep hidden. Margarita flinched at my words, her eyes trembling.

Though I felt a pang of guilt for revealing her secret, it was better than her being caught in a lie by Cecilia. The consequences would have been far worse.

“What did you just say? Did I hear you correctly, Delta?”

Even Cecilia, usually unflappable, was shocked by the revelation.

“I would never dare lie to Your Majesty. It is the truth.”

“……She willingly consumed such… repulsive things?”

Cecilia grimaced, but having understood the reason for the holy sword’s reaction, she dismissed it.

The golden light vanished.

A small sigh came from behind me.

“W-Wait a minute. How do you know all this? We just met.”

Margarita, now relieved but confused, grabbed my shoulder.

I smiled in response, and Cecilia, clicking her tongue, spoke for me.

“Give up. He is my servant, yet even I cannot fully comprehend his methods. However, he has never made a wrong decision. Trust and follow him, and that will suffice.”

I was inwardly impressed by Cecilia’s words.

Trust and follow, even without understanding. Such unwavering trust from the proud, arrogant, and imperious Cecilia was almost unbelievable.

She clearly had immense faith in me. My efforts had paid off. I felt a sense of accomplishment.

“Well, that’s not important.”

“Then what is important……”

Margarita, her question deflected, pouted.

“What’s important is that you’re trapped in Hell, Margarita, and in your desperation, you resorted to consuming demon corpses.”

“…….”

“Am I wrong?”

Margarita, after a moment of contemplation, realized further denial was futile and nodded.

“You’re right. I’m trapped here. And I had no choice but to eat their corpses.”

Finally, a confirmation.

“Since there’s no point hiding it, I’ll be blunt. How much do you know?”

“Everything I need to.”

Margarita was a former paladin, trapped here long ago. Her age, according to the lore, was similar to Minerva’s.

A normal paladin couldn’t live so long, but Hell had its own rules. To maximize their usefulness, humans trapped in Hell were cursed with agelessness.

Like the player, Margarita had been caught in a demon summoning ritual. She had been on a mission to eradicate demon worshippers and fallen into a trap.

Her comrades had become living batteries, but she had managed to escape.

However, even a paladin couldn’t defeat all the demons in Hell. She had survived by consuming the corpses of demons killed in power struggles.

Demons fought amongst themselves constantly. It was part of the lore. Humans were their preferred prey, but in their absence, they engaged in cannibalism, perpetuating Hell’s cycle of violence.

Even the Demon King didn’t stop the infighting. He apparently encouraged the chaos and disorder.

“…….”

I summarized the information for them. Both Cecilia and Margarita listened intently, their expressions questioning how I knew all this.

I didn’t bother explaining.

Cecilia seemed content to accept my knowledge without question, and Margarita, having been rebuked earlier, wouldn’t dare ask again, despite her curiosity.

Besides, the wielder of the holy sword had validated my identity. Humans could lie, but the holy sword couldn’t. Margarita, a paladin, would understand that.

“You have a strong stomach. To even consider consuming such things.”

Cecilia grimaced.

Honestly, I couldn’t imagine it either. In the original game, Margarita was a grizzled old man, his face obscured by a long beard and hair, his clothes tattered and filthy.

Here, she was a vibrant, Latin beauty.

‘……But aren’t you supposed to be immune to starvation here?’

Everyone seemed to eat mechanically, but I wasn’t sure.

“So, here’s my proposition, Margarita.”

I needed to get to the point before I came across as a lunatic who barged into someone’s house and started revealing their secrets.

“Don’t you want to escape from here?”

Margarita’s head snapped up.

“Of course, I want to escape! Do you think I enjoy scavenging demon corpses? Do you think I want to live like this, barely surviving on such disgusting things?”

But her hope quickly faded.

“But there’s no way out. There’s no……”

“Why not? You devised it yourself.”

“…….”

Margarita stared blankly for a moment, then her eyes widened in shock.

“H-How do you even know about that……”

“You completed the theoretical research, gathered the materials, and even built it. But you’re missing a key component, so it’s been abandoned. Am I right?”

“I…I……”

Margarita stammered.

I had just described her side quest. Gather the necessary materials. And she could escape Hell.

There was a related side quest in the Holy Kingdom, but I could deal with that later.

“I’ll get it for you.”

“……What?”

“We’ll get all the materials. In return, let us use it too. We also want to leave this place.”

Margarita escaped in the game.

And afterwards, she offered the device to the player. There shouldn’t be a problem with Cecilia and me using it.

I had originally planned to defeat the final boss, but this seemed faster.

I had mistakenly thought it was unusable here because it was tied to a Holy Kingdom side quest, not something the player could directly utilize.

“W-Wait, wait a minute……”

Margarita, flustered, stammered.

Well, even I would be shocked by such a claim. Actions spoke louder than words.

“There’s no need for further discussion. I’ll prove it. Your Imperial Majesty?”

“I’m listening.”

“Are you not yet satisfied with the slaughter?”

Cecilia, meeting my gaze, smiled imperiously.

“Need you ask?”

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