REAPER SCANS
Is It Bad That the Main Character’s a Roleplayer
[Translator – KonnoAren]
[Proofreader – Loopin]
Chapter 229 | Full of Suffering (2)
Berserk opened her eyes. Was she alive? How? That was the first question to rush through her mind before she could even take in her surroundings.
Rustle.
The next thing she noticed was a presence on her stomach.
She slowly relaxed her stiff body, loosening the muscles in her arms as much as she could before pulling apart her tattered clothes. As the layers of fabric peeled away, her bare skin was revealed.
All the blackened veins and hard bumps were gone, leaving her skin completely clean, aside from the scars she’d earned in the past.
Grip.
“…?”
She stood corrected. In addition to the scars, there was something else: a turtle far smaller than her stomach.
Were they called fins or webbed limbs? Anyway, the turtle was clinging to her skin with what you could call limbs.
“What is this?”
Could turtles actually do things like that? More importantly, when the hell did things turn out like this?
She lifted it, expressing her confusion. An action that almost seemed subconscious—as if she’d expected someone to answer her.
But no matter how long she waited, no voice came. Of course. The lie she’d built for herself had already popped like bubbles the instant she’d acknowledged the truth. Or perhaps they’d simply returned to where they’d always belonged.
The small fire she’d clung to in place of the sun she’d lost was now gone.
The moment Berserk realized it, a wave of misery came over her, misery for having survived without knowing why when she’d have preferred to die.
“…How sad.”
Would it have been better if she’d just died there?
Like her sister, who’d faded away in a place where no sun could rise, would it have been easier if she’d met a similarly miserable end, with no way to even recover her remains?
“I at least wanted my end to resemble hers, even if our beginnings were different.”
If she’d died in exactly the same way as the one she’d mourned for, perhaps she wouldn’t have had any regrets left…
“Was even that impossible for me?”
She lowered the flapping turtle to the ground.
Because she’d put it down without really thinking, the creature had landed on its back, flailing its limbs helplessly in the air.
Feeling a little sorry for it, Berserk reached out and gave its shell a light tap. With that, the turtle flipped over and began crawling forward. The soft earth shifted beneath its webbed feet, leaving faint trails behind.
“You’re awake?”
“…?”
She watched it for a moment before a voice called out to her from a few meters away. The man seemed to have been tending to someone’s wounds. He looked very exhausted.
“If you’re awake, go find Madam Archmage. With that, I’ve delivered the message.”
His tone was just as sharp as her impression of him.
It might have just been his nature, although she wasn’t sure. Rather, he might just be like that because he had no time to spare.
“Doctor! We’re out of bandages!”
“I just boiled some cloth earlier! Rip it up and use that!”
“We’ve already used all of that as well!”
“Are you kidding me?!”
“Medic, we’ve got a patient with an open leg fracture!!”
Just looking around, it became obvious to her.
Berserk saw this place was packed with countless patients, and more kept arriving alongside those treating the wounded.
Initially, she’d been looking for the Demon Knight, the young hunter, and the red-haired priest, but something else caught her eye instead.
Quite a few medics were walking around, but those needing their help vastly outnumbered them.
“Medic?! Medic?! Is anyone free?!”
Amid all that, someone carrying a freshly injured patient shouted desperately. The one who responded was the same man who’d spoken to Berserk.
“I just want to cry, seriously…” He looked extremely exhausted, yet he was unable to rest, still having even more people to treat.
“Over here… This way!”
“Open leg fracture! Did you hear that?!”
“Yeah…!”
Having barely made space for the patient, the man turned to a young girl running errands around here—most likely forced to help due to the serious lack of available hands.
“Some painkillers! And bandages for the bleeding, bandages…”
“Erm, we just ran out of painkillers, so there’s nothing left to give…”
“What?”
“I went to check, but they said there aren’t any left.”
However, the situation was only getting worse. Painkillers and bandages were the bare minimum for treating injuries, especially external wounds, but they now had neither.
The patient could at least try enduring the pain without painkillers, but without bandages, every patient with heavy bleeding was as good as dead.
Berserk, who knew at least the basics of field medicine as a warrior, clicked her tongue.
“What about the priests, the priests? Are there any left? We need someone to stop the bleeding…”
“I’ll go check, but to be honest…”
“Yeah, there’s no way they aren’t busy…”
She’d been wondering why she hadn’t seen any Temple people around. It seemed they were just working somewhere else and, for similar reasons, probably hadn’t any time to spare.
“Bandages, even just one spare bandage…”
It made sense, as the people of the Temple had the power to keep others alive using Divine Power, so they’d naturally be handling those whose lives were in immediate danger.
Looking at it that way, they were probably even worse off than the people here.
Those here only had mild and moderate wounds and were thus less likely to die, but the people there would die the moment they ran out of hands.
If the red-haired priest Berserk knew was there, the situation might be a bit better… but would the Hero even have any energy left to heal others?
From what she could remember, the battle in the city had been so brutal that there was barely any room to think about what would come after.
Kweeek.
The turtle suddenly let out a strange noise. At the same time, a new question surfaced in Berserk’s mind.
Right. The battle hadn’t left them room to think, so why was she still in such perfect condition?
Was the young priest still awake somehow, and had she given her special treatment since she was a Companion—some kind of healing?
No, how did she even get here after being trapped inside the turtle’s shell? The Hero should’ve been overwhelmed fighting Pandemonium… Would she have even had the time?
Tap.
At that moment, Berserk felt a faint warmth brush against the back of her hand. Looking down at its origin, she saw the small turtle crawling onto her hand.
“What is this?”
Go away. She nudged it aside. Squirm. However, the turtle, having been flipped onto its back again, flailed its limbs and managed to turn itself over this time. It then crawled right back toward her.
It was as if it thought she was its mother.
“…What do you want from me?”
Just why was this tiny turtle clinging to her so desperately? She considered tossing it away for a second but ultimately decided to take it with her.
Well, she disliked the weak, but she didn’t mind the young. Especially seeing it cling to life so stubbornly.
She wouldn’t take care of it forever, but she’d let it stay until she found a way to release it into the sea.
“Hold on to me. If you fall, I’m leaving you behind.”
Placing the turtle on her broad shoulder, she stood up. The people she’d been looking for were nowhere to be seen, and it seemed the great sage had called for her. She might as well leave.
But as she rose, the tattered remains of her clothes flapped around her waist. It was quite annoying, but they were far too damaged for her to wear again.
“Hmph.”
The fabric was too filthy to use as bandages, either, so she might as well just tear it apart. Having come to that conclusion, she ripped it off.
The discarded clothes were immediately trampled beneath her leather boots.
Squee.
The turtle, who’d nearly been thrown off with the clothes, cried in protest.
“Do all turtles cry like you?”
Kwek?
* * *
Reaper Scans
[Translator – KonnoAren]
[Proofreader – Loopin]
Join our discord for updates on releases! https://dsc.gg/reapercomics
* * *
Berserk left the chaotic medical camp to find the Archmage first. Well, she didn’t dare ask anyone inside the camp for directions. Besides, they probably had no clue what was going on anyway.
Kwek.
“What a mess…”
However, the area outside of the medical tent wasn’t any better.
Berserk let out a long breath, taking in the sight of people lying about everywhere like defeated soldiers.
Some had managed to come to their senses and move, but far more sat there in a daze. She hated this sight.
“What the hell were the soldiers doing? Why did Demons appear inside the city…?”
“Damn it… It’s all those nobles’ fault. They conspired with the Temple to kill our guardian deity, and now we’re being punished for it…”
And they were all just spouting whatever came to mind.
“Pathetic.”
She could understand their shock at being forced to abandon their city like this, but so what?
Despite having been able to evacuate safely under the soldiers’ protection, they apparently couldn’t handle the shock of losing their city, so they instead sat around blaming everyone but themselves. It was so pathetic. She almost thought it a waste that those soldiers had died for these fools.
As such, she walked away, looking down on those doing nothing but sit around and whine about their lost possessions instead of being grateful for having been rescued. She could see some soldiers moving up ahead.
“L-let go…!”
“Stop struggling before I break your arm!”
As she got closer, she finally saw what they were doing. They were restraining a rioter.
“Hey, soldier.”
“Can’t you see I’m busy with this little—Huh?”
“Where’s the Archmage?”
“Erm, we’re a bit busy here, so… Who are you?”
The soldier who’d been roughly twisting the troublemaker’s arm suddenly became hesitant. He immediately fixed his tone after taking in Berserk’s intimidating musculature and expression.
Though his face remained slightly crumpled up.
“I’m an adventurer hired by the Archmage. I was told to go to her, but I don’t know where she is, so I’m asking you now.”
“…If you’re really an adventurer, you should first—”
“Oh! It’s you!”
Right then, a shout came from some distance away.
“You’re alive!”
“Do you know me?”
“You fought the Sirens on the city walls.”
Ah, the soldier had apparently seen that. She scratched her neck. Unfortunately, she didn’t really remember seeing him.
“I lost my adventurer’s badge.”
Furthermore, she didn’t have her badge. She’d definitely lost it during the battle—she hadn’t seen it anywhere when tossing her clothes earlier—but she wasn’t sure where exactly she’d lost it. She’d fought across at least three different battle zones and could’ve dropped it in any of them, making it hard for her to guess.
“Then I can’t tell you where she is. Without confirmation of who you really are, I can’t just give out information…”
However, the soldier she was dealing with at the moment appeared to be a stickler for rules. Berserk narrowed her eyes, feeling annoyed.
“If you’re looking for the Archmage, she’s over that way. I saw her earlier.”
“Hey!”
“I get why you’re worried, but let’s leave it at that, okay? Who else would she be to have fought on the walls when she isn’t a soldier? An adventurer, right?”
“Even so, she just claimed she was hired by a great sage! You’re seriously going to believe that?”
“I mean… if she’s strong enough to take down dozens of Sirens, wouldn’t it make sense for a great sage to hire her? I think that’s logical enough.”
“For the love of…”
But in the end, luck was on her side. While she had no memory of him, Berserk viewed the soldier positively and moved in the direction he’d given her.
Fortunately, the wizards were right where he said they’d be.
They were with the Temple people.
“Anyone free?!”
“Priest!”
“…Forget that person! We can’t save them right now!”
Ah, right. Wizards could also use healing spells. She looked at the Temple people and wizards working together—those with golden light flowing from their hands were priests, and those with pale blue light flowing out of them were wizards—and judged this scene was even worse than what she’d witnessed in the medical tent.
“Priest! The people who evacuated to the west are starting to return! However, according to them, there are still injured people back there…!”
“…We’re already short on hands here! Are there any priests left alive over there?!”
“Most were killed while protecting the civilians from the Demons… Right now, there’s no one left who can heal the wounded…”
“Damn it!”
The Archmage was where the most severely injured had been gathered.
While her healing spells weren’t as effective as those cast with Divine Power, she could heal multiple people simultaneously, so she was keeping five of them alive.
“You’re here? Good, then go over there and…”
“I heard you were looking for me.”
“Hm? A-ah. It’s you.”
Berserk scanned the area again after approaching the Archmage, careful not to get in her way.
She was searching for any sign of the Hero, but she couldn’t see the young priest anywhere.
“For now… I’d like to thank you. Without you, the damage would’ve been far worse. I truly appreciate it.”
“I didn’t really stay behind to hear words of gratitude, so that’s unnecessary.”
“I see.”
“More importantly, what’s the situation?”
“…How much do you already know?”
“Almost nothing. I remember finding a Merfolk nest inside the turtle’s shell and fighting inside it. That’s the last thing I recall.”
The same went for Deathbringer and the Demon Knight. She had no idea where they were, but at least they weren’t among the injured.
“Also, I clearly remember that even if reinforcements had come in time to save me, my chances of survival should have been close to zero.”
“…I see.”
“So tell me, how did I survive?”
Just where were those three? Could it be they’d ended up among the dead and so couldn’t reunite with her? That couldn’t be, right?
“…I’m not entirely sure either. But… according to Deathbringer’s testimony, it was probably a Demon that saved you.”
“…A Demon?”
Berserk carefully studied the face of the only person who knew the answer. It didn’t look like she was mourning. If they really were dead, her expression would’ve been filled with grief.
But…
“Or the Demon Knight.”
There were fates far more miserable than death.
Berserk sat down, sensing this would probably be a long conversation.
Kwak.
The little turtle on her shoulder let out a cry.
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