Chapter 82

Suddenly, Camelian Peony seemed quite startled when she saw us. I wondered if she might be the betrayer, but even in her absence, the party’s location kept getting exposed. So there was no reason to suspect her, but still, I needed to ask why she had come all the way down to the sewage.

“Older Sister, may I ask why you came here?”

Camelian Peony, who had sheathed her sword, hesitated for a moment before reluctantly answering.

“I thought I saw a familiar face. I ended up here while chasing that person.”

“A familiar face?”

“…Yeah, maybe it’s just my imagination.”

Camelian Peony had a serious expression. Who could it be? It’s not Voldemort, right? Could you at least tell us the person’s name? Wait, actually, that bastard was British, wasn’t he? That loser who couldn’t even get into one school is here causing trouble. No wonder he founded that ridiculous organization, the Black Round Table.

Ricardo chuckled, seemingly pleased with Camelian Peony’s arrival.

“Then we all have the same goal, don’t we?”

“Well, sort of.”

“Even if our exact objectives differ, our destination is the same. It’s better to travel together.”

With SSR Caster, SSR Shielder, and now SSR Saber, I was confident we could clear any boss within three turns.

As we walked together, we casually chatted. Though it wasn’t originally my memory, thanks to Werner’s memories, which were also mine, I could keep up with the conversation without any trouble.

“By the way, it’s been a while since the three of us have been together like this.”

“Yeah, it’s been 19 years, right?”

“Time flies. It’s been long enough for mountains and rivers to change twice.”

They say the landscape changes in ten years, but most of their appearances hadn’t changed much. Camelian Peony was a half-elf, so that explained her, but Ricardo only had a bit more facial hair, and his face was still the same. Zick, on the other hand, had aged so much that his fans were jealous.

“I think Werner has changed more than the landscape.”

“Huh? Why me?”

Werner and I had similar personalities, so I didn’t think much had changed. Sure, I had to act differently when it came to food and lifestyle preferences, and I put a lot of effort into maintaining relationships, trying not to stand out too much. But to say I’ve changed…?

“Your appearance, I mean. You used to look like a bright-eyed, polite young lady, but now you look like a complete slacker.”

“Sorry for being a slacker, Older Brother.”

It’s incredibly rude to mock someone’s appearance. There were some crazy guys who had a crush on young Werner, but if I ever ran into those kinds of guys during my time as a guard, I’d block them for a year. What kind of lunatics get turned on by someone’s looks?

Werner himself would attack with magic if anyone brought it up, but most of the time, he just brushed it off as a joke. Of course, in the process of brushing it off, not many people survived.

But Camelian Peony seemed to have a slightly different opinion from Ricardo.

“There’s a flaw in your logic, Ricardo.”

“What flaw?”

Of course, it’s Camelian Peony. Look at her defending Werner. Isn’t she the true SSR Saber and SSR Shielder? Truly, there’s no race as kind as the elves. Those scumbags who slander elves under the guise of being nobles should all be exterminated. Indeed, the true queen… no, the true paragon of virtue is the elf. Anyone who disagrees is a neo-Nazi, a racist, and a minion of the Scourge.

“Even now, if you put Werner in a dress, plenty of people would mistake him for a woman.”

“Ah, right. I must be getting old. Youngest, you haven’t changed at all since back then.”

This damn… morally bankrupt noble… Wait, Ricardo is a noble too, and he’s just as messed up. These damn hypocrites, really, mocking someone’s appearance like that.

“Older Brother, Older Sister, do you know what’s changed the most about me in the past 12 years?”

Camelian Peony and Ricardo took my words as a joke.

“What? Your hair length?”

“I don’t see much difference in your appearance.”

“My earth attribute magic skills.”

I bestowed earth attribute magic upon the morally bankrupt noble and the elf. While large-scale earth magic could risk collapsing the building, beginner-level spells without lethal force were fine.

“Earth, swallow my enemies’ feet.”

The stone floor of the sewage disappeared, and Ricardo and Camelian Peony’s feet sank into the mud.

“How’s that? My earth attribute magic isn’t bad, right?”

“You really haven’t changed, pulling such petty pranks.”

“Speaking of which, do you remember when Werner pranked the Heavenly Demon Old Man?”

“Ah, he laid out the Heavenly Demon Old Man’s robe over a trap, and when the old man went to pick it up, he fell into a 90-meter-deep pit?”

That part was a bit hazy in my memory, but if it was true, Werner was definitely a madman. 90 meters is the height of a decent building.

“And at the bottom of the pit, he had filled it with venomous snakes and iron spikes. Oh, and he coated the spikes with paralyzing poison, right?”

Damn, isn’t that attempted murder? Even sworn enemies wouldn’t set up such a trap.

“The Heavenly Demon Old Man climbed out and gave Werner a knuckle sandwich, calling him a rascal.”

That’s not a rascal, that’s a bloodthirsty lunatic. The pranks between heroes are on a whole different scale. If they pulled that kind of prank on a normal person, they’d be dead the moment they fell into the pit. These crazy monsters.

“Well, I pulled off many other flashy pranks too, haha…”

I didn’t want to hear any more about Werner’s insane pranks, so I decided to wrap up the conversation. A people who forget their past have no future, but tomorrow’s sun will rise as it always does. It was time to move forward.

“By the way, Werner, didn’t you pull a harsh prank on your sorcerer friend too?”

Ricardo’s question made me a bit puzzled.

“Did I pull a harsh prank on Lorcha?”

“Yeah… I heard from the previous Tower Lord that you released sharks into her private beach? She was crying and making a huge fuss over it.”

Why the hell would this lunatic want to film “Jaws” on someone else’s private beach?

“When the hell did I do that?”

“Apparently, it was after she teased you, saying you looked like a girl and that she wanted to put makeup on you.”

Well, then, it’s only fair. If you mock someone’s appearance, you deserve to be punished. Releasing sharks on a private beach seems like a fitting punishment.

“She cried and made a fuss, so in the end, you apologized by letting her put makeup on you.”

“That sounds interesting. Werner, if I cry, will you put makeup on me too?”

I know these guys aren’t mocking me out of malice. They’re just joking around because we’re close. But it still made me a bit angry to just take it.

It’s just a hypothetical, so why not? Camelian Peony would never cry over something like this.

“Well, if Older Sister cries, I’d do anything for her.”

“What?”

Camelian Peony’s cheeks turned red. If you tease someone, you have to counter properly.

“If Older Sister is crying, how could I just stand by? If I can cheer her up, I’d do anything.”

“Ah… well… yeah.”

The counterattack clearly worked, as Camelian Peony was left speechless. Pushing hard is the best way to counter. Camelian Peony’s face turned red, and she avoided my gaze. She must be angry after being countered like that. This is why the calm one wins in keyboard battles. The one who gets excited first is forever the loser.

Elves lose, that is their fate.

Ricardo frowned as he watched us.

“You two are really putting on a show.”

It must be annoying to see two close comrades acting like a sitcom. As I walked, expressing condolences to his suffering eyes, a massive door suddenly appeared.

It was too large to be a sewage door underground. And on that door… was the emblem of the Black Round Table. Why the hell are these lunatics graffitiing other people’s facilities?

The atmosphere grew heavier as we discovered the door.

“Then, I’ll open it.”

Ricardo, now serious, opened the door, and inside were two figures radiating an unusual aura. One of them seemed to be the guy who had just slashed at us.