Chapter 9: How to Interfere in the Main Story (2)
Because I arrived in a flashy carriage in a rural village that rarely saw visitors, people gathered from the village entrance out of curiosity.
As I stepped down from the carriage under everyone’s gaze, an old man with white hair and a thick beard approached.
“What brings you here?”
He introduced himself as the village chief and immediately asked why I had come.
It was only natural.
This wasn’t a tourist spot.
There were no famous local specialties.
So a noble suddenly appearing here was bound to raise questions.
“I’m investigating monster attacks.”
“Monster… attacks?”
“Yes. Has the village been attacked recently?”
The old man slowly shook his head.
“There are small monsters like goblins outside the village, but none have ever broken through the barrier and entered.”
Just as he said, Frisia looked peaceful.
No signs of ever having been attacked.
‘Even a backwater village has a properly functioning barrier.’
In Survival Fantasy, every village had a barrier stone that blocked monsters and created a safe zone.
Apparently Frisia also followed that setting before the main quest began.
“May I inspect the barrier?”
“Of course. This way.”
I followed him to the center of the village.
Since it was small, it didn’t take long.
There stood a white tower about five meters tall.
At its top was a blue gem.
A completely normal barrier, no different from any other village.
‘And the gem is showing a proper value of 3,000 points.’
The fact the points appeared normally meant the gem had no issues.
Which meant…
Under normal circumstances, this village should never be attacked by monsters.
“Is it maintained regularly?”
“The lord sends a mage every three months.”
“Every three months…”
Compared to cities that inspected barriers every morning…
That was lax.
As expected of a rural village.
Clearly not a priority for the lord.
‘What if I destroy the gem myself and force the barrier down? Would that start the main quest?’
For a moment the thought tempted me.
Then I rejected it.
‘No. That would be meaningless.’
The key element of the main quest was a monster capable of breaking barriers.
If I destroyed it myself, only ordinary monsters would enter.
That wasn’t the same.
“I’d like to investigate the area. Where do monsters usually appear?”
The chief pointed toward a forest in the distance.
“People who go there for wood often get attacked and disappear.”
He sighed deeply.
Even after requesting soldiers, the lord ignored them.
“I see…”
I began walking toward the forest.
The chief hurried after me, shocked.
“Y-You’re not planning to go in there alone?”
“That’s exactly what I’m doing.”
“That’s too dangerous! Come back later with soldiers!”
He blocked my path.
Probably afraid the whole village would suffer if a noble got killed here.
“So you’re trying to stop me?”
I asked teasingly.
The chief looked torn.
Let a noble go into danger?
Or commit rudeness by physically stopping me?
Either way could land him in prison.
While he hesitated, I walked past him.
“Young Master! You told Young Master Yulian you wouldn’t do anything dangerous!”
After shaking off the chief, Chloe began hurrying after me.
I was about to ignore her.
Then her words made me stop.
“How do you know that?”
“Huh?”
“How do you know I told Yulian I wouldn’t do anything dangerous?”
I had told no one else.
And Chloe wasn’t among those eavesdropping.
So how did she know?
“W-Well… I guess I heard it from someone…”
She visibly panicked.
Couldn’t even make a proper excuse.
But her reaction made it obvious enough.
‘Rumors spread fast.’
I knew the estate enjoyed gossiping lately about Yulian and me.
But I didn’t think rumors moved so fast they’d spread in the short time between leaving his room and departing the estate.
‘If I don’t want people realizing I turned Yulian into a puppet figurehead, I need to be more careful.’
The stronger Yulian’s position became…
The more I could extract from him.
I decided from now on to praise him in front of servants.
“A-Anyway! Even if you’re the master, you shouldn’t break promises to the Young Master!”
Giving up on excuses, Chloe suddenly changed approach and boldly stood in front of me.
The village chief had already given up trying to stop me.
And yet this girl, whose neck I could demand at any time, dared block my way.
Bold little thing.
“If you’re so worried, come with me.”
I said it partly to scare her.
Surely she wouldn’t follow me into a monster-filled forest unarmed.
But her reaction was not what I expected.
“A-Alright! If you must go, I’ll come too…!”
I had been ready to abandon her the moment she hesitated.
Instead I picked up unwanted baggage.
***
The place the chief described looked like an ordinary forest.
But once I stepped in…
A sinister sensation crawled up my legs like a snake.
Straight up my spine.
Too vivid to dismiss as imagination.
‘Strong men from the village went to cut wood and never returned.’
Deep in the forest, I recalled the chief’s words.
An axe embedded in a tree, its handle rotted away.
Scraps of cloth scattered in the grass.
Signs showing clearly what happened to the missing men.
“Y-Young Master… aren’t you scared?”
Chloe clung to my back, trembling.
She startled at her own footsteps.
And yet she still hadn’t run back.
Admirable?
Or annoying?
Hard to say.
“If you’re that scared, go back.”
“N-No.”
“Why?”
“If you’re in danger… I should at least serve as bait…”
I let out a dry laugh.
She’d die in my place if needed?
Rather than feel touched…
I thought, this is rich, coming from someone caught stealing from her master.
“You’ve got quite the mouth.”
“Huh? What do you—”
Before she finished—
I pressed down on her head.
She yelped and ducked—
Just as a wooden spear flew over her.
“At last.”
I pushed the dazed Chloe aside.
“Hide behind a tree.”
She nodded and retreated immediately.
Once I saw her take cover, I drew the sword at my waist.
“Let’s see… using crude weapons like that… Kobolds?”
Kobolds resembled goblins, but were smaller and even dumber.
In Survival Fantasy, they were tutorial monsters.
Most players made them their first prey.
“Kiiik!”
As if offended, two kobolds burst from the grass shrieking.
“What are you waiting for? Come.”
I tilted my sword.
They raised their spears and charged.
Even with two attacking at once…
I wasn’t nervous.
My only skill might be random draw.
But I had cleared this game many times.
Monsters from some rural village?
I could kill them without skills.
‘Compared to Yulian, they’re nothing.’
Before they fully attacked, I stepped forward and slashed the kobold on the right first.
The other blinked in surprise.
Before it recovered—
I drew a fatal line with my blade.
“Kieeek!”
The sword bit into its shoulder and tore down to its side.
It collapsed.
In my old world, I had never swung a sword once.
Yet Ian’s body moved faster and more accurately than expected.
“Moves even better than I thought.”
It didn’t feel like moving my own body.
It felt like controlling a game character through thought alone.
I had sensed it in training.
But real combat made it much clearer.
“Then again… if this moved like my real body, I’d have died already.”
My real body couldn’t dodge fireballs and magic arrows.
Couldn’t split flesh with a sword.
“Is this some kind of game-world correction?”
If thought alone let me move this freely…
How far did it go?
As I wondered—
Another spear flew from nearby brush.
My experience from the game told me exactly when to react.
And my body obeyed.
I knocked the spear away easily.
“Kiek?”
I sprinted toward the cry.
Another kobold hiding in the brush had been preparing to strike.
It barely reacted before my sword took its neck.
Even dying…
It still looked shocked.
“Only three nearby?”
Contrary to the chief saying monsters swarmed here…
There were only three.
And kobolds usually moved in groups.
That was strange.
“Normally there’d be seven or eight for beginner leveling…”
Disappointed, I opened my stat window.
And cursed.
“Damn it.”
What I saw was a disaster.
“My proficiency didn’t increase at all!”
In this game, using swords raised sword proficiency.
Using magic raised magical proficiency.
That was how growth worked.
But my sword proficiency hadn’t moved even a little.
Still at base value.
“What the hell did Yulian feed me?”
It wasn’t just magic that couldn’t grow.
Nothing could.
Which meant—
I couldn’t level up at all.
Level 1 from start to finish.
One money-devouring bonus skill.
And that’s it.
How was I supposed to clear the game like this?
Being stuck in this trash character was bad enough.
Now I still had no clue how an extra was supposed to start the main quest.
The more I considered the situation…
The more it looked not hopeless—
But hellish.
“This is too much!”
It felt like someone was mocking me.
Can you clear it even like this?
If I could…
I wanted to hit reset.
“Young Master Ian…?”
I turned.
Chloe had crept beside me from behind the tree.
I wasn’t even in the mood to scold her for leaving cover.
Everything felt exhausting.
“What?”
“Forgive me… but… over there… it’s burning.”
“What?”
At first I thought she was talking nonsense.
Then I looked where she pointed.
Black smoke was rising.
Given its size…
And the heat reaching us…
It was no campfire.
“Don’t tell me…”
