Surviving as a Trash Bard in a Game

A woman appeared behind the mad king.

“Is it alright to let him go like this?”

“Aide, who do you think I am?”

“I apologize.”

“No, it’s fine. A reasonable doubt. It’s just a matter of taste. I hope we can have some fun when we meet again after some time has passed. If possible, I’d like you to bring a different body, too.”

The mad king lightly swung his sword.

The 15th year, March 28th, since the current emperor began his reign.

A short time after the start of spring.

Population: 1,421.

A small city disappeared.

A signal flare went off. The shameful emperor, who had bowed his head to the king, tried to move his heavy body.

***

Skyler looked around.

‘…The gamble paid off.’

A dark and damp cave.

A cold body lay beside him, either because she had fallen asleep without lighting a fire, or because she wasn’t strong enough to carry Skyler for long.

She was breathing, and her chest was moving rhythmically.

Thank goodness…

—such a thought came to mind unbidden. She had never had such thoughts or feelings towards others before.

She felt unfamiliar to himself.

…A strange sensation swept through his entire body.

‘Stay calm.’

First, assess your own condition and hers. Skyler thought so and calmed his emotions.

Damp, unpleasant cave. It was dark. There was no time to erase their tracks, and even if there had been, he wasn’t a smart enough bard to care about such things.

There was no need to worry about being tracked, but you never know.

First, he burned a scroll to create a barrier.

It was a simple magic that merely gave off an unsettling feeling, inducing fear in those who entered. There was no need to worry about being detected by people now.

‘Low on blood, no magic, stamina… at rock bottom. Selina’s stamina isn’t looking good either.’

There are always side effects when using magic for the first time. Blood vessels that had been blocked for 20 years were moving for the first time, so they must be under pressure from all sides.

Magic is not about rewriting the laws of the world, but about making a request.

When you first make a request, you don’t know where the other party’s line of forgiveness is, where the line of acceptance is. You don’t know how much you have to give for them to accept.

‘I overdid it.’

Skyler took off his black robe and covered Selina with it.

Then, he used another scroll to create a flame.

There was nothing suitable for firewood, so he carefully placed the short-lived flame on the ground. He had supplied enough magic, so it should burn for a while.

Now, with this last scroll, his magic was depleted.

‘…It’s too dangerous to go outside to look for firewood.’

If only it were his original body, not that of a young boy…

Ha— damn it.

For now, just close your eyes and recover your stamina. You can think in advance of what excuses to make to Selina when she wakes up.

***

I open my eyes.

I saw Skyler, who had fallen asleep beside me without a care in the world.

I was a little angry. I’m in this mess because of you… You couldn’t even wait for me to wake up, and you just collapsed again.

I can commend him for cleaning up the surroundings and starting a campfire, but there’s something more important than that right now.

‘Should I wake him up?’

It’s right to wake him up. That was my judgment. But for some reason, I didn’t want to wake him up right now.

Even beasts don’t touch sleeping creatures. Unless they’re starving… Recovery comes first.

There were no serious injuries, but there’s no way the body would be fine after being forced to teleport such a long distance.

Most of the settings from the previous work had been changed, but the settings related to magic hadn’t undergone much change. I figured this out from Skyler’s teleportation incantation.

It was the same as the incantation I knew before.

‘…Then, the magic consumption must be the same.’

Assuming that the magic settings haven’t changed much, if I reverse-engineer Skyler’s condition, he’s in a state of severe internal injury.

And in that state, he even lit a fire because he thought I might be cold.

‘No, he probably lit the fire to warm himself up too.’

…There…There was something more important than these trivial things.

First, my mind is clear now.

It’s best to organize the questions I have for Skyler as much as possible.

The penalty of the status, the influence of the intelligence status, narcolepsy, the clumsy habit—dangerous factors that could be triggered at any time.

The four-letter name ‘Skyler’ was proudly added to that list of risk factors.

‘…First, what is his relationship with the mad king, Eyal?’

Skyler seemed to be acquainted with the mad king. They weren’t exactly friends, but they acted like they were at least frenemies.

‘And, about the divine body.’

I had already given Skyler false information that my memory was incomplete. Regardless of whether Skyler believed it or not, he knew that I lacked basic common sense.

In other words, he could exploit it as much as he wanted.

I don’t know why the positive trait I chose became a divine body, but there are at least two people who are after these eyes.

Skyler, and the mad king.

The two seemed to have a common goal. However, Skyler, for some reason, didn’t seem to want to get involved with my eyes. He got involved by accident, and it seems like he changed his course to take advantage of that ‘involvement’ itself.

‘And, the heart of a god.’

The mad king said to Skyler.

‘You’re going to use it even though you don’t have a heart—he said.’

In addition, he expressed surprise that Skyler could use such magic even after losing the heart of a god.

In other words, Skyler used to possess a divine body. Like my eyes.

And, presumably, it was taken away by someone else.

‘If I had to pick a suspect, it’s more likely that the mad king, who was there at the time, took it.’

There were still two more questions left.

Skyler called Eyal a ‘crazy old man with two brains.’ I wanted to know what that meant. I had a guess, but I needed confirmation… certainty.

And, the last question.

‘What did he mean by saying we would meet again anyway? What did he mean by saying we had so much time?’

It was confusing.

Ultimately, all these matters will be resolved when Skyler wakes up. However, I want to shake him awake right now. I felt that impulse.

In the end, my choice is to do nothing.

I had always lived by the motto of constantly moving forward without stopping, and my steps, which had never stopped once—stopped for the first time in this unfamiliar, another world.

I look around and catch my breath.

Right now, all I want to do is rest.

I looked at Skyler again.

I saw the options.

–

1. [ Kill by strangulation ]

2. [ Choke to death ]

3. [ Kill by attack ]

4. [ Kill by beating ]

5. [ Beat to death ]

.

.

.

99. [ Do nothing. ]

–

As if telling me to kill him on the spot… the status window was forcing me to choose ‘kill.’

The status window wants me to survive. He is a threat to my survival.

I chose number 99.

Time flowed on, meaninglessly.

Even if a person does nothing, the world goes on. It’s as if you’re insignificant, that the world wouldn’t have any problems even if you didn’t exist.

The fire, burning well without firewood, gradually fades, and my body starts to cool down again.

Skyler’s complexion looks a little better than before, and he tosses and turns as if he’s about to wake up, but if I wait a little longer, he becomes still as if dead.

I repeatedly tense and relax.

I’m hungry. My head is throbbing. My body aches. My joints are screaming. I’m sleepy. However, I know I can’t sleep.

I got up.

I approached Skyler.

He opens his eyes.

What perfect timing.

“…Actually, I’ve been awake for a while.”

“You caught me.”

“Hey!”

“Just kidding.”

I looked down at him.

He slowly sat up, reading my expression.

Scratching the back of his head, he avoided my eyes.

“Don’t look at me like that.”

“Why?”

“No, it’s just… it feels weird that you’re also capable of making jokes—it’s unsettling.”

“You know what questions I’m going to ask, right?”

“Yes.”

“Yes.”

Finally, the long-awaited Q&A session.

I hope the answers are satisfactory enough to make up for the fact that he dragged me, who had nothing to do with it, into this mess with the mad king.

If not, this precarious and short-lived companionship will end here.

“I’ll explain everything.”

“I hope you can explain everything.”

Skyler was reading my expression.

He was trying to figure out what kind of ‘me’ I was right now.

It felt resentful.

I was seriously interrogating him, but the person being interrogated was only thinking about how to take advantage of the ‘stupid me.’

My expression hardened.

Skyler also looked like he had ‘made a mistake’ and avoided my eyes again. The look of him reading my expression disappeared, and I saw a more confident boyish face than before.

Sparks were flying between the two of us.

To be precise, it felt like sparks were flying.

If this standoff were a scene from an animation or a comic, there would definitely be sparks.

Now, let’s recall the first… the most important question from the list I organized before he woke up.

‘No, there’s something I need to confirm first.’

I slowly reached out to him.

He looked at me.

“You said you were a mage, right?”

“…Yes.”

“Then, let’s make a contract.”

“What kind of contract—”

“You already know, don’t you? Contract that from this moment on, you will answer truthfully without any lies.”

“Magic is a fair trade. The reason that contract worked before was because you also offered an equivalent value. Such a contract is impossible.”

“When I’m done with my questions, you can ask yours.”

“…Alright. Let’s make a contract.”

He took my hand.

It was the beginning of a somewhat clumsy truth game.