Hazure Skill ‘Mapping’ wo Te ni Shita Ore wa, Saikyou Party to Tomo ni Dungeon ni Idomu Chapter 17

Chapter 17
Chapter 17 – Outcome

Translator: Mana
Special Thanks: Rinkage

My name is Roslia Minkgott, and I was born two countries away from this country where the town of Puriff is located. I was born and raised in a privileged environment under a very wealthy family, if I do say so myself.

Of course, that was a given. If this is not Binbogami WordPress then it is stolen!

As I was born as the second princess of the royal family of that country.

Those who know me might find this hard to believe, but I am actually aware of, accept, and understand how warped my personality is.

I am referring to my warped personality that is compelled to deceive men. This personality—no, it may be more correct to call it this s.e.xual orientation of mine—turned out this way for a number of reasons.

It may be because of the ‘Charm’ skill I received in my blessing ceremony. But that probably isn’t the biggest reason. Since the truth was, I had such tendencies even before I turned 15.

That’s why the biggest reason was probably with my parents.

It wasn’t that my mother and father were bad people. In fact, it was the opposite. They were very wonderful people. They were the beloved king and queen of their country, fine leaders who didn’t lend an ear to the n.o.bles who only thought of themselves, and devout followers of the state religion, Cecinaism.

Because my parents were of the Cecina faith, I was also learned lots about its teachings from a young age. It wasn’t as though the teachings of Cecinaism were bad either. They were the opposite, preaching human ideals. Things like Thou shalt only have one partner to love as a man and woman’.

My father and mother father also loved like that, and got married. That was why when I was little, I believed it would be the same for me one day.

However, unlike my mother and father, I was an overly loving girl. In other words, I had a personality that fell in love with men easily. Contrary to the teachings, the parents I respected, and my own beliefs.

That was extremely painful for me. Especially since instincts can’t be suppressed. Even though I knew it wasn’t a good thing, I still fell in and out of love easily.

What could I do? Love was something to fall in and out of.

It wasn’t something that could be controlled.

But being young, I couldn’t betray my own ideals and my parents’ expectations. I rejected the confession of a boy who liked me, despite liking him back at the time.

It was since then. That I’ve had a few screws loose.

In order to fulfil my own desires about not dating men, I fooled men into falling for me before throwing them away.

Even though doing this wouldn’t change anything about the truth, that I couldn’t date men. This became a further source of stress, resulting in my flirting with all those men and making them fall in love as a method of stress relief. Every day, repeatedly.

Looking on from the outside, it probably sounded stupid. Because I was already betraying my parents’ expectations and the teachings that I was trying to protect. It was too late by the time I realised, unable to escape this negative loop.

I felt like I was being crushed by the animosity of my surroundings, and by the guilt in my own heart. In order to distract myself from the feelings of guilt, I deceived men even more.

Because I repeated this so much, my techniques for making men fall in love were polished to the point of perfection.

Perhaps it was from that point. That I gave up on men themselves.

No matter how loved I was by men, I felt like I was only being accepted for the flattery I gave and the outer appearance I kept up, not for my true self, hidden behind the mask. I felt like my true, ugly, sinfu

l self could not be loved by anybody.

The words of ‘love’ that so many men threw at me seemed empty and worthless, as if they were only praising my outer appearance and the techniques I used to make men fall in love.

That was why I stopped falling in love with men.

But even then, I couldn’t stop myself from seeking acceptance. I found my own worth in the ‘love’ that men spoke of, and couldn’t stop deceiving them. Regardless of the fact I had realised that what I was doing wouldn’t give me what I wanted the most.

Then when I turned 15, I received a skill that anyone would envy at the blessing ceremony, becoming a victim of jealousy and the schemes of n.o.bles and international plotting—which along with my catfis.h.i.+ng tendencies, eventually left the country in a state near destruction.

This was the reason why I was called ‘Crusher’. Binbogami or stolen!

After that, I left the country, sick and tired of everything, arriving at this country and somehow destroying a group of thieves before reaching the town of Puriff.

And now, despised by the former members of a group of thieves I disbanded, I was captured and thrown into jail. You reap what you sow, I guess.

What was even more unfortunate was that I was placed in the same jail as a boy called Note. He was an unreliable, lowest of the low type of man.

He was frail, had no confidence in himself, kept staring at my chest, and wasn’t even that good looking to boot. The second he was in danger he tried to sell me out, and was so weak he was knocked out in one blow by one of the thief women.

It was actually rather hard to find a good point about him.

And the most infuriating thing of all was that he somehow seemed completely unaffected by me, regardless of the fact that I used my sure-kill responses to his questions in order to make him fall.

Even though he was meant to be an easy target, hearing his words made me realise that he was far from falling for me—if anything, it was as if he had detected something, completely seeing through me when he looked this way. On top of that, he had been hiding those emotions from me.

For a second, it felt like I was losing to this spineless cherry boy. That was extremely frustrating. Because such a thing couldn’t be possible.

While I was looking back on my own pathetic half-life, Note had woken up next to me. He sat up while stretching his shoulders.

Several hours have pa.s.sed since he fainted.

It would be more correct to say he finally woke up. He really was a weak man and pathetic man.

Such thoughts of mine were blown away by the first words that came out of his mouth.

“Good morning, Roslia. This may be sudden, but do you want to make a deal? In exchange for me helping you escape this jail, you back away from Force…”

Yes?

What’s this about?

I didn’t understand what he was saying.

“Wait a moment! What do you mean? Suddenly saying such confusing things… did you hit your head?”

In my own confusion and difficulty understanding the situation, I accidentally said something rude. That was how incomprehensible his words were.

But he replied to my words listlessly while cracking his neck.

“I’ve actually been awake for a while now. Even I wouldn’t have been pa.s.sed out for that long.”

“Then why did you pretend you were?”

“Because if you spoke to me, you would have been disturbing my concentration…”

“What are you concentrating on…?”

I raised my voice at the increasing rudeness in his words. The poor thing, he probably really did hit his head and lose his mind.

But then, he shot me a glance that quietened me—

“Isn’t it obvious? Jailbreak.”

He laughed at me. If this is not Binbogami WordPress then it is stolen!

At that laugh, I no longer understood him. There was something about him that felt eerie, something that I couldn’t understand or measure with my own abilities.

What came to mind then were questions to deny my fears.

“We’re currently handcuffed in handcuffs that have been spelled to block all skills, spells, and arts from activating! Not to mention, the guard that has the keys to the handcuffs and jail is nowhere nearby. Just how would we escape from a situation like this…”

“Ah, that’s…” he said, as he casually lifted his right hand. In it, there was a removed handcuff…

“How did you…”

“With arts, just arts. One called ‘Trap Dismantle’.”

“B-But… these handcuffs seal arts, so you shouldn’t be able to use any arts…”

“Yup. That’s why I cancelled the spell before I was handcuffed. Do you remember how I pretended to call for my friends when I was being handcuffed? It was then…”

I remembered. At that time, he yelled for his comrades and managed to delay the timing of the handcuffs just a little.

But doesn’t that mean he cancelled this high level sealing spell in that single moment?!

While I was dumbfounded, Note touched my handcuffs and removed them in the blink of an eye. A special move executed in mere seconds. No matter how much I wanted to dismiss his abilities, seeing it with my own eyes forced me to believe it.

“Let’s go quickly! Most of the people are sleeping, so this is our chance…”

Note unlocked the jail lock like it was nothing, then opened the door. Even though he was turned to me with his back to the jail, it unlocked in an instant.

“How do you know it’s night time…?”

The continuous series of unexpected events had my head so confused, I questioned Note about one of the doubts I had in order to slow him down.

The jail had no window or sunlight to determine the time from. There was no way he would know that many people would be sleeping from where we were located.

However, the answer that came back to me was unexpected yet again.

“I checked with ‘Enemy Search’, so there’s no need to worry. Because I’ve been concentrating on my ‘Enemy Search’ for a while now, I can figure out the state of most of the people in this building from the strength of their presences. Of course, this technique takes quite a lot of concentration to do, so I was pretending to be pa.s.sed out until just then…”

To be honest, I had no idea what he was saying. I didn’t believe someone able to determine whether a person was sleeping or not using ‘Enemy Search’ would be sane.

Since ‘Enemy Search’ was an arts that detected the presence of monsters, and even high cla.s.s users could only barely manage to detect humans. There was no doubt to this, since I heard more than I ever wanted to about thief skills when I was being waited upon by the men from the group of thieves.

Ignoring my surprise, Note continued forward.

In order to avoid detection from the thieves, Note was expanding his ‘Enemy Search’ range while proceeding down a route plotted out by his ‘Mapping’ skill.

I could only watch on, unable to do anything.

It had completely slipped my mind. No matter how weak and plain he seemed, he was still a member of the strongest, proudest parties, the ‘Arrivers’.

Before me wasn’t the unreliable figure from several hours ago, only a broad back.

I was started to see hope that we could really escape from this thief hideout, and voiced the question I had been wondering for a while now.

“What do you mean by wanting me to back away from Force?”

At that question, he averted his gaze. After a moment where he seemed to be pondering over numerous thoughts in his head, he lowered his head and apologised.

“Sorry—”

I don’t really remember much of what he said after that.

But I got the general idea. Apparently, Note had made a plan to pretend to fall in love me in order to tear Force away.

To be honest, nothing like that had ever crossed my mind.

Especially during the date, Note had truly seemed like he was having fun, and I was so sure he had feelings for me…

Perhaps even that was an act.

I realised that this Note was much, much more frightening than I originally thought.

Feeling miserable at being completely been caught unawares in Note’s plan, I bit my lip unthinkingly. If the group of thieves had never appeared, Note’s plan would have definitely succeeded. I had gooseb.u.mps at how easily Note had me in the palm of his hand.

I must change my evaluation of Note. But, in the 20 years since I was born, my cheap and tiny pride from my only specialisation in making men fall in love didn’t allow me to accept the truth that I had been bested by a man.

Because men were fools that were easily deceived by my act, getting all serious. It was impossible for me to be inferior to Note.

After progressing for a while, the exit came into view, making me exhale in relief. We finally made it. All I did was follow Note, though…

Even so, I was very happy at the moment.

Contrary to my excitement, however, Note had a very grim expression on his face.

“What’s wrong?”

“No, it’s just that there are two guards past here. In order to leave this place, we can’t avoid pa.s.sing them…”

“Then you can just take them out in a flash. Right, Note?!”

It was frustrating, but since he was a first cla.s.s thief, he could do it.

Thinking that, I cheered Note on excitedly. But in return, he looked away from my gaze guiltily.

“I… can’t do anything other than ‘Enemy Search’, ‘Trap Detect’, and ‘Trap Dismantle’… So that’s not possible…”

“No no, that can’t be right.”

Thinking it was a joke, I whacked his shoulder with my hand. However, his face was serious.

“Umm… it’s a bit shameful to say this, but from what I can tell with my ‘Enemy Search’, I’m probably the weakest one in this building…”

“Is that so…”

What on earth is he? This boy called Note. There should be a limit to how much of an outlier he can be.

How could he master ‘Enemy Search’ and ‘Trap Dismantle’ so much, yet be completely useless in battle?!

It was so ridiculous, it was actually rather impressive.

“Then how will we escape from here?”

I tilted my head in question, and Note responded with a confused expression.

“Why don’t you defeat them?”

“What are you saying?! I’m a priestess—a healing job, you know?! I can’t fight!”

I waved my hands in a panic.

To my surprise, Note smiled teasingly in response to my fl.u.s.tered state.

Then, he pierced me with the words I never expected to hear—

“Because, Roslia. Aren’t you the strongest person in this building?”

“What are you saying? What proof do you have of that…”

“You want proof? Then I have my ‘Enemy Search’. No matter how much you try to hide it, ‘Enemy Search’ is able to determine the strength of other people to a certain extent. Not to mention—”

“Not to mention?”

“The biggest proof is that Roslia has been completely unharmed until now, despite garnering all those grudges from deceiving men, right? In addition to that, you didn’t show any fear for your life even once after being caught…”

It was at that moment that the thought crossed my mind.

—I, Roslia Minkgott, cannot win against Note Athlon, the boy in front of me.

And it was at this same moment that I respected and accepted a man for the first time in my life. He was different to the stupid men who gathered around me.

It was as though he could see completely through me.

Rather than feeling a sense of defeat, my heart was dancing at the thought of finding the person I had always longed for.

Perhaps, surely, this throbbing was love.

Real love, different to the false feelings that I’ve always misunderstood.

He could be the one person who could accept all of me.

And even if he wasn’t, he could at least see all of me, including all of my faults. Not my masked self that only sold false flattery. My dirty, true self.

Even if he doesn’t accept all of me, I didn’t mind. As long as he acknowledged my ugly self, without turning his back.

Note Athlon. I will love you. From the bottom of my heart.

Yes, because my heart has trembled—

I decided to activate the skill which I had always hated.

The one that everyone envied. The ability of which caused the n.o.bles of the country to scramble and fight over it in interest. A skill able to crush a country, the reason for the nickname ‘Crusher’.

The only other skill I had in addition to ‘Charm’.

—‘Guidance of the Holy Sword’.

I gathered all my elated feelings together and yelled the name of the strongest sword in the world so loud, I thought my throat would tear.

“Come forth! Holy Sword, Fractus!!”