Surviving The Game As A Barbarian Novel 2025 - Chapter 704
Chapter 704: Calm Before the Storm (4)
In the end, I told Amelia about the records that Auril Gavis had shown me.
“An evil spirit from another world, after losing three of his allies, will realize the path he must take.”
A future in which I lose three of my allies.
After hearing my story, Amelia didn’t ask me whether these records were set in stone or any other details about them. After all, she had experienced their fate personally with me, thrusting herself into the past era and doing everything she could to change history.
“A way to twist fate like back then… It will be difficult.”
Once Amelia had taken a moment to think after hearing me out, that was the first thing she said.
“That’s what I think as well,” I said, nodding in agreement. “If we want to use that method, I need to fool myself, not a clueless child.”
“…wasn’t a clueless child,” Amelia grumbled very quietly to herself.
What was that?
Although she was smarter than others her age, she was a clueless child compared to her current self.
While I smirked at the thought of her cute childhood, Amelia asked me with a serious expression, “But are you certain it’s a record of the future?”
“What do you mean?”
“You said that an exact time wasn’t recorded on it. Maybe it’s a record of something that’s already happened.”
Oh?
“Riol Warb Dwalkie. Starting from that wizard, you’ve lost many allies until now. Of course, if you count them all, they are exceedingly more than three… but it might be talking about the three people who would most impact you among them.”
It was a plausible theory. Or would be plausible, if not for what Auril Gavis told me.
“However, from the way it is recorded here, it should be a singular event.”
To put it simply, it wasn’t a counter that counted one at a time, but one incident that would kill three people.
Of course, that was just what the old man extrapolated from the patterns he had seen and nothing in the world was 100 percent for certain. However, it was difficult for me to flat-out ignore the words of an old man who had personally gathered hundreds of the Fragments of the Records Stone.
And from what I could tell, Amelia was feeling the same thing as me.
“Then there is a very good chance it is a record of something that will happen.”
After resuming her contemplation with a serious look in her eyes, Amelia began to suggest quite a few theories. This one was the one that was the most bearable.
“The records…said you would lose them, right? Then there’s some room for interpretation.”
It could be quite literally losing my allies. That would mean the event could pass without anyone dying.
That’d be amazing if that’s what happens…
But no matter how optimistically I tried to be about it, the uneasiness refused to leave me. Honed by the countless experiences I had gone through in the past, my instincts were telling me the answer.
There was no way such a simple interpretation of “loss” would occur.
The ominous premonitions I felt were always right.
“Yandel?”
“Ah, sorry. I was just thinking about something. Thanks for sharing your thoughts. They all seem plausible, but I think we should move while keeping the worst-case scenario in mind, rather than the best-case one.”
“So you want us to prepare for the possibility of three people dying.”
“Yeah. Though, I don’t know if there’s anything that can be done.”
Amelia didn’t say anything to my negative words of resignation.
I mean, it was understandable. No matter how we struggled and flailed, in the end, what was recorded would—
Flick!
Amelia chose that moment to flick my forehead with her finger.
It didn’t hurt at all, and I was honestly more worried that she’d hurt her finger.
Why did she suddenly flick me?
I blinked down at her in shock, only to find Amelia looking pretty irritated.
“Why are you giving up already?”
“Huh?”
“It was you, Bjorn Yandel… When even I had given up on myself, you were the one who never gave in, the one who forged a path through it all.”
She grabbed one of my shoulders and pushed her face toward mine.
“So don’t make that face ever again, Bjorn Yandel. You are the hero to that clueless child, the hero who can do anything.”
Instantly, I felt my body shiver. It was an odd sensation. Every time the people of the city called me a hero and came to me expectantly whenever they had a problem, I just felt burdened and bothered by it.
But just for today, the word hero didn’t feel like a burden.
Not to say I wasn’t plenty embarrassed to balance that out. I knew that I was a hero…
But somehow…
It was difficult to explain, what with how blunt I was.
Ba-dump!
But still. Somehow, it felt like I could do anything. And it felt like whatever I did, it’d turn out fine.
However, unfortunately for me, that feeling didn’t last long.
“Um… Mister…? Are you awake?”
“Ahem!”
Phew, that nearly became a problem.
***
My other allies began to wake up one by one, starting with Erwen, so I put my conversation with Amelia on pause.
In the end, I wasn’t able to talk about the second record.
“…day of…tal…non’s burning… evil spirit’s trusted… ally… betray… them.”
On the day of royal capital of Karnon’s burning, a trusted ally would betray me.
At least, that was my interpretation of what the record said.
Maybe it’s best if I don’t tell her at all…
Although time had run out and I wasn’t able to tell her right then and there, something told me that just holding onto that particular bit of information would be best. It wasn’t like I could be sure if my interpretation was right in the first place.
And even if I am right…is it even possible to change this?
The second one felt more problematic than the first.
Even if I knew that someone would betray me, what could I do about it? I could treat them well and try to convince them before the event took place, but their heart wouldn’t change that easily. If the issue could be resolved in such a simple way, it wouldn’t have been recorded in the first place.
She must have a lot on her mind with what I told her already. There’s no need to add this to her plate.
Now wasn’t the right time to tell her, anyway. In the end, I settled on thinking over whether I should openly discuss it with her to get her opinion.
Besides, there were other things I needed to do first.
“I think I ended up waking everybody up…”
Erwen awoke and made a fuss about me having woken up. By the time I realized it, the others had all woken up as well.
“Bjooooorn!”
“Yeah, yeah. Ainar. Good to see you as well.”
“Are you hurt? You slept like a dead man without even snoring, so everyone was worried.”
“I’m fine now. I was a little tired, so don’t worry, Kaislan.”
“It’s a relief to see you well, Captain. The madams… No, everyone was worried for you.”
“But Auyen. Did you put on some weight?”
“D-did I? I’m sorry…”
“Well, it’s nothing to be sorry about. You look much better now. Eat well going forward.”
“Yes!”
I made my rounds, greeting everyone and speaking with them, but quickly rounded them up and got them to quiet down. We may have been friendly and close to each other, but there was something I needed to get off my chest.
I looked out at the members of the Anabada Clan and spoke to them.
“First, I apologize to you all! You all had to come outside the city walls into this dangerous land because of me, so I am truly sorry!”
The knight and adventurer Kaislan smirked at my genuine apology. “What’s there to be sorry about? We’re all adventurers here.”
“It’s an opportunity to explore outside the walls. Of course I’d take it,” James Calla added.
Maybe it was because both of them had once been commanders of their respective organizations, but they knew well what to say to smooth out tension like this.
Well, I still had more to say.
“And, thank you all! If it weren’t for you, I might’ve been in serious danger. I’m alive thanks to you!”
I bowed as I said it, but then, laughter erupted around me for some reason.
Hmm, I don’t think they’re laughing at me…
“Why are you laughing?”
Lilith Marrone shrugged. “You say you lived thanks to us, yet your opponents back there looked like they were about to die.”
“That’s right! Everyone was on the verge of collapse!”
“From what I heard from the Magic Engineer, you fought them for a few hours straight…”
“Bjorn is the strongest there is, the Great Warrior!”
It might have been because I hadn’t seen them in a while, yet when my allies praised me directly to my face, even though I felt embarrassed, I also felt relaxed.
“Attention! I’m not done yet!”
Although I got everyone to quiet down again, Versyl spoke to me as the representative of everyone here before I could continue.
“You can stop, honestly. There’s nothing to be sorry about or thank us for. It’s only natural.”
Uh… Thanks for saying that…?
“I’m not trying to apologize or thank you.”
I already did that before. What was the point of repeating it?
“Pardon? Then… Ah, are we going to have a meeting about what we’re going to do from now on?”
Hmm, we did need to do that.
“Wrong.”
But I wasn’t planning on drafting up meeting minutes at the moment.
I mean, the people before me were the ones who had come to the dangerous lands outside the city walls just for me. It would be shameless if I brushed that off with mere words.
“Then what are you going to do…?”
“Loot distribution.”
They sent me confused looks.
“We’ve got a ton of things this time! And I’ve gotten a ton more on top of that too! I’ll lay them all out, so just tell me if you need anything!”
Sharing, exchanging, sparing, and reusing.
That was the mentality of our clan.
***
The loot distribution went on for longer than I expected, as most of the loot I got this time were items.
“I have things I don’t really use either, so I’ll put it up to the clan pile. If anyone needs them, you can use it…”
“Huh? Then me too!”
“I have a few as well…”
That, and somehow, the unused items of each of our members were added to the pile.
By the time we’d finally finished organizing all the items, it looked like we were in a small market.
“This is pretty unusual…”
“What’s unusual about it?”
“Just everything about this. What in the world kind of clan has members clamoring to add their own things onto the pile like this? They’re all expensive gear that would sell for a lot.”
Hmm… That was true.
That said, I had no idea how to answer that. I hadn’t been part of a clan before this, after all. But since Versyl had been a part of a pretty decent-sized clan for a while, it made sense that this would feel very unusual to her.
“Ah, I guess it’s to be expected since we have an unusual captain?”
“The hell are you saying? Just go and check if there’s anything you want as well.”
“I was just about to.”
Versyl went into the market to pick out the items she wanted, and I continued to watch my allies from afar.
“So, what are we going to do from now on?”
Since we had to cut our talk short due to Erwen waking up, Amelia used the lull in activity to approach me once more and resume our conversation.
“Hmm, how about you look through the items for now as well?”
“Do you think I’d be in the mood to look through them after what you told me?”
Uh… I guess not.
“Does any event come to mind? If it’s something that’ll kill three people, then it won’t be any ordinary event. Unlike you, I’m not fully knowledgeable about what’s outside the walls.”
I wouldn’t exactly call it “fortunate” to remember, but when she asked me that question, there was one thing that immediately popped into my mind.
“A really scary monster.”
It was that monster that Baekho told me existed outside the walls.
“I don’t think it has a set habitat. No matter where you go, it appears in the end. And every time it appears, thousands of people die without being able to do anything, but…”
Other than its fearsome power, there was only one more thing I knew about that monster: the more there were, and the more they stayed outside the city walls, the higher the chance of the monster appearing.
Whoosh.
Some conditions could summon it, just like the Lords of the Floors, and we had met them.