The Case of Being Reincarnated as a Heretic Mob Character in an Eroge Where Everyone is Extremely Determined - Chapter 1

Chapter 1: Ordinary Person in Heretic

On a moonlit night devoid of any signs of life, a group clad in black, hooded cloaks walked through the forest, crossbows drawn tight.

” … ”

I, one of the group, pressed on through the darkness, my nerves fraying with every step.

We were a squad formed to pursue an enemy who had fled into the woods.

Ten in number, each one a trained disciple of the ‘Aaros Temple Order’.

A few hours earlier, we had been assigned a mission by an Executive of the ‘Aaros Temple Order’.

The task was to bring back the head of a woman who had escaped into the forest.

There must have been some miscreant who had gotten too close to the cult.

Well, it’s quite common for us to be tasked with eliminating such individuals.

We foot soldiers are routinely used to silence others.

“!”

The scout at the front—a man, I’m sure his name was Lloyd—signaled “stop.”

According to his hand signal, it seemed he had spotted the enemy.

Straining my eyes, I could see the target woman in a crumbling, abandoned house.

We had been tasked by the Executive to bring back her head.

Once everyone had recognized the presence of the enemy, Lloyd twirled his index finger. It was the “surround” signal.

After exchanging nods, we began to encircle the abandoned house slowly, without making a sound with our footsteps or breaths.

The enemy was completely surrounded. She seemed unaware of our approach, engrossed in treating a wound on her abdomen—perhaps a wound from fighting the Executive.

However, we couldn’t just silently watch her healing. If we left her be, there was a chance she might slip away.

Lloyd’s decision was swift. He gave the signal to fire the crossbow.

At the same moment, all ten of us released our arrows simultaneously.

These arrows were tipped with a potent poison. A mere graze would be lethal.

Additionally, these were arrows fired from an enhanced crossbow that an ordinary person wouldn’t even be able to react to. And there were ten of them, coming from all directions.

Absolutely impossible to avoid.

(We definitely killed her. Unless she’s a character from the original work—)

Just as that thought crossed my mind, a dry sound of arrows piercing wood echoed all around.

“Wha—”

Someone exclaimed. The ten arrows had traced paths as if it were deliberately avoiding the woman.

—The blessing of arrow avoidance.

Such words flashed through my mind, and I understood everything.

(There’s no mistake, that’s one of the wind magic spells used by the original characters!)

Projectiles like bullets and arrows are meaningless against a wind mage.

Realizing the woman’s true identity, I draw my sword.

However, the others, who had thought of her as merely an ordinary human are momentarily paralyzed by the absurd situation unfolding before them.

She wouldn’t miss such an opportunity—first, Lloyd’s head flew off.

One by one, they were hunted down, and the soldiers’ heads danced in the air in a clockwise sequence.

In the blink of an eye, four, no, five men had perished.

(Damn it, damn it, damn it!! Why did Named Character have to show up now!!)

The silver-haired woman danced amidst the spray of blood.

There was no mistaking her figure. She is a wind mage—Celestia Hotthound, a sister ranked seventh in the executive order of the ‘Kenneth Orthodox’, an adversary of our ‘Aaros Temple Order’.

In the original work, she’s what you’d call a “weak character” among humans.

However, that’s only the case within a story filled with monsters. There was no way nameless mobs like us could ever stand a chance against her.

She held a small knife in her right hand, using wind magic to dart through the gaps in the trees with unrestrained agility.

The collapse of us, who had turned from the hunters to the hunted, was swift.

Our coordination crumbled in an instant, and all the believers but me were screaming as they transformed into lumps of flesh.

(No way, even with such a difference in numbers!!)

We soldiers are monstrous entities among civilians. Trained as soldiers, I know we have the confidence that we would certainly not lose to ordinary people.

But the opponent is not an ordinary person. She is nothing but a deranged monster.

We are powerless before her irrational strength. The remaining believers are struck down one after another.

Not even a chance to escape is given. There’s no escape.

We have no choice but to fight. Even if we know it means death.

“Hey, Oakley! What do we do to get this guy—”

One of the few soldiers I knew turned towards me with tears in his eyes.

“Do you still have the time to talk?”

“Ah”

As a gentle female voice sounded, an invisible shockwave passed before my eyes.

The wind pressure stole my vision. Soon after opening my eyelids, there lay a man, his upper and lower body severed.

“Oak… ley…”

The man with tear-streaked face clung to my leg and, with bloodshot eyes wide open, he breathed his last.

He died without even knowing what had been done to him.

He was probably attacked with wind magic. But even with that figured out, there was no way to counter it.

(What the hell――what do I do!! There’s no way I can win!! But… I absolutely can’t run away…!!)

Is it because I’m a small fry that I can’t win, or am I a small fry because I can’t win?

As the last cornered man standing, I trembled violently while holding my sword in my hand.

“Ufufu, how unpleasant. Do you really think that I could be taken down by a mere ten of your foot soldiers?”

Ah, it’s the same voice as in the original work. A clear and beautiful voice.

Clattering my teeth, I laughed through my tears.

Silver hair. Purple eyes. A nun’s habit that modestly covered her skin.

One might think her as a gentle woman, but she was surprisingly a battle maniac with a dangerous side, and once you enter her individual route, there’s a sweet development.

In the original work, she was a reliable and cute sister but――ah, when she’s an enemy, she’s this terrifying.

“Then, goodbye. Please be reborn as a devout Kenneth Orthodox Believer in the next life, okay?”

Celestia turns her palm towards me.

It’s over. I can’t even struggle in vain. My life ends here, unable to even prepare myself, still holding my pathetic sword.

The scenery before my eyes distorts—just before that.

There was an object flying at super high speed from far behind me.

“!?”

Celestia gasps. Supposed to be protected by a charm against arrows, she takes evasive action against the object.

The spot where Celestia was standing a moment ago is hit directly by the high-speed object and explodes.

Blown away by the impact near the point of detonation, I am slammed back-first into the trunk of a tree behind me.

“Gah… ha!”

The sound of something hard shattering emanated from all over my body.

Then I collapsed to the ground, spitting blood while sensing the arrival of a new monster.

Ah… She’s here. The worst has come.

Ranked sixth in the ‘Aaros Temple Order’ Executive, Joanne Sagamix—the most insane member of the cult had arrived.

The object that flew in was Joanne’s severed head… Using healing magic from there, she regrew her body, and, in her birthday suit, she cackled with laughter.

“You there, thanks for playing the role of the marker…”

“Gah… cough! I’m a disgrace…”

While spitting out blood, I replied to Joanne.

The moment I offend her, I’m certain to die. If I don’t respond, it’s over. If I ignore her, I die; if I run, I die; even if I fight Celestia, I die.

What on earth am I supposed to do?

“…Joanne Sagamix. The filthy dog of a Heretic.”

“Sigh… It’s pitiful that they can’t understand the magnificence of our Guru-sama.”

“Oh my, such bravado.”

After the light exchange, a battle between monsters begins.

Blood splatters, and indistinguishable chunks of flesh dance in the air.

Joanne even goes so far as to deliberately sever her own head to regenerate her body before launching a surprise attack on Celestia.

――In this world, you’re not even part of their conversation if you can’t use healing magic.

In the midst of battle, it’s natural for bodies to be torn apart.

Rather, it’s worse if you can’t regenerate missing parts.

It’s your own fault if you die from that.

(What the hell are these guys…!)

With a bullet-like punch unleashed by Joanne’s formidable physical strength, Celestia’s right arm is blown away.

However, Celestia doesn’t flinch. She manipulates her severed right arm with wind magic, attempting a magical shot from a blind spot.

In response, Joanne’s body is shredded to dust by a gust from behind. But she immediately resurrects… and launches into a melee.

It’s Joanne’s specialty, explosive healing magic. No matter how much you try to kill her, there’s no end to it.

I don’t sympathize with Celestia, but Joanne’s monstrosity is excessive.

“You’re not showing enough spirit, Celestia!”

But if Joanne is a monster, then Celestia is a monster too. No matter how much her body is blown away, she retaliates accurately with her exceptional mental strength.

Both of them…are they really of the same species as me and called a human?

At this rate, the only conclusion is getting caught up in the fight and dying. I have to do something about it.

(My weapon is… a crossbow with poison arrows, and an iron sword…)

It’s impossible. I, who do not possess magical powers, have no place meddling in this situation.

However, if the battle remains in a stalemate, and I can demonstrate a two-on-one numerical advantage… perhaps Celestia will retreat.

I readied my crossbow loaded with poison arrows and while moving at high speed, I fired an arrow towards Celestia who were engaged in combat.

“!”

“You…”

An arrow grazed between the two of them. They looked this way as if surprised.

When I released the next poisoned arrow, it was effortlessly deflected by Celestia’s protective barrier.

“I see, you are not just any commoner, are you?”

Perhaps my deadly poisoned arrows were annoying, or maybe she thought it was getting nowhere, Celestia used a diversion by stirring up fallen leaves. When the whirlwind had vanished, there was no sign of Celestia anywhere.

“Haah… she got away. I thought I could kill her this time.”

Joanne spat out saliva while still naked. After looking up at the sky for a while, her green eyes glared over me.

“Hey you. You’re pretty composed for just being a marker.”

“Ah, thank you…”

“Show me your wound. Ah, this is just a minor injury.”

As I showed her the wound on my body as instructed, she cast a healing spell on me.

I set aside the fact that it felt like a serious injury to me because something else surprised me more.

(Hey, wait… This can’t be right. Was she always like this? I thought she didn’t care about disposable subordinates or anything like that…)

The blue wolf cut with highlights swayed in front of my eyes.

Joanne looked like an ordinary girl when she wasn’t speaking—well, of course, she did.

That aside, I was bothered by Joanne standing there completely naked, so I draped my black cloak over her shoulders.

This way, I wouldn’t have to worry about where to look.

When the robe was placed on her, she looked up with her spiral-shaped pupils widened.

She stopped her healing hands and peered into my face, then licked her own lips with a snake-like tongue.

“…You’re pretty sharp, huh? What’s your name?”

For some reason, I was asked my name. I couldn’t just not answer, but I felt an intense reluctance to do so.

“…Oakley Mercury.”

“I’ll remember that name.”

And now she’s remembered it. Great…

There’s no way she’s taken an interest in me… right?

“Hey Oakley, let’s head back. There’s nothing for us here.”

“Yes, yes… May I ask one last thing?”

“Huh?”

“I’d like to bury those who died.”

“Do as you like.”

Joanne spat out those words and then sat down on a nearby rock.

Under her watchful eye, I returned the bodies of the nine people, discarded like rag dolls, to the earth. Had something been different, I should have ended up the same. At the very least, I wanted to give them the dignity of a burial.

“You’re a weird one, aren’t you?”

I somehow manage to swallow the words I don’t want to hear from you of all people after being called like that by Joanne, one of the most notorious lunatics in the original work.

Thus, the fierce clash between the Orthodox Believer and the Heretic came to a temporary end.

However, this incident would become the catalyst for a significant change in my destiny.

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TL/N: Hello I’m a new translator here and this is my first series! Please don’t hesitate to put a comment if there is something confusing or a mistake in my tl, thank you!