Surviving The Game As A Barbarian Episode 848
Novel: Surviving Game as a barbarian(SGB)
Waves 6
Golden Ghost.
One of the Seven Powerful, whom I had run into during this exploration on Skeleton Island.
One detail was that I suspected he had bound Mr. Bear with a slave contract and was exploiting him within his clan.
But to think I would see him here…
Of course, it was probably just a coincidence.
Not even I knew where I would end up a few hours from now. This was not the kind of situation where someone could track another person down simply because they wanted to.
Where are Misha and the Anabada Clan…?
Swallowing my disappointment, I walked toward the other survivors, who were murmuring among themselves.
Honestly, Golden Ghost was not someone I was happy to see, but I still needed to speak with him. He might have information.
“Ah! You’re here, Viscount,” Armin said as I approached.
“Anything I should know?” I asked.
“Nothing beyond what you already know. He said he wouldn’t speak unless it was with you.”
“Really?”
Leaving Armin behind, I walked forward.
There, I saw Golden Ghost waiting for me. He had brought quite a number of people with him and was simply standing there, watching me approach.
“We seem to be seeing each other often lately.” I spoke first.
I did not mention how he had continued sending trackers and observers after us on Skull Island. Without concrete evidence, bringing it up would only be a waste of time.
“So it seems. Perhaps this means I have some kind of fate with you, Viscount.”
“So you asked for me?”
“There are too many ears here. How about we both send our people away?”
“…Fine.”
As he suggested, I sent my people back, and he did the same.
However, that still did not seem to satisfy him. He took out a magic tool and activated it.
It was a design I had never seen before, but I did not need to ask what it was.
I could tell it was a soundproofing tool.
“You really seem to like keeping things secret” I said.
“Haha, I prefer to call myself cautious.”
“So? Get to the point.”
We were not close enough to waste time exchanging pleasantries, so I immediately asked why he had come.
He seemed to understand my personality well enough, because he did not drag the conversation out either.
What are you scheming this time?
Back on Skull Island, I had been prepared to pay quite a lot to bring Mr. Bear over to my side, but he had flatly refused.
“I will also destroy the contract binding him to our clan. What do you think?”
He would erase his debt as well…
My senses sharpened more than usual as I listened to his offer.
A one-sided deal was never on the side you wanted it to be.
“What are your conditions?”
“Hand over twenty people of Rank 3 or higher. I don’t mind if a few Rank 4s are mixed in.”
My mind went blank, and it took me a moment to find my words.
“…What?”
What kind of lunatic was this bastard?
“I refuse. And even if I wanted to, it’s not as though I could hand them over.”
There was nothing to think about.
When I rejected his offer outright, he merely clicked his tongue.
“Hmm. That is true.”
As though he had expected me to refuse, he casually proposed another deal.
“Then how about this? We will join your group, Viscount Yandel. Ah, of course, I will still honor the agreement to destroy Abman Urikfried’s contract.”
“You’ll hand command over to me?”
“Not completely… How about we act as partners instead? We’re all struggling out here, aren’t we?”
“Sorry, but if all of you join us, our numbers will be too high. I’ll only accept twenty of your people.”
“Hmm, that would be difficult. Everyone is under contract with me, so I cannot simply let them go as I please.”
“Then I suppose this conversation is over.”
“No, not quite.”
Golden Ghost shook his head and looked at me.
The moment I saw the look in his eyes, I instinctively understood.
Everything he had said until now had merely been groundwork for what he truly wanted to propose.
“Deals usually require both sides to compromise and meet somewhere in the middle.”
I said nothing.
I simply stared straight at his grinning face.
Perhaps unable to endure the awkward silence, his smile faded and he continued.
“After surviving multiple collapses, I believe seventy people is the ideal number for a group. Any more than that becomes chaotic and inefficient.”
“So?”
“I’ll do my best to reduce my fifty-six people down to forty. In return, how about you reduce your group to thirty as well, Viscount?”
Alright.
So this was his plan.
This was what he had wanted to say from the beginning.
“Are you telling me to abandon my people just to make room for you?”
“I’m only telling you to keep your best. It’s all to increase our chances of survival.”
“Are you even listening to yourself?”
Golden Ghost spoke as if he genuinely could not understand.
“Do you owe them something, Viscount? Or do you believe you have some duty to save them all? Why allow personal feelings to interfere in a situation like this? Are you worried about what they might say afterward?”
Personal feelings…
Even though I hated his proposal, a part of me agreed with Golden Ghost.
Logically speaking, following his plan would certainly give us the highest chance of survival.
“Think about it. What do you think they would do if they were in your position? If abandoning you increased their chances of survival even slightly, do you think they would still hold on to you?”
This time, I had nothing to say either.
I was not the kind of person who swore devotion to some abstract concept like “humanity.”
No, to be more precise, I was someone who did not respect the idea of humanity at all.
If anything, one could argue that the choices Golden Ghost was trying to make were more “human” than anything else.
Survival was human.
Before the great enemy known as death, the boundary between good and evil became blurred.
“And I’m not saying we should openly abandon them. We only need to trick them a little. Change the formation slightly. Put the useless ones along the outer edge, and they’ll disappear on their own before the next collapse ends. Your reputation will remain untouched.”
I remained silent.
“Even if someone discovers the truth, who would blame you? Perhaps those left behind would, but the ones who survive would surely thank you for your decision. Truly.”
There was weight behind Golden Ghost’s words.
He understood human nature well, and he was using that understanding as the foundation for his argument.
He’s persuasive.
Just like a scammer.
Even though he was someone I hated, saying something I hated, I still found myself accepting some of his points.
Ah, of course, that did not mean my answer would change.
“I refuse.”
I had already wrestled with this dilemma long ago.
“…Pardon?”
Once again, he tilted his head as though he had misheard me.
So I repeated myself.
“I said I refuse. Go get your ears cleaned out.”
“…I don’t understand. From what I know, you have a special connection with Abman Urikfried.”
“So?”
“Haah… I truly don’t understand. Do you care about your people or not? You abandon an old ally, yet cling so desperately to this new rabble.”
What the hell was this bastard saying?
He had started attacking me simply because I had not been convinced by his words.
So I asked him one last question.
“Do you prefer left or right?”
“…Left? Right? What are you talking ab—”
Too slow.
“Just take both.”
I swung the shield in my left hand and the hammer in my right, striking his face from both sides at the same time.
Hmm.
I’ll name this skill…
Barbarian Burger.
Perfect.
Crunch!
The force striking both sides of his head was enough to crush his face inward and squeeze his mouth shut.
“Wh-what are you…!”
He had taken my surprise attack without being able to react, but it still was not enough to knock him out.
As he recovered and tried to put some distance between us—
“Where do you think you’re going?”
I quickly reached out and grabbed him by the collar.
“What are you doing…!”
Even then, he asked the same question again, as though he still did not understand the situation.
I simply shrugged and said, “Exactly what it looks like.”
Golden Ghost had acted all high and mighty while presenting me with a choice, but he had chosen the wrong opponent.
No, perhaps he had chosen the wrong time.
Maybe it would have worked back when I was still a newbie barbarian.
“But I’m tired of choosing now.”
I was the hero of the city, nicknamed the Giant.
The chief of the barbarians.
A noble of Raphdonia, holding the title of viscount.
“You choose.”
I was no longer the one being forced to choose.
“Do you want to die here, or accept my offer?”
Now, I was the one who made others choose.
***
Did he really not understand the situation?
Golden Ghost looked at me with a dazed expression.
However, being as clever as he was, he quickly realized that his “deal” could no longer continue.
He pulled a magic tool from his pocket.
It looked as though he intended to disable the soundproofing and call for help, but I did not physically stop him.
I merely warned him.
“That’s not a good idea.”
He looked at me.
“The moment they can hear us, I’ll give them a choice. Abandon you and come with me.”
“Do you think that will work?! They’re bound by contract with—!”
“Ah, who cares about contracts? I’ll also tell them that I, Bjorn Jandel, will take responsibility and bring them back to the city.”
He froze in shock.
“Think about it. What choice do you think they’ll make?”
He said nothing.
He knew it too.
If push came to shove, he would be abandoned like a broken toy.
When I let go, he collapsed to the ground. The people outside watched uncertainly, unsure whether they should step in or not, until he gave them a signal that everything was fine.
And then…
“…What do you want?”
His voice was quieter now.
He understood that the situation had completely turned against him.
At this point, the negotiation was as good as over.
“Abman Urikfried. Like you said, get rid of that strange slave contract of his,” I said.
“Is that… all you want?”
“Oh? Do you want me to add something else?”
“…I’ll hand him over to you.”
That was easier than I had expected.
“And don’t try to argue for the contract back once we return to the city or anything like that. I have plenty of friends in high places.”
What?
Had he actually been planning to do that?
“The original contract is stored in the city. I will write a contract between us here. Since it has my stamp, it should hold up in court. You may… take Urikfried with you.”
With that, Golden Ghost handed me a stamped document stating that he would nullify Mr. Bear’s contract, and our negotiation came to an end.
“Pleasure doing business.”
He did not respond to my parting words and simply turned away.
However, there seemed to be one thing he could not let go.
Step.
After suddenly stopping in his tracks, he turned back to look at me.
“Why…?”
“Care to explain what you’re talking about?” I asked.
“Why are you satisfied with only Abman Urikfried? I was in no position to refuse if you had demanded more from me.”
“Ah, that? Well, that’s true.”
Even if I had told him to hand over twenty people and piss off, he would have had no choice but to obey with tears in his eyes.
And if I had been the one on the losing side, I was certain Golden Ghost would have been far more merciless.
However, I only smirked and said, “The way you do things pisses me off, but you’re also just scheming in order to survive. Or at least, that’s what I’ve decided to believe.”
He listened in silence.
“Ah, of course, I still think your methods are wrong. If you stopped living like that, maybe you wouldn’t fold to my threats so easily.”
At this point, I was just being condescending.
But enlightening the common folk was a noble’s duty.
“So try living honestly from now on, okay? I didn’t know it either, but what goes around really does come back around.”
Was he just not going to say anything?
I was taking the time to give him good advice, yet he just stood there silently.
“Answer me.”
“Answer you?”
Only after making me repeat myself in an embarrassing way did he finally open his mouth.
“You are the one who is wrong.”
“Oh?”
“Someday… when enough time has passed, we will know. Which one of us was right. Whatever the answer is, in this world, the one who survives is the one who was correct.”
Tsk. Still resisting until the very end.
As a viscount of Raphdonia, it was unfortunate, but it seemed enlightening this guy would be difficult.
Well, if physical therapy was included, there might be some temporary improvement.
But why bother?
After saying what he wanted to say, he turned away again, and I could not find any reason to stop him.
All I needed was to get Bear Uncle back.
I had no reason to get involved with that guy any further.
“Ah, right. Wait a second.”
I suddenly remembered something, so I grabbed him by the back and stopped him.
“By the way, what’s your name?”
“Keh… You didn’t even know my name?”
“No, not Bill Ironlad. Your name before that. I heard it was something pretty common.”
“…Why do you want to know?”
“Haah. Just answer when you’re asked.”
When I intimidated him with a glare, he let out a sigh and answered.
“Hans.”
“…What?”
“That was my previous name. Hans Ironlad. Is that all?”
Uh…
No, wait.
“Are you serious…? Swear on your mother, you were really Hans?”
I tried to wake myself from this terrible reality, but he seemed to take my words as an insult. His body trembled slightly before he turned away.
I could only stare at his back in shock.
Hans P.
This guy was Hans P.
That was what hurt the most.
Why had I let him go?
What was the meaning of all that mercy?
This situation was so absurd it made my head hurt. Even a murderer would have made a more sensible choice than I had.
I should have killed him when I had the chance.
My grip tightened around the handle of my hammer.
Drip.
Then I noticed something strange.
A drop of water had fallen.
But rain did not fall in the Great Demon Realm.
Drip.
Another drop struck the ground.
Then another.
Drip, drip.
The drops grew heavier, darkening the earth beneath them. And when I saw the water hiss, bubble, and vanish into steam the instant it touched the ground, I understood.
Sizzle!
“Prepare for battle!!!”
It was already too late.
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