NOVEL WEB Chapter 21
[Just a little longer until the highly anticipated Support Disbandment Volume 9 is out…]
[With the conclusion of Support Disbandment nearing, the party that recruited members similar to Marcus has achieved remarkable results…]
[Initially a B-Rank party, “Twin Blades” has rapidly leveled up to an A-Rank party after recruiting a supporter…]
[Does Marcus really exist? Let’s learn about Mas, the supporter of the B-Rank adventurer party.]
“Well, I figured someone like Marcus would pop up sooner or later.”
As I thought when writing Volume 1 of Support Disbandment, the existence of “Marcus” is much more plausible in reality than that of betrayals like Luka.
Actually, if you think about it, Luka is technically real thanks to Rate, but anyway, I just wrote it with the honest belief that there’d be at least one person like Marcus.
It’s not exactly shocking that he suddenly shows up in the news.
…But why does it seem like the things I write in the book keep happening in real life?
That’s Luka from The Betrayed Hero Does Not Return.
From the mighty supporter, Marcus, who got expelled from the party.
I only scribbled about an ordinary group of adventurers, so why do I keep seeing characters that overlap?
…It must just be coincidence, right?
No, should I confirm this somehow?
Because in writer’s works, things tend to happen as they’re written.
Alright, I guess I need to change my next project a bit.
Since the protagonist with amnesia is already covered by Rate, maybe I should switch to something that seems even less likely to happen.
If something goes down anyway, I guess I’ll just pray to the goddess.
“Let’s see… what sounds like something hard to happen?”
“Huh?”
“Oh, Belua. Do you have anything in mind that seems unlikely to happen in this world?”
I just happened to glance at Belua beside me and asked her opinion.
“Um… I guess… how about a revolution happening in the Vandenta Kingdom, which is close to the Empire?”
“Oh, that’s not a bad idea!”
The Vandenta Kingdom is infamous for being a hard place to live.
That king over there, a huge tyrant, places knights on the streets oppressing the people’s freedom.
It feels even stricter than North Korea on Earth, so it’s definitely been decades without a revolution happening, making it unlikely for one to occur.
“Great idea, Belua.”
“I’m glad it helped. Haha…”
It’s nice to get a thought for the next project, but why does she look so sad over there?
“Belua, do you have some bad memories about the kingdom?”
“Oh, no. Nothing at all…”
No matter how you slice it, there seems to be something up.
Looking at this through a fantasy lens, I can tell for sure that if I don’t ask now, something big is gonna blow up later.
“It’s pretty obvious there’s something there. Are you really okay?”
“I’m really okay. Nothing ever happened to begin with.”
“Hmm…”
But then, poking too much into Belua’s business isn’t the best behavior either, so I think I should leave it at that for today.
I’ve spent a lot of time with Belua while writing Support Disbandment, and we’ve grown close enough that maybe she’ll tell me later.
***
“Rain! Right!”
“Okay!”
“Kreeeek!”
Recently, after recruiting a supporter into their party, the adventurer party “Twin Blades” quickly leveled up from B-Rank to A-Rank.
They were tackling their first A-Rank Dungeon because their rank was finally up.
“Phew… Phew… I gotta say, being A-Rank means we’re getting greeted by Goblin Knights and Goblin Shamans right off the bat.”
The front-line fighter, Rain, wiped her sweat while mumbling.
“Now that we’re an A-Rank party, we can’t be lingering in B-Rank Dungeons forever, so we’ll just have to deal with it.”
Windi, the mage, chimed in on her words.
“We’re likely to meet the Goblin King if we go a little further in.”
Elia, the elf archer, said while pulling out an arrow lodged in the forehead of a fallen Goblin Knight.
“Phew… Great job you all! Here, let me pass this to wipe your sweat for a bit!”
After the battle, the last party member and the reason they could become an A-Rank party, Mas, handed out handkerchiefs he took from his bag.
All the party members smiled at him, the only male in the group.
Among them, Rain rested her great sword on her back and casually put her arm on Mas’s shoulder.
“R-Rain?”
“Hey, don’t you think it’s all thanks to our Mas that we made it here?”
“That’s true.”
“I agree.”
On her words, the other two women nodded in agreement.
Looking with discontent at Rain’s arm on Mas’s shoulder.
“…Hey Rain, aren’t you getting a bit too close to Mas? We just fought, and he must be all sticky with sweat now. It’s gotta smell.”
“Ah, um, there’s no smell! But yeah… I guess being so close isn’t wrong…”
Trying to be considerate despite the embarrassment, Rain hugged Mas tightly and lifted him up.
“You little cutie!”
“Hyack! W-Wait a second, Rain!”
“That orc-like gal…!”
“Put Mas down, you damn human girl!”
And with that, the two couldn’t let it slide, resulting in Mas getting rescued from Rain.
“Mas, you good? A girl hugging a guy like that might get reported to the Adventurer’s Guild, so if you felt uncomfortable, just say the word.”
“Yeah. I’ll definitely see to it that she’s locked up.”
“Oh, no! I didn’t feel bad at all…”
Mas blushed, feeling shy.
Seeing him like that, Windi and Elia swallowed reflexively.
“…Rest! Let’s take a little break!”
“Ah, yes! I think that’s a good idea!”
Eventually, Elia, who felt like she couldn’t hold on any longer shouted out that she wanted a break, and Mas immediately understood, creating an environment for everyone to rest.
The three women, who were of no help to Mas at all, moved slightly away so he wouldn’t hear them and began chatting softly.
“Hey, Rain. You really trying to die? Let’s not cross any lines, alright?”
“Come on, what’s wrong with this? There’s a saying that women swinging swords in the frontlines get closer to men, right?”
“Rain, are you doing this on purpose? If you keep flirting with Mas, I might just have to shove an arrow between your brows.”
“I found him first and brought him here, so can’t I at least do this much?”
“Even if it wasn’t you, Mas would have caught our eye.”
“You’ve gotta be kidding. If I hadn’t read Support Disbandment and gotten Mas, he’d have been taken by another party by now!”
“Both of you stop already. We’re going to spill something.”
“Anyway, Rain, let’s just agree to not cross the line.”
“Tsk, fine. But I won’t stop if Mas approaches me first?”
“We’ll see if that ever happens.”
“There’s always a way.”
Confidently grinning, Rain approached Mas, who just finished making a spot for their break, looking satisfied.
“Mas~ Mind if I read Support Disbandment during the break?”
“Oh, yes! I actually brought volumes 1 through 8 because I thought you might get bored!”
“Oh, how did you get Volume 8? I always go and it’s all sold out.”
“Haha… for some reason, everyone seems to think I’m Marcus, so just walking down the street, people hand me rare copies of Support Disbandment.”
“Hmm.. is that so?”
“Yeah! I feel so sorry, and whenever I try to offer something in return, they all wave it off saying it’s fine…”
“Good for you, good for you!”
“Is that truly good?”
“What can you do when they want to give it to you! You’re Marcus after all!”
Mas blushed at being compared to Marcus and looked down.
“I-I don’t think I compare to him at all…”
“Psh, you’re definitely Marcus level!”
Rain plopped down on one of the two makeshift chairs that Mas had put together.
“Mas, let’s sit and read together.”
“Ah, really?”
Seeing Mas’s eyes light up as he sat down, Rain thought to herself.
‘This is easy-peasy.’
Having had his life changed by Support Disbandment, Mas tended to get engrossed in anything related to it without even realizing it.
And so, Rain comfortably sat right next to Mas, enjoying Volume 8 of Support Disbandment.
====================================
[Hey Marcus, this is an A-Rank Dungeon, right? Are we really allowed to be in a place like this?]
Sindy, the mage of Marcus’s new party, asked him, her hand trembling as she held her staff.
[Of course, Sindy. Given what I’ve seen of your skills, you can easily smash through an A-Rank Dungeon.]
Marcus gently patted Sindy’s blue hair, which was shaking with fear.
[Ricardo… I think they haven’t cleared an A-Rank Dungeon recently.]
[That’s all because they kicked Marcus out!]
Sindy exclaimed, trying to sound brave despite her fear.
[Right, Sindy? What good can come from the foolish who didn’t recognize your value? How dare they belittle my future spouse, they got what they deserved.]
Leana, the Dragon Knight and the party’s vanguard, said cockily.
[Yes. Thanks to you, I, once just a mere slave, can wield this noble bow and stand as a proper elf warrior. How foolish of them to expel you…]
Elia, the elf who was once a slave but now serves as the party’s archer, grasped Marcus’s sleeve and added.
[You guys…]
As Marcus gazed at them with teary eyes, suddenly, an anomaly occurred in the dungeon.
-Kuwoom!
[!! The dungeon is shaking!]
Swiftly embracing his party members, Marcus pulled out a scroll from his pocket and tore it apart.
Then, from the magic circle on the scroll, light erupted…
-Woosh…
And then it instantly fizzled out.
[What’s going on…?]
=========================
Meanwhile, at that moment, as Mas and Rain read that part…
-Kuwoom!
The dungeon they were in also began to shake with a huge rumble.