"Hiiik...!"

"Aaaah!"

"No!"

Louise threw himself forward before he even realized what he was doing.

He covered the village chief with his own body and squeezed his eyes shut.

But no arrow pierced him.

Thunk.

The arrow buried itself in the ground at his feet, its shaft trembling violently.

"Huff... huff... huff..."

Cold sweat poured down the village chief's face.

He had grabbed Louise and pulled him in front like a shield, leaving Louise by the collar in his grasp.

Watching the spectacle, Ian thought:

I knew this bastard would do that.

Louise had been the second character Ian ever spent money on.

It had seemed like a reasonable choice. Since he had trained extensively on the Ian route, he figured an archery character would be easy to handle.

In the end, however, the experience from the Ian route hadn't helped much.

Louise's abilities were powerful and versatile right from the beginning, but his starting village was so catastrophically awful that the developers eventually had to balance the character around it.

Ian genuinely wondered:

Did those idiots even play their own game?

Shouldn't they have tested it before release?

If they had played it and thought, Hmm, yes. This difficulty level is excellent, then they were definitely perverts.

In any case, Ian knew this village well.

And one thing was certain.

The village chief was trash.

The Louise route began like this.

One day, a Demon Archduke issued an order to Louise's village.

His beloved pet mamool had been killed, and he demanded that the culprit be found and brought before him.

The hunters of the traitor village lived on a small piece of land granted through the Archduke's mercy. When he gave an order, they had no choice but to obey.

So they searched the surrounding forest for the mamool whose life signal had disappeared.

The problem was that the person who had actually killed the pet mamool was the village chief's granddaughter.

Something had suddenly jumped out while she was returning from a hunt, and she had shot it on instinct.

The pet mamool died instantly.

She brought it home as a trophy.

Both the chief and Louise, who lived in the same house, saw it.

Louise had merely thought, Surely not... and tried to ignore the ominous feeling.

Surely not what?

That had been Ian's reaction during the tutorial.

Unlike Louise, the village chief had possessed an excellent grasp of reality.

He questioned his granddaughter, examined the mamool again, and became certain that it was the one in question.

Then he began wondering how to conceal the fact that his granddaughter was the culprit.

Eventually, he summoned the Demon Archduke and said:

"Your Grace, the pet mamool was discovered in our home."

"What?"

"As it turns out, the culprit responsible for this atrocity is Louise, an outsider living among our village."

"That is a lie."

"...Pardon?"

"I smell deception. I spared your lives because I appreciated the effort your people put into creating the bridge through which our demon race crossed over. Is this how you repay my grace?"

Enraged, the Demon Archduke annihilated the village.

The chief, his granddaughter, and most of the villagers died on the spot.

Only a handful survived and fled.

That was Louise's background story.

Incidentally, this Demon Archduke was the very same demon from Ian's tutorial route.

Is it really okay to put a field boss into the tutorial?

Ian found himself asking that question again.

In any case, the important point here was that the village chief was a character who died before the Louise route even properly began.

In other words—

Even without the chief, the village still made an enormous contribution to turning the game's difficulty into absolute hell mode.

Of course, as the Louise route progressed, the villagers gradually changed.

By the ending, they became a harmonious and supportive community.

But Ian didn't have time to wait for people to reform themselves.

The starting point of the Ian route occurred much earlier than the beginning of the Louise route.

The fact that the chief was still alive at this point was itself a problem.

Would a village with that man in charge suddenly become angelic if he waited?

No.

Ian didn't think so.

More importantly, he knew a much easier solution.

If the problem is that this bastard is the village chief, then just replace him.

"Louise. You're the village chief now."

"...What?"

"Anyone object? Anyone think this piece of trash who uses children as shields absolutely has to remain chief? Raise your hand."

Ian looked around.

His hand drifted toward his quiver as he spoke.

Nobody raised a hand.

"Good. You're the village chief from now on."

Ian patted Louise on the shoulder.

"...What?"

"Congratulations, Captain."

"Is becoming chief of a village like this supposed to be a good thing?"

"No idea. Ian must have a reason."

The members of the archery unit congratulated him.

Louise stood there awkwardly, frowning as though asking, What is wrong with these people?

The whole scene looked strange.

The people congratulating him looked awkward.

The person receiving the congratulations looked even more awkward.

They're still not close?

Not that Ian was in any position to comment.

So he kept his mouth shut.

Louise, however, objected.

"Ian. It's true that the chief is unfit for the position, but I can't become the village chief."

"Why not?"

"Because I'm one of your close subordinates. The place I belong is wherever you are. If... if you wish to leave me here... I will obey..."

What do you mean, obey?

Ian wished Louise would stop talking like a dog being abandoned.

"I'm not leaving you here."

"...Y-yes?"

Louise squeezed his eyes shut.

Then he lifted his head in surprise.

"You belong in the dungeon. Why would I leave you here?"

"Do you intend to bring these people into the dungeon?"

Keith asked.

Ian was surprised by how perceptively he had been helping steer the conversation all this time.

Wasn't this completely unlike him?

Usually Keith responded to everything Ian said with something ridiculous.

"No."

"...?"

"You have to ask the people involved first. Anyone here want to stay and die?"

Ian looked around again and politely requested opinions.

"......"

Nobody answered.

Satisfied, he nodded.

"Well, if everyone insists on being allowed into the dungeon, I guess I don't have a choice. I don't need subordinates who don't listen, but Louise is one of my closest people. He practically begged me with his life to spare you all. I can't exactly leave you behind."

"Did the captain do that?"

"Shh."

Ian ignored the local broadcast station.

"Did you hear that, Louise?"

"...Yes?"

Louise still seemed slightly dazed.

"If these villagers don't listen, it's your responsibility."

"...What?"

"You're the village chief. Take responsibility and throw them out yourself. Understand?"

"...Yes!"

The look in Louise's eyes changed.

He understood exactly what Ian meant.

Smart bastard.

Ian had just given Louise the power of expulsion.

The authority over the lives and futures of everyone in this village now belonged to him.

Under those circumstances, nobody was brave enough to say things like, Actually, I'd rather stay in the village, or Why is Louise the chief?

Everything proceeded smoothly.

Then Ian hammered in the final nail.

"What are you standing around for? We need an inauguration ceremony."

Why should he personally manage this godforsaken village?

The perfect candidate already existed.

He was the chief all along.

Nobody had ever called Louise the village chief.

But in the game, he was the one who led the villagers.

The one who always fought at the front.

The one who guarded the rear whenever they fled.

If that wasn't a chief, what was?

Ian shoved him forward with a pat on the back.

Louise spoke with obvious reluctance.

"Please take care of me. I am Louise, your new village chief."

Ian started clapping.

Keith joined in.

The archery unit followed.

"Woooooo..."

"As expected of our captain."

"Awesome! Chief and captain at the same time!"

"......"

Ian looked at the villagers standing there in a daze.

Under everyone's gaze, they awkwardly began clapping as well.

Clap, clap, clap, clap...

Ding!

Good.

Ian closed the notification window.

It informed him that Louise had gained a new title.

Village Chief.

It wasn't even a title Louise could obtain in the actual game.

But all roads led to the same destination.

Got control of the village.

"Ha... haha..."

At that moment, Louise suddenly burst out laughing.

...What?

For a second, Ian wondered whether he had finally lost his mind.

Had Louise ever laughed out loud before?

He was bent over clutching his stomach, looking almost ill.

As Ian stared with wide eyes, Louise lifted his head.

A bright smile spread across his face.

"So no matter what I am, I'm still one of the dungeon's people."

...What?

"Of course you are."

Surely he hadn't actually wanted to stay here?

Ian found the idea baffling.

No, that couldn't be it.

No matter how much of a pushover Louise was, he couldn't be that much of a pushover.

"I really am an idiot."

"...?"

"Ian. By giving me the authority to expel people... does that mean that even if the villagers make mistakes, you'll allow them to stay as long as I take responsibility and clean up the mess?"

Louise really was a pushover.

Ian was now completely certain of it.

But Louise was thinking something entirely different.

How far ahead can Ian see?

Hadn't Ian noticed his wavering heart and guided it back into place?

Louise belonged to the dungeon.

He belonged to Ian.

And at the same time, he belonged to this village.

For someone who had wandered all his life without knowing where he truly belonged, Ian had given him a home called the dungeon, a place called Ian...

And even this village.

The last part wasn't particularly necessary, though.