Chapter 1: Prologue

Prologue

Boom—

The walls crumbled from an explosion-like tremor, and countless shadows scurried about.

“Kuaaaah!!!!”

A monster named Minotaur, with the face of an ox, roared and glared at the fleeing people, then charged with a snort and a massive axe.

“Leader, it’s coming after us!”

“Ugh, I know! Run!”

A man, who appeared to be the leader, stopped running and blocked the Minotaur’s path with a massive shield.

“Come on!”

The leader gritted his teeth, tensing the muscles in his arms and legs, preparing for the impending impact.

But the Minotaur, as if finding the man laughable, its red eyes glowing, brought its axe down with the speed of its charge.

“Cough!!”

The leader’s shield splintered like wood, and he was sent flying from the impact, spitting blood, before colliding with the wall.

“Leader!!”

Then, a woman who appeared to be a mage, her eyes brimming with tears and rage, unleashed a spell.

“How dare you touch our leader!! Fireball!!”

“No, run!”

The leader tried to stop her, even as he coughed up blood, but the mage, overcome with emotion, didn’t hear him.

The small orb of flame flew and struck the Minotaur directly, but it caused no damage, only further enraging the monster.

The Minotaur slowly walked up to the woman, ignoring the continuous incoming flames, and stood before the mage.

“Heeek!”

“N-no!!”

Clank.

Along with the sound of chains clanking from somewhere, a small child slowly approached the mage.

At that moment, the massive axe blade, aimed at the mage who had lost her will to fight and collapsed, sliced directly through her.

The mage took a direct hit from an attack that anyone could see was absolutely unsurvivable.

The party members were about to be greatly shocked by the mage’s death, but something felt off.

“Ma…mage?”

“Huh? I…I’m alive?!”

The mage had instinctively known her death was imminent, but she was bewildered by her perfectly fine state, and then she suddenly noticed a chain connected to her chest.

“A chain?”

“I’m glad you weren’t hurt.”

“…!”

Following the chain with her gaze, she saw a small child with chains wrapped around both wrists.

The child, looking like a s*ave, was severely wounded and bleeding.

The party members were bewildered by the sight of the child seemingly taking the mage’s pain and wounds, but no emotion was visible on the girl’s face.

As if being hurt herself was only natural.

“What did you just do?”

“No way?”

“That small child, instead!?”

The girl roughly wiped the blood from her mouth with her sleeve and stood before the Minotaur as if to protect the mage.

The monster, realizing its attack had failed, was flustered but soon expressed its rage towards the humans again.

“Why… did you do that…”

As the mage spoke, tears streaming down her face, the girl… Eun-wol, spoke.

“Because this is my role.”

“But!!”

“Please use me as a shield.”

“That’s…!”

“Kuaaaah!!”

As the monster’s attack resumed, the girl threw herself forward like a meat shield to protect the mage.

At the girl’s words,

Someone cried.

Someone raged.

Someone blamed themselves.

Someone despaired.

But in truth, no one knew.

She was actually…

‘It’s only natural for a Tanker to be a shield!’

She had merely been transmigrated into a game character, a Tanker, and was simply taking the Tanker’s role for granted, just like in a game.