Hero held me tight and I felt comfortable. After everything he had said and done… I should be angry. But I wasn’t, I was just happy he came for me. I was happy he told me the dress was pretty. I wanted to be angry, I should be angry. But he.. He was so warm. Even under this weird cursed water.

  I held him tighter. Maybe he did love me, maybe he didn’t. But him holding me like this made one thing very clear. I loved him. No amount of threats or coldness would make me leave. I didn’t want to admit that, but he gently caressed my hair and kissed my cheek. I never wanted to get up.

  “What are you doing here!” A voice called at us. “Hero? Is that you! Please help! I don’t know what's going on!” I opened my eyes, turned and looked up to see Princess Sapphire. She looked beside herself in confusion and agony.

  “Why does everything.. Hurt? What am I? Who am I? I.. I am Princess Sapphire.. Right?!” She cried as she swayed her dress. Such.. a pretty.. So.. Hero smacked me suddenly and I realized I was just in a trance. What the fuck?!

  “Yea, Sapphire’s dresses do that. She has some kind of mesmerizing power that makes the clothes she wears turn her irresistible. Luckily, once you know about it you can feel it coming.” Hero said quickly as he stood and looked at Sapphire carefully. I watched as his eyes went to her dress and started to glaze over before he shook his head and went back to her eyes.

  I felt a mixture of jealousy, confusion, and a very hard sexual attraction to Sapphire. I grabbed my head and shook it. My eyes glanced at the dress and I felt my trance begin to take me. “So.. pretty… I..” I felt my hand move and I smacked myself with my free hand and looked away.

  “Sapphire, what’s wrong?” Hero asked. I could hear a tremor in his voice. He was scared and it was noticeable. Hero had died hundreds of times in front of me over the last year. At no point did he show real fear until now. That caused a very real panic in me.

  “Um.. Hero.. Maybe..” He held up a hand out of the corner of his eye, looked at me and shook his head seriously. I instantly shut up. The fear in that look sent shivers down my spine. I latched on to him and held tight. My heart was pounding and it wasn’t from being around him this time.

  “I.. I don't know Hero! One moment I was.. I was sitting in my room and then… I.. I just..” Sapphire broke into sobs, causing another wave of water to suddenly leave her body and raise the water level in the room by another few feet. It had almost reached the roof. A few maids swirled around us. All of them were soaked and their dresses were see through.

  There was silence for a long moment as the maids finally landed, got up, and continued walking like nothing happened. It was really eerie, but nowhere near as bad as the Princess who was currently flooding an entire kingdom with her tears!

  “Um… please stop crying Sapphire… I.. The Hero… is here!” Hero said weakly. I looked at him in shock. Was.. was that supposed to be inspiring? I definitely remembered his speeches being far more inspiring than that!

  Actually.. Now that I think about it. Wait, no, focus! My eyes shot up and landed.. Directly on the dress. The dress sparkled so sweetly.. So inviting. Just.. one little.. Touch. I just.. Want..

  I smacked myself hard again and winced in pain before forcing my eyes to Sapphire's face. I had to do something and I could only think what would make me happy. It caused anger even as I said it. “Princess Sapphire, the Hero wants to date you but only if you stop crying and be a big girl!”

  I felt rage at my own words, but I forced it down as best I could. Sapphire scared me so bad. She scared Hero, and I had never seen Hero fearful. Sapphire paused mid sob and glanced over at me. She seemed to notice me for the first time since she had appeared. I smiled at her as best I could.

  Her face went from confusion, to thoughtful, to rage. I didn’t even have time to react before she raised her hands towards me. All the water in the room suddenly shifted and slammed me hard against the door. Then waved back and forth causing me to slam multiple times.

  I felt my vision begin to go dark and everything hurt. I wanted to cry.. Then it suddenly stopped and I slid down. I was so confused, I looked over to see Sapphire. Her eyes had gone wide and confusion and horror filled them. I looked down to see a spear.. Hero’s spear.. Poking out from her chest where her heart was.

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  Sapphire’s eyes glazed over and she went limp on the spear. The water began to drain quickly with a slurping sound. Hero jerked his spear and Sapphire’s corpse slid off with a sickening slurp sound before she fell forward, dead on the floor. Her dress no longer swirled and silence filled the castle.

  The maids continued running back and forth. Ignoring the three of us as if we weren't there. I hated this place. After a long moment of silence, I felt my vision slowly start to return. I was definitely hurt and couldn't move though.

  “You want me to respawn you?” Hero asked as he held up the spear. I looked at Sapphire on the ground dead. I looked back at the spear. I tried to take a deep breath and coughed up water and blood. Weakly I smiled and nodded.

  He nodded back, stepped forward, and after what appeared to be a moment of hesitation, stabbed me in the heart. Everything went dark and I respawned on top of him. He caught me and put me down. I blushed and smiled weakly. “Thank.. Thank you..”

  He simply bit his upper lip and looked away before holding up the blue dress for me to put on. My smile strengthened and I took it. “Wow Hero, don’t want to see me naked huh?”

  He said nothing and I giggled. I glanced over at Sapphire's corpse again. After a long moment I sighed and looked back at Hero. “Why.. Why do you care if I am naked? Wouldn’t you want to see my body? I don’t understand a lot. But sex is part of love and your body is important in that.”

  Hero seemed to stare at Sapphire for a long moment before sighing and looking over at me. “Do you really wanna know? Fine, but first, let me ask you something. Do you understand what it means to have sex? What it means to love someone? I.. I understand you appear to have emotions. You to have gained some form of sentience. But I..”

  He trailed off and looked as one of the soaking wet maids passed. I raised my hand to cover his eyes instinctively. But he grabbed my wrist. “Actually, this is perfect. Look at the maids Alia. Do you notice something?

  I looked around and the maids. They wore their maid outfits, which were still soaked in water and full nudity. Some wore underwear, some didn’t. I looked back at him puzzled. “What about them?”

  He sighed and shook his head. “They are all naked, Alia. all of them. Those dresses might as well be skin textures. That’s it. That's the thing. I have been here a long time. Nudity and bodies mean nothing to me. If I wanted sex or to see a naked body I could go find any dozen of female NPC’s in this forsaken place and strip them then fuck *them.”

  I frowned at him and went to respond but he held up a hand. “You… You are different” He said after a moment. “I don’t know how to handle that yet. But you are the closest thing to a human in this hellhole I have ever met. I don’t make the NPC change clothes. I don’t make Ruby or Sapphire change outfits or explain things. Why do you think that is?”

  I paused and really thought about it. Now that he mentioned it.. Nudity was a real problem in this place. Ruby’s dress just disappearing, water making all… female… only.. I trailed that thought mid sentence as realization struck me. There.. There was no way.

  I ran past Hero to the double doors and slammed them. Appearing in the throne room, I rushed up to the king. He was soaking wet.. And fully dressed. His clothes were see-through at all.

  I looked down at my soaking wet dress. Completely see through. Realization began to click and I turned just as Hero reached me. He smiled down at me and patted me gently on the head. “See?” Was all he said.

  I simply nodded and looked back at the fully clothed, non see-through, soaked king.

  I stared at the King for a long time. As his clothes slowly dried. Not once did he glitch, shift, his royal robes didn’t so much as shift slightly. I walked up next to him and tried to pull off his robes. They wouldn’t budge. Like they were glued on… I brought my shoulders close together and my dress just.. Slipped off.

  I tried to remove his robes again but they still didn’t move an inch. Actually.. Now that I was closer. He seemed.. Less visual? Like, his body looked less human. I.. I didn’t know how to explain it.

  “It’s because he isn’t The Hero or a sex object.” Hero said as he walked up next to me. You won’t be able to remove his clothes. It’s the same way with all male NPCs in this place.”

  I turned and looked at him searchingly. “But.. But why? I don’t.. I don't understand?!”

  He sighed and after a moment nodded to himself. “Because this is a toybox, Alia, and whoever created this world was clearly a perverted being. All the girls are pretty and give everything to the hero. The men are all cucks and pathetic. They all want to be the hero. It’s some kind of psycho game world where the hero is everything and anything pertaining to the hero gets special rendering.”

  I looked at him with a loss for words. I swallowed and tried harder to pull the King’s robes off. He didn’t even flinch or try to stop me! “No! That can’t be true! I.. I wasn’t…” I trailed off as I realized.. I was. In fact.. I had been one of the worst.. I felt my heartbeat skyrocket and tears fill my eyes. “NO!” I screamed. I covered my face and fell to my knees. Everything.. It was all wrong.

  I cared little for the nudity. I didn’t really care if the Hero saw us as objects. Maybe he disliked it, maybe he considered it wrong. But it was all I had ever known. But that.. That was the problem. It was all I had ever known. Was.. Was I not real? Was I just a toy in someone's toybox?

  If.. if I was.. Did that mean Hero.. played with all of us like this? Was it even Hero in control? The more I considered that, the less likely it became. Why would the man who clearly was suffering this entire time stay of his own volition? But then who? Who would be so horrific and monstrous that they would make this horrible place?