— Aaron’s Diary: Entry 41, To The Dungeon! —

  On the way there, Samson kept giving me the stink eye. I mean, it’s not my fault your sister is so hot dude. Her hair is ‘moonlit’ silver for crying out loud.

  Seeing her in the flesh…

  I know, I have Lune, but I can’t help but go through all the gifts that’d drive up her affection score. It’d be nice to get a full red bar for her.

  “We are going to get you down to the tenth floor, then you can finish the boss.” Simone said in that voice of hers.

  Hey, I can’t help it if her normal voice just sounds so sexy.

  “Huh, I can’t just solo the boss like that!” I told them.

  I’m not sure if they understood or not, but if they took me down there, I won’t be able to get any xp since our levels are so far apart. The Twins are prestige characters—they usually start at level twenty in the game. With that level difference, the party penalties would be massive.

  “Relax hero… there’s a team waiting for you at the dungeon. They’ll handle it.” Sanson really chewed hard on the ‘hero’ part.

  I wanted to point out that means I don’t get to do anything. But I didn’t want to sound so whiny, not in front of her. I mean, I get where Sarsee is going with this: use two ringers to clear the way down, and then have some middle-tier guys weaken the boss so I can claim the last hit.

  It’s quick without much fuss. I did ask for the fast-track afterall.

  Though it’s going to be hella boring!

  — … —

  The words on the page made me frown.

  Obviously, Aaron was missing some huge red flags here. But if Sarsee wanted to get rid of him, this felt like a lot of trouble. High-level escorts? A staged dungeon run?

  He’s only level two. A breeze could kill him. It should be easy…

  A realization slowly sank in.

  He’s the hero. The main protagonist of the story.

  Could it be that she’s afraid of some greater power at play? Was this all so intricate so that she could deny involvement if the trap falls?

  She may be more cunning than I thought.

  I was strolling again down the winding path in the garden, and the cloying scent of lilies filled my nostrils.

  She’s another Dauphin.

  — Aaron’s Diary: Entry 42, All Coming Together —

  I met my ‘team’, and it’s kinda underwhelming.

  We have the warrior who’s a greaseball, with slick back hair and a curly moustache to boot. Like how sketchy could you be?

  Then there’s bumbling mage, he’s level 6 and knows like three spells. At least he knows Flame Strike which is all we need for the boss.

  And at last the meek healer, who stutters at everyone. She’s terrified of the Twins and she clung to me all the time, which I was fine with, but couldn’t her hair not be so stringy, and like, she has all her teeth?

  The worst part was the sword! I thought Sarsee would know I’m a sword and board character, but no… she got me a two-handed sword instead. I mean, the quality is nice, it’s a wide blade made of this dark gray steel that has ripples running all through it, and the edge is really sharp. It probably has some nice bonuses. But I had already planned out my build! I got all the moves and masteries picked out, and all the skill points allotted. I can’t waste them on a different weapon type.

  When I complained, Simone just told me, “I’m sure anyone can make use of such a beautiful blade.”

  She’s a Sword Saint, so anything sharp probably looks good to her.

  This thing actually looks kind of evil, with sharp points all around the guard, and the center of the hilt has this dull metal half-sphere. Maybe there is a gem underneath it?

  That warrior, Ortin, kept looking over at the sword with greedy eyes. But what he badgered me the most about was my bracelet. You should see the look on his face when I showed off the inventory slots. And I’m sure he shit his pants when he found out, I get double my Hp from it.

  Too bad man, it’s bound to me!

  — … —

  The description of that sword stuck in my mind. The ripples over dark metal, the sharp points around the guard, the fact it was a greatsword.

  Did… Sarsee just give Aaron me?

  The dull metal half-sphere could've been a lid closed over my red eye.

  I could have been asleep then. Dormant.

  If so, then my appearance in this world might go further back than I had thought. After all, French was considered an ‘ancient language’.

  I tried to gather the pieces of this puzzle, linking the cause and effect.

  Sarsee’s a villainess. Maybe the villainess in these kinds of games are tied to demons?

  She used her connections with demons to pin a false flag of consorting with demons on the previous king. That was how she came to power.

  Was she using my demon-sword form to frame Aaron as well?

  A memory coalesced. When I first awoke in this world as the sword, Murion the Lich had said: “The price has been paid in full.”

  Maybe, it was the other way around.

  The demons could have been trying to wake me, and a Hero’s soul could be part of the price. Sarsee could have offered up Aaron in exchange for the demons’ cooperation in her rise to power.

  No, worse.

  The trail led me deeper.

  Sarsee was the Villainess, and my mother was the Heroine. She knew this was a game, and she knew my mother was the main character in it.

  You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

  And Main Characters don't die easily. The game, the plot, fate—they are all built around them.

  No, to get rid of a Main Character, one needs to break the rules. You need an item so broken that it crossed games: me.

  Sarsee had done all this just to get a hold of the one item broken enough to end her rival and rewrite the world.

  She didn’t even need to get her hands dirty. All she had to do was point out my mother to the Demon Lord or the Lich.

  It was her all along.

  The unseen hand that stabbed me into the mother who was never meant to bear me.

  The child stirred inside me, lashing out in sadness, and rage.

  I pressed a hand against my chest, rubbing gently in a circle.

  “Patience,” I whispered softly, down at her. “Enemies like her, we cannot fight with fire. We must move slowly, deliberately, and strike with our own unseen hands.”

  This, I knew all too well.

  I leafed through the subsequent entries, my fingers quickly tracing over the lines. They went through the floors quickly since they had the Twins with them, and the dungeon wasn’t corrupted yet. It was just regular monsters like goblins and orcs, with ogres and minotaurs at the bottom levels.

  Aaron didn’t write as much since they were speeding through the dungeon.

  — Aaron’s Diary: Entry 46, At the Gates —

  Holy Moly, ten floors in three days! That’s got to be some kind of record.

  As expected, the Twins were unstoppable.

  Samson, the Sword Lord, threw down lightning as he cut through monsters with his crazy long katana.

  And Simone, the Sword Saint, weaved through them, slicing bodies apart with her twin swords and impaling others with shards of ice.

  Even I contributed! I used my Heart Strike to finish off the last gatekeeper Minotaur. The glowing white blade cut through its huge chest like a hot knife through butter.

  “Not bad, hero. You seemed to have found your way with the sword.” Samson finally complimented me. Well, sort of.

  “It’s weird, the thing always grows cold every time something dies around it.” I yanked the sword out of the body.

  “Every blade has its own nature. But what my brother’s trying to say is that we’ve been impressed by your growth.” Simone dropped that whammy on me.

  I guess I did manage to eke out a couple of levels, which was impressive given the unbalanced group penalty. But it’s hard not to get awkward when a pretty girl says that to me. “Thanks! You guys did all the work though. It was good, umm… sharing meals and fighting together.”

  I was totally glad I didn’t say sleeping together. I nearly did, and that would've been a disaster. And they didn’t technically share meals with us. They had their own stuff, since neither of them liked instant gruel. But that shit was the bomb, especially compared to village food.

  “Well, this is it for us. Once you’re done with the boss. It’ll be your heroic deed. No one needs to know about our little bit of aid.” Samson grinned and gripped my arm firmly. We’re totally bros now!

  “Sir and Lady, Thank you so much for giving us all the loot.” Ortin just had to butt in, and as usual it’s all about loot.

  He kept peeking into that overstuffed sack of his every chance he got. And of course, he’d drool as always when he saw me putting items into my inventory slot. Really glad I didn’t tell them my bracelet got upgraded when we killed that goblin gatekeeper back on floor three.

  I puffed my chest out a bit and gave my best Hero speech. “Yeah, thanks for giving us the details on the Troll King.”

  Shit, they gave us the step by step plan.

  “But maybe after this. We can go on another quest together.”

  They were supposed to be my companions!

  “Perhaps someday, but we owe a great debt to the lady that has yet to be paid off.” Simone said before leaving. I even got a smile!

  We camped right before the floor to ceiling black iron gates of the boss room.

  Gruel was served, and Ortin brought out his stashed ale or something.

  He offered it to me, and I was like, guys, we shouldn’t be drinking before the big fight!

  I’m also no where close to drinking age!

  — … —

  The sword going cold on every kill, another sign that it was me, siphoning souls even when I was asleep.

  As always, Aaron’s heroic side seemed to be pushing through. He really was making an effort, and had results to show for it. But still, a complete lack of awareness.

  Then I came to the next entry. The letters had turned to mangled scrawls, warped by rings of faded rust that had dried into the paper.

  — Aaron’s Diary: Entry 47, Fuck —

  It was all supposed to be simple. Ortin just had to tank, and I hit the Troll king from the side while our mage used flames to stop him from regenerating. And our healer, well, she just needs to sit back and do her buff thing.

  Well, we knocked down the troll the first time, but just as I was about to deliver the final blow, the fucker, Ortin stabbed me from the side.

  He was grinning all greasy as he did so too. All he said was, “No hard feeling kid.” Then he twisted the sword in my gut.

  Thank goodness I had the full heal potion from my tutorial quest items. I popped it and immediately went to town on the guy, I was the hero after all. My levels were low, but I have unique skills and abilities.

  But just as I finished off Ortin with Heroic Might, our mage started puking up blood. Then, out of nowhere, the toll stomped him flat with his foot. He grabbed our healer next and bit her head clean off!

  I panicked. I dumped my whole mana bar into abilities to hack the fucker down.

  But then he regenerated. I had to down a mana potion to hack him down again.

  I don’t have any fire or acid spells! I just kept swinging my sword at his corpse to split him apart. The sword grew extra cold, so maybe it had some frost attribute that could keep him down.

  But I could tell that the mound of green flesh was knitting itself back together.

  There was no stopping this thing!

  I tried to use the bracelet to teleport out of there, but it just blinked red, showing: Error, teleport blocked!

  Shit, boss rooms block teleport! And the doors are locked until it’s defeated or you’re dead.

  I banged on the doors regardless, screaming. “Let me out!”

  The pile of meat was rising back up behind me. I returned to hacking at it, but my arms felt like lead.

  It’s going to kill me!

  Please, no! Someone out there, please help me! I don’t want this troll to rip me apart!

  I’m too tired to hack at it anymore. It’s down to a puddle now, but it’s already reforming. Slowly… but it’s coming back.

  It’s only a matter of time!

  Please, Mom, Pops, Lune!

  Please, Mom… Dad… Bree…

  I just want to go home!

  — … —

  The pages were blank after that.

  I laid the diary to rest on my lap. It was night outside, and the clouds had broken, letting shafts of moonlight wash over the balcony.

  Poor guy. He never had a chance once he got on Sarsee’s bad side. Though, she must have had her sights on him even before they met.

  So no chance. Doomed by fate.

  He was her chance to rewrite it.

  The lengths that she had gone to were impressive.

  She had set him up with two extremely high-level party members so that he couldn’t gain experience. She paired him with incompetent and greedy team members. And to put the nail in the coffin, I was sure she poisoned the mage.

  There was no other explanation for him spitting blood out of nowhere. It was likely a delayed-action poison timed for the boss fight. Most likely from the alcohol that she surely had provided to Ortin.

  I wouldn’t put it past her to have poisoned all of them.

  It made me glad that I cook and prepare our own food.

  Though, the tea… Serina wouldn’t… would she?

  And all this was done with a veneer of plausible deniability. If it all had failed, she could still chalk it up to bad planning if Aaron confronted her.

  Was she that afraid of him?

  He did mention unique skills and abilities. Was that something only Heroes get? I guess if I didn’t have Joan’s abilities and attributes merged, my stats would be pretty ordinary.

  Maybe she had to be devious because she was weak. She did imply she had been through hell. Was that literal? Was that why she worked with demons?

  Or it could be that she was that meticulous.

  In either case, are my party members suspect? I was doubtful, but one could never be sure especially after what happened with Kamuel.

  And Zadina, could I hold to the bond that we had built?

  I turned to Mama sitting in the bed beside me, still deep in her own book.

  “Mama, there’s a spell that I’m having trouble with. Can you help me with it tomorrow?”

  Void should work on the troll, but I should always have contingencies.