4. Shall We Introduce Ourselves?

A fair bit of time had passed since Leo declared himself my personal servant.

“Kuhuk—!”

I was still wrestling with the sickness. The dark-red blood that came pouring out of me night after night was as hard to get used to as ever.

It wasn’t that her buff had stopped working. The trouble was simply that Arden’s body was hideously frail.

I need to find that thing as soon as possible.

By now the iron tang of blood in my mouth felt almost familiar. A wave of pain rolled through me, and after I’d dragged in a few ragged breaths, she spoke.

In her eyes, apparently, what I’d done counted as reckless overkill. She wasn’t wrong about that. Forging Kairon’s seal had burned through a good deal of my concentration, and drawing it stroke by stroke in red ink, dot by careful dot, had been no small task.

I wiped the blood away with my sleeve and said to her,

“You know what hand your opponent fears most? The hand they thought you’d already thrown away. In a duel between masters, how you use that discard pile is what decides who wins.”

That, apparently, was how Leo looked through her eyes. And again, she had a point.

“Right — useless and untrustworthy. He may be bowing his head to me right now, but he’s exactly the kind of guy who’d turn around and stab me in the back the moment he saw a chance.”

“Gambling is something you do with your own neck on the line.”

In the world of cardsharps, a single loss costs you everything. It was survival of the fittest, winner take all. And as far as I could see, this place ran by the same rules.

“Like you said, Leo might be untrustworthy and useless. But if I dangle his younger sister in front of him as bait, he could change.”

I shrugged. My cold-bloodedness must have shocked her; her expression sank into worry. But I didn’t much care what she thought of me. For the sake of survival, what wouldn’t I do?

The catch was that she was the one keeping Possession Stabilization running on me. If my behavior horrified her enough that she dropped the buff, I’d have a real headache on my hands. So, reluctantly, I opened my mouth.

“The blood of a goblin — counted among the weakest of all monsters — has a truly, truly foul stench. That’s why some people carry goblin stink-vials on them. Why? Because in an emergency, you splash some on yourself, and the predator in front of you panics and runs. From which we can learn something: humans aren’t the only ones who care about how their food smells.”

She’d been listening quietly, and now she asked,

“You wouldn’t eat food with crap smeared on it, would you?”

I watched her grimace and went on.

“Even the most starving beast won’t touch rotten meat — think of it that way, and it makes sense. You know what the lesson of this story is?”

“That the weakest and lowliest creature, paradoxically, carries the scent that no one wants to touch. Just like how, right now, you think Leo is useless.”

That sent her deep into thought, and I found the grave, brooding silence rather satisfying.

Think harder. Keep thinking.

My methods might come across as ruthless and underhanded, sure. But by hook or by crook, I was going to survive.

Survive, and this time, I’ll definitely see the end of this world.

That was my grand ambition. Achieving it meant leaning on the help of the being floating in front of me.

But she was no perfect being. I’d briefly suspected the amnesia might be an act, then let the suspicion go.

If that was acting, you’d be Best Actress.

Assuming this world had an Entertainment Awards, anyway. My thoughts were chasing their own tail now, exactly the way hers did, so I cut the tail off. There are few things I hate more than burning energy on something that hasn’t happened yet.

Without giving her more time to think, I looked at her and said,

“I think I’ve given you plenty of time to understand.”

Her expression wasn’t thrilled, but she nodded.

When an awkward silence settled between us, I scratched my head and said,

“What should I call you?”

“In our world, exchanging names is the first basic courtesy. It’s been a week since I got here and I still don’t know your name.”

I gave another shrug. I’d floated the idea mostly because having something to call her by would simply be more convenient. Her memory was gone, after all, so she presumably had no name of her own.

“Want to come up with one together?”

I’d even picked out a handful of names I thought she’d like, and I rattled them off one by one.

Her reaction caught me off guard. Was her memory coming back?

“Da? Is your family name Da? That’s a bit unusual.”

If so, the odds were good she wasn’t Korean. There couldn’t have been more than ten people in all of Korea with the surname Da.

“…No it isn’t.”

“No! It is NOT!”

I shrieked at her, practically wailing. She tilted her head, her face puzzled.

She was watching me now with eyes full of genuine concern. I pressed a hand to my forehead.

Damn it. The shame felt like it was setting my whole body on fire. How was I supposed to explain that I’d once gone through a chuunibyou phase? In the end, I settled on fabricating a plausible lie.

“…That name is a rite of passage every gamer in the world has to go through once in their lifetime.”

“Yes. It’s a forbidden name, born when the desire for greatness meets emotional immaturity… Never speak it again.”

“Y… yeah.”

If there were an acting award out there somewhere, surely I deserved to win it.

“…I’m fine.”

Correction. Not quite skilled enough for that award yet.

Hell wasn’t called hell for nothing. I lay in bed, trapped, unable to move.

“Allow me to change the cloth on your forehead, Young Master.”

A warm, water-soaked cloth, neither too hot nor too cold, settled onto my brow.

“Are you feeling alright?”
“Good. Very good.”
“…Yes, sir.”

Saying he had some chores to see to, Leo stepped out for a moment.

Hmm.

It was almost as if Leo himself had been possessed; from that day on, he’d carried himself like a thoroughly faithful servant. I’d dangled the bait of curing his younger sister, sure, but the change in him was too complete. His was the kind of kindness that’s hard to trust.

Which means he’s got something cooking.

I was turning the possibilities over in my head, trying to guess what he was scheming.

Tap… tap.

A knock came, very tentative.

“M-may I come in?”

And a very young voice came through with it.

I lifted the wet cloth from my brow and set it aside.

“Come in.”

Creak.

The door opened, and a girl came in carrying a tray of food. She glanced over my complexion, then suddenly ducked her head into a bow.

“H… hello, Young Master! My name is Elli! As of today, I’ll be working as your personal maid. I just came up from the southern continent, so I’ll have many shortcomings, but I’ll do my best!”

This was the personal maid Leo had mentioned to me before.

So it was real?

At the time, I’d taken it for a joke he’d cooked up to mess with me.

Even knowing her words would never reach Elli, Eve chattered on in earnest. I let her go. She wore the face of someone thrilled to have made a friend of the same sex.

“What?!”

Eve’s words startled a shout out of me.

“Eeek!”

Which, in turn, frightened the life out of Elli.

Eve darted over and patted Elli on the head. Of course, Elli felt nothing.

I cleared my throat a few times and put on a gentle smile.

“A pleasure to meet you. I am Arden, fifth son of House Arne. As you can see, my illness is severe, so I’ll be relying on you often — please take good care of me.”

Elli, taking the measure of my mood, replied,

“Y-yes! Pleased to serve you!”

When I kept smiling, Elli gave an awkward smile back.

“Haha! I’m so glad you came!”
“H-heh… heh… thank you!”

Had this game ever had an NPC with a DV stat this low? Elli was one I’d never once laid eyes on.

Heh heh. Plenty of places I can put her to use.

Oblivious to the dark thoughts running through my head, we kept right on laughing.

“Hahaha!”
“Heheheh!”

Everyone but Eve, who could feel the unease rolling off me.

Despite that timid first impression, Elli handled every task put in front of her with quick, confident hands. Maybe it was from spending her childhood on the famously rough southern continent. Whatever the reason, she had formidable life-grit on her side, and she adapted to the estate at lightning speed.

“Young Master, here’s a flower I cut from the garden!”

And on top of it all, that singular brightness of hers was a real asset.

“That’s a poisonous plant. The moment its thorns prick you, your nerves go numb. It’s particularly useful when conducting torture.”
“Eek?! Are you alright?!”
“I’m fine — that poisonous plant is still in your hand, after all.”
“Oh, you’re right!?”

At first I’d assumed Elli and Eve were the same type, but the two of them had very different vibes. Elli, you might say, was bold and forthright to a fault.

“Most of the medicines at the apothecary are made from poisonous plants, I hear — how exactly do they do that, I wonder?”

And on top of that, she was a serious chatterbox.

“The region I grew up in is surrounded on three sides by mountains, you see. So I was naturally close with the mountains! Tree-climbing is one of my specialties! If you’d like, I can teach you the secret to climbing trees well—”

Thanks to her, I got to hear all sorts of stories. Most of them were, admittedly, utterly useless. But at least I wasn’t bored.

If I had to summarize Elli in a single sentence:

A child whose head is one big flower garden.

That was how I summed her up, though in truth I liked Elli quite a bit. Someday, her existence would matter enormously.

Well — best if it never comes to that.

I always have to prepare for the worst. And Elli would be that contingency plan.

Time is the great healer. Everything turns out fine once it passes. Those were sayings I’d never personally cared for. If you do nothing, what’s going to change?

The pain that came every night was something I’d more or less grown used to by now.

Truly — humans really are creatures of adaptation.

I’d grown used, to a degree, to Leo nursing me with such devoted attention while he still hid whatever he really thought. And Eve carrying on with Elli as though the two of them were friends was something I hadn’t quite adjusted to, but it wasn’t bad, either.

When morning broke, Elli would always check in on me. Like so:

“Young Master, your complexion looks poor. Is there anywhere you’re uncomfortable?”

I let out the most labored breath I could manage, all so Elli would worry.

“Today my body feels especially heavy and stifled.”

When I tacked on a few more pained moans and turned my gaze toward the window, Elli’s face grew all the more pitying and restless. I stared off into empty space and said,

“It’s probably from being cooped up in this room — all sorts of gloomy thoughts come over me. Could you share some news of the outside world with me?”

I’d been staring into empty space, but Eve had apparently taken it as me talking to her.

Not you.

I swallowed the words back with effort and went on.

“Elli, any kind of story will do — tell me something, will you?”

I was short on information. Even back in my gamer days, the past had never been laid out in much detail. So Elli’s arrival was a genuinely welcome thing.

Elli, as if something had just come to mind, spoke up.

“Come to think of it, I hear the Empire has been busy lately preparing for the Crown Prince’s coming-of-age ceremony. They say they’re going to hold an enormous, splendid celebration.”

The Crown Prince’s coming-of-age ceremony?

The day the coming-of-age ceremony takes place…

The memory that surfaced was anything but good news.

“Not long ago there was a huge wildfire in the west and refugees were forced out — but thankfully His current Imperial Majesty, Theodore III, distributed relief grain, so there wasn’t much chaos!”
“…Theodore III?”
“Eek! Young Master, no matter what, if you speak His Imperial Majesty’s given name so casually, there’ll be terrible consequences!”

Elli carefully cracked the door open and checked whether anyone was outside. Finding no one, she let out a small, relieved sigh.

I couldn’t have cared less about any of that; I was busy fitting the pieces of memory together.

“When’s the date of the coming-of-age ceremony?”

Elli gave me a look that clearly said, you actually don’t know that?

“Exactly one year and five days from now — so, February 30th! Don’t forget it this time, alright?”

Elli and Eve were giggling away, but I was as grave as the end of the world.

— I was on the streets that day. But I didn’t see anything. I was too busy running away.

— The only survivors were all outsiders. The citizens who’d lived in the capital all turned into demons. They must have absorbed more of the influence.

How could I possibly not know that date.

— It’s a rebellion! Theodore IV killed his father, His Majesty the King!

That day was the day the Lord of Lamentation, the one who would annihilate the Empire, was born.