Episode 4

Fonsell. He was one of the main game characters and a party member. In the original story, when he appeared, he acted alongside the protagonists as a member of the knight order.

From the player’s perspective, he was a first-time face, but he had deep ties with the members of the Freak Trading Company, starting with the protagonist and heroine.

A small commotion occurred in a certain town visited by the Freak Trading Company during their peddling. The townsfolk discovered a boy who had lost all memories about himself—his name, family, birthplace, everything.

A town physician examined him and found no external injuries and no threat to his life. However, his case was unusual in that he had lost his memory.

Judging from the boy’s state, it did not look like a prank, and no one in town knew him. While the town was not as small as a village, there should have been some lateral connections—yet nobody recognized him.

Soldiers garrisoned in the town checked the family register, but there was no record, and they hit a wall.

While they were at their wits’ end over what to do, Elzen, master of the Freak Trading Company, arrived.

“I’ve heard the gist. …Is this the child who has lost his memory?”

He was a thin boy with distinctive blond hair, slenderer than average. A child likely around the same age as Elzen’s son had nowhere to go. —Elzen had made up his mind from the start.

“We of the Freak Trading Company will take responsibility for him.”

(Ordinarily people wouldn’t say “sure, fine” so easily—but it was a game, after all.)

Though the text did not delve into it deeply, if the boy was going to be sent to an orphanage anyway, how was that different from the company taking him in? Given the Freak Trading Company’s respectable name recognition, people judged it safe to entrust him, and Fonsell became one of the company’s own.

Because they were close in age, he quickly bonded with the protagonist and heroine; the three became close enough to call one another best friends.

After further training, Fonsell left the company alone and enlisted in the knight order. Deciding to enter at the youngest age—fifteen—owed not only to his aptitude but also to a powerful inner resolve.

The Freak Trading Company had warmly welcomed him when he had nowhere to go. They had accepted him, a boy of unknown origin with no past.

He would repay the kindness he had received—then become someone who could help children like himself. With a strong sense of justice in his heart, Fonsell set out on the path of chivalry.

(And as the story progressed, Fonsell’s origins began to come to light. And there, Fool got involved again.)

Not everything was revealed in the narrative, but Fonsell had suffered an illness in childhood. To cure it, his father struck a deal with Fool. As a result, the father lost his life, and Fonsell survived at the cost of all his memories.

From Fonsell’s point of view, Fool was his father’s killer, and Zeke was that man’s son. Between vengeance and justice, he wrestled with deep conflict.

(Mana sclerosis, blond hair, and the resemblance. Feels like too much to be coincidence.)

Hiroto knew “mana sclerosis” in detail because, via the Fonsell thread, he understood the treatment; the text also mentioned other sufferers, so he had not thought too deeply about it.

(It isn’t settled yet…)

When they first met through Brink’s introduction, Hiroto had only thought they looked a little alike. Blond hair was not particularly rare in this world; if anything, black hair was less common.

But as he grew, the likeness to Fonsell became unmistakable—now close enough to call him the very person.

(Back then, would he have survived even if I’d done nothing? But then what about Brink…)

The story never specified how Fonsell was saved. Even so, the pieces fit. Brink never appeared in the original, and Fonsell lost his memories and name and his father.

(…No, it’s too late to worry about it now.)

In the story, a clash between the protagonists and Zeke was inevitable. There was simply too much bad blood between them.

Hiroto himself did not intend to pick a fight, but he also thought that if events followed the scenario to some extent, it would be easier to move.

(If it comes to it, I’ll fight. The protagonist and heroine won’t be exceptions. …And if necessary, that includes Fonsell—Luke.)

If he wanted to survive, he could not afford to pick and choose his means. In the game he always died, but in this world the outcome should be uncertain. …If there was no other way, he would be ready.

—He had no intention of being a mere stage prop.