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Chapter : 2 – A Boring Life
Duke Kailen was exactly the kind of rude bastard I had read about in the book.
“Just get to the point?”
What, just because he had money and power, did he think he could do whatever he wanted? Well, actually, he could. Money and power really did rule everything…
No, no! That’s not the point! A person should at least have some manners, shouldn’t they? Besides, this wasn’t even the real world! Couldn’t the author have made it so that people with the best manners were rewarded with the most power and money?
But no matter how much I complained, the book I was living in wasn’t going to change. That rude duke would continue being rude, just as he was in the original story. And because of that, I was bound to have a difficult road ahead of me.
Sigh…
That’s right. I had possessed someone inside a book.
More specifically, I had entered the world of a romance fantasy novel called The Saintess of the Demon Kingdom, a ridiculous world where people could only obtain magical power through human blood.
To make matters worse, I hadn’t possessed the body of a protagonist, supporting character, or even an extra. I had become someone who didn’t even appear in the story.
Which meant the events of this book would unfold completely independently of me. I was an invisible person with zero presence and absolutely no influence on the plot.
However, whether it was a blessing or a curse, my body possessed blood overflowing with magical power.
I had no idea why I had been given such an ability, but if I wanted to survive, I had to make use of it.
That was why I had come looking for a man who could protect me. I had sought out the male supporting character, infamous as a bloodthirsty murderer, to make a contract with him.
‘And just now, I got rejected. Completely and utterly.’
Sigh. How did my life end up like this?
Without realizing it, I dug my fingernails into my wrist and scratched.
Sting—
By the time I noticed, the skin on my wrist had already been torn up by my nails.
Oh dear. Did I scratch too hard…? This habit. I just couldn’t get rid of it. At this rate, there was hardly any difference between my life now and the one I had before possessing this character.
Wouldn’t it have been nice if I had possessed the body of a protagonist or someone with a powerful family backing them?
Ahh… I’m exhausted.
I had certainly wanted to log out of my life, but I had never wanted to log into a different one…
Now, I was busy ruining the second chance at life I had been given.
Before possessing a character in the book, my life in the real world had been incredibly boring.
I had become an orphan the moment I was born, so I had never known parental love. I wasn’t particularly good at anything, whether it was studying or sports. I was terribly skinny, so my appearance wasn’t anything special either. My artistic and athletic abilities were the worst…
In other words, I had absolutely no talent.
Oh! Well, if being healthy counted as a talent, then I was at least healthy.
But a life where all you had was good health was boring. Nothing ever happened!
Perhaps I could have enjoyed life if I had lots of friends and interesting relationships. But people always made me depend on them, only to betray me in the end.
The only thing I could truly rely on was money, something that could be accurately counted through addition and subtraction.
As for earning money through my own abilities, I had come to believe that winning the lottery was my only chance. So I bought tickets every now and then…
“What the heck?! Every single number is off by one again!!”
My hopes were always dashed by the tiniest margin, followed by an enormous amount of disappointment.
“Ugh… This is too much. I can’t take it anymore. I need a sugar boost today.”
I stuck a straw into a plump banana milk carton and happily sucked on it as I headed home from work.
“Today was seriously exhausting. And on top of that, I didn’t win the lottery either.”
After graduating from high school and reaching adulthood, I had left the orphanage. From then on, every day had been exactly the same.
I woke up in the morning, went to work part-time at a convenience store, and then returned to my tiny rented room.
Oh! My little room was cramped, but surprisingly cozy. I could reach practically everything just by stretching out my arms. You could say it was a space perfectly optimized for me.
“Ah, what? Don’t tell me I’m out of beer… Oh, thank goodness. There’s still one can left!”
After taking a shower, I opened a can of beer.
For food and a side dish, I had a convenience-store lunchbox that took just two minutes to prepare.
Once I had gone through all those steps, I sat down in front of my computer and switched on the power button with my toe…
And just like that, I was ready to end another day.
All right. What should I watch before going to sleep tonight?
I’d already watched The Expedition Before Bed, so perhaps I should try The Girl Who Loved the Sword today.
I watched practically anything with a fantasy setting, whether it was a movie, novel, or drama. The happiest moments of my life were when I opened a can of beer and immersed myself in those mysterious worlds.
“It’s so much fun finding all the inconsistencies in the worldbuilding, too~”
If it weren’t for my complicated family circumstances, I might have been what people called an ordinary geek.
But having struggled through life from such a young age had twisted something inside me a long time ago. I could no longer chase after fantasies with a genuinely positive heart.
“Ugh…”
My wrist, which I habitually scratched whenever I was stressed, was stinging again.
Even a sugar boost couldn’t fix the twisted part of me. And honestly, I had no idea how to fix it either.
“Whatever. I don’t care. I’m just going to sleep.”
Whenever I felt pathetic about myself, sleeping was the best solution.
As soon as I lay down on my bed, its hard springs dug into my entire body.
“I just want to disappear somewhere…”
I wanted to disappear from this world, the very world that made me feel so unbearably lonely.
But I didn’t have the courage.
I had these thoughts every day, yet the truth was that I wanted to live happily.
What a contradiction.
Strangely enough, my body seemed to want to live, too. It was diligently working to regenerate my wounded skin.
I needed a turning point, something that could change my life.
But… the problem was that I didn’t know where to start.
Everything had been tangled up for far too long.
But today felt different from usual.
For some reason, my body felt as though it were floating, and my mind was hazy.
Had I drunk too much? I wasn’t such a lightweight that a single can of beer could get me drunk. This had never happened before.
I was tired.
I should hurry up and go to sleep.
Just then, someone whispered from the darkness.
“…There you are.”
It was a chilling, eerie voice that sent shivers down my spine.
“Just as you searched for me, I have also been searching for you for a very, very long time.”
What? Was I experiencing sleep paralysis? How did you get out of sleep paralysis again?
My fingers… Right, I had to move my fingers!
I desperately struggled to break free from the paralysis, but strangely, my body no longer felt like my own.
Cold sweat covered my entire body, and I felt as though I were burning alive.
When I finally managed to open my eyes…
All I could see was darkness, writhing and twisting grotesquely in every direction.
“KYAAAAAA!! WHAT IS THIS?!”
The darkness writhed before transforming into dozens of hands. They grabbed my body and dragged me toward the floor.
I struggled helplessly, as though I were drowning in water.
And then, I lost consciousness.
“Cough…! Hah…! Hah…!!”
When I regained consciousness, an unbearable pain swept over me, as though my insides were being torn apart and my entire body were splitting open.
I could taste the metallic tang of blood at the tip of my tongue.
Even through my fading consciousness, I could tell that I had just vomited blood.
But that was all I could understand.
I had absolutely no idea what was happening to me.
My entire body trembled as though it didn’t belong to me, and I couldn’t even manage to utter a single word.
And yet…
‘Oh no. What should I do? I don’t think I’ll be able to go to my part-time job tomorrow because I’m in so much pain. I need to find someone to cover my shift…’
Haah. This ridiculous sense of responsibility…
While writhing in agony, I noticed a man I had never seen before watching me with an expressionless face.
He was a fat man dressed in luxurious clothing. He looked down at me with a crooked frown, clearly displeased.
On the opposite side stood a tall, thin man wearing a black robe. He was repeatedly bowing and scraping before the fat man.
“Alkan. So, was this one a success or a failure?”
“Count Pasha, we will have to wait and see how things develop. Black magic doesn’t produce immediate results.”
“Hmph. It’s been a long time since you promised that you would grant our family power equal to that of the Marquess of Rues or the Duke of Duranthes. Far too long.”
“Haha. Of course, my lord. I would never forget.”
“You’d better remember how difficult it has been to hide a wanted criminal like you.”
What on earth were those men doing, standing around talking while someone was suffering right in front of them?
Hey! There’s a patient here! Someone, please call an ambulance!
But my desperate cries went unheard.
Instead, Count Pasha nudged my head, which was rolling on the floor, several times with the tip of his hard leather shoe.
“Tsk. I can’t even tell whether this thing is alive or dead.”
“There’s no need to worry. This particular test subject is extremely sturdy.”
Mister! Hey, you! How can you kick someone’s head like that?!
I could tolerate someone throwing my change at me when I was paying for something, but kicking my head was absolutely unacceptable!
I wanted to get up and confront him right then and there, but all I could do was gasp for breath before eventually closing my eyes.
What on earth was going on?
I had only scratched my wrist. So why was I vomiting blood and suffering pain throughout my entire body?
But the agony inflicted upon my body was simply too much for me to remain conscious.
