Chapter 2
A monster.
That was Benjamin's first thought when he saw Aiden.
If that wasn't a monster, then nothing could be called one.
His black hair was like a demon's, and more than anything, there were those eyes.
Demon-like eyes shining with a red glow.
He knew the guy had red eyes, but when had he started giving off this kind of aura?
The aura coming off his body was so ominous it was practically visible, like heat haze, and his emotionless eyes seemed to regard human lives as nothing more than stones to kick aside.
Death itself. Or perhaps a tyrant who would brook no dissent.
Honestly, he couldn't even bring himself to meet the man's eyes.
And yet the reason he'd gathered enough bluster for a lifetime to face Aiden and even throw a punch was probably that he didn't know what was dangerous—and that he was a nobleman's son who'd grown up receiving nothing but love, with an idiotic pride he couldn't let go of.
The hallway was already quiet.
Some had already fainted with foam at their mouths, while others desperately averted their gazes just to survive, staring at some random spot as if they knew nothing.
And the courage Benjamin had scraped together for his entire life...
-Step.
...came to an end the moment Aiden took a step toward him.
-Thud.
He sank to the floor right there, his legs giving out so completely that he couldn't move.
And the one responsible for reducing him to this, Aiden Starfive...
"..."
...was staring blankly into space as if Benjamin's existence meant nothing at all.
As if words were written in the air.
More than anything, as if Benjamin were trash not even worth caring about.
<No wonder your family cast you aside. You idiot. I feel nothing but pity for your parents.>
How did he know?
No, everyone knew he'd been cast aside by his family.
It was an open secret.
But when those words came from Aiden Starfive, they meant something different.
The way he looked as if he knew everything.
Did he know?
How much?
If he knew, his father would scold him, wouldn't he?
Did this man know that secret?
“Guh...”
Aiden Starfive stared into space as if he didn't even notice the strange sound escaping Benjamin's throat.
Something churned inside him.
He couldn't let anyone find this out.
Benjamin forced down the hot lump in his throat.
Then, gritting his teeth, he crawled toward Class B.
His pride utterly shattered.
Lydia was no different.
Though she was the least skilled, mocked and shunned by everyone as a worthless failure, she was still a candidate for sainthood.
The aura spilling from Aiden Starfive's body was even clearer to her.
Black—but a paler shade of black than the aura the church defined as belonging to an evil person or monster.
At least, it was all beyond her understanding.
If she hadn't known about Stigmata, and hadn't known that he'd thrown himself into danger for her, she would've gone straight to the church to plead that a monster had appeared.
And yet Lydia Straw found the courage.
One way or another, he was the first person to step forward for her.
The only one to stand up to Benjamin, who'd tormented her for the week since the entrance ceremony began.
Even if he sometimes seemed to slip out of human form, Lydia had no doubt that he was good at heart.
The doctrine said so, too.
<There are no evil people in the world. They are made.>
"..."
And so, she had to repay his kindness.
Lydia's gaze fell on Aiden's wrist.
Aiden Starfive was clenching and unclenching his fist as if he had a cramp.
Gathering all her courage, she approached Aiden Starfive.
Everyone's eyes turned toward her, and above all, his impassive expression turned toward her.
"Um, e-excuse me..."
She tried to offer her thanks, but the moment she felt that ominous aura, Lydia Straw found herself at a loss for words.
"Th-th-th-tha..."
"..."
"Thank... you..."
After somehow forcing out the words that wouldn't come, Lydia Straw reached out to him.
Her pale, shining hand touched the man's wrist,
and the man, as if startled, turned his wrist and looked at Lydia.
"..."
Perhaps he was about to thank her; looking at her, the man opened his mouth.
"Better to die standing than live on your knees."
"...Pardon?"
After saying only that, the man turned and went into the classroom.
The academy bell signaling the start of morning classes rang in Lydia's ears as she stood there, bewildered.
*
I hurried away from Lydia Straw as if fleeing.
I said thank you, and he responds with what the hell was that?
I mentally kicked myself as the memory came back.
Lydia Straw.
That one's a crazy bitch.
A character who appears as a boss around the early-to-midgame in the game.
The nickname users gave her was literally Crazy Bitch.
Her actions in the story are crazy, and her attack patterns and skills are just as insane.
She fires attacks that kill you if they even graze you, and I swear, I was cursing up a storm.
And her shitty personality is just a bonus.
If I get involved with her, I'll die too.
She's even a candidate for sainthood, but she's such a failure that she can barely heal.
When she was an enemy, she beat the crap out of my party members.
Even after being treated, my wrist was still tingling like it had cramped, just like before.
I went into the classroom and took a seat.
The others glanced at me, then quickly looked away again.
Yeah. I understand. I can tell what kind of ominous aura is coming off my body right now, too.
At the same time, a professor came in.
Even though they were student soldiers, an academy was still an academy. There were professors, after all.
"All right, shall we begin class?"
A professor with a tired look and drooping eyes entered and looked around, then flinched as if he'd seen something he shouldn't have.
"...Student Aiden?"
And to find that out...
"...Status Window."
When I whispered it too softly for anyone else to hear, a translucent window appeared before my eyes.
[Name: Aiden Starfive]
[Health: 7]
[Mentality: 17]
[Agility: 7]
[Luck: 7]
[Available points: 0]
[Trait: Cursed Swordsmanship]
[Negative Trait: Isolated]
[Stigma: Intimidation]
"..."
The status window I'd seen countless times appeared, as familiar as ever.
Thankfully, the design hadn't changed.
First, let's take a look at my trait.
When I tapped [Cursed Swordsmanship] with my finger, its description expanded.
[Cursed Swordsmanship: She poured her life into the sword until she became swordsmanship itself, cursing others as she went. You can use powerful sword techniques, but they drain your health and mentality, and you sometimes hear the voice of a curse.]
That's it?
My wrist tingled when I used Gale earlier. Like a cramp.
The penalty's lighter than I expected. The boss was coughing up blood and making a huge fuss.
Maybe since Gale is a defensive move, I can use it a little more freely.
If the battle drags on, who knows, but then I should try using one of my main attacks.
Just looking at its power, it's an overpowered skill.
As for the voice of the curse...
I closed my eyes and listened, but instead of a cursed voice, all I heard was someone beside me taking a breath full of fear.
I tried dragging my finger down as if scrolling, but the scroll was blocked, as if there was no more information.
"..."
Can't be helped.
I turned my gaze to my negative trait.
Dark Fantasy Saga doesn't spare even the protagonist from negative traits.
Maybe in keeping with the belief that all humans are equal, even the protagonist gets a random negative trait.
Shitty game.
But...
"Isolated..."
This was a negative trait I'd never seen even once while playing the game.
I slowly lowered my hand and tapped the negative trait, and its description scrolled down.
[Isolated: You are alone. You cannot like anyone, and nothing can harm you. Loneliness is your friend, and an inescapable curse.]
[You are currently resisting the negative trait with mentality that transcends humanity.]
Resisting?
I glanced up and looked at my stats.
Mentality: 17.
It was a value I'd never seen before, in fact.
The highest I'd ever seen was 12, after loading up on every piece of gear that boosted stats.
Next, at last, the Stigma I'd been waiting for.
If neither my negative trait nor my swordsmanship was the cause of this strange aura, then the only thing left was the Stigma.
Stigmata.
Special abilities possessed by every student at this academy.
And, along with negative traits, the root cause of this game going to hell.
I narrowed my eyes and clicked [Intimidation].
[Intimidation: The aura surrounding your body is utterly ominous! Your very existence constantly reduces the mentality of those with low mentality. Your words are enhanced.]
[The more others revere you, the stronger you become! Make people respect you!]
[Until next perk: 0%]
"..."
So that was it.
This was why everything I said came out so strangely, and why that horrible aura was coming off my body.
I even had to make other people revere me to get stronger?
I thought, Should I run away? But there'd be no point in running away in the first place.
<Dark Fantasy Saga> was a game where the world was destined to be destroyed.
If the protagonist didn't stop it, the world would end.
The problem was, no one had cleared this game.
In other words, there was no walkthrough all the way to the ending.
And the protagonist wasn't exactly reliable, either.
What if the protagonist failed?
Then even if I ran, I'd die along with the continent.
Every bad ending in Dark Fantasy Saga led to the extinction of humanity, no exceptions.
“…”
In the end, whether I liked it or not, I had no choice but to fight.
It'd be nice if the status window at least gave me a quest like [Die if you fail to save the world].
"..."
No, let's try to think positively.
I'm currently the player who's made it the farthest.
In other words, at least until I got sucked in, no one knew this game better than I did.
Have confidence. Tell yourself that no one else can do it if you don't.
I have to hold things together until the protagonist shows up, at least.
And, thinking of the biggest problem of all, I fell into thought.
So... I need to get stronger first.
I read the Stigma again.
[Intimidation: The aura surrounding your body is utterly ominous! Your very existence constantly reduces the mentality of those with low mentality. Your words are enhanced.]
In Dark Fantasy Saga, a Stigma is the core of a character.
How you play a character depends on what Stigma they have.
You can think of it as a class in another game. Though they're all completely different.
In other words, if I want to get stronger and survive in this shitty world where death threatens me with every step, this isn't just essential—it's the only way.
Like it or not, I have to live as someone committed to a persona.
What kind of persona?
Judging by the way I talk, I can guess.
I'm basically a swagger-obsessed poser.
You know the type. Guys who live for their own greatness. Every word out of their mouths is rude, and they do nothing but show off.
For now, it doesn't look like I have any other choice.
I don't know how to act, but thankfully, this Intimidation enhancement should help me.
"S-Student Aiden."
"..."
While I was lost in thought, someone called me.
I lifted my head and looked at the speaker.
It was someone familiar.
Professor Albert. The professor of Class B, once known by the epithet Albert the Ironblood.
He shows up more often than you'd expect in the academy part.
"Y-You seem very different from yesterday. Did you, um... awaken your Stigma?"
How should I answer that?
I couldn't exactly say that yesterday's Aiden died and I was born anew.
Although I had awakened, technically...
I slowly nodded and opened my mouth.
That's right.
"Yes. Even breathing the same air as trash like you makes me sick. But I've changed."
"I-I-I see. Th-thank you for working hard for the continent."
Professor Albert nodded over and over.
Being called Aiden made it hit me all over again. I'm Aiden. That's right.
Aiden Starfive, the protagonist of the prologue and a character who dies horribly during his first-year deployment exercise.
If I remembered correctly, the team formation event happened after the prologue fight with Benjamin—
"S-Student Aiden...!"
I finally came out of my thoughts at the timid voice calling my name.
I raised my head and looked ahead to see the professor staring at me, his hands trembling.
"Th-The people over there are your team. You're going on your first field exercise-“
"...Hah."
"Eek...!"
The professor froze when I sighed.
Right. So this was happening now.
The team that goes with the protagonist at this point...
I turned my gaze toward the three people.
A black-haired girl with a rude-looking face.
In Chapter 1, she goes mad, sets fire to the music room, and kills herself.
A red-haired, hot-blooded man.
In Chapter 2, his negative trait erupts, he turns into a monster on the spot, kills twelve people, and is put down by the protagonist.
A white-haired woman wearing a pointy hat.
“...”
That woman was the biggest problem.
Her negative trait suddenly flares up, turning her into a monster, and Aiden dies during the expedition in the story.
That's right.
Aiden Starfive originally dies in this prologue.
And one year later, the protagonist enrolls.
In the meantime, the academy and the continent get even more utterly wrecked.
I turned my gaze back to the three of them.
Landmines.
No, those three weren't the only landmines.
Every academy student here was a landmine.
Every last one of them was a walking monster, a walking landmine that came with its own bad ending.
You expect me to form a team with people like this?
Am I crazy? Do I have some suicide mission to do?
If I'd learned anything from playing this game countless times, it was that I should never stay with these people.
They're all potential landmines, terrorists, and monsters.
Human landmines who, if they snapped, would send both my life and everyone else's straight to hell.
In comparison, what about me?
Now I'm a complete package, with a powerful sword art and a negative trait that can't even affect me.
Good. I've decided.
"Student Aiden...?"
I looked at the professor, who was still staring at me in terror, and opened my mouth.
I'll go alone.
"I don't take orders from anyone weaker than me."
In the chilling silence, I continued.
"There's no need to take deadweight like you along. I'll take just one person."
Silence.
Neither the teammates who'd heard those insulting words nor the professor grew angry or objected.
Maybe it was because of the aura I was giving off.
"...Th-Then... who..."
And then the professor gathered his courage and spoke.
I have someone in mind.
The academy students lowered their heads or looked elsewhere at my words.
They were all giving off a strong sense that they wanted nothing to do with me.
You think I'd be crazy enough to bring landmines like you along?
No, there was only one exception. Benjamin was staring straight at me.
Muttering something incomprehensible, his gaze dark.
I should keep an eye on him.
For now...
“Hmph.”
I snorted and crossed my arms.
Since everything was automatically enhanced, even I could hear how condescending I sounded.
“I have no intention of taking riffraff like you along.”
“Then...”
“I'll hire a mercenary.”
Mercenaries.
They'd been excellent fighters until people with Stigmata began appearing, but now they'd lost their jobs to those with Stigmata.
Even in the game, they were characters with weak abilities and low attack power, as if they were meant to be useless.
But that was prejudice, and a mistaken assumption.
There was someone I trusted more than anyone.
My soul partner, the one who'd been closest to me through countless runs.
*
"Sigh..."
A protruding belly, a scruffy beard, and beetle-like eyes gleaming from beneath rolls of fat.
A middle-aged man with a round body that looked like it might roll away if you nudged it, and a massive shield to match.
Gerd was drinking at the mercenary guild again today.
"No work again today, huh?"
"Aren't the new students from Genua Academy supposed to be doing field exercises starting tomorrow?"
And a deeply wrinkled man answered his muttering.
"Do you still think Genua Academy will hire us?"
Genua Academy.
The place where young people with Stigmata were confined under the pretext of training, used as student soldiers, and raised as the only hope for reclaiming this ruined continent.
They say the students there are so powerful that they can wield mana and holy power, while also using the strange and tremendous power of Stigmata.
In other words, they were the hope of everyone gathered on this continent.
"Those students have no reason to need our help."
Rumor had it that Genua Academy's student council president could hold their own against the commanders of the knightly orders, even one-on-one. Why would they come to a bunch of mercenary nobodies like us?
After letting out a satisfied belch, Gerd set down his wooden cup of liquor and wiped his chin.
"Come on, but twenty years ago, you were called Gerd the Iron Wall..."
"Hey."
"...Sorry."
Gerd stared at the man with a stern expression, and the deeply wrinkled man immediately apologized.
His life had practically ended when the walls of Il Mare, once called humanity's last bastion, fell.
"Besides, there's no need for them to hire us. You should keep your dreams reasonable—"
“A-a-a-a job!”
One of Gerd's companions, a man famous for showing little emotion, burst through the tavern door.
His eyes were already trembling with fear, and his voice shook even more than when facing a monster.
“G-G-G-Genua Academy...! A request specifically for Aiden Starfive...!”
A request from Genua Academy? Then why's that guy so terrified?
Gerd had only just begun to wonder when...
He felt a terrible aura.
An aura like a demon's, unlike anything he'd ever felt.
An aura Gerd had never felt even when he faced humans who'd turned into monsters after surviving countless brushes with death.
Was this what it felt like to face death itself?
"...Ugh, ah..."
And Gerd wasn't the only one who felt that aura.
The deeply wrinkled companion who'd been speaking to him also fell to his knees, unable to continue.
That face, which hadn't lost its smile even when the walls of Il Mare fell, now held a terror he'd never seen before.
-Step... step...
Someone was walking.
No, death was approaching.
Summoning the last courage of his life, Gerd raised his head and looked ahead.
He was a handsome-looking man.
Black hair and red eyes.
His hair was one thing, but his eyes. Those eyes.
The eyes of a cold-blooded killer, utterly devoid of emotion.
A man wearing an academy uniform and carrying a sword walked forward..
Was this thing really a student?
If this was the kind of aura a student gave off, then Gerd was no different from a child.
And so, he prayed.
As always. Let him pass me by.
Let me be the only one who survives.
And then, the man came up to Gerd, stopped in front of him, and...
"Found you."
He muttered in an eerie voice and smiled.
The man smiled, his mouth seeming to split wide open with a long, tearing sound.
Gerd pissed himself and fainted on the spot.