"Y-young master?"
Squeezed out the girl knight, trying not to give away her emotions, though her pale face spoke for itself.
'Doesn't he spend all his time in the carriage?'
Her thoughts raced as she tried to realize what was happening.
"Follow me."
Not wanting to continue wasting my time here, I turned around and walked towards my carriage.
After a few seconds of hesitation, she followed me, not forgetting to throw a 'you could have warned' glance at the others. To which they only smiled helplessly.
After passing a few squads we went inside, I ordered.
"Sit down."
Pointing to the chair across from me.
In order not to arouse suspicion, I decided to keep the image of the body's past owner and behave accordingly.
Not wanting to cause any more trouble, she quickly took a seat.
As she obediently sat down, I finally managed to get a good look at her.
Her long, flowing hair cascaded down her back like a waterfall of spun gold, capturing the light in a way that made it seem like a halo of radiance surrounding her.
Her eyes, which were a mesmerizing shade of blue, shone brightly even despite the nervousness in her gaze.
Her innocent face contrasted strongly with the luscious shape of her body, accentuated by her shimmering armor that fitted her curves like a second skin, highlighting every contour of her body in a way that made them seem alluring.
This really deserves to be called fiction.
I thought and decided to ask the question that interested me the most.
"Is your story true?"
If even a part of it is true - then I have the key to my memories in front of me and I won't miss it for anything. Add to that her extreme talkativeness that she demonstrated earlier, it's worth giving her a reason and she'll tell me everything I need to know.
Hearing my words, the girl knight squirmed in her seat and looked bashfully at the floor.
Seconds passed, but she remained silent.
When I was about to push her, I heard a muffled voice.
"Sometimes I... didn't win."
Noticing that my cold stare hadn't changed, she corrected.
"I... never win."
Seeing no response on my part, she spoke a little louder.
"I've never won in our sparring sessions."
Is that why she was so nervous?
I suddenly realized.
Never mind, that's even better. Now all that was left was to push a little and get the information out.
"What's your name?"
"You don't remember me?"
She asked with a slight sadness in her voice, wondering if I was joking or not.
Seeing no hint of amusement in my eyes, she sighed.
"Perhaps you've forgotten, since it's been so many years."
"My name is Kelly Weinheart"
I gazed into the features of her face, hoping to find echoes of past body memories, but they refused to come back to me, leaving this girl a stranger to me.
"Tell me everything from when we first met."
I said in a commanding tone and prepared to listen.
Hearing me, Kelly visibly perked up.
"About everything? Okay."
After that she began to tell a more 'true' version of our past.
Halfway through the story, seeing no sign of ill will on my part, she finally relaxed and continued with even more enthusiasm.
By the end I was starting to feel a little tired. Damn, this girl is too chatty.
Unfortunately, even after her story, I didn't feel the memories coming back to me.
But during the conversation, I picked up some important information about the power system.
In this world, people could cultivate the mana in their bodies to transcend human limitations and gain unimaginable power.
The power classification was based on the number of stars a person possessed. With 1 star a person was already superior to ordinary people, and the further you progressed, the more terrifying the gap between you and mere mortals became.
Kelly herself was at 2 star level, which for her 19 years old was considered a good result. She demonstrated to me some ways to control mana by gathering it around her hand.
I tried to replicate her actions, but I failed.
Is this body that useless?
Pushing away unnecessary thoughts, I turned to her.
"Why do you address me as a young master? Call me by my name."
I've been wanting to know this body's name for a while now, but hell, everyone around me hasn't said a word except young master.
"Alright, young... I mean Eden."
A trace of surprise flashed in my eyes.
Eden?
Could I have had the same name in this world?
Judging by the stories from Earth, it was not uncommon. But a strange feeling of unease crept into my heart and I decided to clarify.
"I meant full name"
I corrected, to which the somewhat surprised girl replied.
"Okay, Eden von Thunderheart."
Hearing her reply made me feel like I had been doused in cold water.
Instantly, the puzzle in my head came together. Things I hadn't paid attention to before because of their prevalence in fantasy worlds, now formed into a coherent picture from which I could only draw one conclusion.
I'm in my sister's damn novel.
I couldn't help but cringe at the thought.
Although my sister's novel had many loyal fans, if asked if they would like to be in it, I'm sure 99% would say no.
And it was all because of some of the heroines in this novel. While they were goddesses in terms of looks, their characters often underwent too many leaps and bounds, somewhat reminiscent of Yandere.
Readers liked this as it brought a twists and many amusing situations to the novel. However, now I wasn't a reader, I was another character in this world.
Well, this definitely won't be boring.
I thought to myself before returning to my personality.
Eden von Thunderheart is a completely unique character, even by the standards of the novel.
His main peculiarity is that I was the one who was his prototype.
One day Lillian said she wanted to add me to her novel and asked me what I wanted.
'I want to be the happiest man in the world'
Was my answer.
Or as she paraphrased it.
'I want to have a harem'
Thus was born the Eden of this world.
But wasn't he supposed to be a Casanova, enjoying his wealth and status all day long surrounded by beauties?
Then why such hatred and contempt towards him?
I tried to remember if there was any such thing in the novel, but unfortunately I failed.
Since he wasn't involved in the main events, he was mentioned extremely rarely and was generally considered an easter egg that only I understand.
The idea that the world ruled only by force had changed him a lot had crossed my mind, but it seemed to me that there was something else behind the transformation.
*Ding*
I was jerked out of my thoughts by a system notification.
[The first condition for unlocking the system has been met.]
***
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