I don't even know what to say.
How can this happen?!
"Get off me, you idiot!" The enraged princess's voice tore through the air as she manifested a massive ice spike, hurling it straight for my chest in fury.
Good thing I scrambled away the moment I realized it was her. Otherwise, things wouldn't have just gone bad… they would've ended with me getting killed on the spot.
Angelina Kira Augustus.
Twin sister to my... Well, ex-fiancée. And, of course, a heroine.
But not just any heroine—no, she was a hidden heroine. But she was kind of a psycho and not very heroine-like.
In fact...
She is everything but nice.
She was responsible for the highest number of Bad Endings in the entire game. It was frustrating to deal with her. I still couldn't figure out why the devs decided to make this… bitch... a heroine in the first place.
Like, seriously... WHY?!
On realizing that she had missed skewering my poor self, she now decided to charge at me directly, eyes filled with murderous intent. She looked like she wanted to hack me to pieces herself.
This woman should've been the villainess!
"Die, you bastard!" she screamed, but instead of lunging at me like I expected, she conjured another ice spike and launched it at my face.
"SHIT!" I cursed, rolling to the corner just in time. But then, a bloodcurdling scream echoed through the night.
"AHHHHH!"
…That… wasn't me.
I turned toward the sound, and to my horror, a cloaked figure was standing just behind me—impaled right through the heart by one of Angelina's ice spikes.
"…This is bad," I muttered, narrowing my gaze.
This had to be the background event leading up to the emergence of a secret society in the fourth arc of the second game. The Order of the Voiceless God.
Tsk.
Sometimes I get the feeling that luck has something against me.
The men, dressed in dark cloaks with weapons drawn, began advancing toward us. It seemed whatever was keeping them from attacking Angelina before had worn off, and now they grinned viciously beneath their hoods.
A groan came from behind me. I turned back to the princess, who was still on her knees.
"WHY NOT FUCKING ATTACK THEM INSTEAD OF ME YOU DUMBASS!" I blurted out, enraged by the situation and my constant bad luck.
The moment the words left my mouth, she froze.
"Did you just speak to me that way?" she asked in bewilderment.
".... Fuck you,"
I didn't have time to argue with someone so fucking annoying. Right now, I have a bigger problem. This arc was supposed to be the catalyst for Angelina's hatred of men, and tonight she was supposed to awaken a rather nasty affinity.
It was one of the most frustrating, yet powerful, abilities in the game, and it only made her more unbearable.
But… she couldn't awaken it if she couldn't even stand.
"Ugh... I'll kill you, even if it's the last thing I do," she hissed, venom dripping from every word.
Yeah. She meant that. And that only made things worse. On one side, I have these assassins gunning for us. On the other, I have this homicidal maniac of a princess.
Great. Things were going *perfectly*.
I backed away cautiously as the assailants charged, making sure to keep my distance from Angelina. If she didn't kill me first, they'd do it for her.
"...,"
Alright, let's try something.
"You lot sure are brave! Do you even know who I am?!" I shouted abruptly.
Everyone, including the attackers, froze. Even Angelina stared at me in shock.
One thing I'm good at—besides having terrible luck... and well, a messed up sleep schedule—is bullshitting my way out of impossible situations.
"Not only do you dare attack a princess in my presence, but you dare to point your weapons at me? Do you not fear death?!"
I stepped forward with each word, and the assailants retreated, visibly uncertain.
"If I weren't in such a good mood right now, your heads would already be on pikes!"
Confidence surged through me with every step. Their morale? Fading fast.
I glanced at Angelina. As expected, her mouth opened and closed, words forming but never spoken. It was like my shameless audacity had temporarily stunned her into silence.
Well, that makes sense. She knew who I was—the talentless, disgraced fool of the Aurelious household.
"Leave," I commanded.
Silence descended.
There was a reason they weren't attacking outright. And that reason? My apparent lack of mana. This body had no mana, not even a drop. But that fact alone made me an enigma.
There's only one group of people who can hide their mana to the point of being undetectable.
Transcendents.
So yeah… they must've figured that out when I started bullshitting. They probably thought I was some kind of monster in disguise. After all, being completely mana-less was almost unheard of. It was that rare.
So… I win.
"Wait a minute," one of the assassins said, halting his retreat.
Or not.
"Isn't this guy the unparalleled trash of the Aurelious house?"
Well… I guess I was screwed from the moment I jumped out of that window.