“Well, well, well, If it isn’t the masked marvel.”

Fate stiffened as he heard the noble’s cocky voice ring across the adventurer guild’s floors. He hadn’t liked Draco since the moment they’d first met. They were the same age, the same adventurer rank, but that didn’t stop the bastard from looking down on absolutely everyone he met.

If he was just a minor annoyance, though, he would’ve be so unbearable. He’d get on your nerves, but that wasn’t the worst thing in the world. No, he was a lot worse than that. He was someone who loved to ride high on power. From what Fate had heard, he was currently maintaining a monopoly on quests. It wasn’t supposed to be allowed, but with his family backing him, what was anyone supposed to do? What could anyone do?

Fate wanted to take a go at the noble himself, but he couldn’t. He was restrained by the same reason as everyone else: to mess with the Wynton family meant death.

“Oh? Playing the silent game today, are we?”

“Piss off.”

“Ooh, how scary. What can a commoner like you even do?” Draco laughed. “If you’re so proud, why do you wear that mask? What, does your face reflect your status? Too ashamed to-”

Fate was starting to near his limits with this brat. His fists were already clenched, but at this point, enough was enough. He raised his arm. Just one hit. Just-

“I would advise you to stop there, young man. I’m afraid I cannot allow my lord to be hurt in something as trivial as a scuffle over words.”

A large man wearing a full set of plate armour grabbed Fate’s wrist, stopping him in his tracks. Unlike Draco, this man had the power to back his words.

“...I apologize,” Fate said, lowering his arm. The guard let go of Fate with no issue.

“That’s right,” Draco taunted. “It’ll be a million years before you can even dream of touching me. Know your place.”

He laughed as he walked off, his armoured guard right behind him. Draco snapped his fingers, and a woman in a mage’s attire followed as well, carrying a small stack of papers. If John had been there, he would’ve described Draco as an unimportant but somewhat necessary obstacle. The way he talked, the way he acted, it was all ridiculous from a certain point of view, but when you were experiencing it in person, it was definitely incredibly aggravating.

“You should kill him,” Kit said in his mind.

“No.”

“Please? Or at least pull those curly golden locks out. I hate how they always bounce around. So distracting.”

“...really?”

Fate sighed as he scanned the board for C rank requests, but to his surprise, there were none.

“Did that guy-”

Fate’s head whipped around to see Draco’s assistant holding the stack of papers.

“Did he just-”

~~~

At the same time, John was in Albert’s office having a somewhat annoying conversation.

“Seriously? You can’t just make us B rank right now?”

“You idiot! If it was that easy, don’t you think I would’ve done it?”

“You’re the boss! Just, like, make up a new rule or something!”

“I don’t make the rules, you brat! I’m the boss of this town’s guild specifically! There are guilds all over this world, you think I run them all?”

“...ah.” John’s face clearly indicated that that was in fact what he’d been thinking.

“What?”

“Mm… let’s pretend that didn’t just happen.”

“I- forget it. Besides, don’t you think you should prove yourself? Reach B rank on your own? Come on, let’s show a little work ethic.”

“It’s not the difficulty,” John grumbled. “It’s the amount of time it takes.”

The problem with ranking up was that a certain number of quests had to be completed in order to move to the next rank. It wasn’t possible to take quests of higher levels until you reached that rank, so all you had to do was trudge along and prove you were competent enough to carry forward.

“That’s true, but… you really think you’re strong enough to be a B rank?”

John shrugged. “My sister probably is.”

“You’re dodging the question. Are you?”

John leaned back with a smug look on his face. “Of course. You think I’d be here if I weren’t?”

Alber buried his face in his hands. “What I wouldn’t do to take your ego down a notch… fine. I’ll think of something, so come back in a few days.”

“Roger that,” John said with a sloppy salute. “Come on, Prota.”

He walked out of the office just in time to see Draco leaving the building.

“Oh? What’s our annoying side character doing here?” John mused. “Well, it’s probably not important.”

[You’re going to invoke Chekov’s gun again]

“I thought you said you bringing it up doesn’t invoke it,” John muttered.

[You brought it up, not me. It doesn’t count when I bring it up. I didn’t say anything about you. I’m just warning you]

“Yeah, yeah, thanks,” John grumbled.

Heading downstairs, he saw Fate and Kit, and it seemed that they’d also noticed him. They didn’t seem pleased.

“What’s up?”

“Bad news. Look at the board.”

“What’s up with the- oh. Oh, damn.”

[What did I say]

“Shut up,” John growled.

“Huh?”

“Not you.”

John shoved his hands deep into his pockets, staring at the somewhat empty board. There really were no C rank quests. His eye twitched in irritation, but eventually, he just shrugged.

“Damn. Unlucky.”

“That’s it? Unlucky?”

“Well, I talked to Albert. I might get a shortcut. So I guess it works out anyways.”

“Have you ever completed work properly in your life? At all?”

“...no?”

Fate sighed. “Well, at least the C rank quests disappearing isn’t an issue. Well, not an immediately one, anyway.”

“Mm? What’s that?”

“The C rank quests. They’re being taken for a reason. If you somehow rank up during this period of time… well, let’s just say that it won’t necessarily be very clean.”

John shrugged. “Yeah, that’s fine. I’ll just deal with it when the time comes.”

“Do you even know what I’m talking about?”

“No, but if it’s not immediate, then I don’t need to be worried about it.”

Fate turned to stared at John, so stunned that he couldn’t even speak. Seriously. Did this guy have no sense of urgency at all?

“...forget it. Listen, we shouldn’t meet up for a few days. I’m gonna look around and see if I can find any clues as to what’s going on, but I have a lead-”

“Draco Wynton, the noble, right?”

“How did you- I can’t deal with you. Yes, Draco Wynton. Just be a little careful of him, ok? He’s allowed to get away with a lot.”

“Like what, killing me?”

“Yes.”

There was no hint of sarcasm in Fate’s voice, so he was caught off guard when John laughed out loud.

“He can kill me if he wants. I’m fine with that.”

“You shouldn’t say something like that so lightly. You’re life’s a lot more important than that.”

“...thanks.”

Fate just sighed. “Listen, I’m just saying. On top of that, you two should really get ready. Dungeons aren’t easy to deal with, alright? I’ll see you around.”

The two shook hands, and Fate got up to leave. John watched with a bored look as Fate opened the door and disappeared. What was he going to do? He looked at his hands. Were dungeons really that hard? If Fate was saying that they were risky, then maybe they really were that difficult.

Was he prepared? He thought about it. Technically, any fight was winnable as long as [Determination] was strong enough, but he was also reluctant to use [Infinity]. If Kit had picked up on his energy, there was no telling who else would. On top of that, the reason his power was sealed away… well, it was better not to think about that. If he wanted to use [Infinity], he would. That was all.

Could he prepare himself in any other way? He thought for a bit, but the answer revealed itself before he could think of it.

“John,” Prota said as she tugged on his sleeve. “Let’s go eat.”

Right. His protector. If he couldn’t fight, he just had to teach Prota even better, right? As long as she could protect him, he had nothing to worry about.

“John,” Prota insisted, tugging on his sleeve a little harder.

“Yeah, yeah, let’s go,” John said, but he wasn’t thinking about food.

Kit had trained Prota well. Her magic was coming along nicely. So what did she lack? Raw power? Technique? Creativity?

John thought hard. What was it that made Prota think he was strong? Was it just [Infinity]? No, surely it was something else.

[Want a hint?]

[obviously]

[Alright, good to know :)]

“This motherfucker…” John muttered under his breath. “If only I could make him experience-”

John stopped mid sentence. That was it. Experience.

He thought about it. When he thought about Fate and Kit, they both had ample fighting experience. Fate was a reincarnator. Kit was dozens of years old, if not older. John had thousands, if not millions, of resets under his belt.

Prota was still a child. She might be a child that’d gone through tremendous trauma and bloodshed, but nonetheless, she was still a child. Even with [Resets], she’d only been through a few battles, and those hadn’t been good enough. They’d taught her important skills, but she hadn’t adopted a true sense for fighting.

Her body wasn’t geareed towards combat. She had to be able to fight with intent, not conscious decisions. The ability to hit and dodge without processing what was coming at you first was something that only developed with practice. In short, her body had to be thinking for her. The time it took to consciously command herself to move was far too long.

This problem was fixable. All they needed was training and practice. After all, it was just the start of one’s fighting capabilities. The problem was time. Something like that didn’t happen in a few days. They needed weeks, at the very least.

Unless…

“No, no. Let’s not do that again,” John thought to himself. “Another day. We’ll figure something else out.”

He took Prota’s hand and shrugged. It was ok to take a break once in a while.

~~~

Breaker wrinkled his nose as he stepped into Doctor’s office. It was filthy, full of garbage and empty food containers, since the man never bothered to clean up after himself. How could a self proclaimed genius be such a slob? He cleared his throat to get Doctor’s attention.

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

“Sir. Wouldn’t it be better to nip them in the bud now?”

Breaker was worried. He didn’t doubt his boss’s power or intellect, but Doctor was occasionally too child-like for his liking. Breaker was also confident in his power, but he was still a cautious man.

“How? Do you want to go out personally?” Doctor seemed genuinely curious.

“...I’d rather not meet that man again.”

“Ah, you’re a coward. I understand. Hm… then what are you suggesting?”

Breaker’s face darkened. He didn’t like suggesting this, but it was the only thing Doctor would agree to anyways.

“Experiment seven. Even if we don’t kill anyone, it’ll be a good opportunity for us to gain intel.”

“Oh? Interesting,” Doctor said with a wide grin. “You’re letting me play with my toys for once?”

“...yes.”

“Alright. I’ll get it ready. How fun!”

“Sir. How do you intend to get the results? We can’t send our man, he’ll get caught.”

“Oh, don’t you worry. I have my ways of collecting intel. There’s stuff in that cave, you know? Also, turn the lights on in the cells.”

“What?”

“I’ll get the information we need. You focus on your things. I’ll focus on mine.”

Doctor watched Breaker leave his office with a curious smile.

“You’re far too serious, Breaker. You should learn how to loosen up a little.”

~~~

A few days later, Albert called John to his office again.

“Yeah? What’s up?”

“I found one. A B rank quest that you can take. And I don’t think anyone will complain if you really do complete it. Hell, you could take Fate along, and the situation would still be the same.”

John raised an eyebrow. Really? This was too easy, no?

“How… convenient.”

“No, don’t say that,” Albert grimaced. “I’m only even considering this because I think, and I repeat, I think you can do this.”

“Yeah? What is it, catching five horned rabbits or something?”

“No. Subjugate a mansion filled with haunted armour.”

“...that’s B rank?”

Haunted armour. John had seen a few quests on that, but they were relatively easy monsters to hunt. Simply put, haunted armour was armour possessed by spirits that came to life and attacked the living. However, they were considered easy monsters due to their low speed. Attacks were clumsy and easy to dodge, so as long as you had enough brute force, you could smash the helmet in and be done with it.

“It’s a really old quest. The paper for it is pretty old, too, so it’ll stand out easily. The thing is, multiple people have tried to raid this mansion. No one’s ever returned. It used to be C rank since, like you, no one thought it would be hard, but then parties kept dying, and rumours began to circulate. The requester even bumped up the reward, which kept adventurers going in, but still, they kept dying. We had to increase the rank to stop people from chasing after something foolish. Eventually, the rumours outdid the reward, and it became a cursed quest among the people. No one would take it.”

John nodded. “So you’re saying that since everyone knows it’s a suicide mission, no one will complain if we come out alive.”

“Exactly.”

John shrugged. “Alright. Sounds good.”

“...you don’t have any regard for your life?”

“No. Not really. I’ll be back… sometime, I guess. See ya.”

Albert reached out, wanting to question John about that last statement, but he was too alte. John threw the door open and went down to where Prota was waiting with Fate and Kit. Normally, she didn’t like to leave his side, but he didn’t think a short meeting would be all that bad. If anything, she needed to get a little comfortable being alone.

“So? What’d he say?”

“Some old quest about subjugating haunted armour. It should be easily visible on the board, I think.”

He looked over to the task board, but no paper stood out.

“Hm? The old guy definitely said it stood out… like old parchment or something…”

John got up and walked over to the board, with Prota following him. He scanned the entire thing, but there was no such quest.

“What? Am I going blind or something?”

He went over to the desk where Katheryn was managing some papers.

“Oh, hello! What may I help you with?”

“The quest board. Did anyone take the quest for subjugating haunted armour in some mansion?”

“Ah, that quest? That’s B rank, I don’t think you can-”

“I already cleared it with Albert, you can ask him if you want. But it doesn’t look like it’s there.”

“Yes. It was taken just today, actually.”

“Today?”

“Yes, by Draco Wynton. It is possible to manage the transfer of quests, but the quest will not return to the board until sir Draco’s party fails.”

John nodded, but his hands were clenched.

“This rat faced motherfucker…”

He walked back to his table and sat down heavily. Prota looked at him with a questioning look.

“Draco, that bastard… I should’ve just killed him the first time I met him.”

“Hey, whoah, isn’t that a little extreme?”

“No. That bitch needs to kill himself. Anyways, we have to go deal with him now. What a pain in the ass…”

John explained the situation, and the mood at the table became more and more grim. It wasn’t that it was a hard situation to deal with. It was just that no one wanted to deal with Draco.

“Well, I mean, there is a really easy solution. I just have to beat his ass until he gives me the quest, right?”

Fate and Prota just stared at John.

“Huh? Why’re you guys looking at me like that?”

“Do you have a brain in there?” Fate sighed. Prota hopped off her chair and walked over to John, rapping his head to make sure it wasn’t hollow.

“Seriously, guys, what’s wrong with this?”

“You can’t just beat people up for no reason!” Fate exclaimed. “And don’t tell me it’s because you were a shut in. This is common sense, idiot!”

“What if my Earth is just built different?”

“Is it?”

“No.”

“Then why did you even bring that up?” Fate sighed. “John, you can’t just do as you please. There are consequences to your actions!”

“So you’re saying that as long as I can get around said consequences, I’ll be fine, right?”

Prota felt a chill run down her spine. That tone of voice. John was saying something completely illogical, but he completely believed it. If he was left alone, he really would find a way to beat Draco up. He really didn’t see a problem with doing something like that.

“No. I’m not letting you do that. We are going to negotiate with words, not force. Understood?”

“You’re boring,” John complained but didn’t push it further. Prota breathed a sigh of relief. She was worried that she’d have to talk him out of this.

“No, but seriously, do you think you can just get away with hitting a noble?”

“...yeah?”

“What’re you gonna do when their family and all their forces comes after you?”

“Then I just have to beat them up, too.”

“What? You’re really insane you know that? You know what? Fine. Let’s say in some crazy hypothetical universe, you have the power to do that. Could you protect Prota as well? You don’t understand nobles that well, John. They won’t just leave you alone! They’ll come after everything you have! Would Prota be safe then?”

“Uh… maybe?”

John had answered rather flippantly, but Prota was seriously thinking about the question. Could she? Was that something she was capable of doing? No, in the first place, it wasn’t right to just beat tons of people up, right? John couldn’t possibly expect her to do something like that-

Oh. Now that she thought about it, he would never maker her do that in the first place. She felt her body shiver as she pictured John rampaging throughout the country. He’d gone toe to toe with the demon king. John being a menace to the entire world wasn’t necessarily out of the question. The power he’d displayed could easily wipe out the continent. The only reason the land hadn’t been completely obliterated was because of the barrier the demon king had put up.

John shrugged. “Hey, by the way. Do you think you could do that? Take on a noble family?”

“...not yet,” Fate muttered. “But I’m preparing myself. For the possibility.”

“Pretty heavy possibility. And you called me crazy. You’re getting ready for something when you don’t even know it’s possible”

“...”

“Hey, I respect it! Cheer up a little. It’s not that deep.”

John was patting Fate on the back, much to the latter’s discomfort, but they stopped as they reached the doors. Fate reached into his cloak and pulled out a strange token.

“Use this. It can only be used once, but if you squeeze it, you can communicate with me once. It’s like a one use phone call.”

John nodded. “If I find Draco?”

“Yeah. And remember. Don’t hit him unless you absolutely have to, ok? We’re going to talk it out. Peacefully.”

“Peacefully, my ass,” John grumbled, taking the token.

Prota waved as Fate and Kit walked away, then followed John towards the inn.

“Is John going to talk?” she asked.

“Don’t think I want to,” John grumbled. “It depends on what this Draco kid is like. Based on his role in the story, Fate will probably be taking care of him anyways. I hope he does. [Character] or not, this guy is really getting on my nerves.”

John still hadn’t forgotten the aggression Draco had shown him multiple times. Every time they met, he put up with that goddamn sneer of his, but-

“Why is John so nervous?”

“Huh?” John turned to Prota. She could tell?

“John is nervous. Right?”

John frowned. Had his flippant behaviour slipped up? No, he’d been acting as reckless as always. Not that it was entirely an act, but part of it was indeed an act to cover up his stress. Sinec when could Prota notice things like that?

“A character like that Draco kid is probably just a relief character of sorts. He’s someone that’s super annoying, but not much else. He talks weird, acts weird, is just a weirdo in general. It’s pretty standard. They might do one terrible thing, but that just makes his defeat even more satisfying. Usually, they just end up becoming a punching bag for the [Protagonist], and everyone leaves happy.”

Prota nodded. She understood nothing of what John had just said, but it was better that she pretended she did.

“But this… this is a major point in the [Plot]. Someone like Draco shouldn’t be involved here.”

He looked at Prota, who was holding her head in pain. She wished she understood what was going on in John’s head. She understood that the world was a story and, therefore, operated on principles of common story tropes, but she didn’t understand how John’s intuition worked. How could he know all this, just based on something like a [Story]?

“Too complicated? Alright, let’s put it this way.”

He started walking a bit slower.

“Think of the [Plot] like a rock rolling down a hill. The rock’s gonna roll down. It’s inevitable. Just like how the [Plot]. It’s inevitable. [Characters] don’t really have control over what happens to them, since they’re not real. Now, a rock rolling down the hill won’t necessarily have a smooth and perfect ride. There might be a river that carries the rock away or a log that blocks the rock’s path. Those would be [Major Events], at least in the plot. Get it?”

Prota nodded slowly. It sort of made sense.

“Now, Someone like Draco is more like a pebble that makes the rock bump a little. It’s just annoying; it barely changes the path of the rock. The [Plot] continues as normal anyway. He’s not a major villain, not an obstacle that requires strength and will to overcome, no, he’s just someone who will inevitably die a horrible and pathetic death. Probably. Hopefully.”

Prota nodded again.

“But what Draco just did… it’s more like a boulder standing in the way of the rock, forcing it to move to another path. His actions are no longer just insignificant. He’s forced us to do something different. To do something that we wouldn’t have done otherwise. Sure, this is annoying, but he’s directly interfering with us. What happens if we don’t get the quest back? Then what? Something just doesn’t seem right about this.”

Prota thought deeply about it. It sort of made sense, but she still couldn’t internally grasp it. It wasn’t that the explanation made sense.

It was just that, who would believe that the world operated like that?

“Prota. I’m not strong. I hope you get that by now. But I’m strong in other ways. “Information.” It’s pretty powerful if you know how to use it, and I can get information in a way nobody else can. You might learn how to do that too at some point.. But my point is, when the information I thought I knew turns out to be wrong…”

“John. John, can you hear me?”

The conversation was interrupted at Fate’s voice came through the trinket he’d given John.

“...?” John frowned and looked at his hand, where the token was. “Fate?”

“Yeah. I found Draco.”

“I’m on my way. Where are you?”

“The bar. You know where that is?”

“Yeah, I’ll be right there.”