Chapter 24: High Stakes

The adventurer’s guild was busy as usual. The job board was full of quests, mostly F to C-rank, with a few B-rank and even fewer A-rank quests on the board. A lack of S-rank quests was a good thing. Should one be on the board, the town was in serious trouble.

To John, though, they were all somewhat boring. To someone who was regularly encountering situations much more dangerous than these, they all seemed like beginner-level quests. Well, in a sense, that’s what they were. After all, as Albert had said, these were very real jobs. This wasn’t a struggling society. People didn’t need to put their well-being at risk all the time.

“...is this really an adventurer’s guild?”

John sighed. While it was mostly pointless, he couldn’t deny that it was probably good training for Prota. It was just that he’d been hoping for more exciting quests. That being said, her health was also something to consider-

“Hey. What kind of bullshit are you spewing?”

John looked to his right to see a large bald man glaring at him. Two battle axes hung on his back, and a menacing scar ran down his right eye. Despite John’s height being on the taller side, this man towered over him with his arms crossed.

“...me?”

“Yeah, you. Idiot with the red shirt. You think bein’ an adventurer’s a joke?”

“Um… no?”

The man stared at John.

“Are you playing with me? I don’t take well to jokes.”

“I’m not playing with you. I actually have no idea what you’re talking about,” John said, raising his hands in surrender. “Look, is there an issue? We can-”

“Shut up!” the man yelled, grabbing John by the shirt. “Maybe you think you’re a big shot by clearing that goblin subjugation quest, but you should still know your place as a newbie!”

“Ah. Ok.”

A hazing. This man hadn’t cared about John’s words in the first place. He was being put in his place. Something like that existed here? The man glared at John, waiting for his next words.

“Um… my bad. Can you put me down now?”

“...punks like you still need a good lesson in manners.”

Well, it wasn’t surprising that something like this would happen eventually. It wouldn’t matter what John said. A fight was inevitable.

The large man raised his fist menacingly, ready to deliver a mighty blow. John flinched, raising his hands to defend himself, but a small voice in the back of his brain knew it wouldn’t do anything. Only, nothing came. He slowly opened his eyes, expecting to be hit as soon as he regained his vision, but the man’s muscles were bulging, trying to get to their target, only to be restrained by something even stronger.

“Hey. Hands off.”

“...Fate?”

John opened his eyes in amazement. Fate was standing there, and despite his small size, he was easily holding the large man back. The aggressor slowly lowered his arm, towering over Fate with a menacing glare.

“I see we have another greenhorn that needs a lesson in manners.”

“You’re being a pain in the ass. Why don’t you go calm down?”

“Jeez… newbies have no respect these days. I hope you learn your lesson!”

The man roared and threw a punch, but the man was nowhere near the masked boy’s level. The blow was easily dodged as Fate stepped to the side, letting the arm brush by his head. In one smooth movement, he grabbed the man’s arm and used the momentum to flip the man over his shoulder, slamming him into the ground.

“What the-”

“Hey!”

Three other large men stood up from a table. Based on their clothing, they were likely the bald man’s companions.

“You little… come here!” one of them exclaimed.

“You want to fight? Come at me then,” Fate said.

His golden eyes shone with a cold light as he sized them up. Just like that, Fate and the three men ran out the door.

“Jeez,” John grumbled, dusting himself off. “Didn’t realize hazing was a thing here…”

He looked down at the unconscious idiot with an expression of pity on his face.

Prota ran up to him. “Why… why John didn’t fight back?” she asked, looking up at him with her half sleepy eyes.

John sighed, crouched down, then held Prota’s face and forced her to look at him.

“Prota. I’m weak. I’m not strong. I can’t really fight someone like him. He’s just stronger than me. You’re also stronger than me. Please understand that.”

“...” Prota looked at her hands. The message still hadn’t fully sank in.

John sighed again. It was hard to blame her. First impressions were important, and his first impression had been his fight with the demon king. Anyone would assume he was incredibly strong.

“You’re doing fine, Prota. Just keep doing what you’ve been doing, alright?”

Prota nodded hesitantly. John grimaced as he remembered Prota’s nightmare, but he had no clue as to what to do with the memory. Consoling wasn’t his strong point.

“C’mon, let’s go check on Fate.”

Leading Prota by the hand, he went to the door only to find all three men sprawled out on the ground, Fate standing perfectly unharmed.

“What the-”

Fate’s head snapped up, looking at John with a fierce glare but then calmed down as he saw that John wasn’t an opponent.

“Oh, it’s you.”

“...you could at least pretend to struggle a little.”

“Those three attacked me first,” Fate shrugged. “Besides, you looked like you were having a bit of trouble. I just thought I’d help out.”

“Well, um… thanks?”

“No problem.”

The two continued in what seemed to be friendly banter, but Prota's attention was diverted to the three men laying on the ground. Could she do that? If John was threatened like that, and he had no one to help him, could she jump in the same way Fate had?

She didn’t know the answer. Despite her success with the goblins, she still felt disappointed that she hadn’t managed to deal with them by herself. The memory of John bleeding out and holding her cheek haunted her to the point that it was showing up in her dreams.

John was strong, even when he wasn’t. So what if she wasn’t enough for him? Would he leave her behind?

“Yeah, that sounds good, Fate,” she heard John say.

“Alright. Let’s meet outside the guild, say this time tomorrow. How about it?”

John nodded. “Yeah, let’s get to it.”

She watched as John stared at Fate’s receding form with a wild grin on his face.

~~~

“He’s from Earth! From Earth!” John was chanting to himself as they entered their room.

“Fate is from… Earth?” Prota said with a small frown. “Fate is… god?”

That word stopped John’s little chant. It was unusual enough that he immediately understood what she was asking.

“God- oh, right. Prota, this might be a little bit complicated, but… there are few different versions of Earth.”

“Different versions?”

“The Earth I’m from is… well, let’s call it the original Earth. To put it bluntly, if this is [Fiction], my Earth is [Reality]. Fate also comes from a planet called “Earth,” but his Earth is [Fiction].”

“So Fate comes from a different Earth?”

“That’s right. It’s not the same Earth I’m from. Does that make sense?”

Prota nodded.

“So Fate is from a different Earth. Um… a fake Earth, if you will.”

“Then… why is John so happy?” Prota said, cocking her head to the side.

She thought he’d been happy to see someone he knew, but from what John was saying, that was evidently not the case. If not, then why was he so excited?

“I was so worried,” John said, falling back on his bed. “That I was chasing after the wrong guy. There were so many ways it could’ve gone wrong. The [Protagonist] might’ve been a [Side Character]. Or a [Villain]. Or something else. But… thank god. The [Protagonist] was right in front of my eyes.”

John opened his eyes, feeling like a huge weight had been lifted off his chest.

“Yeah. I’m definitely not wrong.”

“Then Fate is… super strong, right?”

“...in a way. Based on what we’ve seen, he’s definitely strong, but it’s not as if all [Protagonists] are strong in a literal sense. They just… have a way of always winning.”

Prota looked at her hands. If that was the case, then didn’t she need to be just as strong as Fate? If he, the protagonist, was someone who almost always won…

Then, didn’t she just need to reach that level as well?

“Oi, you’re thinking about something crazy, aren’t you?” John grumbled. “That’s the expression of a person who wants to do something batshit insane.”

“...”

“You’re you. Fate is Fate. Don’t worry about him, ok? You’re-”

John was going to say “more important,” but was that true? Sure, he felt a closer to connection to Prota, but could he truthfully say that she was more important? If he had to choose between her and Fate, who would he choose?

“Just stop thinking so hard about it, ok? Stronger, weaker, it doesn’t matter.”

Prota nodded, but the words weren’t registering. Getting stronger wasn’t a want anymore.

It was a need.

~~~

“Which quest do you want to take?”

“Dunno. What looks fun?”

John and Fate were staring at the quest board, looking for a quest to take on. Prota was sitting at a table, fascinated by Fate’s fox for some strange reason. It was probably because of how fluffy it was. John would’ve been tempted to pet it if he didn’t know that it was probably something special.

“Fun? What do you mean, fun?”

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“Uh… like, entertaining? Enjoyable?”

“...are you playing with me right now? This isn’t just for our amusement, you know.”

“How about… that B rank quest? Subjugate the stone golem.”

John was dodging the question.

“Dangerous. You’re talking about a dangerous quest, not a fun quest. I don’t think we’re ready for that.”

“Well, it’s not fun if there’s no risk, right?”

Fate turned to look John in the eyes. “You’re a strange one.”

“Says the guy wearing a mask all day long.”

“Do you think this is a game or something?”

Fate sighed as John remained silent.

“Fine. We’ll try it, but if anything goes wrong, we give up immediately, got it?”

John nodded and took the paper off of the board. With that, it was set.

“Come on, Prota,” he said, calling her over. “Let’s go.”

Prota jumped out of her chair and trotted over, taking a look at the paper.

“Stone… golem,” she read. “Subjugate?”

“Yeah. Let’s go kill it,” John nodded.

“Ok.”

Fate looked at them uneasily as his fox jumped up his shoulder.

~~~

The three adventurers were walking down a path toward a set of cliffs and caves where the stone golem had been reported. Usually, golems were left alone since they weren’t hostile unless attacked first, but since merchants well travelled the path, they wanted it gone. As a result, the pay was decent, but then again, so was the risk.

“Your sister doesn’t talk a lot,” Fate commented.

“Uh… yeah? You’ve never met shy people in your life?” John frowned. “It’s not that weird, is it?”

“Just… feels kind of weird. Is she human?”

“Wh- yes? Why, does she look like an elf or something?”

“No, no, that’s not what I- never mind,” Fate said, shaking his head.

John frowned. Why was Fate so curious about Prota? He could understand questions about himself since Fate was probably curious about Earth, but… well, there were probably things he knew about that John still had yet to learn. There was just one concern.

What if he suspected that she was a demon?

“No, she’s human, so he wouldn’t have a reason to suspect her. No way, right?” John thought to himself. “Unless…”

Of all the people John had to be wary of, he had to be most careful around Fate. Assuming he’d been reincarnated, the boy was probably not actually all that young. He could be anything from thirty to ninety years old, and there was no way of telling.

As a main character, Fate was probably smart enough to discern a good number of things. John’s advantage was that he was aware of this, but that still meant that he had to watch his step around the [Protagonist]. Still, he had no plans of idling around and doing nothing. What did he want to do? He wasn’t sure. He didn’t mean to replace Fate as the hero, nor did he have plans to oppose him. It was tricky, not knowing what role one was meant to play. The truth of his identity was no longer ignorable.

He didn’t belong in this world.

All characters had a designated role. [Protagonist]. [Side Character]. [Main Character]. [Mentor]. [Villain]. [Antagonist]. [Hero]. The list could go on and on, but the point was that each role had designated characteristics and determined paths that they would follow. The [Protagonist] always won, except for some genres. The [Main Characters] never died, except for a few cases.

John had no such pre-determined role. [Anomaly]. A being that didn’t belong in the story in the first place. They had no predetermined role. They had no designated place in the [Plot].

“Then what about Prota?”

She, too, was an [Anomaly]. But why? What was she really? Was that why Fate was wary of her? Because his subconscious skill as a [Protagonist] wasn’t picking up on her?

“We’re here,” Fate said quietly. John snapped out of his thoughts.

The group peered over the edge of a chasm, but nothing looked out of the ordinary, other than…

“You’re kidding me,” John muttered. “Is that giant stone thing the golem?”

“Having second thoughts?” Fate’s face was covered by a mask, but John could sense a grin from his tone.

“No, but I can’t do anything against that with this thing,” John frowned, pulling out his gun. “The bullets are gonna bounce right off it.”

He lined up the sighs and aimed, but the sheer act felt ridiculous. He shrugged and put his weapon away.

“Hm… that’s true… well, you can stay out of this one,” Fate said.

“Take Prota with you,” John said. “She can definitely help.”

Prota’s eyes opened up wide. Her? Help?

“She’s pretty strong.”

…strong. Was she?

A bracelet on Fate’s arm flashed, and a rope appeared in his hands. Tying it to a stone, he threw the rope down and started the descent into the chasm. John looked incredibly annoyed. It’d been his idea to “have fun,” as he’d put it, and now he was completely useless.

“...?” Prota looked worriedly at John.

“Go,” he nodded. “I’ll be fine. Protect Fate.”

Prota, now set with a mission, climbed down after the masked boy. If she wasn’t strong yet, she’d get stronger, right here, right now.

~~~

The stone golem was truly massive. It had been a bit hard to judge from on top of the cliff, but the thing was about the size of a house.

Fate considered his battle plan. The thing was probably slow, but a singular hit from it would mean the end. Fire mixed with air… no, that probably wouldn’t be strong enough. Water magic? The golem probably wasn’t an elemental, so water would probably just annoy it…

With a sigh, he unsheathed his sword. A singular curved blade, incredibly sharp and shining in the sun. It was a beautiful thing, clearly forged by a master. The handle was made of wood, simple but intricate, engraved with symbols lost to time.

“Prota. Back me up,” Fate said to the girl.

Prota normally would’ve hesitated, but since John had told her to protect Fate, she’d listen to most of Fate’s commands. More than that, though, she wanted to watch the boy John held in such high regard for herself. Just how strong was this so called [Protagonist]?

Strengthening his body with mana, Fate cast a wind spell around his feet and leapt up, striking first. Empowering his sword with flames, he slashed downwards, and the blade cut through stone like butter.

Unfortunately, despite how easily Fate had cut the golem, it was still a four-foot-long sword against a monster the size of a house.

There was a loud groaning sound as the thing woke up, dust and rocks falling to the ground as it rose to its full height, two tiny little lights in holes where its head was. Those two little lights pointed down, looking at Fate and his party.

“Crap,” Fate said, looking up at the monster. “Kit, can you help here?”

Fate’s fox jumped off his shoulder and scampered away, apparently helping in its own way.

“Prota! Don’t focus on hitting it. Just focus on restricting its movement!” Fate commanded. “Use fire magic to cripple its legs or ice to slow down its movements!”

Prota nodded, channelling wind and fire in her hands, then immediately blasted the golem's legs with a massive explosion. Not wasting any time, she drew mana from the beast, re-energizing herself…

Wait a minute. Couldn’t she just beat the thing by draining all of its mana? Where was the issue?

[That won’t work].

A message appeared in her system, this one from Zero.

[Soul Siphon doesn’t work like that. You can try, but beasts are… um… well, they’re inherently different that people and other beings that use mana. I’m not really sure why, but… it just doesn’t work like that. Their mana’s a bit different]

[Yeah, cause the [Author’s] a dumbass that didn’t think of this before hand]

[John you’re not helping]

[I’m pointing out the obvious]

[Just ask Fate later if you’re really that mad about it]

[Yeah? What do you want me to say, “my sister can absorb mana but can’t kill beasts with that ability, why not?”]

The advice finished, Prota turned her attention back to the monster. Fate was leaping from stone to stone, cleanly cutting off sizeable chunks of the beast. Occasionally, a bright light would appear in his hands, then shoot out as a torrent of flames, scorching the beast. Other times, he would freeze the thing to make the stone brittle and then smash it to pieces with his bare hands.

It roared, but it was way too slow to catch Fate. There was also a sort of haze of heat around its eyes, likely the fox’s doing. The boy had an instinct for battle. There was no hesitation in his movement, no fear when making a risky decision, with raw strength and skill to back it up.

Still, if he got hit once, it would be disastrous.

Prota watched in awe. John had trained her to move, and she’d expanded on that a bit on her own, but Fate’s entire body was like a well oiled machine, not a single movement wasted. Sometimes the golem would miss him by mere inches, but Fate never wavered and continued to cut away.

“Strong…”

To grow to that level. What would she need to do? How far away was she? It was a little disheartening. As a result, she lost focus for a brief moment, and the flow of mana from the golem to her stopped.

“A few more cuts,” Fate thought to himself.

The golem’s legs were gone, stopping it from moving around, and one of its arms was gone as well. It had taken dozens of cuts and just as many blasts of magic, but he was close. Kit was doing a good job of confusing the golem’s senses, Prota was providing adequate support, and-

“Fate!” he heard John yell.

He spun around to see a newly grown arm emerge from the golem, the stone quickly rising up towards him.

“Guh- what the?!” he gasped, pushing himself out of the way with a gust of wind, but the singular attack had thrown him off course.

Without a target, the golem turned to Prota, who froze in fear. This overwhelming pressure. Standing in the face of certain death.

“Prota! What are you doing? Move!” Fate yelled, and she snapped out of her trance.

That was right. Didn’t she want to be stronger? If she wasn’t strong, then John would leave her, right? Somehow, that lie had turned into a truth. Despair charged her body as she clenched her fists, then raised her hands, summoning a large fireball. With a desperate yell, she threw it at the golem, stopping its movements momentarily, but it was only for a moment. Absorbing mana had been lowering the monster’s defences. Now, the creature was truly as hard as stone.

“Ah… ah.” Prota felt her legs give out as the golem easily reformed.

Despite having died dozens of times, she still couldn’t shake off the fears that haunted her.

Memories from her past resurfaced. Living on the streets, cowering under the attacks of men claiming to purge the world of an evil that couldn’t be left alone. Starving, struggling to survive, to live, those emotions came back.

Without John, she couldn’t shake off the instinctive fear of death.

Suddenly, a loud crack rang out through the air, and the golem roared, covering its face. It staggered backwards, slowly falling as it lost its balance.

“The light in one of its eyes… it’s gone?” Fate muttered.

Having been given enough time to recover, Fate plunged his sword into the other eye, extinguishing the remaining light. With that, the golem became inanimate and crumbled to mere stone.

“Huff… huff… its weakness… was the eyes the whole time?”

Fate looked up at the cliff to see John sitting cross legged. His face couldn’t be seen from this distance, but he was waving at them down below, then gave what Fate assumed was a thumbs up.

“Was that him?”

~~~

John was happily humming to himself. Fate was a magnificent fighter indeed.

“Good orders… clean, precise movement, no hesitation, good strategy… I wonder who he was in his previous life?” he muttered to himself. A notepad popped up in his system, and he started writing down possibilities.

[Soldier]

[King]

[Commander]

[Assassin]

“Hey. Did you notice Prota?”

“She got scared, right?” John shrugged. “I used to get scared too, remember? I mean, as living beings, it would suck if we weren’t afraid of dying.”

John heard Zero sigh deeply.

“You still don’t understand people, do you?”

“...?”

“You should look after Prota a bit better if you really care for her.”

“But I don’t-”

“Then you should get your shit together quickly,” Zero said as John watched Prota climb back up the rope with a sullen expression.

It was the same blank face as usual, but somehow, it felt a bit more disappointed.

“She’s gonna need your help real soon.”

“Oh, yeah, great. Be more vague, will you?”

“You should try to figure something out soon. Or, well, you could do what you always do.”

“And what would that be?”

“Let things sort themselves out. You’re pretty good at that, right? Just don’t say I didn’t warn you.”