It's only the friendly rival and me now.

The rest of the battlefield is no longer important.

Her character always felt shallow and forced, and her dialogue meaningless.

Her only role in the manga was to showcase that Aratsuki was much stronger, but not in this world.

My favorite hero struggles with the Minotaur, while Achilleus is almost invulnerable.

I wasn't a fan. Even her name eludes me, though that's my terrible memory.

The Princess Knight is about Aratsuki, and then there is the rest.

The Captain, the rival, and others.

And yet, it's only the two of us now.

Her, me, and a torrent of arrows approaching fast.

She glances at me and I can almost read her thoughts. Greed is in her arm's reach.

It's a bunch of archers, shooting at point-blank range, and with a dash, she could get them before their next volley. But she also knows, I can't make it to cover in time.

She is my cover.

She can shield me from the arrows and give up on Greed, or she can catch her, and I die.

We are both strangers with no connections to each other. Why would she save me?

Well, not getting stuck in this world is a good reason. Another one is that I'm a real person, or at least I hope. She hesitates as the arrows crawl towards us in almost slow motion.

Aratsuki glances at us, overwhelmed by the monster again, her eyes pleading.

Her rival makes a final decision, turning to face me, and wraps her arms around me.

It's not a cute hug.

She tackles me to push me to the ground. Even if she's leagues stronger, she's a girl in tattered armor, and I'm a head taller than her frame. That's the only way she can shield me.

And that she does.

The adrenaline in my system reaches its peak right as the arrows rain down on us.

Even if she's not my favorite character, she's still a hot anime waifu, clinging to me.

And our lives are in danger. She seemed invulnerable so far, but I know she isn't.

When the arrows hit, her face distorts into a painful grimace, then she reaches back to rip out one.

"They hit my fucking heel." She complains. Despite the intense battle, I never heard her character swear. The arrowhead is dripping with her blood, but something smells off. "God it hurts."

"Poison." The side of me hosting Odysseus already knows.

Her eyes widen, smelling the bloody tip and her hand begins to shake.

She drops the arrow, almost scratching my face too.

A second later, her mouth spews foam, and her entire body arching from the pain.

The sorceress might be in trouble here since she can't use magic, but she can make poison.

"A healer, quick!" I yell, rolling her arching body off me, noticing how light it is.

The tremors run along her entire height, and her eyes roll back into her skull.

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"Hurry."

Through the noise of clashing weapons and yells, I can only hear the evil laughter of the crimson demon. She's already gone, her hit-and-run tactic finally paying off.

Even if she aimed for me, she got a manga character, the strongest one, at least in this dream.

Aratsuki rushes to my side, which tells me the Minotaur retreated too, but it's too late.

The shaking stops, and her rival's body remains stiff.

Her face is still in that painful grimace, but she won't react to anything.

Yells, slaps, begging, nothing affects her anymore.

She's dead, and it must have been painful. In her last moments, she protected me.

She had a choice, leaving me behind and chasing glory, or saving me, at the cost of her life.

"Where's the healer?" Aratsuki screams, and I notice too late that the battle is over.

It's like someone is yanking me away from reality.

Everything disappears around me, both dead and living.

Is this it?

The Princess Knight said it would be sudden, but this is crazy. I still couldn't comprehend what happened, how close I was to death, and how someone died for me instead.

It feels like when a lift arrives at the destination, and my stomach lifts as I finish the journey.

Everything's black, I can't see anything, but my ears still ring from the battle cries.

Something hard is pushing against my forehead, and it takes all my strength to push it away.

No. I am pushing away myself. I rested my head on the desk with that strange scribble on it.

It's the Grande Library.

I can tell even before opening my eyes, as the familiar book smell fills my nostrils.

Then the darkness is gone too, and I notice the shelves around me.

"It's over. I'm back."

My voice sounds strange, no more than a mutter, and there is a light pressure on my throat.

I reach for it to check, but there's nothing. Despite this, my breaths come in ragged gasps.

Am I crying?

The Iliad is still open on the desk before me, and so is the Princess Knight below it. The last page shows the death of the friendly rival character at the hands of Greed.

No. That can't be. It was a celebration scene with that weird horse and one panel of the main evil as a teaser. The horse is gone, and the book? In the Iliad, the Greeks win like they did in the dream.

Flipping through the pages, the ending changed there too. What time is it? I've been in that dream for at least three days, but I couldn't lay here for that long.

Pulling my phone up, the date is the same. It's been only minutes since I last checked the screen days ago. And both books changed. Was Aratsuki telling the truth?

Right. The girl behind the counter, is she Aratsuki, or is it a strange coincidence? I jump, leaving the books to rush forward, but the place is empty. I'm the only one in the shop.