His suspicion bar is nearly full, and his affection is rather low. Not completely empty, but very close to it. I wonder if I can reason with him since there is still some affection for me there.

Alex steps inside of my shop and closes the door. He then meets me eye.

"Aria, we need to talk." All of the warmth that had been in Alex's eyes and voice are gone.

"Okay Alex, we can talk. What's going on?" I ask, concern strong in my voice.

"I tried to ignore them all Aria, I really tried."

"You tried to ignore who Alex? What are you talking about?"

Alex looks uncertain for a moment but then steels his resolve. "Everyone Aria, just everyone. There is almost no one that has anything nice to say about you. From you cursing people to laughing at other people's misfortune. I didn't think that those people could be right. I mean, all of the time that I spent with you, you have been nothing but kind."

"And that's who I am. I thought you have been getting to know me pretty well this last week."

"How can I believe you though! When everything and everyone tells me that I am wrong!"

"Surely not everyone, you met some of the shop keepers with me, remember?"

"Of course, they aren't going to talk bad about you, they need your money! Even your friends are telling me to stay away from you! That you are a snake, that when I least expect it, you will bite me!"

"I will bite you? Are you kidding me right now?" I ask, voice and hurt raising. "How can you trust them? Do you even know any of them?!"

"That's what I was telling myself too, that I should trust my own opinions. That I don't know them, that you have been kind and welcoming. After having multiple people coming into my shop however, I decided to ask around about you."

"Why didn't you come talk to me about this at all?"

"Because Aria, I can only assume that you would lie to me."

"But Alex, I haven't lied to you at all! Not in any of the time that I have known you!" I say, trying to get through to him.

"No." he says shaking his head. "How can everyone be wrong Aria. Everyone. I cannot trust your word against everyone else. Also, what I heard yesterday won't leave my head."

"What did you hear yesterday?" I ask him worried about what he is going to say. It seems I am not turning this conversation to be in my favor at all.

"YOU ALMOST LET A CHILD DIE ARIA!" he screams at me.

"I have no idea what you are talking about Alex." I tell him, confused.

"There was a child in the road and instead of helping him you threw rocks at both him and the driver. That could have spooked the horses and put the child in more danger!"

"I was just trying to get the child and driver aware of what was about to happen. If I hadn't thrown the rocks he would have been trampled. If I tried to run into the road I would have been trampled. It was the best solution I had."

"So, you admit that you did that?"

"Yes."

"Then is it possible you did anything else anyone is accusing you of?"

"I have no idea what they are accusing me of." I tell Alex, resignation in my voice.

"Our relationship ends here." he tells me, and I see defeat on his face. "Do you mind if I go get the relic that we made together?" he asks me.

"Of course, Alex. You know where it is."

"I need one last hug. I have to say goodbye to move on."

If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.

"Okay." I say. It seems that he is just sad, not murderous so I allow him to get close. He then moves towards me swiftly.

It seems that Blizzie sees something that I do not as he shouts, "No I will not let you hurt Aria!" and jumps in front of me. I see something flash and then Blizzie knocked off of the counter.

I look down in horror and see Blizzie and a knife on the floor. Luckily Blizzie isn't hurt.

"My sword protected me! I did it! I protected you!" Blizzie says and I hear pride in his voice. "Take my sword Aria! Protect yourself!"

"You just tried to kill Blizzie!" I scream at him.

"If it helps, I was trying to kill you."

Blizzie has a good point. I step on Alex's lost knife and pull the dagger off of the belt around Blizzie. After I have my dagger, I move faster than I knew I could. It is like I am stepping through our shadows and popping up behind Alex. I press the cold blade of my dagger against Alex's throat. I see the smallest drop of blood form. Good, now he knows I am serious.

"Now it is your turn to listen. I will not hear anymore accusations or defamation against my character. The person that you saw in me during our time together is the real Aria. I have been framed since I was little, creating a negative perception towards me. Throwing those rocks was the only action that anyone would accept from me.

"My so-called friends turned their backs on me. They decided I was automatically a different person when I was taken into the palace. I wasn't, I was just made to get an education. Which is a good thing so they should have been happy for me. If they stayed friends with me, I would have asked if they could sit in on my lessons and everything! Instead, they befriended my stepbrother who was mean to me and left bruises on my skin.

"The only person you can call my friend right now has me acting like a person I don't want to be. Then you entered into my life. You didn't know me; you had no preconceived notions. I finally had a human in my life that I could be myself with. That I thought wouldn't judge me but would instead get to know me. I felt seen. I felt cared about!

"What a fool I am. You are just like everyone else in this cursed world. However, for the affection that I had for you I will not allow you to kill me."

I take my knife away from his throat and spin him around to face me. Before he can react, I plunge my dagger into myself.

"Agh I hit my ribs." I say, wincing in pain. "This is harder than it looks." I tell him then slam the dagger into myself as many times as it takes before I hit my heart. There is blood splashing onto the ground around me. Alex is still close enough that some gets on him.

Even being as close to me as he is, Alex doesn't move to stop me. Instead, he looks frozen in place. I guess out of fight, flee or freeze he has the freeze response.

"No!" I head Blizzie shout, and I collapse onto the ground, falling onto my knife, driving it deeper into my body. I cough up chunks of blood, and what is possibly lung tissue, and just lay there waiting for my last breath.

"Don't worry Blizzie. This isn't the end. It's just a setback." I say and try to pet him. I am barely able to lift my hand, so he wiggles his small body beneath it. In my last moments I glance up at Alex and see the shock and horror on his face. Above his head his affection bar has gone up. I guess he chose to believe me in the end. I close my eyes and let the last thing I sense to be Blizzie snuggling against my hand.

Death By Suicide

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Aiden wakes up and looks at his journal. It was the first thing that he did every morning. He reads the last date that was written and then begins to read the journal entries. It is how he starts every day. It looks like the last day written was Arianus 16th. Aiden checks his calendar to see how it measures up to the day reflected on it. Arianus 11th. That was the farthest that he had ever gone.

Ever since he woke up in this world he had been doing his best to learn things quickly. It seems that he and Aiden have very similar personalities and it is easy to tap into his memories. It's rather convenient.

"I guess we have a lot to read today, don't we Sophianna?" he asks the small white cat laying on the bed with him.

"Do we?" she asks, sitting up and beginning to groom herself.

"It looks like we lost nearly an entire week this time." he says and lets out a breath. He wonders if he got any information to help guide him in how he is supposed to save this world.

"Can you remind me what we are supposed to be doing?" Princess Sophianna asks him. Aiden supposes that it makes some sense the she cannot remember their goal. Also she is a cat, so it is possible that she chooses not to remember.

"I was called to save this world. And as my familiar it is your job to help me."

"Right. And why do you have to save this world? How do you know that you are supposed to be the one to save it."

"Because I am not from this world. I was brought in to save it. Isekai 101." Aiden tells her. Reminding her of this makes him think of his life. The life that he had before this one.

Aiden kept his days rather busy. Of course back in his old life his name was Elliot. He worked three twelves at the crisis line working the chats from home. He had started on the phones in the office, but it was too loud and distracting for him. He likes helping people but not the challenge of trying to do his job alongside the noise. And commentary.

Crisis was a job that he kind of fell into. He was bulk applying for jobs to help him pay for college. He had been going to college for library science before he got pulled into this crazy world. It was a tough load. However, he had his escapes.

Elliot loved to escape into books and video games, often flipping between the two. However when he got into games, he obsessed over them. To be fair, he actually obsessed over all of the things that he liked. Books, games, people. Before getting pulled into this new world his biggest obsessions were My Fair Lady, I Love Thee Tenderly, and Sugar Bunny.

Elliot was obsessed with any good dating sim that he played and was able to beat them quickly, and easily. He even wrote playthroughs of them. He never recorded them though. That wasn't for him. He admired the people that were willing and able to do that. However, My Fair Lady, I Love Thee Tenderly was different. He wasn't able to unlock and beat the hidden route. He broke down and looked online to see if anyone else had. They hadn't been able to. He wanted to unlock all of the secrets of this game and all of the CGs. He couldn't do this until he found and beat the hidden route.

As for his obsession with Sugar Bunny? That has been going on for a while now. Elliot found it fun to watch streamers sometimes. He found it fun to see the way that others approached games. He felt a feeling of camaraderie.

One day while watching streamers there she was. A new streamer. Nervous but oh so cute. She showed up on his feed and from then on he watched all of her streams. He never missed one. He always left positive comments. It was obvious they meant a lot to her.

Eventually it got to the point that she needed moderators. He threw his hat in the ring right away. She knew his name, knew that he had been with her all this time. She accepted him immediately. It lifted his spirits, made him feel cared about and special.

It became even more clear that Sugar Bunny was something special when she called all of her mods together to ask them what days and times worked the best for them. She knew and understood that they all had lives and that she should come second to those lives. Together they decided on the days and times that she should stream (Mon, Tues and Wed for three hours). To help fill some of the rest of the time she would upload some not live videos.

Elliot was a bit embarrassed about his obsession for Sugar Bunny. He stalked her socials, found out her real name and looked for everything he could about her. The more he found out about her, the more he fell head over heels for her. Too bad she wouldn't acknowledge him as more than a trusted mod. Not a bad place to start though, as she put a lot of trust in her mods.

One night after a particularly hard day he crawled into his bed and continued to search for the true route. He fell asleep playing. When he woke up it was to a dark room with someone speaking to him.

"Welcome to your new life. Your goal is to help save the world from My Fair Lady, I Love Thee Tenderly. It is obvious that you care about this world, from all of the time you put into it. Your new life is the librarian, Aiden's. To help you keep track of this world I will give you a journal that will record all of your days, even if they reset."

"Why would they reset."

"That is a great question." the voice said to him.

"You aren't going to answer it are you?" Elliot asks him.

"No. Help undo the corruption. Good luck and try to have some fun!"

And with that Elliot was pulled into this new world.