{I was tricked into going hunting in the forest to gain my father’s recognition, but I met an advanced Magic Beast and almost lost my life.}

Fortunately for Damian, although Iris was hesitant and unfocused at the beginning, she agreed to cooperate and tell him everything that he needed to know.

And compared to the rigid Character Setting page that hid many details, Iris was just able to summarize her life down to the really important parts.

‘At least I won’t have to hunt down the clues in this realistic patch.’

Just like many of the playable characters in Fate’s Guide, Iris’ backstory was as standard as abandoned stories could be.

Her father was not only a Duke but also the Head of the Platina Family renowned for producing generations after generations of Illustrious Knights. He was said to be capable of contending with the Legendary Heads of the past with enough time.

Regrettably, his beloved wife was unable to bear any children. Everyone was afraid that his great bloodline would go to waste.

Wanting to remain loyal, the Platina Family Head ignored it for a while, but under constant persuasion, he caved in and took another spouse to produce a suitable heir.

At first, he did it out of duty, yet with time, he became more and more distant from his first wife, sending her into an outrage. However, all of that quickly ended with the birth of his first child.

‘Tough.’

The long-awaited newborn was a girl! To make matters worse, the mother also died months after she gave birth!

The Duke was depressed after what happened for years. In the end, he continued accepting different partners till he produced the male heir that everyone asked for, but his heart had long turned ice cold.

He blamed everything on the child that took away his true love. Not to mention raising her, he couldn’t even get himself to call her by the beautiful name that her mother had chosen, Iris.

The sentiment of the rest of the family was no better. Iris was less talented than even commoners. Whether it was Aura Nurturing or Weapon practice, she was at the bottom of the bottom.

She wasn’t invited to it, to begin with, but at a certain point, Iris was even told to stop attending the training that she persevered through relying on nothing other than pure well.

While the Duke ignored all of his wives and only wielded his sword behind closed doors, the first wife still held great influence on the family.

And since she also considered Iris to be the reason she lost the Duke’s love, the first wife also made sure that Iris’s life was a living hell…

In the end, after living two decades of misery, she had somehow fallen into this wretched place.

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.

{The Family’s butler showed up and saved me in the end, but as we passed by the entrance of a hidden Labyrinth, someone pushed me in…}

Now that she was no longer in panic, Iris knew deep down how she ended up like this. She was just trying to think otherwise.

“Aha! I know that there was something!”

While he was listening to Iris’ story, Damian had once again attempted to scour the room that he started in.

He couldn’t really check everything with a Goblin on his tail, but now that he did, he found an unexpected bounty hidden under one of the rocks!

{Ahem… Sir Damian, you were properly listening, right?}

“Oh, of course. It’s a very heart-wrenching story… You have truly suffered. I was just trying to find things that can help us get out of here quickly. This way, we can cut your suffering short!”

Transitioning from an empathetic face into an amicable smile, Damian showed Iris what he had just got. It was a half-broken sword.

{Ah, it’s my sword. It seems to have fallen to a different place from me for some reason. The Magic Beast almost completely ruined it though.}

Iris’ encounter with the Magic Beast was the most disastrous moment of her life, escaping with just tattered armor and a broken sword was already a miracle.

“Hmmm, it will still help a bit at least.”

Holding the sword in his hand, Damian felt slightly familiar with it. Just like he could use the skills of the character in the game without any limits, it seemed that Iris’ body came with its skills attached.

‘I will still need to find something more practical.’

While it was helpful to have an option other than the knives with slightly better reach, a Level 2 Swordsmanship skill was far from enough to do something useful with it.

If Damian were to choose the weapon, he had his eyes on another skill, but beggars couldn’t be choosers.

“Also, just Damian is fine, adding Sir feels cold and impractical. We will be spending quite a bit of time together, so it would be better to lose the honorifics.”

Since Damian believed that he needed someone to converse with to keep his sanity after respawning more than once, he wanted to at least be friendly with this character of his.

{Then… Damian.}

“Good.”

Moving on to the next task at hand, Damian looked at the small dead body that was still barely attached to its head.

It was only common sense to collect the loot after battles in games, but Damian was a bit apprehensive about doing it in reality. It wasn’t like he could tap the body to pick it up!

He had already stored both knives that the Goblin had as well as a pouch that contained some sort of jerky. However, Damian was sure that the internal loot would be worth much more.

‘Let’s try this first. Inspect Element.’

[ A Goblin’s Dead Body: A useless dead body that isn’t worth exploiting. Inedible Flesh. There might be something valuable inside. ]

Just like Inventory, Inspect Element was an inherent ability that the player passively had. In the game, the Wisdom Stat affected how much information one could receive from it, but Damian wasn’t sure which Stat was applied here.

‘As expected.’

A Goblin’s body wasn’t worth harvesting, but just like every single monster in the game, they had a chance of containing something useful in their heart.

‘I guess I have to do it.’

Damian took out the knife that had its poison wiped in the Goblin’s neck and tried to open its chest. However, unlike when he just had to deal a fatal blow, he struggled to dissect the monster.

‘Wait, what if…’

“Iris, how do you use Aura?”

{Hm? You just have to focus on your heart and the outlet that you plan to use, but…}

Damian didn’t wait for Iris to finish explaining as he already attempted what she said. A few seconds later, a platinum hue started shining on his right hand.

‘Woah.’

The faintly glowing light quickly gathered at the tip of his fingers before completely transferring to the edge of the knife. Without hesitation, Damian stuck into the Goblin’s chest and pulled back!

Splat!

Blood spurted out, a few drops splattering on Damian’s face. Thankfully, the Goblin’s heart had already stopped pumping or the mess would have been much worse.

‘This should be done quickly.’

Feeling excited to be personally wielding something like this, Damian raised the knife to go for more. However…

‘Huh?’

The strike ended up being ineffective again, the luster surrounding the knife could be no longer seen.

{Ah, this is what I was trying to tell you… I can’t use Aura for long.}

This was Damian’s first taste of a chosen one’s incompetence.