“Look. I’m kinda just disappointed with this whole world.” Said Sam after sighing with the type of relief that someone was wildholding from themselves for far too long. He hadn’t talked to anybody else about this, as he probably thought it would make him look weak.

“Yea, I get it. Real worlds probably suck when you compare to what you’re used to. People here actually think about what they’re doing.” I doubted that the filler worlds Sam was used to actually produced any philosophers or great thinkers. Worlds where kings were unquestioned and all powerful forever weren’t real. They could only exist with a populace or nobles that were just plain dumb.

“What’s the point in even trying when I’m not on top? I was supposed to be the most special person alive in this world, and then along came you with your blessings and robotic armour.” The air got a lot thicker with the tension he was trying to exude, but I acted like I didn’t notice it. Unwavering positivity and support were the only way I could possibly get him to be less hostile.

“Why haven’t you told the Revifier about that? Wouldn’t my armour be something she’d care about?”

“Do you think I can just do that? Do you know how many favours I had to cash in just to try to put you in your place? And yet here you are, still the leader, still the most powerful, still the protagonist of this goddamn world. You stole what was rightfully mine.” Sam said in a quiet yet obviously angry tone. He really did have some sort of main character complex.

“Reincarnators are a dime a dozen. Why would you think that makes you special?” The only way to humble somebody like him is to simply hit them with the reality of the situation. The power really went to his head in his first world, but there was something deeper to his feelings. I didn’t know exactly what it was, but I knew something was there.

“It’s… uhm… none of your damn business.” Sam tried to walk away again, but I just kept following him.

“It is. I need to know why you think you’re so much more special than everybody else. You’ve acknowledged that I’m the leader, so–” I tried saying, but I already got on his nerves, so he interrupted me.

“Stop trying to ‘fix’ me! I know what you’re trying to do. You think that being able to talk moderately well means that you can deal with every problem by talking it out. You can’t. We are fundamentally different and no amount of talking is going to fix this problem. Mind your own business like you always do. Honestly, I liked you better when you were asleep.” I was speechless. I was expecting him to be somewhat cooperative, but I wasn’t as good as Christian when it came to talking, so that hope was doomed from the start. He probably expected me to give up, but that just meant he didn’t know me well enough. I wasn’t about to give up just because I wasn’t as emotionally intelligent as Christian yet.

“That’s the attitude keeping you back. Would a real ‘protagonist’ expect everything to be easy? Or would he embrace the challenges of life?” I said in what he would perceive as an off-topic sentence. “What I’m doing is embracing the challenge of making this team something everybody in it would be proud of. What you’re doing is fighting back because getting past your narcissism would be too hard. It would be a challenge, and you don’t like to be challenged. That’s the difference between you and me, and why you will never be a ‘protagonist’.” It did sound incredibly cheesy, but that was something I could live with.

“W-What? You think that you’re actually achieving anything here? You sleep most of the time! How is that ‘making this team something everyone would be proud of’.” Arguing with him would be worse than convincing him through a normal discussion. The best thing arguing with someone can do is plant an idea into their head that will constantly itch away if not directly addressed. Nobody was ever convinced while arguing. People only realised if they were wrong or not afterwards, and only admit it later on.

“I don’t need to talk all the time to make this team great. You wanna know who stops all of your petty debates so none of you end up hating each other? You know who respects the fact that he isn’t all powerful and relies on his teammates to achieve his goal? Me.” Sam was about to respond, but I couldn’t let that happen. I wouldn’t let it become an actual argument. A single fumble from me would mean he could fool himself into thinking he was right. If we actually argued, it would only be a matter of time before I said something incorrect. “I’m not saying this to gloat. I’m saying this to show you the difference between you and me. I could just let this party fall apart and then run off with the demoness, but that would be far too easy, and none of us would benefit from it. We’re stuck together for now, and I’m trying to not make it an agonising experience for everyone. I just hope you also try to do that, and stop opposing me because of an aura of importance I stole from you.” I walked off, not letting him respond. If everything went according to plan, he’d stew over what I said and eventually start acting better while I was sleeping so I couldn’t see that he knew I was right. I didn’t need him to admit I was right, I just needed him to do what’s right

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I walked through the museum until I saw the demoness exactly where I left her. Christian and Anna were somewhere else though. The demoness looked awfully sombre before seeing me and smiling. She walked up to me immediately and looked me up and down as she prepared to say something.

“Where were you? You can’t just leave me like that.” Said the demoness.

“What? Can’t I do something without you knowing?” The demoness stopped herself before she could instinctively say ‘no’. She must’ve reminded herself of how her dad would’ve acted, and immediately reconsidered what she’d say.

“You can, but I’d appreciate it if you didn’t. Leaving me like that is just plain rude.” She said before looking deeper into the Museum. “Come on, let’s go after the humans.” She grabbed me and dragged me along before I could even agree, as if afraid that I’d slip away from her again.

“Stop doing that, I’m not leaving you.” She let go, and I followed her. “Why didn’t you go with them? I would’ve found you eventually.”

“Because you’re the only reason I’m still here. Why would I wanna follow them? You’d stay away from my sight for longer if I went with them.” She really didn’t want to let go of the whole ‘I own you’ thing. Why must I have been passed around like an object? I could fool myself into believing I could free myself from Anna’s grasp by killing the king of the world, but the demoness seemed like a mountain I could never climb. What chance did I stand against somebody who glitched out the world with their mere name.

“Don’t you feel close to them? You’ve spent longer talking to them than to me.” Her and Christian would always challenge each other to the most frivolous of competitions (which would most likely involve drinking themselves to death), and the demoness would win each and every single one of them. Even without that, I was asleep for most of the time, so of course the demoness would talk more with everyone else.

“Yea, but talk is cheap. It’s the difference between a friend and a close friend. They’re fine, but you’re better.” I still didn’t know what attracted her to me so much. Sure, I was good at fighting, but we hadn’t fought in ages. Was it my cooking? The random chatter I had with her while cooking? Something else? Who honestly knew.

“I’m not as good as you think I am.” She chuckled at my response before spinning around and pressing her finger against my chest.

“Yes you are. I think you are that good, so you are that good. Any questions?” She said playfully, fully expecting me to stay silent.

“No ma’am.” I said before pushing her off and continuing down the path she was going in. She followed me by my side before snickering.

“You called me ‘ma’am’? I’m not that old.”

“Yea? Aren’t you a bazillion years old or something?” She pouted as I responded, knowing that I was ultimately right.

“Yea? But I’m still relatively young. Demons just age differently than humans.” She sounded exactly like someone trying to pretend that they haven’t aged into their thirties, aka, me. I kept pretending to be young even as I aged, but my aged body suffering from lack of exercise couldn’t keep up the illusion.

“Shush. I don’t care if you’re super old. I’m in my thirties if you translate my robotic age into the human equivalent. This body was already starting to give out, so don’t feel bad about yours getting more sluggish.” I was actually in my thirties, but I had to keep up the facade about me being a robot.

“Don’t robots just replace their parts to stay young?” She said as we saw Christian and Anna down the hall looking at an old stove while chatting. The bricks that made up the oven popped out as the tiny strip of mortar wasn’t applied on the outer rim of the bricks. The stove itself had a metallic latch for wood that was used as fuel for the fire, and above it was an open hole where the stuff being cooked would presumably be put. A dull, patterned carpet was on top of it all, trying to hide the flat roof of the oven,

“We already barely have a soul. If we replace parts too often it just fades away.” I said while completely making it up. All my lies had to do is sound credible, and to someone as clueless as the demoness, anything I told her was credible.