November 5th, year 781 of the Imperial calendar

After what seemed like an eternity inside that god forsaken place, I opened my eyes.

Spending another 2 minutes adjusting my eyes to the light, I hurriedly scanned my surroundings.

Much to my surprise, I was in a fluffy bed instead of lying on the cold, hard floor. The interior of the room I was in looked extravagant, so it was obviously not my room.

That was when I noticed that someone was staring at me. It was not by a doctor, but a little girl around my age.

She looked like a noble, not the haughty kind but the gracious and kind type instead. From her silky blonde hair, sky blue eyes to her seemingly frail body, everything about her screams lovable, calling the urge to protect her from within me.

We made eye contact. I fully expected her to fall onto the ground and start begging for her life. But to my surprise, she looked at me with eyes full of curiosity and joy, instead of fear.

As far as I could tell, there are two types of people that are not severely affected by my eyes: People that are at least 2 minor ranks higher than me and people that have stronger mental strength than me.

That meant, whoever the girl was, she was not to be underestimated despite her petite frame. Just as I was tensing up, preparing to defend myself if necessary, she ran out of the room, shouting on top of her lungs. "Mom, come! He's awake!".

'How energetic...', I sighed.

She would definitely get along well with Raun, although I was getting irritated imagining him being with one more cute girl.

Wasn't taking Amelia enough?

Pausing my thoughts there, I sat dumbfoundedly, staring at the empty but large hallway beyond the door.

From what I can see in the hallway, I was definitely in a mansion, a big one at that.

Tok—! Tok—! Tok—!...

Before I could take in more from my surroundings, however, loud footsteps rang out indicating that someone was moving towards my room.

Soon enough, a lady in her thirties appeared.

'Is she that girl's mother?', I wondered, as she looked just like the older version of the girl.

She then entered the room and sat on a chair. Her eyes full of kindness and sympathy towards me.

"Hello, Theodore." She said in a calm voice.

In response, I stared back at her while confusion slowly overtook my emotions.

'How did she know my name?'

Mistaking my silence for something else, the lady sighed and slowly stood up.

"I'm viscount Irene Nightshade", she said. "You're probably shocked about all that had happened to you so I'll give you time to collect your thoughts"

'Wha do you me—'

Suddenly, the memories of that night returned to me.

'Mother... She didn't abandon me, right?'

There was no reasons to, I refused to believe it.

'Wait... wasn't there a reason already?'

And it was damned good reason at that.

I was basically the thing that ruined her life, that made her unable to enjoy her youth.

Thinking back, didn't the woman introduce herself as viscount Nightshade?

'That means what the letter said is true! I was abandoned!"

I could feel tears welling in the corners of my eyes. The person I thought loved me the most left me behind, does that mean all the things she have done for me, the love and care she gave me was fake?

'NO!', I fervently shook my head.

I was in denial. After all, I didn't think I could bear living anymore if that was the case.

Before long, I thought of a perfect excuse for why mother did so.

'That's right, the voice!'

'Grandpa' was definitely trying to do something weird to me. And the voice that chased him away said that my mother was responsible for it being there.

'That means... mother didn't leave me!'

She may have gone to where the voice was to seek protection for me!

'That is the case, no, that has to be the case', I muttered again and again like a broken record.

...

----------------------------------------

Feeling a bit better after consoling myself, I started to recall what happened after the voice disappeared.

Well, it's something quite absurd: The world is ending in 20 years.

No, I'm not some naive 10 years old believing in the homeless man shouting about the apocalypse descending onto the world. Instead, it is based on my memories, no, more accurately, my grandfather's memories.

I was basically forced to relive through my grandfather's life, or well, lives after the mysterious voice disappeared.

My grandfather's name was Marcos Der- No, that's not right, she was named Diana Walker.

I saw through the entirety of her youth, from her making friends to her first time... masturbating.

'Yeah... I'd better erase that memories from my mind as soon as possible'

Diana liked to play video games and read novels in her free time. Despite that, however, she still acquired PHDs in both Physics and Chemistry.

Her life was nothing too remarkable though, apart from the fact that she was in a different world than the one I'm living in.

Her world was named 'Earth'. Its technologies far surpasses that of my own's.

Apparently, magic, Mana, and everything that is commonplace here was considered fiction in her world.

Apart from that, nothing big happened until the day she died by... getting hit my a truck.

'How cliché'

After waking up, she found himself in a strange world, my world. Luckily for her, she read enough transmigration novels to know what first to do when she fell into this situation, which is to collect information.

She got her first piece of information pretty early on: she was now a guy. That was not the kind of knowledge she wished she had on her first day in a foreign world.

She was so shocked that she fainted immediately, in the wilderness, with no signs of civilization in sight. Luckily for her, no starving monsters came to disturb her sleep and she finally accepted her new identity after several days of weeping loudly.

After calming himself down, he began shouting very embarrassing chants and incarnations, trying to use magic the same way as the novels he had read.

"WHAT THE HELL?", he shouted, not because a massive magic fire ball appeared in front of him. But because—

"WHY ISN'T IT WORKING?"

—He was enraged that he couldn't use magic... at least not immediately.

"Alright then", he muttered in a low voice, trying to calm himself down. "How about... this! STATUS!"

Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

Lucky for him, this world has a status screen. However—

"What the fuck is this bullshit? Where's my OP System?"

—His excitement died as soon as he found out that it was not the 'OP system' that protagonist of novels usually have.

Instead, the Status screen of this world just showed him his abysmally small stats along with his Skills and Battle art tabs which were empty.

Frustrated, he stood up and walked further into the woods. "Just you wait... I will cultivate my power and come back to beat the shit out of whichever Gods that transmigrated me here!"

...

Turns out that watching survival shows doesn't automatically make you a survival expert, and Diana, now named himself Marcos Dervit, found that out the hard way.

He picked up berries, thinking that they were edible, only to have diarrhea a day later, that was pretty amusing to see. He tried to make a shelter but it just collapsed on him when he was sleeping.

"God fucking dammit!", he glared towards the sky. "Couldn't have you give me some survival tools? What kind of stingy gods are you?"

Just as he was about to die from dehydration and starvation, however, he heard a call for help.

"SOMEBODY HELP ME!"

Being the overly familiar with this cliché development, he ran head-first into the place the sound was coming from, completely letting the fact that the voice sounded masculine instead of feminine slip from his mind.

"Be not afraid, young miss, for I, Marcos Dervit, am here!"

He made a gut-pose as he stood atop a boulder.

After praising himself inwardly for having made such a heroic entrance, he turned his gaze downwards towards the source of the scream he heard earlier.

What he found was a lone carriage that somehow ended up in the middle of the forest, surrounded by 3 green gremlins known as goblins.

Immediately, Marcos jumped down from the boulder and landed on a goblin's head.

SPLASH—!

The goblin's skull splattered upon impact, which was pretty impressive of Marcos considering his abysmally weak stats.

Seeing the dead goblin under his feet, Marcos' ego was boosted even further. He held his head up high, and rushed towards the remaining goblins.

He raised his fist up, and punched the goblin closest to him.

BAM—!

A loud sound rang out, but it wasn't due to Marcos' fist hitting the goblin. Instead, it was the sound of the goblin's club slamming into Marcos' sides.

"KURGGGGGH!", he lets out a painful groan.

He turned his gaze up, only to see the 2 remaining goblins towering over him, preparing to beat him to death to avenge their brethren.

As I, Theodore Gray, am here and watching his memories, it wouldn't take a genius to figure out that he survived the encounter.

And survive he did. Just as the goblin was about to brought down its club onto his head, the escorts of the carriage arrived, and killed the goblins almost immediately.

The carriage was soon swung open.

Marcos, ignoring the pain, looked at the carriage with anticipation.

GULP—!

'It's definitely a noble lady', he thought.

'H- How should I go about this...'

He was considering whether to go with the story of a great knight who somehow lost his memory and got thrown into the forest, or to go with being an exiled noble who was forced to live in isolation.

Luckily, or well unluckily for him, he didn't need to agonize over the choices for long, as instead of the beautiful noble lady he was expecting, he was met with a fat and ugly middle aged man who was a merchant going sightseeing in the forest.

Swallowing the feeling of disgust, Marcos slowly stood up and bowed.

"Great sir! I happened to come across your carriage while wandering through the forest. Luckily for you, I have distracted the goblins long enough for your escorts to arrive"

"..."

"All I'm asking of you is to let me accompany you to the nearest town!"

The merchant, being a typical merchant, looked as if he was about to refuse Marcos' request. However—

"Father!"

—A soft yet elegant voice rang out from inside the carriage.

"I think we should repay my knight in shinning armo— keum! I mean we should repay our savior adequately!"

Sighing and shaking his head, the merchant turned his orc-like face towards Marcos. "You heard my daughter. Come on into the carriage before I change my mind"

Marcos happily complied and knelt before the carriage. "My lady, allow me to board the carriage with you"

A giggling sound came out of the carriage as he said so. "Very well, you may come into the carriage with me, honorable knight!"

...

"PFFFT! HEHAHAHAHAHAH! WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT?"

I had never laughed so hard in my entire life. If any of viscount Nightshade's servants came into my room right now, they would be questioning my sanity.

The source of my laughter was Marcos, who kept a sulky expression as he faced the merchant's daughter.

"What's the matter, my knight?", she asked with a a worried expression. "Are you feeling unwell?"

Jolting at the sudden question, Marcos shakily replied. "Y- Yes, my lady! I'm still experiencing pain from the goblin's attack earlier. So if you excuse me, I'll have to go consult with the doctor!"

CLANK—!

He then opened the door, went out and slammed it shut.

"Fucking hell! Why kind of monstrosity is she?", he muttered as soon as he got out.

The merchant's daughter was, in fact, every bit as ugly and fat as her father.

Just thinking of her smile as she called Marcos her 'knight' sent shivers down his spine.

"Alright then", he said to himself in a low voice after recovering from cringing. "I'll just have to make the best of this situation then"

...

"My knight! ...Will.... will we ever see each other again?"

Rolling his eyes, Marcos replied. "If fate allows, my lady"

He then slowly walked away, leaving the merchant's daughter with tears and snots all over her face to her father.

'That... was hell on earth', he thought.

The one-week trip to the nearest town was anything but short and enjoyable to Marcos.

He had to appease the merchant's daughter despite his disgust, scout with the escorts to keep up his appearances, and endure glares from the merchant.

The only silver lining was that he had a bigger ration than most of the escorts, as the merchant's daughter gave him parts of her ration.

'It would have been good if she hadn't insisted on spoonfeeding me every god damn time!'

Sighing, Marcos decided to spend the 10 Silvers the merchant gave him inside a tavern.

'It's the best place to wash away that god horrible memory after all'

...

BAM—!

Marcos abrupted slammed on his table.

Standing up, he marched straight to an old dwarf with heavy footsteps. Ignoring the gazes everyone in the tavern was giving him, he arrived before the dwarf and spoke.

"C- Can you repeat that again?"

"What is your deal kid?", the dwarf frowned. "Been eavesdropping on me aren't ya?"

Marcos' face turned red in embarrassment as the whole tavern laughed at him. After all, who wouldn't be if they had been found out to have been listening in to others' conversations?

However, Marcos persisted through the embarrassment and threw his remaining 5 Silvers at the dwarf.

"Repeat what you said again!"

Looking at the Silvers greedily, the old dwarf coughed and complied. "Keum! I was saying that young lizard Evanos succeeded the Grand Duke title from his father, Azzaert Ecertold"

Stuttering, Marcos looked at the dwarf in disbelief. "Y -You mean Evanos Ecertold, the Dragon Duke?"

"Yes. Although you'd have to wait for 2 weeks before you can officially call him 'Duke' ", he chuckled. "No idea why you'd pay me to hear publicly available information but I appreciate the money though"

"FUCKING YES", Marcos shouted on the top of his lungs. "HEHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

"Had he gone mad?", the dwarf frowned.

Seemingly not aware of the stares he was getting, Marcos continued to laugh. "MUAHHAHAHAHAHA! THANK YOU, GOD! HEHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

"Someone kick this dipshit out!"

BAM—!

...

Even after being kicked out of the tavern, Marcos was still giggling like a mad man.

After all, the Duke's name was the same as a Duke in his all-time favorite novel 'The holy swordsman'.

As soon as the dwarf revealed Evanos' name, Marcos knew for sure that he was in a novel.

And, although I'd hate to admit it, he was right. I couldn't really deny it after seeing that he had accurately predicted various future events.

How did he react upon realizing that absurd fact? Did he cower in fear because he was suddenly thrown inside this dangerous world? Or did he strived to get stronger to protect himself?

The answer was... none of that. Instead, he had the stupid ambition to include himself in the protagonist's harem. Although, it's a bit hard to achieve considering he was now a man and he was more than 70 years away from the start of the story.

After despairing for roughly 3 days, he came up with a plan, to take over the consciousness of his descendant - me.

'...What a terrifying but good plan', I thought. 'Unluckily for you, mother protected me!'

However, there was a big deterrence to his plan: He had to have sex to have a descendant in the first place.

So, he came up with another plan, to make a lot of money.

Unfortunately for him, he knew next to no way to get money easily without disrupting the plotline. As such, he resorted to what he does best, plagiarizing novels.

Surprisingly, the novels with overused plots that he copied from 'Earth' sold very well, making him a lot of cash. Thus, began his days of going around the Empire, frantically finding dark mages to secure a method to invade my consciousness.

Things went pretty smoothly for him from there, though it took him longer than he expected to find a wife. Problems arise when his wife was infertile, leading to his child - my mother - being born much later than he planned.

Not counting on the fertility of his wife, he disgustingly forced my mother to get pregnant with someone when she was only 15, the result of that was me.

'...I'm not sure how to feel about this...'

In fact, I felt very complicated. I didn't know who my father was, and Marcos didn't either.

Furthermore, I realized that the entire purpose of my existence was to be a vessel for grandfa— no, that bastard Marcos.

And that would have been the case if mother hadn't interfered with his plans and gave my life a new purpose.

My mother, Karin Gray found out about his plans somehow when I was still 2. Not wanting me to suffer, she took me and ran away from home.

Luckily, her close friend, who was now viscount Nightshade, protected her from Marcos.

'So that's why the viscount picked me up... it all makes sense'

Back to Marcos.

He spent the rest of his pathetic life pretty peacefully, aside from the times when he stalked me, including the time where he gave me that novel, giving me an obvious hint as to what he wanted to do.

Thinking back, it was understandable why mother was so angry.

Having recalled almost all of Marcos' memories, I couldn't help but to close my eyes, and sigh in frustration and... despair.

But before long, I opened my eyes again with a cold and disgusted glint.

The ending of 'The holy swordsman' was pretty bleak. The protagonist, along with his harem, defeated the Evil God.

All's good except for the fact that 90% of the world population died by the time the novel ended.

'Useless trash', I thought.

Why would someone as powerful and talented as him not be able to properly save the world you might ask? It's because he was a complete pushover. He spares villains left and right, believing that everyone aside from Void fiends deserves a 'second chance'.

As a result, many people he spared came back stronger in the future to seek revenge for their earlier defeats. When that happens, the protagonist would barely defeat them, before sparing them yet again. It was extremely idiotic.

As a result, the Void fiend was only responsible for 25% of the perished population. The remaining 75% was caused by an organization of villains that bore grudges against the protagonist.

Not wanting to be pitifully slaughtered before reuniting with my mother, I resolved myself to become the protagonist.

Although I'm pitifully weak, I will make full use of the trash Marcos' memories to change the ending, find my mother and live happily with her. Thus, I decided to go monster hunting as soon as I could.

I'm in a novel after all. How dangerous could it be?