The temperature of the hallway dropped, and the entire mansion seemed to fall into shadow. Across from Tasuku’s desk sat two towering giants that embodied the very definition of wrath. Harold’s presence was small and insignificant, a mere pawn whose fate was in the hands of the two gods loomin in front of him. A titan of punishment who struck down all he deemed unworthy of his mercy, and a matron of judgment who gazed down from her throne, radiating a cruel atmosphere that made one acknowledge their every sin and beg for forgiveness.

         “...Mother!? Father!? W-what are you doing here…!?”

         “Harold Stokes!”

         What shocked him most wasn’t the fact that they were present at his meeting with the Summeragi. No, the most surprising and incomprehensible fact was that his parents were both somehow angry at him. But before his brain could wrap around the situation, a command bellowed throughout the entire room and slammed into his ears so hard that he wouldn’t be surprised if they rang. 

          “Get over here and sit down. Now!”

         All thoughts fled Harold's mind and were replaced with guilt and submission. His father’s voice wasn’t simply angry. The way he emphasized certain words over others, his commanding tone, and the disapproval and suppressed rage so clearly conveyed combined together to trigger an almost instinctual fear inside his son. Harold’s heart fell to his stomach, his limbs grew heavy, and-

         Kishino walked up to the chair sitting in between Hayden and Jessica, and hopped up without a second thought. On top of the desk were several potion bottles the size of his unenchanted LP potions, each containing a sparkling midnight blue liquid. And unlike the previous negotiation meetings, Tasuku’s wife Koyomi was also present at the opposite side of the desk. This only made Kishino more confused.

         “...”

         His heart pounded in his chest, but there was no fear. The only emotion running through his head was a cool, tense sharpness. 

          I shouldn’t panic and say anything to make this worse. That includes making excuses for no reason. 

         Kishino also knew from Harold’s memories that right now his father would probably explode at any words spoken out of line, so he refrained from speaking until he was spoken to.

          “…Harold, do you have anything that you would like to tell us?”

          The first to speak wasn’t Hayden, but Jessica. Kishino forced himself to look at the space between his mother’s eyebrows and mouthed off one of the first responses to cross his mind.

          “I’m sorry, I’ve been preparing a surprise gift for you, so I don’t know if this is about that or something else.“

          “What…!?” 

          His response seemed to catch nearly everyone present off guard, including himself. Kishino’s ‘surprise gift’ could mean the Withering medicine, the LP farming, or his real aura levels, and it would frame any one of them as a gift rather than a dirty secret. The only person that didn’t seem surprised was Koyomi, further adding to her aura of mystery.

          “You-Don’t change the subject!”

          Hayden slammed his fist into the wooden table, making the wards flicker and spark under the weight of the military general’s strength. Kishino turned to face Hayden and halted his swinging legs. 

           “I’ve given you everything! I’ve given you the greatest tutors in the land, elite servants other nobles would die for, and all the wealth you could ask for. And you betrayed all of that by scheming behind my back!?”            

           “Father, that’s not…!”

           Hayden’s screams hurt Kishino’s ears, but he didn’t dare turn his head away. That could be seen as a sign of disrespec-

           “That’s not what!? And what’s with that stupid look in your eyes!? Do you have no shame!?” 

           Hayden shot upwards, the force of his legs loudly slamming the chair backwards into the reinforced paper doors with superhuman strength. Kishino shrank back to appear as least threatening to his father’s control as possible. 

           Shit! Is this not about my secret projects? Is there anything I’ve ever done that’d be impossible to frame as a ‘surprise gift...?’

           Kishino stalled as his mind raced through all the possibilities, but that was too long for Hayden. 

           “So you have nothing to say!? Why you little!-”

           “Hayden, dear.”

           “What!?”

           Hayden redirected his rage at the one who spoke up-Jessica Stokes.

          “At this rate, nothing will get done. Let’s have the Summeragis explain the situation again.”

          “…Fine.”

          Hayden yanked his chair back up and thumped back into his seat, clearly discontent. 

          “We’re incredibly sorry to have caused this uproar. This was the result of us sticking our noses into places where we don’t belong, but... what we found was too concerning to let slide.”

          Tasuku led the preamble and Koyomi signalled to Kiryu, who took one of the potion bottles from the table and removed the cork. 

          What’s going on now? Did Tasuku somehow find out about our potions and our high aura levels? In that case, what’re these strange potions for?

          The questions only piled on as Kiryu unhesitatingly brought the bottle to his lips and took three large gulps. Immediately, everyone in the room could sense the change. Kiryu’s Aura and Will both suddenly inflamed and grew to almost half of Hayden’s strength, whereas before it’d barely been a fourth. The man himself let out a cry of pain before falling to one knee and accidentally spilling half the potion on the floor.

          “What is happening!? Is he alright!?”

          “Kiryu has just taken a drink of what is commonly known on the battlefield as Phoenix Tears. In exchange for massively increasing his strength for a time, the potion also takes a heavy toll on his body. At a low dosage like this, he should make a full recovery within a week.”

          Kishino’s eyes widened at the terrifying realization. If he looked closer, he could see that the midnight blue color wasn’t just sparkling. There were actually drifting particles of light scattered throughout the whole solution. 

          That potion’s a prototype of liquid astral bodies, the literal primary cause of Harold’s slow and painful death in the original game! And Tasuku just made Kiryuu drink it like that!??

          Something snapped inside Kishino. At that moment, he didn’t know if the rage filling his brain was his, Harold’s, or both of theirs. Without thinking, he made to get up out of his chair and rush to Kiryu's side. The man needed healing magic as soon as possible, first-aide or not! But before he could do anything, Kishino felt a firm grip on his arm.

          “Where do you think you’re going!?”

          “I’m not just going to sit here and twiddle my thumbs!”

          He couldn’t just sit and watch Kiryu suffer! But Hayden had planted Kishino firmly in his seat, and squeezed his arm so hard that he wouldn’t be surprised if he’d cut off the circulation. 

          “So you do recognise the potions now, eh!?”

          “Of course I do, you’re famous for them father!”

          That much was true. He’d never known what they looked like until now, but the use of Pheonix Tears in Hayden’s battles were a distinguishing trademark of his strategy. Though inhumane, he had to admit that the potions produced results. As Hayden paused and considered Kishino’s excuse, Jessica jumped in to keep up the pressure.

          “Who gave you the potions, Harold?” 

          Kishino’s eyes passed over Kiryuu again as he turned to face Jessica, and he saw that Koyomi had begun treating the butler immediately after he himself moved. Was that why she’d been brought in for this meeting? To heal Kiryu after using him to provoke Kishino and make him appear more guilty? But even regarding his behavior toward Erica, how would they know that Harold, the pure-blooded noble, would be outraged at the treatment of a lowly servant of another house? He could’ve just been acting kind around a pure blood like Erica to make a good impression on his fiancé for all they know. 

          “I never used any.”

          “Don’t you lie to me, you’ve been bedridden for days! And if you had the withering, it would’ve spread to everyone in the mansion by now!”

          But though he was suspicious, he’d have to figure that out later; for now he just had to accept that Summeragi had an unknown amount of knowledge of his real ideals. 

          “That’s not true! I’ve been suffering whiplash from the Withering, because-” 

          Kishino bit his cheek; he’d almost given away his relation to Lifa! The consequences of holding so many secrets had caught up to him at the worst possible moment! Taking his pause as an admission of guilt, Jessica pounced. 

          “Because what, exactly?”

          Jessica’s voice was much more collected and repressed in contrast to Hayden, but the oppressing tone of suppressed rage, accusation, and disapproval were just as intense, if not worse than her husband. The sheer emotion of it made Kishino question whether he was telling the truth even though he’d done nothing close to what the Summeragi were framing him for. Her crimson gaze alone was so suffocating that the only reason Kishino could bring himself to feign eye contact was because of his certainty that he was right, and the strange clarity that his adrenaline brought him. 

          “...It's because I snuck out to explore the town without you. I’m sorry.”

          “You did what!?” 

          “-I’m sorry to interrupt, but we have no record of Harold ever leaving the mansion.” 

          Tasuku chimed in with a cruel, merciless death sentence. He was contractually obligated to keep Kishino’s outings to recruit Lifa a secret, but the sly bastard had taken that vow and flipped it against him!

          “Harold Stokes, are you lying to your mother!?”

          Hayden exploded in rage, and yanked his child’s arm so that he was facing him. Flying spittle landed on Kishino’s face, but he didn’t dare move to wipe it off.

          “Who gave you these damn potions, and who are they working for!?”

          “No one did! I-”

          “-Excuse me!”

          Before the argument could devolve into a chaotic mess of he-said, she-said, Koyomi suddenly spoke up for the first time in a while. Despite not knowing what would happen next, a fearful tension dug its way into Kishino’s head. Just how in the world could she possibly make this worse for him!? If it had been Harold in charge, who wasn’t capable of the strange state of calm hyper-focus he was in right now, would he have been able to handle the pressure of his own parents nearly as well? How did the Summeragi’s even imagine he’d ever get this far!? As Koyomi placed a sheet of familiar documents on the table, those kinds of distracted thoughts were driven from his mind and replaced with a confused panic.

           “I apologize for not revealing this earlier. I had thought that it was unrelated until now...”

           …What…!? You can’t be serious!?? Why would you-??

           “But Harold recently came to me and asked me if I could implement these new farming techniques that had been developing in his territory. After this incident, I am suspicious. Could you, Hayden-sama, check to see if this method has indeed been developing in your territory?” 

           “...” 

           What the fuck!?? There’s no way they’re allowed to do this!!

           Hayded released Kishino’s arm and took the papers in his hands, and Kishino desperately raced to recall the contractual consequences for this kind of information leak. But when he rehearsed the document he’d made passage by passage in his mind, Kishino came to a cruel realization. It was the realization that in actuality, the Summeragi had every right to disclose the LP farming methods. 

          So much had happened that he’d completely forgotten about it, but Harold had given those techniques to the Summeragi as a gift. He had assumed they would want to keep such a revolutionary technology away from arrogant pure blood nobles like his father, but there was nothing preventing them from doing so. 

           “If you find Harold’s statement to be false, then perhaps the one who created these farming methods was the same person who supplied Phoenix Tears to Harold?”

            …Those clever bastards…! So that’s another reason Koyomi is present!

            Since Tasuku was the one that started this discussion, if it were him who revealed this information it would look like he withheld it until now on purpose. But since it was Koyomi, whose position wasn’t as socially significant, it was more believable that she’d forgotten to mention the seemingly unrelated farming techniques.

           “...You. Servant.”

           “Yes, Hayden-sama?”           

          “Quit your mouth breathing and put the stick on the table.”

          Kiryu nodded painfully before wobbling to his feet and placing a rectangular slab of hardened clay on the table. It took a while for his brain to catch up to the sudden twist, but Kishino realized he knew this test; it was a common way to confirm one’s true aura strength without worries of the person superficially disguising their aura to look bigger. Though, it didn’t work as well on those who try to make themselves appear weaker than they are, like Harold.

          “Well, what are you waiting for? Hold it.”

          Kishino was confused. By now it was obvious the Summeragi were trying to point to his sickness and say that rather than the withering, he was under withdrawal from the Pheonix Tears potion. But if he actually confirmed his real strength here, wouldn’t that all be pointless? From Hayden’s attitude, it seemed he’d already discussed this with the Summeragis before Harold arrived. Thinking that even if the Summeragi secretly made the clay slab weaker than normal, he was way stronger than anyone in this room knew about, Kishino reached out to the object. He inspected the slab for cracks, weight, and magic traces before channeling the full strength of his Aura into the object and holding one end of it over the table. He also made sure to align the mark at the midpoint of the stick with the table’s edge. It’d be better if he accidentally revealed his true strength than come off as weak in this situation.

          After Kishino signaled that he was ready, Hayden raised his hand over the half of the stick that was hanging over the table’s edge and slowly applied pressure. Depending on how quickly the ‘stick’ broke, Harold’s aura would be strong or weak. Tension filled the room as the entire world seemed to hold its breath in anticipation. Not a single sound registering in Kishino’s mind except for the beating of his own heart. 

          ‘…Snap!’         

          “What!?”

          “…Harold.”

          Not even two seconds after Hayden began applying pressure, the clay snapped nearly clean in half. After a split second of surprise, a half second in which Kishino’s brain registered what had happened, sound returned to the world in the form of Hayden’s violently suppressed fury. 

         “This is impossible! I’m ill, but that’s-!”

         “-Harold Stokes! You shut your mouth right this instant!!!”

         Hayden’s fist slammed down into the wood of the desks with so much force that the wards sparked and flashed their dying light, and a long hairline fracture split the wood in two. Kishino didn’t flinch, but his heart rate doubled at the sudden violence and he had to press his fists into his thighs to force his hands to stop shaking. The fact that the desk didn’t break was not a sign of Hayden’s weakness, but rather a testament to the meticulous effort and expert design of the Summeragi carpenters and wardcrafters. 

         “…Hmph. Seems you’ve finally stopped blabbering about your hopeless excuses. Now tell me, who exactly has developed this so-called LP framing method? And how did you meet them?”

         “…”

         Kishino was trapped. In the sudden silence, the heat of his fever finally began to register in his mind again. His mind and heart raced and raced, fighting with the last bits of adrenaline in his system to find the correct solution!

         “Well, Harold!? Answer me, you insolent child!!!”

          “…”

          He needed to find the right words, the correct choices that would undoubtedly lead to the best possible outcome. Kishino had read too many stories and watched too many shows to not know that there was a way! No matter how bleak the situation, and no matter how impossible the odds, the correct words would always guide the protagonist to the solution of the problem! With just the right speech, the protagonist could redeem villains, restore friendships, or even raise his party’s morale to make the final push. The only thing he had to do was think!

          “…”

          “You little- you dare to mock me!?”      

          Hayden clenched Kishino’s collar and stood, dragging him up out of his seat. His father’s face was that of a mad beast straining at his leash to sink his teeth into his enemy. According to the test, his son barely had the strength of a commoner eleven year old. Such a result was an embarrassment for any nobility, let alone a military family! Hayden couldn’t stand such a humiliation in front of Tasuku Summeragi, the head of a pure blood noble house and the father of the young woman who was engaged to his son!

          “…”

           And the cherry on top was the defiant, rebellious silence that refused Hayden’s authority as the head of the house. 

           What’s the solution!? What can I say that will turn this entire situation around? I know it’s there, so why!??

           Was it because Kishino was not the protagonist of this game-like world? Did someone like that even exist? Kishino didn’t care. He would be that person! He would be the protagonist of his own life, his own story! But no matter how determined Kishino was to find all the correct answers, none of it mattered if he simply wasn’t smart enough.

            “…” 

            “…Fine. If that’s really how you want to play, then so be it.”

            Hayden nodded to Tasuku and Koyomi.

            “I will return later. Thank you both for bringing this incident to my attention.”

            “We will discuss this LP farming technique at a later date. For now we will keep these papers and try to trace them back to their original source.”

             That was a lie; no matter how professionally Jessica hid her greed, it was obvious to everyone that she was intrigued by the new technique that might help silence the entitled farm workers in her territory. The thought pushed Kishino into a pit of dread; this was the worst possible outcome of the LP farming project, which would almost certainly make the economic and environmental situation of the Stokes house even worse than it already was. Kishino had failed in almost every way possible in the truest sense.

           Jessica bowed to Tasuku, and Hayden dragged Harold by the arm into the hallway. His fever flared as his adrenaline petered out, aggravated with the sudden stress his mind and body had been put through. He hadn’t been smart enough. He couldn’t think of the right words, and he failed to predict that this situation could have even happened in the first place!

           -I’m sorry… I failed.

           -No! You’re wrong!!! It’s all because of those ungrateful, back-stabbing bastards!!!

           Harold cursed Tasuku. He cursed Koyomi, he cursed his dad, and he cursed his mom! He and Kishino had been trying hard, working their asses off to save the world and even advance their civilization, and this was how they got repaid!? Harold cursed anything he could think of as he walked back down the endless flights of stairs, his lungs burning with the sudden energy use and his face overheating. The late spring heat seeped into his skin, which was inversely forming goosebumps, and his arm cried out in pain at the cutoff to his blood flow. 

           -It’s not their fault! This is the natural reaction that anyone would have to someone acting so suspicious. The only reason this happened is because I wasn’t smart enough!!!

           -No, you’re wrong! You’re wrong!

           Sweat dripped down his brow, his legs ached with suppressed growing pains, and his body shivered as cold chills encompassed his body. All the while he stumbled to keep up with his father’s long strides. If it really wasn’t the Summeragi’s fault, or even his parents’ fault or Norman’s fault- 

           “-Ugh! You weakling brat, walk by yourself!!!”

           Hayden yanked Harold’s arm forward, toward a flight of stairs like the ones he’d been stumbling on until now. Harold staggered forward, fighting to keep balance until his leg gave out and he tripped on his own foot.

            -If it really was Kishino’s fault for not being smart enough, then what did that say about Harold, who only cowered in fear while his brainmate did practically all of the planning, and challenged his parents head on by himself?