I looked at my new slender body in the mirror. I knew most of the appearances of the characters in the game, not that it was needed really. 

 

After all, they were all the same. All men had toned and muscular bodies and all women had angelic bodies and faces, with the slight difference of hair colors and a few features.

 

Amazing game creation skills, right? Anyways, my character was of course unable to do anything, so instead of a body full of muscles, I looked like a stick.

 

“There’s no way I can take on a maid, right?” I thought to myself as I checked if this Duke Color had any particular abilities of high regard. Even if a crazy maid decided to strangle me, I’d most likely not be able to win. 

 

Of course, such a thing is terrible, but, as far as my knowledge goes, the Zainburgh family is a very loved one. 

 

The admiration of the people and the respect of the lower nobles was gained by my father, the ex-duke. Such a role is called “produke” in this world and it has some political powers, but sadly I know how the story of this game goes.

 

Have I already talked about my twins? Yeah, they’re not going to make it easy for me and my father, who are both outclassed by a physical and magical standpoint. They’re going to make the produke a puppet just like me, so that we get hated instead by the people.

 

Their final objective, in fact, is their personal gain. They will steal a lot from the treasury, tax the poor and rich alike, create an army and try to aim for the role of the king. Or, that is the plan until the demon outbreak, where they just decide to run away.

 

In such a situation, it’s very expected of me to become an ally of the produke to defend our common interests. That won’t happen, though.

 

I have a better plan.

 

-=-

 

I didn’t have to wait long to meet my family.

 

“Color, must I shout another thousand times!! I told you to come down for dinner fifteen minutes ago!!!”

 

Oh yeah, I almost forgot. My mother is here as well.

 

She’s a witch. Not because she just shouted at me, I mean a quite literal witch. She’s an archmage with witch-like powers, way stronger than the two twins.

 

So, why didn’t she stop them, you may ask?

 

Well, here comes the hardest part. I am the first-born son, from my mother and father. 

 

Powerlessness is set in stone, meaning that if they make any other son or daughter, they’ll be similarly powerless. My father did not know this, my mother did.

 

So, she cheated. And the twins were born… from, well, a dangerous person. To say the least.

 

It’s not a stretch to say that me and my father are in one of the worst positions ever, considering this dangerous figure and my mother are carefully planning everything to make sure the twins get all the power possible.

 

Indeed, it was her who told my father to resign from his position. She also chose me as his heir. It’s another person who can’t be trusted.

 

Anyway, as I thought those words I reached the dining room. There were four people in it.

 

At the left, Ossyria Zainburgh and Lyrin Zainburgh. My two twin sisters — the bad people, I’ll call them that. But their looks weren’t half bad, if being a man isn’t a crime.

 

Ossyria had pitch black hair, an arrogant face and a smirk that made her perfect facial features annoying to look at. Plus, she was basically as thin as me, eating problems excluded because her body looked healthy. She was a mage.

 

Despite being born at the same time, Lyrin’s appearance was radically different. She was a swordswoman, so her body was muscular, well, way more than mine. Her blazing red hair was so long that it perfectly covered her shoulders, while her smile was more distant.

 

Their personalities weren’t the exact same either. Actually, they’re radically different, at least on the surface.

 

If I can recall properly, Ossyria is the type of person to talk a lot and talk down a lot, to be barely prepared for things and to have very unrealistic goals. Like becoming the queen, a goal which she has forced on her twin with her dominant personality.

 

She has very strange looking clothes, including a bracelet with an eye on it on her right hand. That’s a neat item I’ll have to take later, whenever it’s possible for me to do so. Especially, an item the hero should never get. 

 

Lyrin is a much more calm and controlled person, seemingly even empathic. In the game, you can even talk to her and see that for yourself.

 

She has a neat way of dressing, of talking, of interacting… seems like the perfect elegant NPC. 

 

On the right, my lovely parents.

 

Produke Passion Vainburgh, with the weakest personality known to humankind, and the Archmage Katerine.

 

For starters, Passion isn’t alive when the game starts, so I just know some information from his biography in the wiki. He is emotionally weak, tolerant and not really one to play a crucial part in politics.

 

Yet, he has a quality: he’s very good at administering the land that is given to him, handling the economy and making this region richer than ever. That’s also why the population loves him.

 

Katerine is a control freak, if that word exists in my new world. I bet it does, because it wouldn’t be easy to rate her without it. Do you think she really loves her siblings? Then you definitely don’t understand how cruel this game can be.

 

She just wants power over the people she cares about, like them. As such, she manipulates them during the game, bringing them to the path of evil. 

 

While all these concepts look hard to grasp as I explain them, it actually went kind of like this: being the great mom that she is, Katerine fed her siblings with ideas of their superiority, which later turned out to be true. 

 

Then, she manipulated her husband, who I think she just married because of the title. At last… ah, let’s not spoil the plot. Otherwise, you’ll get bored of my run.

 

Okay, let’s stop with these explanations and begin the fun part: playing.

 

“Well, I humbly greet my family.” I said and kneeled down. Pitiful, right? I bet.

 

“You’ve finally arrived, son.” Said my father with a smile which perfectly covered his old age. He was great-looking too, the only problem was me. “I was worried about you.”

 

Even with barely any hair, the last ones being gray, my father would be a top idol in my old world. Thanks once again, game. And the personality...

 

“Yes, I have arrived. My excuses for being late.” I said and took my place, ironically at the very front of the table, being able to look at everyone. A great advantage for future dinners.

 

“Don’t worry.” Katerine said, fooling a total number of zero people. “We weren’t expecting anything from you anyways.”

 

Yeah, as I said, that ‘we’ shows what sort of person she really is more than any insult she can throw out.

 

“Sit down.” She then ordered, to which I humbly nodded.

 

“And that’s how I beat him. He was a really weak mage, he wasn’t even able to shield himself from my fire arrows. I become stronger and stronger every day, sis. Show some happiness, won’t you?” 

 

I heard my two lovely sisters talking in whispers, or well, it was Ossyria who talked to Lyrin, while she could only listen. Lots of weird power dynamics in this family, am I right?

 

According to the wiki, Ossyria and Lyrin are stronger than their mother. They’re really strong and big threats, way more than their father too.

 

How can I match against so many overpowered characters? I can’t. This means that, when the demon comes, I’ll be a thousand times more doomed. Luckily, I am a man with a plan.

 

“Father, how has your day been?”

 

One of the most important reasons why Color was hated as much as he was despite being quite the useless character was because of his deep link with his father. Probably the most sincere in the family.

 

To put myself in an advantageous position, it’s going to be necessary to change that, at least in public. 

 

“It has gone quite well, son. Days have become much better and more relaxing since when you’ve decided to take on the role of duke. Thank you for asking.” 

 

Oh right, he believes that I voluntarily chose, not that my family forced the most useless puppet to take the position to use me as much as possible. Truly a blind man.

 

But, nobody really has to prepare himself for intrigues inside a space as personal as one’s family, right? Wrong. Let’s play a bit.

 

“I’m glad you’ve given me the role. It shows your respect for me, which I definitely appreciate. I will show you my skill soon enough.”

 

Usually, these words would be quite harmless. In this circumstance, though, they have two main objectives: to show my will to not simply be a puppet and start, even if minimally, put myself in this race, but most importantly to question his authority.

 

For what I’m about to do, the most important thing is the latter.

After all, this old man truly loves me.

We need that not to be the case.

 

My objective is to ally the mother of the two twins to keep them in check with her. To be fair, it’s impossible to do that with no power in my hands. 

 

That can be arranged, though. I just have to take a political stance and I’ll get the full support of important people under my dad’s authority, which will be great for these four months.

 

After all, the twins hid themselves under Duke Color in the original, which implies they knew they didn’t want any strong opposition.

 

“Mom, I have to talk to you in private later. Is that fine for you?” I asked as politely as I could.

 

“Of course.” She just kept up appearances but seemed quite shocked I had said that.

 

“Perfect.” I smiled, looking at the confused face of my father.

 

“Lowly trash, why do you need to speak with her?” Suddenly a curious question was asked to me from Ossyria, who was definitely feeling the change already.

 

“Oh, nothing that interests you.” I just said.

 

She slammed her hand on the table.

 

“How dare you choose that for me?!” 

 

I sighed. Missed these irrational interactions.

 

“Calm down, sister.” Lyrin said calmly, placing a hand on the furious girl’s hand and immediately being pushed back by the fury of the pitch black-haired girl.

 

Luckily, it was Lyrin who was a swordswoman, not the opposite, so no effect.

 

“We’ll go upstairs.” The red haired woman just said, to which my dad and mom nodded. 

 

Oh, little poor me. The game designers really made the power mechanics in this family quite obvious, which makes my small brain be glad.

 

The rest of the dinner passed without a single word.