Entering the small establishment through the somewhat broken wooden door was an individual with a refined appearance.
He had black hair, blue eyes, and skin pale enough for someone to mistake him for a sickly person but there was more to him than all of this.

It was his aura, a deep mystifying aura that surrounded him from everywhere seemed to have a calming effect on his surroundings.

The boy was extremely handsome, so handsome that even someone like me who didn’t think much of appearances couldn’t help but compare myself with him only to be left disappointed at the end of the assessment.

The boy was phenomenal, the boy was otherworldly, the boy was the protagonist.

***

Looking at him once again I couldn’t help but feel somewhat happy at my creation, this guy really Adam really did look like a piece of art! Just as I had imagined!

But I didn’t have any time to celebrate my impeccable artistic talent and my unmatchable creative imagination as there was one thing that I knew full well; now that this guy made an appearance, the chances of me dying have just increased by a thousand times!

‘I hope these ladies from Amifa don’t get affected by his charms... no, actually now that I think about it, these women are martial artists, are they not? Then I doubt that they would get seduced by someone like Adam who is practically just a kid at the first glance’, I thought and looked at the 4 women with confidence brimming in my heart.

But the moment my eyes fell on them I couldn’t help but curse, ‘B*tches!’, in my mind as all of them looked like they were drooling at the mere appearance of the protagonist!
I really wanted to bash my head against a wall after seeing this development.

My entire mind was in despair, thoughts like, ‘Am I really going to die? Just like that? Why!?’, kept on revolving around my head as I looked at the young man with a beautiful face.

'What should I do to prevent my death!?', I thought as I started racking my brains to come up with a solution but try as I might, in the end, only one viable option appeared in my head and that was to get rid of these 4 by myself!

But.... knowing these characters and knowing myself, I would probably die before I am even able to touch even a single one of them, not to mention it would start a chain reaction of enemies coming after me even if I, by some fluke, end up beating these chicks.

And how the hell could I forget that in the worst possible case this beautiful bastard of a protagonist might jump and kill me like a bug before I even manage to touch these 4!

Shaking my head I looked at the boy as he entered through the door and kept on looking around the establishment as his blue eyes made sure to inspect each and every speck of the hall.

Scanning through the hall his eyes fell on the 4 women sitting at the table and a small smile formed on his face. Perhaps understanding the situation he shook his head and looked at Gerund finally not paying any attention to me or the ladies anymore.

Seeing him do that I couldn’t help but breathe a sigh of relief as I knew he was planning to leave as soon as possible.

Adam Jenkins, the protagonist of this novel was an introvert and an anti-social person at his core, although he didn’t go out of the way to avoid people, he still wasn’t someone who enjoyed the company of strangers. So I knew that he was going to leave this place as soon as possible.

Bringing my attention back to Adam, I saw him looking at Gerund and saying, “Sir, could you please pack me a regular lunch?”,
hearing his request Gerund just nodded and brought him a box full of food.

Adam, receiving the food thanked Gerund and gave him the money, and then finally proceeded to leave.
Seeing his back shrinking with time as he kept on approaching the establishment’s door me very happy, so happy that I was about to jump in the air and celebrate but just as I was about to get rid of the disaster bringer a sweet voice sounded in my ears, “Would you like to eat and chat here with us?”, it was one of the women who said these lines.

At first, I thought she was talking to me so I got somewhat happy but the moment my head turned towards the woman I noticed that she was looking at the protagonist. Heartbroken, I tried to console myself and got readied to gloat at this woman’s fate.

Why? Because I knew that she is going to get rejected by the protagonist.

How? Well, that’s because I am the author and I know the main character full well, there’s no way in hell that he would accept…

“Well, if you ladies are fine with it then I will”,

…

Snapping me out of my thoughts was the voice of this world, the voice of the protagonist.

The hell!? How could he agree!? Wasn’t he supposed to reject the offer!? Please! Please don’t come here!!!

“Stop standing there like a fool and go and bring him a chair!”, a rude voice from my side sounded in my ears, and without even turning towards its source I went ahead a brought a chair for the protagonist to sit on.

Beads of tears formed in my eyes but I didn’t cry, desperately holding onto my tears I bowed and gestured to the protagonist, Adam, to take a seat to which he just gave me a slight nod and sat down on the wooden chair across the table.

The expressions of the 4 women brightened up as soon as they saw Adam sitting across them and they soon started bombarding him with questions regarding his background and stuff.
The moment Adam revealed that he belonged to a big merchant family and that he is going to attend the prestigious Ashby Academy, the 4 women couldn’t help but glance at him with newfound reverence in their eyes. After all, being a student of a famous school/sect/organization is always something prestigious, and forming relations with people of strong backgrounds is never a bad thing.

Honestly, I was jealous of this guy. So jealous that I wanted to slap him silly but before I could do that one of the women spoke once again in a rude tone and said, “What the hell are you doing? Go away, shoo! Go and bring our food”,

‘Bitch!’,

Is what I wanted to say but in the end, I didn’t, and I am sure that this guy Adam wants to say the same thing but he is somehow controlling himself to not slip up and give up on his chance to eat the good food for free.

Looking at the girl who was still glaring at me like a bitch (female dog) I just bowed my head and went towards the kitchen where the old guy Gerund was cooking the food while humming a song.

Good for him, at least he’s got something he’s interested in. On the other hand, I am still as clueless as ever about what I am going to do after these 5 disasters leave this place, hopefully sparing my life in the turn. Well anyway, in any general case managing this place would’ve been the ideal thing for me but now that I look at Adam I suddenly don’t feel like living a normal life anymore.

I don’t know if it’s my chuunibyou kicking or it is my resolve that has gotten stronger, either way, all I know is that I am going to leave this place and become famous throughout this world and live the best life I ever could. I will wait till the protagonist leaves and after that I swear that I am going to make a great name for myself! And then I too will have such beautiful women approaching me!

With newfound resolve in my heart, I geared up and then carrying one tray full of food in each of my hands and three trays full of food on the top of my head I went out of the kitchen towards the table with 5 beautiful individuals currently chatting with each other as if all of them were long lost friends.

***

“Hahaha, is that so?”, the voice of a boy resounded throughout the empty establishment as he just put a spoonful of porridge in his mouth and looked at the 4 women sitting around him with eyes full of warmth and love.

Noticing his gaze the 4 ‘shy’ women, thinking that his lovely gaze was directed at the 4 of them lowered their eyes with shame and kept on fiddling with the edges of their clothes.

As I watched the scene unfold before me I couldn’t help but curse in my mind. The four women, although rude, were extremely beautiful. And looking at them acting all shy and chummy with someone they had just met made me feel extremely uncomfortable.

But just as a wise man said, ‘Poor fuckers suck’, before I could ever come up with different ways to screw up the main character once I become someone strong, I once again got to hear a lovely curse as I felt my self-confidence going down by the second,

“Ey, you! Go bring me a glass of wine, you pig!”, this time it was the protagonist.

How the hell did he end up this way? Wasn't he supposed to be a person who's polite to those who are polite to him and rude to those who offend him?

Wasn’t this guy supposed to be the product of my heart and soul engraved upon a piece of paper? Then how the hell did he end up becoming such a scumbag!?

Does that mean my soul is equivalent to scum? Or could it be that I have always been a piece of scum but it is only now that I have realized my true nature?

Tch! Somehow this makes me feel bad!

But still, this guy doesn’t get to have the right to treat me like this! Isn’t there something called humanity in this world!?

Oh well, but now that I think about it, wasn’t I the one who made this parallel world so heartless in the first place? I guess I don’t have the right to complain now, hah?

Nodding my head in shame, the only thing I could do was to politely bring him a jug full of wine, but before I did that I made sure to put my spit in it, to give the wine a new flavor, of course, don’t take me wrong I only did this to make the wine better, there was no ulterior motive behind it, absolutely no ulterior motive.

[I hope no one finds out about it]^mumble

Pouring the wine full of my spi… ahem! I mean the special ingredient I gave it to the 5 bastards and bitches sitting on the table as if they owned this entire place and went back to talk with Gerund.

“Ey you old bastard, I expect a salary raise after serving those 5 bastards”, I said looking at the middle-aged man who was smoking a cigarette.

Noticing me he offered me a puff to which I gladly obliged him and then went to work.

If nothing goes wrong then I will probably survive.

'God please help me survive', I prayed and then looked at the roof of the establishment that stood between me and the heavens.

The spiders and their spawns on the roof spooked me to some extent but hiding the fact that I fear insects I made an indifferent face and inwardly decided to clean this place after those 5 finally leave.

I once again looked at the 5 people, their plates were empty and so were the other vessels, I went back to the table and politely asked the 5, “Can I service you some more, ladies and esteemed sir?”, honestly, I didn’t even have to act so politely in my job interview but whatever, I guess I will give these people some respect so that they leave as soon as possible.

The 5 people just as they heard me turned their heads and looked at me with annoyed expressions on their faces, I guess I might have been misunderstood.
So I hurriedly went forward and tried to clarify what I meant when I said those words as there’s a chance that I might’ve come off as someone who wanted them to leave.

But before I could do that,

“*Bash!*”, one of the women threw the glass full of spit wine on my face.

I tried to dodge the glass but since it was a throw from a martial artist I wasn’t able to dodge it at all and thus I got hit with the glass on my face.

“Ugh!”, the glass was fragile and the moment it hit my face, it broke leaving various glass shreds piercing my face.

Feeling the pain I couldn’t help but clench my teeth. Fortunately, I had my eyes closed during the entire process otherwise I might have gone blind.

This was the first time in the 21 years of my life that I have ever had such a strong urge to hit a woman. But I knew for sure that even if I felt like hitting her I can’t do anything like that. No matter how hard I try, the moment I try to hit her, I will die, this was an undeniable truth.

So holding my head in shame I kowtowed to the ground and said, “I am very sorry, I didn’t mean to offend you, esteemed guests in any way. I was just worried that you might not be full from the food that you had previously eaten so that’s why I came here to ask whether you wanted more food or not. I apologize once again if I had come off as rude. Please forgive me”, I said as I looked above at the 4 women.

All of them had frowns on their faces.

Confused as I was I didn’t dare to ask them about the reason for their bad moods. I knew full well that it will only bring me more trouble if I do that so I remained silent and kept on looking at them.

I was about to apologize once again but before I could do that I felt the air getting knocked out of my lungs as I found myself flying towards the nearby tables against which I collided leading me to get even more injured than ever.

My entire body was screaming in pain and I couldn’t help but issue a groan or two.

Ignoring the pain that I had been enduring, I once again looked at the ladies and noticed one of them had a foot lifted in the air.

‘Why?’, I wanted to ask but what came out of my mouth was nothing but a few painful groans.

As if reading my expression the woman who had just kicked me in my stomach sneered and looked at me with disgust before saying, “To think you managed to even imagine that we wouldn’t even understand something so simple, you must really be proud of yourself, hah? Make sure you remember this incident and never try to look down on us like that, pig. As for why I hit you, it’s because I don’t like your face, got it!? So if you have understood what I just said, then go away! Else I won’t pay you a single penny, you bastard!’’,

I was perplexed.

She hit me just because of that!?

Why? I didn’t do anything wrong to her, then why!?

Even though I asked myself these questions, deep down I knew the answers to them.

It’s because that’s how things work, not just here, even on earth. The reason why I got so humiliated was very simple, it was because I was weak.

Yes, I was weak, too weak in fact.

But even so, just because I am weak does that mean I should bow down my head and take everything that is thrown at me!?

Just because someone happened to be stronger than me, does it give them the right to treat me like a tool!?

Just because someone happened to be born in a better family than I, does that mean I should live out my entire life as an insect while rejoicing the fact that I at least get to have a life!?

No! I refuse to believe that! I refuse to be treated like a damn insect!

I looked back to my right where the owner of the place, my ‘father’ Gerund stood whistling like a fool. He was acting as if nothing bad had happened, as if everything was normal.

Why!? Isn’t he supposed to be the adoptive father of this body? Then why?

Is it because I was weak?

Thousands of questions formed in my head as I looked at Gerund, perhaps noticing my gaze as he looked back at me.

Our eyes interlocked, contrary to my troubled eyes his were completely still. No, actually his eyes were full of… disappointment…?

Is that disappointment?

But why? Isn’t he the father of this guy Aziel? Then why?

Do weaklings really not have any place in the society?

No, I refuse to accept this!

Looking back at Gerund once again my troubled eyes became silent as I noticed my breathing getting calmer by the second, but contrary to the appearance of my eyes which looked to have cooled down and my facial expression that seemed to have gotten back to normal my mind was in a pretty messed up state.

I was so angry that for a moment I felt like bashing my head on the ground to calm myself down but then dropping the idea I looked back at the woman and asked her mustering the calmest voice I could,

“If being powerless is so terribly wrong then does having power make you right? Does flaunting your strength makes you feel good? Good enough to beat anyone you want?”, I said as I looked at the woman when suddenly my ‘father’s’ voice resounded in my ears.

“H-hey Aziel, stop! What are you saying!?”, he had a panicked expression on his face and he was sweating buckets.

Looking at him just one word came out of my mouth, “Pathetic’’,

I said as I looked at him. Noticing my gaze even someone like him who was strong enough to beat an infamous bandit couldn’t help but take a step back.

Ignoring him I once again looked at the 4 women in front of me. They all had baffled expressions on their faces as if they couldn’t even process what I had said.

“Does beating someone as weak as I make you feel good? Does showing off your strength in front of that boy who is way beyond your league make you feel superior to those bitchy friends of yours? Is that sensation of superiority so addicting that you would go out of your way to attack a common person like me who has no practice in martial arts? Little girl, you really are pitiful, aren’t you?”

Shaking my head I got up from the ground but before I could once again look at the 4 of them I was greeted by an abyss.

Cold, indifferent, void abyss. For a second I thought my entire soul was going to be sucked into the abyss.

I was terrified.

So terrified that I felt death crawling behind my back.

I felt as if someone had a sword pointed at my throat.

Feeling this invisible pressure I couldn’t help but have thoughts like, 'I am going to die', in my head.

Just as these words crossed my mind I felt myself finally drowning in a sea of despair but before that could happen I heard something.

It was something akin to a devil's whisper, something similar to the breath of the god of death rustling past my hair.

“Yes, being weak is a sin”,

It was the voice of death itself, it was the voice of the monster I myself had created, it was the voice of the protagonist.