"....It's uncomfortable." 

I grimace to myself as I sit down in my home room chair. My right leg, which I had used as a battering ram yesterday, was only healed to the point I didn't need to use crutches. Probably. 

There was a bandage around my head and my left arm hung in a sling. Using my knowledge of all the extras in the game, I convinced a veterinarian to heal me up cheap. She got experience healing a human and I didn't spend any of the money I was given. 

As expected of a game world, healing items were effective. 

"...he couldn't afford a proper healing session, haha."

I half-turn and stare at the student who had chuckled at my appearance. 

'Rance Tween'

His face appears in my mind and I chuckle as I remember his future. 

He gets pickpocketed and loses his wallet all his money while on the way to the bank. 

"Use crowded roads." 

At my innocent smile, he shudders but doesn't say anything as he turns away. 

Fortunately, my brother wasn't here to scold me since he had gone to a field looking for medicinal flowers to help with the swelling in my knee. 

I sadly made the mistake of screaming in pain after it felt like it bent the wrong way. 

Honestly, that kid... He's as annoying as the guy he's based on. 

Irritated I scratch the damp bandage taped to my cheek and check the clock. 

The cloth was soaked in medicine that prevents scarring but that didn't mean it was comfortable. 

The teacher walks inside, notices my appearance with a side-glance and continues. 

Eyes focused on the clock, I frown as the bell rings. 

That idiot isn't back yet and the teacher is already taking the register. 

"Fir-"

"Instructor." 

"...Mr Glennden." 

All eyes are on me and I clear my throat as I raise my hand in a sling. 

"I thought you'd ask me about my injuries so I prepared a hundred and one responses. I'm a little embarrassed you ignored me." 

The teacher's brows furrow a little but I see amusement in her eyes. As expected, she's weak to my antics. 

"Oh? And why did you think it necessary to interup-" 

"SORRY I'M LATE!" 

The door opens and a wheezing Topi enters, holding a pink he bows and hands me the thing. 

"Welcome back, lil bro." 

"....? Shh!" 

Innocently raising his hand, he shushes me. 

Hah, this guy.

"....ha."

Turning the teacher, I find her smiling as she holds back a laugh. 

With eyes aimed at a child, I almost think she thinks I'm cute but correct myself since I'm cool.

Her bob hair sways as she shakes her head and then lets out a breath. 

Her slight smile fades into a disciplinary expression suited for a teacher. 

"Marcus, you have one chance left before I begin deducting points. Topi sit down before you lose one of your three."

"Yes, Ma'am but why is my brother-?"

"Just sit down you idiot." 

Kicking Topi with my good leg, he pouts before sitting down at his seat between me and the Princess. 

Thankfully, I don't need to deal with his sulking for long. 

"Good morning, Mr Glennden." 

"Heeeek....!" 

"...pfft!" 

Holding back my laugh, I focus on the teacher. I don't need to check his expression to know he's blushing. 

"Ahem." 

Clearing her throat, Miss Antoin speaks. "I'm now beginning rocall. If no one has anything else to say, I'll start. Afterwards, have a look at the paper on your desk and begin filling out what classes you want to take for the semester."

 

•  

 

•  

 

•  

"So brother! Why didn't you get a proper treatment? You're still injured!" 

Not fighting the two hands pinching and spreading my cheeks, I frown and tilt my head for mercy. 

"..I can handle this much. And I need to start saving money." 

The final few chapters go crazy with the plot so preparation is key. I didn't know what my friend was thinking when he wrote it and even now as I still don't even as I live it. 

Christ, he was a bad writer. 

"But-!"

"But nothin'. Just relax, I'm good. I promise." 

My brother looks over my bandages, pulls my cheeks a little more then lets go more worried than angry. 

I stand up with a grunt, 

"Hey, Princess." 

The blonde girl stopped reading through the list of classes and looked up with a bewildered look. 

I chuckle at the sight. 

"Could you take my brother and try out the 'magic class' and 'archery'? I'm sure you'll enjoy both and my brother will stop bugging me you do." 

"I.."

"Hm? Is there a problem? I remember you saying you wanted to be treated like a regular student." 

She said it to the teacher but it's whatever. Teacher, student, stranger on the street.

It's basically the same. 

"That's-" 

"Ah! I get it. Is it because I'm injured?" 

"...pardon?" 

"Ahh, I see. Yeah, that makes sense. I, too, find it funny when I watch someone hobble about. Yeah. Okay. That's my bad." 

"No, what are you-?" 

"Topi! Change of plan, let's go check out what you wrote down on your form. A certain Royal likes it when I struggle to walk." 

"Wait!" 

I stop my exaggerated stagger and turn to find the Princess frowning at me, one of her eyebrows were twitching while she looked like she was questioning whether I really believed what I was saying. 

That in itself caused me to chuckle a little more. 

After a few seconds of silence, the Princess sighed. 

"...hah. Mr Glennden, would you like to check out the magic class with me?" 

"I -uh- I-" 

I kick my brother's leg, feeling pain shoot up my bad one as I put too much pressure on it but Topi agrees. 

Smiling at the pair of them, I speak. 

"Thank you, Your Highness. Your magnanimity towards your subject is as admirable as the Royal Family itself." 

Giving an incredibly old yet formal bow, I smirk at the Princess's confused face, ruffle my brother's combed hair and leave: doing my absolute best to not let my hurting leg affect my walking. 

On my sheet was a long list with the only class being 'alchemy' written on it. 

"Ugh.. Ow ow ow."  

Finally outside the building and definitely out of my brother's sight, I clutch my shin and sit down on the bench outside. 

In the end I had chosen alchemy since I already knew most of the recipes. Or at least the important ones. 

"..Christ." 

Chewing the bitter flower my brother had given me, I take another minute to rest before getting back up and walking. Feeling the pain grow stronger, I lean against a fence and look to my right to find the training field. 

On it, dozens of students are swinging, stabbing and throwing different types of weapons at different targets. 

Watching the sword trajectories of a nearby student, I imagine how I'd move to avoid it and feel the crack along my femur increase a little in size. 

I'm beginning to think hiring a veterinarian to help me at a lower cost was a bad idea. 

"...ain't that a shit in my sandwich." 

"W-what?" 

Glancing to my left, I find a student standing at roughly my height. 

With short red hair, I first think it's Topi before taking a proper look. 

"...you need something lady?" 

"No, just- why would you say that?" 

"Say what?" 

"Sh... you know what you said." 

Ha, she can't say shit. 

"What's your name?" 

The red haired girl frowns a little, “…Why do you want to know?”

I just casually shrugged, “You made me laugh, I figured I’d help you out. Think of it as fortune telling. Name?”

Five hundred and something.

That’s the amount of extras there are in this shitty dating simulator and all of them have backstories, even if they only have one line of dialogue.

Hell. 

Even if they didn’t. 

My friend had made sure to give each of them a storyline and kept track of what happens to them throughout the game, even if the player never interacted with them. 

“Lisa Keltel.”

My eyes widen a little and I turn to her looking confused at my reaction. 

The first extra ever made. 

“..it must be Fate.” I could do with a cigarette right about now. “…your estranged dad will contact you in the near future.”

“W-what?”

“After ten years of amnesia, he remembered who he was and that he has a wife and child. Currently, he owns a mine in the Western territory. Your mother’s health will soon recover thanks to your father paying for better medicine, so thank him when you see him.”

Lisa looks at me with a still face and widened eyes, I guess she’s trying to figure out if I’m bullshitting or not. 

A smile grows on my face and I see my handsome reflection in her eyes, —------ treasured his creations so I’ll try my best to. 

“…You don’t have to believe me.”

Five hundred and something extras, if I didn’t memorize all their backstories who would?

Hah, I have such a pain in the ass of a friend. 

After a few seconds of silence, I turn back to the field of youths training and eventually the girl leaves running. The dirt beneath where she was standing was a little wet, tears were probably shed.

“…I guess she believed me.“

Leaning against the fence for a moment, I click my tongue and eventually decide to hop the fenc-

“FUCK!”

I swear as I feel one of the bigger cracks on my right leg increase and three brats wearing a military variation of the school uniform approach.

“Hah, look at this trash from the trash house. You think you can just swear wherever you want?” 

Mmm, yeah I can’t recognise extras by their faces alone. 

“Ah sowwy, does it hurt your wittle ears? I’ll stop it if it does.”

“…..”

One of them unsheathes a wooden sword but that only causes me to smirk wider, 

“Oh no! You shitheads are gonna attack an injured man!” 

I slightly move my arm inside a sling around, “Guess your pride as wannabe knights is as bad as your ability to woo women with your face…. I’m calling you ugly in case you missed it.”

“You bas-!”

“And what’s happening here?”

The cold female voice causes the three students to stiffen while I smirk. 

“Nice to see you so early in the mornin’.”

“…..”

“…..”

“…..”

Violet eyes didn't respond to my greeting but the girl stood with her arms crossed. 

Wearing a similar militarized uniform as the other ‘knights’, it was obvious which class she chose. 

“Lady Duchess w-we were-“

“Don’t worry about it, Violet. These shitheads were just selling their dignity to beat an injured man into an early grave. It’s reaaally cool huh?”

Violet frowned at my casual address while the three students frowned at me insulting them again. 

Haha, shit, my mouth just doesn’t stop coming up with gems.

I smirk underneath their gaze and feel my legs ache a little from standing for so long. 

“….hah.”

After a moment of silence the Villainess sighed before pointing at the three wannabe knights. “You lot, leave. I’ll ignore the fact you pulled out a weapon against someone injured. You follow me. Haven’t you gotten tired of ruining your reputation?”

“…consider yourself lucky, bastard.”

As they turn to leave one of them mutters underneath their breath so I do the mature thing and trip the closest one up. 

He looks up at me from the floor incredulously before I smirk back and hobble away as fast as a man with broken legs can, getting the last laugh.

Hopefully, they’d attack me some other day and I’d be able to loot them- I mean, take my spoils of victory. 

There’s always the chance they’d take it out on my brother but he was in the Princess’s good books so he’d be fine.

And I’ll deal with them if that’s not enough. 

I don’t consider myself a good person anyways.

Around the point we get to an isolated area with only a bench and the back of the school wall in view, she speaks.

“So, why haven’t you healed yourself?”

I shrug, “Who knows? Maybe I just like the sound of my own bones cracking.”

The Villainess frowned. 

“Trash.”

“…Bitch.”

“I’m asking a question.”

“And I gave an answer.”

“Really? After I helped you out?”

“Did you forget who won our fight yesterday? I had planned on dueling them with the condition that they buy healing medicine for me then I would’ve thrashed them.”

“So you’re saying I ruined your plan?”

“No~ not at all~. It would be nice if you get me some medicine though.”

“…hah.” The girl rubbed her temples for a moment, “…Trash.”

“Bitch.”

“Spar with me a few times a week. I’ll pay you.”

“Get me some healing items and I’ll think about it.”

“…..”

At her death glare I smirk, 

“Hm? See something you lik-? Gh!”

She kicked my leg causing my face to stiffen in pain before she left, probably to get my medicine. 

…hopefully. 

“Fuck, it really hurts.”