“Hahaha! Serves you right!”

Dark glee filled my heart and malice twisted my lips into a grin. My eyes watched in rapture as the hero and her party were dragged from their pedestal and tossed into the muddy waters of defeat with the rest of us.

Nameless Fan: “Nice try, Eden!”
Eden’s Secret Lover: “I love you, darling.”
Wandering Merchant: “Demon King Serafall is too tough. Even the hero party has fallen.”
Indie Developer: “The Tower of Yg’s balance needs more fine tuning. How could they make content that is impossible to clear?”
World’s #1 Cutie: “Eden and her party would have easily beaten Demon King Serafall if it wasn’t for the lunatic difficulty the developers have the fight set at.”

A steady flow of supportive comments appeared on the hero party’s livestream. There were of course a few hate comments, but a majority of the commenters showed their overwhelming support for the hero and her party.

My eyes fell on my own reflection on my laptop screen. The smile on my lips froze and my happiness evaporated in an instant.

“Shit. How did everything end up like this?”

A miserable boy with shaggy brown hair and a messy stubble on his chin stared back at me. Despair filled his brown eyes and his pasty white skin spoke of how little he went outside. I was nothing compared to the bright hero on the other side of the screen.

The only source of light in my room was from the hero on my laptop. The bright screen burned my eyes. I wanted nothing more than to hide in the comfortable darkness of my room. Her brilliance easily exposed all of the ugly emotions dwelling deep within my heart. Even so, I couldn’t take my eyes off of her.

The livestream ended. I spent several minutes lost in thought as a few viewers continued to chat about today’s stream. The door to my bedroom swung open and my heart leaped to my throat. I immediately pressed a shortcut key to open up a harmless page of big titty milfs and glared at the intruder.

“What do you want?”

The intruder’s lips frowned in distaste as she saw what was on my laptop screen. She didn’t comment on it and instead twirled her long black hair around her finger. I knew that the intruder only did this when she was nervous.

“I need a favor.”

“I refuse.”

Don’t joke with me. Why should I do an intruder a favor?

“You didn’t even hear me out.”

The intruder narrowed her eyebrows in displeasure and crossed her arms in front of her chest. She leaned against the door frame and simply looked at me. The intruder didn’t easily give up when she got like this, but I wasn’t willing to admit defeat.

I stared back into her bright green eyes and we engaged in a contest of wills. The light from the hallway framed her in a heavenly glow while the darkness of my room shrouded me in shadows. We stayed like that until a third party intervened.

“What are you two doing?”

My shitty father appeared beside the intruder and glanced between the two of us in confusion. The intruder didn’t hesitate to take advantage of this situation.

“I wanted to ask Ivan for some help, but he wouldn’t even listen to me.”

“Van, you should listen to your sister.”

My mind went pure white from my shitty father’s words. As if from a great distance, I heard myself shout.

“She is not my sister!”

Dad… No, my shitty father sighed wearily. He apologetically patted the intruder on the shoulder while he admonished his true son.

“It has already been six months, Van. We have all tried to be patient with you, but it is time that you accept the fact that I married Lisa. Your mom would want to see you get along with your new family.”

I bit my lip to keep my mouth shut. The pain in my hand from my tightly clenched fist was the only thing stopping me from blowing up at my shitty father. How dare he talk about what Mom wanted when he married Lisa Winterflower only a year after Mom died. Unfortunately, a part of me knew that he was right. Mom would want me to get along with Lisa and her daughter.

“...Okay, I’ll listen to Eliza.”

“Good.”

My shitty father nodded in satisfaction and walked away acting like he had accomplished something. I returned my gaze to the intruder and voiced my displeasure.

“That was low of you to bring him into this.”

“You wouldn’t have heard me out otherwise.”

I hated how the sound of her voice made me want to lean in to listen to her. It would be great if I could shoo her away as quickly as possible.

“Spit it out. What do you want?”

The intruder stood up straight and returned to twirling her hair around her finger. My irritation rose further and further as she hesitated to speak up.

“You know how I like to play Tower of Yg with my friends..?”

“Mmm…”

I feigned disinterest with cold sweat dripping down my back. My eyes peeked at my laptop, which was thankfully still displaying images of busty milfs, before returning to the nervous intruder.

“We tried to defeat Demon King Serafall today. Unfortunately, we were wiped out.”

“Is that so?”

My bored tone was perfect. The intruder failed to detect anything.

“We did a decent amount of damage to the Demon King, but our lack of a healer really hurt us. I can’t switch to my alternate account because the damage from my main account is absolutely necessary to defeat Serafall.”

“Where are you going with this?”

“I need someone I can trust to play on my alternate account and you were the only one that came to mind.”

It took my brain a good minute to process what the intruder had said.

“No. Absolutely not. What makes you think I can even be a healer anyways?”

The intruder twirled her hair. Her uncharacteristically weak expression wasn’t enough to move my furious heart.

“Well… You see… I heard that you competed in the Ares Championship.”

I flinched at her mention of my shameful failure. Embarrassment hastened my words.

“I was only in the qualifiers and I lost right away. That was several years ago. I haven’t picked up an echo weapon since then.”

I wasn’t lying. That failure had changed my life and I never wanted to go back to it. Mom’s death had only reinforced the idea that it was foolish to stand on the battlefield with an echo weapon. It didn’t matter that this would only be a virtual battlefield.

“You promised Vince that you would help me.”

The faint accusatory tone in the intruder’s voice stopped me in my tracks. I hadn’t actually promised that shitty father anything, but his words about Mom came back to me. The intruder and I weren’t family, but Mom would want me to get along with her.

The fight left me and all that remained was my disgust with myself. I was pathetic. Mom would be disappointed in me if she saw me now. I spoke up before my faltering courage gave out.

“Only once and then never again.”

Nothing would change even if I joined the intruder’s party as a healer. I would step out of my comfort zone just once so that Mom can rest at ease in heaven.

“You promised!”

The intruder left my room in a hurry as if she was afraid I would take back my words. I sighed to myself. I may be a pathetic guy, but I would keep my word.

In the darkness of my room, I pulled out a black, jagged dagger from the cabinets of my desk. My fingers ran along the length of Mom’s echo weapon. Most of the house had been remodeled once Lisa and her daughter moved in, leaving only small traces of Mom’s presence scattered throughout the house. The cool steel of the blade was one of the few things I had left that still reminded me of her.

“Is this what you would have wanted, Mom?”

IndefiniteHiatus

This story started from a simple idea that I wanted to write. It will only be a few chapters long. Let me know what you think :)