Chapter 87: Side Story: 2nd “Hero”

Side Story: 2nd “Hero”

“Hero’s” view

*thud* “Ow!”

“Oh great hero! Uh, why are you naked?”

“I was in the middle of a bath!”

“Sorry.” The old man then turned to speak to a nearby maid: “Go get him some clothes!”

“Anyway, we need you to aid us in saving our kingdom from the two demon lords. One has already taken half our kingdom from us.”

“Uh, I’m just a writer. Not even a good one.”

“You should have some sort of blessing from god! Check your status?”

Status? Oh! It showed up as I thought about it, how convenient.

“These stats look entirely ordinary. Except my stamina, which is really low.”

“Do you have a special skill or title?”

“My title is [Author]”

“What?! My spell failed?! It can’t be! I should have summoned the strongest being this world can contain!”

...I have a bad feeling about this.

…

As the old man began to mutter to himself quietly enough that I couldn’t understand, I cast my gaze around and saw mostly guards and what I assume were nobility standing around talking quietly with one another. After a while someone approached me with clothes and escorted me away to change.

Thus I discovered the first thing I’d miss upon entering a new world: The comfort of modern clothing. These clothes are fairly rough and not nearly as nice on the skin as the cotton I’d worn in the past. I’m not sure what it’s made of, but it’s obviously much lower quality. *sigh*

Since the maid had left shortly after showing me the small room and handing me clothes, I just sat in a chair and waited. There really wasn’t much in here, just some chairs, couches, and a small table. Looked like a waiting room.

…

“Ah! Hero! Can you help me?”

A young woman with way too much jewelry has shown up, with a knightly escort.

“Princess, please restrain yourself and show proper decorum!”

“Oh, don’t worry so much, he’s probably from a world that doesn’t even have nobles!”

“My world actually does have nobles, they just aren’t part of the country I’m from. Also, I don’t think I’m likely to be able to help anyone.”

“Oh, don’t worry. I… uh… actually just wanted to get you out of here.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, my sister left already, and I’d like to go see her… she was wise to leave. Mason’s an awful man who’s made too many marriage proposals to me.”

“It’s not any more proposals than you usually get from someone.”

“Yes, but he’s got enough power and influence that he might actually convince my father to agree despite my objections!”

“I’m not sure what this has to do with me. I’m not going to be able to protect you if you need an escort.”

“Well… you’ve been asked to defeat the two demon lords, right?”

“Yup.”

“I don’t want you to. The one Mason keeps complaining about stealing territory hasn’t actually done anything. I know because my sister keeps in touch through letters, and she’s been watching over events there. In truth it was just a rebellion. Mason’s been abusing his authority and influence, and a lot of the nobility were unhappy with what was going on, so when an opportunity to declare independence came, they took it.”

“Is Mason a high priest?”

“Yes, he’s the head of the church of light.”

… It can’t be… right?

“Is one of the demon lords named Lily?”

“Yes. How did you know that?”

“Fuck. I get it now.”

“Get what?”

“Why I was summoned. Mason wanted the most powerful being possible. What could be stronger than the creator? Except I’m a fake.”

“I’m not sure if I should be more concerned about you calling yourself this world’s creator, or about the fact that you then claimed to be a fake.”

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“I’m an author. I write stories. I wrote this one, or at least I wrote a very similar one… though I never wrote myself into it, despite some pretending at times. I suppose I can’t expect to know what happens after the summon. I’m not the sort to give myself cheats in this kind of story, it’s the wrong story for that. At best I might have some plot armor, because the story should be light-hearted. Unless I’m just a character who is too minor to even get mentioned… fuck. The entire story is told from Lily’s point of view. I’d not even appear at all then! So… no plot armor… fuck.”

“I don’t think I understood much of that.”

“I’m probably a copy of the person who created this world, and as a copy, I’m powerless.”

“Might you be able to make some informed guesses about the world though?”

“Oh, sure. I can make guesses about some things, but I wouldn’t rely upon it. A lot of what I write is just made up on the fly. There’s no proper design or path or grand plan. The world is largely free to do as it likes.”

“The world has likes?”

“Well, it’s more like the people in it do. If you want to find someone capable of really making a difference, find Emmara. Though she might be too busy already.”

“... well, it’s probably still good to get you away from Mason.”

“Yeah, if you could take me to the town where Lily’s dungeon is, that’d be great. It’s probably the only place I actually know anything about. I didn’t bother writing about anywhere else… except like, a shop in Sam’s home-town.”

“Sounds good to me. That’s basically what I was planning anyway. Escorting the Hero to infiltrate a demon kingdom should be a suitable excuse to get out of here. Thank you for agreeing.”

… *sigh* I need to think of a plan.

…

It was rather tense waiting with no idea what was happening, making it quite a relief when the princess returned with news that her plan was a success, and we’d be leaving tomorrow. I was shown to a room to spend the night, and discovered my second regret regarding visiting a new world: The beds here are nowhere near as good as memory foam mattresses. *sigh*

…

After arriving in the town (yes I’m going to skip all the boring journey details. Nothing interesting happened. I just sat in a bouncy and unpleasant carriage for weeks.) I immediately sought out Talia. 

“A customer?”

“While I do have some things I’d like, really what I need is a job.”

“You don’t look like you’d be of much use. What makes you think I should hire you?”

“I’m willing to help test your potions if you’ll let me stay. I need a place to live too.”

“... well, I guess we could give it a try. First I’ll need to do some thorough testing to get baseline values before I give you anything.”

“Uh… okay.”

“So come on in, go upstairs, enter the first room on the right and strip naked. I’ll be up once I’m done here.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

… *sigh* I have a feeling I know what’s going to happen, just based on the kind of story this is... at least I won’t be bored.

“Huh. I wasn’t expecting him to volunteer like that.”

“Why? Just because I have a bad reputation doesn’t mean everyone will know of it.”

“Well, he claimed to be a copy of the creator, so he should know what you’re like.”

“Oh? He did, did he? I may have to ask him a few questions then… though that would explain how he knew exactly what sort of thing I needed. I don’t think I’d have accepted him for anything else. Though I do wonder if he’ll really be okay with all the things I do to him.”

“During my conversations with him, I got the impression he doesn’t know anywhere near as much as one would expect from a creator. He seemed to only really know about things directly related to Lily.”

“Huh. You’re right. That is very narrow knowledge. I guess he knows about me because I’ve visited Lily a few times?”

“That would fit with what he said. Anyway, do you know where I’d find Belle?”

And that was as much of the conversation as I heard before entering the room I’d been told to enter. I may have been a bit deliberately slow so I could overhear more. They were talking about me! Of course I’d want to hear what they said!

Anyway, if I’m right, then I should have successfully taken care of getting room, board, and access to transformative potions! I have no desire to stay in this terrible body of mine. I know part of the awfulness is just my failure to maintain it properly, but there’s never been a time that I felt I liked my body, even when I was younger, and I’d always loved shapeshifting in games. The idea of being able to change myself into anything, was something that always fascinated me. If I can learn how these transformative potions Talia makes work, then I can be whatever I want!

***Author Note***

It occurred to me that there were two summons by the dark god, and only one by the light god. So, for balance, there needed to be a second hero. Except, Mason wouldn’t do a proper summon a second time, since the first hero hadn’t worked out quite right. Instead he tried to make his own summon spell that would do exactly what he demanded of it. Thus: … okay, that whole bit about Mason was the explanation I came up with after the silly idea of summoning the author appeared in my head.

Really, I had two separate ideas. 1) There should be a second summon from the light god. 2) What happens when/if an author is summoned into a world they were writing? Then I combined them.

As for the answer to 2… some of the “author’s” thoughts that I never found a good place to put: If I never wrote this, then who’s writing it? … the real me? Then... I must be a fake. After all, it’s not really possible for an author to enter their own story, right? They can only write in a copy of themselves that acts how the author thinks they would act. It’s really not the same as actually being in the story. So I’m just a copy. *sigh*

Don’t expect the contents of this side story to ever come up again… Unless I write more side stories.

P.S. I will neither confirm nor deny the accuracy of the author clone.

P.P.S. story is still on hiatus.

Late Edit: I think I figured out why I've had trouble adding more to the story. For the majority of the tale, there was always something going on in the background. The hero summon, the war, the meddling demons, the establishment of a new kingdom, the taming of an unruly dungeon master, the establishment of a new church, and finally, this chapter: the fourth summoned person. All of these events have been resolved. It wasn't entirely obvious, but I've been telling stories from the viewpoint of a minor side character, and all those stories ended. So clearly, what I need to do is come up with a new story. Preferably multiple of them, 'cause it's more interesting when there's several things going on at once.

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