The Golden Boy and the First Encounter
"The golden sun? Me?"
The boy in the mirror looked decent enough, I suppose. Not bad-looking, at least.
Shiny golden-blond hair, a sun-kissed bronze tan like he'd just come off the beach from surfing, and those piercing golden eyes that somehow managed to be both sharp and charming.
'Whoa. I'm crazy.'
I reached up without thinking and brushed my cheek, and the boy in the mirror did the exact same thing, staring back with a dazed expression.
This face, this vibe.
It wasn't the kind of look you saw on a random extra.
'This face looks straight out of an NTR manga.'
It was the very definition of a blond-tanned delinquent, the gold-standard delinquent archetype.
"...Am I that good-looking?"
Just moments ago I'd been boiling with rage because of the author who'd abandoned this dump of a novel after that awful ending.
But that anger had vanished in an instant, replaced by awe at the face in front of me.
"......"
Wait.
I was spacing out.
Seriously? Not now of all times.
My head, still hot from excitement, cooled down, and I finally had a moment to analyze where I was.
As long as I wasn't an idiot, I already knew what was going on.
It had to be a transmigration.
'I'd thought it was just some story in a novel.'
After experiencing it for real, denying it was out of the question.
"...Where am I?"
I turned my gaze and took in my surroundings.
A narrow room packed with a few old beds shoved together.
The wallpaper was torn, and a draft whistled in through the cracked window.
Too shabby for a noble's mansion, but too many beds for a commoner's house.
There was only one answer.
"...An orphanage?"
Holy crap, is this real?
Getting isekai'd without warning was already irritating enough.
Why the hell did it have to be an orphan kid?
Ziiing.
"......Ugh!"
At that exact moment, my head rang, and a wave of unfamiliar memories slammed into me.
After barely making sense of it under the pressure, I organized the thoughts.
The name of the boy I'd been reborn into was Lucian.
From what I could recall, he had at least been born to normal parents.
He even had a younger sister who followed him around like a shadow.
'Sorry, Lucian.'
'I'm not asking for forgiveness. Just understand that I had no choice.'
'Oppa! I hate youuu!'
Unfortunately, because life had been rough, he'd ended up dumped in this rundown orphanage on the outskirts of the capital.
He was barely twelve years old.
His only oddity?
Personality-wise, he was a total delinquent.
I figured that was just his way of protecting himself from the pain of being abandoned, but...
this guy had been on a whole other level.
'Stealing from the kids, ignoring everything the adults said... man, what a rotten seed.'
After skimming through Lucian's memories, I clicked my tongue in disgust.
He was the textbook flawed delinquent waiting to happen.
If he'd grown up normally, he'd have become the poster boy for the NTR manga trope.
'Doesn't matter anyway.'
What mattered right now was where I was.
"......"
I wasn't even a grown adult.
Digging through a twelve-year-old's memories wasn't going to give me solid info.
Whatever, it didn't matter.
As long as it was something I could remember.
Come on, remember!
Imperial Calendar 482...
Eden Empire...
the princess...
'Huh?'
As I tried to piece together the keywords floating in my mind, a chill ran down my spine.
I'd heard of the Eden Empire somewhere.
Or had I just heard of it?
I'd seen it.
'Seduced a villain without knowing it.'
Right before the transmigration, in the novel I'd been reading.
It was one of the nations in that trashy isekai story.
"...Really?"
This was the trashy romance fantasy world I'd been sucked into while leaving toxic comments?
Even the author had tossed that legendary garbage ending and fled?
...Wait.
I was about to have a heart attack again.
"...Crap, wait. So I'm dead too?"
Assuming my memories were accurate, this world was doomed to end just like the original.
The Demon King would resurrect, the protagonists and heroines would wallow in despair while playing house, and everyone would eventually die together crossing the River Styx.
'Author, even if that's how it goes, isn't this a crappy ending?'
Whether the comments section was flooded with slurs or not.
'Hahahahaha'
That insane author who'd laughed happily in the replies at my expense...
I clutched my head.
"No. If you're giving me a transmigration, at least let it be into a decent romance-fantasy healing story! Why the hell did it have to be this ending-crippled one?"
While I was screaming in front of the mirror, a semi-transparent blue window appeared before my eyes.
Ding!
[System has activated.]
[Loading user information... Complete.]
"Huh?"
This was the status window?
Right?
Of course there wasn't a death flag.
Usually these transmigration stories gave the protagonist a system to help.
I swelled with anticipation and slowly read the glowing text.
[Name: Lucian]
[Trait: Protection of the Geumtaeyang (Lv. MAX)]
[Tendency: Chaos]
[Acquired Skills]
- None
"...That's all?"
What was I supposed to say when the status window popped up?
It always showed stats like strength or intelligence.
But there were none.
The window only displayed one thing: the trait.
No, more than that.
"...The golden sun? Me?"
Looking at the face, it was obviously the golden sun.
But the status window straight-up saying 'Yeah, you're the golden sun' made it weird.
It felt... unjust?
"......"
I desperately swallowed the sigh that was about to burst out and pressed the 'Protection of the Geumtaeyang' section with a trembling hand.
[Trait: Protection of the Geumtaeyang]
[Description: You are born with a fatal pheromone that naturally draws the opposite sex. No one can easily escape your charm.]
[Effect 1: When the target is female, you will receive 'favorability' from them during conversations.]
[Effect 2: The chance that their favorability will turn into 'obsession' increases dramatically the moment it surpasses a critical threshold.]
"......"
I stared blankly into empty space.
Favorability?
Fine.
In this world, connections were everything for survival.
Especially here, winning over the heroines or female power holders could be a shortcut to staying alive.
The name was ridiculous, but thinking about it coldly, it wasn't a bad deal.
The second effect was the problem.
'...The chance it turns into obsession increases dramatically?'
"What the heck is this?"
The word 'obsession' was never something light.
From the very start it didn't sound good.
Imprisonment, kidnapping, brainwashing.
You could see the desolate endings waiting at the end of those paths.
The characters in this novel had done crazy stuff sometimes.
"......"
...Whatever, it didn't matter?
I wasn't the protagonist.
I was just an extra.
'It'll be fine. The heroines will fall for the main character anyway.'
This wasn't some hentai game.
They weren't going to obsess over me.
Yeah.
I forced myself to calm the unease.
The most important thing right now was surviving.
So I had to survive this orphanage first.
'The rest can wait. Let's focus on today.'
According to Lucian's memories, today was a day I had to be especially careful about.
The director nun came every now and then to vent her stress by checking the kids' rooms.
First, before she got here, I had to tidy up...
Creak.
'Already?'
They say tigers come when you call their name.
The old wooden door opened with an unpleasant sound.
"Lucian! You bastard! You didn't even clean and are slacking off again?!"
The nun who appeared was a middle-aged woman with a plump figure and a stern expression.
She was the director of this orphanage and had always treated Lucian like a thorn in her side, picking at him over every little thing.
'Crap, I'm in trouble!'
From Lucian's memories, she was pure terror.
She whipped them constantly and starved them often.
Even now, looking at my position, she was probably about to unleash hell.
I instinctively straightened my posture and lowered my head.
First, apologize.
Self-respect wasn't a meal ticket.
"I-I'm sorry, Director Nun! My body isn't feeling well, so I was resting... I'll clean it right away...!"
I stuttered, watching her reaction.
But.
"...Oh?"
The response wasn't what I expected.
At a time when she'd normally unload a tirade, a sigh slipped out instead.
I sneaked a glance and found her staring at me in a daze.
No, staring blankly.
[System: 'Protection of the Geumtaeyang' has activated.]
[Target: Orphanage Director (Favorability: Hostile → Favorable)]
Her pupils relaxed in a strange way, and soon a blush spread across her cheeks.
The whip she'd been about to raise to beat me fell limply to the floor.
"L-Lucian... y-you've always been...?"
Her gaze swept my face, then down my neck and across the bronze skin faintly visible through my shirt.
A swallow echoed in the silence.
'Did this really work?'
The way her attitude flipped from hostile to favorable thanks to the trait was unbelievable.
But there was no time to be stunned.
In Lucian's memories, the director nun was a human being who locked kids in storage rooms for the slightest offense.
If that woman was looking at me with this expression, I had to exploit the situation no matter what.
I stole a glance at the whip on the floor and put a crooked smile on my lips.
It felt off on my usual plain face, but judging by her reaction, it hadn't gone too badly.
"Director Nun."
My low voice made her shoulders twitch.
"I told you my body isn't well. If you keep shouting like that... it would hurt my feelings."
"Ah, ah... L-Lucian. I'm sorry. I must have been out of my mind for a moment. Yeah, if you're not feeling well, rest. Of course!"
"Is that so?"
"Then! And... this is my way of saying sorry."
The nun pulled a coin from her pocket, as if mesmerized, and pressed it into my hand.
Looking at it, it was at least enough to buy the orphans a full meal for the day.
"Use this to buy something delicious. Cleaning? Tell the other kids to do it. Got it?"
"...Thank you."
Even an orphan child.
Even if it was just a small amount, it was a big deal to them.
I stared blankly at the coin but nodded carefully and slipped it into my pocket.
I was momentarily stunned, but I had no reason to refuse what she offered.
It wasn't my principle to refuse gifts.
"Then I'll rest. Understood?"
"Thank you! Director Nun."
While bowing to her as she left the room, I straightened when I heard the door close and looked out the window.
'Protection of the Geumtaeyang... I thought it was just a joke at first.'
Thinking about the director nun's reaction earlier, it seemed more useful than I'd imagined.
'If I use it well...'
"Hey! What's this cleaning status?!"
"Uwaaaaah..."
From outside, the director nun was scolding another orphan harshly.
So that's how it was.
Just as I'd thought.
In my mind I briefly wondered if maybe she'd actually changed her personality a little.
But seeing her like this, her attitude had only shifted because of my trait.
Her true character hadn't improved.
"Whatever."
I traced my lips with my finger and muttered under my breath.
"It's not bad. As long as I use it, it's fine."
My first day as a delinquent golden sun in this trashy world...
I'd learned how to survive.
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■ User Confirmed.
■ The fate of the confirmed world has changed.
■ A new episode with the Saint has been added.
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