The Hero's Reckless Wager
If the story had followed the original game’s flow, the hero Damian should be offering me a spot in his party right about now. After all, if a player created a custom character instead of using the default Damian, they’d end up joining his party and watching their own romance get NTR’d in real time.
“A war hero? How could someone like that be hiding here? With the steady pay and property the Empire hands out, he could live in luxury for life.”
“Then which title do you prefer, war hero Ash, mercenary Grey, or Shade, leader of Moonshadow?”
But the current situation was far from what I’d expected. The hero Damian was speaking as if he already knew my past, casually mentioning the identities I’d used and the abilities I’d displayed after faking my background. He was doing this on purpose.
“I have no idea what you’re talking about. Is this how the hero of the age behaves? Barging into a guild and demanding to see someone?”
“Oh, I’ve been looking for you for a long time. I don’t do this to just anyone, Shade.”
“I’m just anyone, then.”
I immediately shook off Damian’s hand and shot him a cold glare. It was the classic move of someone trying to seize the initiative by flaunting information, like warning the women around him not to even glance at another man. I hadn’t planned for this outcome, but given that this world was born from an NTR game that trampled on subculture taboos, nothing about it felt strange.
“Yes, that’s right, Shade.”
“How long have you supposedly been looking for me? You’ve got me curious now.”
“Since I was about seven? I’ve been carrying the burden of being a hero since I was a child, after all.”
I sat down at the table in front of me, and Damian immediately scooted right next to me, close enough that his voice brushed against my ear. His behavior felt off, like some kind of bug had triggered in the system. What the hell? In the original story, he was supposed to treat me like a useless nobody and flaunt his women in my face.
“The moment I first heard the rumors about you, I thought how wonderful it would be if someone as strong as you became my comrade.”
“Aren’t you sitting a little too close?”
“Ah, sorry. I’m always like this.”
Damian was looking at me with eyes full of emotion. Joy? Sadness? Relief? Damn it, I couldn’t tell. Even I, who had lied to and killed countless people just to survive in this world, couldn’t read the hero’s feelings. His actions were completely unpredictable. Probably just a habit he picked up from dealing with women.
“…Damian, what exactly is that Copy skill you keep talking about? You told us you were just recruiting the leader of a thieves’ guild.”
A sulky voice came from right beside me. Isabella Lafleur, the ★5 Count’s daughter and one of the original gacha characters, was glaring at me with clear irritation. That look actually stung a little. Back when that pink-haired noble girl was just a kid, I’d personally taught her swordsmanship as her instructor.
But she doesn’t remember me. No matter how much I tried to reveal my name or identity, the status window blocked it.
Maybe she still saw me as the hero Damian. Otherwise, that jealous reaction made no sense.
“Talking about it here would draw too much attention, Shade. Could you have your people step back?”
“Ordering the guild leader to dismiss his own subordinates? You’ve got no sense of hierarchy.”
“I’m the hero, after all.”
I could only grimace beneath my mask as Damian flashed a confident smile. No matter what background or rank you gave a custom character, this guy always ended up acting like some clueless young master and causing insubordination. I wanted nothing more than to drive a dagger straight into him, but doing that would make the already negative favorability of the other heroines drop to a point of no return.
“…Everyone, fall back. I need to speak with these people. Move far enough that you can’t hear us.”
“Yes, boss!”
“Understood!”
“You heard him, kids! The boss has business to discuss!”
When I raised my hand and spoke, nearly everyone in the area stood up and moved in orderly fashion toward another underground passage. Only members of the thieves’ guild Moonshadow could navigate this maze-like sewer system so smoothly.
“W-wow… They vanished like they were never here… Not even a trace of mana or sound…”
“Seeing this, he really must be the leader of a thieves’ guild. I thought he was an assassin because of the white mask…”
“…Honestly, it’s kind of cool. It’s rare even in the north to see so many subordinates obey a single person’s command.”
The women around Damian chattered among themselves as they watched the scene. A genius mage, the Crow Saintess, the Mercenary King’s daughter, the Count’s daughter—classic subculture game archetypes. The problem was that all their attention and affection were directed at the hero Damian, not at me.
“Enough already. Can’t you just say it now? Our party only needs one man, and that’s Damian.”
Isabella, with her pink hair and heart-shaped pupils, slammed the table and raised her voice. What the hell, did she have a death wish? Acting like this in a thieves’ guild full of cutthroats was beyond reckless.
“Shade, I’m sorry. Isabella doesn’t know how incredible you are…”
“Bunch of idiots with half-baked brains.”
Calm down. Calm down. Calm down. I gripped the hilt of the dagger hidden in my coat, suppressing my killing intent.
Isabella’s Favorability: -110%
Whether she disliked me or not, her favorability had already dropped below minus one hundred percent. The reason Isabella was acting this way was because this damned NTR game had deliberately set her favorability low from the start. Normally it would be extremely difficult to raise, but once you succeeded, she would become the type of character who genuinely cared for the person she liked—like a true tsundere. That was the Isabella I remembered from childhood.
You weren’t like this originally. You even used to pout and say you’d consider marrying your teacher when you grew up…
I tried to tell the truth, but my tongue and mouth refused to move, as if something were blocking them. Damn it. I had no interest in sitting here like some cameraman watching an NTR game unfold. That was exactly why I’d spent all this time gathering power and building influence—so I could crush the hero Damian.
“To put it simply, the stronger the comrades or enemies around you, the stronger Shade becomes. He can copy their abilities, talents, even their weapons.”
At that moment, Damian gave an exact description of my skill. Copy. The ability I’d come up with back in middle school when creating my character—the power to replicate not just someone’s talents and abilities, but even their weapons and actions.
“If I had that kind of power, why would I be rotting away in this underground slum instead of living in luxury?”
I let out an incredulous sigh and shot Damian a sharp look. He’d hit the mark, but the fact that he knew about my ability was dangerous in itself.
“There’s a demerit, isn’t there?”
As I tried to stand up, Damian grabbed my hand again.
“If you copy money or treasures, they disappear later… And if you copy something beyond your physical limits, your body suffers backlash.”
Yeah. Because I’d designed the skill during my middle school years when I valued effort and results, it wasn’t something that let you just coast through life. That was why, even in this hellish NTR world, I’d had to cross countless lines of death and put in tremendous effort just to grow stronger.
“…Get your hand off me. It’s disgusting, two guys holding hands.”
“Ah, yes. I got carried away trying to stop you and made the same mistake again. Sorry if that made you uncomfortable. Haha.”
I sat back down at the table with Damian and tried to figure out how he knew about Copy. Did the game system itself tell him through something like a status window? The fact that he claimed to have been searching for me for so long suggested it might be related to the hero’s role.
“Anyway, that’s why I want to recruit you, Shade, as the thief of the hero’s party to defeat the Demon King. Not as a subordinate or through money, but as equals.”
“All talk, aren’t you?”
“That’s what it means to be a hero. When everyone else speaks of reality, the hero is the one who speaks of ideals alone, isn’t he?”
Damian just chuckled at my provocation, clearly amused. He wanted an equal relationship with me—the leader of a thieves’ guild who also had status and fame as a mercenary and war hero? The guy was obviously too drunk on the attention of his women to think straight.
“A-as expected, Damian is so cool…”
“If it’s Damian’s judgment, I can trust it. If that ‘Copy’ ability is real, we could beat any enemy, right?”
“No. There are limits to the ability. The hero understands those drawbacks and is giving even the leader of the underworld a chance to join our great cause of saving the world.”
“If he’s that strong, I’d love to fight him once… but he’s probably weaker than Damian, so there’s no point!”
The moment Damian spoke, the women around him all chimed in to support him. Watching their reactions made my vision swim. You worthless pieces of trash. I rerolled my truck how many times just to pull you? If my girlfriend hadn’t said the female characters were pretty and cute, I wouldn’t have spent so much money just to see the rest of the story.
“Why should I follow you?”
I spoke in a sharp, irritated tone. According to my original plan, I was supposed to crush Damian with my skills and slowly seduce the heroines around him.
“Just like you said, I’m the leader of a thieves’ guild, a war hero, and a wandering mercenary. I don’t need to follow some grand purpose like defeating the Demon King the way you do.”
“Hey! Damian went out of his way to make you an offer! Our hero is acting on a prophecy that the world will end! He’s trying to save everyone!”
“What does that have to do with me? I’m busy enough looking after my own family and subordinates down here. If the Demon King attacks, we’ll just run somewhere else.”
There was no reason to join the hero’s party when all I was getting was insults and lectures.
“Do you think I’m slower than the Demon King? I’m the leader of Moonshadow—information reaches me faster than anyone.”
“You little—!”
“Calliope, that’s enough.”
Damian’s voice was cold and sharp. He stopped the Mercenary King’s daughter, the barbarian Calliope, who was hissing angrily beside him.
“Then how about this proposal?”
Click. As if he had anticipated this exact situation, Damian placed the holy sword on the table and smiled.
“Fight me once. If I lose, I’ll give you this holy sword. If you win… you become my comrade, Shade.”
“You really are a funny guy. Betting the hero’s proof on a gamble like this.”
I couldn’t help but laugh in disbelief at Damian’s proposal. The holy sword was proof that Damian had been chosen as the hero, the blade he’d carried since childhood and his most precious possession. I couldn’t understand why he would risk it on a bet.
“Damian?! Have you lost your mind?”
“Damian, have you truly gone mad? To recruit a mere ruffian, you’d wager the most important holy sword…!”
“Use something else! Okay? We all have precious things! It doesn’t have to be your holy sword! The Saintess’s rosary or my battle axe would work just as well…!”
The women’s reactions proved it. Their faces went pale with shock, hands flew to their mouths, and some even collapsed to the ground.
“No. If it’s not this, he won’t take the bait.”
Without the holy sword, Damian would essentially be giving up his qualification as the hero. That was how much he valued it.
“To me, Shade is someone worth that much. I need you.”
“……”
“This isn’t a gamble. It’s a choice I’m making for the future.”
The hero Damian in front of me didn’t change his expression at all as he cheerfully pushed the holy sword toward me and challenged me to a fight.
“Fine. But I’m adding one more condition.”
“What is it?”
“The loser becomes the winner’s dog. They have to obey every command and answer with a bark.”
I added the condition because Damian’s reaction felt too strange.
“I see you have quite the unique hobby. It’s different from what I expected, which makes it interesting… but isn’t this condition too disadvantageous for me?”
“You win if you so much as cut a single piece of my clothing. I win if I subdue you until you can’t move anymore. That’s fair, isn’t it?”
“A very reasonable decision. Yes, I’ll gladly accept those terms.”
Even after hearing that the loser would become the winner’s dog, Damian just kept smiling brightly, as if victory was already his.
This isn’t a gamble—it’s a choice for the future, huh…
Though I was almost certain I would win, I was starting to grow genuinely curious about what the hero Damian was thinking. After all, if he truly knew my ability, there was no way he would accept such an absurd bet.