Chapter 3
Chapter 3: Final Boss.
Around the time I turned 16, I committed a catastrophe that began with taking in a single girl and ended with me becoming the husband of the final boss.
I shifted the fountain pen to my other hand, turned to the end of the page, and steadied my mind.
The Ravencourt earldom is the family that serves as the setting of the original story.
The problem is that I possessed not the protagonist of that story, but an extra.
"Oh...!! Young Master... To have already finished all these problems... This old butler! I could die without a single regret!"
"You never used to so much as glance at magic studies...!"
"You, you said you want to visit the knight order...? For, for personal training?! Yo, you've finally come to your senses! This loyal servant has always believed in you, Young Mas—"
And not just any extra—a chronically ill, good-for-nothing young master, rotten to the core.
On top of that, the person I possessed appears as an enemy of the protagonist.
As I wandered the hallways, I could hear the sound of sharp intakes of breath from every direction. Everyone wore expressions as though they had seen a ghost.
It was understandable. A person who had been holed up in his room for years, only crawling out when the sun went down, had appeared first thing in the morning, neatly dressed.
'Just how rotten was this lifestyle.'
It had already been several weeks since I fell asleep in my modern-day bed. Right up until the first day, I had no doubt this was a dream.
A lucid dream, or perhaps a life-flashing-before-your-eyes phenomenon. Those were at least the rational explanations. For whatever reason, I was certain it had to be an illusion—right up until I heard the name of the maid who came for Night Attendance and keeled over sideways before I could feel the pain.
Only then did I realize. That I had possessed someone.
Still, of all places, the setting of the original story. Isn't it better than being some rural serf? They wouldn't have put me in a place like this for nothing. I was certain that those kinds of events would come for me too.
///
There was a time when I actually looked forward to it.
I was even a little excited.
...Can this even be salvaged?
{<<Target>>: Amelia's Rampage Gauge fills to 50%!]
{.....Time Remaining: 3 days—03:00:00}
Anyone would feel the same looking at this scene. The final boss. On the verge of going berserk. And it's unmistakably still the early stages.
"Your name... could it be Amelia?"
"..."
I feel like I'm going to die. I had come here to find a bodyguard to protect the body of an early-arc villain, but the person in front of me had long since surpassed the threshold of being merely overwhelming just to face. However, the moment I found her, I had to revise my thinking.
Splash—as I walked through the pouring rain, I spotted a blood-soaked woman crouching in a corner. Her skin was white, so white it was almost pale. Her hair, barely visible, was as black as ebony, while her eyes carried a clear, crystalline feeling. Even beneath the shadow of her dark robe, those 2 eyes were vividly distinct, and that uniquely lofty air of hers refused to fade. I couldn't be certain at first, but the more I looked, the more my suspicion turned to conviction.
The final boss. Roshizen Amelia.
But Amelia, too, looked quite different from how she appeared in the original story's timeline. In a bad way. Red lacerations were scored across her white skin. Her slender arms hung lifelessly, with no sign she could lift them. She looked less like someone alive and more like someone barely holding her shape together.
...Wait a moment.
I carefully sorted through the thoughts that had just surfaced. My current situation, and my objective.
"....This."
This might be an opportunity.
Maybe I should try to win her over to my side.
Not in a romantic sense, of course.
///
And so I brought back the battered woman I had found along that rain-drenched road. Her fading breaths tapped against the back of my neck. From her shoulders to the tips of both arms, bruises bloomed like mold, and there were traces of cuts from bladed weapons everywhere. I tried applying every potion I had on hand, but it had no effect whatsoever—meaning her condition was that serious.
"Haak...heuk, haa... haa... haa—..."
The estate I barely reached after carrying her on my back. It was plain at a glance that she was deeply ill. Even after applying the healing water, and even after bringing her to the lodgings, beads of sweat were forming on her forehead and she was gasping for breath. It was wretched—even calling it that felt insufficient for how strongly the smell of blood hit.
Blood-soaked towels were scattered around the bed, and Amelia was wrapped in bandages from head to toe; even her face was nothing but bandages except for 1 eye. Had it not been for that, I wouldn't have recognized her at all. The wounds were so severe it would be no exaggeration to say the only thing keeping her going was breath.
I had intended to hide her existence from the family completely, but I could not do the same with the physician.
"....This is remarkable."
The physician who had examined Amelia up close gave a brief assessment of her condition.
"Can she be saved?"
"Both arms go without saying. It doesn't look like abuse that happened over just a day or 2 at minimum. Her body was already pushed to the limit on top of that. Bruises, lacerations all over her body... there isn't a wound she's missing... this one's going to die."
"...Isn't there any way..."
"If you want, treatment is possible, but I question whether it would be meaningful. Even if she survives... her life as a swordsman will be over."
"You're saying both arms cannot be restored to how they were?"
At that, the physician suddenly fell silent. He studied me quietly. The physician, who had been carefully examining Amelia's right arm, opened his mouth.
"...7 lacerations.... deep, and they look like wounds from Aura stabs. Some spots have been completely torn away."
"How much longer do you think she can hold on at this rate?"
"If things continue as they are, she won't last even a week. Without that magic tool of yours, Young Master, it wouldn't be strange if she died today. As things stand."
"...Is it beyond even the physician's magic?"
"Even if you ask further, when you already know... nothing will change. Treatment has come far too late. At the very least, I am not confident."
"..."
"The left arm, perhaps. But the right arm must be given up."
"..."
"This arm is as good as dead. Far from being treated, it's at a level where it needs to be cut off quickly before the infection spreads to the upper body. I would recommend amputation rather than continuing to leave it as it is."
"..."
I had hoped, but as expected. There is no way to treat her right now. Not in this family, at least. The physician finished his brief farewell and left the inner chamber.
She lay there lifelessly, her wet hair clinging to his neck—but there was no time to worry about that.
'Given how things have turned out... I have to make her an ally.'
Living as an extra in this world is out of the question. I'm not even an extra to begin with—I'm already a villain. As long as I've been classified as an enemy, getting brutally killed may be unavoidable.
So if I'm going to beat the protagonist, there's nothing better than recruiting the final boss.
That's why I brought her here. Did I really think she'd arrive in this ragged a state...? How did she even survive in the original?
'Strangely, her skin is pale. It should definitely be around the time she was with the knight order... at this level, she's even paler than me, who never left the house at all.'
I reached my hand toward Amelia. Amelia instinctively sensed my hand but neither flinched nor pulled away. The reason was unclear. She simply accepted my hand without changing her expression at all.
That made it possible to see her status window as well.
[?????.... Target's current HP is: ..... ]
Name: Amelia
Status: Critically Injured
Height/Weight: 171.5cm / 45.2kg
[Stats]
Strength: F-(C)↓3 Endurance: C- Agility: F-(C+)↓7 Stamina: F-(D+)↓4 Mana: B- Luck: A+
[Traits]
[Innate Talent (Inactive)]
[Status]
[Critically Injured—Severe injuries.]
[Despair—The spirit has broken and the will to live has collapsed.]
[Emotionless—Emotions are barely felt.]
[Resignation—....]
...
[Aptitude]
[Genius—Absorbs anything with ease and possesses an aptitude for learning that surpasses others.]
[Skills]
[???]
"..."
No matter how I looked at it, this was not a good situation. When I grabbed her upper body and lifted it, she flinched and reacted. It felt exactly like looking at a broken person.
"Stop.....please.... I have... nothing left... to lose..."
A reluctant response. There was no way I'd miss the moment she hesitated. '...What is this.' She let out a moan and her eyes closed. Her body, which had been so tense, suddenly went limp. Even as I called her name repeatedly, her eyes wouldn't open. The atmosphere felt too dangerous to simply write it off as passing out.
I carefully laid Amelia back on the bed and felt a sense of frustration. I had brought her here for now, but I hadn't imagined things would be this desperate.
"...She's not going to try to kill me the moment she wakes up, is she?"
Phew. I steadied myself for a moment. All that was in front of me was a beautiful woman panting, lying there with a flushed blush rising to her cheeks.
"...Should I use my status window points?"
The things available in the point shop are highly practical. In a pinch they're expensive, but you can bring in high-quality modern food, various simple potions, magic tools that are hard to obtain in this world, and so on.
Even the bandages currently wrapped around her arms and legs were obtained from the point shop. The problem is that to replenish these points, I have to clear certain quests.
'.......I'm only doing this because she's going to be mine.'
For now, I remove the tights and replace the bandages. Since they were wound all over her body, unavoidable physical contact was only natural.
And just as I reached toward a sensitive area—
"...Ah."
The voice from below made cold sweat run down my back. Before I could even come up with an excuse, she spoke first.
"You can... let go now."
Meteor—for my survival, this.... was a crisis greater than the disaster from a moment ago. Cold sweat poured from me like rain out of sheer dread.
Only then did I realize what I looked like—holding this person in an embrace more intimate than any lover's. I first loosened the hand that had been wrapped around her back. Amelia, too, confirmed that the situation had settled and pulled away from my arms.
{<<Target>>: Amelia's Rampage Gauge fills to 66%!]
{.....Time Remaining: 3 days—02:17:34}
Damn it.
...Can this even be salvaged.