I Possessed a Counterattack Character

....This place isn't in any of my memories. Yeah. I can say that with absolute certainty.

For someone who'd spent entire days locked in his room playing games, this was a space that felt completely foreign.

First of all.... the antique crimson ceiling and the golden chandelier catch my eye.

Unlike my single room where the cold made my flesh tremble on its own, warm air circulates through here of its own accord.

Right in front of me sits a teapot of hot tea sending up wisps of steam, a teacup that looks expensive by anyone's standards, and beside them, cookies that look delicious arranged on a pure white plate.

.....Where the hell am I?

"What are you doing? Aren't you going to pour the tea?"

A voice reached me then.

A slightly childish, delicate, high-pitched voice. Snapping back to my senses and lifting my head a little, I caught sight of someone's figure.

A cute girl with orange hair. Looking every bit the young girl she was, she wore antique clothes that people of twenty-first-century Earth generally did not wear.

And yet they suited her remarkably well, which struck me as oddly fascinating.

"I said, what are you doing just sitting there without pouring."

Looking seventeen at the absolute oldest, she frowned at me as she asked.

Staring blankly at her as she radiated discontent with her entire body, I opened my mouth.

"Ahaha....... Might I ask who you are?"

Something was very, very wrong here.

After asking the nameless girl's pardon, I slipped away somewhere secluded.

Technically, she'd stormed out huffing about how offensive I was being, so calling it "asking her pardon" was a bit of a stretch.... but for someone who desperately needed time to think, I was just grateful for it.

Alright then. Since I've got a rare moment to myself, let's slowly dig through my head and piece the memories back together.

I was definitely done with my part-time job and, same as always, about to play Grand Fantasia....

Wait a second. Grand Fantasia?

Turning that keyword over in my mind, I recalled the face of the girl who'd just left me.

Orange hair, bright little eyes just cute enough to make you want to pinch her cheeks. And above all, that tear mark dotted on her fair white face.

"Chloe...."

I can say it without a doubt.

She was one of the heroines of Grand Fantasia, and the daughter of Andres Frelia, head of the Frelia family — Chloe Frelia.

So does that mean I'm inside the game? Half wondering if I was dreaming, I pinched my cheek, but all I felt was a sharp sting of pain.

Only then could I accept it. I had somehow ended up inside Grand Fantasia.

"Wow...."

And at the same time, an overwhelming despair sank deep into my body........ no, it didn't. If anything, I felt refreshed.

Honestly, I didn't have much attachment left to my previous life of repeating the same meaningless routines every single day.

For someone who'd lost his mother and father early and lived an unbroken string of misfortune ever since, being able to start over in a brand-new environment like this was closer to a blessing than anything else.

There's no point keeping that empty wheel turning forever. Perfect chance for a fresh start in life.

Of course, the fact that this world was a brutal place where magic and swords ran wild — nothing like the modern one — wasn't exactly easy to take positively, but what choice did I have? Since things had already turned out this way, I might as well try to survive somehow.

"Alright then. Now I need to figure out who I a—"

Having sorted my thoughts, I leaned back against the wall........ no, wait. Something's off.

Ahem! I cleared my throat.

"What's with this way of talking."

The speech pattern I normally used came flowing out of my mouth. But at the same time, an enormous sense of dissonance wrapped around my entire body.

Huh. What's going on with this.

This time, I let my body take the lead and casually voiced what I was feeling.

"Haha, I don't know what's going on, but this has gotten rather awkward."

And to my surprise, there wasn't the slightest bit of discomfort.

"Arara?"

A frivolous little reaction I'd never usually let slip out of my mouth now came flowing out as naturally as water.

Hmm. I think I might know who this guy is.

Ah, come to think of it, there was a mirror in the room where I'd just been with Chloe.

To check my face, I went back to the room I'd bolted from, and only then could I be certain of who I was.

Black hair, a tear mark on his right cheek, two eyes that might as well have been closed, a face that looked like it was always smiling faintly, and a man who gave off such a light, breezy atmosphere that just looking at him made you feel he might blow away on the wind.

"Ah."

I had become Shion Frelia.

Shion Frelia. Son of Marquis Andres Frelia, war hero of the Praon Kingdom........ but in reality, he was regarded as nothing more than an ordinary member of the family.

No — truthfully, he was treated even worse than that.

The reason was deeply tied to his mother.

Most players were so focused on clearing the main quest that they breezed past it knowing nothing, but I was a hardcore gamer who'd all but buried my bones in Grand Fantasia. Of course I'd cleared every last Frelia family side quest and knew most of the lore.

"So if I remember correctly..."

Shion Frelia's mother was a black mage.

To complete her mission, she'd hidden her identity, approached Marquis Andres Frelia, seduced him, and gone so far as to ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠become his concubine.

In the process, Shion Frelia had been brought into the world, and later, once her mission was complete, she vanished without a word.

Afterward, the fact that she'd been a black mage came to light too late, and naturally her son, Shion Frelia — despite being Andres's own child — ended up treated worse than the servants of his half-siblings.

And so Shion Frelia became, quite literally, a frivolous man who simply existed within the Frelia family. That was the story.

His weightless way of speaking had probably been shaped by that dark past of constantly having to elevate his siblings above himself.

"Haha, my luck really is the absolute worst."

In short, he'd drawn the short straw when it came to parents.

"Hmm....... Still, it's not the absolute worst!"

I let out a deep sigh of relief.

Someone might ask what kind of nonsense that was after I'd just dredged up Shion's thoroughly bleak past. Well then, let's think about it one more time.

First of all, even if Shion was ignored, he was on paper still a noble, and he held the status of a student at Luin Academy, the talent-training institution founded by the Praon Kingdom.

Meaning I didn't have to worry about starving to death anytime soon.

Getting fed without working? That's pure gravy.

"I don't even have to go to my part-time job — this might actually be lucky?"

I was purely delighted by the fact that I wouldn't have to labor.

Not a bad start. Now I needed to make a plan going forward.

"First of all, this place....... doesn't seem to be Luin Academy."

The clothes Chloe had been wearing a moment ago were not the Luin Academy uniform I'd observed countless times on my monitor.

In other words, it was reasonable to conclude this was a mansion belonging to the Frelia family.

"Hmm.... Judging by how a little muggy it feels....... is it summer?"

There was only one reason a student would return home during summer.

"So Luin Academy is currently on summer break."

That seemed like a fair assumption.

"Ah, come to think of it, I think there was a cutscene with Shion that played during summer break. Umm....... I just can't quite remember it."

Ordinarily in Grand Fantasia, players spent the break freely roaming the world and training their characters.

Then, when there were about three days left until school reopened, during the transition to the next day, players would be shown a certain cutscene related to Shion.

And the contents of that were definitely....... umm.......

I frowned and rooted through my memories, then finally spoke with a face gone rigid.

"This... might be a real problem?"

It had come back to me.

— Tick. Tock.

When the clock hands moved to point exactly at noon, darkness swallowed the body of Shion, who had been serving as Chloe's emotional punching bag same as always.

Dropped into a dark space, Shion found a beautiful demon welcoming him there with a benevolent smile.

Welcome to my domain.

Have you not longed for power deep in your heart? Have you not wished to tear apart those brats who torment you?

Come to me. And do not refuse my power ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠— accept it.

A demon approached Shion, who had long suffered from inferiority complex in secret, and tempted him.

After only a moment's hesitation, Shion accepted the offer and became a Fallen One — a demonkin.

End of cutscene.

"Hmm.... This has gotten rather troublesome."

Having recalled Shion's future — which is to say, my own future — I couldn't wipe the worry from my face.

"So that means.... I'm on a timer!?"

If I became a demonkin, a normal life would be nothing but a dream. Every nation treated demonkin as priority-one targets for extermination.

So if I wanted to enjoy a happy life going forward, I somehow had to stop Shion's transformation into a demonkin that was about ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠to happen.......

"Is there a way?"

I thought about it for a moment, but nothing useful came to mind.

"At this point I think I've got to try something, anything, whether it works or not....... Status."

On the off chance it might work, I called out for a status window. Originally it was a feature only players could use, but maybe it'd be allowed for me.

"Oh."

I let out a quiet sound of admiration at the familiar status window.

From the looks of it, the ability I currently possessed was Counter Attack — the so-called counter skill.

"Hmm....... It's kind of middling."

Even for someone as steeped in Grand Fantasia as I was, it wasn't a familiar ability. Well, of course not — Counter was a trait unique to Shion alone.

Players could purchase various traits through achievement points.

So in theory I could have used Counter myself if I'd wanted to, but I never bothered.

"Of all the traits, it had to be this one."

Because the difficulty was just way too high.

"If you're going to use Counter, you'd be far better off spending those points on other utility traits."

There was a reason people said that landing a single successful Counter was worth more than using other traits twenty times over.

There was also the Poker Face trait, but I didn't think it'd be of much help in the encounter with the demon a few days from now.

Man, what a mess.

First of all, the name of the demon expected to assault me in a few days was Letios, an officer of the Demon King's army. She specialized in fire magic and charm, and her defining feature was possessing an enormous reservoir of mana while having a body as fragile as glass.

Of course, "fragile" was only relative to other Demon King's army officers — she still had a physique that someone like me, bottom-of-the-barrel fodder, couldn't even begin to compare with.

She also had a setting of being extremely obsessed with beauty.

"If I roughly taunt her by calling her ugly, bait a big attack, and finish her in one shot with Counter Attack...."

It seemed possible, but it was way too dangerous.

Still, in my current situation, there wasn't really anything else that would work....

"Ah, come to think of it, I had achievement points, didn't I?"

Achievement points were the currency you could spend in the Achievement Shop.

If I used the Achievement Shop — where you could buy everything except what didn't exist — maybe I could claw my way out of this hopeless situation?

A sliver of hope drifted across my steadily darkening face.

"Let's see....... Oho?"

Opening the Achievement Shop, countless purchasable traits flooded my vision.

"Alright then, time to go shoppi~ Ara."

Just before cheerfully starting my shopping spree, I checked my remaining achievement points, and my face hardened all over again.

Achievement Points — 300

"Good heavens. To think a beggar like this existed!"

The fact that said beggar was me made my head throb. There was almost nothing I could do with these 300 points.......

"Urgh, I'll somehow have to earn achievement points before the day the demon comes."

The one silver lining was that I still had time left.

The demon turning Shion into a demonkin happened three days before school reopened. I didn't know exactly how many days ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠from now the start of term was, but until then I'd somehow have to.......

— Dong! Dong!

Just then, the large wall clock beside me that had been silently moving its minute and second hands announced its presence with a sound.

My gaze naturally turned toward that clock.

12:00

— Ssssss.

Darkness flowed out from my shadow, swelled in size, and swallowed me whole.

"Wh...! Wh....! You've gotta be kidding me!"

I was so startled that my original way of speaking burst out.

Oh, for real? Today really is three days before school starts?

And then, just as I'd guessed, someone's voice began to reach me.

"Shion Frelia. I have been watching you."

In a place steeped entirely in gloom, a beautiful demon addressed me.

Ah, somebody save me.