Trivial Stories You Don't Need to Read
There once was an ordinary boy. One day, he was suddenly transported to an entirely different world. It was a world where a Demon King and heroes existed, where humans and demons stood in opposition. The boy had been isekai'd into the kind of fantasy world he'd only ever read about in novels.
The boy harbored a single hope. Like the protagonists in those stories, he too believed he could become the main character. He would save the world and, just like the endings in those novels, live out a happy life. But that world was not filled with hope. It was a cruel place where common sense held no power, where survival demanded killing others. Betraying someone was considered natural, and the fault always lay with the deceived. It was a world gone mad, treating every atrocity as ordinary. A world no modern mind could ever understand.
That was why the outsider struggled desperately to survive. He scavenged scraps others had thrown away, fled from senseless violence, and doubted every act of kindness. One wrong move and he could be sold into slavery. He remained wary of others' goodwill, knowing that without caution, a knife could find his back at any moment. He forgot how to smile. All that remained were tear ducts so dry they could no longer produce tears.
After clawing his way through life with everything he had, the boy gained an ability—purely by chance. It was the power to instantly grasp and wield the principles of countless magics without any effort. He could summon creatures from ordinary animals to legendary dragons and even spirits. It was a dangerous power, one no human should ever have been granted.
People's attitudes changed overnight. They praised him. They no longer swung swords at him, trampled his food, attacked him while he slept, or mixed filth and insects into his meals. They stopped dragging him to slave traders and ceased beating him for amusement. Instead, they began offering favors. They greeted him first, gave him leftover food for free, bowed and scraped while erasing any trace of killing intent. Some even presented the hilts of their swords as gifts rather than pointing the blades at him. They pulled him out of the back alleys they had once driven him into and provided him with a place to stay. A few even introduced their own daughters to him.
Yet the boy showed no emotion toward this sudden kindness. Or rather, he couldn't show any. His heart had already been completely shattered. In a way, it was only natural. His mind had broken as a self-defense mechanism just to survive in that insane world.
Then they made a request. They asked him to kill the Demon King and restore peace, to fulfill the wish they had once placed on worthless heroes. The boy set off on his journey, half-forced. He felt nothing. No thoughts, no emotions. He simply walked forward with the vague idea that defeating the Demon King might somehow make things better.
In that state of emptiness, the boy happened to meet a girl. She was a demon, yet she too suffered from the world's injustices. The only difference was that he possessed power while she had none. She was so weak that even her fellow demons treated her as nothing more than food. The boy saved her by chance, and she chose to accompany him on his solitary journey toward the Demon King. Survival was all that mattered to her.
The broken boy placed no restrictions on the girl. He simply wanted the journey to end. Meanwhile, the girl clung to her desperate will to live, so she followed him even knowing his goal was to slay the Demon King. At the time, survival was her only desire. Nothing more, nothing less.
But then other feelings began to sprout within her. Interest in the boy. Empathy for the pain he had endured. A protective urge to guard his torn heart. Satisfaction when he ate her cooking and said it was delicious. A sense of fulfillment she had never known while alone. And finally, the desire to live together with him. All these emotions intertwined into love.
At the same time, the boy's heart began to fill. His shattered, fragmented soul slowly pieced itself back together. In a world where no one could be trusted, the only one he could believe in was the demon girl the world had branded an enemy. His sealed lips opened. A voice he thought would never return came forth. Tears he believed he could never shed again began to fall. The facial muscles he hadn't used in so long cramped when he tried to smile. For the first time in this strange world, he felt happiness.
Their journey was a story of healing, of two wounded and fragile beings recovering through each other. Yet every journey must end. The boy and girl finally subdued the Demon King. They did not kill him. He too was weak, just like them. Paradoxically, in that mad world, he possessed a kinder heart than anyone else. So they spared him. They only asked that he spread the false rumor that they had slain the Demon King.
Thus the boy and girl returned, and the rumor that the Demon King was dead spread. And they all lived happily ever after. Unfortunately, such sweet endings exist only in fairy tales. Reality was far more bitter. There is a saying that useless hunting dogs are killed, and it proved true here as well. The entire world suddenly turned on the boy and girl, trying to kill them. The boy was a dangerous existence. The girl was a remnant of the Demon King.
The boy began his struggle against the petty strong of the world to protect the petty weak girl. Though their journey had made them stronger, the world itself was no easy opponent. Like ants resisting a wave, the world slowly wore them down. Even the so-called heroes, who had done nothing but live in debauchery while the Demon King existed, now pointed their swords at them. Yet the boy and girl's actions were not entirely meaningless. The Demon King they had spared joined their fight against the world.
It was a long war. Much blood was spilled. But they never stopped. Finally, they brought the world to its knees and reclaimed peace. Afterward, the boy and girl were given two choices: remain in this world or return to their original one. If they stayed, the Demon King promised to give them the entire world. After all, without them, he would have died long ago.
The boy and girl looked at each other and smiled without a word. Without the slightest hesitation, they made their choice. Together, they returned to the boy's original world, leaving behind a promise to meet the Demon King again someday. The boy stepped back into a familiar world, while the girl entered one completely unknown to her.
The boy's name was Jeong Siyun. The girl's name was Lilith. They would later be known as the Archmage and the Succubus Queen. But this story was the hidden side of their tale. It was simply the trivial story of an ordinary boy and an ordinary girl.
***
The boy and girl quickly formed a family and even had lovely children. Though their names were somewhat less than lovely. Their married life was happy, but it did not last. Around the time their fourth child was born, the boy encountered a mage from another dimension and changed completely. He became emotionless, just like when they had first met. No, he became even more passive than that.
Still, the girl believed. She believed that someday the boy would return to his former self. But to a child, parents are their entire world. So the child found those parents difficult to endure. Neglect bordering on abuse continued. No, if it had only been neglect, that would have been fortunate. They treated the child as nothing more than a commodity and tormented them. Even after the child awakened an ability, they were scorned for being only half-complete. They were driven into battlefields filled with monsters, told they were useless for only being able to do this much. Indifference was the greatest kindness the boy ever showed the child.
The girl did her best to care for them, but a half-broken world was far too cruel for the child. So the child turned their eyes elsewhere—toward the martial artists who tempered themselves and disciplined their minds. From then on, the child began denying their own power and repeating only physical training. Perhaps this came from giving up on themselves, a resignation to abandon everything. The behavior did not stop even after they reached adulthood. No, it only grew worse. The child hid their fragile self behind the shell of a martial artist. They changed their way of speaking, discarded their old clothes, and wore a martial artist's uniform instead. Thus the child turned away from their weak self while complaining, hypnotizing themselves into believing they were strong, that they were not weak.
Then the child met a certain boy. The first impression was the worst. Insane words and actions. A powerless, incompetent person. Yet as time passed, their view of him gradually changed. The boy was weak, but he knew how to admit it. Even while crawling on the ground, he never stopped reaching for the sky. He never gave up, no matter how dire the situation. He was the complete opposite of the child. And the boy never hesitated when it came to protecting himself.
In the end, the child realized and accepted their own weakness. It is only when people recognize and accept themselves that they can truly grow. And now, this child was the same. They would no longer hide their weakness. They would no longer give up. They would struggle with everything they had.
Thus the child shattered the hollow shell they had wrapped around themselves and stepped out into the world. This too was merely the trivial story of a certain child. Nothing more.