"You're such a disappointment!"
The grand hallway was thick with tension. A white-haired girl, barely fourteen, knelt on the polished marble floor, trembling.
Before her stood a striking, black-haired woman in her mid-thirties, her cold gaze fixed on the child.
Selene's fingers clenched tightly around the ember-green fabric of her gown, her nails digging into her palms through the thin cotton.
"Mom… Please—cough! Cough!—listen to me." Her voice, soft and unsteady, barely escaped through her clenched teeth. Her breaths growing more ragged by the second.
THWACK!
A loud slap echoed through the hallway. The force sent Selene sprawling onto the cold, white marble.
The servants flinched—maids and butlers dressed in crisp black suits and traditional black-and-white uniforms.
Some kept their heads low. Some bit their lips, wishing they could help. Others turned away, pretending they saw nothing.
But none dared to intervene—except a young, blonde-haired maid who fidgeted restlessly in the hands of her mother, who was covering her mouth so the sound of her crying wouldn't disturb Acier and get her executed too.
"Don't try to act ignorant!" Acier's sharp voice cut through the silence.
"Did you really think you could deceive me? Your father works so hard for you, and yet this is how you betray his trust? I am doing this for your own sake!"
Her golden eyes narrowed to the limit, her tone distant and frigid.
"Why were you with that commoner? What are you planning? I can see it in your eyes… you love him, you are in love with a monkey!"
Selene pushed herself up, her knees rubbing against the cold stone of the ground. Her fists clenched so tightly that warm blood pooled in her palms.
'You don't have to listen to them, Selene. You don't need to impress them, Selene. Live for yourself, Selene… I am here for you.'
Leor's words echoed in her mind—words of a mere commoner who had given her hope in her darkest moments.
She stared at the colourless marble, thinking them over.
Suddenly—
"You don't get to decide that! You don't know what's good for me! Our good, and bad are both different!" she finally snapped, her blue eyes locking with Acier's golden.
"I can talk to whoever I want! And you—" her voice trembled, not with fear, but rage.
"You're not my mother! My mother was kind. She would've helped me, but…" her eyes turned blood red.
"My mother is dead. You don't care about me, and that's fine, atleast don't pretend you do." Her face hardened, gaining light.
"But I'm still going to protect, and do whatever I believe in."
Her once gentle voice now carried the weight of fury. Her teary eyes twisted into a piercing glare, though tears still fell to the ground.
"I won't let you take away my freedom from me, no matter what!!" she spoke again, much louder this time.
Acier's face darkened. Her hand lifted for another slap—only to stop midway at her glaring eyes.
She hesitated. '...Johan will be angry if I went too far, but… no, this is my responsibility. I have to be a good mother…'
Her eyes finally grew fierce.
Then, as if struck by a better idea, she lunged forward in a single, fluid motion, her fingers closing around Selene's throat.
Dread crept up in Selene's mind, her heart pounding like it would explode out of her chest.
"CKK—ckkk! Stop… let go of me… ghh… hh… help me—"
Selene's weak gasps barely reached the ears of the servants. She cast a desperate glance at them, silently begging for help.
None of them moved.
None of them met her eyes.
It was too common an occurrence in the house of Matilda. They could only feel disgusted with themselves, and endure that disgust as Selene endures her pain, daily.
The young blonde maid saw nothing—her ears and eyes covered by her mother.
The mother clenched her daughter tighter—her own lips trembling now, experiencing the cruel world first hand.
One of the butlers twitched, his knuckles whitening around the tray he carried. he also had a daughter, and watching the little girl cry was a torture for him, but he also didn't move.
Then—
Tap. Tap. Tap.
Footsteps. Loud and firm.
The servants stiffened, recognising the man from just the sound of his footsteps.
Fear rose in their hearts. Their hands clenched at their sides, palms slick with cold sweat.
In unison, they bowed their heads, eyes locked onto their polished shoes—no one daring to look up.
A single voice broke the tense silence.
"That's enough, Acier."
The words rang through the hallway like a commandment.
Acier's grip loosened. Selene collapsed, gasping for air.
Gah! Hah! Hah!
She greedily swallowed every breath she could, her vision swimming. When she finally steadied herself, her eyes landed on the tall, lean, muscular man standing before her.
It was her father.
He ignored his now-nervous wife entirely, stepping toward Selene instead.
The servants barely concealed their shock—this was something they didn't dare even imagine in the wildest of dreams.
A golden light flickered to life in his right palm, radiating warmth even from a distance.
He crouched down to her level, one knee pressing on the cold marble, covering one side of his expensive-looking black pants with some dust. His right hand extended—gently touching her forehead with the bright light.
In an instant—
The pain faded.
The frustration, the anger, the exhaustion—gone.
For the first time in a long while, she felt… peace. Comfort.
And from the last person she expected.
The man she hated most.
But maybe he actually cared for her.
But, the illusion she wanted to stay shattered within seconds, as the memories crept in. All her problems stemmed from this man afterall.
The pain was gone, but her hatred still remained.
"...Why?" The word barely escaped Selene's lips.
Acier's jaw tightened. Her pupils shrank.
Her pink lips parted slightly, her golden eyes widening. She rubbed at them as if trying to wake from a dream.
"Johan…? She will be the next matriarch, we can't possibly be lean on her…" Acier said hurridely.
"Honey?" she whispered slowly again, getting no reply..
This was completely in contrast to the usual Johan, Acier was the one who had to tell him to stop 'disciplining' Selene.
Johan ignored her. His gaze remained locked onto Selene.
"I don't need a reason to protect my daughter." Johan's voice was quiet, yet very clear to Selene.
Acier's expression twisted.
His hand moved from her forehead, resting lightly on her soft white hair.
Maids and servants exchanged glances, their eyes wide, as if asking one another, Are you seeing what I'm seeing?
Selene's body froze, her mind flashed with countless memories of Johan, from making weird faces to make her laugh, to enthusiastically talking to her about his day when she was just a toddler who could barely understand anything.
Suddenly the young, blonde-haired maid finally rushed to Selene's side, escaping from her startled mother, softly patting the dust off her clothes… which also woke Selene up for the sweet dream.
Selene slapped the hand away with disgust.
Then—without a word—she rushed toward the giant stairway, dragging the blonde maid by the hand with her.
The maids instinctively moved to stop them, but Johan simply raised a hand while staring at their disappearing figures. They froze, obediently lowering their gazes to their polished shoes in silence.
'Hah, it went better than I expected, but I'm pretty sure it's gonna completely fuck up the story…' Johan thought dazedly.
Ding
Suddenly, a sharp bell ringing sound startled him—
[System: Gambler's Gambit; Quest Triggered]
[Host can make a choice in this quest. The 'story' and points earned will change accordingly.]
[A: Grab Selene and Maria by the hair and beat them both unconscious.] (10,000 points)
[B: Comfort Selene.] (4,000 points)
[C: Poison Selene and brutally murder her weaker version.] (100,000 points)
[D: Mentally break Selene by executing all her academy friends in front of her.] (1,000,000 points)
Johan's cold eyes flickered. Then, widened in surprise—
Finally, my first quest! But… WTF?!
His body trembled slightly.
Then his mind wandered back for a moment~
"Why? Why? WHY?! You fucking idiot!"
A furious scream rang through a dimly lit room.
A young man, around twenty-one, clutched his computer screen in a death grip, his eyes bloodshot with frustration.
This was his tenth time playing the otome game: The Less I Know, The Better.
Every single playthrough, every different choice he figured out—he tried it. desperately trying to save Johan and prevent him from getting the bad ending.
But no matter what he did, Johan always met the same fate.
Killed by his own daughter.
He was just a third-rate villain—the main heroine's father. But it still felt like lazy writing on the developers' side.
This game was supposed to be a life-like game where you could make any choice, and take the story in any direction you wish afterall.
Johan wasn't a boss you fought with brute force.
The protagonist and other characters were far stronger. To defeat him, you had to navigate a ton of political and dialogue choices.
And yet—
No matter what he did, no matter how many times he changed his choices—even choosing entirely pacifist options—Johan always managed to die, or become a pawn for the demons, or become a slightly stronger miny boss, but with the same ending at Selene's sword.
Meanwhile, Selene, the only other character he liked, became just another fangirl in the protagonist's ever-growing harem.
It pissed him off beyond words, even though he was the protagnist.
The stupid game felt like a toxic relationship he never knew he wanted.
'We can redeem the literal Goddess of Death and make her join our harem—the chick who slaughtered billions—yet not Johan!?'
Every attempt ended with the same—corny protagonist spouting his generic lines.
The same predictable, nauseatingly perfect "happy" ending.
"Why the hell would you give Johan so much lore if his ending is never gonna change!?" He sighed, baffled.
And still—he kept trying, the game did say there were thousands of endings. He didn't want to look it up if this wasn't possible in the first place, or a cheat tutorial, he wanted to do it himself.
"Hah, I shouldn't take a game this seriously…" he exhaled through his nose.
But then he bitterly smiled again. Johan's story was just way too tragic.
Forced to kill his first wife with his own hands to save Selene, and the world. Forced to push Selene away because she was a living reminder of his sins. Forced to descend into darkness, completely alone, while everyone hated him.
James felt a strange connection to him, even though his life wasn't this epic, or…sad—he was just an average college dropout, working multiple jobs to put food on the table.
...But maybe because he knew what it meant to fail the people you loved. Again and again.
'It just feels like I'm a cloud moving in the sky, with no control over what I'm doing. In that way, Johan is pretty similar to me.' James laughed crazily, rubbing his head.
The world was unfair—he knew it from the moment he was born, but this game was his most beloved escape from cruel reality on the weekends. Yet… he still couldn't escape it.
"If that trash MC can have such a happy ending, why not me!?" He cursed the developers' families under his breath, not realising he was calling Johan, 'me'.
"James, how long are you gonna keep playing that stupid fucking game!?"
Clara's sharp voice yanked him from his thoughts.
"Go buy some ramen and milk, or we can starve together, tonight."
James groaned, annoyed. "Why not go yourself? You have two legs. I have two legs. I'm resting. It's right around the damn corner—"
Clara flinched, wondering if she was being too selfish.
A fond memory passed through the back of her mind, in a much smaller room, with a 14-year-old James, eating Ramen from one cup, as that was all they could afford, while drinking the milk from the same glass.
'Those were hard times, but all I can remember are good memories… all because of him…'
Her green eyes softened for just a second. Then she sighed resignedly, not letting her real thoughts out for even a second.
"Arghhh! Fine, just sit there and get fat! If I die, I will come back to haunt you!". Clara shouted dramatically, and with that, Clara stormed out, covering her flustered face, slamming the door behind her.
"You're not gonna die from a walk! And then you call me fat!!" James yelled right away, giving no thought to her entics.
He was already used to her, 'Clara was always like this. This is just her way of showing love, like me, she's also too shy.' James chuckled to himself.
'Maybe she just wants to spend some time with me, but is too embarrassed to just ask. Should I take her shopping tomorrow?' mused James, his lips curling up in a soft smile.
Silence settled over the two-bedroom apartment.
James exhaled sharply, shifting in his seat.
The computer screen was now running the end credits of the game, but he wasn't really watching.
He glanced at the clock. 9 p.m.
She had left at 6.
James frowned, the last words he heard from Clara causing a bit of paranoia.
Worried, he shoved on his crocs and rushed outside—without even turning off his PC or locking his door.
He dialed her number. Switched off.
Checked the supermarket. No sign of her.
His face just grew uglier.
Just as he was about to go across town by crossing the main road, a sudden noise—
A truck.
It looked like it had lost control.
James frowned, but then turned away. He was still out of the area, so not his problem. But then he saw—
Clara. Stupidly crossing the road—without even noticing the speeding truck.
James ran as fast as he could and lunged towards her.
Clara recognized him, and just as she was about to scream at a lunging James— she was pushed with the full force of James, a grown man. She was hardly sixteen, so she was instantly flung far from the road.
"JAMES!!" Clara, realising the truck's existence, shouted at the top of her lungs.
Unfortunately, pushing her hard resulted in him falling head first onto the main road, right where the truck was rushing at.
…In front of Clara, James' crocks stood straight, but there was nothing filling them—just red paste.
The truck then crashed into a nearby shop.
Clara stood frozen, her face covered with blood and pieces of James' brain.
Then—
"Hhhahh… ahh—ahhh—!"
Her whole body shook violently.
"No… no… no, no, no, no—!"
She fell to her knees, crawling on the road as tears and snot dripped all over her baby face, holding his empty crocks, screaming—
"Wake up… please. I bought cheese flavoured ramen today, I promise I won't complain about its taste this time."
"I know you like it, Please… let's eat…" her sobs turned into one of a dying animal, as she hugged the empty crock.