Chapter 35: Protagonist
"I’m not interested in partnering with you."
...is what Dante would love to flat out say right now.
But at the very least, he held himself back and tentatively decided to listen to just why on Mother’s Green Earth the protagonist had suddenly come to him of all people to request a partnership.
Pretty weird considering he’d just gotten back to the capital, and they were meeting for the very first time.
’Ah... I really needed this coffee,’ he thought as he took another sip of his winterberry blend.
Then, he turned to look around Il Gran Salone. This was one of the cafes in the Holy Imperial Academy, and since cafes were kind of like a huge deal in this city, it was no surprise that the main parlor was almost completely filled with students, professors, and visiting scholars.
Currently, Dante was sitting at a quiet table tucked near the far corner, and after a few seconds, his eyes settled on the girl directly in front of him.
She had just finished setting down her cup, and was staring at him with a flat, unreadable look.
She was just like he’d remembered, except without the pixels, she was more intimidating. She did not smile, and just had this face that looked like a mix of detached, lost in her own world, and angry all the time.
If there was one thing that separated her from other main characters that Dante had read about, it was that this woman right here did not really care that much about altruism, justice, or heroism.
She lived for herself, and most of the time only thought of her survival and no one else’s.
The only reason she was even called a main character was that while trying to save herself from certain death, she would occasionally accidentally save people as well.
And just like all stories with main characters, the world would always continue to throw one life-threatening crisis after another in her path. Shoving her into the crosshairs of every villain, power hungry cabal, and monstrous entities alike.
Dante was willing to bet a thousand crowns that she was here because she felt she was in danger herself.
"So... are you going to tell me what this is about, or are you just going to keep looking at me like I owe you money?" he said with a blank look.
Gia narrowed her eyes, and a small frown creased her brows.
After a brief moment, she leaned forward slightly across the marble table. "Can I ask you a question?"
"Of course." Dante gestured for her to go ahead.
"You are a really strange fellow," she said flatly. "My question is... have I done something to upset you without knowing? I have a feeling that for some reason, you do not like me."
’You are very correct, Gia. Villains never have a good relationship with a main character,’ Dante replied in his head.
When he didn’t say anything out loud, however, Gia made a slight gesture to show she was waiting for an answer.
Dante smiled, but didn’t give an answer.
Gia frowned, then... sighed after a bit. "It seems that I will never like you, either."
"With that out of the way, let’s move on, dear Gia," Dante prompted with a very polite nod.
Gia exhaled exasperatedly, reached into her pocket, and took out what looked like a round metal device with a red crystal in its center, called a muffler.
The moment she placed it on the table and activated it, the noise of the cafe around them suddenly disappeared and the space around them became strangely muted, making it so that whatever they said remained strictly between them.
She leaned back and crossed her arms, then began after a beat.
"I have an artifact called the Living Convenience. What it does is a bit hard to explain, but I will try my best."
She took out a compass and set it on the table. It was a brass mechanism with three concentric brass rings instead of hands, and a needle made of polished dark glass that spun independent of magnetic north.
"Whenever something bad that can certainly lead to my death is about to happen, this compass will notify me and lead me to a solution. For instance, let’s say I’m going to be attacked by a really powerful blighted creature with mental attacks soon, that is capable of killing me. This compass will notify me of incoming fatal danger and guide me to purchase an artifact with mental defense beforehand. In other words, it is an artifact that works to reduce my chances of death from a hundred to say, sixty percent.
"The downsides are that it won’t tell me exactly what the danger is beforehand, and it doesn’t solve the problem for me. It only gives me a vague direction to find the solution. Also, every time it activates, it drains a massive amount of my stored mana, stamina, and mental strength, leaving me exhausted afterward."
Of course, Dante was already aware of this.
Just as its name suggested, most of the time, that artifact really was a Living Convenience.
If this was a web novel, one would say that this was one of the cheats of the main character.
After all, to survive the troubles life would inevitably keep throwing at them, main characters need a cheat, right? If it was not a system, it was some other golden finger of some kind.
And in her case, it was this artifact that she had stumbled upon some time in the past and had paid over 3,500 crowns to purchase.
The issue now, however, was that this was raising many questions for Dante at the moment.
The first was that... if Dante could recall correctly, the main character was never really in that much danger during the incident that killed some students during the exams. If anything, the world likely pushed them to try and help out some students.
However, through the Spectacles of Truth, Dante could confirm that Gia was telling the truth right now. Seeing as she was emanating a green aura, she really was in life-threatening danger.
But why?
...Actually, after a few seconds, it was not really hard for Dante to make some guesses.
’Butterfly effect?’
So many things had changed from the original version of the game, and he was one of those things... the cause of most changes, in fact.
To begin with, the original Dante Fioravanti was supposed to be a tier-one mage and a Blue Apostle of the Moon at this point in time.
This Dante, however, was a tier-zero high priest and a Black Apostle of Blood. The difference was infinitely vast.
Not just that, this Dante, whose race wasn’t even human, knew a bit about the future and was working to change it. The way events played out in the game and the way they were playing out right now were completely different.
The original Dante had just come to the academy and focused on his studies to increase his experience and thus his tier.
This Dante, on the other hand, left the academy after some time to go finish what he had started before the session began.
All of this had created a massive ripple effect in the timeline. So it was not surprising that her survival compass was reacting to a threat that was greater than what was in the original story.
Dante sighed.
"I get it. That’s a really great artifact. Though I’m curious. What does this have to do with me?"
Gia, who was taking a sip of her tea while he had been thinking, set her cup down with a light clatter.
"I don’t know," she answered truthfully with a shrug.
"...?" Dante arched a brow.
"You see, I know that a big threat is coming. The scale is large enough that it is actually terrifying. It might cause the deaths of many students..." Her voice grew distant. "...including me."
She sighed. "When I used this artifact, it led me to you. Which means that you either are or have the solution to our survival."
"What the byss does that even mean?" Dante was lost.
’I’m here trying to figure out how to survive myself, but all of a sudden, I have the solution to everyone’s survival? This shit is not even funny.’
His lips, eyes, and cheeks twitched.
Gia remained quiet. She looked down as if deep in thought.
Meanwhile, Dante too also fell into deep thought. As much as he didn’t like this trope, and wanted to just avoid being entangled with the main character, the idea of a temporary partnership was not looking very bad.
He would have refused and chose to work alone, but from what he was finding out, the scale of what was going to happen might be bigger than what he was expecting.
Of course, he had some knowledge about certain future events, but he couldn’t blindly rely on that them because not only was the future changing; there were many gaps in his knowledge, so he was uncertain.
’Is forming a team with her to get through this really a bad idea?’
Dante gritted his teeth, though after a moment, he sighed deeply.
Then he looked up at her and replied, "I don’t mind forming a partnership with you that lasts only until after the supposed event."
Gia looked at him, her expression remaining unreadable.
Dante, on the other hand, grew serious. "However, let me say three things now that we are going to be working together. First, the deal I’m making with you is working together to survive, not playing hero to save the day.
"I am many things, but a hero isn’t one of them. My priority begins and ends with my sister and myself. You’ve said it yourself... many students might die during this event. That might be true, and while it may be unfortunate, I won’t go out of my way to save everyone."
There were many reasons he was saying this. He knew that if they were to work together, most of his actions might look a bit questionable or even unacceptable to her, so he needed to clear that out of the way right at this moment.
Gia was quiet for a bit.
’Honestly, I have no intention of saving the day, either. I just want to survive whatever this is, that’s all,’ she thought. ’Though if I agree immediately, it’ll make me look like this bastard who doesn’t seem to care about the lives of people. So I’ll delay a bit.’
After counting from one to five in her mind, she finally nodded with a bit of hesitation. "Fine."
"Second," Dante raised two fingers. "You need to listen to me. If I say do not do something, do not do it."
Gia narrowed her eyes.
After a few seconds, she nodded. "What’s the third?"
Dante smiled slyly. He let the suspense build in her chest before saying, "Even though we are in a partnership, you stand to gain more than me. I’ll tell you what I know. But in exchange, you will let me permanently borrow an artifact belonging to you."
’Permanently?’ Gia arched a brow, and for the first time all day, she grew wary and tense.
Of course Dante noticed. He knew that Gia was a greedy hoarder who cherished every single one of her items.
Still, after a moment, he spoke. "I need you to lend me the Pocket Watch of Second Chances."