Chapter 3: Childhood Montage

And so, Toyashi and Mizaki both began their childhood prologues.

In their first few days, they adapted to their new living situations.

Mizaki was in the Tama household. The father was missing most of the time, gone on adventures, only returning once in a blue moon for "lovey-dovey time." Luckily or unluckily for Mizaki, his dad had returned the day he got transported there. Mizaki shuddered every time he heard a weird noise coming from the bedroom.

THUMP THUMP THUMP

"Jesus Christ, do they have to be so loud?" Mizaki could only complain in his thoughts.

Apparently, being "madly in love" in text translated to... this, he thought.

As tropey as this sounded—and Mizaki had criticized Toyashi a thousand times for this—at least the bastard hadn't added the tragic part yet. That came later. For the first time, he was glad that Toyashi hadn't written "two orphans whose family was ravaged by demons" at the beginning but rather later in the story. This gave him plenty of time to correct this little tragedy like his life depended on it. It actually did, socially at least, all because the creator had wanted to create a tragic backstory.

So, to prepare for what came next, Mizaki asked his mother to train him in the art of magic.

Mizaki found their mother, Yuki Tama, in the kitchen preparing lunch. She was exactly as he'd imagined from the game's few descriptions—beautiful, graceful, and completely wasted by not appearing on screen. The finest example of "tell, don't show." She was the one who had trained his sister before the tragedy.

"Mama, can you teach me magic?" Mizaki tried to be all sweet, which made his thirty-year-old inner self cringe, but for survival, he had to.

"Magic? Kobu, sweetheart, where did that come from?" His mom looked at him with confusion. "You've never been interested in magic before."

"I just... want to learn. You know, in case of emergencies."

"What kind of emergencies?" She knelt down to his eye level, looking concerned. "Has someone been bothering you?"

Mizaki couldn't exactly explain to his mother about the demon attack five years from now without looking like a crazy person. So he defaulted to comparing himself to his sister.

"You've been teaching Satsuki. Why can't you teach me?" Mizaki pulled out the puppy eyes for extra damage.

"That's not it, dear..." He could see his mother wavering, so he pressed the attack.

He knew that his magic aptitude was absolutely garbage. Plus, in the game, Kobu had been described as being lazy, useless, and overall powerless. All that text had translated to debuff stats that he now had to live with.

Thanks a lot, MasterRonshi.

"Don't you love me, mama? Ughhh~" Mizaki pulled out the ultimate weapon of guilt-tripping: tears.

"Hmm... All right, you win, honey." She finally caved.

"YAY!!" Mizaki jumped, but he swore to never do that again. It was too much embarrassment for his old heart to take.

And so from that day on, Mizaki started to train in the ways of magic along with his little sister, difficult as it was due to all the debuffs.

He also bribed his father with "quality time" with his mother to get him to stay home for a while and train him with a sword.

In the fight for survival, there's no dirty trick you shouldn't pull, as long as it's legal.

Meanwhile, in Kythara, Toyashi also adapted to his calm and peaceful life.

Toyashi was in the Meredith household, a humble peasant household. And as he had written, he was now living the life of a farm boy, the son of Marcus and Elena Meredith. Unlike Mizaki's situation, Toyashi's family was complete, functional, and wonderfully boring in the best possible way.

However, there was an exception to this boring life: his "childhood" friend. A tomboy girl who would burst through his door every morning to yell at him.

"GRIMVAULT!! WAKE UP! YOU'RE GOING TO MISS TRAINING!!"

CRASH

Meet Elise Throffur, the designated childhood friend and tomboy heroine. Hyper-energetic and cheerful, she would brighten everyone's day; that's why Toyashi had written her as one of the main heroines for the protagonist.

It was something he had played over and over again to playtest his game, but experiencing it for real was a completely wonderful experience.

"Good morning, Elise! I'm ready for training!" Toyashi grinned.

He was still high on the fact that he got to enjoy the world that he had created for real.

"You're way too cheerful in the morning, Grim. It's weird," Elise said, but her cheeks had that faint pink tinge he'd programmed into her character interactions.

And in contrast to Mizaki, he got all the buff stats in the world for being the protagonist. He breezed through all the combat training, eased through all his farm chores, and was buffed as hell for a little kid.

"Grimvault's so amazing!" the village girls would giggle when he passed by.

His parents doted on him. "Our son is so talented!" his mother would tell the neighbors.

The romantic subplot with Elise was developing perfectly too. The other day, he had saved her from a wild triboar—a big boar with three horns—effortlessly, earning him her affection just as he'd programmed.

Overall, Toyashi was enjoying his new life as a star. His childhood friend loved him, his parents loved him, and his town loved him.

Unlike Mizaki, who was currently being whipped by his mother—who knew she was a demon when it came to training since there had been so little bio on her in the game—while his little sister roasted him, endearingly of course, for being almost useless at magic.

"Kobu-nii, even the training dummy lasted longer than you did," Satsuki giggled, watching her brother collapse after attempting basic fire magic for the fifteenth time.

"I'm... trying... my best..." Mizaki wheezed from the ground.

"Your best sucks," Satsuki said bluntly, then patted his head.

It's MasterRonshi's fault.

The only thing keeping Mizaki going was pure spite and the knowledge that if he didn't get stronger, he'd die like the pathetic mob character Toyashi had written him to be.

While Mizaki suffered through every type of physical and emotional pain known to mankind during his training, Toyashi was probably getting a goodnight kiss on the forehead from his loving parents and having sweet dreams about his grand adventures.