If I Could Save One Life

I tried my best to be as discreet as possible while tiptoing around, but I ended up jumping a little when I crossed paths with mice and cats. Aside from that, though, things went pretty smoothly.

That was until distant shouts caught my attention. Out of curiosity, I drew closer to the noise, leaned against a wall, and peeked around a corner. 

And almost instantly, my breath hitched.

Collapsed smack dab in the middle of the street was a young woman with long, light brown hair with a white layer on the underside, wearing a plain blue and white dress with a matching white lily in her hair. Her soft, azure eyes glinted under the street lanterns, staring nervously at the spears surrounding her.

That person…! That person was a major character in the story, Lora!

Wait, wasn’t she supposed to stay stuck in prison? How did she escape without the player’s help?

While I pondered, the guards gradually closed in around her. “Give it up, jailbreaker,” said one of them. “You’re coming back with us.”

“Ugh, I’m innocent, I swear!” she cried. “What did I even do? I didn’t do anything wrong!”

“Save it for your trial,” said another, grabbing her arm. “You’re coming back behind bars.”

“Ow, hey! Let go! You’re making a mistake!”

I gripped the corner of the wall so hard my fingers turned white, and my heart started racing in my chest.

I couldn’t ignore this. Lora was responsible for guiding the player and other supporting characters in the right direction, and she would even save lives on so many occasions. Gameplay-wise, she was also the first companion the player would recruit to their team and an indispensable healer. Of course, I… I had to…

…Help her?

Me? Really? Could I really do that?

I gritted my teeth, my gaze downcast as I reflected on my time back in Tokyo.

“Hey man, you shouldn’t bother those people. They can handle it on their own.”

“Dude, do you want to get our heads dunked into the toilet for the rest of the year?! Think about it!”

“If you have no good suggestions, then stay quiet and do your work.”

Without meaning to, I started remembering what everyone would tell me back home. It practically became an instinct at this point.

I swallowed and looked away, but… my feet still didn’t move.

“What are you, trying to be a hero? In this economy? Grow up. They’re not real.”

“You’re just going to embarrass yourself, you know?”

"I'd rather not get involved if I were you."

…For as long as I could remember, all I could do was watch people suffer around me, and I had nothing but a whole bunch of pathetic excuses: My friends told me to. I was afraid of the consequences. I was afraid of making someone mad. I was afraid of standing out.

I was... a coward.

What’d make this any different? How could I possibly change so easily this time?

"Oi, mind your business and get out."

"Do you want a piece of this too?"

“Ugh, let go of me already!”

Wait, that last one wasn’t from my head.

I peeked back at the corner and witnessed Lora still struggling. There was a light spark flickering in her eyes, a sight I’d only see in anime when characters wouldn’t back down.

I widened my eyes in awe. She was clearly alone and outnumbered, but that fire in her eyes kept blazing on anyway, and the only person to witness that was... me. Just me. There was... no one else around but me...

I slowly widened my eyes.

Looking back, there was a common pattern in these types of situations.

In every one of them, it’d always be someone telling me to use my brain cells, or in other cases, I’d give in to the bystander effect.

But right now, it was just me.

No one was here to tell me off. There was no guide to tell me what to do, no friends to worry about, no one else watching, no one.

It was just me and my own judgement.

Not to mention, this was Lora, someone who could definitely stop Queen Verisette! Only I could help her right now!

As if that realization unsealed something deep inside me, my judgement screamed at me to finally do what I’d been wishing for this whole time.

Without another thought, I bolted into the light at once, my hood flying off my head as I sprinted toward the guards. I drew my sword from my head, slid in front of Lora, and raised my blade in front of me, launching a spear off a guard’s hand.

“Wha—?!” All the guards stepped back and gaped at me in astonishment.

Lora stumbled backward, fell on her rear, and gawked at me too. “H-huh?! What the…? Wh-who are you?!” she asked.

“My name’s not important right now,” I said, motioning her toward the alleyway. “Now’s your chance to get outta here! Just go!”

“Eh? Ehhh?! Why are you…?”

Her words were drowned out by the sound of my sword clashing against the spears. I gritted my teeth and maintained my defensive stance, knowing better than to swing and test my luck. Last time I did that, I sliced Charon’s caravan by accident. There was no way in hell I’d ever forgive myself if I accidentally killed someone tonight.

“Just go!” I said, glaring at her. “I’ll know where to meet up! We’ll talk there!”

“...Huh? R-really? You’re… one of us?”

“Uh, k-kind of?” I did plan on meeting the rest of the team soon, though. I just didn’t expect it’d be so soon. “A-anyway, hurry up and get out of here! I’ll catch up in a moment!”

“O-okay!” Lora quickly got up and sprinted away. A few guards tried to chase after her, but I rushed in front of them and blocked the path.

Another guard swung his spear, but it quickly bounced right toward the skies the moment it hit my shield. He staggered backward, jaws dropped and utterly baffled.

Again, I tightly gripped my sword and remained in a defensive position, tanking all the spears swinging at me. A guard with only a shield started charging at me, but like everything else, he and his shield flew away.

I blinked.

That move with his shield lit up a light bulb inside me.

I couldn’t swing my blade for sure, but it wasn’t like I couldn’t move my body. Realizing this, I let out a battle cry and charged.

The remaining guards all screamed in terror as I practically launched them away in the sky like cartoony villains. Once the streets finally quieted down, I finally lowered my sword and deeply sighed. I gazed at the sky, unsure whether I should feel bad, worried, or both.

…I really hoped none of them died from fall damage, though.

No, this was real life now, not a game. The right term should’ve been gravity.

Letting out another sigh, I shoved my blade back inside my head, dusted off some dirt from my clothes, turned around, and went into the alleyway Lora had gone.

If this were still the same person in the story, I should know where she’d go at this hour: The Marching Ember’s secret base. The problem was that, without her endorsing me, I wouldn’t be able to join her and meet everyone else inside. I should hurry and meet up with her before things get messy then.

If I remember correctly, Lora should go this way, I thought, navigating through the narrow alleyways. Oh, is that her? Thank goodness, I’ve managed to catch up on time… Wait, who’s tha—

I gasped, widened my eyes, and skidded to a halt. My heart skipped a beat and sank in despair before it started hammering in my ears.

“Heeheehee. Peekaboo, I fooouund yooouu.”

Cold chills crawled up my spine the moment that voice crept into my head, that voice coming from the one lunatic I desperately wanted to avoid at all costs.

I couldn’t believe I’d forgotten something so important again. I swore it all somehow flew out of my head while trying to save Lora.

Speaking of her, I managed to catch her terrified gaze and gave her an apologetic look before I gazed up at the thing standing behind her.

A tall, slender humanoid had one of his red-and-black striped claws hovering over Lora’s head, dangling some chains that covered her mouth and restrained her in place like a crude puppet. Soft, eerie giggles escaped from a smiling mask, where a pair of blue eyes glistened through its crescent eye sockets.

Standing before me was the most dangerous demon general—no, the most dangerous individual in all of Cindespoir City, the one whose name was Lord Entrophys, The Laughing Pestilence.