I am Your Biggest Fan

At first, a gust of wind struck me before something slammed right beside my head. I carefully opened my eyes and found Wymond’s axe barely an inch away from my ear, clearly reflecting my horrified expression on its surface.

Wymond blinked at me and his weapon before staring at something above my head. He quickly retracted his axe and grabbed the scruff of my coat.

“Huh?” I weakly croaked. “Wha—AAAHH?!”

He hurled me away with incredible strength, and I ended up screaming out of confusion. While flailing around, though, I caught a familiar shade of cyan with magenta static frames at the corner of my eye.

Next thing I knew, a massive explosion erupted from where Wymond stood.

Around the same time, I crashed against the ground again and briefly rolled until I’d finally stopped. It cost nearly every ounce of my remaining strength to even raise my head again.

“L-Lord Wymond?!” I called out.

A cloud of dust lingered around before Wymond cleared the scene with a swipe of an arm. “How peculiar,” he said, staring at the center of the crater where I’d just been seconds ago. “It appears you truly possess a bizarre curse, Haruma.”

“I… told you,” I croaked.

So not even an explosive profile tab could scratch him either, huh? Figured.

“Huh, wait, hold on a second. You can see my profile screen too?!” I asked.

Wymond tilted his head. “Is that what you call it?”

“R-really? You saw all those glitchy texts and everything?!”

“Glitchy text…? What do you mean? I only saw a white projection.”

“Oh…” So other people can only see a blank screen. I guess that’s fair. I can barely make out a few words from it anyway. “Then, h-how did that happen? I don’t remember getting stabbed by my own sword…”

Wymond remained silent for a quick moment before turning to me. “You said you had this curse since yesterday, correct?”

“Uh, yeah…”

“Then it’d be unwise to draw any conclusions about your powers so soon, especially one with such unstable energy. You assume it happens only when your blade stabs you, yet that projection appeared right before I could cast my healing spell.”

"...Eh?" I sputtered. "Your... healing spell? You're not trying to crush my skull after all?"

"The peace treaty declares that we demons must never kill any humans without authorization."

"Oh... right. So, what’s actually triggering that explosive screen then? I'd spent all day yesterday trying to figure it all out. You’re telling me after all that time, it… wasn’t enough?”

“One cannot become a warrior by training merely one day.” Wymond’s eyes flashed at me. “And I can sense you’re capable of doing much more than a few party tricks.”

I stiffened up.

To be fair, at this point in the story, the player should’ve learned a new skill by now, but that was only possible in the RPG, where they would actually be playing as a normal, functioning character.

Truth be told, ever since I’d discovered these glitches, I didn’t bother trying to get stronger or learn new skills anymore. Why should I, when every skill would end up making a chaotic, uncontrollable mess?

I gripped my fists and scowled. “How am I supposed to do much more when I don’t even know how to control my powers?” I mumbled.

“Incorrect question.” Wymond pointed his axe at me. “Before you ask that, you must ask yourself if you have the resolve to overcome the impossible.”

“Huh?”

“Answer me, Haruma. Do you want to get stronger?”

“Eh? S-stronger? Well, uh, I mean, I guess that’d be nice…”

He smashed his weapon on the ground, releasing a shockwave strong enough to knock my breath away.

“Answer with your sincerest convictions! I ask you again, do you want to get stronger?”

“I… I-I do!”

“And why is that?”

“Huh? Uhh, I-I just don’t wanna die…”

“Speak from your heart, not your head!”

I jolted, and my heart started pounding like never before as his thundering voice reverberated in my head.

Charon, Lora, Dahlian, Ashrenne, Sloane, and plenty of others I knew but had yet to meet… They were all such kind people. The thought of them all possibly dying because of my own weaknesses made my chest ache like never before.

I thought… if I wasn’t strong enough, I could’ve at least shared my knowledge. I thought I could get by with only that, but I should’ve remembered this world didn’t work like the way modern-day Earth did. They didn’t have that many threats to worry about over there.

But here? Statistically, I’d have higher chances to end up dead in a ditch than make it to the end of the prologue.

Tears started stinging my eyes.

A weak coward like me didn’t deserve to make such good friends, but… they all still accepted me anyway, even though I was pretty much a burden.

I couldn’t stand it. I absolutely hated knowing how useless I was.

That was why I admired Lord Wymond so much. He was powerful, brave, considerate, humble, and so full of wisdom. He was everything I ever aspired to be.

I wiped my face and stood back up with wobbly legs. “Because I… couldn’t stand being so pathetic,” I croaked, drawing my sword. “I want… to be dependable too! I want to be a total badass just like you!”

I gripped my sword like my life depended on it and bolted toward Wymond. I leaped high into the air, swiftly swung down my sword, and successfully clashed against his axe.

There was a brief flash, followed by a whole jumble of distorted noises. Next thing I knew, the ground beneath us began to rumble. Wymond and I traded glances before we split directions.

Like a ripple from a still pond, the ground erupted a series of waves made entirely of copies of my sword. The blades, all pointing upwards, showered right side up like a water fountain display, shooting high into the air before glitching away from existence.

What should’ve been my new, simple sword dive skill was, in fact, a skill opposite to an archer’s rain of arrows. That… could’ve turned out worse, I suppose.

Wymond spun his axe and deflected all the blades aimed at him, shattering each one and disintegrating them into the air. It was only when I watched him from behind that I noticed an opening, so I charged toward his back and retracted my sword.

Of course, Wymond casually turned around and kicked me away before I could even swing once.

Miraculously, I managed to land on my feet this time, sliding and stumbling a bit. I flourished my sword in a defensive stance and charged.

Wymond swung his axe down at my sword with a heavy slam. Both our weapons quivered from the impact, but neither of us blew away this time. My arms and legs, however, almost shattered under the immense pressure.

I didn’t need to describe how incredible the pain was, but I had to admit, it was totally worth it if I could stare Wymond down like this, like I actually had a fighting chance against him. I couldn’t tell how long this battle of endurance lasted, but we eventually broke eye contact and faced someone else sprinting toward us at high speed.

With an impressively loud and passionate battle cry, a familiar man with reddish, purple hair drew back his lightning-coiled arm and leaped high into the air.

For only a split second, the sky turned dark purple, and his eyes flashed bright red. He roared and dived with his fist straight toward Wymond like a living thunderbolt.

The general unsurprisingly blocked the strike with his axe, and the force sent him sliding away through the dirt, finally giving me room to breathe. I collapsed on my knees, hoarsely coughed, and gawked at my savior.

“D-Dahlian?! What are you doing here?!” I asked.

“I should be asking you that!” he replied. “What are you doing out here with that demon general?! Where’s Boss?”

“Uh, it’s kind of a long story.”

“Make it ten words or less.”

“Uhhh, Lord Wymond wants to test me or something?”

Dahlian blinked at me and the ambassador, stunned. “So you’re just having a sparring session? With the enemy? Wow, you’ve got more guts than I thought.”

“Does it look like I asked for this?! What are you doing here anyway?”

“What do you think? I was hunting for slimes!”

I glanced at a wholly stuffed bag hanging at his side and leaking with slime residue. “How did you get so much already?”

He shrugged. “For some reason, I keep finding dead slimes and boars all splattered on the trees and stuff.”

“...Ah.” Those might’ve been from the tutorial zone. "You're welcome then."

"What? The hell you mean by that?"

I steadily stood back up. "Don't worry about it."

Meanwhile, Wymond dusted his robes and calmly approached us. We quickly dropped our conversation, faced the general, and stiffened up.