Chapter 15: Something More

“I need something more.”

“What?”

“I don’t know,” I grumbled as I collapsed onto what was left of my bed. “This all looked so much easier in the manga.”

“Man...Ga?” Sally asked, confused.

“Oh, right. I guess I never told you this before, but I have memories of my past life in a different world, where fictional stories like what I’m living in right now were a common trope.”

I briefly considered telling her not to worry about it, but quickly decided there was no right in keeping secrets anymore, especially when anything I said would be forgotten soon anyway.

“Ah. I see.”

I stared at Sally for a long moment after she said that. She hadn’t reacted particularly strongly to anything I’d said so far, so I wasn’t expecting a huge reaction, but this was different. She replied almost as if what I had just said was both excessively obvious and explained a lot about me.

“You don’t seem that surprised.”

“Milady, I have served you since your birth, and since that time, I have seen you demonstrate behavior both remarkable and unexplainable. There are many things you know that you shouldn’t, and things you claim that defy all common sense. Your father still tells people of the time you were four and insisted the world was round.”

Sally chuckled as she recalled that particularly painful memory of mine, while I could do little more than groan as it was far from an isolated incident. While I had expected there to be differences between this world and my own, I had vastly underestimated just how distinct they were. When someone first told me the world was flat, I laughed, thinking that people just hadn’t figured out it was round yet, but I was wrong. Not only was this world flat, but the country’s northern border, including my father’s territory, actually sat on the edge of it.

After my insistence that I was right, he brought me there, where I saw the sun rise out of the endless void of infinite nothingness that surrounds this world. It was a haunting experience, and though no one else seemed to notice it, I could have sworn I saw something swimming through that void.

“It was a very different world,” I said with a troubled smile as I tried to move past that memory.

“But it had stories like this?”

“Yeah. There were a lot of them. Young women would die and find themselves reborn as the hated villainess of their favorite novel or video game. To survive, they’d have to use their knowledge of the story to find a happy ending, but I don’t know this story. I never read this book or played this video game.”

“Apologies, milady, but what is a video game?”

Yeah, video games aren’t actually a thing in this medieval-style fantasy world, as surprising as that might be. I considered just moving past the topic as it didn’t seem relevant at the time. Still, I was enjoying this semi-normal conversation, so I decided to create a simple demo for Sally. Using the beginner-level light magic spell Simple Mirage, I created the image of a small maze in the palm of my hand.

“Imagine if a person were to take an illusion created by light magic and package it so that others could see what they had created. Then imagine if it wasn’t just a single image they packaged, but a miniature world, which could be affected by different choices made by the user.”

As I spoke, I repeatedly ended and recast the spell, creating the illusion of a figure attempting to traverse the maze. It was mentally exhausting, but I felt a smile cross my face as I saw it come to life. Meanwhile, Sally’s reaction was even more pronounced. Her eyes were literally sparkling.

“That is amazing, milady! I had no idea you were capable of such amazing feats.”

My smile widened. Sally was certainly overestimating what game design actually entailed, but it was still nice to have my work actually be recognized. My friends and family would always complain about how hard their jobs were, but when I tried to chime in about my own job, I got no sympathy. Instead, they just laughed, imagining me playing video games all night, rather than spending weeks tracking down obscure bugs, only for the feature or entire game to be scrapped at the last minute. Well, jokes on them, because I died of overwork before they did. Ha!

However, as I reminisced about my past life and the long nights I had spent making games, a truly absurd thought popped into my head.

“Sally, I’m gonna do something stupid now.”

“It must be quite something if you feel the need to give me a warning when you have never done so before.”

Sally, it would seem, was far more sassy than I had expected, and I began to wonder just how many thoughts of hers had gone unsaid over the years. Still, I had bigger fish to fry at the moment, so instead of questioning that, I looked toward the ceiling and began to shout.

“GAME MASTER! DUNGEON MASTER! SYSTEM ADMINISTRATOR! I DON’T CARE WHAT YOU CALL YOURSELF, BUT I KNOW YOU’RE LISTENING. ANSWER ME RIGHT NOW OR I’LL WIPE THE ENTIRE ROYAL FAMILY OUT!”

I wasn’t sure if that threat would mean anything to them, but I needed something to say to get their attention. As the seconds began to tick by, I became concerned I was off the mark or completely wrong. However, after a full minute that felt like ages, I finally got my answer.

“Very well.”