What’s Behind A Act

In most modern fantasy stories, it involves a person going to a different world be it by dying or being magically transported there. And they wear the destined hero title like their own clothes, ultimately have to defeat the evil wizard or the demon lord, something like that. At the end of it all, the hero marries the somehow still unwed princess and every is happily ever after.

What if… the only goal for the destined hero is to go back home?

This is the mindset of our protagonist twenty year old Takashi Yamagata. But instead of being able to achieve that goal, a sacred vow of his, the young man finds himself in a nearly freezing dungeon cell in the very castle he knows all to well with cold iron chains on his wrists and legs.

“This is nothing but bullshit,” he shouts.

“Chaining me up like I’m out here killing random, innocent people like I’m racking up bodies Like I’m playing Call of Duty.”

Soon, the shackles shot a strong electric current throughout his body to quiet him down.

After being shocked to being silenced, he thought about how this whole thing.

“All of this ‘cause I’m more worried about going home than marrying a random woman. Five years might seem like a long time to her and her dad but there’s more to a relationship than being the same age and being single,” he reflected as he replayed the events that lead him to now.

In the massive world of Luminos, the very act of rejecting becoming a part of the royal family is frowned upon. It isn’t a crime, but no one even dared to go against them. Especially when they are the ones who extended the offer.

“At least, I told my party to hide. Lord only knows what these people would do if they got their twisted hands on any one of them.”

He starts to remind himself about how he was forcibly summoned here.

“Five years. Five damn years. That’s how long I been here. Nearly dying almost every time I fought a demon. I barely survived fighting Demon Lord Bala, thanks to that tactician skill reading a bunch of Isekai manga. Apparently, dumb luck isn’t a thing here.”

He leans his head against the freezing stone in his small, closed off cell, cursing himself for not staying with his party but he just had to listen to his stomach.

He can only watch his breath become a mist he seen so many times on his journey.

The deafening silence of the dungeon….. It was mentally heavier than any blade he used in his journey.

The constant drip-drip-drop of the distant water breaks the silence.

“I’m surprised that I haven’t went crazy. That water…..”

Soon it stops as a pair of clacking echoes through the area, but there’s a set of clicking high heels along with them, it paralyzes him the instant he hears them.

“I know those heels…. No freaking doubt that it her,” he said, stiff with fear.

“I guess the king decided that he didn’t need a loose end. Probably told the public that I was under the influence of the demon lord and I needed to be ‘cured’.”

After a minute or two, he could sense several eyes staring at him like he was a animal in a zoo.

“Have you changed your mind, my darling Takashi?”

That voice…. That soft, calming voice…

He finally looks up from the ground to see the long jet black hair, porcelain face and alluring figure of a beautiful woman of all of this world, Princess Victoria Nightingale.

She was wearing a calming smile, but he knows that smile is hiding her true nature.

“Changed my mind?… Changed my mind,” he thought as he replayed the night he was arrested on the false charges of treason. But he could tell that those charges were false especially when all he did was enjoy the annual festival.

He soon stopped himself from losing his cool. The chains on him will do it with a shocking result.

“You really got the nerve to ask me that. After you had your lap dogs attack me and bring me here.”

Victoria soon opened the cell door only to trace her nimble ice cold fingers on his bruised face.

“I hate that I had to do that. Really I do. But you left me no other choice,” she said, playing with his hair.

“Just end this little temper tantrum, Takashi. This is getting really troublesome.”

He thinks about how the final words of the demon lord before being slain.

“The very kingdom you are fighting for….it is built on a foundation of lies and innocent lives… but I have a feeling that the cracks will show with you.”

“I’m guessing that Bala knew about this…”

Soon, he snaps back to the present as Victoria wanted him to end this and accept this world as his home.

“ I made my decision clear. I’m not going to marry you. I’m really sorry if that hurts your feelings but you and your dad promised me that if I killed Bala that you will send me back to my world, but no. You decided that I might want to get married, even though I made it clear that I was not even the slightest of interested in you.”

That cause Victoria to gasp.

“That demon… he’s affecting your thinking….,” she exclaims scared.

“No, he is not. This is my honest truth. Why promise something that you don’t honor?”

She giggles, which rattles Takashi to his core.

“Some promises were made to be broken,” she whispered into his ear.

She soon kisses him on the cheek after revealing that.

“We had to lie. Think about it, you wouldn’t have defeated the demon lord if I were being honest.”

“You’re crazy…. You and your father…”

Soon, Takashi’s voice is quickly silenced by a blade touching his neck. It was Victoria holding the hilt.

“It’s very clear that you aren’t going to accept this world by your own accord. So let me motivate you to do so.”

She carefully removes her silk gloves, revealing pale hands that emerge slowly after her sword’s luminescent blade fades and returns to its scabbard.

A malevolent energy erupted within the cell, its dark tendrils consuming the feeble rays of the peeking moonlight and casting an oppressive, supernatural gloom.

Her glowing, pulsating tattoos cause the guards to lose consciousness.

The sensation barely registered with Takashi, its impact significantly muted compared to the Knights’.

“I really don’t didn’t want to use this… but you forced me.”

The delicate fingers of the princess gently caressed the prince’s fevered brow, her touch both tender and healing.

The violet glow grew larger, consuming them both.

“This will make this world look like a safe haven,” she says, brightly.