Chapter Text
The only thing stopping him from going on is the rumble of his stomach reminding him that he was hungry, and he had told himself he'd take a break when he finished, but a new melody came up to his brain and he had to do that first and-
Now, his body wasn't happy.
Dragging his stuff into his bag, he looks at the hour. If he went to grab something to eat at the market, he wouldn't make it to the train station in time. But if he goes straight to his apartment, then he wouldn't have anything to eat…!
So, with a sigh, he decided to spend a little extra on his dinner that night.
There's other workers still around when he goes out of the building, and it's late enough to be quiet around their office.
Working with a videogames company has given him a rare work schedule, but it's fulfilling enough.
He likes his job.
It gives him a sense of purpose, and he has a few friends, too.
It's not a bad life.
That's his last thought as he hummed while walking to the store, before it all went blank.
—o—
When he opens his eyes again, there's a face too close to him, a woman he doesn't recognize rushing to the door to scream.
“He's waking up! Madam!”
“I'm here!”
The woman who has a similar air to himself, enters along with a man and it's strange to see it.
“Mamoru! We're so glad you're okay!”
“...Eh?”
Now, he'd appreciate the interest in any other moment, but now, he can only blink, trying to find his words.
“Who… Are you?”
“We're your family, Mamoru! I'm your aunt, remember?”
“Eh?”
Aunt? Impossible, he didn’t have a family. He had lost them all decades before. And talking of things that were impossible, he did not have a bed this big or a room that big, even less so… Empty. His room was full of his work notes.
The woman gives him a small head pat that makes him look at her, and she does look like someone that'd be related to him…
“Where… Am I?”
“Mamoru, you… Remember the fire?”
The what now?
“Uh?”
“Darling! The doctor said to ease him into it, remember?”
“Yeah, I know. I’m sorry, Mamoru, let’s just focus on how are you feeling right now. The doctor is on his way. Honey, give him some space.”
The woman now clinging to the man was probably his wife…
So, turning to the man, he blinks before talking, too.
“You’re… my uncle?”
“Yes. We had you brought to our manor immediately after we heard what happened. It's been a couple of days already.”
“Mamoru, we’re so glad you’re okay.”
Taking a deep breath as the woman hugs him carefully, he can’t help but feel strange as she seems way bigger than him. Or rather, it seemed like he was the smaller one.
Weird. Everything is weird, and he really doesn’t question it, feeling too tired for it. The servants from his aunt’s home are glued to him, and the doctor doesn’t give him much info, either, even when he asks.
He’s only left slightly alone when the doctor says everything is okay and it's better for him to rest for a little more.
When the door is closed, he gets off the bed, and runs to the mirror nearby.
It was him.
Or, well, it was him when he was a child.
He's bandaged on his arms and legs, there's what seems to be red marks on his face and collarbone, but still, something was obviously more worrying.
He was not a child.
He was a full adult by now! He had his own apartment and a stable job he spent a lot of time in, and he remembers the last thing he did was walking to the store to get some instant ramen and sweets, then he'd send his friends his updates for the…
“Eh? Why can't I… Remember it? My job…”
It takes him a while to figure it out, in the meantime he looks at his injuries, and they hurt.
"Mamo-chan, Mamo-chan! Can we name an important character after you?"
"Eh? ......Why?"
"Because! You've been around our fantasy games for a long time, and this is one of our masterpieces! It'll be amazing!"
"I... Guess you can? I don't mind…...."
"Really?! Thank you!"
His job was making music for videogames.
And he had that talk with… With who, exactly?
He feels a squeeze in his chest that makes him wince as he tries to force his memories to come back.
“...Eh?”
Still, he feels his breath stopping when he hears footsteps near his door, and he rushes back to bed, where he's supposed to be.
“Forgive us, but we have orders to see the kid.”
“Please don't ask him too many questions, he's still in a bit of a shock…”
“Understood. Please rest assured, we’ll be as brief as possible.”
There's a knock on the door, and he's not expected to reply before they open it.
He keeps quiet, watching as two knights (They truly used those armors outside?!) come up to him.
At the very least, they don't use their helmets in front of him, so he can easily meet their eyes as they kneel to talk to him.
“Hey there.”
“What's your name, kid?”
“Fujimura... Mamoru.”
“Good, that's good, Mamoru-kun. Do you know where you are?”
The woman nearby was…
“My aunt’s and uncle’s manor.”
“Do you know what happened?”
He had never made it home after work, had he?
His name was Fujimura Mamoru.
Not the adult- The 27 years old man who worked for a company he can't remember the name of, who had a friend working with the story while he worked on the music, who didn't have more than that in his life aside from his music-
But Fujimura Mamoru, the son of the Baroness in the country of Elfriede, a country that was part of an unnamed world, which was the basis of the game he was working on.
“...”
“Mamoru-kun?”
Little by little, the information he needs comes up to him, adding to what he knows.
“...Our house burnt. Mom and dad aren't…. Here anymore, are they?”
“They're not. I'm sorry, kid. Do you want to stay here, with your aunt and uncle?”
“You don't have to, if you don't want to. We will inform the Royal Family in such a case, and see that you're placed somewhere where you feel comfortable.”
“If anything’s wrong, you can tell us, Mamoru-kun.”
They're kind.
But for what he knows…
“No. I want to stay with my family.”
His aunt takes a deep breath as she clings to her husband, and he remembers briefly that it was his mother that was her sibling.
Well, compared to his actual- or rather, previous life, he gets a family to be around him.
It's already an improvement.
“Very well. Then, go back to resting, Mamoru-kun.”
“Do you want anything before we go?”
“...A notebook.”
It's his uncle who chuckles this time, and quickly gets him a new one from the closet, while the knights wave at him, talking with his aunt.
“We will inform the Royal family, then. The son of the Fujimura Baroness will be living under the tutelage of her sister.”
“If you have any leads about what happened, Madam, we ask you that-”
The voices are fainter as they exit the room, leaving him alone yet again with his thoughts.
Taking the notebook, he starts to write down what he knows.
But when he does…
That voice comes to his mind yet again, making him stop.
“Mamo-chan! Mamo-chan! We have an idea! We want you to be our villain!”
“Eh…?”
“Imagine it! People won't……….. and then your character……… when the Prince will kill him!”
"...”
Right.
Fujimura Mamoru, son of the Baroness of the country of Elfriede, was the villain of the story.
He would be killed by the Prince for the sake of the world, or something like that.
“WHAT?!”
He covers his mouth as he hears the knock on the door, a servant entering soon enough.
“Mamoru-kun? Is everything okay?”
“Um- Y-Yeah. Sorry for worrying you. Please don't worry.”
The woman gives him a small nod, and then goes outside again, probably to rest near his room.
When she's gone, he feels like the blood is leaving his body for another reason.
“Me… The villain? Is this perhaps…?! No, no, no! It can't be! But- I was- I did agree to it… Fujimura Mamoru… The reason why he was killed was- Okay, I need to get to work now!”
Plan to understand your new life (in which you have to avoid being killed by the Prince):
♪ Your name is Fujimura Mamoru. You're supposed to be 27, but for some reason, you're now 8.
♪ You don't have family or many friends, and you're working for a videogame company. Or were, as you're now a noble kid in a videogame world.
♪ Your name is still Fujimura Mamoru, which means that there's a very likely possibility that this world is the one you were working on. Your friends asked you to become the inspiration for a villain.
♪ If you're the villain, in some years, when you're in high school, your life ends at the hands of Elfriede’s Prince, one of the two main characters of the story, after you bring the country close to ruins.
♪ You have an idea of why the Prince wants to kill you, and unless you can deal with the root of the problem, it might be wise to plan an escape in case that fails.
♪ For the time being, you need to decide what you're going to do about your new life.
♪ You've lived 27 years on Earth. You're supposed to be doomed when you're in high school in Elfriede. That gives you some years.
♪ You died once, and while it didn't hurt, you'd rather do more with your life now that you have another chance.
♪ You have worked on this type of project before, but really? Is this truly happening to you?
♪ Now you wish you'd chosen to be the support character that helps the main character instead.