The Tale of Gerald Vader, the Heretic Knight’s Rampage Through Another World
“――! ――――!”
Someone’s voice called out.
Like surfacing from the depths, my consciousness gradually awoke.
Opening my eyes, an unfamiliar girl was desperately shouting something.
“Ah, Gerald! You’ve woken up!”
“Oh! Young Master has awakened!”
“…………! ?!?”
The girl, clearly overjoyed that I’d woken, threw her arms around me.
The warm, soft feel of a woman’s body.
A faint, sweet scent.
“…Ah… Why am I…”
“It’s okay, Gerald. The black gangrene on your body is almost gone. You’ll be fine now…! Ah, thank goodness…!”
She clung to me, sobbing, and I had absolutely no idea who she was.
Or rather, this girl only looked about 14 or 15, but she was strangely large?
Or rather, everything in my field of vision was huge.
The bed I was sleeping in was king-size, and the nice middle-aged gentleman beside the bed, looking at me with concern, was also quite large.
I should be average for an adult male, at least.
Well… maybe a little below average, but I’m not exactly short.
True, I was a corporate slave, an otaku, and had a level 99 sedentary lifestyle physique… but did watching too much anime and playing too many games shrink my body or something?
That’s ridiculous.
Wait, where the hell am I anyway?!
No, no, calm down, me.
Right… slowly but surely, it’s coming back to me.
I’m pretty sure last night, after getting home from work, I ate some takeout from the convenience store, guzzled down some St○ro, and was enjoying a doujin game.
An isekai-type… the kind with some pretty hardcore scenes, the sort of game gentlemen secretly indulge in.
And it was one of those games called “depressing games,” where both the protagonist and heroine only have bad end scenarios.
The game’s title was ‘Blaze of Glory’.
…Why was I playing such a game?
Well, it was just a coincidence. No particular reason.
Last week I was playing a different game, that’s all.
That said, this game’s scenarios—while all routes ended in death—ranged widely from tear-jerking emotional endings to gut-wrenching ones, and the gameplay itself was well-made.
Even with alcohol involved, it was enough to spend my entire day off playing it.
Anyway, after getting home from work, I played it obsessively until the next morning, collecting all the scenes including the ending—
Something’s off.
I have no memory after that.
No, I do remember watching the final ending while finishing off the sixth bottle of S○ Zero.
Probably because I’d pulled an all-nighter and downed a ton of booze, my head was pounding and I was woozy…
Could it be that after that, I stumbled out drunk and hit on this girl?
No way!
I’m a hardcore doujin game fan in my late twenties whose relationship history equals his age!
Even with alcohol fueling me, I’m not dumb enough to hit on a girl who looks like she’s in middle or high school.
But wait… this person… even without looking closely, she’s way too beautiful.
Silky long black hair cascading down her shoulders, beautiful almond-shaped eyes slightly narrowed with concern, smooth white skin with a hint of blush.
Of course, her features are terrifyingly perfect, and her slightly parted thin lips are cherry blossom pink.
She was a beauty beyond compare.
Wait… hold on a second.
“No… no way…”
My parched mouth opened, and I managed to squeeze out a raspy voice.
I knew her appearance… her name.
She seemed a bit younger than I remembered her looking… but there was no mistaking her.
…Alissa Vader.
One of the heroines from the game I’d been playing just moments ago.
No way.
This has to be a dream.
Otherwise, it’d be a dream where a cosplay beauty shows up.
Blaze of Glory is reasonably popular in that scene, but it doesn’t have enough name recognition to be a cosplay target… I think.
“Ugh…”
My head started pounding worse as I thought about it.
Seriously, is there even such a thing as a dream where your head throbs this badly?
Plus, the exhaustion is brutal.
Every joint in my body hurts. It hurts like hell.
What is this? Hangover Level 99?
That feeling where just being alive is painful.
My body feels pretty hot too.
No chills is a relief, but the blanket and bed I’m covered in are soaked through with sweat, and it feels disgusting.
With trembling, weak hands, I try to pinch my own cheek.
That’s when I noticed something odd.
Something’s wrong.
There’s absolutely no rough, stubble-like feel to my skin.
And my cheek feels strangely soft and squishy.
“What the hell…?”
A raspy, high-pitched voice came out of my mouth this time.
It sounded like a child’s voice before puberty.
Did the alcohol damage my throat? That’s ridiculous.
“Gerald, it’s okay. Your fever hasn’t fully broken yet, so your head’s just foggy. It’ll settle soon.”
Saying that, the girl who looked exactly like Alissa gently stroked my head.
So who is Gerald?
“Bernard, get me a towel soaked in cold water. I want to cool his forehead a bit.”
“Yes, ma’am. Right away.”
At the beautiful girl… Alissa’s command, the nice middle-aged gentleman next to her, who looked like a butler, hurriedly left the room.
Damn it, what the hell is going on?
“Gerald, I told you not to push yourself…!”
“I’m… I’m fine…”
Alissa (or her lookalike?) was worried, but I forced myself to sit up.
Only then did I finally grasp what kind of situation I was in.
This seemed to be a bedroom.
Dimly lit, I could see logs burning brightly in the fireplace at the far end of the room.
At least it wasn’t my apartment. It wasn’t a hospital either.
…Wait, where am I?
A hotel? It looks like a hotel. The decor and layout suggest it.
And a pretty nice room in a high-end hotel at that.
Or maybe a European-style castle-themed room.
That would explain the fireplace.
And the nice-looking tapestry, and the sword hanging on the wall—probably a replica.
No, no, no, no! Why the hell did I wake up sleeping in a hotel?!
And that handsome guy earlier—was he the hotel manager? He seemed like it, but he wasn’t even Japanese.
Speaking of which, the cosplay cutie in front of me dressed as Alissa… isn’t her level of perfection a bit too high?
Too high? More like she’s the real deal.
“Ugh… ugh…”
I desperately tried to turn my head, which felt as heavy as if it were stuffed with mud.
Then, I saw it.
There was a window a little way from the bed.
It was pitch black outside, so it must be nighttime.
The problem was what was reflected in it.
“…………Huh?”
I couldn’t help but gasp.
Illuminated by the roaring flames in the fireplace, a child’s face was reflected in the window.
It was a face twisted in shock, mimicking the exact action of me pinching my own cheek.
The age was probably upper elementary school, or just entering middle school.
Slightly wavy black hair, a face that was youthful yet well-defined.
And the moment it saw my face, it remembered everything.
The life I’d lived since becoming this.
My name is Gerald Vader.
I’ll be twelve this year.
I am the son of Anor Vader, a senior knight serving the Marquis of Horace, guardian of the borderlands of the Silverado Kingdom where the game takes place. And the younger brother of my sister… Alissa, who sits by my bedside with a worried look.
I was ravaged by a plague rampant within the domain and nearly lost my life… but somehow, miraculously, I survived.
And then… I remembered a crucial fact.
That this place is the world of Blaze of Glory, the doujin depression game I was playing just moments ago—a game with nothing but bad endings.
And I, Gerald Vader—
…despised as the ‘Heretic Knight’ for my twisted personality and despicable actions,
…harassed the protagonist annoyingly throughout the story, caused my sister—the heroine—endless trouble, and even killed her depending on the route,
…only to be beaten senseless by the awakened protagonist, left immobile, and devoured alive by monsters…
Well, basically, I’m a despicable hate character who deserves every bit of his comeuppance.