Turning an NTR Tragedy into a Shonen Harem Epic!
Greeting everyone, my name is Zachary Abbot!
I am a 2nd Generation Agent to the Company through my father, Michael Abbot. After seeing the amazing work that he's done, I begged my mother to talk dad into training me like he had my other siblings. The rigors of being a worker for the Company was difficult and required tough mental and physical effort to at least be eligible as a worker who would last/live long enough in the business.
But…I made it.
Father trained me to a sufficient level that I can now count myself as an adequate Tier 6 Agent. I might not possess dad's immortality or the abilities that he's stockpiled over the countless centuries, or even my mother's Blessings, but thankfully, they passed onto me some of their genetic traits.
As a Half-Saiyan and Half-Human with the blood of a Traveler, I was already far ahead than most in my position.
And so out of a plethora of worlds to choose as my Starting Line, I chose the one not so readily picked by newer agents: The World of "Inside an Adult Game As A Former Hero". A fantasy RPG world that seemed quite basic at first glance, but was actually a death world with monsters, an Evil God, Demons, Monsters, Dragons, Vampires, Asshole Heroes, and worst of all, a Goddess with a Trash Fetish.
No one who lived there was happy, and despite my father usually ramping up the World's Danger Rating in accordance with me and my sibling's strength, he actually prepped me with knowledge of everyone by recommending to me the world's web novel.
Things were just so terrible that even the original MC commits soul suicide!
So, apart from my mission to capture and introduce more characters to the Company's catalogue of cloned companions, my personal mission was to make the world even less of a cluster fuck than it originally was. That was why I decided to enter at the BEGINNING of Cloud's journey before he made that tragic decision.
Blending in with the locals wasn't too hard, and getting dropped on the day that Cloud was chosen to be the Kingdom of Prona's Hero made sure that I wasn't going to miss any flags to join him and Neria's quest to the Kingdom's Capital. My presentation to save them from a passing troop of bandits was as spectacular as it was sad since neither one of them were prepared for the eventuality of combatting monsters much less other human beings.
The fact that in spite of them being averse to the bloody gibs and dismembered limbs that I left the bandits in, their desperation to still have some stranger around, who was experienced in combat and actually provide them some positive reinforcement was…depressingly convenient. Though I should have expected as much since they were sent off from their village with no guards, rusty weapons, no armor, and barely any money and supplies.
It was just so…pitifully easy to befriend them that it made me hesitant to bind them with my Shroud when elected to do guard duty that night. I kept reminding myself that it was for their own good, Cloud's especially since he would later become Iris' main NTR'd Hero. Thankfully, I didn't get SMITED by the goddess or any of her angels for effectively removing Cloud off the board, so I should be grateful for purchasing Blessing Talent.
After that, I just went with the motions of being the dark, mysterious veteran of the group. Cloud would obviously remain the idealistic and naïve Hero while Neria will become the Big Guy as the prospective Knight-In-Training. We quickly became a well-knit group by the time we reached the Kingdom in about 3 weeks.
Well, in those three weeks, I did provide them with my cooking that always brightened up their day. [Faerie Feast]
Took the time out of each day to teach them the way of the Sword, the same way that Father taught me his essential three basic sword skills. Cloud seemed to prefer Sword God style while Neria was a natural with Water God style. [Educational Talent, Don't Stand So Close To Me Lure, & Talent Sharing: Martial Talent]
And had convinced and comforted them about the need to tackle the oncoming bandit surge occurring all over the kingdom. It sucked that the two of them were so distraught by the thought of taking human lives, but this was the position thrust upon them, I couldn't do everything for them as that would just stifle their growth. By the end of our trip to the Kingdom, we had already cleared 5 Bandit camps and freed countless slaves. [Inculcation Talent]
Our deeds had garnered us enough renown that the nobles of the Kingdom showed our group less disrespect once it came time for Cloud's official introduction as a Hero chosen by the Goddess to the Royal Family and the Kingdom of Prona as a whole. Though I had to keep reminding him to at least look confident, his sheer inexperience with court life and politics began to bite him in the rear.
It was because of this that he had unknowingly accepted a request from one of the influential Dukes in the Kingdom to accept a well-accomplished Mage from their family. This option killed our chances of actually going to the Mage Tower to interview and recruit ANY mage from the Mage's Tower, an institute for the strongest magic users in the world.
Although it was a bummer, we did receive our local tsundere, Eri Oller, the bastard child to Duke Oller. And judging from how affection starved Eri was, the duke was certainly executing a power play by upping the importance of House Oller. With a member of his family contributing towards the Campaign against the Demon Lord, he has now effectively boosted House Oller's standings in the court of the Kingdom of Prona. It's quite clever in a way, so I made sure to keep tabs on them just to ensure they don't pull any more fast ones on us again.
Especially Eri's older brother, I just didn't get good vibes from the guy.
Next, our party had to be assigned a Saint Candidate, and that came in the form of our timid and endowed healer, Ophelia. She was definitely repressed and craving for…just anything beyond her old life at the church. She literally cried after I made her a bowl of potato soup, one of my more basic dishes.
Getting the two new additions to lower their guards around me needed a bit more time, but thankfully, I had both Neria and Cloud there to help lower their defenses. In time, I managed to at least begin budding friendships with the two of them before going through with binding them through my Shroud in their sleep like I did with my first two companions. Unlike Neria and Cloud, the two's loyalty would be shaken by outside forces expedited by the World's Goddess and her trash tastes. So having their unconditional loyalty and affection were a must to keep one's loved ones close.
With a tightknit party, we were pretty much inseparable, and this meant that there were no hindrances to our group's synchronicity and ability to just…bond. The six months that followed since our party's formation has been nothing but slowly knitting the insecurities and traumas that everyone had to deal with in their old lives:
Cloud's insecurities about not being suited for the hero role and how he believes I should be more deserving of the title.
Neria's fears about being too weak to protect everyone and how she believes that she could never amount to the strength I possess as the party's main protector.
Ophelia's paranoia about being a poor Saintess who can barely pull her weight in the party and how she feels her sins rising just for being around me and nearly falling to temptation at the hands of a Mill worker that I happily stopped.
Eri's desperate need for affection and praise from those she deems exceptional and worrying that with my own outstanding prowess as a mage that I wouldn't see her own efforts worth praising anymore.
Everything just seemed to end up connected to me and it was my duty to rectify their woes.
For Cloud, I took him out on a Monster Hunt and despite us hunting nothing but Dire Wolves and Hobgoblins, we stumbled upon a rabid Wyvern that was bringing havoc to a defenseless village. I had accidentally tricked him into facing the high-level monster on his while pretending to receive a "fatal" blow just to motivate him. In just one stroke of his sword, he performed a perfect Longsword of Light and vanquished the beast. Yeah, he was miffed with me for lying, but he sure got the confirmation that he desperately needed.
"Before today, you wouldn't have dreamed of ever beating a monster like that on your own, did you? Now quit it with all this unworthy nonsense because you certainly have the skills to back your title. So, hold your head high and be proud, Cloud. You are strong."
That certainly brought him to tears and it was way worth getting scolded for hours by Neria for putting Cloud in actual danger without backing him up.
Speaking of Neria, all she needed was a brief reminder that despite me being the strongest in our group that she holds the role as our Tank for a reason. Sure, I can take hits for everyone and walk it off most of the time, but I can't do everything at once. One training session of ours proved that as she withstood an onslaught of semi-serious strikes and remained standing through it all for over 7 hours straight.
"I trust you. Should I ever be separated from you guys and the others find themselves in danger, I know that you'll be the wall they can rely on when things start to go south. That's your true strength, Neria. I'll do what you can't while you do what I can't."
After that, she no longer second guessed herself and even began to give me orders whenever we find ourselves in a pinch during a monster raid.
Next up was our personal Saintess Candidate, Ophelia. After physically and verbally smacking down the Miller who tried to coerce her into anal sex, I personally gave her what she needed to hear after hearing her bluster about her impure thoughts and how vile of a woman she was.
"Pfft! Ophelia, trust me. You're far from the depraved woman that you think yourself to be. Others have worst tastes than you and I'm not talking about your fellow mortals. Its fine to have interests in your own body as long as you're not cruel or pushing said interest in an unhealthy direction. Sure, the church may say otherwise but you're not going back there so try to work your religious views to coincide with your own values as a person. …Plus, if your interested in exploring your…desires, I'll happily show you a good time."
Ophelia's worries washed away as she timidly accepted my proposition. That night I took her first kiss and anal virginity. Along with her new passion to dip her toe into Magical series of buffs and divine magic, she became quite enthusiastic about trying new things in bed like anal beads and the like.
Lastly came Eri, I just had a deep conversation with her after discussing magical theory and the study of magical enchantment. There was a point to where she eventually grew fed up with the discussion and loudly proclaimed why I was even talking with her since I'd obviously already knew everything there is about the spells since I was so good at magic. My response to that was:
"Eri, stop comparing yourself to me. No, stop comparing yourself to others in general. Eri, you literally enchanted Ophelia's magic into our accessories to heal ourselves in emergencies. Do you know that NOT every mage in the world could do that, hell, Red Mam-I mean you are literally one of the strongest enchanters I know. Hell, you prowess with magic should even be questioned once since you summoned a freaking comet shower on a bandit's camp. That was glorious! Even a little girl that we saved from slavery thought so and now dreams of being a mage because of you! I don't know what that family of yours did to hurt you, so I'mma just say it the way I see it. Eri, you are quite literally one of the most powerful mages in the world and you'll just keep growing with us to help you. I-It's just…you need to have more confidence in yourself."
Now Eri being our local tsundere was a bit stubborn to take my advice to heart on that day. Then a week, no a month passed, and after a vicious stand off with an infestation of Orcs that threatened to overrun a village, she came up to me while covered in the sooty dregs of her new spell Meteor Crash and gave me a silent hug in thanks. Then she passed out because she used up all of her mana to execute a spell that obliterated said village that we were trying to protect.
Don't worry, we evacuated the citizens just before it became overran with monsters.
Our adventures made us grow together like a family and as family, we tackled everything together as a team.
"Shitshitshit! It's the Hero's Party! It's Hero Cloud and his party!"
Frantically cried the poor bandits stationed in front of their gated war camp. Honestly, it was almost as big as a town, but considering how far we've been deleting their camps across Prona's borders, it would only make sense for them to huddle together and team up to prevent losing any more of their number.
"Prepare for batt-!"
"Chain Dragon Lightning x 10."
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH!"
Lances of draconic shaped lightning blasts struck down multiple sentries aiming their bow and arrows at us from the camp's upper wooden walls. The place was suspiciously well made, and it had me questioning what was going on.
…But before that.
"Follow my lead!" I bellowed out, preparing my blade to strike at the iron gates while Cloud and Neria did the same as they quickly ran right behind me.
"Got it, Zachary!"
"Leave it to us!"
As one we breathed and drew our blades so fast that the sound of them tearing apart the gates, crushing the bandits rushing to barricade them, and the resulting havoc that we caused upon entering the main grounds (or should I say the kill zone). Now that we're inside, the time came for each of us to enact our roles.
"I'm going to search for and free the slaves and hostages!" Cloud already took of for one of the many buildings in the encampment with Ophelia following after his trail.
"I'll provide the Hero with support and tend to the injured." The White Mage of our group rushed with an air of confidence as her strides to keep up with Cloud no longer showed signs of her formerly poor stamina from our journey's beginning.
"That leaves us with the rabble then, yes?" Eri rolled her eyes as Neria and I nodded at her. Sighing, she strode past the two of us and straight for the mob of bandits rushing out of any tent or hut that stood before us.
"You fucks! You killed me best mate, I'll get you back for that!"
"Yeah, I barely escaped with my life and lost a good bitch because of it!"
"We'll be sure to make good use out of you bitches when all of this is over!"
"Ugh, how unrefined." Eri tapped the butt of her staff on the ground and quietly spoke an incantation before drearily proclaiming, "Quagmire." Like a swamp, the ground beneath the bandits gave out from under their legs. Now as they struggled to climb out, they were left open for Eri's next attack.
With a snap of her fingers, she intoned, "Wind Blade." A sickle of compressed wind decapitated all of the bandits in one fell swoop. Another snap of her fingers, and Eri rehardened the ground and lit the dead bandits with a fireball. The blaze and smoke created the perfect smokescreen for Neria and I's advancement. "You two cut off the head of the serpent, I'll deal with exterminating the pests."
Neria and I nodded as one. "Lets move." The two of us blurred and used Eri's distraction to blitz past the oncoming army of Bandits who were carefully blown to bits by Eri's magical missles. Each blast of magic was thrown to blow away any bandits that stood in our way without causing any friendly fire.
Blowing through the doors of the largest building in the war camp, Eri and I made quick work of gutting and bisecting the front door's guards before busting in.
"Should we split up?" I asked.
Neria shook her head. "I don't think so. This all just seems so suspicious, Zack."
I frowned at her. "You noticed it too?" The bandits were clearly using some good quality weapons and had outfitted themselves with a well-tight camp that wouldn't be too dissimilar from a kingdom's own war camp.
"Do you think someone's actually helping the bandits out?" Neria whispered in disbelief.
"If they are then that begs to question why they would help them now." I shook my head. "Before that, lets focus on the problem right in front of us. We'll check different rooms but we'll stay in each other's vicinity. We don't want any surprises to pop out on us."
"Right."
And so, we kicked down every door that the main building had and had to either kill bandits, save some poor girl who was about to be raped, and kill a group of bandits who were in the middle of gangbanging a poor girl. This place was NOT fun at all.
Once we cleared every room, we were finally ready to enter the massive room with skulls lined up on its doors. The Chief/Boss room as I liked to call these sorts of spaces. Taking a few steps in, I was prepared to face the big, tough Bandit Chief that usually rules these junctions, so I was a bit surprised that standing alongside the hulking, dirty and hairy Bandit Chief was a smirking, pale faced smug prick in black robes by his side.
"Tch! Took you foul humans long enough to take the bait. But at least I won't have need for these filthy apes anymore and I can finally leave this shithole once I've killed you meddling lot." The smug bastard yawned and lazily sat back in the large, boorish throne that fit the stature of the bandit chief than their smaller form.
In fact, the Bandit Chief hadn't said a word or even moved beyond the occasional twitch. What was up?
"You! State your name and your purpose for being here!" Neria demanded, pointing her sword at the mysterious stranger.
"Why should I bother to answer an inferior creature such as yourself, welp? If I were you, and I'm certainly glad I'm not, I'd focus more on the ape charging at you." The stranger snapped their fingers and suddenly the Bandit Chief went berserk and threw a hatchet at us.
Neria and I swiftly dodged the tremoring attack that took us unawares. That was certainly a higher tier of strength than we expected from a Bandit Chief. Now the massive bastard was charging at Neria with his main axe thrown back over his head to cut her in twine.
"Guardian!" Raising her shield, the young knight blocked the attack with a deafening aftershock that shook the room. Gritting her teeth, Neria pushed back the bandit and fell back into one of her Water God stances to execute one of her crafted techniques. "Stance #2: Ripple!"
Her sword impaled itself through the bandit's chest with about as much force as the Bandit's past blow. Ripple was a counter that absorbed the enemies attack and redirected it back at them. Her attack went through the enemy's heart so it should have killed him.
"…!" Neria gasped as the growling Bandit Chief immediately grabbed her sword arm and began to crush it in his large, meaty hands. "Release m-Aagh!"
"Neria!" I gasped and immediately dashed in with a Ki-charged blade to vaporize the Bandit Chief into a bloody mist as what looked to be a floating orb of red liquid spray Neria with a hundreds of sharp needles. I quickly tended to her wounds by activating the enchanted crest of her cape to initiate Ophelia's regeneration spell.
"Tch, that ape barely lasted at all." The pale bastard sneered and pushed himself off of his throne. Opening the palms of his hand, cuts began to emerge from his arms and form various spheres and weaponry from the blood flowing out of him. "But you've earned the right to be executed by someone far beyond your kind's imagination. Take heart insects for this will be greatest honor to bless your insignificant li-!"
*WHAAAAAAAAAM!*
"OOOUGH!"
"Shut. Up." Enshrouded in Ki, I just neutralized the obvious vampiric bastard in one punch to the gut. Right, the vampires of this setting were quite the gloating assholes, weren't they? So that meant that Nation of Alitia is connected in all of this. "Good to know."
"As expected, you didn't waste anytime at all." Neria walked over, rubbing away her blood stained yet healed back.
"Are you fine?" I asked in worry.
Huffing, Neria raised an arm and flexed her admittedly muscular bicep. "Never been better. You can give it a squeeze if you li-eek!" She blushed in surprise as my hand immediately rubbed her lovely breast.
"Yes, very nice." I pulled back to cross my arms and nod as if reaching nirvana.
"I meant my bicep, Zack!" Neria hissed.
"You should have been specific. Besides, it really was lovely to touch." I chuckled as she quickly turned her back to me while muttering stuff like "not the right time" while a promise to go through with some plan with Cloud and the others.
I ignored it for now in order to focus on our unconscious surprise third party, the vampire. "Looks like we have foreign invaders inciting the bandit issue."
"Really?"
"Yup." I nodded. "Its not confirmed, but the number of the bandit camps wreaking havoc on Prona is a tad bit concerning and mighty suspicious. That one of these guys is running around here sort of proves my guess right."
"But what for?" Neria asked. "Alitia has always been a rotten place despite the supposed attractions and festivals. I wouldn't be surprised that they're sabotaging our Kingdom, but for what end when we're dealing with the crisis of the Demon Lord and his Heavenly Knights."
"That's the number one question, isn't it." I grunted. "Luckily, we have ourselves a hostage who'll happily share all that he knows once he wakes u-." Daggers materializing out of our blindspots to pierce the unconscious vampire's head, neck and chest ensured that he'd never wake up.
"Who-!" Neria began to draw her sword while I was already throwing mine in the direction of the Ki signature who had suddenly popped up out of nowhere inside this very room. I felt a flicker of surprise from the energy signature as something popped out of the shadows to dodge my sword and lunge a knife at me.
Before my assailant would realize the blunder in facing a Half-Saiyan in close quarters combat, Neria was already in between us with her shield prepped to guard the blow and shield bash the attacker back towards the entrance of the room.
"…" Silver hair. Silver Eyes. Animal Ears. Basically, a ninja.
"Wait, you're-!" I gasped as Neria immediately rushed out attacker with her sword drawn at the ready.
The short assailant silently crouched down with a dagger poised to strike at any openings in Neria's stance before a familiar cry of "Found you!" graced out ears. The attacker quickly blurred into the shadows just as Cloud rushed into the room with a wide swing of his sword that had nearly grazed Neria, who stumbled back.
"Hey, wh-Neria, oh my goodness are you okay!?" Cloud cried in concern as he ran over to his childhood friend.
"Y-Yeah, but you nearly took my head off there." Neria sighed and rubbed her neck.
I rushed over to Ophelia, who trailed behind the Hero albeit with a worried frown.
"Zack, are you okay?" She panted.
"Apart from dealing with a vampire and a roided out bandit, then yes."
"Roided?"
"Er, forget it. What happened on your end?" I asked.
"We managed to eliminate the bandits guarding the slaves and hostages. But we stumbled upon an assassin who attacked me when I was healing the injured. Thank the goddess the hero was there to watch my back otherwise, I'd have…" Ophelia gulped, but I reassured her with a hug and pat to the back.
"Its okay, we're okay…" I breathed out soothingly as she buried her red face into my chest.
"Okay…"
"AHEM!" An abrupt cough stopped our hug as Eri entered the room albeit with a stern frown that made Ophelia sheepishly look to the side with a proud smile. "I've dealt with the riff raff outside, so we're good to leave this disgusting cesspit, yes?"
She noticed our expressions and frowned in concern. "What?"
"Yes, but…" Cloud began, scratching his chin.
"We're probably going to have a lot to discuss while we're escorting those poor souls to the nearest village we can find." I groaned.
And also deal with Alitia and their fucked up Gyaru-Oh Hero, who we should be encountering very soon if the timeline were any indication.
Joy…
AN: Another quick little Omake detailing one of the SI's future children entering their career as a Company Agent. I just wanted to write this little concept out with this world since I've noticed that most of the "Inside an Adult Game as a Former Hero" fics were starting to die out.
Also, can anyone guess who Zachary's mom is?
Anyways, I hoped that you enjoyed this chapter! I'm Out so Peace Out and have a lovely day!