Title: Angst Archive

Summary: A collection of drama shorts. Forewarning, this is just a feels-bad collection of content.

Biting the Hand that Feeds

"But what about Livia?" Angie stammered after I gave her a formal invitation to a private tea party.

"I don't think she's particularly interested in me. She's under the impression that I'm not even her friend," I said while looking away.

Olivia's reaction had stung. The thoughts she harbored about me. It hurt to know she thought so little of me that she would ever think that I only wanted her for her body.

What really stung was that it was not fundamentally that different from what I was doing. While I had enjoyed her presence as a balm for my life, I only kept her around for her light magic. It may not sound as scummy, but at the end of the day, I kept Olivia around for an aspect and not for her as a person.

"What? Why?"

"Probably something Stephanie said to her, but it kind of hurts to know Livia thinks so little of me that she would take the word of that bitch at face value."

"Huh?"

"Yeah. Olivia thinks me being nice to her is some ploy to have sex with her or because I see her as some sort of pet."

"And you didn't try to correct the misunderstanding?"

"I tried, but I can't exactly get through to someone who thinks I don't have her best interest in mind and thinks any attempt to explain is in service of some ulterior motive."

Plus, I couldn't muster up a proper argument when my interest had been on her light magic.

"Then I'll try talking some sense into her."

"Feel free to try, but I somehow doubt you'll be able to convince her."

"It's better than doing nothing and letting her suffer. She's your friend. How can you just let her wallow so?"

"While I would love nothing more than to see her smile and forget her troubles, me trying to resolve the situation will only make it worse considering Olivia sees any goodwill from me as the problem. The best I can do is to sit this one out until Olivia bounces back."

"But..."

"I'll still make sure no one bullies her. Even if she doesn't appreciate it, I still think of her as my friend."

"..."

"What's really bothering you?"

"I'm not sure I should say. I don't think Livia would appreciate it I said anything."

"... But?"

"But I feel that if I don't say something, I may be hurting Livia more in the long run."

"Is it that Olivia loves me?"

"How did you know?"

"I didn't."

"... So now that you know, do you see why I don't feel comfortable accepting your invitation?"

"... It speaks well of you that you don't want to hurt Olivia and convinces me that I was right to invite you."

"Huh, but how can you ignore Livia's love so easily?"

"Olivia doesn't really love me. She took the word of someone who has been tormenting her over my word despite me always helping her. While I won't think ill of her for it since she's under duress, she's shown that she wouldn't be willing to place her faith in me."

"... Livia really hurt you. Didn't she?" Angie said while placing finger under my eye. When she pulled her finger back, I saw that it was wet. When had I started crying?

Angie, after looking at me softly, finally said that she would accept my invitation. No doubt it was out of some sense of duty or pity.

Beginner's Bane

"Tch, I let my guard down," I grimaced as I looked at the bloody wound on my forearm. The monkey had been able to bite through the leather guard.

"You're hurt," Olivia fretted before applying her magic. It felt better instantly.

I barely paid the miracle mind as something bothered me. Despite the ease of the dive, there was something wrong.

Luxion had prepared armor suitable for the next two sections. So how did I get injured? The monsters on this floor shouldn't have the attack stat necessary to have done so.

Were they from a lower floor? It wasn't hard to believe since it wasn't as though something blocked monsters from roaming beyond their zones. Bastards weren't tied to any food source and didn't seem to attack one another.

But even if the monkey traveled from a deeper floor, it should have only strayed by a couple of floors at most. It would still have been from a floor far too shallow to have the attack power to do anything. It was a source of frustration as I remembered it was...

No... we weren't supposed to be deep enough for them to show up, but this monkey was always a herald of a potential run killer. Was I really going to risk it?

"We should turn back, Olivia," I said sternly.

"Leon? What's wrong?"

"I think there's a Beginner's Bane roaming around."

"A what?"

"A high level monster that roams around the sixth block of the beginner floors."

"How do you know one is around?" she asked worriedly as she rapidly looked around.

"The Beginner's Bane typically roams around with groups of the monkey that attacked us."

"Is it possible that one of the monkeys wandered off?" she asked nervously.

"Perhaps, but I'm not willing to risk you," I said simply as I gestured to go return.

As we swiftly moved towards the path that led us to this large room, we heard a cacophony of noise. It was far too loud and frantic to have been trash mobs. The bestial roar and cries of terror cemented my worries.

Shit.

I hurriedly sprinted down, but made sure Olivia was within yelling distance.

My eyes were greeted by the sight of a massacre. The once grey and brown walls were dyed red. The previously dry floor now squelched with every step we took. There were a few giant ants nearby, but all of them busied themselves with the torn remains of the unfortunate students. Thankfully, none looked to be of the love interests yet.

Not that I'd be able to tell with how much blood dyed the mangled limbs.

Olivia whimpered at the sight, but we could not afford to stop. There was screaming further down the hall.

As we turned into the atrium of the second floor, I saw the beast poised to strike a heavily bloodied prince, who was feebly trying to defend the faker.

I launched myself as fast as I could slammed my blade into the side of the monster. Doing so caused the beast to miss its target, but I kept pushing in order to create as much distance between the two. I didn't stop charging until I felt us slamming into the wall.

"Olivia, collect everyone and get them to the surface," I yelled as I struggled to keep the monster pinned.

"What about you?!"

"I've got it handled! Just get everyone out!" I yelled as pressed on my blade as hard as I could.

The monster's futile strikes whiffed around me as I had intentionally pinned it in its most vulnerable spot. The only issue was that it took my entirety to hold it down. I was unable to capitalize on my positioning nor could I escape so long as everyone remained.

"Where are you all going?!" Olivia yelled as a stampede of footsteps started, but the sound of which gradually became softer.

"Olivia, go with them!"

"I'm not..."

Whatever Olivia was going to say was interrupted by a furious scream as something came hurtling towards me. With it came a blade wrapped in a blistering inferno.

"Angelica?" I muttered in confusion.

Was she going to kill me for failing to protect the prince? Shit, I couldn't move out of the way!

In the fraction of a second, all I could see was the bloody face of the villainess. My eyes shut instinctively.

A beastly cry sounded.

Opening my eyes I saw Angelica standing by me. Her blade had plunged into the monster's eye and gone straight through the other side. My ears were filled with the sound of hissing and crackling as the burning sword cauterized the wound.

Angelica gave me a grimace as she opened her mouth to speak, but nothing was said as the monster swatted her out of the way. Her position had left her vulnerable to the beast's swings. The meaty smack and disturbing cracking sound was muted by the furious roar of the injured beast.

The angry roar seemed muted though. Turning my gaze, I desperately looked for the girl. She had just been in front of me. She shouldn't be... far...

I saw a pile of flesh and blood. Olivia was desperately trying to use her magic on the pile of meat. Why was she crying?

A hand lifted itself from the pile.

Oh... it was a body.

Oh... it was Angelica.

As the image settled in my mind, the horror began to finally dawn on me.

With a horrified yell, I turned my attention back on the monster and charged my blade with my magic. Electricity began to course through the monster. The muscles twitched involuntarily and seize, causing the beast to flail chaotically in pain.

It did not dissipate. I put more magic into my attack. The smell of burnt meat wafted in the air, but it still didn't die. I kept pouring more and more.

"Just die already! Why won't you die?!"

I kept howling obscenities at the stupid thing. It wasn't supposed to be like this. It was the first dungeon dive. There were only supposed to be beginner monsters to teach the players the mechanics of the game. It wasn't supposed to be a bloody massacre.

Why?! Just why is everything going so wrong?!

I stared listlessly at the wall from my cell in the school's prison. I had been thrown in here for over a week now. The staff had claimed that the tragedy had been caused by my negligence. I had not properly weeded out the stronger monsters as the vanguard, and as a result of my negligence, Brad and Jilk had died, Chris's dominant arm was permanently handicapped, Greg lost an arm, and Julius became a paraplegic. That wasn't even mentioning the loss of over half of the first years.

Stupid staff was throwing me under the bus when they should have done a proper monster culling before the event or had staff posted throughout to prevent stronger monsters from ascending.

The only bout of good luck was that Angelica had barely survived thanks to Olivia's healing. Even then, Angelica was not expected to make a full recovery. She could live her day to day life, but she would never be able to be active to the degree an adventurer would be expected to be. While she could have her dungeoning requirements waived for graduation, she would never be respected. It didn't help that her face was marred by her missing eye. Ironic injury.

Loveless

I woke up to an empty bed once more. Julius had not deigned to enter my bed chamber and chose to sleep with the Saintess once again. He had not slept with me since he had found out about my pregnancy. He had done his duty. The Saintess was on her fourth now.

The casual dismissal had long stopped bothering me. It paled in comparison to how he had treated me during my miscarriage. He simply had left me to wallow alone. He gave no words of comfort and humiliated me further by refusing to try again. He wanted his precious Saintess's children to inherit the throne, and any children of mine would muddy the line of succession. Mylene put barely any effort into supporting me nowadays since the Saintess, despite her failings during the war, held more status than I did.

Remembering how I was being slighted, I felt a well of regret form. Pulling myself out from the covers, I gently held my stomach. Even if he would have been Julius's son, I wanted my baby to have been born. I wanted to have had the chance to hold him and raise him.

I needed to take my mind off of things. I know it wasn't healthy, but I could not bear the loss of my child. I needed to get to work. I had a kingdom to run.

Sitting behind my desk, I went through all the paperwork in monotonous silence. Document after document, I carefully read and made notes to determine whether or not I would reject or sign the paper.

Even after hours of steady work, I saw that the piles of papers standing tall. It was an unusual sight, but I suppose it was to be expected, given the time of year. Next month would mark the fifth year since we had decisively subjugated the Principality. The bulk of my work in the coming days would revolve around arranging the celebrations.

Speaking of which, I looked at the one crumpled letter on the corner of my desk. It was a response from the kingdom's hero. The letter had a single word written.

No.

I sighed as he had done this every year, and every year, I would have to speak to him in person to drag him out for display. Even though it made my life harder, I couldn't bring myself to hold it against him. He was haunted by the actions he took to stop the Principality. Being put on a pedestal for them was just more salt in the wound.

Alas, as much as I didn't want to add to his torment, I had to maintain the kingdom's image. It would not do for the star to be absent from the celebrations or for him to show up drunk.

AN

1) Just a collection of ideas that have been sitting on my backlog but have been unable to continue for the simple fact that I have no idea where to go with these. Honestly, not the events are interesting enough on their own but needs a proper plot to slot them into.

2) This chapter and the last is me mainly cleaning out my backlog or half thought out ideas. I still have a backlog, but I don't think I'll be putting out any collection for a while.

3) Biting the Hand that Feeds feels like an oddly within canon response if Leon wanted to absolutely cut himself off from Olivia. Angelica accepting or rejecting the invitation could work.

4) Beginner's Bane was me remembering playing ATLUS games where the game would sometimes just decides to kill you. So much progress lost because of BS RNG and overtuned monsters roaming around.

5) Loveless is honestly just interchangeable with Mylene's life experience.

Review Response

Symbolic Joker: How could you ever forget about Slippery-Stair-chan?! She literally killed Leon. Lmao. Just for funsies, my original idea would have included Truck-kun, Black-Company-kun, Slippery-Stair-chan, Gun-dono, Knife-kun, and Broken-Bottle-kun.

For the Egyptian god cards, I was setting it up so that the Holfort family technically had all three as part of their family legacy. Like the pharaoh. The etiquette teacher and Redgraves are part of the family after all. Sacred Beasts would be held by the Fanoss and came to being as some dark ritual to counter the god cards.

KirovAirshipMixOptimal: No, he literally can't one-v-one the Principality. Even with a fair amount of the Kingdom forces, the Royal ship, the Saintess's power, and Leon killing, the Kingdom nearly lost.

Also, I think you missed the point of my response to the reviewer. The point was that the reviewer was saying that Leon was a piece of shit for not taking the fight to the Principality and focusing on hooking Olivia with one of the five. Offing the Princesses preemptively is far more morally questionable than having Olivia hook up with Brad, who would have his engagement broken anyways.

Rodrigus: You can totally hate a game and still be good at it. But for clarification, Leon hates the fact that all disputes are settled with card games, not the game itself.

Scott the Wanderer: Except, none of the traits he calls out as negative for the five are red flags (except maybe Jilk, even that is questionable). His complaints typically revolve around them being a pain in the ass gameplay wise. The negative things he says about their characters is that Brad is a narcissist, Chris is the most difficult to open up, you can't trust the quiet ones (Jilk), and that's it. Maybe needy for all of them, but this is an Otome game so that's a given. None of those are red flags for things like DV, chasing after Olivia's body, controlling, etc.

If you want to know what real red flags look like, look at the Alzer arc instead.