No Longer The Hero | TBATE

Chapter 4 | Survival

{3rd POV}

Slam!*

"You have to be cheating!"

In a rather luxurious bedroom two young women, Varay Aurae and Charlotte Wykes were peacefully playing a game of cards on a small coffee table when suddenly the white haired maiden slammed her fist on the table with almost enough force to break it.

In response the still strait faced Blond just sighed as she picked up the fallen cards and began to reshuffle the deck.

"You know for the so-called Ice Princess you really know how to lose your shit when losing in cards."

"I lost seven games in a row. Seven! And you want me to believe it's just pure luck, no give the cards I'm shuffling."

And as she said that she forcefully took the deck of cards out of Charlotte's hands and began to mix the deck herself with newfound vigor.

Charlotte, who was watching this just gave a resigned sigh as she was already used to the attitude of the Ice Princess/Workaholic known as Varay, and her wildly different personalities when she was on or off work.

Ever since she was reborn into this world she had gotten along surprisingly well with the oldest daughter of the Aurae family and when she found out about Varay's insane potential as a mage she decided to take her under her wing as well as help her awaken early.

These actions were of course not fully executed for the sole benefit of helping Varay but also with the intention of raising a powerful weapon who could aid her in her endeavors.

'Since I was reincarnated there's also a decent chance that he might've as well...'

Charlotte or rather as she was known before her reincarnation, Elizabeth, was the only person other than Alex himself that knew his plan to cleanse the world of Eden from the beginning, before he actually began to execute it. She was the one who could've made the decision to try and convince him that his plan was pointless if he wouldn't survive, but instead, she was the one to execute him.

[A/N When I say this I mean that she's the one who actually killed him by cutting his head off before killing herself with her own sword, the Empress is a whole different character.]

"Hayyyyy. Helloooo. Earth to Char~ Are you there?"

As she was on the edge of sinking into another depression Varay pulled her out of it as she finished dealing a new hand. Unbeknownst to Varay, this was a regular occurrence and Varay managed to keep Charlotte's thoughts away from Alex's death at least a dozen times a week, almost making her solely responsible for recovering her to the semi-sane mental state that Charlotte was in now.

'Thank you.'

Once again thanking Varay in her heart she picked up her hand and began to play with an almost unnoticeable smile on her face.

"Royal Flush."

"God Fucking Damnit!"

...

{Arthur POV}

Pain.

That was all I felt as I regained consciousness, along with the drum like sounds of my heartbeat telling me that I was in fact, alive.

'How the hell did I survive that?'

Each breath I inhaled felt like I was breathing fire, and the needle-like pains that shot through my whole body made me wonder if I was going to go insane.

'No. I got this. I've already experienced far worse so this should be nothing nothing.'

Taking in another deep breath, I gritted my teeth and attempted to open my eyes which seemed to be sealed shut by dried blood while simultaneously channeling small amounts of mana into my limbs to ease the pain.