I Refuse to be a Named Character

Part 1

"... Chloe, this is 'Deadly Crown.' All main characters except the lead and the villain die and get replaced, and then their replacement die!" I ran my hand through my hair anxiously, thrown off when by the longer, straighter locks. "We're much better escaping and living normal, peaceful lives away from the main characters!"

"You might want to be a nameless nobody, but I don't." Chloe's voice was cold. "If you don't want to come with me, then just be by yourself."

"... but how do you even know when in the story we are? The main characters might be in the Western City by now!"

Chloe's laughter at my question startled me. "Did you forget where we are right now?"

"The Ninth Lord's..." my voice trailed off, shocked, as I remembered an important fact from the story.

One of the villain Lucien's earliest scenes was of him annihilating a Lord with his entire household. Men, women, children... even the animals were killed by him. It was his first step on the path to being a ruthless villain. I remember shivering uncontrollably as I read the bloody chapter, even wrapped up in blankets safely in my bed it was terrifying.

And the place of this slaughter... was the Ninth Lord's household.

"We need to escape." My voice shook as I spoke up. "Who knows when Lucien will show up to kill everyone!"

Chloe smiled. "Exactly. So let's keep our heads down, and wait for the guards to be distracted to make our escape."

And so we settled into life in the Ninth Lord's home.

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It was difficult to adjust at first. I had grown up in a modern society. And now I had lost many things: access to food, hot water... a flushing toilet... all things I had taken for granted. Chloe and I worked, cleaning every day in different areas. The "household" of the ninth lord was more like a small town, with housing for the servants, multiple buildings and courtyards for the nobility within. Hundreds of people lived within the walls, making me feel ill at the scale of the upcoming slaughter.

We needed to escape.

It wouldn't be easy. The walls were too high to climb. There were two gates, but two or three armed guards were present at each one at all times, an impossible fight for two young girls whose combined weight didn't even outmatch one of the guards. Chloe seemed confident that we could escape though, repeating over and over that we just needed to bide our time.

To my surprise, she was right.

"BRAT!" As we were cleaning on of the outer courtyards one day, near the rear gate, we heard angry shouts. Initially I was frightened that they were talking to us, only to see their attention turned to a curled up form on the ground. The tall muscular man we had met right after waking up, whose name we now knew to be Bale, held a whip in his hand, sneering as he brought it down with a loud crack.

"Look, the guards!" Chloe grabbed my arm, shaking me from my reverie. The two guards at the rear gate had walked away from their post, stepping over to watch the show as Bale continued to beat the unlucky soul. "We have to escape now!"

Not waiting for an answer, she pulled my arm, dragging me towards the gate. I felt a sense of relief mixed with nervousness as we neared the exit. What if the guards turn around? Without thinking I turned around to look at them.

And that one look changed everything.

I caught sight past the guards back of the person laying curled up on the ground. It was a young man close to my current age, he couldn't be older than seventeen. His dark messy hair was clumped together with blood and dirt, a bright red trail of blood running in between his closed eyes. His face was pale, he was obviously hurt, but his lips were clamped tightly together, refusing to let out a sound. As I hesitated, stunned at the thought of them beating up such a helpless person, his eyes opened, meeting my own. The irises were a dark blue; so dark they seemed almost black.