Amelia Stormhaven.
The greatest source of my problems.
Artemis had an unhealthy obsession with this very girl, and it all started five years ago at the imperial library where they had first met. Back then, Artemis was more of an introvert—well, not exactly. It's just that most kids his age made jest of him due to his 'curse', many of them being nobles he encountered at special events and ceremonies. So he never had friends, becoming somewhat of a loner. He liked to keep himself busy with books, gathering more knowledge, perhaps in search of a solution for his condition.
Just one day like any other, while buried in a pile of books, a young girl with rich golden hair and a very light shade of blue eyes walked over with a stack of books as well.
For the first day, no one spoke. They both just sat there, each engrossed in their own books. The next day was the same story, and it went on for weeks, even months. Sometimes they met, sometimes they didn't. When they did meet, no one would speak.
Until one day, when Artemis encountered a bit of trouble during a coming-of-age ceremony of an heir to a certain family. The young noble had come there with Artemis in mind, intent on teaching him a lesson for unknown reasons. It was right then and there, while Artemis was getting the beating of his life in a secluded part of the mansion—outside, by the gardens—that Amelia had showed up from nowhere and saved him.
That was it. That was how they became friends.
I don't know much of what happened after that. In fact, I never even wrote the whole library encounter. That was just background information that I got to discover in the past, one of the few memories of Artemis I was able to get. So the rest of what happened also remains a mystery to me—how they went from being friends to Amelia despising him and him, on the other hand, becoming obsessed with her.
All I do know is that during a banquet he had attended three years ago, he had, for some reason, forced himself on her. And that was what led to him getting beaten up by the protagonist, who was actually his stepbrother, as well as getting crippled by his father's butler as punishment for his stupidity before being exiled into this pocket dimension.
It doesn't make sense.
It just doesn't make any fucking sense.
How did someone with no mana force himself on a monster like Amelia? It's like the powerless and crippled me now trying to molest Veronica. It's just not possible.
Alright, it's my fault for not thinking that part through when writing the novel, but—this isn't my novel anymore. This is reality, and everything here has a logical explanation. So there has to be an explanation for that. Maybe it's also linked to her behavior in the past. I always knew something just wasn't right with her obsessive interest in me.
"Come on, Artemis, just ten more steps and we are done for today."
I heard that, then tilted my head to Veronica, who was hugging me from behind. She termed it 'supporting', though this seemed like the very opposite. In fact, she was even making it more difficult with the added stress to move, not that I would try to stop her anyway.
It's now three months since I woke up in this damned mansion again, and the journey of getting my legs back hasn't been easy at all.
"Alright, if you complete it, I will give you a reward," she said with a grin, to which I promptly ignored her, focusing on more important things like the horizontal rods on both sides which I was using as support to move.
"Ugh." I groaned in pain, trying to move my right leg forward.
This isn't getting any less painful. I've been doing this for close to two months now, and it seems to be getting worse with every single time.
That aside, I have solidified my plans for how I will spend the remaining time I have in this pocket dimension. I won't waste this opportunity like I did in my past life. This time, I am going to make good use of this hell to train myself. They say what doesn't kill you only makes you stronger, so I am taking this risk in hopes that it doesn't kill me.
The pocket dimension I am currently in is actually a lost world that was discovered by the Snow family a few centuries ago. Unlike the pocket dimensions NIGHTMARES use as a bridge into Atlantis, this one was a lost world that was discovered to have existed before the creation of Atlantis itself, probably around the Age of Fallen Gods. So that only meant this wasn't a pocket dimension created by the NIGHTMARES.
A lot of research was done in this world, but it was futile since there really wasn't anything here of significance or relevance. It was also not habitable, as the living conditions here were said to be hellish. With time, all research here was halted, and the Snows just used it as a training ground for their soldiers. However, that was about five hundred years ago, way before the Academy was created. These days, the world is just there, dormant, since no one cares about it.
Artemis being sent here only meant one thing—the Snow family didn't give a rat's ass what happened to him.
But that doesn't mean they sent me here to die. This mansion is like a safe zone. As long as I remain within these walls, the creatures outside aren't my problem.
But I will make it my problem.
I will train myself to be at least strong enough for standard self-defense. I'm not sure how much I can do with a year and a half left, but—
"ARGH!"
Fuck. I moved too fast.
Before I could realize what was happening, I had hit the ground. Or not.
"What are you doing?" I asked with a frown, my hands supporting me from over her shoulders to prevent me from landing straight on her face.
At the last moment, Veronica, who had been 'supporting' me from behind, was able to switch our positions, using her body to cushion my fall. Which was totally unnecessary since she could have just held me back.
She then sighed. "I just saved you, you know. The least you could have done is say thank you," she said with mock sadness, to which I blankly stared at her.
"Help me get up," I said.
And her response was—
"No."
She suddenly hugged me tightly and grinned. "Let's stay this way for a while longer."
Of course.