Claire noticed his soft gaze and was confused "...What is it?"
Klein opened his mouth but hesitated.
He can't actually say 'Hey, Big Sis, good news, I'm not your brother anymore. I'm a speedrunner from another world and I know exactly how to keep you from turning into the tragic NPC you become after I die.'
Instead, he heard himself whisper, "I'm not going to leave you."
Claire's pupils shrank in shock, and she stared at him in surprise.
With a soft breath, she glanced away "You always say that right before-"
"I mean it this time." He reached out and gently curled his fingers around her wrist.
Her could feel her pulse racing on her wrist "I'm not doing it again. Any of it."
She stared at his hand and mumbled "You've said that too..."
Klein swallowed the lump in his throat.
Raising her gaze, she looked into his eyes "I-I have told you many times, Klein... you are not a burden to me, so don't try to hurt yourself."
"You are the only family left for me... so please."
His grip on her wrist tightened without meaning to "I know... I know I'm all you have left."
That was the worst part. He knew the exact order of tragedies that had led them here.
Parents dead in a dungeon collapse when Claire was seventeen. They don't have any uncles, aunts, or distant cousins.
Just a crumbling apartment paid for by Claire's scholarship stipend and whatever she could earn from dungeons with her power.
'Klein' had been her entire world for four years, and he had spent most of those years trying to escape it.
He sighed in his heart 'The old 'me' is quite pathetic... thinking he is a burden to his Big Sister, he often tried to kill himself.'
And sitting here now, face-to-face with Claire's quiet desperation, he couldn't even blame him.
Claire's thumb brushed his knuckles gently, "…Klein, I don't need you to be perfect. I don't need you to be strong."
She swallowed, her throat tightening around her words "I just need you alive."
Looking at her, he replied "Don't worry, Big Sis. I won't try to hurt myself anymore... Trust me. I want to live."
Claire's lips parted in surprise, and she leaned forward, wrapping her arms around him.
Klein stiffened for a moment, startled… then his muscles loosened, and he let himself return the embrace.
Her voice was muffled against his shoulder when she whispered, "…Thank you."
For a moment, neither of them spoke. The soft hum of the heater and the distant ticking of an old wall clock were the only sounds in the room.
Then Claire drew back, wiping the corner of her eye with her sleeve as if embarrassed.
"You should rest," she murmured. "Your body took a shock, and the potion hasn't fully settled yet."
Klein nodded slowly and stood up "Then... I will return to my room."
Looking at him, she spoke "Promise me that you won't try to do something like that again."
With a firm nod, he replied "Mhm, I promise."
Seeing the resolute light in his eyes, she let out a soft sigh of relief "…Goodnight, Klein."
"Good night, Big Sis."
---
Stepping out of the room, Klein let out a deep breath "Haa... fucking hell."
He slowly made his way back to his room 'I wonder what happened to my body back in the real world...'
His fingers brushed the wall as he walked. 'I must be lying unconscious in front of my computer, I guess... it will take a while before the landlord finds out that I am dead.'
'Fuck...'
He reached his bedroom and pushed the door open with a tired hand.
The moment he entered, a sharp pain pulsed behind his temples.
He stumbled slightly, grabbing the desk for balance as new fragments of memory forced themselves into place in his mind like puzzle pieces.
"Ghh-shit…" he hissed, squeezing his eyes tightly.
Faces. Schedules. Names.
He breathed slowly 'Considering... Claire is about to enter third year now, I am not in the starting point of the game.'
'The protagonist Julius should be entering second year- Huh?'
Suddenly, Klein's eyes shrank in horror as he saw one of the memories of the original body.
A coffin draped in academy colors and students crying.
A photograph of a smiling boy with silver hair.
"What... Julius is dead?"
He hurriedly rushed and took his phone, which was on the nightstand.
Screen light washed over his tense face as he searched through the original Klein's browsing history, tapping through old notifications and saved articles.
'Wait, news from a month ago...'
He quickly opened the news app on the phone and scrolled to popular news from a month ago.
And he quickly found the news headline.
[Tragedy in Grayhaven Academy- First-Year Dungeon Expedition Ends in Catastrophe.]
The article expanded beneath his touch, revealing photographs of devastated families, academy officials speaking at a press conference, and blurry images of rescue teams emerging from a dungeon entrance.
Names started appearing under a list marked with a stark red flare icon.
Casualties.
His eyes moved down the list… until his vision stopped dead.
Julius Albrecht.
"... No way. How can the protagonist die?"
His gaze shook in despair 'In the "canon ending," the protagonist doesn't die...so if he is not alive anymore, then the world is nearing a bad ending.'
Just an unstable story moving on momentum and chaos.
Gritting his teeth in anger, he cursed out "Damn it..."
'Without the main character, the world can't proceed in the right direction.'
Falling back, he sat on the floor 'If I clear the game, can I return to the real world?'
This is also very uncertain.
"Even if I fix the bad ending route… there's still no guarantee I'll go back."
With a soft sigh, he mumbled "Then I need to assume I am stuck here..."
Looking at the name on the mobile, his gaze condensed 'If the world collapses, I collapse with it...'
'I have seen the words on the screen when I reach a bad ending.'
[You failed and thus... the world met its annihilation.]
'If it's just a game, I could restart it.. but this is reality.'
He clenched his fist slightly "Guess I have no other choice to survive... I need to push this world to a good ending even without the protagonist."
"...Fuck you, Julius."
---
A/n: Don't forget to check out the prologue in the auxiliary chapter if you missed it