Where... am I?

  It’s an empty void, there’s nothing but the floor no matter how far I can see, there’s nothing around, did I die? Did that dragon bitch erase me from Marisa!? This is quite suboptimal, honestly not exactly the greatest, then again if I was living in someone else's body, then taking that person's life is... not something I’ll want to do exactly. I guess this is the end for this dream, all that is left is to wake up and carry on, or so I thought but then a sudden force I couldn’t recognize started dragging me across the floor, like that of a vacuum dragging me around in this dark pce, as I was just letting myself go, a hand suddenly reached mine and started pulling on the opposite side.

  “Don’t go!”

  It was Marisa, not me, or maybe me? It’s the body of Marisa that was pulling me, the real me, back from that vacuuming pulling me away.

  “What? Marisa?”

  “Don’t leave me please!”

  “O-OK!”

  Like hell I wanna let this little dream of me end! Needless to say I held the teen girl hand with both my arms and saw her struggle to get me off whatever was trying to suck me in.

  Yikes, for how long is this gonna continue? Poor Marisa is getting tired, so are my arms.

  Eventually though, after a little while the sucking stopped, and I fell belly first on top of Marisa.

  “Haa...”

  We both gasped for air as I got up from the top of myself. It took a bit for the both of us to calm down, but eventually we finally did, and I asked Marisa.

  “Are you sure about this?”

  “O-of course! I don’t want you to leave me too!”

  “But, wouldn’t you rather live your own life?”

  “I! I’ve!”

  Oh, I shouldn’t have said anything! I don’t know why but-

  “I’ve been so lonely!”

  She then started crying on top of me, I kinda knew this was going to happen for some reason...

  “Year after year after year! I’ve been all by myself!”

  “...”

  “It was horrible! I cried and cried in this emptiness! There was nothing! I don’t know how long it was!”

  “Right...”

  “And then you appeared! And then every day was fun! I liked watching how you messed with the piggy! And I loved to finally have people I could talk to!”

  As the girl was venting her frustrations and joys at the same time, she suddenly got super flustered with a red face.

  “I... I also really liked what we did with Heather and... umm...”

  Oh! I just awoke something in the girl, Ups...

  “I! I don’t want you to leave! I... I couldn’t do any of these things if you weren’t here!”

  “That’s...”

  “So please don’t leave me!”

  Hmm...

  She’s innocent, but I somehow can read her mind for some reason. I mean we are sharing a body after all, or so I think? Maybe mind too?, and it’s true that she enjoys interacting with the world, but really...

  “You just want to use me to get id don’t you?”

  She turned even redder, and covered her face with her hands, only giving me a nod, after meekly saying.

  “I... it’s scary to talk to other people...”

  ...I turned her into a closet pervert! I now feel twice as bad about using her body! But call me selfish, I don’t want the dream to stop anytime soon so...

  “Fine, then let’s work together”

  “Ah! Thanks!”

  “Now the problem is, what do we do with the dragon bothering us?”

  “Hmm... maybe something in the information that got shoved in our head can help?”

  “Oh, perhaps, although I think it’s mostly technical stuff”

  “Well, you never know, it’s a lot of info, I can’t recall all of it but”

  Marisa, the other me, then swayed her hand, and a literal library appeared.

  “Maybe we can look for something?”

  “Holy crap, I don’t think we have the time or will to look at all of this”

  “It is a lot, honestly I didn’t even bother checking it, It’s boring! Plus it’s quickly disappearing after you appeared so”

  Indeed, the library it’s slowly turning into dust, I’m guessing we’re probably forgetting stuff.

  “Well, for now let’s just browse through it, at random, maybe we hit something, plus there’s 2 of us so it’ll be twice as fast”

  “Sounds boring!”

  “Want us to get rid of the dragon or not?”

  “Fine! Where do we start from?”

  “Umm, let’s just pick things at random, and see what we can find”

  And so, along with Marisa, we began browsing the books in this pce. Really, there’s a lot of interesting stuff, but nothing that will help us in our current predicament, It’s weird though, because I can tell what the other me it’s reading and I’m sure she’s the same, but I can’t really concentrate because for some reason, just opening the books it’s making me feel so against actually reading the contents, I don’t think anything it’s sticking...

  ...

  ...

  “You’re surprisingly resilient”

  “Wha! At what moment!?”

  I... remember being in the library or something, I’m back in the real world? I must be, there’s the dragon dy looking at me angrily at the other side of the table.

  “W-well, it seems your pns didn’t work”

  “Maniputing memories was never my forte! Honestly I’m terrible at finesse jobs like this one”

  “Then why try? Why are you so obsessed with me?”

  “I... I promised your mother that I would take care of you! I can’t just go back on my word”

  It seems she won’t try anything funny for now, so let’s probe a bit. I couldn’t find any info within my brain, but maybe I can pry some information from her instead.

  “Why did you promise her that? Besides she’s dead if I remember correctly, so she wouldn’t know if you did or didn’t kept your promise”

  “How dare you! I always keep my promises!”

  Oh great, a stuck up type...

  “And how come you ended up promising her that anyways?”

  “I! That’s none of your business, are you gonna let me erase your memory in peace, or do I have to get more aggressive?”

  “W-wait! If you’re gonna erase my memory anyways, can’t I at least know the reason why you’re doing this!?”

  “...fine...”

  The powerful and boastful dragon just id on her chair with her arms crossed, almost looking a bit pissed, then sad, then embarrassed...

  “I... lost at a card game...”

  “...huh?”

  “I lost to your mom in a poker game and I already owed her a favor or two, so she ended up making me do this as payment”

  ...

  What the fuck...

  “W-wait, why were you pying poker with my mother in the first pce!?”

  “It’s… a long story, you were just born and sealed, people were stressed it was just to pass the time!”

  “And then she pced me as a bet?”

  “Ugh! I told her it wasn’t a good idea! I knew we should’ve bet something else!”

  “Wait, you taking care of me was the thing my mother made you do, but what would you win if things turned out the other way around?”

  “Well she had that stupid pendant! She never told me where she hid it! I needed to get my hands on it to-”

  Pendant? I interrupted her mid sentence.

  “Do you mean this one?”

  I said while pulling the two neckces from inside my clothes, she looked at them and jumped from her seat.

  “T-that’s!”

  “It’s one of these isn’t it?”

  I pointed at them with my finger, I don’t know what they are to be honest, but they looked important in the stuff I was given, so I always kept them around with me to be safe.

  “And you have the Elven royal neckce as well! How did you get those!”

  “M-my mother gave them to me with the rest of the stuff...”

  I’m... awestruck, at just how dumb this conversation panned out, but it didn’t matter, now I had a bargain chip!

  “W-well, now you know, so please leave this world at peace!”

  “Wait!”

  I said, creating a fme in my hand and putting the pendants above it.

  “Waa! What are you doing!?”

  “D-don’t try anything funny or I destroy these!”

  “Hmm...”

  She’s powerful, I know that much, but she’s not strong enough to recover these things without me destroying them first.

  “You really want these don’t you?”

  “I... I do...”

  She said, hanging her head down. Honestly I don’t know why she wants them so badly, although I can feel sadness in her, nonetheless I then got a brilliant, although rather mean idea.

  “Then why don’t we make a deal, I will give you these things, and you let me go free?”

  Ok, maybe not as brilliant, but it’s worth a shot.

  “I!...I can’t do that...”

  She looked happy for a second, but in the end, it seems her sense of responsibility is greater than her wish for jewelry.

  “I have to take care of you, it’s not optional...”

  Hmm... ah what to do now? We’re at an impasse!

  ‘Maybe we should do what mom did?’

  Marisa? How the fuck!? Since when can you talk in my head!?

  ‘I don’t know? But I think we can gamble them away, at least so that she lets you stay’

  I see... but wouldn’t a trade work better? It’s the safer option by a longshot.

  ‘I think, she’s a bit too cautious for that, plus she already got into this mess by a gamble,maybe she’ll fall for another gamble easier, thinking she can get away with both’

  But that means a risk for us to walk away with nothing.

  ‘True... what to do?...’

  I... think we have no other choice, It’s better to try anyways, we won’t go anywhere if we keep thinking.

  “Then, how about this”

  The dragon dy looked at me, paying a lot of attention to my movements, is she pnning something herself?

  “I talked with my other self, how about we gamble on them?”

  “W-what do you mean?”

  “Let’s py a game, if you win, you get to keep the neckces, as well as erase my memory”

  “And if I lose?”

  “W-well, for one, I want you to at least let me keep my memories”

  “Ha! You got yourself a deal”

  “But isn’t it unfair though? I’m betting my life and the neckces, but if I win I only get one thing, isn’t that unfair?”

  “Hmm... maybe you’re right, but what would you like?”

  “Well, what can you offer?”

  “There’s no way for you to win, so why don’t I bet my life as well?”

  “Eh?”

  “That way you wouldn’t call it unfair, it’s my life for yours, what do you say?”

  Aren’t you being dumb? There’s no need to take it that far.

  “I mean, I don’t want to kill you though...”

  “Then what do you have in mind then, a favor or something simir?”

  “Uh, sure, I’ll think about it?”

  I really don’t get her? She could easily not risk so much, and just force me to take the bet, I’m on the losing side after all...

  “Heh, but if I’m gonna bet my life, I’m gonna pick the game too!”

  “Uh, no... I think-“

  “Nonsense, you think I'm a fool? You obviously gonna pick something I would of just lose even if I tried my best”

  “O-of course not! it’s-“

  “It’s the truth, so if we’re gonna pick something to py, I’m choosing, or else we don’t have a deal”

  Oh crap, there goes my only pn of doing a severely one sided game!

  “Uh... what were you pnning to py?”

  “Poker, no actually I won’t put it to luck like back then, how about something simpler, like old maid?”

  “Ugh...”

  Well, I’m stuck, at least it’s a normal game I know the rules of.

  “Fine!”

  I have no other choice but to accept, it was my stupid idea to gamble, so I guess I have to stick to it. I’m not too confident in my card game skills, but I’m no pushover either.

  “I accept, but I want the first turn, and the even number of cards!”

  She just smiled and agreed. She must be very confident about her card game skills to accept unconditionally. She left the room, only to come back with a deck of cards. They look incredible, having a shining gold look to them, they seriously look like they’re actually made of some sort of gold fabric! That looks way too fancy.

  Needless to say I got scared at the sight of a fancy deck, but somehow, something is telling me not to worry, I don’t know if it’s Marisa, or my weird instincts in this body.

  “Ready? I’ll hand them out”

  She said taking a queen out of the deck, and shuffling the cards so quickly and with such grace, any normal human would’ve had trouble following them, funnily enough I could keep track of all the cards as they were being shuffled! If only I knew how the cards were pced before they got shuffled, I would’ve cheated by knowing the odd queen out, heck if only I knew the queen that would’ve been enough!

  “Pairs by number and color ok”

  “Seems fine”

  And so we both gave away our pairs, leaving our hands empty, I said I’ll go first so that’s what I’ll do. The dragon dy showed me her cards, and raised one card in particur making it stand out.

  I don’t have the odd one out and the other pair of queens were already made by me, so she MUST have the other one, since she also has the odd number of cards, all I have to do to win it’s not pick the other queen and I’m golden!

  Instincts don’t fail me now! I put my hand on top of the highlighted card, and then Celestial made a face of pure unadulterated joy, seriously, she has an ear to ear smile, is this a trap!? I then put my hand on top of another card and then her expression turned extremely grim, I…

  Screw it! Don’t overthink it, I took a random card, except for the protruding one, it was a seven of spades, make the pair and continue, take whatever, it doesn’t affect me.

  Next turn and she didn’t put any card higher, I put my hand in the middle and once again she’s an open book, seriously I ran my hand across her cards and I can TELL which one it’s the odd queen exactly! I don’t even need monstrous instincts! She’s just that obvious!

  …

  ...

  Needless to say, I won the game…

  “Dammit! Did you cheat or something!?”

  “Not really…”

  “I refuse to take this sitting down! Again!”

  “Eh, but-”

  “Let’s do it again! Best out of 3!”

  “But-”

  “I won’t lose again!”

  “Sigh… fine!”

  A second game ter, I won again, much to Celestial’s dismay…

  “Best out of 5”

  “You’ll have to win 3 in a row! How is this-”

  “Are you gonna chicken out!?”

  She has fire in her eyes, she totally forgot about the whole bet huh…

  Whatever, another game ter, and another victory, she looks even more desperate.

  “Not yet! Best out of 7!”

  “NO! How long do you intend on continuing!”

  “Grr! This is why I don’t gamble! What’s wrong with me!”

  She’s now furiously scratching her head. I have to say, she’s way strong and odd at some things, but looking at her like this is almost cute.

  “Haa... what will I do now?”

  I feel like I shouldn’t say anything, she seems to be lost in thoughts, looking at the odd queen card in her hand...

  Eventually she just calmed down a bit, and then looked dejected at the huge window from this cave.

  “How will I face Hestia now...”

  “Who’s Hestia?”

  “Your mother”

  “Oh right...”

  “I was meant to take care of you but now...”

  “I-I mean...”

  Looking at her this sad is nothing like the dragon that punched a hole through my torso earlier. I'd say she deserves it, but I kinda feel like she was putting up with me because she cared about something, of what I’m not sure, but now she’s in a problem I guess.

  “Hey, why don’t you come with me then?”

  “Eh?”

  “You did kinda bet your life on me, and I don’t really want to kill you, so how about helping me out?”

  “Helping you?”

  “Un... In a sense you’d still could look after me, and that way you’ll keep your promise to my mother as well as your promise to me”

  A part of me doesn’t really like the idea of her tagging along but I feel bad about her for some reason.

  ‘And she’s pretty cute too!’

  Are you seriously...

  ‘D-don’t judge me! The dress is quite pretty!’

  Great, Marisa is being horny on main.

  “What do you say?”

  “It’s a great idea! I’ll never understand why the royal family is so smart! It’s almost scary”

  “Royal family?”

  “Yes! You’re part of the elven royal family, or what’s left of it anyways, since you’re the only one left”

  “Wait, that makes me the only heir to a kingdom?”

  Celestial just tilted her head pondering.

  “Well yeah, if the Elf kingdom was still around, you would’ve been the next queen”

  “So the elf kingdom is gone?”

  “Yeah, there’s still elves here and there, some of them make settlements or towns, but the elven kingdom is mostly gone”

  That’s a bit sad.

  “How did that even happen?”

  “Ah, well, about that, it kind of just, colpsed from a ck of a ruler, honestly the elves live for so long this happens every couple of generations, it just comes and goes, up and down, so I’m sure it’ll pop up again probably, then again it has been the longest period in history without it raising again, Well I’m sure it will happen eventually”

  “Oh well, they’ll be missed or something, maybe I should create it again?”

  “Eh, probably not, Elves are, surprisingly racist, kinda, they won’t really like you as their ruler, more so with your problematic lineage”

  “Problematic lineage?”

  “You really don’t know anything about your past huh? Seriously, what was Hestia thinking in the info she set for you to learn!? Well, feel free to ask me, I’ll try to fill you in with any question you might have”

  “Thanks, ah but that can wait! For now I need to go back with Heather, I worry about her!”

  “That’s fine, you won’t make a disaster with the people of the kingdom I hope”

  “Err, I can TRY to not instigate it, that’s all I can promise”

  “You’re… the living image of your parents you know that~”

  Why so happy? Seriously, she can be pretty odd at times.

  “You letting me go or what?”

  “Sure, but I’ll tag along as promised, to make sure you don’t do anything stupid”

  And so, While I couldn’t exactly shake her away, I at least can go back to Heather, even if Celestial will tag along.

  Joanne_carper