Chapter 3: Aivars Moriarty
Now, the shadow demon summoned from the ritual lurked in the shadows beneath Aivars’ feet.
He sat in a wheelchair, not because his legs were incapacitated due to being sacrificed. It was because if he stepped on his own shadow, it would immediately awaken the shadow demon and materialize it.
This wheelchair was what Aivars had asked for from the old butler upon waking up.
Because now, his “Shadow Affinity” level was too low.
Shadow demons belonged to superior demons, requiring at least level three in Shadow Affinity to control the shadow demon and level five to merge with it. Until then, he could only extract some of the shadow demon’s power to use “abilities”. Although the shadow demon wouldn’t harm him and would even protect Aivars based on the contract, he couldn’t constrain the demon’s actions at all.
From this perspective, a demonologist who contracts with low-level demons is like walking a dog; whereas Aivars was more like being walked by the dog.
How to seal the shadow demon was information that “Aivars” shouldn’t know. Instead, it came from the memory of another world.
Aivars Moriarty, a path of demonology, the Kingdom of Avalon… This was the world in an MMORPG called “The Ouroboros”.
This game was published and operated by their company, “Faceless God Studio”.
Speaking of “their company”, Aivars actually had nothing to do with the development of the game, as he wasn’t part of the development staff. He was the newly appointed human resources manager, commonly known as HR.
Three years ago, Aivars quit his job and became unemployed. Due to being restricted by a non-compete clause, he couldn’t find work in the same industry… until his best friend pulled him into this pit.
That friend was the game’s writer, incessantly hyping up the many Easter eggs he designed.
Eventually, Aivars, worn down by the nagging and also hitting a gaming dry spell, tried the game and found it indeed great, albeit incredibly grindy—though it helped pass the time unemployed at home.
Later hearing “Faceless God Studio” was hiring for HR, and his restriction period being over, he directly applied and went for an interview.
Then, while still transitioning between jobs, due to replying to messages while crossing the street on the way to work, he was hit by a dump truck and sent to this world.
…If he had known he’d transmigrate into this world, he would have asked more about the company’s internal data or visited forums to delve into plot discussions!
This was his greatest oversight.
Because fundamentally, Aivars was a player who didn’t pay much attention to plot or characters, preferring to grind away.
Although through casual conversations with friends, he knew a lot of hidden settings, character backgrounds, and future main storylines that many regular players didn’t, and had even cloud-played some of the early plot through group chats, he wasn’t concerned with the main storyline; instead, he found various character side quests much more interesting.
Aivars had joined the game in its 3.0 era, just after the first raid boss was defeated, and used the main storyline book to instantly complete all quests up to the 3.0 update. Not only that, but during leveling and dungeon raid cutscenes that could be skipped, he did just that. For the unskippable ones, he rushed through by constantly clicking.
Now, Aivars couldn’t recall much of the early main storyline. However, he had a deeper impression of the later plot because the presentation in the main storyline dungeons was remarkably good. Even without paying close attention to the preceding story, he could still grasp the gist through the unskippable cutscenes during those raids.
At the very beginning of the main storyline, “Aivars” made his appearance.
In the winter of 1898 by the Celestial Calendar, he was kidnapped for a ritual. Passersby “players” accidentally disrupted the barrier meant to keep away onlookers, witnessing the brutal sacrifice. In a desperate moment, he pretended to have already reported to the Inquisition, leading griffin knights there and directly scaring away the two perpetrators.
Aivars was rescued by “players” from the ritual altar, then hosted the penniless, ID-less players in his home for food and rest.
Afterwards, Aivars would join the players in school, grow together, and continue to investigate the case. It turned out, the deeper they dug, the more colossal the case became, even implicating the kingdom’s upper echelons…
Because Aivars fell into lethal danger, his sister Yulia suddenly lost control—catalyzed by the Bloodstone, she became “Phantom Demon: Aberrant Flame Butterfly”, the first eight-man raid boss.
That was also the first phantom demon that players encountered in the game.
Her body, curled into a ball, was enveloped in an amber-like transparent butterfly’s thorax, protected by wings made of flame spirits. Due to the low level of the dungeon, this eight-man raid was the easiest to que into, averaging three to four times a week battling Yulia.
Since Yulia didn’t want to harm Aivars, it was one of those basic bosses with no real strategy or attack desire, a classic rookie boss. Even if players were high enough level, ignoring the mechanics and attacking the body directly could scrape by. Eating the main storyline book after defeating Yulia provided some appearance-based rewards.
Eventually, she was killed, her spirit diminished, shrinking into a flame butterfly, and contracted by Aivars as his first familiar. Aivars used this method to preserve her spirit, hoping to someday find the legendary “Amber Master” who mastered resurrection spells to revive her.
Until the main storyline of version 5.0, when Aivars gained new abilities. He was able to seal theoretically unkillable phantom demons into cards, enhancing his familiars’ equipment, finally gaining a significant power-up uniquely his.
After that, he stopped joining players in dungeons, instead appearing in CGs finishing off phantom-like bosses with dramatic flair.
“…Brother?”
Just as Aivars reached this point in his thoughts, he suddenly heard a soft voice.
He was startled.
Talking excitedly with Aivars about “Sherlock and Deduction”, Hayna turned her head reflexively upon hearing that voice.
A little girl stood silently at the door.
“You were awake yesterday, but I was asleep at the time. After I woke up, you had gone back to sleep.”
The girl, who had just woken up in the evening, sounded somewhat aggrieved and surprised, “Brother, why are you… in a wheelchair?”
“—And who is she?”
She wore the same pure white fluffy pajamas as Aivars, with shoulder-length silver-white hair and deep red pupils reminiscent of roses. Her delicate and gentle features could make one think of white cats or bunnies, completely different from Aivars’s dazzling handsomeness. Whether it was her eyebrows, hair color, or eye color, it was enough to prove they had no blood relation.
If there was a similarity between them, it was a shared sense of frailty.
She looked even more frail than Aivars, evidently sickly.
The girl’s skin was sickly pale, almost translucent. She unconsciously leaned against the door frame, slightly tilting her body to distribute her weight and reduce the pressure of standing straight.
—Such a cute girl! Hayna’s eyes lit up.
As if seeing a cute pet, she wanted to get close but was worried about scaring her away.
“It’s okay, Yuli. It’s just temporary. This is Hayna, she came here for some matters,” Aivars said, smiling and calling the girl by her nickname as usual, but for some reason, the name felt awkward.
Just like calling friends by their full names after habitually using nicknames. Suddenly using their full names one day, it feels as though it’s not their name.
After a moment of distraction, he opened his arms to Yulia: “Come here for a hug.”
“…Okay.”
Yulia complied, walking over unsteadily as if she had just woken up, with a vulnerability that made one worry she might fall.
As he hugged the approaching Yulia, Aivars had a sudden realization.
At this moment, he was hugging Yulia, yet it felt as if hugging another “Aivars”.
The memories of Aivars from this world, upon receiving a prophecy for the future, suddenly felt a kind of fear.
Yulia would become a monster…and then, she would die.
—At this moment, Aivars’s memories and reality overlapped. They fully merged, both lifetimes of memories becoming clear. Like someone drowsily awakened by a nightmare, finally distinguishing whether they were dreaming.
Two days after awakening memories of his past life, he finally realized he was not dreaming. He had truly transmigrated.
Having arrived in this world at a very young age, he only just remembered who he was the day before.
But, he also clearly realized another thing—the current plot was different.
There was definitely no contract with a shadow demon for the game version of Aivars.
Because the ritual was interrupted by players, it never successfully took place.
And this probably meant, there were no “player characters” in this world.
In an epic fantasy game, players typically play the role of a one-time savior; if it’s an MMO, players usually are continuous, high-frequency, low-tolerance saviors.
Every major update requires saving the world once more.
…Then he was in trouble.
Because “players”, according to the setting, are descendants of the “Serpent Father”, one of the nine pillars of gods. This is why players can have “experience points” and “levels”, continuously growing stronger without limits or ignoring talents. In the setting, players actually didn’t really participate in raids or team up, but rather, defeated all enemies on their own.
But as for Aivars, despite also being an important character, disasters like the “Fallen Magistrates”, “Cataclysmic Dragon”, and “Shadow of Avalon” that could destroy the world weren’t something he could defeat in the conventional sense of being “strong”.
Aivars knew that the Kingdom of Avalon would encounter disaster in about half a year.
Although he didn’t remember the main storyline very well, he at least remembered key points like version changes.
What he told Hayna was not a lie. Avalon Kingdom indeed faced an apocalypse in about half a year, closely linked to the demonic ritual events they were experiencing now, which no significant figures paid attention to.
But now, Aivars still had a chance to change everything.
Change everything—
He subconsciously hugged Yulia tighter, and the girl sensitively sensed something: “Brother?”
“…Nothing.”
Aivars smiled calmly: “I just had a very long dream… dreamed that Yulia left me.”
However, at that moment, he suddenly distinctly felt Yulia’s body stiffen in his arms.
…Hmm?
Aivars felt a slight stir in his heart.
As if to cover something up, Yulia suddenly asked: “How long… will brother need to use the wheelchair?”
“Probably… about a year?”
Aivars said, looking towards the old butler: “The doctor said so, right?”
“Yes, young master Aivars.”
The old butler didn’t hesitate to say: “So, do you want to take a year off from school? You’ve already taken a three-month break.”
This was a lie.
And both sides knew it.
There was no doctor who told Aivars to use a wheelchair; it was his own request. Those demonologists who had contracted with shadow demons would use this method to seal the demon while they still couldn’t control it.
Besides using a wheelchair for mobility, they also tried to avoid intense actions, slow down their movements to reduce heart rate—these were conventional methods to suppress demons.
Moreover, they could take some drugs to suppress heart rates, keeping the sealed demon asleep within their bodies.
“No need,” Aivars said, “After this incident is resolved, I’ll go back to school.”
“…This incident is resolved?”
Hayna belatedly realized something.
She instinctively felt, at that moment… Aivars’s attitude seemed to have changed.
That feeling, she was very familiar with.
Hayna, naive in her freshman year, thought she was still the genius of her remote small town. As a result, she barely passed in Stellar Astrology at the end of the year, which was quite a shock.
But because of this, she became serious, realizing she wasn’t as outstanding as she thought in the highest-level academy in the Glass Island capital of the Red Queen district. At least… she wasn’t a pure genius, but a hard-working one.
Maintaining her casual learning attitude, even without missing classes, failing was a possibility… Now, being able to graduate with the seven-petal flower stamp representing full marks was precisely because of Professor Moriarty’s red, three-petal flower stamp for “passing” that woke her up.
For ordinary students, this was a release from prison, worth celebrating; but for the proud Hayna, it felt like a slap to the face, stinging and leaving her in silence and shock.
Now, Aivars gave her that feeling.
Like waking from a dream upon seeing the report card—
“Yes, I want to participate in the investigation.”
Aivars suddenly became serious: “Since they kidnapped me once, there will be a second time. Without eradicating those cultists, I can’t leave my home in peace; likewise, I can’t wait at home for an investigation result I might not accept—so I also want to participate in the investigation.”
Hearing this, Hayna felt embarrassed. This was undoubtedly hinting at the incredibly slow investigation efficiency of the Inquisition.
The Inquisition, very particular about “rules”, has to report everything to superiors and follow standard procedures for everything. These were mandates from the senators and knights.
Because they could hardly discover anything, even requiring the help of detectives. “Sherlock” Hayna mentioned earlier was a detective recently famous in newspapers.
Sherlock graduated from the Royal Law University years ago but chose not to join the Inquisition, the Law Courts, or the Tribunal. Now, he is a special consultant for the Inquisition, unbound by their myriad of regulations in investigations, solving several big cases in succession, his status far exceeding his former classmates who joined the Inquisition after graduation.
“If Miss Hayna can’t decide, you might as well report my words to your superior, to see what they think.”
Aivars crossed his arms, calmly saying: “Anyway, by the rules, you must submit all content of this conversation to your superior, right?”
For some reason, Hayna thought of the Inquisition’s interviewers at this moment.
(End of the chapter)
