I Killed The Main Characters

Noah stood frozen beneath the yellow-washed branches, the glow of setting sun fractured across the ground like broken glass.

The air brushed against his skin, but it was not the wind that made his fingers tighten or his breath catch.

It was them.

Conrad Ashworth and Elira—Black Vassals of the Ashbourne Household.

They stood like monuments risen from the void, their presence bending reality just by existing in it.

And yet...

Why don't I remember…? Noah thought.

His brows creased subtly. He took one step back, subtly widening the distance as he replayed the memories burned into his mind—the script, the game, the world he thought he understood.

They weren't in the game. Not like this. Not even mentioned... The Ashbourne family wasn't even that important in the game's route... just another middling noble house... nothing like this.

But here, in this novel-like route—this broken, rewritten reality—the Ashbourne Household loomed far larger. Hidden hands, dark vassals, secret orders...

How many things did I not see coming...?

Noah's gaze flicked toward the two. His heart was steady now, but the weight in his chest had thickened. Like standing in wet ash.

Only those close to them would know who they were...or rather those who had read the narrative.

They didn't look much like it but this two were father and daughter.

Their real names being Daemon and Evelyn Krasis of the Fallen Krasis Household.

Conrad gave another crisp bow.

"We come bearing command from the Young Lady," he said with effortless formality.

His voice was low, resonant—like distant thunder echoing across a dead sea.

"By her decree, we are to take you out. Preferably... quietly."

Elira gave a mock gasp, placing a hand to her lips in exaggerated shock.

"How clever... to fake your death so convincingly, Young Lord. Truly brilliant."

Her tone was syrupy and cruel.

Noah narrowed his eyes, silently calculating the gap between them and how fast he could cast something meaningful.

Then Elira spoke, her voice sharp and almost playful.

"Was it to not have your family breathing down your neck?" she asked, her dry green eyes gleaming with barely concealed mockery.

There was something venomous in her gaze.

Something that wasn't just hatred, but personal.

Noah exhaled slowly.

Elira and Conrad... they don't look like it... but now that I see it...

He remembered.

The Krasis family... they were annihilated.

He stared at the two.

Or rather... Conrad is just her stepfather. That makes Elira the last true-blooded heir of House Krasis...

The image began to form in his mind like a slow bleed.

The Krasis Family, once a brilliant flame among the aristocracy, had burned brighter than most.

A minor house elevated by merit—military might, political acumen, and unmatched magical research into dark magic.

They were scholars of darkness, but never slaves to it.

But light draws shadows, and brilliance blinds.

The empire branded them heretics.

Accusations piled like corpses: dark magic, inhuman experiments, traitorous liaisons with the Blight beyond the veil.

One night, under the guise of a purge, imperial executioners slaughtered the entire bloodline.

Children, scholars, even the dogs.

All but two escaped.

Elira, who had watched her mother be devoured alive by summoned beasts.

And Conrad, her stepfather—a former royal knight turned arcane tactician, whose love for her was the only thing greater than his hatred for the empire.

They vanished into shadow.

And then... they reappeared, not as rebels, but as Black Vassals under the House of Ashbourne.

Like poison hiding in the veins of the state.

Back in the present, Noah's expression tightened.

"I should've killed you both on 'that' day," he said coldly, his voice low and biting.

"The two of you sicken me."

Elira's pupils dilated.

Then her mouth split into a manic grin.

"Yes yes YESS!" she howled with a twisted delight, stepping forward with the wild thrill of a predator.

"I love when hate drives you, Noah... It makes everything worth it!"

In one motion, her hand shot to her thigh.

Steel flashed.

She pulled free a black dagger, wreathed in wisps of energy that flickered like a dying star.

The air around it warped, shadows crawling away from it like frightened vermin.

Noah's body moved on instinct.

But not fast enough.

Slice.

The blade slashed across his forearms as he raised them in defense.

His coat shredded. His flesh tore.

The pain was instant and searing—not just from the wound, but from what came with it.

Black energy pulsed from the dagger into the cut. His veins lit up as if they were being carved with ink and acid.

[SYSTEM WARNING: UNKNOWN TOXIN DETECTED]

[Effect: Blood Acceleration and Venom Conversion | Increased Heart Output | Poison Contamination: 27%]

[Risk of organ rupture: HIGH]

Noah gasped. The pain punched through his chest like a lance. His breath hitched—and then blood spilled from his lips.

His eyes turned red and bloodshot, the vessels in them rupturing.

"Kh—!"

It hurts. It hurts—it—

His body convulsed slightly.

His knees nearly buckled.

Inside his chest, he could feel his heart hammering—too fast—blood forcing its way out through every wound, even his pores.

He could feel something burst inside—something soft and slick.

A capillary? No... part of his stomach lining? His liver?

The poison... it's accelerating everything. It's turning my own blood into a weapon against me.

He staggered a step back, arm dripping. The crimson trail hit the dirt like drops of molten metal.

The wind stopped.

Elira tilted her head, admiring her work.

"You'll bleed for me again, won't you, Noah?"

Behind her, Conrad remained still. Silent. A knight watching a duel unfold, waiting to clean the corpse afterward.

Noah looked up, breathing hard, blood dripping from his teeth.

Noah staggered, his breath shallow and ragged, blood dribbling from his lips like threads of ink spilled across skin.

The black energy was still pulsing in his arms, an unbearable heat crawling through his veins, but his mind—his mind—was burning faster than the infection spreading through him.

That dagger... that energy… I've seen it before.

A grim recognition dawned, slow and suffocating.

Not in this world.

No, it was back when he was nothing more than a player watching pixels move, where the battles were scripted and the fates preordained.

This ability… this blade...