episode_0000

– Now, I can finally breathe a sigh of relief.

The fallen Duke on the ground finally opened his mouth.

Despite his limbs being torn and blood gushing out, his voice remained solemn.

The demon of the North seemed to be quite familiar with death.

Even though the woman pointing her sword at me claims to be my own flesh and blood.

– …Cut my throat, Laura. Complete your revenge here.

Not a trace of warmth in those words.

The Duke seemed determined to remain as the demon of the North until the very end, rather than being seen as the father of his three daughters.

Upon hearing this, the eldest princess, Laura, cast aside any lingering attachment.

Swoosh!

The raised sword drew an arc in the air and swiftly severed the Duke’s pitiful neck, rolling it across the carpet.

Laios Endika von Roen Green.

The Duke, feared by many, the demon of the North, met a rather pathetic end…

***

【BAD END 3 – The Vengeful Sword】

“…Another death.”

Inside the late-night bus heading home, I stared intently at the palm-sized game screen on my smartphone.

A mobile indie game called “Inframe” developed by a small team.

“Kill the Archduke.”

In short, “Killduke.”

In this chaotic era filled with all sorts of cash-grabbing crap games, this one was quite something. A well-crafted fantasy RPG set in a neat world, which had become hard to find these days.

I started playing just a week ago, and I’ve already surpassed 80 hours of playtime.

Except for working and sleeping, I’ve been glued to Killduke the whole time, so it was only natural.

That’s why procrastination is scary.

When others were having a great time and getting excited, I would scoff and wonder, “What’s so great about it?” But now, seeing myself getting hooked and even sacrificing my lifespan for it…

Anyway.

As the title suggests, the main scenario of struggling to kill the Archduke reached its climax at the 10-hour mark of gameplay.

Choose one of several ending routes, slay mobs, do some farming, and once you’ve severed the Duke’s neck, it’s all over.

The concept of “game over” was vague. The protagonist, by design, was a reckless character who destroyed everything in their path, and if they happened to lose in battle, they would be sent back to the previous stage with instructions to grow stronger.

However…

“Ha… New game.”

The problem lies here.

It’s the insanely difficult final stage that opens up after the ending, which makes one wonder if the developers actually tested it.

“To Be a Father.”

A hardcore survival scenario that takes place from the perspective of the main villain, Laios, of the Northern Air Defense.

In an RPG with a linear progression structure, suddenly transitioning to a strategy management simulation… Well, it was a change that could be reasonably understood.

With a completely new game bundled with the original, the gameplay and quality were even better.

But this… the difficulty is just too sadistic.

“Should I change my early build… Should I focus on technology right from the first half of the first year…”

To survive in this wasteland, where every region is covered in constant danger, we must invest our efforts into technological development like magical engineering.

However, the person holding the key to that technology is my second daughter, whose favorability has already plummeted.

If I focus solely on improving her favorability, my eldest daughter, who was sharpening her blade in another city, will appear and slay me on the spot.

It’s terrifying to the point that if I dump everything on my eldest daughter, the protagonist—me—she’ll immediately turn against me and bring about my downfall.

By the way, my third daughter will come out of nowhere and strike me unexpectedly, regardless of which route I take. It’s dirty and despicable.

…Of course, this itself isn’t a flaw in the game’s authenticity.

He’s truly a madman, someone who doesn’t deserve a happy ending, with his very nature being pure evil.

Moreover, he perfectly defies the notion of bending his arm inward and ends up being killed by his own children, a despicable scum.

That is none other than the undisputed villain in this game, Laios of the Northern Air Defense.

Because of that, Laios’s “affinity” stat is fixed at the lowest value of 1. If you attempt to converse with others, there’s an 80% chance that their favorability will decrease.

And if you fail to break through that 20% probability during the first interaction with my second daughter on the first day…

“I’m sorry. It seems like the girl doesn’t have anything else to say to her father…”

【 Affinity – 5 】

【 The state of the second daughter, Senna, has become ‘slightly hostile’. 】

The game needs to be reset as it is.

“Damn it.”

…This is the first time I’ve taken a character in a game so seriously.

Raios was that kind of person.

“Is that all? Did I expect too much?”

If you try to encourage, it will be met with sarcasm.

“Insufficient. Did you come to hear words like ‘you’re not good enough’ from me?”

If you try to praise, it will lead to deception.

“Pitiful… You should have been born into a family that suits your station.”

If you try to empathize, they will spit out harsh words.

Watching this idiot who throws a tantrum and rushes into a pit while spewing all sorts of nonsense on the screen, I felt like going into the game and giving him a good beating.

Yes, if it were me instead.

Even though I haven’t even experienced love like everyone else, let alone having children, if I were in your place…

…I would risk everything and definitely do better than you, you damn bastard.

Yes.

That was the last thought I had in my previous life.