Chapter 38 – How to Ruin a Perfectly Good Sacrifice

A week in this dungeon had officially broken my villain.

We were camped in a slightly larger cavern, a temporary reprieve from the endless, claustrophobic corridors. The air was damp and heavy with the smell of moss and old stone. The only light came from strange, phosphorescent fungi that clung to the ceiling, casting everything in a sickly green glow.

Siegfried sat across from me, cross-legged on the floor. He was sharpening his sword with a whetstone he’d found. His movements were calm, measured, and ridiculously serene.

He looked less like a disgraced scoundrel and more like a monk on a spiritual retreat.

This was a catastrophe.

His initial terror had faded over the past few days. It was replaced by a quiet, determined respect. He saw my every clumsy misstep as a calculated test. He saw my pathetic attempts at cowardice as a profound lesson in humility.

He wasn’t my nemesis anymore. He was my student. It was disgusting.

“Ryuuji, you are my rival. One day I will surpass you in strength and heroism.”

I wanted to scream. I wanted to grab him by his stupid, noble-looking face and tell him the truth. I wasn’t a hero. The only thing I was strong in was my desire to be left alone.

Surpass me in scoundrelism, you idiot. Beat me in shamelessness. Challenge me to a duel of betrayal. That was the rivalry I signed up for.

My face twisted into what I hoped was a humble, encouraging smile. It felt like my cheek muscles were tearing.

“Heroism? I don’t know about that, Siegfried. I’m just doing my best.”

He stopped sharpening his sword. He looked at me, his eyes shining with that familiar, horrifying admiration.

“You are too modest. Your actions speak for themselves. You saved me from my own darkness. You see the good in everyone. That is a strength I must learn to master.”

My soul shriveled. He wasn’t just on a redemption arc; he was dragging me along with him as his spiritual guide. This was my personal hell. A hell paved with good intentions and terrible misunderstandings.

He was becoming a better person. And it was all my fault.

I had to get away from this guy before his goodness became contagious.

A low, grinding sound echoed from the far end of the cavern.

A section of the wall, carved with runes that had been dormant moments before, began to recede. It revealed a dark, narrow tunnel, just wide enough for one person to pass through.

Above the opening, a single line of text glowed with a faint, blue light.

Siegfried stood, his eyes fixed on the glowing words. He read them aloud, his voice filled with a grim reverence.

“Only one can pass.”

My heart soared.

This was it. A gift from the gods of narrative convenience. The perfect plot device. A classic, high-stakes choice designed to separate the party and create maximum drama.

My chance to finally be alone.

I could send Siegfried through. He could go get help. I would stay behind, the noble sacrifice, left to face the darkness of the dungeon on my own. It was the perfect setup for my solo power-leveling arc.

I was a genius.

I turned to Siegfried, my face a carefully constructed mask of sad, heroic resolve.

“Siegfried, you have to go.”

He looked at me. The admiration in his eyes was replaced by a sharp, sudden understanding. He thought he knew what was happening. He was wrong. So, so wrong.

“What are you saying?”

I took a step closer to the portal, positioning myself as the noble guardian of the only exit. I let my shoulders slump, as if under the weight of a terrible burden.

“The party needs you. Kenji and the others. They need your strength. I’ll only slow you down.”

The words tasted like ash, but they were the perfect lines for this scene. I was nailing this performance.

“Go. Tell them what happened. Tell them I did what I had to do.”

Siegfried just stared at me. The gears were turning in his head. I could almost see them grinding. He saw this as a test. The final exam in Heroism 101, taught by Professor Pathetic Loner.

“No. A true hero does not abandon his comrades.”

My eye twitched. No. Nononono. That was the wrong line. He was supposed to struggle with the decision, then reluctantly agree for the greater good. He was going off-script.

“There’s no time to argue! You’re the only one who can make it back!”

I had to force the issue. I took a step toward him, my hands outstretched, preparing to give him a noble, self-sacrificing shove.

He saw the movement. He misinterpreted it completely. He thought I was going to push him out of the way and sacrifice myself.

“I understand now, Ryuuji. This is my chance. My chance to prove I have changed.”

He moved before I could react. He was faster than I expected. He sidestepped my pathetic shove, grabbed my arm, and used my own momentum to spin me away from the opening.

“You saved me once. Now, let me save you.”

He broke into a sprint, heading directly for the portal.

“Wait! You idiot! That’s my sacrifice!”

My scream was one of pure, selfish rage. This wasn’t how the story was supposed to go.

He stopped at the edge of the portal and looked back at me, a brilliant, heroic smile on his face. It was the most punchable smile I had ever seen.

“I will not fail you again, Ryuuji! I will prove myself worthy of being your rival!”

Then he stepped through the portal and vanished.

The glowing runes above the entrance flickered once, then died. The stone door began to slide shut with a sound of grinding finality.

I was alone. I had finally gotten what I wanted.

It was the most hollow, unsatisfying victory of my entire life. That bastard stole my heroic sacrifice.

The world dissolved into light.

I wasn’t in the dungeon anymore. The smell of damp stone and my shattered dreams was gone, replaced by fresh air and pine. The sickly green glow of the fungi was gone, replaced by the warm, golden light of the late afternoon sun.

I was back in the clearing. The original clearing.

“Ryuuji-kun!”

I looked up. My vision was still blurry from the sudden shift in light. Three figures stood over me. Kenji. Daisuke. And Reina.

Their faces were a messy, emotional collage of shock, relief, and overwhelming joy.

Reina was the first to move. She launched herself at me, tackling me in a hug that felt less like an embrace and more like a full-body submission hold. It drove the air from my lungs.

“You’re back! You’re safe! I knew you’d be okay!”

Kenji was on his knees beside me, his hands on my shoulders. He was crying. Of course he was crying. Actual, fat tears were rolling down his stupidly handsome face.

“We were so worried! How did you get back? Where’s Siegfried?”

My mind was a mess of screaming static. My solo arc. My tragic, lonely dungeon crawl. My one chance to finally be the edgy protagonist I was always meant to be.

It was all gone. Stolen by a reformed scumbag with a hero complex.

And for what? To be back here. With them. The source of all my problems. The architects of my cringe-filled, heroic prison.

I tried to speak. I wanted to explain the sheer, soul-crushing injustice of it all. I wanted to tell them how Siegfried had robbed me of my perfect, tragic moment.

But all that came out was a raw, choked sound of pure, uncut rage.

“NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!”

The scream ripped out of my throat, echoing through the peaceful forest. Birds scattered from the trees.

My friends didn’t see my fury. They saw my pain. They misinterpreted my cry of rage as a cry of emotional release. A desperate wail of a hero who had been through a traumatic ordeal.

Reina just hugged me tighter, her cheek pressed against mine.

“Oh, Ryuuji-kun… it’s okay. You don’t have to hold it in anymore. We’re here now.”

This was infinitely worse than any dungeon.