I Picked up a Corrupted Heroine (The Secret Boss), and When I Spoiled Her, She Became Uncontrollably Affectionate With Me - Chapter 1

Chapter 1: The One I Picked Up Was a Suspicious Girl

I used to play this RPG in my past life called “The Holy Maiden of the Moon Dances With You.”

It was an open-world RPG with tons of freedom. The hero wakes up to his powers and goes around helping people or beating up bad guys on his journey.

But the game had this thing called the “Main Heroine Corrupted Route.”

First, there’s an event where the main heroine, the holy maiden Alicia, gets betrayed by her parents and the church she trusted.

If the hero doesn’t go save her at that point, you enter the corrupted route.

Alicia has her holy powers stolen, her body gets changed by a curse, and she loses everything.

In her despair, she curses the world and awakens the sleeping witch powers inside her.

In the end, Alicia as the witch destroys the world. Total bad end.

That alone would have been fine.

But Alicia uses time-space magic to show up in the route where the hero actually saved her. She appears as an “extra boss” even stronger than the final boss.

Witch Alicia was seriously the strongest. I remember yelling, “Who the heck is supposed to beat this boss?!” and losing my mind over it.

Well…

“Eh hehe… Asta…”

That extra boss is now clinging to me and acting all sweet.

“Ugh…”

It would be okay in winter.

But…

It’s summer right now!?

So hot!

“Please… get off me…”

“Mmm… suu… haa…”

Hey, stop that. Don’t bury your face in my back and breathe in deep!

“You’re clearly not asleep, right?”

“Hehe.”

“Hey, you laughed just now, didn’t you?”

“Mmm… fufufu.”

“You’re laughing like crazy! If you’re awake, let go already!”

But instead, Alicia squeezes me even tighter.

I try to force her off, but there’s no way a regular guy like me can beat an extra boss. So I end up staying as her hug pillow until she’s satisfied.

Seriously… how did things end up like this?

I started thinking back to the day I first met her.

—◇—◇—◇—

Reincarnate as the villain and try to change your fate.

Reincarnate as the hero and follow the right path.

Reincarnate as a mob character and help your favorite heroine find happiness.

These are the classic moves when you get reincarnated into a game.

Every one of them has adventure, goals, and hidden desires underneath.

I want to live, I want to be the strongest, I want to be happy, stuff like that.

Since you have the advantage of knowing the original story, most people would try to make their own wishes come true.

There’s no way someone would reincarnate into a game world and still do the same things they did in their old life.

No one except me, that is.

“Over time… it’s never gonna end!!!!”

What the heck.

Seriously, what the heck is this!?

This stupid mountain of work!

This place is the adventurer guild, a total black company.

I was the vice guild master, a total corporate slave.

“Vice Guild Master… just a little more, we’re almost done…!”

The woman working next to me, Mina, encourages me with a voice that sounds half-dead.

“Sorry, Mina… making you help with my work…”

“It’s fine. I can’t go home alone when the vice guild master is stuck here like this.”

“Ugh… thanks, you’re a lifesaver. Overtime is normal, complainers show up every day, and lately some famous gang has come into town… I’m honestly at my limit.”

“Good work… Well, tomorrow is our one day off a week…”

“Yeah… that’s true.”

With my vision getting blurry, I forced my eyes across the papers.

In the end… even after reincarnating into another world, I didn’t become anyone special.

I was born as the third son in a commoner’s family in the game “The Holy Maiden of the Moon Dances With You.”

A total background mob.

Of course a guy like me had zero talent for fighting or magic.

But… I at least wanted to protect myself and the people I cared about.

So I used my knowledge of the original story. I searched every hidden treasure chest and spot with powerful weapons, used items like crazy, and built up achievements as an adventurer.

But a half-baked guy like me got tired of the life-or-death fights along the way.

Now that I’m twenty, I’ve retired from adventuring and work as the vice guild master at the guild.

In the end, a safe, stable, lukewarm life suited me best.

—◇—◇—◇—

“Another day has changed and the work still isn’t done…”

This is no different from my past life…

Sigh…

“The security around here is bad. I should hurry home before some thug bothers me…”

I walked quickly toward my house.

That’s when it happened.

“Hm?”

I heard some thugs making noise from a back alley.

“—This girl has a nice face. Should we make her a slave and sell her?”

“Yeah! She’s all skinny now, but if we feed her properly she’ll be in demand in lots of places!”

“…That’s some pretty dangerous talk.”

I peeked into the alley and saw the thugs, plus—

A black-haired girl around ten years old lying on the ground.

“…I have to stop this.”

I don’t have any talent or courage.

But… I still have that Japanese sense of right and wrong.

“Hey, you guys over there. What do you plan to do with that young girl?”

“Huh? Who the hell are you?”

All the thugs turn to look at me at once.

“You got a death wish, talking like that?”

“No, I just have a small request… Could you leave the girl here and walk away?”

“What? Are you messing with us? We found her first. No way we’re giving her to you.”

“Then… I guess talks broke down.”

I reached into my coat to pull out a weapon.

Right then, one of the thugs pointed at me and said,

“Wait! This guy… if you look closely, he’s the vice guild master of the adventurer guild… the former A-rank adventurer ‘Asta the Tiger Wolf’!”

“What!? Now that you mention it…”

The thugs started backing away.

“Tch! We can’t win against an A-rank adventurer! Let’s run!”

They spat out some tough words and ran off in a hurry.

“Lucky I didn’t have to fight… Anyway…”

I look down at the girl who’s still lying there.

Her clothes are decent, so she was probably abandoned by her parents.

If she was a slum kid, she’d be wearing rags.

“I can’t forgive this.”

Leaving a sweet little girl in a back alley like this…

Anger starts boiling up inside me.

“…Since I’m already here, I might as well help her all the way.”

I touch her body to check her condition.

Looks like she collapsed from malnutrition.

“…No, that’s not all. This mark on her neck… a curse? And a really strong one…”

A lot of people believe the rumor that curses can spread.

She was probably abandoned because of this curse…

“For now… let’s go to the church to get it removed.”

Maybe the orphanage attached to it will take her in.

I pick the girl up and start walking toward the church.

That’s when it happened.

“…Hm?”

I feel the girl move slightly in my arms.

I look at her without thinking, and—

“Don’t move.”

The girl, who had woken up at some point, glares at me and—

“Or else… I’ll kill you.”

She presses a knife to my throat.