1 Quinn D'Lanis

Quinn D'Lanis, the lowest of scum, the king of trash. The Great Betrayer himself. A young man who deceived all of those who trusted in him. A man who killed women and children without hesitation, and tortured honest men at a whim. The loyal dog of the enemy of the world, Doctor Gwyn Marlik. Truly a person to despise. But, Quinn D'Lanis was once a young man, he was once kind, compassionate, and dearly loved. Before an incident that changed his entire life occurred. And it just so happened that he was simply a character in a novel.

As Quinn D'Lanis stood there, in his lavish and luxurious room, before his mirror, he confirmed his situation one last time. 'Indeed. I've been transported into the body of Quinn D'Lanis.' He was quite confused at this point, as many would be in such a situation, but more importantly… 'How could I have been cursed with such a misfortune? Does God have some sick vendetta against me?'

Quinn was relatively mad at the moment. For good reason, of course, after all, he once read the novel 'The Heroes In Us.' Not exactly an exciting name, but one shouldn't judge a book by its cover, or its name in this case. In the novel, a group of heroes who followed the protagonist saved the world, killing a doctor bent on destroying life as they knew it. On the way, they faced many enemies and saved many people. In the process, they brutally killed the man named Quinn D'Lanis. In a way, you could say that there was no character more hated, both in the novel and outside of it, than Quinn.

Throughout the whole novel, he had pretended to be the friend of all the people in the protagonist's party. Gaining their trust, helping them in times of need, being a shoulder to cry on, even a fiance. But it was later revealed that it was all an elaborate ploy, much like a game to him. He had just wanted to watch the despair on their faces as he cut them down. Just before the final battle with the evil doctor, they faced off against Quinn, learning of all his evil deeds, and how he saw them as nothing more than animals to be stepped on.

Even those who read the novel hated Quinn above any other character. They dubbed him King of Trash, and constantly expressed their hatred of him. This is surprising for a simple novel, but it was extremely popular, at least among those who enjoyed fantasy novels. So now you can understand the predicament our protagonist found himself in.

As he stood there in front of the mirror, his hands on his pale white cheeks, handsome features hidden behind the remaining vestiges of baby fat. His thick and soft blonde hair covered his bright green eyes. His eyes were the only objects that seemed out of place on the boy. Shaped like a tent, they made him look tired. When one peered into those eyes, they would not see the innocent eyes of a five-year-old boy, but much more mature, deep eyes. This, of course, is because the mind inside this young body was not of five-year-old Quinn D'Lanis, but a twenty-three-year-old man.

Quinn turned away from the mirror, his right hand slowly stroked his chin as his left was behind his back. A very refined movement for a man from the 21st century, but he chalked this up to muscle memory. After all, the Quinn D'Lanis of the novel had been the son of a count. Therefore, of noble pedigree. He moved towards his bed in a dejected state, his mind a mess of information and worries.

The most prominent fear he had was, naturally, how to avoid his inevitable death. However, this was overshadowed by a more prominent calamity; the great incident that was supposed to break Quinn's mind in the novel. The moment he had realized where he was, he had understood that the calamity had not happened yet. After all, the first thing he noticed was that he was still in his original territory.

As he was laying on his bed, a knock came at the door, followed by a subservient address.

"Young master Quinn, your parents have called you down for an afternoon meal." An old, but energetic, voice sounded through the large wooden door to Quinn's room. He sat up quickly, his head turning towards the door. There was an obvious problem with heading downstairs to eat. While he may look like Quinn D'Lanis, and he knew much about him from the novel, in the end, he was not Quinn.

So, for example, he did not know the name of a simple butler, as that would not have been pertinent information in the story, Quinn was an antagonist in the story, not the protagonist, so such things would never have been written. He quickly rose from his bed and responded in a hurry, tripping over his own words.

"Oh. Yeah. Thanks! Tell-inform? Them that I'll be down soon." He spoke awkwardly, not used to using such a formal manner of speech, while moving back towards his mirror.

"O-of course, young master. Please excuse me." The voice came once more, sounding flustered, and the sound of receding footsteps slowly faded away. Quinn returned his attention to the reflection in front of him. His clothes were uncomfortable and scratchy, likely due to the way clothes were made in medieval times, they also looked a little too casual, it's likely these were for playing outside or relaxing casually. He attempted to wet down his hair a little and turned towards his dresser, intent on finding proper afternoon wear.

***

Not long after he was called down, Quinn D'Lanis' gentle and light footsteps could be heard on the stone steps leading towards the living area of the manor. As he stepped onto the landing, he slowly looked around in awe. Behind him was a curving staircase with marble inlays, painted to be a clean white. In front of him was a large lounge, filled with fanciful rugs and cushy chairs, all made with what looked to be rather expensive materials.

To his right was a set of double doors, small glass inlays revealed the studious insides of an opulent library. To his left, Quinn could see a massive dining room. A massive dining table which had twelve high back chairs sat in the middle with an expensive looking chandelier hanging above it. Two of the chairs were occupied by who he could only imagine to be the original Quinn's parents. Directly ahead of him was a massive foyer, complete with coat rack, butler, maid, and any amount of other fineries in order to display the lord's family's wealth.

He momentarily lost his train of thought. This was more wealth than he had ever seen in his life. He had certainly seen expensive items in he previous world. The great merchant carriers that flew through the sky must have been worth as much as this house, multiplied by a thousand. He had never been inside of one of those, though, only caught glimpses from the deep alleys between the sky-scraper ridden skies.

Not forgetting his reason for being downstairs, Quinn turned to his left and walked through the lounge and into the dining room. Ahead of him was the dining table. The original Quinn's father, Count D'Lanis sat at the opposite end of the table, the head. And his wife sat to his left. As Quinn entered the room, both adults looked up at their five year old son. In the count's eyes, pride could be seen. Quinn worried whether his nervousness could be seen through clearly by those eyes or not.

He looked towards the countess, her beautiful face was framed perfectly by her brunette hair. Her green eyes looked lovingly upon Quinn. For a moment he felt quite lost. In his previous life, he had never had parents, or at least, he never had real ones. He had jumped between adoptive families for years. He had never seen a mother look at him with love or a father look upon him with pride.

Quinn was not positive as to how he should feel now. These people were strangers to him, he had never met them before, and yet they looked upon him with such trust. What was he supposed to feel? Love? Sadness? He knew because of the novel that these two people would die. How would he feel when that time came, when the fires of destiny burnt these two to ash? Quinn shook his head as he thought. 'All of these thoughts may come in good time, as of yet they are strangers, and I'm not even positive of my own unstable position.' Besides, he had four years to find out how to save these people. As for leaving this world? 'What even is there to go back to? God? Where was he when I needed him most?'

'If He wished for me to return then so I shall, I imagine.' Quinn chuckled bitterly, despite his melancholy, and stepped forwards, sitting down lightly in the chair opposite his new father and mother.

"...Father... Mother. I trust you are doing well this morning?" Quinn stated with a straight and stoic face. He attempted to hide his unfamiliarity, but he couldn't help but lampoon in his head. The situation was rather laughable for a 23 year old man.

"Quinn, dear. Please enjoy your breakfast." His mother spoke softly, a worried look flashed across her face. This was not noticed by Quinn, however, as he tucked his napkin into his shirt and picked up his cutlery, prepared to eat the fresh eggs in front of him, accompanied by many other lavish fancies and foods. He had never seen such a magnifecent meal before in his life. Pastries, fresh fruits, sausages, and some type of pork, although he could not name the type, were spread all around him, followed by water jugs and juice filled goblets. It was difficult to take in such a change in his situation.

However, just as he placed the first succulent bite of good food into his mouth, his father found the oppurtunity to broach the subject of this meal's discussion.

"Son. It's time you got engaged!" A gruff voice sounded as a shocked Quinn silently choked on his food.