First Real Surprise

Once alone with Jerman in the car, I gave him an order that I had confidence he'd be able to fulfill.

Since the "truth" about Bell and Diana was brought to life, he had begun working extra hard to satisfy my needs and wants.

If he was serving me with a hundred percent loyalty before then now it was two hundred percent.

"Jerman, I want you to send out a top-priority order for the Facold family. I need them to begin investigating this man known in Finneapolis as Doctor Fearme. I want to know everything about him. From what he eats in the morning to his deepest secrets. Everything," I emphasized.

That was the identity Gerald Giggador was using currently.

If I were to lack the knowledge of the novel, the investigation would take much longer but thankfully, that wasn't the case here.

"But... I want you to tell your people this. No matter what, under no circumstances, are they allowed to get caught. Do you understand me?"

"Yes, young master," said Jerman who was absorbing my order into his memory.

Why am I investigating Gerald?

That's because I'm ahead of schedule. In the novel, the arc where Gerald was the villain of focus, it took place almost a year from now. I was so ahead of schedule that I felt the need to call for support from the Facold family who directly report to my father.

Without a doubt, my family will learn of this order of mine but I trusted in their trust in me — in Bell Agnus.

They will perhaps question me but they won't interfere too much unless I request them to.

Another question you may have is: why am I so ahead of schedule?

Because the shitty god's timeline is so terribly written and paced that I deemed it necessary to make major changes to it.

It makes no sense for the main character to be dealing with Gerald Giggador in a year's time when plot armor has strengthened him so much by then.

The way the villain was described in the novel, you'd think that he would be hard to deal with but it took the main character less than three paragraphs to deal with him.

Stepping in to make Bell Agnus the protagonist that he deserved to be, I gauged that it would be a difficult battle for me but it'd be an interesting one that the readers would enjoy if this was the story they received in the original novel.

'That's how you keep the readers engaged,' I thought to myself. 'Having the main character one-shot all of his enemies... there's no drama, no actual conflict. That's how your story turns stagnant and boring.'

Even now, I still have no idea why the shitty god has put me inside Bell's body.

But my working theory is that he's going to use what I do as a reference when he rewrites his novel.

I don't know if that theory is true or not but if it is, I'd want him to have a darn good novel.

But — I still need to be as overpowered as I possibly can be because I am not trying to die. I don't know what will happen if I die but with that god in control of me, I can't put anything up to chance.

I need to return home by any means necessary while also playing the role of a protagonist who experiences struggle.

There's a balance between the two and I was still trying to learn where the sweet spot lies.

"We're here," said Jerman, pulling me out of my train of thought.

Getting out of the car, just before I could walk inside my home, I noticed that there was a foreign black car in the driveway.

"Who does that car belong to?" I asked Jerman, not seeing anyone other than the driver who was patiently waiting inside by himself.

Jerman who was carefully taking the box Gon was inside out of the trunk, looked at the car I was referring to, before responding, "That car belongs to the Asano family."

"How can you tell?" I asked.

There was nothing unique about the car that hinted it belonged to anyone.

"The driver. I recognize him. He's one of the Asano bodyguards," explained Jerman.

"Is he strong?" I asked.

"Very much so."

I looked at the driver then Jerman. "In a battle, who would win between the two of you?"

"I would," said Jerman without hesitation.

Satisfied with his answer, I took the box from Jerman and began heading towards the front door.

As I entered, the sound of two middle-aged men laughing while reminiscing on the past could instantly be heard.

"Do you remember the time that you were about to be eaten by the serpent so I had to come to your rescue?" asked a voice that I wasn't all too familiar with but could vaguely remember from Bell's memories.

"I do remember that. Do you remember the time that you were poisoned and you begged me to hand you my last potion because you forgot to bring extra with you?" asked my father.

They were speaking as if they were having fun and were enjoying each other's company but the questions they were asking each other showed a clashing of heads.

Before I even stepped into their vicinity, Father said, "Welcome home son. Come over here for a minute."

I turned to a maid who was waiting by the door and handed her the box.

"Put this by my bedroom door," I told her.

Walking into the living room, I could almost physically see two beings facing off in a battle for superiority.

One of them was a dragon breathing fire with every breath and the other was an oni with a devilish smile.

It was like I had walked into a standoff between two mafia families.

One of them was my own. Father was on the couch by his lonesome dressed in a suit despite being in his own home and standing behind him was Cyro who had this apologetic expression on his face as he looked at me.

Mother was beside him, holding Rubi in her arms, looking like she had aged a decade since the last time I saw her which was just this morning.

"Bell, do you remember this man?" asked Father, gesturing towards the other person sitting on the couch opposite of him.

The man he was referring to had long black hair tied into a man bun and a goatee that was almost too perfect.

He was wearing a black and blue kimono and there was this slash scar on his left eye that made me believe he could've played a yakuza leader if he wanted to.

Standing behind him was a lady with pink hair that looked to be his wife. She was also dressed in a kimono that matched his.

And behind her were three other men who I presumed to be his bodyguards.

'Do I remember this man?'

I looked back on all of Bell Agnus' memories but like a normal person, it was impossible to recall every single event from the past so I truthfully shook my head.

Although, if I were to connect the dots and use what Jerman told me earlier, I could naturally predict who the man was.

"You don't remember him? That's Asano Gonkuro. You've seen him numerous times as a child," said Father.

"No," I said, shaking my head again. Turning to the man in the kimono, I said, "I don't remember you but it's nice to meet you again..."

"Just call me Uncle Gonkuro," he said, giving me a smile that sort of scared me.

'Uncle?'

He must've read my mind because he told me, "It's alright to address me casually."

"Are you sure?" I asked, not wanting to overstep my boundaries with an elder.

"It's fine," he answered. "We're going to be even closer in the future so there's no need to be reserved."

'Even closer? What is he talking about?'

I turned to my father and asked him what Gonkuro meant using nothing more than my eyebrows.

"He's right Bell," Father agreed. "There's no need to act so stiff around him. You can just call him uncle for now but soon... he'll be your second father."

'Second father? What is going on here?' I thought to myself, confused about the conversation I was brought into.

I didn't understand what he was trying to tell me.

"I don't understand what you're saying. What are you trying to tell me, Father?" I asked for clarification.

Gonkuro answered in his stead, "He's saying, Bell Agnus, that you are now engaged to my daughter, Asano Ichiko, and a few years from now, I'll become your father-in-law."

'What!?'

Flabbergasted would be an understatement of what I was feeling at the moment.

Out of all the things I expected to happen due to the butterfly effect, being engaged was definitely not in my top 10 or even my top 100 to be brutally honest.

I looked at Mother and she just nodded her head.

Then I looked at Cyro who still had that apologetic look on his face.

He shrugged his shoulders as if to tell me that he was also just as confused as I was.

I had a lot of things I wanted to say but after opening and closing my mouth to no avail, I turned to both men and asked with a conflicted face, "May I be excused?"

Father looked at Gonkuro and the two of them spoke to each other without a word.

"You may," said Father.

As I walked away, I could hear them speak.

"That went better than I expected," said Father.

"Really? It looked like he was dropped into the middle of the ocean with no float," said Gonkuro.

"I mean what do you expect? We just told a teenage boy that he has a fiancee that he's never met before."

The two of them continued to speak as if I wasn't able to hear them.

I couldn't tell if they were doing this on purpose or if they were just too caught up in the moment to remember that I was a superhuman like both of them and although I wasn't as powerful, my senses were still enhanced beyond that of a normal earthling.

"When should the two of them meet?" asked Father.

"My daughter will be on the plane in a few hours so tomorrow?"