Chapter 39

Disclaimer: If you recognise it, surprise, I don't own it.

Chapter 20– The Cards We Are Dealt.

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"Hey, can you please talk to me?" I ignore those annoying words with ease, instead burying my head in my hands. I feel like pulling the hair out of my head with how frustrated I am, feeling stuck between a rock and a hard place, except there are pitchforks lacing either side.

The memory is pitch clear in my mind. I can remember with crystal clear clarity the moment the idiot that was my previous self picked such a dumb option. And I was stuck with such a shitty condition, one that had a one in a billion chance of actually taking effect since I would have to come in contact with the single female on the entire planet that I would imprint on, and it happened right on the island where I was born. So my luck is pure dogshit. Even if I did have a trait called lucky, it has been bloody nerfed since this occurred.

I recall the exact wording that showed up on the blue screen all that time ago, word for word, exactly as it was delivered.

[Condition Selected. Condition Is Imprinted

Imprinted:

A female in your new world will be chosen upon your birth, and they will be selected as the person you imprint on; of course, you can go your whole life without meeting them, or they can die before you meet them, which will nullify the condition. You can't control when it happens or to who, and it can happen at any age. Imprinting on someone means when you see her, everything will change; you will listen to her every word and not be able to refuse her regardless of how you feel on the inside. You will not be able to harm her, you will be a slave to her every command, and there is nothing you can do about it.]

"Hey, can you tell me your name? Why are you here like I am? Can you also draw maps?" Reviewing it, it seems to be a really bad deal that I got dealt. But seeing it in effect now, it could be a lot worse because, thankfully, the result is not as pronounced as it seems to be stated in the text. Especially given how my, whatever she is, has been pestering me about all sorts of stuff since I retreated away from the door and slumped down against one of the walls.

"Can you shut up already?" I say, turning to glare at the little orange scamp who quickly clammers up under my gaze, and tears threaten to pour from her eyes. I immediately feel bad about it, but the girl, Nami, refuses to let her tears spill and sucks them back up, hurriedly moving away to sit in another corner of the room. I know that I am angry at the situation as a whole, the pirates, the condition enforced upon me... George's death. And I am taking it out on her when she didn't ask for any of this, she is just a ten-year-old girl that has just... lost her mother, and I just shouted at her.

Sighing and feeling like a piece of shit, I look over to see her lightly sniffling with arms wrapped around her legs, her head hanging low to cover her face. I forgot in all this that I am not the only one that has been affected because she has lost Bellemere, her mother. She is just as sad, just as angry and just as messed up as me right now. And she was trying to keep a brave face on to distract herself from her pain, and I just demolished her with my ignorant words.

Standing up, I shake myself out of my hazy fugue of self-pity and despair, and I walk over to sit down near her. She lifts her head up slightly, eyeing me with a single red eye before quickly retreating to the safety of her legs. I stay silent for a moment, thinking things over and wondering how to break the ice.

To be honest, the condition isn't as bad as I thought it was. First of all, Nami had been bugging me for a while, constantly asking me questions, and I had completely ignored her. I even shouted at her and told her to shut up, which I wouldn't think would be possible due to the description of the condition. But I can. I don't feel an obligation to be nice to her or to answer her questions. And I think it is because they are questions. After all, if she were to demand answers, then I would have to give them to her.

I think a lot of this will be based on intention and demand. Since Nami was only asking, then it was up to me whether to answer, whereas if she demanded answers, then I would be forced to give them. I also think it depends on how much she cares and is adamant about the things she says, such as when earlier when I was going to leave. I was simply leaving, and she was scared and told me to stay. It hurt, but I could continue to move forward. And then she demanded to know where I was going, and I told her I was going to kill the fishmen pirates, at which point she was staunch on not letting me leave, and I couldn't.

Essentially this condition can be boiled down to three simple things. First, the things Nami adamantly demands, I can't refuse. Second, I can't hurt her physically, and I assume I will have to protect her from harm. We will wait and see. Finally, I can resist her words depending on how much she wishes to enforce her terms, and it will hurt the more I go against her wishes, but I can.

All in all, not terrible. I can live with this. Still, I am pissed at my past self, he was an asshole, or rather I was. He had picked the traits I have, which I describe as video game traits for some stupid reason, but they are part of who I am. I was born like that. But then I realised he realised there was no point to any of it if he didn't keep his memories when starting a new life, so he selfishly rolled the wheel of conditions, wanting to take a chance to live a new life.

Past me had two options, either deny the wheel of conditions and have his soul move on without his memories, which wouldn't really be him. Or roll the wheel of conditions, and get stuck with a condition but keep his memories without the emotions or attachments, a chance that he would somehow remain and experience the next world. Confronted with these two options, he naturally chose the latter, the one that had a chance of him surviving in some form. And it worked, but not exactly.

It didn't work out like he had planned because all the attachment and emotion were censored from those memories. And while I had those memories, all it really was was knowledge. I remember that life and all the things in it, but I feel no attachment or anything to it. It is merely my past life memories, something that can aid me but not something that defines me.

Thankfully, the drawback is not proving to be that bad at the moment since I can resist the things Nami says but doesn't really mean or care about. The only reason I am severely hating this right now is that I want nothing more than to go out there and chop off all the heads of those fishmen pirate bastards out there and chuck them back into the sea where they should have stayed. However, the only thing Nami is adamant about right now is me not doing that because she thinks I will die, and she doesn't want anyone else to perish.

A nice thought, but ultimately it is stifling me and preventing me from avenging my best friend. But another thing to consider here is that the person I am forced to listen to is currently a vulnerable little ten-year-old girl that has just lost her mother and is being held captive by pirates. It might make me seem like a scum, but she has no one right now, and I am here. So I should take advantage of that and become the dominant one here so I can manipulate her into not forcing her will onto me later down the line.

But this is just as much for her sake as it is for mine. I need to get her on my side. If I can become the dominant one here, and take control, then I can get her to defer to me, and she will not be so adamant about telling me what to do and stuff. Then I can go and take out all of the pirates, freeing the island and herself, so in the end, my being a bastard will benefit her. The only question is, how am I going to do this.

I am not the most social of creatures, what with me living pretty isolated on a beach far from the village. I only really talked to people when I went there for work and never to anyone younger than me. I am used to talking to mature people, people older than me who know what they are doing and have their lives somewhat figured out. However, I have no clue how to talk to a child, especially one that is grieving so much. This could quickly go wrong and end up with her hating me, which would be very bad for my future as she would have some control over it.

"Amarillo Detoro..." I say, answering one of the questions she had been asking me before I stupidly told her to shut up. The words hang in the air for a moment, permeating through the silence, and I see her tilt her head out of the corner of my eye, revealing a single brown pupil that stares at me.

"That's my name, Amarillo Detoro. As for the other stuff you were asking me about, I am not here because I can draw maps like you apparently can. They took me because I am a good builder, a craftsman." I answered her other questions from earlier, well, the only ones I can remember since she asked quite a few while I was freaking out. Apparently, this girl was taken because she can draw maps? I was taken because they saw the house that I had worked on for the last four years, so I wondered how impressive this girl's maps must be for them to also take her.

"...A craftsman?" She says, her head perking up from her hidey-hole. A promising sign, the more I draw her into the conversation, the more she gets to know me and I her.

"Hmm. I am good at building things, mainly out of wood, but I can work with metals and other materials. The fishmen pirates saw the house I had built, and they took me. They want to use my skills like I assume they want to use your map-building skills." I try to relate to her, as well as drop some inkling of my skills and reliability. I built an entire house, after all, that should instil some merit in her eyes. If she can trust me and find me reliable, then maybe she will no longer try to stop me from going and getting vengeance.

"You built an entire house? Why? You are just a kid like me. Didn't your parents help you?" She says, her head entirely retreating from her knees and looking towards me. I stop staring straight ahead and turn to look at her as well. Her eyes are still red, but there are no more tears, just some light sniffling.