Serious Matters

[System, let's have a chat.]

He An was sitting in the study with scrolls piled up about the history of this world.

Six, jumping around: [What is it, host?]

He An: [You never explained what kind of potential the world requires from Qi Xiu.]

Six: [That... I don't know either. QvQ]

"..."

You useless system! What's the point of keeping you with me then?

Six: [I do have an idea of it though! TvT I have a function in me that has a connection with the world, meaning I can find out what the world wants from our protagonist! ^o^]

He An: [Then go do that.]

Six: [Okay! I'll be back, host!]

The little flame spirit flickered away for a few minutes before it returned.

Six: [Host... this situation is too complicated wuwuwu. T_T]

He An was puzzled. He put aside the scroll in his hands and focused all his attention on Six, urging the system to continue explaining.

Six: [It's like this: there really is a problem with our protagonist!! I saw the world's consciousness just now. It turns out that the author who wrote Qi Xiu never planned on continuing the story, which led to the world rejecting him... QwQ]

?

He An: [Novel?]

Six: [Oh? Did I not tell host about this before? Well, where else can protagonists be other than novels? >v<]

He An, glaring coldly: [Six, aren't you too unreliable?]

Six: [Wuwuwu.]

The system gave He An a long explanation of Qi Xiu's situation, which He An made notes of in his head.

Qi Xiu was originally written as the only crown prince of the Southern Empire. He was supposed to be the typical cunning and charming kind of protagonist but the author grew tired of writing and decided to just drop her novel.

This caused the world to gain it's own consciousness. Now that the protagonist no longer had an author to write his future out for him, the world did things on it's own.

Qi Xiu was kidnapped when he was barely eleven years old, and the trauma from being kidnapped ended up with him losing every memory from when he was raised as a prince. The only thing he had was a small jade bracelet that he kept with him at all times.

When he first disappeared, the Emperor and Empress searched for him in every corner but found no trace of their son.

That was because he was adopted by two kind elders in a small village where he lived as their grandson until the day the North invaded the South. Their village was raided by corrupt soldiers and the two elders died trying to flee, which he had to bear witness to. He had just turned eighteen when this happened.

Qi Xiu and the rest of the survivors from the village were brought as slaves for the Emperor. His first day in the palace as a slave resulted in him getting raped. More tragedies befell him later on.

He An was angered just by hearing what Qi Xiu was meant to experience.

"If I didn't intervene on that day, he would have gone through the same misfortune." He An's voice was dangerously low, the atmosphere darkening around him.

What made his mood worse was how the previous owner of this body treated Qi Xiu. Learning of their relationship and how 'He An' used the cub for his own selfishness was upsetting.

"Just what did my cub do to deserve this? He's so skinny already, yet those bastards dared to starve him for days. I must protect him well this time." He convinced himself.

Six froze and if it had a body, it would probably be sweating bullets by now. Truthfully, he had also gotten new information from the main system. It had detected that Qi Xiu's status was abnormal, meaning he was most likely reborn and already gone through everything.

Oh well. It decided to keep a tiny little secret about Qi Xiu from the host for now.

"So in order for Qi Xiu to be acknowledged as the protagonist, we have to make sure he remembers his past as the crown prince and takes over the Southern Empire?" He An asked carefully.

Six nodded it's little head and chirped, [Yes!]

"The assassination attempt was most likely because the perpetrator knows his real identity. Our first step is to find who it is." He An paused before looking at Six.

"Shouldn't you have items to help me like the systems in novels?" He questioned.

Six: ...

It completely forgot!

Judging from it's reaction He An could tell it was completely useless. There was no point in relying on this stupid system.

[Host!! QwQ I have an item but you most likely wouldn't use it...]

Seeing that it's host already put his hand out, Six knew it didn't have a chance. It took out a strange looking ticket from it's inventory and handed it to He An.

"?"

[It's a one time scenario ticket. If you use it while near the protagonist, you can trigger the assassin to strike again and catch him!]

"No. I don't want to put Qi Xiu in harm again." He bluntly refused after hearing the conditions.

[It's guaranteed 100% to not harm the protagonist! Erm, host may be affected though~ ^v^;]

"You're certain it won't hurt Qi Xiu?" He An stared at the ticket in his hand.

[Yup!]

"Alright, how do I use it?" He shook the ticket to see if it had some sort of magical activation.

[You must be near Qi Xiu and the ticket will automatically start the scenario whenever host is ready!]

He An thought very carefully for a minute before tucking the ticket away into his robe. He decided to see Qi Xiu in the morning and then use the ticket.

He would first make sure they were both in a safe area with guards around however. No matter how certain Six was that the cub wouldn't be hurt, he wanted to take extra caution.

He felt that there was also a part of him that wanted to make amends for what Qi Xiu had to go through because of the original owner.

Even if the cub doesn't know, I do—and it makes me pissed.

He An didn't care about his safety since he was sure the system couldn't let him die so easily.

He was determined to make sure his cub returned to his position as the Southern crown prince and lived a happy and fulfilling life after being accepted by the world, away from the dangers that waited for him in the North.