Chapter 01
“Ariana, hurry. The door will close at this rate.”
The protagonist of this novel’s world—
Leonard Pierce.
With his dazzling golden hair, he urged the hesitant woman beside him.
“I know how you feel. I really do. But this can’t be helped. We have to go.”
At his urging, the woman’s deep green eyes wavered helplessly.
They were filled with guilt.
“But…”
“Hurry!”
Even with constant urging, she simply couldn’t bring herself to move.
Ariana—she was the woman who would later become both Leonard’s lover and the saint venerated throughout the continent.
Anyway, seizing the moment, I forced my mouth open again.
“I said, take me with you too.”
“…”
“I’m… ugh, I’m part of the party too. Take me. This kind of wound will heal soon… haah, take me with you.”
I couldn’t even remember how many times I had begged.
But as expected, no one replied.
They’d been acting like they couldn’t hear my voice from the very beginning.
As if they’d silently agreed to it.
“…It’s unfortunate, but it can’t be helped. Miss Ariana, we must go.”
As Ariana continued to hesitate, another man—who’d been guarding her side all this time—stepped forward.
“Let’s go. Quickly.”
He tugged at her arm as if he couldn’t wait any longer.
Unable to withstand everyone’s urging, Ariana finally drooped her head.
“…I’m sorry, Rosette.”
That was when pure absurdity washed over me.
“If you’re sorry, then take me with you!”
If you’re sorry, then take me.
Can’t you hear me?
“I’ll… leave this here.”
Barely audible, she murmured as she dropped her worn-out bag onto the floor with a soft thud.
Her head remained bowed as if she didn’t even have the courage to look at me.
Then Ariana finally turned away.
With no reason left to delay, the men escorted her out without a shred of hesitation.
I mustered what strength I had left and screamed.
“H–hey!”
They didn’t look back once as they crossed the doorway and disappeared.
“HEY, YOU TRASH BASTARDS!”
Thud!
The door slammed shut.
Every story has a protagonist.
And surrounding the protagonist are characters meant to make them shine.
Not the main character. Not even a supporting role.
Just an extra.
That was me.
One of the children offered as sacrifices.
A nameless minor character who didn’t even get a line in the novel.
I realized that the moment I was offered up as a sacrifice.
“Rosette, my beloved sister. With your noble sacrifice, our family—and furthermore, the peace of this nation—will be preserved.”
…I can still vividly feel the cold hands of the bastard who called himself my brother as he pushed me onto the altar.
I had been adopted solely to be used as a sacrifice.
And I learned even that only when I was dragged to the altar.
As my body burned in unimaginable agony, memories of my past life resurfaced, and I realized the place I had been reborn was the world of a novel.
“Your parents sold you.”
That line was the turning point that truly began the story The Devil’s Game, a very typical mass-produced web novel.
The founding families of two empires—each having unified their own continent—had continued sacrificing their bloodline children according to an oracle.
The reason was simple:
To maintain the barrier sealing the island filled with demonic energy.
Children offered as sacrifices were transported to a tower, where they were toyed with by demons and eventually killed.
But the protagonist—being a protagonist—unlike the other sacrifices, brought their companions, slaughtered everything in their path, cleared the tower, and escaped.
After that, they overturned the two empires that had upheld peace using child sacrifices and became a hero. Something like that.
However, even after realizing all of this, there was nothing I could do.
Because by that point, I was already burning on the altar.
Begging for my life, screaming from the pain, I eventually passed out, only to awaken inside the tower.
And just like then…
‘Ha… what the hell…’
When I came to after fainting again, I was alone.
The people I had considered comrades had actually abandoned me.
‘Unbelievable.’
A hollow laugh burst from me.
The protagonist of this trashy world turned out to be pure scum.
But worse than that was my own situation—being abandoned by such trash.
Yes.
This was the third floor of the tower.
I was abandoned.
And this tower was a dimensional space ruled by demons.
The tower stood beneath the island saturated with demonic energy.
A place no ordinary human could ever escape alive.
Yet they had casually abandoned someone here.
It was hard to believe this cruelty came from the supposedly righteous protagonist and his companions.
Their cold faces, ignoring my injured state, flashed through my memory.
“You alone can’t be allowed to hold all of us back here.”
“I hope you won’t resent us too much.”
“…May the blessings of the gods be with you.”
In their definition of “us,” I was not included.
‘Bastards.’
I had risked my life countless times for them.
I didn’t expect noble loyalty, but I never imagined they’d abandon me without hesitation.
‘What was I even thinking until now?’
They had never considered me a comrade.
To them, I was disposable—used and tossed aside.
So now, what burned inside me wasn’t betrayal.
It was rage.
“…You dare abandon me?”
Me, who brought them rare items again and again?
A fierce survival instinct surged within me.
‘I won’t forgive them.’
What keeps a person alive?
Love? Friendship? Wealth or fame?
No.
Malice.
Pure spite.
‘Just wait.’
I’ll survive this tower, if only to rub it in their faces.
I reached toward my chest.
I’d hidden an item inside my clothes, just in case.
‘Good thing I prepared for this.’
With trembling hands, I pulled out a single bean.
A universal potion-like item that restored injuries and even basic stats.
I didn’t even have the strength to chew properly, but I forced myself to grind the bean between my teeth and swallow.
‘I’m not dying like this.’
Who benefits if I die here?
Next, I dragged myself forward.
Forward, forward—
Toward the bag they’d tossed aside as if it were some mercy.
“Haa… haa…”
Just moving a little caused my stomach wound to bleed again.
The sensation of blood oozing down my skin was nauseating.
But it was fine.
‘A little more…!’
Driven by the sheer will to survive, I stretched out my hand.
My fingers brushed against the strap.
I tugged the bag close and rifled through it desperately.
A squishy fruit soon filled my grip.
A bright red fruit—half eaten by bugs, covered in mold.
Everyone had refused to eat it.
Without hesitation, I took a huge bite.
‘I’ll make you regret abandoning me.’
They never learned the true value hidden behind its grotesque appearance.
Even when I told them it was good, they’d doubted me, and in the end, left it behind along with my fainted body.
If I ate this fruit—no, if I could control the power it granted…
‘I might survive even without riding the protagonist’s coattails.’
Consumed by spite, I chewed and swallowed the fruit.
Then I collapsed, panting heavily.
My body had truly run out of strength.
All I could do was turn my head slightly.
“Haa… haa…”
Finally relieved, my exhausted body slackened further.
‘Good… I just need to hang on until the wounds heal…’
I lay there, struggling to keep consciousness from slipping away.
Then—
Footsteps.
Someone was coming closer.
I strained to turn my head, to see who it was.
But—
“Ugh!”
A hand seized my hair and yanked my head up.
Before I could even feel pain, I met a pair of dark red eyes.
The moment he saw my face, he muttered in disappointment.
“…As I thought. Not you.”
Then he let go of my hair without hesitation.
My face crashed to the ground.
I forced myself to lift my head again—heat rising and vision blurring as the fruit began to test me.
But even through the haze—
I recognized him.
As if by fate.
“You… hey… don’t go…”
It was him.
It was definitely him!
“Wait—hey—”
I desperately called out to him.
But he ignored me and kept walking toward the stairs leading down.
No!
“What?”
Desperately, I grabbed his pant leg.
He froze and looked down at me, clearly annoyed.
The way he looked at me—like I was some worthless insect—was downright murderous.
“If you’re waiting for someone to save you, you picked the wrong person.”
“That’s not…”
“Unfortunately, I’m not a good enough person to help someone on the verge of death.”
“No, that’s… not it…”
You’re a villain.
Or rather, someone who will become one.
But that wasn’t the point.
What mattered was that this man might be my only chance of surviving the tower.
After all—
‘The enemy of my enemy is my ally.’
Clinging to consciousness, I rasped:
“You… your sister…”
I knew what he wanted.
Why he’d checked my face.
Why he was heading deeper into the tower.
Because I knew, he couldn’t leave me here.
“You… you’re looking… for your sister… right?”
The moment I forced those words out, his entire demeanor changed.
“What? You know my sister?”
“I… saw her…”
“When?”
“Ugh… well…”
“Where?”
I needed to answer.
I needed to bargain so he wouldn’t leave me behind.
But strength drained from me in an instant.
I’d reached my limit.
Just as my body slumped, he grabbed my collar.
Damn it… that hurts…
“Where did you see her?”
“Ugh…”
He shook me violently.
“Where did you see my sister?! Tell me! Say it before you die!”
But even his brutality couldn’t keep my consciousness from slipping away.
And I fainted.
