Fear

Hm... if I was afraid of the dark, this would be pretty unbearable, no?

'Please don't go any further! Stop! Stop, you fiend! What if something comes to kill my body? At the very least it must be inconvenient for you to switch to other bodies, right? Stop this at once!'

Yeah, definitely considering how Bryson was acting, he was deathly afraid of the dark. That was a tad bit ironic considering his main powers were literally called dark arts. Could it be that the reason Jess acted like that before was that Bryson was always a whiny scared baby and she had to take care of him?

...Yeesh.

Maybe it wasn't Jess' fault after all and just that Bryson was a chump. Damn, did this game really make the final villain of the game like this?

I continued to listen to Bryson's incessant chattering, consisting of the ramble a seven-year-old child would have when their mom leaves the room. Jesus christ, I thought I was at least being born in the body of someone that was somewhat cool, considering that he was way better-looking than me.

'You can't! You can't! What if there are scary monsters?!'

But I guess it was too much for me to put any trust in a person's appearance in the first place. To be honest, I was contemplating whether or not it was actually worth it to even continue living on if I had to share it with such a baby.

...No, wait a minute. If I think about it, I was probably scared of the dark too, right? I mean, I do remember being scared of stuff when I was like seven, but now I was completely fine, right?

In other words, I should start conditioning Bryson so that he isn't so afraid anymore. He may be a bit old, but it should be easy enough.

Gah, I'm just too much of a genius, aren't I? Maybe I was put into Bryson's body because they knew my intellect was just that superior.

"Hey, Bryson. What do you think would happen if I just let go of the rope right now?"

'What? You insane madman, you plan on killing me here? How dare you! I still... I still haven't...'

I simply rolled my eyes.

"I'm not going to kill us. The only thing I want to do is help you get over your fear of the dark, so I will let us fall for a bit and show you how harmless it is."

'W-What? This is preposterous, you can't possibly be serious. It's not as though I actually have a fear of the dark! It's beyond reasonable to be afraid in this situation!'

I clicked my tongue.

"Yeah, yeah, sure. That's what they all say."

'Wait, you couldn't possibly be-'

And with that, I let go of the rope and let myself freefall with a bored expression on my face. As for Bryson...

'AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH'

He didn't seem to be faring well, but this was the first step to overcoming your fears. Confronting them! Of course, too much exposure at once would probably cause trauma, but I'll make sure to keep it at a minimum so that he can get over his fear without getting any mental problems.

'PLEASE GRAB THE ROPE, I'M SORRY, JUST GRAB THE ROPE, I WON'T COMPLAIN ANYMORE. DYING IS PAINFUL RIGHT? SO JUST GRAB IT! PLEASE PLEASE IF YOU'RE GOING TO KILL ME JUST USE THE BLADE INSTEAD OF THIS TORTURE!'

Geez. He's really being a drama queen huh? I only let go of the rope for like, ten seconds. If this world has the same gravity as Earth, I guess that means I'm falling at a speed of about 98 meters per second. But that was a great exaggeration considering I didn't take into consideration drag, so it was like probably just 40 meters per second anyway.

'STOP DON'T KILL ME LIKE THIS! AT THE VERY LEAST CHOOSE A HUMANE WAY! PLEASE IS THAT REALLY SO MUCH TO ASK FOR?'

Hmm... that was only a bit above the speed limit on the highway. Bryson was totally overreacting.

'FUCK, GOD IF YOU CAN HEAR ME, WHY DID YOU GIVE SUCH A CRUEL FATE TO ME?'

Why was this guy so scared? It seemed like I would need to work hard on conditioning him since he was such a crybaby. Damn, this is going to be a pain. But it was probably an even worse pain for his parents. Er, or I guess the servants since his parents never seem to be around so they probably raised him.

'I just wish... to see my sister's face one more time.'

My eyelid twitched.

"You really relied on her whenever you were afraid huh? That's why she turned out like that, you freak."

Well, I guess this is enough for a little scare. I grabbed onto my cloth with both hands and then wrapped it around the rope. With a rough tearing sound, the cloth was obliterated rather quickly and my hands themselves got really scratched up.

The fall slowed down dramatically until I was hanging in the air.

'W-What is...'

"I'm helping you by letting you confront your fears. This way, you won't be so afraid of things anymore."

There was a long pause, probably because he was just too filled with gratitude.

'BULLSHIT, HOW WOULD THIS HELP ME AT ALL?'

Tsk. Guess Bryson's the tsundere type after all.

"You could phrase your thanks in a bit of a nicer way, don't you think?"

Bryson once again paused, probably thinking about how to thank me.

'HOW COULD I POSSIBLY THANK YOU FOR SOMETHING LIKE THIS? YOU TOOK OVER MY BODY AND NEARLY KILLED ME!'

I let out a long sigh.

"See? It's because you're like this that you really need someone like me to help you."

'EXCUSE ME? HOW HAVE YOU HELPED?'

The corner of my lip turned up.

"If even something like this scares you, then that just shows how overly fearful you are! Although I have little information on how you were before, I am pretty sure you were some burdensome kid that would always rely on your sister."

'YOU...'

He didn't respond for quite a while, so I decided to start climbing down while he sorted out his thoughts. After waiting for about five minutes, he finally spoke.

'W-Was I really a burdensome kid that relied on my sister?'

I began laughing uncontrollably.

"I have no idea, but from how you sound, it appears that you know the answer all too well yourself."

'Eh? But I thought I was being rather reasonable...'

Ah, how oblivious this man was.

"It may seem reasonable to you, but have you ever thought that was just reasonable because you don't understand what is truly considered normal?"

'Huh?'

I took a deep breath.

"It's clear to me that you hardly participate in balls that nobles arrange and leave the first chance that you get. Yet, everyone else stays instead. You are the one that's out of place here."

'...I suppose that is true. But how could this even relate to nearly killing me?!'

I cleared my throat, prepared to lecture him.

"Let me tell you something. The guy that came along with me, Nathan, has a crippling fear of heights!"

'Huh? But he hardly reacted to the depths of the hole and even climbed down it. That's clearly a lie.'

In response, I simply shook my head like it was a pity.

"Yes, he was afraid, but he also knew realistically that nothing would happen because he made sufficient preparations beforehand."

'Then that clearly isn't a crippling fear, is it not?'

I raised a finger upwards with an indignant expression.

"Of course it is! Couldn't you see? After trying it out himself, he found that it was too much for him, thus decided to let me do it instead. Because I didn't have that crippling fear, I was fine."

'No, but isn't it completely reasonable to be afraid of falling down into a pit like this?'

I wagged my index finger back and forth. While it was basically pitch-black down here, so there was no way to see what was happening, there was also the fact he could feel the same things as me, so he knew what I was doing.

"We have already put multiple layers of security just in case. That is plenty of preparation, so there should be no realistic fear since if there is no threat of death, you shouldn't be afraid!"

'What? How is falling down from here not something that has the threat of death?'

I raised an eyebrow as my smile widened.

"Ah, my young padawan. There is a rope, so I can just catch myself before we end up falling."

'But if you kept falling, then you would've hit the ground and then killed me!'

I rolled my eyes as I decided just a smidge of gaslighting was needed.

"But I didn't, right? Use your head for a moment, did I end up dying? No."

'...I do suppose it is quite obvious the sounds of climbing down the rope had hardly made an echo coming from below. Then falling itself wasn't too dangerous since the way down is incredibly great.'

Eh? It was? Oh, I just felt like it was probably long enough.

"See? You're getting it now."

'No, but realistically most people would be afraid in that situation. That isn't something any sane person would do! It's because the two of you are demons that you aren't afraid! You... you even bit a person like a savage!'

A chuckle slipped through my mouth.

"Oh really? Think about it for a minute. Would it be better to bite someone, or die?"

'...But it wasn't necessarily-'

"So you're going to risk your life just because you are a little reluctant? Bryson, I'm sorry if this is too much for you to hear, but think about how things have been for the past few days. Your reputation is terrible, and people are afraid of you. However, despite that fact in recent times quite a few people have come to approach me of their own volition, right? I wonder how many people approached you like that before?"

'...'

Seeing he wasn't going to speak, I decided to go on.

"It's because they are more afraid of how you act, rather than how I act. The way I do things is far more reasonable than you, which is why they aren't afraid of me."

'But that just doesn't make any-'

"You are a person that is logically smart, but you don't get people at all, right?"

'...'

Looks like I was spot on. I could tell because I'd been with Nathan for so long.

"Don't worry, I'm experienced in this sort of thing. I'm just trying to help you. Can you recall how you reacted when I just gave you a tiny fright? Then what will happen when your life is actually in danger!"

'That... was an embarrassing display.'

"Exactly! So together, we will work on helping you conquer your fears, so that you won't be such a burden anymore."

'...But still, I feel like you are being completely unreasonable. I am fairly certain you are trying to trick-'

"Hey, hey, hey, you yourself admitted that you aren't a people person. Haven't you considered people don't tell you that it's stupid to be afraid of the things that you are because they don't want to hurt your feelings? But I'm going to be truthful for your own good!"

'This... I still can't shake the feeling you are being disingenuous.'

I pursed my lips together. Why did he have to actually use logic? Maybe I didn't give him a good enough scare. While thinking that, I realized that I reached the end of the rope. It seemed that the rope wasn't long enough.

"Oh really? Then I will show you how ingenuous I am."

'What? W-Wait, you-'

Then I let go of the rope again.

'AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!'