Black Heart Prologue

In the Empire of Phantasma, Status was everything.

A person would be born with a Class. This was something decided in a way that no living being could find a reasoning behind. Sometimes, a family would consistently produce the same Class, over and over again through the centuries. Sometimes, however, it wouldn't happen that way. It wasn't as though the Class was the final say on what it was possible to do, either... many Farmers did not cultivate vegetables or rear livestock, and not every farmer was a Farmer. One's job was as much a product of circumstance and luck as anything else, and it seldom had anything to do with one's Class.

It was, with a great deal of effort and investment of money, possible to change that Class. Either advancing it to a higher form, or abandoning it entirely for something more suited to a choice of lifestyle. However, this was beyond the means of the vast majority of people... even many nobles and members of royal families would count it a poor investment.

Bloodline mattered. But it mattered because of two things: Inherited wealth, and inherited Status. A family that owned a gold mine would continue to produce wealth until the mine was depleted, and a family that saw a physically strong husband marry a tough and enduring wife would more often than not produce a child that was both strong and tough.

In some ways, as long as you had the fortune of having a high Status in the right area, then your prosperity could be assured. If it was a match for what the Class you were born with relied upon, then that would be convenient and offer an opportunity to earn your livelihood as an Adventurer or a Mercenary. If you were not so fortunate, but a noble family happened to be looking for someone to marry into their ranks, keeping the Status high? Then that was just as good for some people.

Malicia, a ten year old girl, had had the fortune of being born with A-Rank Strength and Endurance in her Status.

This wasn't something that made itself apparent right away. While it provided modest benefits at first, the rank of one's Status was best described as 'Growth Potential'. An A-rank for a Status meant that it would grow more rapidly and produce greater results than a C-rank, for example... which would in turn still be by far superior to the bottom-run F-rank. However, it meant nothing if the effort was not applied. Further, few people were in a position where they needed to produce that effort.

The fickle chance of one's initial Class would often render a high status in the wrong area as polished pearls in a pig's trough. Even the supreme S-class rank in Strength would have little meaning if it was the status of a wizard, for example. Almost nothing that Class could learn or do would ever rely on that Status, leaving it only important in cases where the poor wizard was forced to clobber something with a blunt instrument.

The class that Malicia had been born to was 'Monk'.

In the Empire of Phantasma, the class was not unknown. However, it was understood to be a bad draw, as it was considered to be a lesser variant of the 'Priest' Class. The ability to call upon healing magic to mend wounds and purge disease from the needy was greatly reduced in scope, and in exchange?

The Class received some modest self defense abilities. Fisticuffs, as though a healer should ever be in melee. As though an Adventurer who had to rely on their fists as a weapon stood any chance of survival in the long run.

It was unfortunate, and those who tried to leverage such a class' abilities quickly gave up and found other things to do with their lives.

For the time being, however, regardless of the Class that she was born into, her A-ranked Status eased the burden as Malicia dug into the dirt of the forest floor. A hole expanded, bit by bit, until it was up to her shoulders and long enough to lie down in, next to the roots of a tall and gnarled tree and near to a pile of gathered stones.

Malicia heaved herself out, face streaked with mud and traces of blood, her hands and her feet and the simple dress she wore caked in dirt.

Only a short few steps away, another girl in the same simple dress rested on her back. Her hair was a dusty gold, compared to Malicia's raven tresses, and bright blue eyes were set in her cute heart-shaped face, with naturally plump and pink lips. A far cry from Malicia's lean features, and harsh ruby-colored eyes.

Those blue eyes stared vacantly at the sky.

A stolen kitchen knife was buried in her chest, driven through the ribs and directly into her heart.

Malicia's face twisted for a moment. Then, with a sigh, she dropped down to a seat next to the body.

"On her tenth birthday, it is understood that Malicia's secret heritage flared up into her first uncontrollable outburst of sadism. She invited a friend to join her in gathering berries from the woods. Neither returned until late at night, where Malicia stumbled back, alone and filthy, with a tale of having been attacked by monsters in the forest, who captured and dragged her friend away as she hid up a tree. This story was accepted, as traces of increased monster activity in the forest had already been found... but the bones of her friend were never discovered." Malicia said aloud. "That... It's what you said, when you drew that knife out of your hidden pocket."

Malicia's hair covered her eyes, and dirt cracked and fell off of her fingers as she clenched a tight fist. Then she exhaled, slowly.

"I don't understand much of what you said at all, Sophie." she said, quietly. "What heritage? I'm one more orphan, the same as you! What villainess? Adopted into nobility? Were you trying to say that you had seen the future? Couldn't you have tried to explain more clearly? Just what is a video game supposed to be!?"

Malicia's breathing became erratic for several long moments before she got herself back under control.

"I didn't... I didn't want this to happen. Any of this." Malicia said, with a hushed voice suited for whispering secrets to a conspirator. "Sophie... I liked you a lot. I liked you the best, out of everyone else I knew. I wanted to... So why? Why did you decide that you had to kill me? Just because of some vision? So that you could be the one adopted into nobility instead? Sophie, you... You never trusted me at all, did you? No matter what I said or did, it didn't matter. Not when it came from the mouth of the enemy you could see on the horizon. Not when you thought I was just going to..."

Malicia let herself fall back with a whump onto the dusty forest ground, staring at the sky through the leaves.

"What a miserable gift of prophecy, if it only shows you enough to lead you to the future you've seen." she murmured.

Then she rose again.

"Sophie... thank you. At the very least, you explained yourself. You didn't let me think that you had just betrayed me for no reason." Malicia said, quietly reaching out to shut the other girl's blue eyes. "And I've learned from this. I will never, ever again trust another person with my heart. Only you get to break it. Nobody else will ever have the chance."

Malicia stroked Sophie's hair one last time, and hesitated. Then, with a heave, she started dragging the body from where it had fallen into the shallow grave. Fistfuls of dirt followed it, piling high and burying a friendship beneath earth and piled up rocks, to prevent stray animals and monsters from digging it up again.

The sun had already begun to set by the time Malicia had finished, and began to trudge her way out of the forest, empty-handed and looking utterly wretched. If anyone noticed the tear-streaks etched through the dirt on her face, nobody mentioned it. It was only natural.

Malicia wept only once more in her time at the orphanage, when Sophie's paltry few possessions were divided up between the other children and sold, as a small and simple book that the girl had seemed to be practicing her letters in was left in her keeping.

She would not shed even one more tear during the rest of her time in the orphanage's care.