Chapter Text
Love is a complicated thing, a confusing concept. A tangled, many-layered emotion woven from affection, intimacy, passion, and a foolish degree of commitment. People romanticized it, worshipped it, chased after it like a prize.
Unfortunately for love, Natan wanted absolutely nothing to do with it.
As a broke college student barely clinging to a scholarship that couldn’t even fund proper meals, just discounted convenience store meals, romance felt less like a dream and more like an expensive venture. A luxury. Something for people who had stable bank balances and functioning sleep schedules.
He could practically imagine the dean’s familiar apathetic smile if she caught wind of him entertaining romantic fantasies: “Focus on your studies, Mr. Natan.”
Love? Dates? Relationships?
Those were for people with free time, money, and full stomachs.
Claude, his roommate, was not one of those people.
But Claude operated completely different from Natan. In fact, he was the complete opposite.
Despite living the exact same tragic lifestyle, same scholarship, same cramped dorm room, same diet of sadness and cheap non-nutritious meals, Claude somehow spent half his waking hours flirting with every woman on campus. It was a mystery. How does he have the time to even consider love? His scholarship involves engineering and that course is hard. Sure, Claude is smart and the scholarship is living proof Afterall, Eruditio University is the most prestigious and sought after school in his country. It is filled with students who are said to make "an impact in this world" and they weren't wrong. Previous students in the school became renowned scientists, researchers, doctors and even politicians (Somehow even if it is a science-focused university.) Back to the topic, was it confidence? Delusion? A supernatural refusal to acknowledge poverty that fueled Claude to even consider pursuing intimacy?
Probably all of the above.
But even Claude had limits.
After several spectacular rejections and a particularly humiliating incident involving three identical twins from the literature department, Claude’s romantic enthusiasm needed somewhere else to go.
And so he found a new outlet, otome games. His current fixation was the global reigning champion of indie digital romance: Roses and Magic.
The title sounded embarrassingly cheesy, but the game itself had a global fanbase. And to its credit, the developers broke away from the typical formula of love harems and similar characters with one singular defining trait. Players could pursue love interests across various genders and races, each with unique stories and personalities. The players not only have to make decisive choices on which ending to they want to get, but also face consequences for making mistakes and even having to many lovers. Natan have to give them applause for that.
The plot followed Lunox, a brilliant new scholarship student from a poor family living in the Moniyan Empire, entering the elite academy Dawn High. There she meets a colorful cast of characters, Friends, enemies, and potential lovers.
The love interests include:
Fredrinn, the notorious merchant/gambling addict with a deck of cards permanently attached to his hand. Alucard, Dawn High’s energetic sports golden boy. Selena, a dangerous beauty from the group "Abyss." delinquents who rule the alleyways. Gusion, a snarky tsundere black sheep cast aside by his prestigious family. And many more.
Claude's had no favorites, he practically flirted and pursued all the women in the game. And so, he had begged-no bullied Natan into trying the game.
And what was Natan supposed to do? Claude was the type who would absolutely steal his notes, his charger, or sabotage his schooling just to win an argument.
So, with a defeated sigh, Natan downloaded the game, prepared for boredom and cringe.
What he didn't anticipate how hooked he became.
Not because of the attractive character designs.
Not because of the romance options or the dramatic plot.
But because of one character.
Aamon Paxley.
Aamon was infamous for being nearly impossible to romance. His route was shrouded in rumors, hidden triggers, and difficulty so absurd most players simply gave up.
But to Natan, Aamon felt… different.
Behind the character’s cold words and distant demeanor was something sharp, thoughtful, quietly protective, something subtle enough that most players missed it.
Talking to Aamon wasn’t like flirting. It was like battling with words.
Every conversation with him turned into debates, philosophical questions, or logic puzzles that demanded genuine thought. His dialogue wasn’t shallow or overdone. It felt startlingly real.
Complex. Challenging. Enlightening.
He was so damn intriguing—and Natan connected with him more than he cared to admit.
Which was how he and Claude ended up here: two broke students hiding in an unused classroom, using the free campus Wi-Fi.
The reason?
The 5.0 anniversary update of Roses and Magic.
The devs had gone all out: new outfits, new routes, special events, and rumors of secret encounters. The fanbase lost its collective mind. One rumored secret encounter belonged to Aamon Paxley.
Natan genuinely wondered if this was fate.
The update dropped right after his finals ended—finally, he could play guilt-free.
For hours they tapped through new content, sunlight dimming behind the windows. Until Natan froze.
A smile tugged at the corner of his lips.
“Claude,” he said quietly.
“I found a secret route.”
Claude’s reaction was instant and explosive.
“WHAT?! Let me see! Move over!”
He practically glued himself to Natan’s side. Natan ignored the suffocating proximity and kept tapping.
Onscreen, Lunox stepped into a newly accessible area. After teleporting repeatedly between the school entrance, plaza gate, and rose garden, a fourth hidden option appeared:
The Graveyard. Lunox entered.
Gravestones of every shape and size lay scattered in eerie rows. The wind howled softly.
After wandering a bit, Natan saw from the corner of his eye an odd site and directed the joystick at the area and before Lunox, a gravestone. unmarked, blank, unsettling and the largest among all the others. It had a stone carving of an angel reaching towards the heavens with scars all over its body and moss spread all over it, as if mimicking the trail of blood.
At its base lay one rose. Then another. Then another.
A trail of roses led into the darkness.
Lunox followed.
The deeper she went, the heavier everything felt. The music dropped to a low, suffocating hum. Dark sigils drifted through the air like smoke.
A prompt appeared.
Continue walking.
Natan tapped.
After a few minutes of continuous tapping of the option "continue walking." A summoning circle came into view, candles arranged in a perfect ring and floating around it, sigils glowing faintly with ominous energy, and what seems to be blood spread across the edges of the room.
Even through the screen, the atmosphere felt wrong. His gut is telling him he should stop but his curiosity got to him and he continued on.
The narration shifted:
The faint scent of blood fills the air.
Natan pressed Continue.
Suddenly—
Lunox was shoved into the circle.
“What the—?” Claude breathed.
A woman materialized outside the circle. Pink hair that draped on her shoulders, curved dark horns that pointed upwards, a gown of deep purple with accents of black decorating the dress, and fleshy wings that stretched wide across the room. Lastly, an orb floated above her palms.
Her name read simply:
???
“Well hello there, Lady Lunox.”
The only dialogue option:
Who are you?!
Natan tapped.
“You need not know my name. This encounter will be brief.” The lady said as she smirked.
The screen trembled.
Dark hands erupted from the floor, seizing Lunox and holding her down. Blood pooled unnaturally, sliding toward the circle as if alive. Purple flames ignited.
Claude swallowed hard.
Natan was presented two options: break free or give in.
"Of course break free." He muttered.
He tapped break free but nothing happened. Natan tapped Break free over and over again, but still nothing changed.
The woman smiled, fangs glinting.
“What a persistent little one. But it won’t matter soon.”
The screen started to shake rapidly and glitches start appearing. Natan was now very scared for his phone and if it will survive from this. So, he tried exiting the game and turning off his gadget but he couldn't leave, and even after pressing the off button, the screen stayed alive. Now he is really fucked.
“I—Natan, dude… I think you should close the game.”
“I’m trying!”
The blood rose. The candles melted at impossible speed. The sigils blazed bright.
Then—
Black screen.
Claude sighed in relief. Natan didn’t.
His phone was overheating.
“Claude…?”
The phone slipped from his hand.
CRACK.
The broken screen flickered—then began to twist. Glass warped. Light expanded. Darkness surged outward.
“What the hell?!” Claude shouted.
A vortex burst from the shattered device, sucking papers, chairs, anything not bolted down.
“RUN!” Natan Shouted.
They ran for the door, but dark hands shot out and latched onto Claude’s leg.
“NATAN! HELP!” Claude screamed as he was being dragged towards the empty void.
Natan grabbed him and the handle of a metal cabinet, pulling desperately.
The door flew open.
A blue-haired man, Xavier, stepped in. “What is going on—”
He was immediately pulled toward the vortex and out of instinct, held the door handles.
Then another classmate, Granger, appeared, shouting curses as he too was pulled in.
He recognize them. They were both his and Claude's classmates during quantum physics class.
Natan’s grip slipped. The cabinet lurched toward the vortex. Fear crept into his spine. The possibility of the cabinet crushing both of them came into mind. And so, he was given no choice but to let go of the cabinet.
He grabbed Claude with both hands as he let go.
“Hold on!”
They were yanked into the darkness, Xavier and Granger pulled in right after them.
The classroom vanished behind them.
Then—nothing.
Darkness.
The four people who were dragged in the dark void consciousness faded.