I Became the Bully Extra in a Novel I Hate

Chapter 39: Minor Character

’I don’t get you.’

Arthur was staring at the ceiling. Vexis was hovering above him with that face. The one that meant the volume was coming. ƒree𝑤ebnσvel.com

’Someone tried to kill us. Twice. And you’re just going to let it go?’

I didn’t say that.

’Then what are you saying! Because from where I’m standing it looks exactly like that!’

Arthur put his arm over his eyes.

I’m saying revenge is a big word. You don’t just throw it around.

’A big word.’ Vexis let out a sound that wasn’t quite a laugh. ’Where did you come from that revenge is a big word. In this world. In my world. You kill the person trying to kill you. That’s just how it works.’

That’s not my point.

’Then what is your point!’

Arthur moved his arm and looked at him.

My point is that I’m not doing anything based on one person telling me to. Not the patriarch. Not you. Vak will face consequences. But I decide how. We decide how. You can’t just drag this body into some revenge killing because it’s what you want. That’s not how I work.

Vexis crossed his arms.

’Weak,’ he said. Flat. ’That’s what that is. Weak.’

Arthur looked back at the ceiling.

’You don’t have the guts for the hard decision. That bastard sends more people and what happens? You crawl again? Wait for someone to save you again?’ His voice was getting somewhere. Not caps yet. But close. ’That’s not how survival works. You want to live in this world you have to be cruel to the cruel ones. You have to make them understand that touching you costs more than it’s worth. Otherwise they never stop!’

Arthur said nothing.

’Those mercenaries. Those assassins. You know what they are? They’re just following orders.’ Vexis moved closer. Dropped lower. Gold eyes level with Arthur’s. ’Vak will never stop. I know him. I’ve known him my whole life. He will send more. And more. And it won’t end until one of you is dead.’

Arthur looked at him.

Vak Vernon will pay. I’m not arguing that.

’Then—’

But I’m not killing him.

’You—’

There’s another way. And that’s final.

Vexis stared at him.

Then he said it.

Quiet. Almost to himself.

’You already killed someone.’

The room went still.

Arthur looked at the ceiling.

Yeah.

A beat.

And you think that makes it easier?

’I think it makes it real.’ Vexis’s voice had lost the performance. Just the thing underneath it. ’This isn’t your world. The rules here are different. You keep trying to apply whatever you had back there to a place that doesn’t work like that and it’s going to get us both killed.’

Arthur breathed in.

Out.

I hear you. And I’m not dismissing it. But I’m also not becoming something I’m not just because the situation says I should. Vak will face what he deserves. I’ll make sure of it.

He closed his eyes.

The conversation is over.

’Fuck.’ Vexis moved away. Toward the window. His back to Arthur now. ’Do whatever you want. Right? I don’t get a vote. I’m just a spectator in my own life.’

A pause.

’Hope you don’t regret it.’

Arthur said nothing.

Roz was already asleep on the window frame. Small and pink and completely unbothered by all of it.

Arthur stared at the ceiling for a long time.

Fuck.

Morning came fast.

Light across his face. Birds somewhere outside doing their thing.

He opened his eyes.

The red box was already there. Hovering at eye level. Waiting.

He stared at it.

[Relevance Points Added]

[Vexis Lestilaut has defied fate]

[Vexis Lestilaut survived the impending date of his doom]

[Vexis Lestilaut is now a Minor Character]

[Several characters have noticed your existence]

[Congratulations]

[+100 RP]

Arthur read it once.

Then again.

He turned his head.

Vexis was near the window. Back still turned. Not doing anything. Just existing in the quiet the way he did when the argument had burned itself out and left something else behind.

He had no idea.

He couldn’t see the box. Couldn’t see what it said. Had no idea that the thing Arthur had been clawing toward for two weeks had just been confirmed in red text at eye level while he floated with his back turned in the early morning light.

Arthur looked at the notification.

Two weeks.

He let that land.

Two weeks since a cafeteria floor and blood on his knuckles and a name he recognized from a novel he hated. Two weeks of alleys and marble floors and a blade through his palm and a throat that still had a scar above the collar.

Minor character.

Not an extra.

He closed his fist slowly.

The ceiling said nothing useful back.

Then what am I now.

He stared at the box.

If the reason I’m here is done. If Vexis was always going to survive and I was just the thing that got him there.

He looked at Vexis again.

What happens after that.

Does he come back. Does the body go back to him and I just...

Disappear?

But i—

The thought didn’t finish.

He didn’t let it finish.

Arthur pressed both hands over his face.

That’s cruel. That’s genuinely cruel.

He stayed like that for a moment.

Then he dropped his hands and looked at the ceiling one more time and made a decision that wasn’t really a decision so much as the only available option.

Get up.

He grabbed his jacket off the chair.

Monday is just another Monday.

The sun was fully up by the time he reached the academy.

Warm on his shoulders. The city doing what it always did. Roz on his shoulder already looking for something interesting to comment on and finding nothing worth the effort.

The lobby was loud before he even got through the door.

He pushed through.

A crowd had formed near the front desk. Not the usual kind. The kind that formed around something with edges to it.

Two people at the center.

A black-haired man with purple eyes had someone by the collar. His knuckles were white. His jaw was set. The specific fury of someone who had been called something they couldn’t let go.

"You bastard." His voice was low and tight. "Say that again. I dare you."

The person in his grip didn’t flinch.

White hair. Red eyes. Completely still, the way Xavier was always still, like nothing in the immediate environment had quite reached the threshold of something worth reacting to.

"I didn’t accuse you," Xavier said. "I stated a fact."

Arthur stopped walking.

He looked at the black-haired man.

The purple eyes. The way he held Xavier’s collar like he’d been waiting for a reason and had finally found one.

The sting hit the back of his skull.

Elias Ignion.

Xavier’s main rival. The one who showed up in the second arc and didn’t leave. The one Arthur had written three separate comments about because the author kept using him as a measuring stick for Xavier’s growth instead of giving him an actual arc of his own.

Arthur watched them.

The crowd watched them.

Roz watched them with mild interest.

Arthur exhaled through his nose.

He turned and walked toward the corridor.

I fucking hate this novel.