Zero to Hero: A High Fantasy Harem Romance LitRPG

I had no idea how long we went out for, but when I woke up, I was feeling sore, achy, and like the chill of the Depths had sunken into my bones. Working my fingers, I went to sit up and realized the girls had curled up next to me.

"Ugh... five more minutes..." In the dim light cast from a nearby doorway, I watched as Tristan draped an arm over her eyes.

"Ten... Make it ten..." Vral mumbled behind me.

"It's time to get up." I cracked my aching neck.

"I hate you." Tristan yawned the angriest yawn I'd ever heard.

"... Kill you later..." Vral mumbled.

"Come on. Up and at 'em." Standing, I reached into my inventory and grabbed some rations. Throwing them at the girl's feet, I bit into my cold jerky and got to thinking.

We shouldn't have all fallen asleep at the same time. That was a certainty. I knew we were all tired, but that was risky. I'd tried to stay awake for as long as I could, but I slipped off anyway. I needed to remember to stay standing next time. We got lucky that nothing was down here and that this No Life King guy hadn't tried something. I didn't know if he could, and I didn't want to learn the answer to that question, either.

I needed to be smarter.

More intentional.

Otherwise, I'd mess up one day, and if these doorways taught me anything, my luck wasn't as endless as it seemed. I was only ever one bad decision away from my own death or the death of the ones I loved.

Even though Faye wanted me to work on trusting my companions, I needed to keep improving, too.

I had to be better.

***

For the first time since we'd started down the hallway, we reached a section where all three of us could see into most of the doors. Unfortunately, none of the scenes behind them featured all of us. In fact, they all dipped pretty far back into our pasts.

Well, not our.

Their.

I still hadn't seen a single door depicting my life back on Earth. Not one. The farther we went, the more I began to wonder if my life before was a dream I'd dreamt up when I was in a coma. I didn't really believe that, but the thought nagged at me all the same.

The girls said that the events in these doorways didn't differ much from their own memories. For them, it was like they were reliving moments of their lives rather than seeing how they might have played out differently. These moments were far back in time for them, too. The farther we went, the farther back in time we went for both.

Most of the scenes were of small moments. I learned that Vral worked in a kitchen when she was younger. I watched as Tristan performed her duties around the temple. Vral liked to pick flowers as a girl. While Tristan was a massive crybaby as a tween, by the same age, Vral had already become a well-known mercenary. Tristan often went on little adventures to the villages with Na-Ya and Ro-Saleh. Vral bashed heads.

Na-Ya was frequently present in Tristan's memories. I hadn't realized exactly how close the two women were. In many ways, I'd learned that Na-Ya was something like both a sister for Tristan, but also a mother. In one memory, they were getting scolded for some mischief they caused. In the next scene, Na-Ya was holding Tristan in her arms and singing her cousin to sleep.

In contrast, around when Vral turned tenish, her life changed dramatically. No one was a fixture in Vral's memories after that point. It was just her growing increasingly skilled, and increasingly bitter. In the memories from her youth, though, she seemed largely happy. There was a brightness in her eyes that had only returned a few months back.

In that part of her past, there was a blonde girl with long, wavy locks who was usually present. When I asked who she was, Vral snapped and told me to mind my own business. I respected her privacy, but I stayed curious.

As we walked the hallway, I couldn't help but soak in the lives of the women who hitched their carts to mine.

***

After the "tween section" of the hallway, in a section I'd mentally dubbed "the Vral's childhood section," we more often than not saw moments from her time back with her tribe. Those... weren't great.

There was a lot of death. So much of it. In nearly all of them, her tribe had been slaughtered. Only she stayed alive, and only because she was hidden in a large basket by her mother. When knights wearing the tabards of Istaera inevitably found her, they ripped her out of the basket, put her in chains, and threw her in a sack. She was two, maybe three at the time. Could barely talk. And her big eyes...

We walked by those as quickly as we could.

In the first door that didn't reek of rot, we saw the familiar black-walled cave of her childhood, in which a large altar was visible, and dozens of prone, green-skinned figures were droning in a familiar, guttural language.

"Wait." Vral held up her hand. "I want to watch this one."

Tristan and I stepped beside her and watched the scene within unfold.

Atop the altar was the statue of a large, stylized eye, under which a priest was holding a large, curved knife over what looked like a halfling woman's chest. The priest shrieked something I didn't understand, and his congregation responded with fervor. Again, he shrieked, and they called back with twice as much frenzy, leaped to their feet, and began dancing wildly.

As the little halfling woman screamed and thrashed on the altar, his dagger flashed, she fell still, and he tore her heart from her chest. Holding it into the air, he began chanting. His words were with absolute chaos as his worshippers went absolutely feral.

"That's not what we do!" Vral screamed as she leaped from my shoulders and rushed at the door. "That's not what we do at all!"

Wrapping my arm around her waist, I pulled her back before she could run in.

Like a cat, she whipped her head around and tried to bite me.

I saw her eyes were glowing bright red. "Vral!" I twisted so her teeth couldn't get me.

At the sound of my voice, she snapped out of it. "Sorry, sorry..." Her heart was pounding against my forearm. "I just... people say that's who we are, but it's not. Not anymore."

"It's okay." Tristan touched Vral's head. "It's not real, remember?"

"Yeah..." She slumped in my arms. "Alex, you can put me down. I won't do something stupid."

Setting her down, I watched for any erratic behavior, but she seemed calm, if down. When she looked mostly recovered, I pointed at the holy symbol on the altar and asked, "What god does that symbol represent? I saw it in many of my rooms earlier."

"That's the Dark Father's eye," Vral said beside me, her eyes glinting as she took everything in. "Every tribe has one just like it on its altar, but we don't worship it, or Him. We would never pray to Him like that. It's obscene."

"What is it for, then? Why have his symbol in your homes?" Tristan's sapphire eyes fixed on the altar. "I don't understand."

Vral frowned. "We make sure His black eye watches over us to remind us of our shame. It's so we never forget what we are."

"Vral..." Tristan whispered. "You can't mean..."

"You know exactly what I mean."

"I don't." I stared down at her. "What are you saying? What exactly are you? Because all I see is a woman. Nothing more. Nothing less."

Her red eyes met mine. "We're a curse. A blight on this world."

"You're not a curse." I bent over and kissed the top of her head. "And you make this world a better place for being in it."

Her eyes never left the scene of the sacrifice. "Sometimes, I almost believe you when you say things like that. Almost."

"I'm telling you the truth."

"He's not lying to you, Vral. I feel the same way."

She was quiet for a time. When she spoke again, Vral's voice was soft. "I like it when you lie to me." Before we could respond, she turned on her heel and walked away. "Let's go."

***

"Who... who are you?" A tiny girl's sapphire eyes, blackened from countless bruises and tears, gazed up at Lady Varga, whose eyes were glowing with radiant, pure-white light.

"I'm here to help you, my child." The priestess knelt beside the girl.

"P-please... help him..." Tears poured from the girl's eyes.

"I... I'll try." Mother Varga spoke words of power, and the entire forest grew bright.

"That's what she said..." Tristan's voice shook as she spoke. "I couldn't remember." Never looking away for a second, she asked, "Alex, would you pull out my prayer book?"

Reaching into my inventory, I withdrew her book and handed it to her.

"A quill, too?"

Doing that too, I watched as she opened to a page and began scribbling on it.

Whether from her poor handwriting or the script she was using, I had no idea what she was writing.

"Thanks." Tristan's face was streaked with tears by the time she handed the quill and her book back to me. Then, she began crying. When her mother appeared and rushed to her side, and when her father's eyes opened for the last time, her cries turned to wracking sobs.

All Vral and I could do was hold her close.

***

"Hey Vral," A blonde girl was kicking her legs against the side of her massive, fluffy bed. "Elise told me that girls like us don't get to choose our lives. She said her dad told her that we have a duty to our families. That we should always put family and line before anything. Do you think that's true?"

"Elise's dad is a cunt." A young Vral was lying next to her on her stomach and kicking her legs into the air. "Fuck him."

"Vral! You said you'd be better! Language, you wicked girl!" The blonde playfully swatted at a young Vral.

"Never!" The little goblin grinned.

The blonde cracked a smile, then giggled beside her friend. Then, when she finished her giggling, her face got serious, and she asked, "Vral, one day, when we're adults, will you go on an adventure with me? Thadrian said he'd take me when I'm old enough, but I don't believe him. I think he thinks I'm going to grow out of it."

"An Adventure? Yeah!" The young Vral took the girl's hands in hers. "I'll go anywhere you do!"

"You will?"

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"Yeah! So, if you want to go on an adventure one day, we'll go on an adventure! Just you and me, two girls against the world!"

"Yay!" Sophia leaped onto her feet and held her hand out like she was holding a rapier. "I'll play the part of the beautiful heroine! I'll fight all of the evildoers to save her dearest love from the evil duke's grasp!" She lounged forward like she was stabbing someone.

Vral jumped up next to her, blanket in hand, and threw it over her shoulders like it was a cloak. "And I'll be your mysterious rogue friend. I'll steal from the rich and give to the poor! These wicked lords'll think twice before they sleep at night! They won't know I'm there until I strike!"

"There are no evil lords, Vral!" The girl looked wounded. "Why would you say something like that?"

Vral's lips worked for a moment, but no sound came forth. Finally, she said, "Some are better than others. Like your dad. But others..."

The girl's eye lit up. "That's true. Uncle Peitre's a cunt!" She covered her mouth and blushed.

Vral snickered. "Language, Sophia."

"Never!" The girl, Sophia, hissed through her fingers.

The girls fell back onto the bed, giggling.

"Will you still be loyal to me, even when you become a rogue?"

"No."

"You brute!"

"I won't be loyal, but... what if I were your friend?" Little Vral asked.

"That's even better."

Vral sat up. Her red eyes were hard. "Will you ever set me free?"

"The second I can, I will. I promise." Sophia sat up and took Vral's hands in hers. "But please, don't run away. You're my best friend. I don't ever want you to be away from me..." Tears welled up in the girl's eyes. "I couldn't bear it."

"Don't worry..." Vral blinked tears away. "I'll always be by your side. I promise."

Vral, the current Vral, sobbed beneath me and whispered, "Let's go."

***

"But, Uncle—"

"Silence!" A middle-aged man dressed in fine noble's clothes slapped the small goblin girl across the face. "How dare you call me that, you filth. I am Lord Peitre Ilad Hiberna to you."

The girl whimpered as she grabbed her face, sending the beautiful roses she'd been carrying cascading to the ground. Blood spilled from her busted lip and onto her servant's clothes, then dripped onto the alley's cobblestones.

"I just, I didn't—"

"How many times, Vral?! How many times must I remind you of your place?"

The man looked like someone I knew, but I couldn't place who.

"I'm trying! It's just so hard—"

"Learn, you disgusting filth! Learn your place!"

Reaching down and picking up a flower, Vral handed a single rose to the nobleman. "B-but, my Lord, I j-just wanted to Lady Sophia and Lady Elise to—" She cried out as another crack of the man's hand across her face sent the little goblin sprawling onto her back.

"We didn't purchase you to think, you animal. You were purchased to be a toy. A doll. A thing for my niece to become disenchanted with. Nothing more."

"But Sophia and I are frie—"

"Friends?!" The nobleman kicked her in the chest, throwing her through the air until she struck a crate and crumpled to the ground. "Did you truly think she cared for you?" The man sneered. "You're more foolish than I believed.

"S-s-she d-d-d-doe..." The goblin's teeth were chattering so hard that she couldn't speak.

The nobleman belted out a horrible, dismissive laugh. Placing his hands on his hips, he leaned forward and snarled, "You're nothing. Less than nothing. Filth. A blight on this world." He stepped forward. "A curse."

The little goblin shrieked and curled into a ball.

The man knelt and roughly grabbed her chin. "You are not wanted. You have never been wanted. And Sophia has personally requested that you be relieved of your duties."

"Th-that's not true!" Vral's eyes met his. "She would never send me away!"

He struck her face with the back of his hand. "What I say is always true. That is what it means to be nobility."

"B-but—"

"If you haven't left this castle by the morning, I'll skin you alive and hang your writhing flesh from the nearest parapet. Do you understand me?"

"But—"

The nobleman heaved and threw Vral against the wall.

Her head hit the stone wall with a loud crack, and she crumpled into a heap and was still.

"You had your chance. It was more than you deserved." The nobleman spun on his heel and walked out of the alley.

My blood ignited. "Let go of me!" I took another step toward the doorway. "I'm coming for you, asshole!"

"Alex, no!" Tristan was holding my waist, preventing me from rushing through that doorway. "It's not real!"

"I'll kill him!" She wasn't strong enough to stop me. I could get to him if I just...

"Stop it." Vral appeared in front of me. "I don't care about that anymore. Let it go."

I ground my teeth so hard that I felt one of my teeth chip. "I'll kill him. One day, he's mine."

"No. If we ever get the chance, he's mine." Vral snarled. "I'll put a blade right through his eye and twist."

***

"Alex, what is that...?" Tristan pointed at a nearby doorway. "Are those what I think they are?"

"What?" Vral's eyes fixed on the doorway Tristan was pointing to. "Why don't those carriages have horses?"

I couldn't believe what I was seeing. "Because they're not carriages, Vral."

"What the hell are they, then?"

"I think..." Tristan stepped closer. Alex, are those—"

"They're cars, yeah."

Cars.

Streets.

Houses. Modern ones.

I was driving somewhere. To work, I thought.

"This is Earth."

"Earth?!" Both girls shouted.

"Tell me everything!" Tristan rushed to the nearest door. "What's that thing?"

"A mailbox."

"And what are those?"

"Power lines?"

"Power? Like magic?" Vral sounded incredulous. "That's no magic I've ever seen."

Without thinking, I said, "It's not magic. It's science."

"Science? Like alchemy?"

"Yeah, kind of." Recovering from my shame, I said, "Things work differently back on Earth."

"It's... kind of pretty." Vral leaned closer. "So tidy."

In that memory, I'd been driving through a wealthy area based on how manicured the lawns were. That and the big houses.

I realized that was where my parents lived. That was where they lived before they split.

"Yeah, it's fine." Old resentments bubbled up in me. "Just fine." I kept walking. "Let's go."

***

Set into the right-hand wall, there was an open door. Within it, I could see a familiar driveway. It was connected to a little cottage.

That was my driveway.

My cottage.

"Wait." I let go of their hands and walked toward that door.

"That's a weird house," Vral said.

"Hey!" Rude. "I put love into that thing."

"Alex... Is that...?" Tristan's voice shook. "Is that your..."

"That was my house." I put my hands on the walls and peered in. My heart shook. I hadn't seen it in so long. "I busted my ass to buy that thing. And I still had to buy an hour away from the city to afford it."

"Why? Why not live in town?" Vral was shaking her head under me. "You like driving those wagons or something?"

Laughing, I said, "Cities are expensive. You either rent a cubicle or buy a shack in the exurbs. I chose the latter."

"Exurb?"

"Don't worry about it."

"Does this one feel right?" Tristan stepped close. "Do you want to go home?"

Home... "No. This place is home. You two are my home. That place never felt like home." The house, sure. Earth? Fuck no.

Tristan audibly swallowed. "I see."

"Of course you feel that way!" Vral grinned up at me. "What kind of life would it be without us?"

"Not one I want to live, that's for sure."

***

"Can we talk sometime?" Devon's voice was soft.

"What's there to talk about?"

She let go of my hand.

That wasn't the right thing to say.

"Sorry. I'm not good at this."

"I know."

I sighed. "I don't have much going for me. I'm just some chump who got kicked out of college and works a dead-end job at a burger joint. You're you. Star student. Law school applicant. Top of your class. I don't have anything to offer you."

"You don't have to offer anything. You can just be you."

"That's not enough."

"Isn't that for me to decide?"

That shook me. I never thought of it that way. I supposed she was right. "You know what? Why not?"

She smiled, leaned close, and kissed me. "Why don't you come in? My folks love you. They wouldn't mind if you slept over." Her eyes promised we wouldn't do any sleeping.

A crack of thunder overhead answered for me.

"Come on." Devon unbuckled my seatbelt. "You're not leaving."

Past me laughed. "Yes, ma'am."

"I knew you two were more than you let on!" Tristan seethed next to me. "A good friend, my ass!"

"We weren't, like, official, or anything."

"That sure as hell looked close enough!" She pushed my shoulder. "And you treated me the same way! All 'we're just friends.'"

"I, uh... I have a style?"

"Ass." She turned away. "And I thought I was your first love. How wrong I was," She pouted.

"Hey..." Vral leaned forward and squinted. "I know that bitch."

That stopped me in my tracks. "How?"

"That's the bitch that hired me and my old crew. Same one who fire bombed us in the Pit. She's an evil fucking cunt."

That sealed it. "You sure?"

"Fuck yeah, I am." Vral was seething now. "She looks younger here, so it took me a minute. But that's definitely her."

So Devon really was in Reial.

"I see." I shuddered.

***

It was nighttime. There was a storm raging outside my car. The trees were swaying violently, and there was almost no light.

I knew that night. It made my knee ache and my arm itch.

"This was the night I was transported to Reial."

As I watched the scene unfold, a car pulled into my driveway.

It was my car.

My shitty old Pathfinder, donut on the back right tire and all.

"Was that your carriage?"

Tristan laughed. "It's a car, Vral."

"Which is short for carriage, duh!" Vral rolled her eyes. "It's dumpy looking. You deserved a better one."

"It was dumpy looking, wasn't it?" I watched as past me pulled up to the flashing stoplight near the library.

Reflexively, my heart started pounding. That was the night everything changed.

"What were you doing then?" Tristan asked. "Why weren't you home?"

"I took Devon home that night. Then, on the way home, the storm got worse the farther I went." I pointed at the scene playing out beyond the doorway. "At that point, I'd reached the library and was almost home..." Rather than drive past, that version of me actually pulled into the parking lot to wait out the storm. "In my real life, I kept going. Fell into a sinkhole. Got struck by lightning. Twice. That's how I ended up here."

She grabbed my hand. "I'm happy you kept going."

"Me too."

***

"You wouldn't dare, asshole!" The blonde bitch screamed as I lifted him into the air.

That piece of shit's smug face... I'd never forget it.

"You really don't know me." I threw him into the nearest wall. The drywall caved in around his body, making a perfect human-shaped indent in the cheap college-housing's wall.

Looking through the doorwat, I realized I knew that moment. We were at a house party. The house party. The one that ruined my life.

I'd shown up to that party late, after debating for hours whether I wanted to go or not. The thing that tipped me over the edge was when Emma reached out to tell me she was getting harassed by Bryce. Then, she messaged later saying she was way too drunk and needed help. I was out my door a minute later. When I got there, Bryce was bragging about the nerdy bitch he was about to fuck.

A couple of Emma's friends told me when I arrived that she'd thrown up for a while, then Bryce led her to his room. He'd come back down and asked around for condoms a few minutes later. He bumped into me and asked before who realized who I was.

When our eyes met, he knew he'd fucked up. Everyone knew who she hung out with: the giant guy who take every martial arts class in town and fought for money behind the campus gas station on the weekends. Not many people knew my name, but they sure as hell knew what I could do.

The rest of the party-goers made a circle around us and were chattering among one another when I grabbed his collar and lifted him into the air.

"Do you... even know... who I am?" The blonde bitch boy grabbed at my arms, making enough space that he could breathe again.

"Bryce Prescott. Wealthy failson. The biggest douchebag on campus." I pushed him through more of the drywall. "And the guy who groped Emma Miller's tits tonight after she told you to stop."

"I didn't—"

"Repeatedly."

His face dropped. "I couldn't hear her over the music."

With a growl, I asked, "Oh yeah?"

"Yeah.

"Where is she?"

"In my room."

"Why?"

"You know why."

"Explain it."

"Lightweight. She passed out."

"And why is that?"

He smirked. "Like I said: Lightweight. You know how sluts like her get when they're drunk..." Bryce smirked.

Past me pulled him close enough that I could still smell his breath, even now. Cheap beer and breath mint. "Yeah."

I remembered that moment. It was the moment I decided then that I was going to beat him until his kidneys bled. Who cared if he was a dean's son?

The problem was, even though I could have probably gotten off with a slap on the wrist given what he'd done, I didn't know how to advocate for myself back then. When that academic council asked why I did it, I got flustered and lashed out. That was when the final nail was driven into my casket. Had I known more back then...

The frat boy smirked. "You know how girls like that are, man. Even when they say no—"

Past me shook him until his teeth chattered.

The frat boy screamed, his arms flapping through the air. "W-w-wait, man!"

"You're dead." Past me thrashed him around so hard his head looked like a bobble toy.

"W-a-a-a-a-a-a-ait!!!" his voice shuddered as his limbs flopped through the air.

Slamming him back into the drywall, I held up my fist and asked, "Any last words?"

"You're done. You'll never step foot in another class again!" Bryce screeched. "My dad's a dean! You're fuc—"

"You think I fucking care?" Past me pulled his fist back. "I don't care what happens to me. You're fucked."

"Wait!"

I punched him right in his stupid mouth.

"So hot..." Vral breathed under me.

Tristan's head whipped downward. "Vral!"

"What?! It's fucking hot!" She was practically drooling. "Good boy Alex is great and all, but edgy Alex is so... Mmm..."

"Heh," I shrugged. "I got in a lot of fights when I was younger. This one was the one that mellowed me out, though. I lost everything because of it."

As I was punching that idiot's teeth in, my old watch lit up on past me's wrist. I stopped, looked at my watch, and muttered before getting back to work.

Someone had called that night...

But who?

My gut screamed at me then.

That was Stella. My sister had reached out that night, but I was busy shoving my boot down that guy's throat to answer. Then, with everything that happened after, I just didn't have it in me to talk.I couldn't handle her depression on top of my own.

She died later that month.

This was it.

"Girls..."

"We're with you," Tristan said as she took my hand.

With a deep breath, Tristan grabbed both Vral and my hands. "Go. We'll be right behind you."

Vral's fingers wove through mine. "Let's kick his cunty face in!"

With more certainty I'd ever felt, I stepped through that doorway and watched as the world bent around me. Just then, lightning flashed, the world shifted, and we were gone.