Fatebound Dice

Chapter 4 – A Muggle’s Diary

"A notebook left behind by Jomoya Chris?"

Chen Qi’s once indifferent attitude changed instantly—after all, he was Jomoya Chris now.

"Why?"

"Why am I a powerless Muggle who can’t awaken magic!"

"Damn Taimoya Magic Academy, trying to persuade me to quit!"

The very first entry in the diary instantly stirred Chen Qi’s spirits.

Through this diary, he seemed to have stumbled upon a world he had never even heard of before.

Muggle… magic power… Taimoya Magic Academy…

Chen Qi silently marked these keywords, committing them to memory.

"My first-generation ancestor once followed the great Pirate King, making countless small nations tremble under our family crest."

"My seventh-generation ancestor completed the conquest of Continent 073, a feat forever recorded in human history."

"Curse the thirteenth-generation ancestor for losing the family’s magical heritage."

"Yet even so, the Chris family has prospered for hundreds of years!"

"So why is it, in my generation, I can’t even awaken magic power?"

"I am unwilling! I refuse to accept this!"

"I will not submit to fate…"

Jomoya wrote in the world government’s designated human lingua franca, so Chen Qi had no difficulty reading.

It was easy for him to understand the bitterness and resentment between the lines—and even feel a faint sense of connection.

Clearly, dissatisfaction with fate wasn’t his burden alone.

The following entries were mostly Jomoya’s personal venting.

Until one day, three months later, the tone changed.

"Hahaha, Heaven never bars one’s way!"

"Today I discovered a secret from the Dark World."

"A powerful demon, in exchange for an entire small kingdom, has set up something called the ‘King’s Game.’"

"According to the information I’ve obtained, as long as you become a player, you can gain extraordinary power. And if you kill the King and end the game, you can share in the demon’s power."

"This is my chance to defy fate! The glory of the Chris family will bloom again in my hands."

From these words, Chen Qi also learned the origin of the King’s Game.

"A demon created the King’s Game?"

The world felt more and more fantastical to Chen Qi. Demons—legendary beings who fed on human souls and committed every evil—were real.

The “small kingdom” used as the price… that must have been the Blue Taro Kingdom.

Yet what puzzled Chen Qi was that the Blue Taro Kingdom wasn’t isolated from the world, nor was it cut off from global affairs.

Its people weren’t living in misery—in fact, among small nations, Blue Taro was one of the happiest.

So what exactly had been the cost?

Even more confusing was the demon’s motive. Could it be… just for amusement?

A “hero fights demon” plot in reality felt absurd.

Instinctively, Chen Qi began doubting Jomoya’s second-hand tale.

Still, that didn’t stop him from reading on—after all, more knowledge never hurt.

"Hmph, a bunch of frogs in a well, all obstacles in my path."

"They say I’m being deceived, that ‘heaven won’t drop pies from the sky,’ that it must be a trap. They even talk about reporting it to the school. Such friends aren’t worth keeping."

"Since that’s the case, don’t blame me for being ruthless."

After this, the diary stopped for half a year. Clearly, something major had happened.

"Hahaha, my decision was right after all."

"So what if I’m wanted by the Magic Academy? The Chris family has only me left. I sold off all our assets in exchange for a single source ore."

"After arriving in the Blue Taro Kingdom, I discovered an unbelievable secret!"

"Humans… are terrifying!"

At this point, Chen Qi frowned—when he had “raided the house” earlier, he hadn’t found any ore.

As for that “secret,” Jomoya hadn’t written it down at all.

Of course, no sane person would put all their secrets in a diary.

A glance at the date showed: February, Year 17644—the very year the Chris Trading Company was founded.

It seemed Jomoya had been well-prepared indeed.

"Hmm, strange."

As Chen Qi turned the pages, he found the text suddenly changed into an unfamiliar script he couldn’t read.

After flipping through more than a dozen such pages, a new, unfamiliar handwriting appeared—this time, in the lingua franca:

"Damn it, I’ve hated studying all my life!"

"Jomoya Chris, you deserved to die. Rare as it was for me to study hard, I almost got killed thanks to you."

This “gentleman” who hated studying had even circled one particular sentence in Jomoya’s diary.

Clearly, this was the trap.

Unfortunately, Chen Qi couldn’t understand what that circled sentence meant.

Still, he had a good guess who this “gentleman” was.

The diary continued in cipher mode until the final page.

It was stained with blood. In his last moments, Jomoya had once again written in the lingua franca:

"I hate it! So the card I’ve held all along was a certain-death card!"

"But I won’t accept it—there must be a way to turn the tables!"

"I, Jomoya Chris, swear that even in death, I will kill that person! The glory of the Chris family shall not be defiled!"

"To the player who inherits this card: I hope you’ll keep the game role of ‘Jomoya Chris.’ As payment, you can have the knowledge I took from Taimoya Magic Academy—it’s the key to your survival. As for the Chris Group, it’s yours."

"If you want to live… study hard, hahaha!"

—Jomoya Chris, June 7th, Year 17648.

Jomoya Chris had died five months ago.

"A certain-death card?"

Chen Qi’s heart tightened. It seemed that while his “new life” might be exciting, it might not last long.

Still, with two wishes left, he wasn’t overly pessimistic.

On this bloodstained will, that “gentleman” appeared again:

"Jomoya Chris, I accept your request. And thanks for the Chris Group—being rich is amazing."

"As thanks, I planned to bury your body a little deeper, but I’m a homeless man and haven’t eaten in days… so I just made do."

(Note: I inherited your identity, and I was so happy I wanted to dig you up and cremate you again. Sadly, it seems a dog beat me to it.)

Reading this, Chen Qi felt genuine sympathy for Jomoya. If his guess was right, that black dog must have been plump and well-fed.

Flipping the page, he thought it was over—only to find a “bonus surprise.”

"I am Erand Zov. I was once a homeless man, but fate has granted me a new life."

"So from now on, it’s my turn to keep this diary!"