#and food. and sleep. and gotta get to work tomorrow ahhhggg

[fictionalcreator]

okay saw ur tags (brilliant btw <3) tell me more about tcf and where i should read it? 👀

YES, GLADY

Okay okay, so, first things first, you can find it over at the good folks of EatApplePies, who also host The Third Wheel Strikes back if you want yet another surprising deeply developed fantasy novel with a self-sacrificing protagonist in a multiple transmigrator scenario, only this one has a gentler protagonist (who can’t stop getting targeted for assassination) and also comes with thinly-veiled canon gay marriage. Huzzah!

Not that tcf isn’t ripe with shipping potential, but as of chapter 400 no one has proposed that protag marry the Crown Prince, which is a thing that does happen around chapter 200 or so of TWSB! What can I say? Stepmom goes hard to bat for her kid.

Anyway I’ve gotten off track.

Honestly, if you’ve read ORV and/or S Classes That I’ve Raised then you’ll enjoy going in mostly blind.

I know that I was initially turned off my first attempt at reading because I couldn’t quite get into Cale as a protagonist and felt that his team was getting too powerful too easily. The first arc or so can feel like things are simply happening too smoothly? And Cale adapting to his new role so quickly doesn’t help. But I can assure you all that does not last lmao

Cale slowly reveals his layers as a person (sometimes very slowly)(but the things he reveals. Oh man. I am chewing on him. Shaking him like a ragdoll. “Emotional alienation” is a fucking UNDERSTATEMENT jfc), and before you get disappointed at how easily the team acquires op abilities, ask yourself: “what could they possibly be facing in the future that requires they have all of this strength?”

As for the actual elevator pitch…uh, i’ll put it under this cut, this is already kinda long lmao

So, imagine, you’re Kim Rok Soo. You’re taking your first day off in, what, 10, maybe 15 years? (First day off from what? Don’t worry about it)

You decide to spend that time binge-reading a novel an old co-worker recommended. You get to volume 5 before you pass out, but when you wake up, you find that you are now in possession of the body of Cale Hentinuse, eldest son of Count Deruth Hentinuse, and minor villain of that novel, who insulted the protagonist, got beaten up for it, and wasn’t really seen nor heard from again.

Cale Hentinuse is generally known as the trash of the count’s family (hence the title). He spends his time drinking and getting into fights. He hasn’t been the family representative to the capital in years. But Kim Rok Soo takes only one lesson away from the label of “trash:” trash is someone who does whatever they want.

And if what he wants is to avoid getting beaten up by the protagonist, transmigrator Choi Han, instead dragging him home to get fed and washed up like a dog, then so be it. Hope this doesn’t inspire a life-or-death loyalty that will prove completely unshakable! ‘Cause Cale is totally thinking of sending the protagonist on his way so that he can hang back and live the slacker’s life in the background. Yeah that’ll totally work out no problem guaranteed 👍

So what if he acts a bit willfully here in there? Doing things like saving the young dragon and helping a man fated to die dodge that fate? He’s still going to take those powers he read about for himself. He needs those to be strong enough to live in a land where turning over a stone can reveal a dozen deadly hidden experts. And doing something so self-interested…that’s enough to make him the bad guy here, right?

Right. That’s how these things work (don’t question his logic or why he thinks of the concept of selfishness in such terms shhhh)

But even if it’s selfish, it’s not like he’s gonna stop. After all, they have a war to prepare for. One that will rock the whole Roan Kingdom. Possibly the whole continent. Cale needs every chip he can get in the game if he wants to keep his home safe.

After all, how can you lead the proper slacker life if you’re worried about global political instability dragging your friends (and family!) into conflict?

PS Children aren’t meant to fight wars. The weak should be protected. Just because it’s unpleasant doesn’t mean it will not be done.

PPS if you want to see me yell about this book in real time i’ve been tagging my posts abt it with “tcf novel” and “fict’s ramblings” but of course spoilers up to chapter 400/776 for the most recent posts