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Prologue: The Arrival     Waking up in an uncomfortable chair after what you assumed would be your last time on Earth was quite disorienting

Prologue: The Arrival

Waking up in an uncomfortable chair after what you assumed would be your last time on Earth was quite disorienting. Followed by having this nondescript guy shoving a phone into my hands and telling me to fill it out after congratulating me for getting ‘lucky’ before vanishing before my eyes only added to my confusion.

I slowly blinked as my mind finally registered that I was left alone on a small office with the only furniture being the small desk in front of me and the chair I was currently sitting on.

After spending an embarrassingly long amount of time panicking and coming to terms with the fact that I had probably died. I had no other explanation for my suddenly healthy body, I finally looked at the phone still held in my hand.

With some surprise I came upon something I had thought to be nothing more than a wish fulfillment, the Waifu Catalog. Briefly looking through it showed it had many more options than the one I was used to but then again it made sense if this was the real deal after all.

Many hours later after racking my brain trying to come up with the best build I could think of, I finally ended on something that I was content with and more importantly would hopefully yield me enough credits to buy back some of the intensities I didn’t like. Doublechecking that everything was in order my finger hovered over the Finish Build button as I took a few deep breaths to settle my nerves.

‘Well here goes nothing. Isekai life here I come!’ With a last shaky breath, I grinned widely and my finger pressed down on the button before everything went black.

=====

(Somewhere in Wales)

I don’t know how much time passed since being in that empty office and now but I felt like it had been a very long time.

It was just a feeling I had with nothing to prove it as one moment my finger was on the button and the next, I found myself waking up once again, only this time on a bed thankfully. However, I felt like there was a huge gap in my memory and that feeling only grew when I tried to recall if something had happened only to immediately stop after feeling a sharp pain in my head.

“Aargh! Note to self, stop thinking about what happened after accepting a deal with a shady company if you don’t want to have your brain scrambled.” I massaged my head slowly to relieve myself of the sudden migraine and sighing in relief when the pain passed.

“Then again it might be best if I don’t recall what happened. Better for my already dwindling sanity anyways. Well, at least until I buy the proper Defenses at the minimum.” With the pain gone I slowly stood up and took stock of my current surroundings.

I immediately noticed I was in a rather large bed with other luxurious furniture spread around the large room. Concentrating on the memories of the person I had taken over with Extra, 12 years of life experiences and memories were suddenly made fully available to me.

Thankfully, like it was explained, it was more like watching a very long movie instead of suddenly thinking of myself as the young man I had taken over.

“So, I really am alive again huh?” I whispered to myself looking down at my perfectly healthy body that was much younger than I was used to. “New face, new body, new family, new name…At least I got to keep my original hair color.” I said with a wry smile.

Not too long ago all my thoughts were focused on the fact that I had died and picking the best possible build that would allow me to pay back my loan in a world I was familiar with. With all that behind me the true meaning of being given a second chance, even if it was one beyond my control, slammed into me all at once.

I slightly regretted not getting Stress Defense for my starting build as I felt my emotions threaten to overwhelm me. It didn’t help matters that I was back to being a teenager again and I was not prepared to handle all their chaotic mood swings yet.

I was pulled from my spiraling thoughts when I heard the door to the room open and seeing a head full of red hair before I was tackled back into my bed with my attacker straddling my hips.

“Master~ You’re here! Finally! I have been waiting forever for you to arrive.” My attacker shouted with obvious joy in her voice.

Opening my eyes, I finally took a proper look at the girl above me to see an almost spitting reflection of the lamia Miia from Monster Musume, only the girl above me had actual human legs instead of a long tail. Of course, she didn’t look completely human with her red/pink scales giving her away that were visible throughout her body and her pointed red ears along with a pair of gold slitted eyes.

Searching my memories, I immediately came to an answer as to the identity of the person above me.

“Maya? Is that you?” I asked with a small blink of my eyes. “I have never seen you take this form before.”

Maya being the Horned Serpent I had chosen as my free Companion/Familiar for my build. Apparently the First Contractor had taken an interest in me and had decided to become my Patron on a whim. As a reward for catching its attention, the First Contractor offered everyone under their wing a free tier 5 or below companion.

Not wanting to waste such an opportunity I had decided on a Horned Serpent that I had renamed to Maya and given her the Anthropize perk hence her current appearance.

“Hihihi of course it is silly~” Maya said with a small giggle while poking my nose teasingly. “And I never took this form before because I wanted you to be the first to see it of course~”

Blinking again at her response my mind quickly processed what she meant by that. ‘So, she has been ‘awake’ shall we say, for a while now and was waiting for me to arrive. If that’s the case then the Company must have told her the exact day I would ‘arrive’ if she’s here now.’ I thought silently.

“So, you already knew I was coming.” I stated more than asked and receiving a wink in return I continued. “What do you know?”

Shrugging her shoulders Maya answered my question never moving from her spot above me and on the contrary getting more comfortable. “The most important things I would say. How you are my true Master with the one before only being an empty shell until your arrival. How we need to pay off a debt before the weeks end and collect more credits by Stamping other beings.”

Pausing for a moment, Maya then stretched her arms up giving me an ample view of her wonderful breasts before continuing unaware of what she probably did. “That’s about it really. Though with the current school year approaching I don’t foresee we’ll have any difficulties with this. Then again that’s why you chose this specific timeline right? Hihihi as expected of Master~”

Letting out a sigh of relief I relaxed being grateful that I wouldn’t have to explain too much. Even if it was barely morning, I already felt mentally exhausted. After literally dying, being offered a second chance and waking up in a strange place with years of memories not my own being crammed into my head, I just wanted to call this day done and go to sleep.

“That was the plan.” I said with a nod. “According to my memories today should be 10 February, 1991. Correct?” I asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Mmn, what’s on your mind Master? Any particular reason why the date is important?” Maya asked curiously with her head cutely tilted to the side.

“Yes, it pertains to a Mission I took. Here, take a look.” I nodded my head before I willed my Company Phone to appear finding it a little curious that the phone was a modern one from my time which shouldn’t exist yet in 1991.

Scrolling to the current missions I handed my phone to Maya who took it from my hands with a cute look on her face. Luckily due to Grail Knowledge she knew how to use it.

Lovegood Savior

Pandora (or Selene, if you're going with fanon) Lovegood died horrible right in front of her daughter Luna. This mentally scarred Luna and emotionally devastated both her and her father, leading to an absolutely terrible time had by all. The Company could always use more good karma to offset the bad, so we want you to fix it.

Conditions:

You may enter the world of Harry Potter [DR3] any time up to one year before Selene Lovegood's death (between 13 February 1990 and 12 February 1991, adjusted for Meta Shift and similar)

If this conflicts with another time-adjustment by less than a year, you may elect to start at the earlier of the two dates.

Prevent the death of Pandora Lovegood due to a spell experiment gone horribly wrong

You may Capture, but cannot Sell, kill, or permanently separate Pandora, Xenophilius, and/or Luna Lovegood for one year after completing the mission or as for long as any of them are members of your retinue, whichever is longer.

Reward [ Credits ] :40

Additional objectives:

Objective 1: Accomplish the objective without anyone knowing you were involved

Reward [ Perks ] : Communication Talent, Covert Talent, Performance Talent

Objective 2: Accomplish the secondary stealth objective in a way that makes the danger clear to everyone involved

Reward [ Perks ] : Talent Sharing for Communication, Covert, and Performance Talents

Objective 3: Accomplish the main objective in a way that makes it clear to everyone involved that you saved them

Reward [ Perks ] : White Knight lure

Objective 4: Accomplish the primary objective by allowing the accident to happen, then healing Pandora enough that she survives

Reward [ Perks ] : Florence Nightingale lure

Objective 5: Accomplish the secondary healing objective, but restore Pandora to full health instead of settling for survival

Reward [ Perks ] : Hypnos lure

Objective 6: Accomplish either of the secondary objectives in a way that makes the danger clear to everyone involved

Reward [ Other ] : A set of spells and standard practices to safeguard against future accidents during spell creation, editing, and experimentation

“Hmm so we have to rescue this woman huh?” Maya muttered softly before looking at me. “Master, if the worst should happen and the woman still ends up injured, do you have the means to heal her? While I knew of your arrival and our overall goal, I’m afraid I was not informed of your current abilities.”

“Don’t worry. I made sure to pick a specific set of abilities just for that reason though I’ll leave that as a surprise for now.” I reassured the redhead with a smile.

“Alright, if you say so Master~” Maya was quick respond seeming satisfied with my answer and went back to cuddling up to me.

Any further conversation was interrupted as we heard an almost silent pop in the room accompanied by an excited squeak.

“Master Aether sir! You be all better now! Popsey was being worried about you since you hurt your head yesterday. Oh! You be having gue…Snakey?” Popsey, my family elf, said with a squeaky voice as she looked at Maya in slight shock at seeing her in that form.

‘So, she did recognize her.’ I thought silently looking at the house elf with a curious look.

Popsey had been the family elf since shortly before the boy I had replaced had been born so she had been taking care of ‘me’ since I was a baby. I had been extremely fortunate that the person I had taken over came from a prominent pureblood family hailing from Spain.

Normally that would mean that the school I would end up attending to was Beauxbatons but due to some unfortunate circumstances i.e., Company shenanigans, that was no longer the case.

My face turned blank at recalling how I found myself in southern Wales in a Manor that my family owned when the majority of memories that I recalled were of his birthplace in Asturias, Spain. It was the basic sob story of a boy growing up lonely due to his parents being too busy to pay attention to him with his only constant companion since birth being the elf in front of me.

Then we have the whole parents dying cliché, leaving the child all alone and the boy not wanting to stay in a house that reminded him of his parents moving away to a new country to start over.

To finish it off, we have the child hitting his head ‘accidentally’ while playing on his new broom and falling unconscious for a few hours or days. That would then leave me an opportunity to slip in unnoticed and if my behavior was called upon, I could just blame it on amnesia due to the fall.

Honestly if it wasn’t for the memories of everything happening in that particular order, I would call this background bullshit and only built for the benefit of myself, a Contractor, having an easy seamless insertion. After all it was simple inserting someone new to an already soulless body and just healing the body afterwards to make it seem like an accident.

Those were my thoughts on the matter anyway.

I was brought back to the present when I noticed the worried looks Maya and Popsey were sending my way. Mentally shaking my head at those thoughts, I resolved myself to live the life that both my past self and other ‘me’ had wanted. A life lived to the fullest but most importantly a life lived without regrets.

Where that path led me was unknown to me but that honestly made it more exciting to me.

“I guess proper introductions are in order. Popsey allow me to introduce you to my lovely companion, Maya. The familiar that you have known until now as ‘Snakey’.” I smiled and sat up ending up almost face to face with Maya.

“Now Maya, allow me to introduce you to the kindest and most loyal elf on this world, Popsey. She has been looking over me since I was a toddler and I have nothing but gratitude and appreciation for her for being with me all these years.”

Popsey only got more bashful the more I spoke with a few tears even going down her cheeks at my words.

“Hello Popsey. It’s good to finally meet you properly. You may call me Maya from now on.” Maya said snuggling into my chest and giving the elf a smile.

“Nice to meet you miss Maya. Popsey is being so glad that master Aether had someone other than Popsey to keeps him company. Popsey has never seen master smile this much since he was littler than Popsey. Oh, this be a joyous day indeed, Popsey be making a feast in celebration.” Popsey babbled happily before she popped away no doubt to prepare said feast.

‘That’s right. My name is now Aether. Aether Cordelia. Better get used to responding to that name if I don’t want to appear suspicious.’ I thought privately.

“Food huh? Been a long time since I’ve been able to eat proper food.” I murmured quietly with Maya, who frowned at hearing what I said, snuggled to me closer.

“Well, it will be nice to eat something else than eggs and rodents.” Maya said casually, smirking when she felt me shudder in disgust.

=====

(2 Hours Later)

A few hours later we headed outside to explore the property and to walk off the bloated feeling we currently felt after the feast Popsey threw for us.

“That was delicious!” Maya said walking to my side and with my hand between her breasts.

““Haha, if you’re impressed now, wait until I get the Faerie Feast perk then you’ll see what the word delicious really means.” I said with a relaxed smile on my face.

“Oooh, I can’t wait then!” Maya said with a small giggle before looking around us. “This place seems much bigger now that I’m in this form.”

“This is actually much smaller than the Cordelia Ancestral home where we were before. It’s much more beautiful though in my opinion.” I commented looking around at the beautiful scenery myself.

The manor we were currently living on was surrounded by trees on all sides and about half an hour away from any civilization so we didn’t have any pesky neighbors thankfully.

It took us a few more minutes before we arrived at the edge of the lake surrounding the manor. Stopping I sat down on the grass and made myself comfortable with Maya letting go of me and running straight into the lake and diving head first causing a huge splash getting me a bit wet.

“Tsk cheeky snake.” I clicked my tongue in slight annoyance before a smile replaced it. “Though I guess I really can’t blame her. It’s rather peaceful here.”

Fully laying down on the soft grass I watched the clouds roll by not even batting an eye when seconds later the water rose in front of me and a huge figure was revealed.

Smiling I looked up into the original from of my familiar, this time being technically the first time I had seen her in this form and felt my heart race a bit. ‘It’s surreal that I’m not scared of her at all when in any other circumstance I would be screaming my lungs off by now.’

“Haah, nothing beats going for a good swim after a big meal.” Maya hissed happily or I think that was a happy hiss as I had no idea what she said at all.

Acquired Skill: Parseltongue Language

‘Never mind. Seems I won’t have to worry about it anymore.’ I thought with a sweat drop at seeing my Template already doing its thing.

“Oops, sorry Master. Forgot you didn’t speak Parseltongue.” Maya attempted to apologize a moment later now speaking English again sounding sheepish.

“Actually, keep speaking in Parseltongue. I just acquired the skill and I want to level it up.” I dismissed her worries with a wave of my hand.

It was funny seeing a 10m snake blink in astonishment let me just say.

“Amazing as always master~” Maya hissed reverting back to Parseltongue.

Since the skill was currently only at level one, I still had trouble understanding her perfectly but I got most of it and if I didn’t understand something I could just ask her anyway.

I just smiled when Maya suddenly went on a long ramble about something underwater nodding along here and there to make it seem as I was paying attention. Instead, I focused my attention on Maya herself and how magnificent she looked and not to mention intelligent.

Maya was by far the smartest snake I had ever heard about in this world. It was no wonder she was considered a XXXXX creature, up there with the Basilisk and Dragons. Maya in particular was extra rare though as her species was now extinct due to being over hunted. Her red scales gave away her species instantly as probably the last of the Garnet Horned Serpents that used to call Western Europe their home.

With the Company however the word extinct held no meaning whatsoever and now I found myself with one of the rarest creatures in the world living in the lake next to my house. I probably would have been more worried about someone finding out about her if she couldn’t disguise herself by going into her human form.

‘Seems I truly lucked out for my starting world. My first capture was pretty much handed to me on a silver platter.’ I thought silently pulling out my company phone and looking at the timer counting down until Popsey was captured.

“Master!” Maya suddenly yelled in English grabbing my attention.

Turning back to Maya I blinked at seeing her seemingly pout? Could snakes pout?

“I knew it! You weren’t paying attention, were you? Hmph, and here I was going to tell you that I found a target close by you could Stamp.” Maya huffed turning her head away from me.

“What? You were?” I asked in curiosity before the rest of what she said finally registered. “Wait! Wait! Can we talk about this please?”

“Hmph!”

In the end it took me a few minutes and a promise to convince her to tell me what she knew. Apparently, there was a Boggart in the attic that had moved in while the house was empty.

With Maya back in her human form, we headed back inside after enjoying the day for a few more hours and went straight to the attic where the Boggart was.

When we finally reached it, we stopped and I took a nervous breath already having an idea what I would see in there. Feeling a small hand gently grab my own and squeeze it I turned to Maya who was giving me a worried look and tried to smile at her only managing a small grimace.

“You don’t have to be the one to do this Master. I’m more than capable of doing this if you want.” Maya softly whispered.

Taking another breath, I squeezed her hand back once before releasing it and giving her a proper smile. “No. I have to do this if I want to ever truly move on from my past.” I said with a clear voice.

Then taking a few steps forward I stopped when an old wardrove suddenly opened and out of its confines appeared…another me.

Well, that was technically incorrect. While it was true that the person in front of me was me…it was the past me. Looking just as frail and pale as I remembered while wearing dirty rags for clothing.

“Do you think you actually escaped that life?” My other self said with a blank face while tilting his head. “That this is actually not just a dream you’ve dreamed up just like the thousands you have before?”

Closing my eyes for a moment I took a deep breath and released it slowly before opening my eyes again and looking at my previous self with a small happy smile. “It’s alright now. We’re finally free from that life.” I whispered softly and slowly walked forward.

“Lies! All lies! As soon as you wake up tomorrow, you’ll be back in that life!” My other self, denied fiercely.

Acquired Skill: Fear Resistance

Acquired Skill: Mind Resistance

With that last notification any remaining doubt was wiped away from my mind and I felt an immense weight lift from my shoulders. Without saying anything more I walked towards my other self and stamped it on the forehead before pulling away when the 3 seconds were up.

“Your words no longer have any effect. You have my thanks however for finally making me face my fears directly.” I said the smile never leaving my face before I suddenly backhanded my other self in the face sending it back towards the wardrove where it closed once more leaving the room silent.

Well for a moment at least.

“Well done, Master~ I knew you could do it~” Maya squealed in happiness behind me before she jumped on my back and wrapped her hands and legs around me.

“Hahaha thanks Maya.” I let out a small laugh and thanked the girl silently wiping the stray tear that had leaked down my eye.

That night I had one of the most peaceful rests I had in a long time and it was not just due to the hot redhead snuggled into my side in only a pair of panties.