Chapter Text
Basil led an unlucky life.
It was mostly boring.
He sighed as he opened his house door, greeting Polly, his housekeeper, with a smile, telling her about some of the things that happened at school that day.
"Well, at least it's a Friday." He hadn't told her about the bullying yet, just the rest of his exhausting school life. Worrying her needlessly would be selfish, after all.
As soon as he closed the door to his room, he immediately threw his bag across the room, grabbing a book he had left on his bed in the morning.
You see, his parents had basically dumped him with his grandma to take care of, which she did very well. He had no friends and was bullied, but it was okay because he could trust her. Basil would always tell her the latest school drama and they would laugh with cups of lemonade. Sometimes, the housekeeper, Polly, would join in. Basil begged his grandma not to tell her about the bullying. She agreed.
"I won't tell her, but are you sure you don't want to?"
The answer would always be no, and she would never tell. She wouldn't lie about something like that. And that was why he could trust her, as she did him.
But she had slowly gotten weaker in her older years.
And then, she died.
Basil had considered following her for a while.
When he was in a bookstore to get a textbook one day, he had accidentally dropped a massive book on his foot.
What bad luck, as always.
He almost screeched in pain.
Why was the book so massive?!?!
But he ended up getting it along with the textbook. He didn't actually know why, but his parents threw money at him like he was a bank, so why not take another book?
He dropped his bag in his room as usual, opening the cover of the massive book.
It ended up being an obsession.
Honestly, Basil could understand the villain of the books, Prince Sunny Suzuki.
He was bullied as well, his sister Mari had died but his parents blamed him, throwing him in a dungeon. When he finally lashed out and became a tyrant, the hero of the story, nicknamed Hero (how original) had tried to stop him.
But for what? If he had been through the same things Sunny had, he would have also lashed out.
Probably more because he seemed more emotional than Sunny.
He had sped through the first and second book, which made him now at the finale of the trilogy.
Each book was about 700 pages, which seemed like a lot but wasn't when you really got into the amazing writing. Basil had to applaud the author; they were apparently struggling with money but their books still drew you into their universe. That was a hard trait to find, especially in 2026 when the quality of books was slowly deteriorating and were mostly random half-baked romances.
After four hours of reading, excluding the time he took to eat his dinner, he doomscrolled for a while before going to sleep.
Another unlucky thing was that Basil's day-to-day life was all the same, boring a lot of the time.
And he hated boredom.
He put his phone on his bedside table and went to sleep.
Basil woke up and sighed.
At least he didn't have school today... right?
It's a sunny day... And Alex and his lackeys aren't in town today.
He remembered them boasting to him about how they were going out on a road trip or some shit, as if he would be jealous of being stuck in a stuffy car for hours on end. Really, he would rather be gardening: picking out weeds was relaxing anyway and he loved putting flowers or pins in his hair, regardless of whether he'd get bullied for it or not.
Getting ready, Basil looked in the mirror and smiled, fixing his pin on his hair
Today is going to be a good day.
He went downstairs to say goodbye to Polly and let her know that he was going out, but she was nowhere to be seen. "Polly?" Maybe she was late. He looked at the time on his phone. Five hours late? Well, maybe she was sick.
The last person who cared about him couldn't leave him, after all.
He didn't know what he would do if she did.
Well, she wouldn't. It's probably just paranoia.
Walking towards the kitchen to make himself breakfast, Basil decided to listen to his music playlist without earbuds, as he was clearly home alone. He only had one, and it was all jumbled up.
Oh well. Today's gonna be a good day, so that doesn't matter.
Basil hummed along to the lyrics as he made himself cereal; he hadn't quite memorized them yet.
Grabbing some generic brand from the cupboard, he poured the cereal into the bowl.
A letter stood out to him on the counter. After checking it was for him, he opened it to see if was from Polly.
Basil smiled.
He already knew she was sick, so she didn't need to write a whole letter...
He opened it nonetheless, because the letter was for him, after all.
'Dear Basil,
I am terribly sorry. This letter is short but it's important.
I wanted to tell you that your parents have dismissed me permanently.'
Basil's world stopped. The words seemed to blur as he heard the words,
It's still as a pond
I am staring into
'It wasn't my choice. Your parents told me that you were old enough to be staying in your own. Your father said that if I came there again after packing up my things or maintained contact with you, they would call the police on me. They gave me three hours to pack and leave, but it was late at night, so you probably didn't hear.
I left some supplies so you don't find cleaning too hard. I hope you don't feel too lonely.
Basil, I have always selfishly thought of you as my son. So, thank you for the time you spent with me.'
From here I can say
Thank you
'Goodbye.
Love from Polly.'
From here I can tell you
Thank you
If there were any other words, he couldn't see them because his eyes were overflowing with tears.
...That was just his luck, wasn't it?
Basil should be thanking her. Not the other way around.
If not for her, he wouldn't have even lived through his grandma's death.
He barely registered the spilled milk from the carton on the floor and his clothes. He didn't even remember dropping it. All he could do was wallow in despair, alone in the old mansion.
How could they do this???
They haven't even bothered to visit him for, what, eight years?!
And they take away the one person who actually cared about him since his grandma.
The fuckers hadn't even gone to her funeral.
Why was this happening to him???
Why not them?
His heart ached and clenched in pure agony.
He sobbed angrily, uncontrollably, inconsolable on the kitchen floor.
And begged for the ceiling to fall or something so he could escape this despair.
...How long had it been? The sun seemed higher in the sky. He brought out his phone, checking the time. 3:56pm. He struggled to see from how long he had been crying.
Basil sighed as he realised once he finished the book, he would have no reason to live.
There was no point going out today. He didn't have to look in a mirror to know he looked like shit that even the best skincare routine couldn't fix.
Might as well start cleaning. Polly wanted him to, after all.
His heart felt numb, a contrast to the burning, aching pain he felt as he was crying.
He got some cleaning supplies from the utility room and started.
It took forever and no time at all.
Basil went to his room to read the rest of the book.
'Hero choked out, "Why are you doing this? Mari wouldn't-"
"Don't you fucking dare talk about her. You pathetic excuse for a boyfriend. You knew she was going to- to go to that damned, crumbling cottage. Why didn't you do anything?!" Sunny attacked, his sword slicing Hero's armour.
He had just narrowly dodged the brunt of the sword. It would have killed him.
"Because I was going to as well."
Sunny flinched, a moment of weakness showing as he realised Hero could have died too. "So why didn't you?"
"I-'
What?
Was there a mistake in the printing?
Basil flipped the remaining pages of the book, but they still remained empty.
He immediately grabbed his phone, searching for the book online.
'The author of "Sunny Days" has decided to quit the series. The unfinished third book has stumped many as..."
...Just his luck, wasn't it?
He kicked the wall with all his strength. It felt good.
So he did it again.
And again.
And again, an endless amount of times.
But he failed to notice the cracks forming along the walls.
So he kicked the wall again.
And the ceiling cracked and crumbled.
"The fuck?" Basil said to himself as he zoned back in, out of his trance.
"... Seriously?" He deadpanned. When he wanted the ceiling to fall, he didn't mean literally... He looked up to see a massive chunk of the ceiling falling directly above his head.
"Basil? Basil! Wake up!"
He opened his eyes to see- wait, his eyes shouldn't be open at all?? Basil blinked in confusion as he realised that he was looking at a perfect description of a background character's bedroom from "Sunny Days".
The same one who died in the second book.
He grimaced, remembering the facts about the duke.
He had the same name as him... He also was a bit of an asshole. Basil noted that he should change how he acted to not die gruesomely again.
And he had an older sister, whose name was Rose. She was quite nice, but around when Basil realised she was going to be the success and not him, he started being a bitch about it.
In true asshole fashion.
But he had a bigger problem...
Isekaiing is only for fictional characters, right???