My best friend is a famous, dopey painter who knows nothing about daily necessities and is completely useless outside of painting. He treats art as his life, and now I'm his life.
My best friend's friend, and my second-best friend, is also from a wealthy family. Unlike the two of us idiots, who can spend a whole day happily enjoying the simplest things, he always seems like a philosopher or a moralist. His words are so sharp and his arguments so incisive that you always feel like, "I think I just got insulted. I'm not sure. Let me listen a little more," and by the time he's done, he's sold you off and you're still counting the money for him.
Unlike me, who sneaks out without permission, and the painter, whose brain is full of nothing but art, he believes in his own theory: extreme pleasure and materialism. He's explosively controlling, and seems cynical and disdainful of convention.
Sigh. What can you do? He's your friend, after all. I signed him up for psychological trauma treatment with some association, tears in my eyes.
I'm lucky, because I was born in a highly secure nest under the jurisdiction of the Wings. As for my family, both my parents are gone, and my grandfather is the family's highest authority.
I'm also unlucky, because one day my crazy fan ambushed me, hit me with a stick, and gave me an epiphany that awakened my memories of a previous life.
I've changed since that day, for the better, the painter said.
I couldn't disagree. I mean, what could be more devastating than discovering that you're the protagonist of The Picture of Dorian Gray? If anything could top that, it would be finding out that my friends and I are the Dorian Gray's Portrait trio in Project Moon.
And right now, there's no Limbus Company. That's probably the only good thing. It means I have a chance to sneak onto the Limbus Bus and tag along with the protagonist group.
If this were a normal book, I'd definitely choose to become a better person and stay away from the doom flags and the direct cause of disaster, Count Henry. Good grief, Henry is my friend Harry.
But in Project Moon's world, a dystopia where people eat people and there's no order or peace, don't be an NPC in a Project Moon story, or you'll end up miserable.
I worked myself into a state of extreme anxiety as I tried to escape the fate laid out for Dorian Gray in the Project Moon version of the story. I still wanted to become a better person. I didn't want my sometimes-dopey but lovable painter friend to die. I wanted to protect my friends.
At last, I made it onto the bus. With my buffs stacked and so many elements thrown together, I thought the doom flag was separated from me and my friends by the entire Pacific Ocean, when...
Basil.
My best friend, the painter.
He died.
*
I snapped right then and there. Awesome!
1. The protagonist is from Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray.
2. The protagonist's characterization combines the movie and novel versions, and the transmigration element means there are plenty of original interpretations.
Theme: Happiness
