Literature / Roll Over and Die

We'll be together forever, Milkit!

Flum Apricot was chosen by the God Origin to be a member of a party of heroes, but she doesn't understand why. She was born with a unique Affinity called "Reversal" that leaves her with zero stats across the board, and has no way to contribute to the journey. Things only get worse when the party's sage, Jean Inteige, arranges to have her sold into slavery, declaring her to be nothing but dead weight. Her new, horrible life as a slave doesn't last long though, as the slaver who bought her decides to feed her and other "useless" slaves to ghouls for fun. For extra sadistic pleasure, he even leaves a cursed weapon that melts the body close just to give false hope to them.

And yet this ends up giving Flum real hope. As her wounds are healed and she gains new strength, Flum finally discovers what her "Reversal" means. Changing the curse of the weapon into a blessing, the seemingly useless Affinity allows her to kill the monsters and the slaver, marking the start of her new journey to survive in a cruel and unfair world, full of dark secrets that soon appear before her. But before that, she decides to bring with her Milkit, the only other slave to survive the massacre. She didn't know at the time, but the quiet girl will become the most important person in her life.

"Omae Gotoki ga Maou ni Kateru to Omou na" to Gachizei ni Yuusha Party wo Tsuihou Sareta node, Outo de Kimama ni Kurashitai (literally, "I Was Told That I Wouldn’t Be Able To Defeat The Demon Lord And Kicked Out Of The Hero’s Party, So Now I Just Want An Ordinary Life In The Capital") is a Web Novel written by Kiki of the Yuri Genre. The Web Novel completed its run with a total of 141 main chapters and several extra chapters, divided into 10 arcs (or "Episodes"), but the author occasionally updates the series with a new side story chapter. It has an ongoing Light Novel adaptation with expanded storylines and illustrations by Kinta. The Light Novel is published under the GC Novels label, with the first volume released on July 2018 and a total of four volumes as of 2021. A manga adaptation illustrated by Sunao Minakata began serialization in December 2018 and has two volumes released as of May 2021.

Both Light Novel and manga were licensed by Seven Seas Entertainment on February 21st, 2020 for English distribution under the title "ROLL OVER AND DIE: I Will Fight for an Ordinary Life with My Love and Cursed Sword!". The first volume of the Light Novel was released in the West on September 2020, while the first volume of the manga was released on March 2021.

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Associated Tropes:

• Adaptation Deviation: Kiki outright states in the author notes that he has made numerous changes from the web novel to the official Light Novel. One of the biggest examples being Ottilie firmly being on Flum’s side from the start.
  • In Manga Volume 03, an original manga plotline is created that involves Dein kidnapping Milkit along with Mother/Mich and the Spiral Children being introduced to plot earlier than in the Light Novel or Web Novel.
• Adaptational Early Appearance:
  • As part of the Adaptation Expansion of the Light Novels, Ottilie and Henriette are introduced and given a role in the plot as early as Volume 2/Episode 3, way before they were introduced in the Web Novel.
  • An example for a species rather than a character. The Chimeras created by the Church first showed up in Episode 2 in both the Web Novel and the Light Novel versions. The Manga adaptation however, has a Chimera Prototype show up during Flum's first quest in Episode 1, replacing the Anzu that Flum had to defeat in the original version of the story.
• Adaptation Expansion: The Light Novel version starts expanding the plot of the original Web Novel beginning with Volume 2/Episode 3. Some scenes and conversations become longer, some characters appear earlier, and new subplots are created.
• Aerith and Bob: Human characters are given a mix of real names (and even then, it's a Melting-Pot Nomenclature) and random words that sound like Western names, as exemplified by the Hero's Party: Flum Apricot, Cyrill Sweechka, Jean Inteige, Linus Radiant, Maria Affenjenz, Gadhio Lathcutt and Eterna Rinebow. Demons, on the other hand, are given intentionally bizarre names, like Neigass, Tsyon, Dhiza and Sheitoom.
  • It sometimes results in pretty hilarious combos. Cyrill is a male name primarly used in Slavic countries, and her surname sounds exactly like Ukrainian word for candle.
• Amazing Technicolor Population: One of the notable physical differences between demons and humans is that demons have blue skin.
• Amnesia Episode: In a side story episode that takes place after the end of the series, Milkit loses her memories due hitting her head. Milkit even forgets that she and Flum are married. Milkit regains her memory the following day partly due to Flum's affection, and she even forgets that she had amnesia in the first place.
• Anywhere but Their Lips: Milkit kisses Flum on the cheek partway through Volume 04/Episode 05 before they have to part ways. Even after that, Flum still doesn’t get that Milkit is in love with her.
• Assimilation Plot: The true reason behind Origin's Omnicidal Maniac tendencies, as revealed by Neigass: he wants to end conflict by consuming the minds of everyone within himself, making so there is only one living being on the planet.
• Author Appeal: As the author puts it in the afterword, it's "a mishmash of all of [their] interests: fantasy, lesbian romance, horror, and fight scenes."
• Big Damn Heroes: In Volume 02/Episode 03, Ottilie Fohkelpi prevents Flum from being overwhelmed by Dein’s forces.
• Body Horror: There is no shortage of people mutilated in horrific ways, especially those affected by the power of Origin.
• Bridal Carry: For the cover of the first manga volume, Flum is depicted as holding Milkit in this fashion. She does it quite often throughout the series.
  • At the end of Volume 04/Episode 05, Cyrill catches Flum like this, and she refuses to put Flum down despite her insistence and embarrassment.
• Broken Pedestal:
  • Flum and Cyrill used to be friends before the beginning of the series. However, after Cyrill started treating Flum more coldly due to Jean’s influence, Flum’s opinion of her certainly went down. While Flum doesn’t hold a grudge against Cyrill and they reconcile in Volume 04/Episode 05 their relationship isn’t as close as it once was.
  • In Volume 03/Episode 04, Flum openly expresses her concern that she would become this in Milkit’s eyes after she makes it clear she is going to torture Satils to death in retribution for the harm she did to Milkit.. Subverted because Milkit not only assures Flum she could never hate her, but even supports her decision, and they become even closer.
  • When people learn that Flum was betrayed and sold into slavery, regular civilians have a lesser opinion of the Hero’s Party, specifically the Sage Jean.
• Calling Your Attacks: Everyone does this when using magic, calling out the name of the spell.
• The Chosen Many: The seven people selected by Origin to be heroes are presented as this. The pretense disappears when it's discovered Origin is the Big Bad.
• Contrived Coincidence: After receiving a free house from a wealthy man in exchange for some rare (and illegal) lifesaving herbs, Flum and Milkit go check it out, only to discover that someone's already living there. Of all people, it turns out to be Eterna, a member of Flum's old party who abandoned the group due to infighting after Flum was kicked out. Conveniently, Eterna was also the team's medicinal expert, so she knows how to brew a cure for Milkit's facial affliction from the extra herbs Flum brought back from the trip.
• Corrupt Church: While the rank and file of the Church of Origin are truly good and decent people, the upper echelons are corrupt as hell. To maintain a monopoly on healing services, they've conspired with the top nobility to outlaw any and all forms of medicine, so people who can't be healed by the healing magic they provide are left to suffer and die. Members of the clergy who try to provide aid anyway through actual medicine run the risk of being dragged before a Kangaroo Court and "being excommunicated". And that's just what's public knowledge, ignoring the conspiracy that plans to release a Mad God in the world, which is what shapes most of the plot of the series.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: During the early part of Volume 02/Episode 03, Flum and her allies treat Dein to this once his plans begin to fall through. A special mention to Eterna, who deals with her enemies while sitting down and drinking tea.
• Crapsack World: This world has the same problems as the real-life Medieval Period. Slavery is seen as normal, the common people don't have access to proper medicine thanks to a highly controlling Corrupt Church, and a certain race (in this case demons) suffers heavy discrimination thanks to religious propaganda. And that's the nice part. Turns out that the God of said Church is a Mad God and possibly an Omnicidal Maniac that will spread massive destruction on Earth if released. Pretty much everyone in the upper echelons of the Church is his pawn, and they will do anything to achieve his goals. This includes performing inhuman experiments on people and monsters and send the results to deal with any threat to their plans. And those experiments are not only very powerful, but their abilities are not suited to give their foes painless deaths. Even with many strong fighters discovering the truth, the bad guys have an overwhelming advantage through the story.
• Cutting the Knot: How does Flum navigate Satils's labyrinthine hideout in order to rescue Milkit? She doesn't; she smashes every obstacle in her way until she finds where Satils is holding Milkit.
• Dark Fantasy: The setting seems like a classical High Fantasy scenario at first glance, but this notion is quickly torn apart. The demons are not the stereotypical Always Chaotic Evil the heroes believe them to be, but just a different humanoid race that have been victims of persecution by the Church for a long time. The Corrupt Church is the true villain. The typical monsters of a Fantasy setting still exist, but the ones the main cast has to fight are "chimeras" with bizarre but powerful abilities created by experiments of the church. Said experiments are also performed on humans, who also get unique but terrifying powers. There is plenty of Body Horror and the heroes never finish an Episode without going through great amounts of pain, physical and emotional.
• Demonization: Quite literally. The "Demon" race is universally decried as Always Chaotic Evil to the population by church propaganda, despite this being anything but true. In fact, whenever the humans and demons clash, it's the humans that are the aggressors.
• Dénouement Episode:
  • A majority of the Light Novel volumes end with a side story that provides extra closure to the main story of the Volume's events along with setting things up for the next installment.
  • In the Web Novel version, Episode 09 ends with Flum defeating Origin, being sent four years in time, and happily reuniting with Milkit. Episode 10 features Flum taking Milkit home with her to meet her parents, finding out she and Milkit might have a Reincarnation Romance, and they get married. There have been some side stories that take place afterwards.
• Downer Beginning: The story starts with Flum -through no fault of her own- being dragged to a slaver by Jean, the sage, and sold into slavery, then the slave merchant, not happy with his newest purchase, sets a group of ghouls loose upon her and a few other slaves in a cell, just to sadistically enjoy watching them all being Eaten Alive. To Kick the Dog a bit more, he has a cursed greatsword in the cell with them, whoever deigns to pick it up having his flesh melt off. Unfortunately for him, Flum has an inherent Reversal affinity that reverses the cursed sword's nature, and after she's done with the ghouls comes after him...
• Dub-Induced Plot Hole: It seems Volume 1 was translated to English by someone not familiar with future plot developments of the series. The translation refers to the Demon King and Milkit's previous master with male pronouns, when they are both later revealed to be women. The case of Milkit's master is particular egregious, because the reveal happens at the end of this same volume.
• Elemental Powers: Most people in this world are born with an affinity for magic of one of the six elements: water, fire, earth, air, light and darkness. Some people, however, are born with rare affinities that grant them different kinds of magic.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Subverted with Dein's men in Episode 01. At first one of them is surprised Dein set Flum and Milkit up to be killed by giving Flum a D Ranked assignment rather than a F Ranked assignment, but then he and the others gleefully drink to the idea of the two girls getting killed.
• Evil Weapon: Cursed weapons, which are normal weapons possessed by the grudges of the dead. Said grudges change the nature of the weapon so it brings all kinds of harm to anyone who tries to use them. But since Flum's affinity reverses those effects, they are perfect weapons for her.
• Evolutionary Levels: The birth of Origin forced the human race to evolve fast to survive. Being able to use magic and being born with affinities is part of this evolution, but most notably, some humans ended up evolving into a different race, now called Demons. Neigass describes this phenomenon as "the will of the star" to ensure life in the planet won't end, even if one of the races perish.
• Famed In-Story: Excluding Flum and Cyrill, who came from humble villages, every member of the Hero's party was already famous before being selected as heroes. Cyrill herself became just as famous for being "the" hero. As for Flum… well, people remember there is someone with that name in the party.
• Fantastic Racism: The demons are really just another humanoid race with unique physical features and slightly different magic affinities than humans. However, thanks to decades of church propaganda, most people believe them to be an inherently evil race that lives to kill humans. Made worse by the later revelation that humans and demons used to be the same race before evolution separated them.
• First-Episode Twist: Even though the first two Episodes of the series were very short compared to subsequent Episodes, the first volume of the Light Novel covers both of them, the author starts bringing Plot Twists as soon as the second episode. This means the first volume of the Light Novel already has a lot of shocking revelations. These include, but isn’t limited to, the Church of Origin is a Corrupt Church that has been performing inhuman experiments, creating bizarre "chimeras" in the process, Flum is somehow connected to this even though she has no idea how, and the Demon race is not evil, but victims of Demonization by the Church.
• First-Person Perspective: Averted in the main story which is told in the third person. Played straight in the side stories that acted as the epilogue to the first light novel volume, where Flum reflects on her situation and/or her developing relationship with Milkit.
• For Want Of A Nail:
  • In Volume 03, it is indicated if the crimes of some of Milkit’s previous owners were exposed sooner, she could have been freed from slavery sooner.
  • If Jean had not sold Flum into slavery, the Slave Merchant would have fed Milkit to ghouls and Flum would have become an Unwitting Pawn to Origin.
• Foreshadowing: An example exclusive from the manga: The bonus story of the first volume has the party mention several characters that would debut later in the story. Maria mentions a nun that is like a younger sister to her (Sara) and Gadhio talks about the wife and child of his dead companion (Kleyna and Hallom) with Linus.
• Freudian Slip: At the end of Volume 2/Episode 3, Flum realizes that Eterna thought she and Milkit were engaging in 'adult activities'. Flum states that she and Milkit don't have that kind of relationship 'yet'. Ink and Eterna lampshade this.
• Furo Scene: In Volume 3/Episode 4, at Flum’s insistence, she and Milkit share the bath after Flum saves her from previous owner, Satils.
• Humanoid Abomination: The ogre-like creature with a spinning-exposed-organs-face encountered by Flum and Sara. They attempt to use Scan on it, but instead of the usual straightforward list of stat values, they just get a bunch of nonsense like "Muscular, can do: 7 sin" and "Agility: only chance."
• The "I Love You" Stigma: In Volume 03/Episode 04, Milkit declares that she loves Flum. While Flum doesn't dislike the idea of Milkit being in love with her romantically, Flum's mind has difficulty comprehending it. She isn't sure if she loves Milkit romantically as well. They decide to dial it back to 'liking' each other.
• Innocent Innuendo: The side story at the end of the second volume is filled with then when Milkit and Flum are cleaning each other's ears. This causes Eterna to believe that they are engaging in adult activities.
• Instantly Proven Wrong: During Volume 03/Episode 04, Milkit is kidnapped by her former master Satils who has every intention of torturing her to death. While Milkit believes Flum will come to save her, Satils mocks this notion by telling her that Flum would not be able to find this hidden room they are in nor do would her 'Master' have any interest in saving Milkit. A few minutes later, Flum breaks down the wall and saved Milkit.
• Interface Screw: The experiments of the church provide an In-Universe example, as the twisted nature of Origin's powers means that trying to check their status with the normal Stat-O-Vision spell usually leads to a nonsensical result. For example, the first Chimera the main characters meet has pure gibberish in the place of stats, with the only coherent line being "fulfill your duty flum apricot", which still has no reason to be there. The Retribution eyeballs, on the other hand, have the word "origin" replacing every number of their stats.
• Internal Reveal: Everyone in the Hero’s party eventually learns Jean sold Flum into slavery. Eterna and Gadhio are told by Flum personally in Episodes 02 & 03 respectively. Linus finds out at the end of Episode 04 when he finds out Flum has a slave brand. The rest find out in Episode 05.
• It's Quiet… Too Quiet:
  • After finding a place inside a cave where there is plenty of sunlight from a broken ceiling and lustrous plant life, Sara and Flum wonder why they aren't hearing any signs of animal life too. Sure enough, they are soon attacked by a bizarre Chimera.
  • During Volume 03/Episode 04, when Flum is helping Milkit with breakfast, Milkit goes outside, and Flum realizes she doesn't hear anything. When she goes outside, she sees that some adventurers have kidnapped Milkit.
• Mind Rape: Flum is subjected to this after being captured by Satils by means of a Voice of the Legion which basically erases Flum’s memories and sense of self.
• Mood Whiplash: Abrupt tone shifts from "cute and heartwarming" to "tense and dark" are common in this work. Volume 3 has a nice example when Flum and Milkit are just spending some time together in their house and Milkit is kidnapped in the time it took for Flum to turn her head away and back.
• Not Helping Your Case: Whenever characters make some kind of remark regarding Flum's relationship with Milkit, she usually is hugging Milkit or saying something that is a Freudian Slip.
• Oh, Crap!:
  • In Volume 01/Episode 02, Sara and Flum are pretty much locked in this state during their first fight with a Chimera. The mere appearance of the creature is terrifying. Then they try to Scan it and get an Interface Screw. Then the thing starts showing it's deadly abilities. Then it No-Sell their attacks. And if all that wasn't enough, when they finally get a good hit, it turns out that decapitation isn't enough to kill it.
  • In Volume 03/Episode 04, the adventurers hired by Satils to kidnap Milkit are surprised when Flum is able to give chase and catch up to them. Milkit understandably has this reaction when she sees that Satils is the one who kidnapped her with the intention of torturing her to death. Satils has this reaction when Flum manages to locate where she is torturing Milkit and when she realizes Flum is about to torture her to death.
• Properly Paranoid: During Volume 02/Episode 03, Eterna offers to help Flum in dealing with Dein. Flum instead asks her to stay at home to protect Milkit just in case. Later, when Flum is in a confrontation with Dein, he gloats that he sent a number of his men to attack Milkit. If Eterna wasn’t there, Flum’s house would’ve been burned to the ground along with Milkit.
• Queer Romance: Part of the story revolves around the developing romantic relationship between Flum and Milkit.
• Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil: In this case Attempted Rape, as Flum makes short work of those that attempt to assault Milkit. When Sara tries to get her to spare one of them, she calmly explains to the girl that some people are just too evil to be left alive.
• Reincarnation Romance: The Web Novel version of Episode 10 indicates this may be the case in regards to Flum and Milkit.
• Removing the Crucial Teammate: While the party was probably going to fall apart regardless, Jean's selling of Flum certainly sped things quite a bit, as she was enough of The Heart to help keep everyone civil. There's also the matter of Cyrill's mental state afterwards...
• Rescue Romance: Milkit's feelings for Flum evolve due to how Flum has continuously saved her life. Milkit eventually returns the favor toward the end of Volume 03/Episode 04 when she saves Flum's life.
• Right Through the Wall: A played for laughs Yuri example to the point it is a running gag.
  • At the end of Volume 02, when Milkit is cleaning Flum’s ears they hear strange noises from Eterna’s room. As it turns out, she could hear the everything in their room. Due to their dialogue and Innocent Innuendo, Eterna thought they were engaging in more adult activities. Others misunderstandings ensued until Ink was able to point out that Milkit was only cleaning Flum’s ears. Due to Ink’s enhanced hearing, she could hear what Flum and Milkit more clearly than Eterna.
  • Played for drama in Volume 03/Episode 04 when Ink informs Flum and Milkit about visitors that Eterna received.
  • During Volume 04/Episode 05, she can hear a very intimate conversation between Flum and Milkit, and she wonders out loud what the nature of Flum and Milkit’s relationship is.
• Roaring Rampage of Rescue: If Milkit is in danger Flum goes through this. This is especially the case in Volume 03/Episode 04 when she tortures a man to get information on where his fellow adventurer took Milkit then proceeding to torture the one who was torturing Milkit.
• RPG Mechanics 'Verse: Everyone is born with stats that can be raised by training or by equipping items. There is even a Stat-O-Vision spell that allows the character to see each other's stat in what's basically a video-game screen. There is also a "Return" spell that allows the heroes to teleport to their home base and back to a "saved" location in enemy territory, marked by a teleportation stone, allowing them to save their progress and take a break (through this one is a unique skill of the hero Cyrill rather than something widespread).
• Running Gag:
  • Flum getting reminded that she is the only member of the Hero's party people don't recognize on sight. Similarly, pretty much every time she reveals who she really is, the other character will react with "so you really are THAT Flum", showing they recognize her name but didn't make the connection because of the Slave Brand. She is very annoyed by all of this.
  • Pretty much everyone becomes curious about the exact nature of Flum and Milkit’s relationship. That includes the ten year old Ink. The fact Flum and Milkit openly act affectionately toward each other in front others to see adds fuel to the fire.
  • Eterna consistently teasing Flum or Milkit about the nature of their relationship. She clearly ships them, and she has fun doing it. It even gets to the point she thinks they are taking things to the next level before getting corrected.
• Satan Is Good: As it currently stands, the Demon Lord is guarding a Sealed Evil in a Can and the "heroes" are just Unwitting Pawns of the villains that want to break the seal.
• Scars Are Forever: The Slave Brand becomes a permanent marking on the slaves skin.
• Shipper on Deck: Pretty much all of the people that Flum and Milkit befriend become shippers for them.
• Skinship Grope: The bonus story of the first volume of the manga has Maria being on the receiving end of this by Eterna, Cyrill and Flum, who were hit by a bout of jealousy and curiosity when it's pointed out that Maria has the biggest breasts in the party.
• Slave Brand: By law, anyone who is sold into slavery, regardless of the reason, has a brand seared into the skin in an area that can normally not be covered, like the face, and this brand can not be removed by ordinary means.
• Slavery Is a Special Kind of Evil: Everyone in the party knew Jean was a narcissistic Jerkass from day one, but it's only when they discover he sold Flum into slavery that they conclude he is a monster without redemption.
• Spell My Name With An S: Thanks to a bizarre mix of Western names and just plain gibberish, pretty much every character has two or three different ways to spell their names, depending on which fan translation you are reading. The official release also uses spellings that are different from any of those fan translations for a couple of names.
• Stat-O-Vision: "Scan", the most basic magic in the setting, allows the user to see the stats of any people, animal, or object.
• Surprisingly Realistic Outcome:
  • After Flum earns enough money for Milkit and her to stay at an Inn, they are rejected by several places because they are in nothing but rags, and they are considered slaves. Most Inns would keep out poorly dressed individuals regardless of whether they have money or not. It is also likely they wouldn’t want runaway slaves as guests either.
  • Milkit has been conditioned to be a slave for her entire life. Flum being nice to her isn’t going to be enough to reprogram her. While progress does get made over the course of the first volume, it takes much longer before she truly begins to heal because she suffers from nightmares of her other horrible experiences.
  • Due to Milkit being a slave her whole life, she was never taught how to defend herself. As a result, that makes her vulnerable to being assaulted or kidnapped. Flum needs to protect or save her on multiple occasions.
  • Even as Milkit heals from her lifetime of servitude, Volume 03/Episode 04 makes it clear she suffers nightmares from what happened to her in the past.
  • While Flum's abilities allow her to heal, her powers don't fix her clothes. When Dein causes Flum to get blown up, Flum's clothes are left in tatters, and Ottilie gives her a jacket to cover herself up.
• Title Drop: In the English version of the manga, the slave merchant tells Flum to "roll over and die" to atone for the "sin" of not being good enough to be sold and making him lose money.
• Torture Always Works: Flum tortures an adventurer who kidnapped Milkit for information. She only stops after he gives up the information she needs to find Milkit, and it pans out.
• Voice of the Legion: After Satils captures Flum, Flum is subjected which causes her to lose her memories until Milkit saves her.
• With Great Power Comes Great Insanity: Accepting one of the Origin cores produced by the Church will give you a power boost and perhaps even new abilities normal people don't have. It will also very likely twist your mind and body. Even if it doesn't, chances are there is now a Mad God manipulating you like a puppet without you noticing.

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