Chapter 2

The novel ‘Sieg of the Rebellion’ was simply a story of rewarding good and punishing evil.

The stage was set in the dictatorial country of Amadease. Being crowned as a dictatorship or so, this country was considerably rotten.

The Age of Nightmares began eight years ago… when Eberhardt, the first prince, assassinated his father, the king.

Eberhardt, an elitist as well as a warped and selfish man, ascended to the throne even before the world learned of the assassination… Above all, he was the only one that was ‘Royalty’, having executed his mother, grandparents and siblings; all his immediate family members, one after the other.

Then, he showed favoritism to some of the nobles and feudal lords, uniting them for a short period of time. They immediately raised the taxes to three times the previous amount, disregarding whether citizens were able to afford it or not.

Naturally, there were nobles and citizens who opposed this absurd amendment, but those who were vocal about their opinions were seized by the national army and publicly hanged as a warning for others: those who oppose will meet the same fate. The people who had become accustomed to the peaceful reign of the former king were horrified by the tragedy they had suddenly witnessed.

That alone was awful enough, but to make matters worse, there was another terrifying villain in this nation.

Duke Heinreid von Rodvelia. King Eberhardt’s right hand man, an atrocious noble who trampled down on the nation to his heart’s content. He was a formidable man who took supreme pleasure in oppressing people and was involved in the murder of the former king. He was an inhumane being who committed shameful acts as much as he wanted, and lived up to his dubious reputation as ‘The Demon of Amadease’ and ‘The Nation’s Deadliest Poison’.

Amadease, rife with two monstrous viciousness, even had its borders closed and had been completely reduced to a hellish dictatorship… However!

In order to save the country and its weary people, the protagonist of the story, Sieghardt… the king’s brother who was once exiled from his own country, rebelled after eight years. The novel I had read described the process of the rebellion. ‘Sieg of the Rebellion’ was an entertaining novel filled with battles, camaraderie and a bit of romantic comedy; fighting with the heroine and their comrades, despite the occasional setbacks.

When I was a minor, I was poorer than I currently was, and could only read books in a small library, but someone had given me this novel to which I read over and over again. Both its flashy illustrations and exciting developments were fresh to me back then, and I could still remember its content even now.

That’s right. I died once, and I still am.

“…My lord?”

I was standing still there, stunned, when the young man who had barged in… Craig, called out to me again. Shit, I had to respond with something. What was the situation just now? To my understanding, I woke up screaming, so he rushed here in a hurry, right?

“N-no… I just had a bad dream. Don’t worry about it.”

“Yes…?”

I had intended to answer safely with a vague smile, but he became completely suspicious of me.

I haven’t said anything odd, so please just let it pass, I beg of you. And if possible, get out of here at once…!

But my plea was in vain, and instead of leaving, Craig knelt down immediately.

As I was so surprised that I didn’t have time to stop him, he lowered his head and began to form his words just right after.

“I am very pleased to see that you are awake. My heart went cold when I received the report that you fell down the stairs… I cannot find the words to express my apology for causing you such distress while I had my subordinates under my command. The fault lies entirely due to my own lack of supervision. I will be more thorough in disciplining my subordinates in the future to make sure that this kind of accident never happens again. I will accept any misfortune that may befall me, so I beg your forgiveness.”

“W…wait, settle down.”

I had to force my way through his talking that seemed to continue on forever. Rather, I was the one who wanted to settle down the most. I was still trying to figure out the situation.

What, I fell down the stairs? Not the cliff?? …I was confused. With this ambiguity, I didn’t want to blurt out anything tactless or make any judgments. With that in mind, I just waited for his apology that went on and on.

“Please excuse my rudeness, I ran my mouth too far out. Please do not hesitate to use any means you deem appropriate.”

“…”

You don’t have to make that face, as if… it was the end of your line. You make it sound like I’m about to do terrible things.

…No. I guess, this ‘lord’ of his did.

Craig Bauer. He was Heinreid’s sword and an escort knight, who succumbed to the atrocity eight years ago… though it was just his temporary guise. His true identity was a former knight of the kingdom, who still had his allegiance to his original master, Sieg. He was currently enduring the humiliation as he kneels towards his hateful enemies, looking for an opportunity to cut their heads in their sleep.

…I was sure that even now, he’s bowing his head, wanting to cough out blood.

“…It’s fine. I don’t care, so just leave me alone for a while.”

“Does that mean there will be no punishment?”

“Yes, there’s none. You are forgiven. Instead, I ask you not to let anyone in this room for the rest of the day.”

Craig raised his brows at his lord (me) who was clearly not his usual self but seemed to have decided that he would only stir up a hornet’s nest if he poked around too much. He lowered his upraised face again and took a submissive stance.

“Certainly. I am grateful for your generosity. But the doctor,”

“I’ll do it tomorrow. Sorry, but inform the others as well, would you?”

It seemed that he finally realized that I wanted him to leave when I placed it in such a way that was no longer close to a plea.

“As you wish.”

Seeing Craig’s back leaving the room with a bow, I went back to the bed as soon as the door was closing.

Ah, I panicked… I had to be rather forceful with my deception, but was that fine? No, just what was fine with this? I mean, at this moment, the situation alone doesn’t make anything fine anymore. Just what the hell is this…

I thought that it might’ve been just a dream within a dream, so I laid down on my back, holding my head and groaning for a while, but I didn’t wake up no matter how much time had passed. I even tried to nervously pinch my cheeks, but it only hurt, so I had no choice but to admit that this was reality.

…Aah, let’s just accept it.

This was definitely the world of ‘Sieg of Rebellion’ and I was the character in that novel… the villain, Heinreid. …I couldn’t wipe off the feeling that it could’ve been better. It wasn’t like I wanted to be the protagonist, but I thought a nameless villager A would’ve been a much better choice than this. That was how loathsome the man named Heinreid is. He had an abnormal taste for taking supreme pleasure in tormenting others just as I saw in my dream earlier, and despite all that, there was no reason for him to have such a warped personality. He fell into the path of evil just because he wanted to enjoy himself.

Aah, I really hated him when I was reading the novel, too! Every time his name was mentioned in the story, a lot of his disgraceful scum episodes were shown, and I always looked forward to seeing him get taken down as soon as possible! In the original story of ‘Sieg of the Rebellion’, Craig eventually rebelled against him, holed him up inside the mansion, which was then set on fire by his resentful subjects and burned to the ground. Despite that, I thought that the ending felt so weak, now that I’ve looked into his memories.

That’s right, his…

After thinking it through, a question had suddenly occurred to me.

Huh…? In the first place, did I really become Heinreid only just now?

Somehow, my consciousness as Heinreid had completely gone now, and the feeling I had was that “I had a nightmare right after the accident, and when I woke up, I had found myself taken over Heinreid’s body.” But thinking about it carefully, there were two possibilities.

One was, just as I had thought, I could’ve had taken over Heinreid’s body right after my death. The other one was… I could’ve had reincarnated as Heinreid after my death and suddenly regained the memories of my previous life.

Even if it were the former case, I’d still be in a dead-end situation, but if it were the latter, the one doing those repulsive misdeeds was undoubtedly me. I didn’t want to believe such absurdity. But it was true that I had inherited all the memories of this body, and even synchronized with his emotions when I was dreaming, so if that were the case… The tragedies in the dream flashed in my mind.

If that were the case, then I should definitely die.

I tormented and preyed on the weak. I did those atrocious acts while laughing for no reason. I didn’t do it just with my own hands, but I’ve also had people close to me kill each other. All those atrocities had already been done, and anyone who had died so far will never come back to life.

How could such a person be allowed to live? I don’t think I could ever forgive myself to begin with. I don’t think I could keep on living comfortably while holding on to these memories.

…To be honest, I might’ve not been cool with it. I could only say that it was strange to come up with life-threatening matters so easily, even if it were my own. If it were a stranger, I think I would’ve told them to wait first and not to get so hasty. But this time, just right after I had completed the act of taking my own life (though it was purely a sensuous experience), my resistance to that choice had become extremely low.

“…Alright.”

I got off the bed and stood in front of the mirror again. The appearance reflected on it was naturally just the same as before. Gentle wavy, heavy black hair and white skin, and within his eyelids were the same deep scarlet as the blood that I had seen enough of in my dreams. I still felt extremely uncomfortable, but right now, this was definitely my body. Thinking about it made me feel an even stranger sense of obligation, so I gathered up my brain which was disoriented all this time and set on a purpose.

Though my motivation had changed quite a bit from the previous one. My purpose this time is to ensure that I would die without fail in this world.