Volume 1: 00 - Prologue - The Rebirth of the Virtuous Old Man Part 1

What you do in your lifetime, will determine your life in the next.

The more misdeeds you do, the more miserable your next life will be. Equally, the more good deeds you do, the more you will be rewarded in your rebirth.

This sense of retribution also applies to your other incarnation.

I have died and this is the afterlife.

「No good, you’re a bandit who killed 461 people. You get F rank. You will be reborn as a water flea. Only after you are born as a pig, will you be born as human again 」

「You unintentionally killed one person but saved a lot of people through the use of your healing magic. Your rank is C minus. You will be born in a commoner household in your next life 」

I took note of how much this place resembles a governmental institution as I stood in line, quietly observing the other dead receive their judgements.

People were being ranked and then reincarnated one after another, following the erasure of their memories.

It’s quite exciting to listen to how so many different people have lived.

Secrets that would never be revealed while you are alive and even the good you did in the dark will be exposed here.

「You are mad! This is all wrong! I can’t be reborn as a filthy commoner! 」

「This is the end of the line for your infidelity, watch it! 」

There are those who after hearing the verdict rampage and become wildly unpredictable.

Right now, a tremendous figure, a ruler of some empire, was just given a D rank by the judge. His next life was determined to be of poverty and misfortunes.

He used his regal status to make threats as he stormed around, which of course couldn’t possibly apply here. He was quickly seized, forced to drink holy water of memory erasure, and thrust into a giant hole of the reincarnation process to the new life.

Meanwhile, I had reached the front of the line, awaiting my judgement.

「Etto, soul number 198639479, human name Janti Kind, is that right? 」

「Yes, but I’ve never heard of the soul number before 」

「Ha-ha, in fact, it’ll be worrying if you did 」

The winged woman in front of me flashed me a carefree smile.

「Now then, I’m going to calculate your lifetime of good and bad deeds, by law you’re given the freedom to make up to three pleas, will you like to do that? 」

「You can go ahead with the calculation. From what I have seen so far, it doesn’t affect the outcome whatever anybody says 」

「No, no, sometimes it does. Sometimes even the worst lowlife is spared from the most awful judgement. See? 」

The woman pointed to the side to where a bandit-like man was clearly in deep and desperate thought over which plea to make.

「Here is one! Here is one! I once saved a kid. I gave this one hungry kid some of my leftover food 」

「Yes, so it seems. Well okay, in your next incarnation you will be a dog. If you can live a decent life as a dog, you’ll be able to reincarnate as a human afterwards 」

「Eeeeeh! Even though I have a good deed?! 」

The man like the other people here had his memories erased and he was pushed down into the hole to be reincarnated.

「If he hadn’t managed to squeeze that out, he would have been a shellfish. He would have lived for nearly hundred years at the bottom of the ocean 」

「I see 」

So the appeal isn’t entirely meaningless.

「Still, it’s fine. My life is over. Getting emotional won’t help me with anything 」

「I like you. You’re much disciplined. Okay let’s start the calculation 」

The woman – who is probably an angel of wisdom – began flipping through the pages with great enthusiasm.

She will write one thing in an unusual machine that was in her hand and then write another.

Her hand suddenly stopped turning the pages.

「Fe!? 」

「What’s wrong? What’s that for? 」

「This is……. But that’s impossible 」

「Eh? 」

「Excuse me, can you hold on please? 」

The angel woman said to me and called for the other angels to her side.

The other angels, who were her co-workers, gathered around her as a group, which brought the rest of the line to a complete stop.

「That’s unlikely 」

「I agree with you, but if you do the calculation, you’ll get the same result 」

「I’m doing it too. She must have gotten it wrong. It’s just unbelievable 」

「I got the same result. It’s been 500 years since I last got such a good result 」

The angels gathered together and discussed something, but it seemed without a doubt the main focus of the strangeness was the result the first angel had found.

All of them confirmed it and nodded to each other, then returned to their respective posts of responsibility.

And so did the angel in charge of this post.

「Thank you for the wait, I have the results 」

「Okay 」

「You’re SSS rank; you’ve done remarkable amount of good deeds 」

「Ha 」

Even though she said it is good deeds, I still felt uneasy.

Well. I don’t think of myself as bad, matter of fact, I have lived all my life trying to avoid doing anything immoral.

But it is still quite difficult to process being called a remarkably good person.

「SSS ranks are given two options as a special exception. One is to become a god 」

「A god? 」

「Yes, to put it bluntly, you’d be our boss 」

「Huh? 」

「You don’t sound convinced. Humans can become gods. By the way if you’re SS ranked, you can be an angel like us 」

「Okay, I get it 」

SSS rank to god and SS to angel.

It is clear and easy to understand.

「What’s the other option? 」

「It’s to be reincarnated as a human, it’s not as privileged as being a god but it will be blessed life among humans. Well with that said, it’s a SSS rank and I recommend that you become a god –」

「Then I choose human 」

「—I would!」

「Please reincarnate me as a human 」

「Are you sure? It’s a SSS rank. You can be a god you know? 」

「Eeh, I don’t understand the god business. As a human, will my life will be better than my last 」

「It’s SSS rank, of course! Huh…. You’re an odd one. Okay, then you will be reincarnated as a human of SSS rank 」

She then stamped the paper she was holding in her hand.