Possession? Reincarnation? Anyway, That's How It Is.

An ordinary day, no different from any other.

Just like every other day, I checked the title of the confidential document that had flown straight to me, then dismissed it.

An endless tsunami of documents and data of every kind. Determined to cut off these soul-scorching evils at the source, I shoved every title-only document straight into the archive and slammed my head onto the table.

“Huuuuuuuuuuuuuuh…”

A sigh rose from the deepest part of my lungs and poured out through my mouth in a long, ragged rush. Listening to ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠that sound, I stared at the headache-inducing reality before me and tried once more to deny ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠it.

“Maybe I’m just thrashing around in some dream right now?”

“…There you go saying weird things again, Minister.”

At the voice that answered my muttering so naturally, I twisted my head still planted on the table and looked up.

“You wouldn’t be doing the same thing in my place, Riel?”

“How would I know that, Minister? I’m not exactly from some high-and-mighty house that can handle a minister’s job, yeah.”

The little smart-mouth kept firing back. Watching my “advisor” Riel respond so smoothly while the two antennas on her head swayed, I shook my head and leaned back into the chair.

“Huuuuuuh.”

At the long sigh that escaped me again, Riel—antennas still twitching—carefully approached and tried to offer some encouragement.

“But who else could handle this kind of work besides you, Minister? It’s all according to the talent heaven itself handed down, yeah.”

Then, despite being a humanoid, she made a little rainbow gesture with her hands like some yellow sponge character. All I could do was let out a hollow laugh inside.

“…Riiiiight.”

Of course, that was only my private thought. Seeing the sarcastic tone that had slipped out of me without thinking, Riel’s cheeks puffed up in a pout.

“You don’t believe me at all, Minister!”

“I do, though.”

Believe it or don’t, free choice… The words rose all the way to the tip of my tongue before sliding back down again.

Almost got myself assassinated again without even noticing.

You might think I was overreacting over something so small, but…

…With that familiar, damned UI popping up like mad right in front of my eyes, I simply couldn’t risk it.

Damn thing.

Somehow I managed to pull my mind together amid the chaos.

“Guhhhhh…”

Only after finishing the endless flood of administrative work could I finally sink into my soft, beloved chair. Seeing me like that, Riel set a pre-chilled drink on the table.

“Good work, Minister!”

“You’re awfully energetic.”

She had clearly handled a workload similar to mine, yet she still looked bright and lively.

“Haa… Sometimes I really envy that humanoid body of yours.”

“If a fragile human body can keep up with my capabilities, that’s something to be proud of, yeah!”

With those words she patted my shoulder. Watching her, I sipped the mysterious drink she had poured and sank into thought.

…Man, how the hell did it come to this?

To be precise, it was just the same old self-pity looping through my brain, but still.

Of course, looking at me right now, someone might say that bastard’s gone insane. Even this boss-level chair I was lounging in so carelessly…

Soft leather made from premium livestock raised for 27 hours a day, 400 days a year on the imperial family’s private ranch. Ornaments carved stitch by stitch by master craftsmen from materials sourced on Bergius, the Empire’s finest livestock planet, then finished with high-grade wood. Interior materials crafted by the Empire’s greatest engineering minds so that not a single mold spore could ever form…

It was no exaggeration to say a single chair cost as much as an entire city on an average planet. And that was just the start. The table I drooled on whenever I got bored had so many unnecessary functions bolted on that its price equaled a destroyer. Even the pretty little drink cup I favored was an ultra-rare limited edition made by some master craftsman from another galaxy.

Anyone who had barely survived the soap-making campaigns of those damned space Nazis would take one look at me and immediately start stabbing with beam-pikes.

But that wasn’t the important part.

…I miss home.

That’s right. As the familiar “UI”—the status window—that had floated before my eyes earlier made clear, the crucial fact was that this damned world was not the one I originally lived in.

Status window.

The moment I murmured that now all-too-familiar, almost intimate word in my head—

A cheap-sounding effect tone rang out, and a semi-transparent window appeared before my eyes. The status window felt so simple it might as well have been slapped together in five minutes. Its very existence proved that the world I now inhabited was…

None other than the inside of a game—the kind people get isekai’d into all the time. And not even a popular RPG series, but a ridiculously niche SF strategy simulation management game.

At least it was a game I’d actually played, so that was a small mercy.

How I ended up possessed into this game, I had no way of knowing.

As far as I remember… there was no accident or anything like that.

But the problems didn’t end there.

“Haaaa…”

“What’s wrong, Minister?”

“Nothing. Just thinking by myself for a second.”

I quietly sent Riel out of the room after she reacted to my sigh, then let out long, heavy breaths, venting the irritation welling up inside.

Seriously, where the hell did the empire I carefully set up and built go, and why did I get stuck with some random no-name empire instead?

Given the nature of the game I’d been possessed into, there were default nations set by the developers. Players could also create and run their own countries, conquering as they went. I had done the same—poured a ridiculous amount of patriotic(?) effort into building my own custom nation and had a great time with it…

But the moment I got isekai’d into the game, my beloved empire vanished and I drew some obscure random empire instead. The only silver lining was that the Sevelians—the main race and core population of the empire—looked almost identical to ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠humans, so the rejection was milder than it ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠could have been.

But the problems still didn’t end there.

“Status window. Quest progress.”

At my quiet words, the status window that had only shown basic info switched to a new screen. Looking at it, I felt fresh irritation surge up all over again.

“Ah…”

The point was that this damned empire was exploding with problems in every direction. And none of it was my fault or the current Empress’s—it was all thanks to that Sevelian piece of trash known as the Predecessor Emperor, who was already dead and gone.

“Huuuuuuh…”

That prosnak piece-of-shit Predecessor Emperor bastard…

Of course, no matter how much of a trash heap the Predecessor Emperor had been, I wasn’t about to say that out loud in the imperial palace—the very heart of this empire—so I just swallowed the anger.

Still, at least I’m managing to clean up the messes one by one. That’s something.

Thankfully, while the shit he’d left behind was filthy and plentiful, it wasn’t completely unfixable. I could chip away at it step by step. Thanks to that, the Empire’s normalization was somehow progressing, which was a genuine relief.

Thinking that way, the irritation quietly subsided and a strange sense of calm settled over me.

Yeah, if you look at it that way, it just means that bastard’s tantrums can’t happen anymore, right?

Exactly as I thought. What more could a guy who was already dead pull off? Strictly speaking, the imperial succession had followed proper procedure, so that avenue of trouble was sealed off too. Every other issue I’d identified had already been handled; all that remained was clearing the backlog…

The more I thought about it, the more it felt like time was on my side, and my mood improved another notch.

“Mm. People really should live positively.”

—Slurp.

With that upgraded mood as my backdrop, it took less than a few minutes for my good spirits—while sipping Riel’s drink—to completely collapse.

No. It didn’t even take a full minute.

—Beep.

“Hmm? Approvals should already be finished…”

An unexpected approval notification popped up out of nowhere.

—BANG!

“M-Minister! We’re in big trouble!!!”

Riel burst through the office door in a panic. As her urgent shout reached me, I naturally checked the notification—

—Drip…

I was so stunned I couldn’t even stop the drink from dribbling out of my mouth.