This Life Will Be Comfortable

Love was a disease.

I only realized that ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠truth after watching those lunatics who lived their lives completely unhinged for it.

Those so-called high nobles had all lost their minds over a single woman.

"Lily. My life exists solely for you."

"I will give you everything I am, Lily."

"Please... look at me, Lily!"

The Crown Prince, the Tower Master's successor, the Northern successor, the Duke's successor—every last one of them poured their entire existence into that one woman.

What the hell was love supposed to be?

What the hell was that woman supposed to be?

"How did my life end up like this..."

A heavy sigh slipped from my lips.

I had simply gone to sleep and woken up transmigrated into a Rofan world.

And of all people, the body I possessed belonged to the good-for-nothing they called the trash young master.

I spent every day getting cursed out for things I never even did, grinding myself into the dirt like a dog just to change how people saw me—and this was the result.

I survived. The world did not.

After everything I went through, this was what I got.

If only those so-called protagonists of the Rofan world had been even a little bit sane, would things have been different?

They would have been different, sure.

They were the pillars of the empire, after all.

If they had been even slightly human...

If they had come to their senses even a little...

The world never would have ended up like this.

"Ha."

I looked up at the sky and let out a hollow laugh.

No matter how I thought about it, it was just absurd.

"Transmigrated for no reason. The body I got stuck with was a trash young master, so I took every bit of distrust and every insult they could throw. I rolled through the mud like a dog and still no one believed me, while the so-called protagonists were off laughing and falling in love..."

Could this really be called living like a person?

I threw the words toward the god of this world—the one I suspected had forced me into this body.

I had no idea if he was even listening.

"If you're going to dump someone into a world like this, you should at least have a conscience. Even an ant's worth of conscience, don't you think?"

Archmage.

Now the last Archmage left alive, I pulled the final lollipop from my coat.

The only thing in this world that ever brought me peace.

As long as ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠it was in my mouth, calm would settle over me—and this was the last one.

There were no more left.

An unknown voice reached me.

Warm light gently wrapped around my body.

At the sight of it I let out a choked, bitter laugh.

"A god who only shows up after the world has already fallen. Is this fate's idea of a joke too?"

"If you were in my place, would you still see any hope worth clinging to? Everyone is dead. I'm the only one left. No—this whole situation is your fault to begin with."

I looked at the god who had appeared before me.

The light hid his form completely.

I couldn't see his face or his shape.

Yet somehow the way he seemed to look at me with faint pity made my stomach turn.

"If you're going to show me that disgusting pity, then get lost. A bystander who just watched everything happen has no right to show up now and pretend anything will change."

"Do you know something? I find you utterly repulsive. Throwing me into this world. The fact that no matter how hard I crawled through hell, those love-crazed bastards still ruined everything. And that female lead who claimed she was chosen by the gods while only looking out for herself. I despise all of it."

It was a truly regrettable story.

"If I were at full strength right now I would have hunted you down and killed you. I would have found some way to make you suffer. The fact that I can't is genuinely disappointing. Don't you think so, our dear fucking god?"

"What do you mean by—"

Before I could finish, pure white light enveloped me.

A soft, warm glow.

I felt my consciousness slowly drifting away.

Just before my eyes closed completely, a mysterious window appeared.

When my consciousness returned and I opened my eyes, I found myself looking at a familiar scene.

"This place..."

The peaceful interior of a room that could never exist in a ruined world.

The layout was one I could never forget.

Because it was the room I had used while living with my family.

...Regression... is it?

The system windows that had floated up just before I lost consciousness rose again in my mind.

The many phrases that had appeared alongside the regression.

Peace would come to the world, and all calamity and misfortune would disappear, they had said.

Remembering the words of the God of Light, it seemed that this time the events that had led to ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the world's destruction would not happen again.

I still didn't know the exact form it would take.

I could only vaguely guess that was the case.

But more than anything else—

...My power is still here.

The strength I had possessed before the regression had carried over completely.

This, too, must have been the god's doing.

Even if countless calamities piled up the way they had last time, I would never again be left powerless and forced to suffer like a dog.

It felt strange to say it out loud, but as the one who had survived until the very end...

There had been no human stronger than me.

Of course, I had suffered like hell for years after first transmigrating.

But with my previous power intact, I was confident I could take on the entire empire if I had to.

Which is exactly why I don't understand.

He had suddenly appeared, spouted nonsense, and claimed that this time nothing like that would happen.

That I should live a peaceful life and go find love?

Part of me wanted to tear him to shreds for it.

But when I thought about it carefully, it wasn't a bad situation at all.

No—it was beyond "not bad." It was almost unfairly good.

I had returned to the past and everything had been restored.

The only thing that still sat wrong with me was the fact that a god who had done nothing but watch had suddenly shown up at the end, said a bunch of incomprehensible things, and rewound time.

Honestly, my doubts were still huge.

If I followed my gut I'd just smash everything out of pure spite.

But since things had already turned out this way...

Living comfortably and enjoying myself the way he said didn't sound so bad.

No more suffering.

No need to desperately try to shed my image.

Just living as I was.

Unlike before, I didn't have to worry about what was coming.

I didn't have to grind myself into the dirt to grow stronger or struggle to change how people saw me.

I already knew far too well how meaningless other people's gazes were.

Let's just live easy.

A trash young master was still a trash young master no matter what he did.

I had learned that in the previous loop.

So all I had to do was accept it as it was and ignore those stares.

No matter how much those bastards ran their mouths, what could they actually do?

When you considered the family backing I had, they were nothing but freeloaders who wouldn't dare make a peep.

So this time I vowed to live leisurely, without getting tangled up in unnecessary affairs, living only for myself.

And while I was at it, maybe trying out a proper romance in this life wouldn't be so bad either.

Just so I could understand what that "love" emotion was that made the protagonists go completely insane and turn themselves into utter fools.

But is it really true that nothing will happen?

As the destruction of the world had proven...

The protagonists of this place had lived inside a Rofan genre, madly in love, but the continent as a whole outside of them was far from beautiful.

Demons and devil-like beings who slaughtered and destroyed humanity.

Other races that hated humans and swarmed everywhere.

On top of that, there was no shortage of humans who weren't human at all—people who committed evil without hesitation for their own greed or who sided with the demons.

I hadn't gone through all of that just for fun.

Looking back at the messages that appeared when I regressed, it seemed those things wouldn't happen this time...

But honestly, I still wasn't sure.

There was no way absolutely nothing would happen.

After all, returning to the past meant the events of the future would still unfold as they had.

Doesn't matter.

Even if something did happen, I just had to stop it.

I was still sorting through my tangled thoughts when someone knocked on the door.

"Come in."

The one who opened the door and entered was the head maid of the household.

"Young Master. The Lord wishes to see you."

The Lord, of course, meant my father.

After a brief moment of thought I nodded.

"Tell him I'll be there shortly."

"Understood."

Once the head maid left, I looked at the robe hanging on the wall.

A robe with a striking blue butterfly design.

Someone's careful hands had clearly put great care into it.

Tucked into the outer surface was a letter written in beautiful handwriting.

I stared at it in silence for a moment, then reached out and put the robe on.

Wrapped in the blue-glowing robe, I began to walk.

My destination was the Lord's study.

My transmigration had actually happened much earlier than this moment.

I was seventeen now.

I had first possessed this body three years ago, at the age of fourteen.

Back then my mother had still been alive.

In an extremely frail state.

But she passed away only a month later.

We hadn't had much time together.

Yet if there was one memory that remained the deepest and most vivid from my life here, it was the time I spent with my mother.

"Son. Did you have a good day today?"

At the time I had just realized the situation I was in and was desperately trying to grow stronger through all sorts of hardships.

It was the period when I was working myself to the bone trying to shed the trash young master image.

Even when other people looked at me and said it was useless, that a trash young master would never change, and hurled insults my way...

My mother always smiled and always spoke to me with encouragement in her voice.

Why was that?

Looking back now, maybe she had known.

That I was not her son.

That someone else had entered her child's body.

I hadn't realized it then.

But the look in her eyes and the way she acted, when I thought about them now...

It felt as if she had known I was a different person.

And yet she had always treated me well.

Not as a stranger, but as her ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠own child.

Right up until the moment she left, she had given me this blue robe as a gift.

Even now I couldn't fully understand that heart of hers.

I probably never would, no matter how much time passed.

That was why I thought it was better that the regression point was later than the moment I first transmigrated.

Having to watch the death of someone who had given precious warmth even to the stranger who stole her child's body... was not something I wanted to experience a second time.

Creak.

I opened the door to the Lord's study and stepped inside.

A middle-aged man of refined appearance sat within, radiating a heavy, cold atmosphere.

Father glanced at me and spoke.

"Revan. You know why I called you."

"It's about the academy, isn't it?"

"So you don't know."

Father was a taciturn man.

Someone who rarely showed emotion.

Yet right now he wore a rare expression that said, You really don't know?

I was just as taken aback by that look.

Three years after transmigration... no matter how you look at it, it should be about the academy.

Most people enrolled in the academy around this age.

Even before the regression I had entered the academy at this exact time, so I had naturally assumed Father called me for that reason.

But looking at his face, that didn't seem to be it.

Then what was it?

As I dug through my memories I suddenly flinched.

— They have demanded the engagement be broken, Revan. They say they can no longer overlook your trash-like behavior.

A memory flashed through my mind and I let out a sigh.

"It's the broken engagement."

Because this was the period when the long, stubborn connection with my fiancée finally snapped.