Isekai Cheat Reincarnation...?
I lie on the bed, staring blankly up at the ceiling. A little more than an hour has passed since I came back from Esmela's office and lay down to sleep, and yet—maybe because I spent the whole day asleep—sleep will not come at all. The clock on the wall has already swung around to five. In another hour I will have to get up and begin the day's work.
"Haaah..."
In the end I give up on sleeping and push myself fully upright. I was not even particularly drowsy. I had only been forcing myself to try, so it hardly matters.
"Nnngh..."
A long stretch drags a groan out of me before I can stop it. All right, then. How am I supposed to spend this unplanned hour of free time?
"Ah."
Come to think of it, I had forgotten something important. Back when the zombie outbreak had only just begun, a mysterious screen had suddenly appeared before my eyes...
"Romance in Arkesia: Love and Dead...?"
And with it, the strange game title and chapter name floating on that screen. What in the world had that been?
For a start, Roina's official title is Romance in Arkesia: Four Jewels, and so far as I remember, a sequel was never even announced.
"...No idea."
Right now, the only thing I know is that this world is the setting of Roina—and that the timeline sits four years after the ending. A game world past its ending, and I, reincarnated into it, confronted by a title I had never seen, one that still carried Romance in Arkesia in its name.
Put those two facts together, and a guess takes shape. The title that appeared before my eyes was probably a sequel to Roina, or a side story.
It could be the title of some other adaptation, of course. But the interface it was displayed on looked suspiciously like a design that belonged inside a game, which makes a game the likelier answer. And the Roina I knew before I died was, at best, an indie otome that had sold decently well. It never had the weight to spin out a media mix.
It is a conclusion stacked out of guess upon guess, and I cannot swear that any single piece of it is wholly true. Even so, it is more help than having no clue at all.
All right. On to the next step.
I am a reincarnator dropped into a world inside a game, and one day a screen like a hologram out of a science-fiction film appeared before my eyes, bearing the logo of a game I had never seen. So was that interface the so-called status window?
I remember how, in the last few years before I died in my previous life, web novels and webtoons had been drowning in cheats, game systems, and reincarnation. It is not impossible. Set aside the detail that the world I was reborn into happens to be a romance-fantasy otome, and do I not meet every condition of your standard isekai protagonist?
A thin, just-in-case hope stirs in my chest.
"...Status window?"
Nothing happens.
"...Status?"
Nothing happens this time, either.
"...Damn it."
No one can hear me, and I am embarrassed anyway. Was I imagining it? That interface had looked, somehow, like a game's menu UI...
Pop!
"Huh?"
All at once, that very screen appears before my eyes again. It is the same blue UI I saw at the wedding. The difference is that, unlike then—when only a single blue window opened—the interface in front of me now carries four small text boxes along its upper edge.
"Wait—?"
A status window has actually manifested in front of me.
"How did I call this thing up?"
It was not status window, and it was not status. What had I been thinking the moment it popped?
"...Menu."
Pop.
The blue screen vanishes. The trigger word was Menu.
"..."
Now that I know how to turn the thing on and off, it is time to take a closer look at this unknown menu.
"Menu."
The blue screen returns. Four text boxes sit over a square of blue.
"Story, Status..."
I read the two boxes that actually display something. Might as well take them in order. I tap Story lightly with my index finger.
Pop!
The blank menu shifts into a new interface.
✔ Prologue. The Wedding Blessed by the Dead
???
???
....
A logo of familiar design catches my eye first. It is the same game title I was looking at a moment ago. With that, my guess hardens into certainty. A mysterious title, displayed on a game's menu screen—I was not reincarnated into the world after Roina's main story. More precisely, I was reincarnated into the world of Roina's sequel. And the genre of that sequel is zombies.
"Haha..."
The absurdity of it drags a dry laugh out of me. I have no idea whether this game called Love and Dead was actually released in Korea after I died, or whether some transcendent being conjured the setting out of nothing. But if it is the former...
"Who's going to buy it if you put out a zombie game as the sequel to an otome...?"
...No. Stop fretting over things that do not matter.
Whether Roina's studio runs its sequel into the ground is none of my concern. What matters more is that the subtitle contains the word Dead. If they went out of their way to stamp a word like that into the title, then the sequel's main subject is very likely zombies—which means this outbreak will not end with a single incident. I may well be tangled up with the dead all the way to the ending.
"Haaah..."
My head starts to ache. In the end, all I learned from the Story screen is that the zombie crisis will keep happening from here on. The list beneath the prologue must be chapter titles that unlock as the game progresses. Touching them draws no response, so I let them go.
"All right. Next."
This time I tap the Status screen, hoping there will be something actually useful.
Pop!
Name:Renit | Age:17 | Occupation:Exclusive Butler of House Herta
Memory Inheritance — Retains the memories of a past life. Cannot be leveled.
Protagonist — A passive indicating that the bearer is the protagonist of Romance in Arkesia: Love and Dead. Cannot be leveled.
Herta's Flame — Through a contract with House Herta, the bearer may wield a portion of their secret flame art. Level 1
System Eye — Allows use of the menu interface, and the inspection of other people and monsters. Level 2
A familiar UI fills my sight. The stats written on the Status screen use exactly the same notation as the main story of Roina.
"Name, age, occupation—I already know those..."
What matters is everything underneath. First, the detailed stats: seven of them, each ranked with a letter. If these ranks are assigned the same way they were in Roina, then the lowest, E, is the stat of an ordinary person who has never trained that ability and has no talent for it, while S is the highest point a human being can reach. Special characters and boss monsters in the story sometimes held stats beyond S, of course, but for the protagonist and the other playable characters, S was the ceiling.
By that measure, the system is telling me my strength and agility are excellent, my durability and mana control are passable, and the rest of my stats are comparatively lacking. I do not much like hearing it, and not a single rebuttal comes to mind. It is true that my mana is too shallow to sustain Herta's Flame for long, that I am no scholar, and that outside of combat I never picked up any other craft—alchemy or otherwise. Well. I will take comfort in the fact that the physical abilities I actually trained earned a high mark.
Now I read the special skills. Only four are listed. Basic magic, and anything anyone can learn and use, were probably left off. Memory Inheritance means I hold the memories of my past life, so it likely does nothing else. And Protagonist.
"..."
If I were a character in the sequel, I had thought I might at least manage a supporting role with a decent share of the story. Having the system flatly declare me the protagonist is, frankly, unsettling. If I am the protagonist, I will probably be dragged into every important incident from here on—but knowing that does not give me anything I can actually do. I just have to deal with whatever comes, one thing at a time. Next.
Herta's Flame. When I was formally recognized as a butler, I made a contract with Esmela, and that was when I was taught to wield House Herta's secret art. Seeing that the level is currently 1, does leveling it up mean I will be able to handle the flame as skillfully as Esmela, or the head of the house?
"That wouldn't be bad."
And last, System Eye. Only now does something like a reincarnator's cheat skill show itself. I already know I can use the menu interface. The important part is what follows: I can check the status of other people, and of monsters. That is genuinely useful. Reading someone else's capabilities helps whether I am making use of an ally or preparing for an enemy—an excellent skill. I ought to try it as soon as tomorrow, just to see.
"Menu."
Pop.
I close the menu again. Putting together everything I pulled from it, I did gain a great deal of important information tied to this world—the sequel's title, the Protagonist skill, and the like. I simply do not yet know how to use any of it. Still, I walked away with one decent skill at the end. That will do.
"Nngh."
I stretch again. Through the window, the sun is rising. A glance at the clock tells me it is nearly six. I lost track of time staring at the menu. I should start getting ready to head out.
I get up from the bed, about to wash, when—
Knock, knock.
A familiar knock.
"Renit. Are you awake?"
The head maid's voice.
"I am, but... is something the matter?"
So they have decided to ignore the rule that a servant must not enter the quarters of a servant of the opposite sex...?
"A message from Lady Esmela. A meeting will be held in twenty minutes. The moment you are ready, you are to come straight to the reception room."