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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: FusionX
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I didn’t want to do anything.
To be more precise, I was already not doing anything, but I intensely didn’t want to do anything even more.
“What are you thinking about so deeply?”
“Just wondering what sins I committed in my previous life to deserve this.”
“…Huh?”
Arwen snorted as if asking what I was talking about, but I was 100% sincere.
In fact, even though it was my previous life, there were some episodes that I vividly remembered, and since I was reborn while retaining the memories of my previous life, that was why I was going through this hardship now.
But when I quietly looked back, I lived the life of an ordinary citizen itself, and there were no sins that I could say I particularly committed.
At most, I might have sneaked some snacks or chocolates from the supermarket or mart when I was young…?
Of course, when I got caught later, I was beaten to the point of nearly dying, so I guess you could say I paid for my sins.
“Something’s strange.”
“What’s strange?”
“I didn’t commit any sins in my previous life, so why am I going through this hardship?”
“Isn’t it natural?”
Arwen, who had brought a chair and was sitting next to my bed, twinkled her eyes.
Then, slowly and stealthily, she approached me on all fours like a cat, and I could vividly feel the sensation of her fangs sinking into my finger.
It stung.
Every time I got bitten like this, it felt like getting a vaccination shot, so it wasn’t very pleasant.
Slurp.
Licking the drop of blood that formed on the tip of my finger, Arwen retorted.
“It’s a fitting punishment for a bad owner who forgot to feed the cat and was fooling around with other women.”
“…You’re not a cat, you’re a vampire. You even said you’re a True Ancestor.”
“Right now, I’m a cat.”
Along with the reply of the shape-shifting vampire who switched between being a vampire and a cat according to her own convenience and taste, the sound of her licking blood broke the quiet stillness of the room for a while.
Certainly, it would tickle if she licked with her tongue, and it would be embarrassing in many ways if she looked down at me from above like this.
But since it had become a daily routine in my room since the day Arwen came to find me, I didn’t particularly mind or avoid it.
Rather,
“Don’t worry.”
“About what?”
“At least the you that I remember suited taking action recklessly rather than worrying and groaning like that.”
“…It’s easy to say.”
I shook my head at Arwen’s advice that wasn’t really advice as she sucked on my finger.
It was really easy to say, but when you were actually in the position to do it, you became reluctant to just recklessly go for it.
And if it went wrong, I was in a position that was ambiguous in many ways to just dive in.
It was all because this was a gender-reversed world.
As I kept grumbling inwardly, Arwen, who had been staring at me, tilted her head.
“You’re unusually unlike yourself today.”
“Huh?”
“Did something happen?”
Is it that a woman’s intuition is sharp?
In fact, when I think about it carefully, there were various things that happened.
With Eileen, there was only one bed at the inn, so we had no choice but to sleep on the same bed… Because of that, I couldn’t sleep properly until dawn, but I did stay up late.
And I thought Lassiel was just a happy-go-lucky person on the outside, but when we talked together on the boat, she was unexpectedly deep.
Moreover, when I saw her messy room, I thought, ‘As expected of the Golden Sun’- and after that, I was falsely accused of flirting around.
Even just what happened with Sylphia yesterday…
Now that I’ve listed them out like this, a lot of things really happened in the past few days.
“Oh?”
“Hmm? Why?”
“Was what Lassiel said correct…?”
After listing everything out and thinking about it, did this mean I’d become a bad guy?
As if I’d been carelessly setting up fishing spots and just feeding the fish in the traps…
Huh?
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“Confess what happened. Let’s hear it first and then make a judgment.”
“It’s my personal life, you know?”
“Tsk.”
As soon as Lassiel’s name was mentioned, Arwen’s eyes sharpened.
“…So why is Lassiel being treated like a public enemy?”
“She’s the Golden Sun, isn’t she?”
“…Huh? How do you know that term?”
“The you from the past told me everything. The saying that physiognomy is a science isn’t there for nothing. If you think about it, isn’t that right?”
“What on earth did the me before the regression teach people all over the place?”
I unconsciously had that thought, that was how knowledgeable Arwen was about modern language.
“Look at what that Golden Sun woman does. On the outside, she seems like a rare person who is that lacking, but when it comes to important moments, she becomes serious. She’s truly skilled at capturing men’s hearts. So naturally, one can’t help but be wary of her, right?”
“Well… That’s certainly true, but…”
“I’m sure no one likes that human admiral.”
Arwen spoke as if affirming it.
Indeed, the Golden Sun.
Was she receiving such focused vigilance here too?
Certainly, the image of the Golden Sun that appeared in erotic manga and such was too unconventional, and there were few people who fit that image as well as Lassiel, but…
Sending a brief condolence to Lassiel’s image that was piercing through the core and crashing, I hurriedly changed the subject again.
“Anyway… Can you stop licking now? It tickles my finger.”
“Mmm… Don’t be stingy with food. I’m not full yet.”
“Don’t arbitrarily treat someone else’s blood as food. Did you coat honey on my finger?”
I didn’t know for sure, but if I told Arwen about what happened in the past few days, I could easily predict that a storm would arise on the plain.
It was wise to quickly change the topic of conversation.
Apart from that, perhaps because I kept losing blood, I felt dizzy as if I had anemia.
“How long do you think I’ve been starving? You lack the qualifications to raise a cat.”
“I told you, you’re a vampire pretending to be a cat. You even said you’re a True Ancestor. All vampires call the True Ancestor their monarch. Have a little more pride.”
“If I have that, will you feed me blood?”
Arwen snorted.
The image of the True Ancestor that I had imagined was completely different from what I had in mind.
What was left in front of me now was something like a pet that was satisfied with being treated as a pet, a pet that had been worn out by the world’s hardships and faced reality, despite being called the True Ancestor.
“Sigh, I’d rather die than suffer.”
“Don’t die. If you die, I’ll even resort to black magic to somehow revive you.”
“Don’t arbitrarily use people as necromancy materials. I have no desire to live miserably with only bones remaining.”
What if, just in case, just a one in a million chance.
If even the final method mentioned by Arwen or Sylphia doesn’t work and I end up dying.
If I happen to be resurrected as a skeleton with only bones remaining after dying like that, I wonder how it would feel.
I don’t know for sure, but it would be quite a strange feeling.
Moreover, I can’t confidently say that such a thing won’t happen, because Arwen’s eyes were quite serious as she looked at my injured finger with a regretful expression until just now.
“Once is enough. Such a painful experience.”
Arwen, who muttered in a strangely lonely tone, was enveloped in light and soon transformed into a silver-furred cat.
Then, as if she had reserved the spot, she sat on my lap and spoke in a deliberately cheerful manner.
“Anyway, there’s still a lot of time left today. So let’s spend it as if nothing happened, just like usual. Isn’t that what you like the most? Wasting time meaninglessly like this without doing anything.”
“When you say it like that, it makes me sound like an unemployed person idling in my room as I get older. If it were normal, I would have diligently gone to work at the lab and lived each day earnestly.”
“Weren’t you?”
“…Arwen.”
It hurt a little.
When a heavy fact stabs you in the solar plexus, of course it hurts.
But when I looked back on my life recently, I was living a life no different from an idle person who shut himself in at home and played around without any intention of getting a job.
Unable to find a proper rebuttal, I lowered my voice meekly.
Arwen purred as if satisfied with my reaction.
“Then let’s rephrase it as you spending today as if it’s a holiday, not a normal day. Don’t you usually just waste time on holidays without going to that human mage’s lab?”
“That’s certainly true, but…”
I still don’t know.
Still, in the past few days, I went on dates in the capital, rode a magic circle to go far south to the southernmost part of the empire.
Going here and there, even to Sylphia’s lair, which I didn’t even know where it was, it was a packed schedule for me, a natural-born homebody.
I was certainly grateful, but I decided to accept Arwen’s somehow irritatingly considerate non-consideration for now.
As Arwen said, the day was still long.
Outside, the Emperor’s birthday festival was probably still going on and bustling, but it didn’t matter since no one would know I was here anyway.
Tok.
As my contemplation grew longer, Arwen tapped her front paw on top of my head.
Even transformed into a cat, her amethyst eyes, not much different from her human form, stared intently at me.
“Didn’t I tell you earlier?”
“…”
“Don’t worry so much. It doesn’t suit you to make such a serious expression.”
A calm voice.
“Set aside complicated thoughts for now and rest comfortably. There’s no need to worry about it right now.”
“Arwen…”
“Let’s take a nap first.”
Meow.
Arwen, who let out a short and awkward cry as usual, closed her eyes as if she was done talking, lying in a loaf position.
…It was all fine, but I didn’t know why she had to sleep on top of me.
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Gimme the illustration of Arwen loafing as a cat rn
what does the mc really want to do with his life lmao, he says he hates doing stuff here and there and yet doesn’t want to be a house husband bruh, I mean I get that he still has that mindset of a earthling, but dude just can’t decide what to do with his life.