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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: Lord Fourth
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“…”
The morning sunlight streaming through the window tapped on my eyelids. My eyes opened naturally, and I stretched.
“Haa…”
Somehow, it had been a long time since I’d experienced such a refreshing morning.
I rubbed my still-sleepy eyes, chasing away the lingering remnants of sleep. Then, as my vision cleared, I looked around.
“Hm?”
Something was strange. The room was much larger than I remembered.
No, this wasn’t my room at all. I’d woken up in a completely unfamiliar place.
“This isn’t…my room, is it?”
Moreover, the decor was far from modern. If anything, it resembled something you’d only see in the Middle Ages.
As my consciousness sharpened, a primal unease crept up my spine, sending shivers down my back.
Chirp chirp chirp chirp
Just then, the leisurely chirping of birds reached my ears. Could you even hear birdsong in the city these days?
“…”
Turning my head, my gaze was captured by a glass window twice my size.
Where was I?
As if in a trance, I ran to the window and looked outside. And then… I couldn’t believe my eyes.
What I saw was…certainly not a familiar landscape. There were no traffic-jammed roads, no towering skyscrapers.
Was this…even Earth?
What I saw was nothing other than a vast garden.
“…”
A meticulously landscaped expanse of land, fit for a king.
Below, gardeners tended the grounds with practiced ease, as if it were something they’d always done.
“…?”
By now, I was utterly confused.
Was what I was seeing…real? Or was I perhaps dreaming? But when I pinched my cheek, the sharp pain felt all too real.
“Aaah—is this…my voice?”
Now that I noticed, my voice was also very different from usual.
“Uh…”
My field of vision was much lower, or rather, my whole body felt smaller.
Confused, I looked around again. Then suddenly… I met a gaze with a rather intimidating face. Yet, it also seemed strangely familiar…
He was looking right at me.
“Um…”
Despite his apparent youth, his eyes were sharp and fierce, like a predator’s.
“Uh, hello…?”
Involuntarily, I offered a greeting.
“Huh?”
Then…
“Ex-excuse me? Huh?”
The boy in front of me moved his mouth in the same way I did. When I waved, he mirrored the action like a puppet.
Wait a minute!
Looking again, that was a mirror, wasn’t it? A mirror? That’s righ, the face I was looking at was my own.
“…”
What in the world was going on? Overnight, I’d become a completely different person, in a completely different world.
Still, that face looked familiar. Could it be…?
Lost in thought, the answer quickly came to me.
“Arnold Stenman?!”
What I was looking at now—was the infamous villain from a game.
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Right now… I was so confused I could barely think straight.
I’d woken up in a room that seemed to belong to the past, and while my own appearance felt foreign, it wasn’t entirely unfamiliar.
I was Arnold Stenman? So, did that mean I’d been transported to another world?
This was crazy. So what was I supposed to do now? First, I needed to calm down.
“Haa…”
I took slow, deep breaths, trying to settle my dizzying mind.
How much time had passed since then? I still hadn’t regained my sense of reality, but I felt better than before.
“Mmm—”
I rubbed my temples, lost in thought.
It was incredibly disconcerting, but perhaps due to human nature, the more I felt the sense of crisis, the more strangely calm my mind became.
“So…right now…I’m in the world of a game?”
Right, calm down, calm down… I needed to analyze the situation… It seemed like I’d possessed the body of the game character, Arnold.
In other words, I’d been isekai’d. Though it seemed unbelievable…
“…”
Looking at the dreamlike reality unfolding before my eyes, I couldn’t help but believe it.
“But why Arnold of all people…”
Arnold Stenman.
He was the main villain in the male-oriented RPG game I used to play. The only son of a notoriously cruel and vicious noble family.
“…”
But it was truly just rumors. He was treated that way his entire life just because he was born under corrupt nobles.
In the end, unable to bear the witch hunt, he succumbed to the whispers of the Demon King and was killed by the protagonist.
So, what was I supposed to do? Honestly, even tilting my head in question felt like a waste of time. What else could I do? Survive!
Plus, judging by my appearance, I was quite young.
Roughly estimating, I was about five years younger than the Arnold I knew. That meant I’d arrived before the game even started.
This was actually an easier environment to survive in than the original story.
“Well, anything useful around here?”
I decided to look around. For a nobleman’s room, it was quite empty.
Perhaps it suited Arnold, who didn’t seem to care much for decoration.
The only thing that stood out was a leather-bound book on the desk.
It had no title.
“…”
I swallowed nervously and opened the book. But as soon as I did, I tilted my head in confusion.
It was blank?
The book was empty, without a single word written inside.
“Oh, come on…”
My bubbling anticipation fizzled out like water poured on a fire.
“No wonder it was so clean and untouched…It’s completely empty.”
Disappointed, I was about to put it back where I found it when—
“Wait…couldn’t I write in this?”
A thought flashed through my mind.
“Hmm.”
An empty book with nothing written in it…
Couldn’t I use it as a diary or a notebook to record information?
Judging from the circumstances, since it was found in this room, it was safe to assume that I, as Arnold, was its owner.
Should I write down what I knew in it?
“…”
Flipping through the crisp pages, I started jotting down various information and story developments from the game.
Even if not immediately, I’d need to pour out everything I knew in the not-so-distant future, so it was better to organize it now.
“…”
Holding the unfamiliar quill pen, I filled the book with as much information as possible.
“This situation calls for this… This other situation calls for that…”
From the protagonist’s perspective, I wrote down the incidents and accidents that occurred chronologically and how they intertwined with Arnold.
Time passed, and I finished writing a considerable amount.
I’d write more later if anything else came to mind. Wiping my forehead with the back of my hand, I closed the book.
Now, should I go outside?
“…”
I approached the visible door. As I grasped the cold doorknob, various thoughts rushed in.
“Haa…”
Worries and anxieties flashed through my mind… Yet, a budding sense of anticipation made my heart pound.
“Hup…!”
Steeling my resolve, I finally swung the door open.
And then—
“Ouch—!!”
I heard a thud and a gasp from the other side.
Thud!
Someone had fallen, accompanied by a soft cry.
“…!”
Startled, I quickly opened the adjacent door and looked outside.
“Oh… U-Um… Young Master?”
Standing at the door was a young girl, seemingly around the same age as me.
“…?”
Who was she? I didn’t remember her appearing in the game… She wore a maid’s uniform and had a pretty face that promised future beauty.
“Are you oka—”
Thinking I’d been at fault, I reached out to help her up.
“Eek…?! Y-Young Master!!”
But the moment my hand reached out, the maid flinched in terror.
“Uh…?”
She quickly straightened herself as if dodging a bullet and prostrated herself on the floor.
“I’m sorry!”
Then, she began bowing her head as if trying to break through the floor.
Her voice cracked as if she was about to burst into tears.
“No, no… That’s not…”
Flustered, I couldn’t find the right words. Everything had happened so fast that I couldn’t even figure out what to say.
“I… I’m sorry!! Please forgive me!!”
I must have hit her when I opened the door. That meant I should be the one apologizing. Yet, the maid was begging for forgiveness.
“No, it’s alright—”
I tried to reassure her, saying it was okay. I reached out, wanting to comfort her trembling shoulders.
“Please spare me…!”
But the maid sobbed as if she’d committed a mortal sin.
As if my fingertips were cursed, sucking the life out of her, she recoiled and bowed her head again the moment I reached out.
“…”
Why?
My confusion was brief as I remembered who I was.
Right, I was Arnold…
“I’m sorry! I’m sorry!”
No, had he been treated like this since he was young?
“Young Master, please forgive me!”
So what was I supposed to do?
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Hi Lord Fourth here!
I’m new to translating so if you find some mistakes or inconsistencies let me know about it on the dedicated channel on discord.
Someone unreasonably terrified of him wouldn’t talk over him repeatedly and shour in his face…I really do hate world like this where somehow most people are apperantly mentally disabled
I hope it gets better since the translation is good..