Romance Revived: An NPC Was the Final Boss’s Love, page 1
Table of Contents
Cover
Characters
Jnovels
Romance Revived: An NPC Was the Final Boss’s Love
Afterword
Appendix
Bonus High Resolution Cover
About J-Novel Club
Copyright
I always thought all I needed to do was endure it all, no matter what happened or how bad it got.
I couldn’t change the fact that my parents didn’t love me, or that I had to give up everything to my younger brother, or that all the servants scorned me. So what choice did I have other than to just accept it?
But it was thanks to that mindset that I ended up losing something precious—the one and only thing that mattered to me, in fact. I could tolerate absolutely anything, but that loss was the one thing I just could not accept.
“Sieg...fried...”
Vivid red blood spread across the chest of the man I’d sworn to serve for the rest of my life. His body crumpled to the ground, and I had no way of stopping the river of blood that gushed onto the floor. I couldn’t even touch him, and there was one simple reason...
“Kr...eis...”
Because I, too, lay on the floor in a puddle of crimson beside him as his bloodstained hand reached out to me.
Why?
Why can’t I save him?
I want strength—overwhelming strength. I would give up anything for him. I don’t care that my family doesn’t love me. I’ll give anything. I’d gladly be scorned if it meant I could save him.
And yet, despite his hand stretching desperately for mine, not even my fingertips could reach him.
“Ahh, finally this world will have peace!” My younger brother’s bombastic declaration echoed through the room. I despised his voice so much I wished I could rip out his throat. I couldn’t bear the thought of the person who lay by my side in such pain hearing any more of my brother’s disgraceful boasting.
It was the first violent impulse I’d ever had in my entire life. Gah, I want to kill him. I want to kill him so badly! Why didn’t I do it before? If only I’d done it, then Siegfried wouldn’t be sprawled out across the floor right now.
My weakness had caused all of this.
“Ngh... Please, God...”
I spat out the thick, metallic-tasting liquid that rose up from the depths of my throat. Siegfried’s face twisted with pain when he saw it.
Don’t worry about me. It’s my fault this happened to you. If only I’d been stronger, more cunning. If only I could do it all over again... Then I’d make them all regret it.
That’s right—I want to redo it all. Right now.
I would sell my soul to the devil himself if it meant I could do that. So please...someone, anyone...help me.
Give me the chance to have revenge.
“Aah!”
The abrupt falling sensation startled him awake.
“Haah, haah, haah...” The wild thumping of his heart in his chest told him he was still alive. Tears streamed from his wide-open eyes. He clawed at his chest as if he could reach his heart.
I’m alive, I’m alive, I’m alive!
“What a...damn terrible story!” he cursed as he sat up in bed, this time scratching frantically at his head.
The worst story with the worst possible ending! It was so terrible...it could only be called a nightmare.
“Argh! What in the world have I done?”
After tossing and turning on the old, creaky bed for a while, Kreis finally lifted his face. The morning sunshine shone through the nearby window, making his bangs glint in his peripheral vision.
He had inherited his silver hair and blue eyes—both of which were quite rare in this kingdom—from his great-grandmother, who had come from another country to marry into their family. But they were wasted on his otherwise scrawny appearance.
Kreis von Louboutin was his full name. He was the eldest son of Marquess Louboutin, a powerful noble family in the kingdom of Claan, second only to the royal family. Although he was technically the oldest son, he was treated more like a servant.
His worn silk pajamas were a hand-me-down from his younger brother. Since they weren’t the same height, they didn’t fit him very well, and he itched in several places because he was rarely allowed to bathe. The areas on his body hidden by his clothes were covered in scratches. He did wipe himself down as much as he could, but since he wasn’t allowed to use hot water, he was prone to catching colds in the winter.
The common children in town probably lived a better life than Kreis.
He looked around his room, which reeked of mildew. It was the smallest room in the marquess’s estate, and it got the least amount of sunshine. But this was the only place Kreis could call home.
Since there was only one window, his room was only bright in the morning. His bed could barely fit inside the room. Still, it was the only place where he could breathe—where he felt like himself.
Well, that had been how the old Kreis felt, anyway.
My head still felt foggy... It was hard to accept this as my reality. But faced as I was with the scene before me, I had no choice but to accept it.
I was in the world of the story.
I had a splitting headache. Even though the sudden rush of memories coming back to me was confusing, I told myself to stay calm. Nothing good would come from panicking. It wasn’t as if anyone would come save me, and it wouldn’t improve my situation. Right now it was essential for me to figure out what was going on. Calm down, I told myself.
I knew this story better than anyone.
This is how it went: the weak and sickly protagonist got weaker and more sickly by the day despite his father lovingly caring for him. But one day, a divine revelation stated that his condition was because he’d taken on the kingdom’s impurities within his own body.
Hence, the protagonist was revered as a child of the gods, becoming a figure of worship in the kingdom. Eventually, he was summoned to the castle where he grew close to the prince of Claan, and over time they began to care for each other. However, there were various obstacles to their relationship.
The prince’s older brother—the reigning king—disliked the protagonist for reasons unknown and treated him very coldly, which caused a rift between the king and his brother. This angered the king, who tried to imprison the protagonist, but the prince managed to save him just in time. That was when the two of them confessed their feelings for one another, and the protagonist discovered that it was actually the king who was the source of the kingdom’s impurities.
Once the prince reported the king’s various misdeeds to the nobles, he gained their trust and became king instead. Then the protagonist could finally stay by his beloved’s side with a gentle smile on his face. And then they lived happily ever after, the end.
“‘Happily ever after’? Yeah, right...”
There was nothing happy about it. Especially not for me.
Kreis wasn’t even the main character in the story, but now I was Kreis. I could hardly believe it.
If someone had told me before I came to this world that I’d end up here, I would have been irritated and dismissed it as a joke. But now I knew the truth: this was the true story of Kreis that hadn’t been written in the book.
The old, run-down desk in the corner of the cramped room caught my eye. The varnish had peeled off and the wood was splintered, but a mountain of rare, expensive books was on top of it, looking entirely out of place.
Knowledge was a treasure. It was the only investment in his future that Kreis had been allowed, and because of that my mind was now full of all sorts of knowledge. Even when he felt like he was in the depths of hell, Kreis had continued to study. His father had forced him to, but regardless, learning had given Kreis’s life meaning. He wanted to serve Siegfried, and he studied in an effort to make that dream come true.
But that Kreis was dead.
Yes, dead.
Even though he’d endured the neglect of his parents and the abusive servants in silence, his one wish had been in vain. He’d died a burden to Siegfried, right before his very eyes.
It was a miserable story, less than a C-list tale. After all that struggle, all that suffering, he’d just been killed and discarded like a piece of garbage. It was far too cruel. Who the hell had written such a trashy, pointless story?
Well, I did. That was the worst part of all this. It was me.
Kreis von Louboutin really was dead. His soul no longer existed in this world. But who was the one standing in this room now? A failed novelist who’d lived in an old, run-down apartment back in Japan. His stories had faced harsh criticism no matter how many he wrote.
And that person, the original author of this story, was standing here right now. And that was me.
Well, I guess that wasn’t quite right. I’d died, been reincarnated, and died again. I was an author who’d come back from the dead, reborn into a world of his own creation. But those memories had only come back to me moments ago.
My past life—or maybe I should call it my life before the last one? I wasn’t really sure. Either way, I was the author of this story, and I’d suddenly died in that dingy little apartment in Japan. Then, a stuck-up man who claimed to be a god popped up out of nowhere and said, “You’re going to be reincarnated.”
I’d just died, so the idea of reincarnation made no sense to me at all. But before even giving me a chance to think about it, the self-proclaimed god continued. “There’s someone who wants you to grant their wish,” he said.
“Grant a wish? I don’t have that kind of power. And even if I did, why should I? If anything, I’m the one whose wishes need to be granted!”
I’d prayed to the gods so many times when I was alive, and not once had my prayers been answered. So why should I grant someone else’s wish? I was furious and demanded an answer.
“If you do not grant the wish, you’ll die,” the god had said.
“What? That’s ridiculous! First you force me to be reincarnated, then threaten to kill me if I don’t obey you?”
“No, I won’t be the one to kill you. But you will die all the same.”
“That’s the same damn thing! You can forget it. I’m not doing it!”
“You used to write novels, didn’t you? I actually read a few of them. Hrm, yes... It seems experience is important after all. Before you’re fully reincarnated, how about I let you have that experience? You get to live in the world of your own novel. You’re incredibly lucky!” the god said.
“Hey, listen to me! I said I’m not going to do it!”
But the selfish jerk refused to listen. And before I knew it, I’d been shoved straight into reincarnation completely without my consent.
The god had claimed I was lucky to be able to experience the world of my novel, but I hadn’t even been reincarnated as the protagonist!
Nope, instead I’d come back as one of the final boss’s minions.
Now, at this point it should be clear that the final boss is none other than Siegfried, Kreis’s beloved.
And I’d been reincarnated as Kreis, a villain who dies at the hands of the protagonist and his allies during the climax of the story. I couldn’t believe it. I’d been reincarnated as some unimportant NPC who served the final boss.
Who the hell came up with such a ridiculous story, anyway?
Oh, right. That was me.
I’d started writing this BL novel on a whim. I’d met another writer online who’d hit it big in the BL market. After writing nothing but light novels, I figured I’d give it a try. A story had popped into my head, so I’d jotted it down and posted it on the internet.
Obviously something written so haphazardly wasn’t going to be popular. Far from it. The readers had absolutely roasted it. But now I understood their reactions all too well.
A story like this never had a chance in the first place. It was horrible! I’d lived Kreis’s life with my memories sealed, living and dying as him. And if I’d known the truth from the start, I would’ve punched myself in the face.
It was a horrible world and a horrible story. Knowing I was the one who’d come up with it all made me want to bash my head into a wall.
However, there were numerous details between this world and the novel I wrote that were different. I wasn’t sure why. But there was one thing I did understand: Before I was reincarnated, the arrogant self-proclaimed god told me there was someone who wanted me to grant their wish. And that someone was the original owner of this body.
Kreis had had one final wish before he died. “Give me the chance for revenge.”
He wanted vengeance, and now it seemed that mission was up to me.
My mind was still reeling. I couldn’t quite believe this was real. But the raw sensation of death still lingered on my body, refusing to let me forget.
They killed me.
I opened the nightstand drawer beside the bed and took out the diary Kreis had diligently kept every day.
“I knew it.”
After I flipped through the pages, I discovered my hunch had been right. The story hadn’t begun yet. In other words, it was still possible to change its course from this point forward.
That was right. The most important thing now wasn’t that it was Kreis who stood here, but that I was now Kreis. The one who’d lived his life and written the whole story to begin with. And now I was here, in this place, at the beginning when it was still possible to change it all.
But why me? That doubt lingered in my mind. But the arrogant god was clear that if I couldn’t grant Kreis’s wish, I would die.
Kreis was destined to die in this story, so if I didn’t take action, the only future waiting for me was death. Being forced down this path without my consent was uncomfortable. But I wasn’t going to just wait in silence and get killed without doing anything to try to stop it.
So I have no choice, I thought. Just then...
Crreeaaak...
The door to my room swung open without so much as a knock.
“How long are you planning on staying in bed, you good-for-nothing?!” Elly, one of the Louboutin family’s maids, barged in and demanded. She was tall and scrawny, and though she always put on a sweet smile for Kreis’s father, she did nothing but talk badly about him behind his back. She was comfortable doing so in front of Kreis because she knew his relationship to his father.
She always wore her frizzy red hair in braids, hoping to appeal to Kreis’s younger brother, Gilles. As if he’d ever fall for a maid.
Elly’s face reflected her nasty temperament. If someone told me she was the personification of a terrible personality, I’d believe it. Some say one’s ugliness is reflected in their appearance as they grow older, and Elly was proof of that.
I stared at her silently, and a moment later a pillow came flying at me.
“Stop staring at me! Who do you think you are?”
I couldn’t hold it in. I burst out laughing, clutching my stomach. “Who do I think I am? Please! Ha ha ha!”
“What’s so funny? Have you finally lost your mind?”
How could I not laugh? Kreis was the oldest son of a marquess and heir to the family, but he was being openly mocked by a maid.
Although that wasn’t surprising, given how things had been.
Kreis had always been a pitiful person. His parents had quarreled since he was born, then his half brother had appeared out of nowhere. Gilles was a child his father had with another woman, and he had joined the household at the age of five. Their father doted on him excessively, perhaps because he’d been frail since birth.
Gilles got whatever he wanted. If Kreis got a birthday gift and Gilles wanted it, it was now his. Everything that belonged to Kreis, including his bedroom, his meals, and his friends, was turned over to Gilles the moment he asked for it.
Their father was cold to Kreis. So was his mother, but at least she was equal in her treatment of both sons. The pain of being singled out by his father was far worse for Kreis. Eventually his mother couldn’t stand the fighting anymore and moved back to their estate in the royal capital, leaving Kreis behind. He was the heir, after all, so he couldn’t leave. However, the household servants looked down on him after his mother abandoned him.
He was expected to be the perfect heir, and any mistake brought harsh reprimands down upon him. But as even the servants started foisting their work upon him, Kreis gradually lost any status he had in the Louboutin household.
“Hurry up and get ready!” Elly barked. She was demanding that he get started on work that should’ve been done by the household staff. At some point, it had become Kreis’s duty to wake up early in the morning and fetch water from the well. And in the cold months, carrying water was a difficult task. Just filling and hauling the buckets full of the icy water left his hands raw and chapped. The frostbite could turn dangerous if left untreated.
I looked down at my hands. They certainly weren’t the hands of a noble. They were absolutely ugly, covered in calluses and broken skin. Even more beat-up than the hands of any servant. That was why Kreis always wore gloves in public.
“How long are you going to ignore me?! Do you want me to whip you?” Elly shrieked in her annoying voice. And the old Kreis would’ve obeyed immediately.
“I’m sorry! Right away!” he would’ve said, and rushed from the room.
That had been his daily life ever since he was seven years old and Gilles joined their household. Now that he was over twenty, he had just given up and was used to swallowing his pride and enduring it.
But...
“Whip me? Who the hell do you think you are?”
That was the old Kreis.
I raked a hand through my messy hair and glared at Elly, who flinched under my intimidating gaze. She took a step backward and yelled louder to cover up her own embarrassment.
