Chapter 1: Villain Reincarnation

"...a ceiling I don't know"

I got up from the bed, uttering the standard lines.

My head is throbbing. Every muscle in my body ached like a sore muscle. What in the world is wrong with me?

"......Wait, where am I, anyway? This is not my room, is it?"

I look around the room and talk to myself.

The room I woke up in was a Western-style room like a high-class hotel. The beds are large enough to accommodate five or six people, and the wardrobe and tables are designed in a luxurious manner.

When I looked down, I saw my own clothes. It was not the high school jersey that I usually use as a sleepwear. Instead, I was wearing only a pair of pants, and my upper body was naked.

"Hmm...?"

Wait, when did I become such a thin macho man?

I have lean muscles in spite of my slim body, and my abs are split into six pieces.

"No way... are you kidding me?"

At this stage, I realize what has happened to me.

Isn't this so-called "that"? Isn't this the same kind of thing that happens in light novels and web novels?

I found a mirror hanging on the wall of my room. I get up from my bed and stand in front of the mirror, my body throbbing with pain.

"......!"

In the mirror is a young man with dark hair.

He was a handsome western-looking man with a slender and straight nose, but his eyes were unusually sharp and the color of his eyes was as red as blood. He looked like a vampire in a movie. His face gave me a strong impression of being scary or frightening rather than good-looking.

Such a face I've never seen before.

To begin with, I'm just an ordinary company employee born and raised in Japan. I don't look like a mafia heir.

"Wait, wait... mafia heir?"

I realized that I recognized the face in the mirror from a casual word I thought in my mind. As I frantically search through the sea of my memory, my life history comes back to me in a chain of events.

I was in Japan. I was an office worker in my early thirties. My hobby was a game.

The last thing I can remember is coming home late at night after work, exhausted. My body was like lead from working overtime. I had been staying overnight at the office, and it had been a week since I had been home.

I soaked in the bath for the first time in a long time, and drank beer in one gulp, lamenting how I ended up working for such a black company... and then my memory is cut off.

Probably, I died after that.

Stroke or heart attack. Or overwork. At that time, I was at an age when I was worried about adult diseases. I had been working so hard that I was afraid I might break down at any time.

Maybe I died in the house where I lived alone, and I was reincarnated... you know, like in the light novels.

"Oh, come on... are you serious? I, no way... could this face be...?"

After searching my memory for a while, I finally realized the identity of the person in the mirror.

"This evil face that seems to be a mixture of all the evil intentions of the world... could it be that I've been reincarnated as Zenon Baskerville?"

Zenon Baskerville.

He was an asshole to me in my previous life. The most hateful character. It is the name of the villain who has corrupted the divine game I love so much, [Dungeon Brave Soul].

Why didn't I recognize him sooner? There are probably no other faces in the world that look this bad.

Is it possible that I had locked my memory to prevent myself from remembering the trauma this man had inflicted on me?

"Why...? Why, of all people, am I reincarnated as this man...!"

I clenched my fists in anger.

Why Zenon Baskerville of all people? What kind of misdeed in a previous life would make me become the man I hate the most?

Anger and frustration welled up like magma, and Zenon's face in the mirror became distorted like an ogre.

If I am going to be reincarnated, I would have preferred to be Leon Brave, the hero!

I wanted to make love with many heroines and build a harem!

As I was screaming my soul out like this, there was a gentle knock at the door. Before I can answer, the door is opened.

"Excuse me..... Eh?"

"What?"

A young woman in a maid's uniform enters. She is probably in her mid-20s. Her purplish hair is tied on the top of her head, and she has a very attractive face.

The maid stood in front of the mirror and froze her eyes... and her face turned pale as she looked at me.

"Excuse me? I apologize for entering the room without permission!"

She bowed her head quickly and vigorously. It was a deep bow, bent at a 90-degree angle at the waist.

"Usually Zenon-sama doesn't wake up even if I knock from outside the room, so I just went inside without permission. Please forgive me!"

"Oh, um..."

The maid apologized desperately, and I twisted my face in confusion.

It seems that Zenon is feared by the servants. He is indeed a rare villain. A cuckolding man who shook the game industry.

Suddenly, the maid enters the room and I am speechless. She seems to have taken my reaction in a bad way. The woman looked up with a determined expression on her face.

"...please punish me for my rudeness. I beg your pardon"

"Whoa!?"

The maid takes off her apron and unbuttons her blouse as if she had made up her mind. In front of my eyes, I am frozen by the sudden stripping, and the maid strips off her top and puts her hands on the wall.

"What...!"

"...Please. Please punish me as you always do. I'm ready"

"You, that wound...!"

The half-naked maid had numerous blue bruises on her back. The scars look as if they were caused by a whip, and painful swellings are spreading here and there on her white skin.

"As usual...?"

No way, is Zenon beating this maid on a daily basis?

Does he undress her, expose her backside, and beat her with a whip?

I was about to scream out in anger... but I managed to hold back my rage. If I made a fuss here, she would think I was suspicious.

So, I slowly and repeatedly breathe to suppress my raging emotions, take a robe from the chair, and put it over the maid's back.

"...Zenon-sama?"

The maid turns around with an uneasy voice. I keep my eyes down so that she can't see my face, and say in a blunt tone.

"...I won't punish you. Get dressed quickly"

"Eh? But, usually, at least 10 times..."

"Don't make me tell you twice. I won't beat you for that, get dressed!"

"Eeek... I-I understand? I'll get dressed now!"

The maid looks at me with a frightened look as she puts on her clothes.

I look away from her well-shaped body and put on my own clothes while I still can. Fortunately, there are some men's clothes on the floor. This black-based outfit is the very "Zenon" that I have seen in the game.

"Sorry to keep you waiting. I'm dressed now, but... what should I do now?"

The woman dressed in a maid's outfit asked me.

Once again, she is a beautiful woman of the highest level. I don't remember such a beautiful woman in the game, but I wonder if such a woman was buried as a mob.

"Uh... you, what day of the year is it?"

I watch the woman put on her maid's uniform, and then I open my mouth.

I really wanted to ask her name, but she might find out that I am not Zenon. So I ask her today's date, blurring the words.

"Umm... today is April 5th, the 101st year of Slayer history..."

The maid looks slightly puzzled, but quickly answers my question.

It's not the Western calendar or the 2021 calendar, but the "Slayer history". It seems that this is [DunBrave] world after all.

"April 5, 101st huh... Surely..."

It's a date I'll never forget. It is the day that Leon Brave, the protagonist of [DunBrave], enters the Royal Sword and Magic Academy in the Royal Capital.

As I have cleared not only the main scenario but also the individual endings of the heroines and the subheroine routes that were later distributed as additional scenarios, it was a memorable date for me to remember the time of the entrance ceremony.

"Hmm...does that mean I'll be attending the school from today?"

"Yes. Today is Zenon-sama's entrance ceremony..."

The maid answered my unintentionally mumbled soliloquy with a dutiful response.

Zenon Baskerville is a classmate of Leon's. Naturally, they enter the school on the same day.

I look at the clock, a pendulum clock as tall as I am, and its short hand points to 6. The entrance ceremony starts at 9:00 a.m., so there is still time to spare.

"Zenon-sama... by any chance, are you going to miss your morning training today?"

"Training?"

"Yes, you seem to do it every morning, so I woke you up at the usual time today..."

"Every morning without fail... me?"

I blink in surprise at the maid's words.

I never thought Zenon Baskerville had such a hardworking side.

Indeed, Zenon in [DunBrave 2] was an honor student who boasted of being in the top ranks of his class. In the battle part of the story, he is a person, who capable all kinds of jobs with high performance, and he is one of the most talented people who has no enemies except the main character and the Demon King.

I didn't realize that behind his ability was the accumulation of such efforts...though I don't think that was depicted at all in [DunBrave 2].

"What has happened? If Zenon-sama are going to take a break from the training, I will prepare the breakfast right away"

"No... I'll train as usual. The training grounds... uh, lead the way"

"Huh? Understood"

The maid tilts her head curiously and leads the way out of the room and down the corridor.

I - Zenon Baskerville, hiding my nervousness, followed the maid down the corridor of the house.