Repeated Vice: I Refuse to Be Important Enough to Die Volume 1 (eBook)

Hitsugi Kurokawa (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2026 | 1. Auflage
250 Seiten
J-Novel Club (Verlag)
978-1-7183-8581-8 (ISBN)

Infos

A dream of death was the wake-up call he needed.

Lofus Ray Lightless is far from a paragon of virtue. In fact, he revels in his villainy. But a vivid dream of the many ways he's fated to die convinces him that he must change his ways-or at least pretend like he will.

With his trusty butler at his side, Lofus sets forth to turn the tides of fate in his favor so that he can enjoy a long and selfish life. But the future isn't quite what he's seen, and he might have bitten off far more than he can chew...

Textauszug

1. Three Years Before the Prologue

Near a certain desolate fishing village of the countryside, a girl rushed across the forest. Her breathing was ragged, and her clothes were in tatters. She frequently turned to look behind her, her legs racing atop the slippery, wet ground, until she tripped over her feet and fell with a crash.

“Ugh...” the girl groaned, caked in mud and dirt.

As she expected, the sound of many footsteps soon caught up to her. Several men donning pristine suits of armor stood before her, their plainly expensive gear signaling that they weren’t bandits or hoodlums.

“Tsk, she’s covered in mud,” one of the men grumbled. “I thought I’d have some fun with her, but this blows.”

“You’re not gonna do her, man?” another asked. “I don’t mind if things get a little dirty.”

The men laughed as they continued their vulgar conversation. The girl tried to use this opportunity to jump to her feet and flee, but a bald man came from behind, pressing her down from above.

“Ow...” the girl grunted, twisting her face with pain.

The bald man heartlessly trussed her arms and legs with some rope and shoved a bit into her mouth.

“C’mon, boys,” the man said wearily. “Stop yapping and tie her up. She almost tried to run.”

“Whoops, my bad,” another man replied. “But the chase is half the fun. Y’know, like fox hunting. The fat cats love stuff like that.”

“Yeah, I get you,” another agreed. “A young woman with no chance of escape pathetically trying her luck anyway, running around in confusion? What a thrill.”

One of the men flashed a lecherous grin as he reached out to touch the restrained girl. She screamed in panic, but the bald man quickly stopped his friend.

“Not here,” the bald man warned, scolding his impatient, lustful comrade. “You don’t wanna deal with the sailors when they return, do you? Don’t forget that you guys screwed up because of them last time.”

He carried the girl and headed for the carriage that was stationed nearby. The girl flailed her legs in a desperate attempt to resist, but her captor was completely unfazed.

“If you’re gonna blame anyone, blame your parents for not paying what they owed,” he spat. He placed the girl in the rear seat and sighed. “Jeez... If your family had just paid their taxes, we wouldn’t have needed to act like lowly bandits. Can’t deny that some of them enjoy it, though.”

The bald man aired his complaints before he started to carriage. As the vehicle rumbled along, the bit in the girl’s mouth became loose. With tears in her eyes, she could only beg for help.

“Fol...” she murmured.

Was that the name of a friend? But of course, this friend wasn’t around to hear her desperate call.

✶✶✶

I dreamed of a very, very long tale. It all started with a commoner boy entering the Magical Academy. The Academy had its roots in noble society, and the boy was relentlessly mocked and underestimated for his birth. Still, slowly but surely, he gained power and shocked those around him; it was a common underdog success story. The main character gradually gained friends whom he could trust and was surrounded by lots of charming heroines while he accomplished many impressive feats.

One day, the Demon Lord was suddenly freed from his ancient seal. He used monsters as his pawns to invade and destroy humanity, and the humans fought back with their armies and magical soldiers. Ultimately, the world even had to rely on the students of the Magic Academy, including the main character and his eccentric friends.

Following various twists and turns, the main character and his allies managed to push the horde of monsters back, and ultimately defeated the Demon Lord who had commanded them. After that, humanity was blessed with peace, and everyone lived happily ever after. This would end the first arc of the story.

The hero continued on to have more adventures, until finally defeating the God of Darkness, the root of all evil. Only then did the world finally attain true peace.

There were five long arcs in total including the final arc. The commoner main character saved the world. He married the princess, one of the heroines, and drew the story to a close by becoming king. It was a heartwarming tale filled with smiles and tears...from a commoner’s point of view.

✶✶✶

“That was the dream I had last night,” I said to my butler, Carlos.

The morning sunbeam trickled through the window and shone onto my cup of black coffee. The elderly Carlos stood diagonally in front of me as I remained seated and enjoyed my drink. He took out his pocket watch and took a glance before slumping his shoulders ever so slightly.

“You spent half an hour discussing this dream, my lord,” Carlos said. “It really must’ve left a lasting impression on you. A rags-to-riches story—or commoner-to-royalty, rather—is one that has mass appeal. Perhaps you should consider writing a book.”

“Carlos, I wouldn’t speak at length if it were any normal dream,” I replied. “The issue is that in this story, I—Lofus Ray Lightless, heir to the house of a marquess—made an appearance.”

“Oh? Are you saying that you were a character in this rags-to-riches tale? May I ask what role you played?”

“Don’t make it sound like some sort of play. But anyway, in this so-called tale, I appeared in the first arc where the main character is at the academy. I mocked him relentlessly for his commoner ways, and I was among the five that bullied him. Furthermore, I even had little goons that followed me around. It was a very, dare I say, plain role.”

“My, oh my...”

“But that’s only the beginning. In the second arc, it’s revealed that I’m a part of the Elite Four who serve the second Demon Lord. I stand before the main character as ‘Lofus the Shadow Wolf.’ I unleash my dark magic to lay waste on those before me, but I am easily crushed by the main character and die in one strike.”

“Pfft...”

“What’re you laughing at?”

I glared at Carlos, who burst into a fit of laughter. My butler quickly cleared his throat to mask his amusement.

“What happened then?” he asked.

“Nothing happened,” I snapped. “Why do I, the future heir of the marquess, have to die in the beginning of the second arc? I’m not even a particularly significant enemy. This is an outrage.”

“There’s nothing I can do about that... But it’s no wonder that you woke up on the wrong side of the bed today.”

“Not only did I die, but my murderer went on to become a king. I was forced to dream it all, with no end in sight. Can you blame me for my annoyance? Oh, and Carlos, you die too. During the second arc with the battle against the Elite Four, you appear as my dark servant and are killed by the main character’s eccentric friends before my final fight even begins.”

“I suppose I would be a mid-tier boss at best. But to think they’d show no mercy even to an old man... That’s rather heartless.”

“Hmph, it’s just a dream.”

It was a silly nightmare, nothing more. I ended this piffling drivel and went about my day as usual. But a mere commoner pushing the nobles aside to become king? I thought. Simply awful.

Unfortunately for me, the nightmares didn’t end. That evening, I saw a continuation of my dream from the night prior; this time, I wasn’t viewing events through the lens of the main character, but myself. A member of the Elite Four, I was surrounded by the main character’s forces, and was tortured to death again and again and again. I fought back with my dark magic, but my enemies wielded weapons of fire and light—my two weaknesses—and mercilessly clobbered me.

I was forced to relive my death over and over again, and the lines between dream and reality began to blur. Am I really dreaming? Why can’t I wake up? I’m getting killed countless times with no remedy to my situation. As my suffering and agony gripped my body and I prepared myself for death, time rewound back to the moment when I had been cornered, only so that I could be killed again while they cursed my very existence.

They called me a traitor to humanity, a devil who shackled and tormented the people as I imposed heavy taxes upon them, a man with a petrifying gaze, a pessimist, a man with a lame robe. There was just no end to the creative insults hurled my way. That first one made sense, but the others sort of felt out of left field. I was killed in the story’s second arc, where both the main character and I were upperclassmen within the academy. At this point in time, I had nothing to do with managing the land. I was still a kid.

And so, it struck me as odd that I’d be called a devil who tormented the people with heavy taxation. I couldn’t deny my connection to anything regarding the Lightless fief, but I was by no means directly involved in the governing of the land. Why in the world was I called a devil? Did being a member of House Lightless and the Elite Four mean shouldering the blame for all my peers’ actions?

And the rest of those insults just sound like slander.

I felt like the main character’s side wasn’t really justified in their actions, but maybe I...

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 5.1.2026
• Reihe/Serie: Repeated Vice: I Refuse to Be Important Enough to Die
• Illustrationen: Kuki Kushiro
• Übersetzer: piyo
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Literatur ► Fantasy / Science Fiction ► Fantasy
• Schlagworte: Antihero • enemies to lovers • Future vision • Hero’s Journey • Politics & Intrigue • Redemption • Time Travel
• ISBN-10: 1-7183-8581-1 / 1718385811
• ISBN-13: 978-1-7183-8581-8 / 9781718385818