Chapter 1
Bad Start
A man in his twenties walked down the street—brown skin, short black hair, and an expression of utter exhaustion—as he headed to work. While walking, he read a book and stopped in front of a fruit stand, looking at the old lady behind it.
"Mrs. Maria, how are you?"
The old lady lifted her head, and upon realizing who it was, looked at him with a motherly gaze.
"I'm doing well, son. Thank you for asking."
Saul scratched the back of his neck nervously and thought, "Son… I still can't get used to that." He looked back at her.
"Today I feel like eating an apple before heading to work."
The old lady began examining the apples as if choosing the best one.
"Of course, today's is going to be a special one since you worked so hard yesterday."
Saul shuddered at the memory. A coworker had messed up the job, and he had to stay late fixing the mess. It was so intense he even forgot to bring his phone today and just left the house.
"Wait, how do you know? I didn't pass by here."
The lady picked up an apple and placed it in Saul's hand.
"I saw you passing by last night, and it was really late. I just put two and two together."
Saul took the apple and pulled money from his pocket to pay.
"Oh, that makes sense."
He checked the watch on his wrist.
"I've got 30 minutes left, so I need to go. Thank you, Mrs. Maria."
She smiled, clapped her hands together, closed her eyes, and began a small prayer.
"May your life be good from now on."
Saul looked at her. He had never been fully religious. He respected God, but believing was something different.
"Anyway, I need to go. Bye."
She opened her eyes and raised her hand.
"Bye, son. That apple is very special, so eat it well."
Saul waved and walked away. As he walked, he continued reading while eating the apple. It looked like a light novel.
"This is the final volume, just a bit left to finish. It's cliché, but that doesn't mean it's bad. Besides, it's my favorite. Hmm… better take a shortcut."
He looked to the side, turned the corner, passed some people, and kept reading.
"Hey, I'm not liking where this ending is going."
A shadow started following Saul when no one was around. And as he took the last bite of the apple, he felt something stab into his back. He coughed up blood and turned around. A man his age with dark eyes stared at him with rage.
"Die."
Saul pushed him away and tried to run, but another knife stabbed his leg. In pain, Saul yanked the knife out and slashed the attacker's hand.
"Ah, damn it! Why won't you die!?"
Seeing the man's face clearly this time, Saul seemed to recognize him.
"What are you doing here? And why?"
The man shouted in anger.
"To kill you, of course! Because of you, my family is ruined!"
He lunged with another knife. Despite the pain, Saul dodged and whispered,
"You got a second chance, and still you haven't changed."
Saul drove the knife into the man's throat. The man didn't give up and slit Saul's throat too. Then, clutching his own throat, he collapsed on the ground, trembling and trying to survive. Saul fell back against a wall, both unable to call for help.
Saul looked at the sky, feeling death approaching. Then he glanced at the light novel on the ground and picked it up with trembling hands while the man crawled toward the alley's exit.
Saul turned to the last page and read it. As he finished, he began to cry and laugh.
"Hahaha… What a terrible ending."
Saul began to close his eyes as he heard a scream. It seemed someone had found the man, who had already lost consciousness, and others ran to Saul.
Saul slowly opened his eyes and saw a yellow ceiling.
"Huh? I didn't die?"
He sat up and looked at his hands.
"What? Why do my hands look… fatter?"
He noticed his belly was larger too—but not his entire body. Looking around, he realized nothing resembled the modern world. It looked ancient.
"Aaaaah… What is this? Where am I? Is this one of those isekai? I'm not even a big fan—wait, does that mean—?"
Suddenly, the door opened.
"Mr. Enrico, don't disturb the other students with your shouting."
Saul turned around and saw a maid. He had a look of disgust? Not just that—he had the feeling he'd heard that name before.
"Who?"
The maid turned and slammed the door shut. It seemed she didn't want to stay long.
Saul looked in the mirror. A 15-year-old boy, around 120 kilos and 1.79 meters tall, with brown skin and golden eyes and hair, appeared.
"Who did I reincarnate as?"
He began to ponder that strange feeling and decided to look out the window. He recognized what looked like an academy in the distance. Then he looked down and saw two people leaving the dorm: a boy with black hair and blue eyes in training clothes and a girl with brown hair and matching eyes. Then it clicked. He looked back at the mirror in desperation.
"It can't be…"
This was the story he had finished before dying. And the character he reincarnated into was one from the beginning. For simplicity, he was one of the three stooges—the short one, the dumb one, and the fat one—who followed a noble that tormented the protagonist and his friend at the start, and they were constantly humiliated. He collapsed onto the bed.
After calming down, he wandered through the dorm, seeing a screen appear in front of him like it was connecting.
"What's this? Is it one of those systems from those stories? I hope so because I'll need it if I want to survive."
Suddenly, a loud noise rang out, and Saul—now Enrico—covered his ears.
[Hello, host. Ready to begin your adventure on hard mode...]
Enrico was in shock. "Is a system supposed to be like this?"
He looked at the screen and saw his stats.
Name: Enrico Solcren Ferreira
Magic: Fire at Circle Zero – 25%
Title: Noble, First-Year Student, Underling, and Walking Waste of Air
An irritated look appeared on his face.
"I feel insulted. Okay, could you explain what's going on?"
[Of course. We're at the beginning of the story, halfway through Arc 1.]
"Halfway through Arc 1? That means we're… let me see…"
He paused for a moment, then remembered.
"Wait, if we're halfway through Arc 1, then the duel with the protagonist is already scheduled!"
At the start of the story, the protagonist's friend was constantly harassed by the three stooges. The protagonist found out Enrico was bothering her and challenged him to a duel, which was scheduled by the student council president for a month later. To be precise, she only did that to give the protagonist more time to prepare to fight Enrico. While Enrico slacked off, the protagonist trained. So if they were halfway through the arc, only two weeks remained.
Henrique began nodding up and down with a smile. "I'm screwed."