Kiraware Yūsha ni Tensei Shitanode Aisare Yūsha o Mezashimasu! - Chapter 1

[Barrett, the Hated Hero]

I could hear the chirping of small birds.

I slowly opened my eyes, and the sight of an unfamiliar ceiling came into view.

I sat up and looked around.

The desk, the chairs, the windows, the bed… I took a look at each one of them, but it only left me with an indescribable feeling.

—All of them looked unfamiliar to me, but I recognized them.

The desk and the chairs were made for me by the gardener Robb who had been working in the mansion for a very long time on my sixth birthday whereas the bed was bought for me by Aunt Gwyneth. The scratches on their edges were caused by myself; I had accidentally hit them with my training sword while I was practicing swordsmanship in the room.

Why… did I have such information?

A hazy feeling struck me as though a fog had shrouded my mind.

At that time, I caught the sight of myself reflected in the full-length mirror in the corner of the room and was dumbstruck.

Brown short hair.

Mean-looking eyes, but otherwise well-organized features overall.

Wasn’t this guy—

“Barrett, the hated Hero!?” I involuntarily shouted and was left stunned for a while.

After which, the sound of knocking on the door echoed.

“Good morning, Young Master Barrett.”

The owner of the voice was Marina, the maid attending to me.

At that point, my entangled thoughts were unraveled.

……No, that was a slightly wrong way to put it.

It was more fitting to say that my two scattered memories were fused into one.

“Is something the matter, young master? Are you feeling unwell?”

“—! Ah, I’m okay, just give me a second!”

Feeling suspicious when I didn’t come out of the room, Marina called out to me with a hint of worry in her voice. I gotta get the door to reassure her first.

“Morning, Marina.”

“—! G-good morning, young master.”

I just casually greeted her, yet it earned me a shocked stare from Marina.

It was only natural.

――Because the《Real》Barrett Albers surely would never do such a thing.

◇◇◇

I liked reading web novels.

Especially the one I’d picked up recently:【The Rise of the Weakest Holy Swordsman】I was so into it that I always read it the same day as the newest chapter was posted.

The main attraction of this novel was the 《Serves you right》 element.

Raul, the Protagonist, had always been oppressed in the Hero Party. With his being kicked out as the trigger, he awakened his hidden power, then he went to save the world as the true hero—or so was the outline of the story.

Many readers experienced catharsis from reading the classic yet exciting plot of rewarding good and punishing evil, or to be more correct, of the awakened hero defeating the scumbags.

At the biggest novel hosting site in the country, its number of bookmarks had exceeded 50,000 in the first week it was released, and now it exceeded the 100,000 milestones. Words went around that a major publisher had decided to adapt it into a light novel and manga.

In all truth, my current self, Barrett Albers, was one of the characters in that super popular series 【The Rise of the Weakest Holy Swordsman】.

And Barrett was one of the scumbags hostile to the protagonist.

Incidentally, I knew Barret’s face because I’d seen the draft of his character illustration that the author had posted on social media.

I tried to scour my memories for information on Barrett.

He was the son of the Ducal House of Albers, one of the most prestigious noble houses even in the Bramshal Kingdom—the biggest country on the continent. His family alone already made him enviable, but on top of it, he even received the Holy Sword from God at the Divine Gift Ceremony. Thus, Barrett became a hero whom people all over the world held high expectations for.

Having been living a smooth sailing life, Barrett grew more arrogant than ever upon being hailed as a Hero, and eventually, he even began to declare himself as ‘the man chosen by God’. He looked down on the people around him, fell into depravity, and never forgave anyone who opposed him. He was drowned in the mighty power of the Holy Sword, and in a sense became a more troublesome being than even the Demon King.

Due to his character, the readers had the worst impression of him.

Piece of trash.

Bastard.

Scum.

These were the three major evaluations of Barrett based on the readers’ impression of him.

Barrett had always had his way, but his life began moving into a downward spiral after he kicked out the Protagonist Raul from his party.

The main cause was Tayte Ehrenberg, the saintess and his childhood friend.

Barrett was engaged to her since they were children, but Tayte was repulsed by his tyrannical behaviors. When he kicked the innocent Raul who had been working hard for the party just because ‘he didn’t like him’, she finally had it with him and ended up leaving the party herself, following Raul.

What’s more, the two later became lovers, and eventually confirmed their love in a night of passion—but of course, there was no need to go into details, and the point was they eventually became one both in mind and body.

By the way, this series also had a harem tag, and there were multiple heroines other than Tayte. The Protagonist Raul was also united both in mind and body with all of them.

Well, let’s set that aside for now. Anyways, that made Barrett bore an unjustified resentment against Raul, claiming him as ‘a scumbag who stole his fiancée’ as though he was the innocent party, and relentlessly pursued him.

However, his actions backfired on him. After Raul left, he didn’t make any progress in capturing dungeons, and due to his behaviors, his peerage and title as Hero was stripped away by the king.

Having lost everything, Barrett challenged Raul to a final showdown to regain everything, but at that point, Raul had unleashed the power of the Demon Sword, been training in earnest since his awakening, and was surrounded by his reliable and beloved women. Naturally, Barrett couldn’t beat him and was ungracefully defeated with a single blow. In his frustration, Barrett disappeared into the slums and never appeared in the main story again since.

I was reincarnated into that Barrett Albers.

……What to do?