Chapter 1: I Swear I Will Never Build a Harem Again!
"I swear... I will never ever create a harem again."
Within a deep dark chamber, a man’s voice echoed. His pale white hair fell neatly over his shoulders, untouched despite the chains binding him to the lavish bed beneath while his once calm blue eyes were now burning with desperation instead of fear.
The room was silent except for his pleading.
"So please... Just kill me already. Hell, I will curse every harem protagonist I see in my next life if I have to if there is one..."
***
As embarrassing as it sounded, the man in question was me.
Zenith Ruinbringer.
Great Duke of the Ruinbringer Dukedom. Hero of the northern war. Honorary Cardinal of Crimson Night church. Owner of a face blessed enough to make mirrors feel appreciated and currently tied to a bed by one of my wives.
Life was always funny like that.
Still, anyone would lose composure when trapped alone with a psychopath. Honestly, things had gotten so bad that I even started narrating myself in third person just to cope but even that was no use.
As for where I was and why I was here...
The answer stood a few steps away.
An extremely beautiful blonde woman who was watching me quietly from some distance away, her face pale as snow, her lips red as cherry and her body as perfect as a Goddess.
Her crimson eyes had curved into practical hearts while a smile, far too beautiful to be called sane, rested on her face.
She was once my classmate...
...And my seventh wife.
Looking back, maybe I might have gone a little over the board but then again, reincarnate a modern man into a world of gods and beautiful women and statistical accidents become inevitable.
But none of that mattered anymore.
It had already been ten years since my ever-so-loving wife locked me inside this underground chamber because apparently, sharing was unacceptable.
Ironically, life here was more luxurious than my life back at the dukedom. Soft bed, fine food and constant attention, all in all, this was a paradise for NEET people if one ignored the chains.
My lovely wife frowned, not understanding why I would want to die instead of enjoying this paradise as she finally spoke.
"Why... why would you even say something so horrible, my love?"
Her voice trembled.
"Everything I do is for you. I am protecting you from the outside world. There are vultures everywhere waiting to take you away from me."
Her crimson eyes darkened.
"They called me a heretic. A calamity. All because I chose to love you. They just cannot accept that my love for you surpassed their faith in their gods."
Her voice sharpened.
"All those other women abandoned you, didn’t they? Aren’t I the only one who is with you? Aren’t I the only one who truly loves you the most?"
The smile on her face trembled.
"So why... Why are you asking to die? How could I ever kill you? I can’t. I won’t. If the whole world stands against you... Then I will burn the whole world."
"..."
Yep and that was exactly the problem.
The woman before me had evolved into something my previous world called — A yandere.
Though honestly, I wasn’t innocent either because pushing her this far was on me. The remaining part belonged to the ninety percent of the world that wanted my head mounted on a wall because apparently I was supposed to end this world.
Hell, recently the world has even started calling me Demon King just because the monster protecting me happened to be my wife.
Still...
I was never meant to live in a cage. I was a free bird and I would rather die free than rot here forever. After all, Death scared me far less than this insanity because I had a cure for death but not for madness.
Regression.
That was my cure.
One of the only two absurd cheats this damned world had granted a glorious reincarnator such as myself. Though calling it overpowered would be generous since it only activated once and only if I died at the hands of someone stronger than me.
Which, admittedly, wasn’t exactly a high standard because despite all the ridiculous titles people threw at me, I was never particularly powerful compared to all monsters around me, I was just better at managing my public image.
Still...
If I was going to die, I at least wanted it to be at the hands of someone really terrifying not just because of something as trivial as pride. Well... maybe a little because of pride but mostly because Regression carried one bonus effect.
A feature which would make the talent of whoever killed me mine.
So, I forced the most pitiful expression I could manage and looked at my wife.
"I know, Lily. I know exactly how much you love me and I love you even more and that’s exactly why I want you to kill me. Please. It hurts me to see you suffer because of me."
She froze for a second before rushing forward toward me, her trembling eyes filled with tears as she wrapped her soft arms around me.
"Please don’t ever say that, my love." Her voice shook. "I am not suffering. Why would I suffer when I am with you?"
She lifted her face as her soft red lips met mine in a desperate kiss.
"I am the happiest woman alive as long as I have you." Her forehead touched mine as she moved in for another kiss, but before she could,
BOOM!
The ceiling exploded apart, the stone and dust rained down as blinding sunlight assaulted my poor eyes. This was actually the first proper sunlight I have seen in ten years and it was already so rude.
"Demon King Zenith!" A voice thundered across the sky. "Your time has come. We, the knights of the Holy Empire, have come to slay you."
I blinked repeatedly to adjust my eyes and looked upward.
The whole sky was practically packed with them like ants, each radiating enough divinity to obliterate me a hundred times and at their center stood a familiar orange-haired bastard.
Aurelion Divus Auremont.
My natural enemy.
If I was the destined villain of this world, he was its damned protagonist and to make matters worse... One of my wives was his younger sister and another was the woman he had been hopelessly in love with.
Needless to say, the man hated my guts. If only they knew that I had spent ten years chained inside my own castle and that Lily had never acted under my orders.
Unlike me, she was actually terrifying enough to earn the title of a calamity. So, to them a man who could control such calamity was no less than Demon King.
Lily’s expression darkened as she got up from my side. "How dare you enter our domain, Aurelion? I will teach you the price of this insolence."
"...."
And just like that, the grand battle to defeat the Demon King began while said Demon King remained tied to a bed watching through a hole in his ceiling.
Lily had even left several of her strongest summons behind to protect me. Two of them fanned me from each side while one fed me grapes one by one.
Such a considerate wife she was even now.
I doubted if this army was even enough to scratch her because if there was one thing more absurd than my harem, it was Lily and her endless army of summons.
So, I waited patiently for her to come back and start the slow emotional blackmail to make her kill me as the battle raged for hours. Explosions shook the castle and the sky flashed endlessly as I watched enjoying my grapes calmly.
But then, all of a sudden, the summons around me froze before one of them moved in a rush, shattering the mana-sealing chains binding me instantly.
My eyes narrowed.
"What’s happening?"
The summons only obeyed Lily and if they had released me, that must mean it was Lily’s orders and for her to order this... something was wrong.
I stepped off the bed as another summon standing nearby suddenly exploded into light, opening a glowing blue portal. Beyond it I could see an unfamiliar forest.
The remaining summons moved toward me, trying to force me through the escape route but I refused to move as something crashed into the chamber with a loud shockwave.
BOOM!
My eyes snapped forward immediately as I saw Aurelion standing there, blood covering his body while one arm was gone and in his remaining hand, he held my Lily by the hair.
"Your wife was a true monster, Demon King." Aurelion chuckled weakly, blood dripping from his lips. "She slaughtered every elite I brought with me and nearly killed me as well... if only she hadn’t cared enough for trash like you to fall for my trap."
My breathing stopped for a moment, Aurelion’s words going past my ears.
She looked worse than I have ever seen, her body covered in wounds, one eye barely open but even then, she smiled weakly at me.
"Run away... my love."
She was insane but she was still my Lily and looking at her like that, seeing her in that condition, something inside me just snapped.
My fists clenched hard enough for blood to drip as my soul-bound sword appeared in my hand, flaring with purple flames.
I was a loser in battle but even losers had tricks when cornered and by putting my Lily in such a condition... Aurelion had successfully pushed me into that corner.
Aurelion laughed, throwing Lily aside like trash as a radiant spear materialized in his hand. He was ready for an epic duel but too bad for him, I had absolutely no intention of fighting fair.
The moment we closed the distance, I hurled my sword straight at his face. He tilted his head, letting the blade move past his head harmlessly but the distraction was all I needed as I activated the special effect of my sword.
I vanished and reappeared right behind him.
But Aurelion wasn’t the world’s chosen protagonist for no reason, he twisted his body with impossible speed, driving his spear straight through my heart.
He lifted me completely off the ground.
"Is that all you had, Demon King Zenith?" He mocked. "Honestly, this is way too disappointing—"
I smirked, coughing up a mouthful of blood right into his eyes. "Next time, don’t be such a yapper, you bastard."
With the last of my strength, I snapped my leg upward, driving my boot cleanly between his thighs as the hidden divine-grade claws beneath my soles activated instantly.
CRACK.
"ARGHHHHHHHHHHH!"
Aurelion’s divine majesty vanished in an instant, his grip on his spear slipping as I fell to the ground with the spear lodged in my heart while he crashed backward with the claws buried in his nuts.
"A man who torments my woman has no need for manhood." I scoffed, staring at the protagonist curling into a fetal position. "Die, you bastard... or live. Honestly, surviving with shredded nuts is a much better punishment for a impotent cuck like you."
With those words, I turned toward Lily. The pain coursing through my body was immense but I didn’t care due to my trait.
Lily lay some distance away, crying at her failure to protect me as I dragged my dying body toward her and held her hands.
"Don’t cry, Lily... death isn’t the end and I’m sorry... for everything you had to do for me."
I patted her head just like back when we were at the academy.
"But... cough ...I promise you... In my next life... I will really make you the happiest woman alive. So rest now, my dear... and let your husband keep his word."
With those final words and a calm smile on my face, I closed my eyes as the familiar darkness greeted me.
[You Have Died]
[Conditions Met]
[Regression Commenced]
[A Talent Has Been Copied From Aurelion Divus Auremont]
Everything became blurry and for the second time in two lives, I died.
