The Revenge of My Youth: My Re Life with a Girl Who Was Too Much of an Angel Light Novel - Volume 1 Chapter 1:

Chapter 1: The Company Slave Back to the Good Old Days

“…Was that… a dream…?”
　
Midnight.
　
I had fallen asleep lying on my desk in my office during overtime. No one except me, fully dressed in my suit, was here.
　
I had a nostalgic dream. Dream of a scene that I will never be able to replicate.
　
But, like every other dream, this one particular dream would eventually fade like an illusion. Seconds passed as my consciousness became clearer and the hard cold reality made me realize that the dream was merely a dream.

“My life… Just how did it come to this…?”
　
It had been twelve years since I started working and tonight, too, I had to bear with another unreasonable situation…

In front of me was a pile of paperwork.

These paperworks were assigned to me alone, even though it was clear that I couldn’t handle everything on my own.

This was supposed to be my boss’ job, but he pushed everything to me right before the day ended. ‘Finish it by tomorrow’, he said as he left me with this job.

“Haha… Ever since I joined, it’s always been like this, huh…?”

I joined this company right after I graduated from high school. It was, for sure, a black company. I had been forced to work overtime without pay, worked a hundred days in a row without breaks, had to deal with unreasonable clients and had to work on unreasonable deadlines.

“I’m thirty years old by now… I’m too old to believe the company’s bullsh*t… Hard work will pay off my *ss…”

I guess I’ve reached my limit. The feelings that I normally repressed were rising up to my throat and leaked out as words that echoed inside the empty office.　

“The pay is ridiculously low and they never raised it even for a single cent…”

My mind wasn’t the only thing that was worn out. In the past few years, I’ve been experiencing frequent tremors and constant nightmares that caused me to jump out of bed more than once. My hair turned gray out of stress too.

The reason why I continued working in this kind of environment was because I did not have the courage to quit.　

“Seriously, time passed and I’m still a loser… A gloomy person who gives up easily… Someone who runs away from things he has to face properly and always chooses the easy way out whenever he encounters a problem… On top of that, I’m still a virgin… Hahaha…”
　
Suddenly, tears welled up in my eyes.

I wonder how many times I’ve felt this kind of despair since I started working?　

Actually, scratch that, I had been living in despair since back when I was a student. I didn’t even have any beautiful memories of my student days to reminisce about.　

“…No…”

When I was about to sink deeper into despair, I suddenly remembered the dream I just experienced.

It was a brief memory… Actually, I wasn’t even sure if that was a memory or a delusion…

I pulled out my phone and opened up an old class group photo.

In the photo, there was a girl with long black hair. The girl was the personification of the word ‘beauty’ itself and in the photo, her smiling face looked so innocent.　

“Shijouin-san…”

Her name was Shijouin Haruka. A beautiful, kind girl, a classmate of mine back in high school.　

She was a member of the library committee. She was friendly enough to talk with someone like me. I cherished the time when I was able to exchange words with her.　

…But…

Remembering that Shijouin-san had gone through that particular incident, that time I cherished only casted a dark shadow over my heart. I could feel a sharp pain inside my chest

Now, I had no memories left to ease my mind.　

I had no more reason to live. The last twelve years of my life had been nothing but failures.
.
Why? How did this even happen?　

I knew that somewhere along the line, I made the wrong choice.　

But knowing that now was useless, I wasn’t strong enough to steer my life toward the right direction anymore.　

Maybe high school was my last chance to do so…

It was the last time I could act like a child. But I spent that time uselessly as a gloomy nerd.

“Because I failed to accomplish anything when I was in school, I’m still like this twelve years later. I’m still a coward, a weakling who couldn’t change his life, a gloomy loser!”

What awaited me after that failure? Of course it was this catastrophic future.　

“I’m still thirty years old, but my body is breaking down because of overwork! My mom was so worried about me being worn out because of my job that she passed away early!”

Words that sounded like a curse came out of my mouth incessantly.

“My sister hates me for it, she banished me from the family! Now I have no money and no one to grieve for me when I die!”

And this situation would probably never get any better.

I had been running away from my problems, always gave up the chance to change myself whenever it arrived and ended up becoming even more despicable as I got older.
　
“I want to go back! …I just want to go back to those days…!”

I was crying and screaming like a child inside the empty office.　
.
“I can see it now! …I know now how precious that time was to me! I understand that if I want something, then I have to fight for it! …But it’s now too late… Way too late…”
　
I wanted to start over from that time.

My whole life was a failure.
If only I could understand this back then… My life would probably be…

“…Urk? …Agh…?!”

Suddenly, my chest tightened as I struggled to breathe.　

W-What… is this…?!

I’ve previously experienced anemia and arrhythmia because of overwork, but something like this…!　

“Ha…ah! …Urk…!”

I slumped over my desk in agony. The sound of papers rustling off my desk sounded awfully distant as heat rapidly disappeared from my body.　

It was so painful that I started to realize.　

My body was dying.　

Ah… Am I going to die…?

My entire body lost its strength as the scenes from my past rushed into my mind like a murky river.　

A torn apart family.　

A youth living in a gray world.　

Painful days being exploited by a black company.　

Grief, self-loathing, unrequited love, and other self-condemning emotions spread deep into my heart. The worst memories I could think of were running through my mind as my body stopped moving and my mind was bleached back to a blank white.

In the middle of all that…　

I became aware of something…　

A fatal mistake I’ve never realized…　

…Ah…

In a way, I could say that it was my biggest failure.　

A shameful fact that symbolized my gloominess.　

I finally realized that feeling in the last moment of my life. The feeling of regret swelled and swirled inside of me, gnawing at my weak heart even though it would stop functioning soon along with the rest of my body.　

…To realize such a thing just before my death…

As my consciousness became hazy, I realized that this was the end of the line for me. The end of the fool who lived his life in vain.　

Hahaha…B-but…

As I started to lose my consciousness, the phone on my desk entered my sight.

On the screen, there was Shijouin-san’s beautiful smile…　

I’m glad… You’re the one I see… In my last moment…

I left the world with such a murmur in my heart as my consciousness was plunged into an endless darkness.　

＊＊＊

“…Mm… Eh…?”

The sun shone through the window and roused my consciousness.

The sound of chirping sparrows became the melody that played through the morning as I got up from my futon.　

“Eh…? I…?”

Through my hazy mind, I tried to go through my memory.　

Niihama Shinichirou was my name. Currently I was thirty years old and employed by a black company.　

I was working late last night because I had a lot of work to do… I think…?

“Ah, right! The thing from last night, was it a heart attack?”

I remembered the pain and the sensation of my life slowly draining away from my body. That was enough to jolt me awake.

I was convinced that I was going to die, but I guess I survived somehow…　

Could I assume that someone sent me to a hospital?　

“Eh… Wait, this place…?”

As I looked around, it became more apparent that this room was not a hospital room.

And it wasn’t my apartement room either.　

“My room… Back at my parents’ house…?”

Video game cartridges, anime posters, a messy desk and a bookshelf filled with manga and light novels… Yeah, this was definitely my room back when I was at school.

“…No, wait… That’s just ridiculous…”
　
I realized the abnormality of the situation and let out a faint voice.

This was a room that shouldn’t exist in this world.

My parents’ house was demolished after the death of my mother and the land had turned into an empty lot since then.　

“What the hell? …Am I dreaming…?”

I looked around the room, but everything felt so real. Was it really a dream?

And for some reason, my body strangely didn’t feel sluggish and my whole body was full of energy.　

“What the hell is… W-Wha…?!”

As I turned my gaze toward the mirror inside my room, my mind instantly went blank.　

What I saw there was not the tired-looking, thirty-year-old me.　

W-what the hell is this…?! M-my face?!

I couldn’t believe what I was seeing.　

I touched my face with a trembling hand. It looked exactly like when I was younger… There wasn’t a single gray hair on my head. My originally rough skin looked unnaturally smooth.　

My height was about average for someone that looked this young. My face perfectly fit what my sister used to say to me back when we were still getting along; ‘If you take care of your appearance properly, you are quite the looker.’ The dark circles and pale skins under my eyes, the result of my messy life as an adult had disappeared.

“This is… A younger me… Around high school age…?”

This situation was unreal, I couldn’t even begin to try and comprehend it.

The only rational explanation that I could think of for this situation was that everything was a dream.

But… What if…　

What if this wasn’t a dream…?　

“I look younger… My room that is supposed to no longer exist in this world… No way…”

I was an otaku and I could immediately think of a phenomenon that could explain this situation.　

No, wait… That couldn’t be the case, right…?

“A-ah right, my phone! Wait, what’s with this old model?”

I took the foldable phone sitting on my study desk to see today’s date. 　

“F-fourteen years ago… I was supposed to be a sophomore around this time!”

Seeing this, it confirmed my previous hypothesis.　
　
Time leap.
　
My hypothesis was that this is the past. I died once and only my consciousness came here. I retain the experiences and memories of the future, it was like loading a save file in video games.

Of course it sounded absurd as I myself couldn’t believe it immediately, but I couldn’t find any other plausible explanation for this phenomenon.

“…”

I froze, stunned by this situation. The hypothesis I had come up with sounded so absurd that I doubted my sanity for a second there.
　
And when I was at a loss for what to do…

“Oh? I thought I heard something, but you’re already up? You’re up early today.”
　
The door opened with a clack, and the moment I saw the person who came into the room… I froze with a shock hundreds of times greater than when I saw my younger self.

“M-mom…”
“Hm? What is it? Are you still half-asleep, Shinichirou?”
　
The person who looked younger than I last remembered her called my name. I genuinely thought that I would never be able to hear her voice ever again…
　
…Alive.
　
She was alive.
　
My mother, who collapsed and passed away because of me…

“M-mom! Aaahhhh!”
“Wh-What’s with you, acting like this when you’re already this old? Did you eat something weird?”

I cried while my mother saw me with her confused gaze.　

The tears came in like a flood and it didn’t seem like they would stop anytime soon.　

＊＊＊

Dressed in a high school uniform that brought back far too many memories, I walked along the route I used to take every day to school, remembering the miracle I had just experienced.

I never thought I’d see my mom again…

I cried a lot back then, but after a while I regained my composure and explained, ‘I dreamt that mom died because of me,’ to her.　

In response, my mother said, ‘Don’t have any more bad dreams, okay?’ and patted me on the head as if to dispel my fears.

The way she said that made me feel like crying again, but before that happened she said, ‘Stop moping about your dreams and get dressed and go to school! You’re going to be late!’

So I obeyed her, finished changing my clothes and left the house. By the way, seeing my old uniform gave a tinge of nostalgia, I was stunned for a few seconds before I picked them up.

And here we are…

To be honest, I’m still confused, but… I know what I should do…
　
No matter how crazy the situation was, I had to admit that it was real when I saw my mom. This was fourteen years ago, and I was a high school student with memories of an adult.

This was further proven by the familiar scenes that I’ve been seeing as I walked down the street.

Everything feels so nostalgic…

This was the age when smartphones weren’t commonplace and people were still using flip phones.
　
Perhaps because there were no social media or high-graphic cell phone games yet, the number of people walking around with their phones was much smaller than it was in the days when I was a company slave.
　
Even convenience stores, such as Sabel-Kay and Gogo, which were supposed to be merged were here.

My mom basically chased me out of the house, but… Am I really going to school even though I’m already an old man? …Seriously?

My school days were so far in the past that I felt like it was a crime for me to wear my uniform while blending among the students.　
　
Still, I was able to carry out my routine of going to school in this way thanks to the habits of my school days, which I spent much of my life in, and my strong avoidance of tardiness as a proper member of society.

Eh? Wait a minute… The fact that I’m back to the past, it means…

　
After all this time, I realized this fact and stopped walking.

I’m going to go to school… get back home… starting my life all over again… and mom…

If this past world was not a dream, but a reality, it meant that from here on, I would be a sixteen-years-old again.

I can start over my life…

I shuddered as I recognized the value of the miracle I was now experiencing.
　
Starting over. That’s what I craved just before I died miserably in the future.

Really… If such a thing is possible…

I had no idea about the logic or cause of this time leap. But if I’ve returned to this time period with this ‘regret’ in my heart…

I know what I have to do…!

The previously gray world of mine, I would change it.

I would spare no effort to be a better human being and do my best to achieve my goals even if it meant that I have to trample over someone else.　

The regrets I had in the past… I would definitely erase them all!　

One of my regrets is my mom… This time, I’m going to follow a proper path in life so that she won’t worry about me anymore… I’ll treat her with good food, take her on a trip and make her a lot happier than before…

In addition to that, I realized that I had countless other regrets. Or rather, my life had been full of regrets. I sighed at this realization.　

In any case, I vowed to never join a black company ever again.

Was there something else…?

At the end of my previous life, I was supposed to remember something.　

My biggest regret.

But all I could remember was that I regretted something, as for what it was, I didn’t know.

I was completely sure that it was something important…

Well, I’ll remember it later anyway…
　
As I walked down the street to school in my school uniform, the cool, crisp air of the early morning felt pleasant to my skin.
　
I felt as if my adult self was fading away and my high school self was coming back.

Back then, I was afraid to go to school, but now, I’m looking forward to it. I’m filled with motivation now. I swear I’ll do my best in my studies, sports and everything else! It’s such a wonderful feeling to have a goal for the future.

I could be anything. I could go anywhere I wanted. Oh, youth…

“Ah, Niihama-kun. Good morning!”

Hearing that clear voice, I turned around.
　
And there she was.
　
The jewel of my youth, someone I could never forget even after I became an old man.
　
This was the first time I’ve been able to meet a girl from a different time. I felt as if my story, which was supposed to end in a bad end, had begun once again.

 
TL: Helena
ED:Iyo
TLN: Thanks for Iyo for editing this chapter. Join our discord server to receive update notifications for this series or other series.