Chapter 1: The Young Master

[Day 0]

[Asahi Saijō is the heir to the richest and most influential clan in Japan. Among the residents of his world, he is noted to have the highest comprehension skills and potential to develop skill cores. Despite his privileged background and otherworldly talent, Asahi is a humble, down-to-earth high schooler. Not only does he regularly attend classes, he takes after-school lectures from his teachers. Being a courteous gentleman, he also drives them home and helps them in cleaning themselves after a long day of work.

This is but a mere fraction of his kindness. His benevolence is not only for his loved ones but also for strangers. He generously donates substantial sums of money to various orphanages. He also personally visits those in charge of these non-profit organizations and helps in relieving their stress.

As of right now, he is the number one philanthropist in the entire world…]

A young man stood in a pitch-black environment, his golden eyes gleaming as he read the torn notebook page in his hand. With each passing word, his expression turned increasingly incredulous, his brows furrowing in disbelief.

'Who in the world wrote this garbage?'

While they accurately portrayed his background and talent, the rest of it was completely wrong. He attended high-school and occasionally took private lectures from single hot teachers or sexy mothers. However, those private lessons were all about 'quality' time together. He drove them home after the deed to go at it again in the showers.

Even the part about his philanthropy was objectively wrong.

He often donated an insane amount of money to different orphanages just because wealth meant nothing to him. It made seducing the hot milfs running those non-profit organizations a piece of cake. Of course, he also relieved their stress by driving them to orgasm over and over.

He was simply a playboy with a kinder heart, not the second coming of Jesus portrayed in the notebook page.

'Did some psycho write this?'

Normally, he wouldn't jump to conclusions, but the dark room he found himself in left no room for speculation. It seemed to be a massive underground space with no walls or ceiling in sight — it could just be someone's basement, and he simply got fed some medicine to make him shortsighted.

The more he thought about it, the more terrifying this stalker became in his mind.

'I just hope it's not a guy.'

Shaking off the weird thoughts of a male yandere, he sat down. Last night, he was in his room, binge watching his favorite anime of fall 2018 — Tensei Shitara Slime Datta Ken. Satisfied, he decided to take a small nap until his workout time.

He woke up here instead of his room — despite having an A+ bodyguard outside his room, he had been kidnapped.

'This yandere is crazy.'

His sexy, stern bodyguard Aimi Akane was quite competitive in her job. She was someone he could entrust his life to, after all, she had been loyal to him for nearly five years now. For someone to take her down without much ruckus showed their danger level.

'I'm gonna miss Aimi… and her amazing ass. Her ass was worth dying for.'

He paid respects to his almost perfect bodyguard.

'I gotta get out of here.'

As much as he liked the concept of having a stalker love, he wasn't ready to become a prisoner in someone's basement. The cons quite simply outweighed the pros in this situation.

A sudden flash of light disrupted his rumination. He glanced up, noticing a massive screen hovering over him. "Was it always there?"

A kaleidoscope of swirling colors danced across the screen, captivating him and lulling him into a relaxed state. Just as his eyes began to droop, he forcefully tore his gaze away.

"Hypnosis? You want to weaken me before you show your face?"

A sudden click drew his attention to the screen. The kaleidoscope was no longer there. Instead, the screen showed a woman sitting in a hospital ward wearing a patient gown. With her pretty blonde hair and tanned skin, she resembled one of those gyarus depicted in cultured manga. However, she was real, at least she was at a certain point in time.

Asahi used to see her face every morning in his old house, as her framed portrait adorned his bedroom wall. She was someone he had forgotten over the past few years. Looking at her face again stirred up memories and emotions that had long been buried.

"Mom…" he said and reached out to touch her before slowly pulling back his hand. "How?"

While camcorders existed back in 2001, their quality was significantly worse. The footage before him was life-like, as if he could reach out and touch her.

Rather than questioning the absurdity of the situation, he calmly gazed at the screen, cherishing the opportunity to see his mother alive and well. The camera slowly zoomed out of her disgruntled expression and revealed her round belly. The distant shot also unveiled a man in his early thirties, standing by her side, dressed in a white coat often associated with doctors.

The man's face was filled with concern as he softly spoke, "Risa-sama, are you—"

"Stop right there, Kuro-sensei," Risa said with a sharp-eyed glare. "Keep those risks and complications to yourself. I'm not getting an abortion or a surgery."

"But your preeclampsia—"

"Fucking stop! I don't care what happens to me. My baby will be born naturally and healthy without any surgery."

Asahi couldn't help but laugh at the ferocity of his mother. There was no doubt this woman was the daughter of a Yakuza leader. Back when the Japanese community frowned on the C-Section as a whole, his mother prioritized his safety over her own.

'Old man wasn't exaggerating her character. Such a stubborn woman.'

As the doctor exited the room, Risa lay on the bed, her face filled with anxiety. All her worries seemed to fade away as she felt a kick in her stomach. "This tiny troublemaker. Hey, stop it, or I'll spank your delicate butt!"

She chuckled. "What an obedient child… rest up. Mommy will also drift into the dreamworld..."

The recording suddenly distorted and moved as if someone fast-forwarded through the 'boring' moments. It jumped to the moment of her delivery.

'Here it is.'

His expression turned serious for he already knew the fate awaiting her. It still didn't lessen the impact of watching his mother succumb to death with his very eyes.

To the very end, she didn't show a hint of regret at her choice.

'The most gentle person in the world was born in a Yakuza Clan. The irony.'

Her passing left him with a bittersweet feeling. He could easily imagine a fulfilling life with his mother by his side. Instead, all he received was endless scorn from his half-siblings, born from his father's other wives. His own father blamed him for 'killing' Risa. Their animosity towards him only intensified when he showcased his unparalleled talent in handling the clan's businesses.

Shaking his head, he tried to dispel the suffocating feeling in his chest. Somehow, he felt even gloomier than the day the captivating snow-haired widow Yukino rejected his proposal to go out with him.

"Are you finished playing games with me?" He looked up with a piercing gaze, receiving only silence in response. "I'm talking to you, God or whoever is in charge of the afterlife."

Being a Japanese teenager, it was only natural for him to immerse himself in the popular culture of anime, manga, and light novels. But he didn't consume these forms of entertainment solely because they were trendy in Japan; he found solace in the fantastical worlds they offered, using them as an escape from reality.

His current situation was bizarre on the same level as those isekai stories. The whole recording about his mother never existed. Pairing that with his current surroundings, he truly believed that some higher entity was messing with him.

"You've caught me," a soft feminine voice echoed around him. The screen suddenly shattered into pieces, and a black hole emerged, swallowing every shard. The black hole crumbled inward before expanding into a silhouette.

A mysterious woman, cloaked in liquid silver, appeared before him.