Paradigm Parasite

Chapter 0: "Introduction"

--Garbage worm.

A guy in my class told me that when I was in elementary school. I don't know what he didn't like about me, but he bullied me for three years until we were separated.

--You're disgusting.

A guy in the same class told me this in junior high school. Apparently, he didn't like me because I was reluctant to participate in class activities.

He was the center of the class, so the whole class treated me coldly.

--Shock on the cheek.

When I was in high school, I was hit by a guy in the same class. He was a tough guy who was good on the outside, but had a hard-on for anyone who looked weaker than he was.

He beat me up and took my money until I graduated.

--You really can't help yourself, can you?

After graduating from high school, my own father told me. My grades were poor in elementary, junior high, and high school, and my attitude went downhill from there, as I was only accepted to a private high school.

I had a younger brother who was good to the point with good grades, so the difference in attitude became more pronounced.

--You're useless. You're screwed up at work.

At my first job after graduating from a vocational school, I was told by my coworkers.

I was unable to join the group because of my passive personality, and I was having a hard time learning the job, so when I was frustrated, they said that to me and hit me.

The other guys kept saying to me, "Why don't you quit already?"

--What a pity.

After a few years of this, I couldn't take it anymore, so I quit my job and went home to rot, and that's when my brother told me.

He had already graduated from a good university and got a job offer from a big company.

I was miserable.

And now.

I'm standing in front of a tree in my parents' yard.

I'm on a chair and have a rope around my neck that's hooked to a branch.

All I have to do is kick the chair over.

I close my eyes and think about my life so far.

Yeah, it's been a shitty life.

There's so little to see, it makes me cry.

I breathe in. Breathe out.

Breathe in.

It wouldn't hurt to at least give myself a break.

Kick the chair over.

Impact on the neck. I can't breathe. It's painful. Won't I die instantly? Oh, I had to jump with momentum and damage my cervical vertebrae, didn't I? I'm in pain. I'm in pain.

Hurry up and die. Hurry up and finish. Hurry up and die. Death, death, death.

There was a light sound of something snapping in the back of my head.

I feel something leave inside me.

Ah, I died.

I was a little relieved by that fact.

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When I woke up, I was on the ground.

Well...why did I sleep on the ground...?

I remember my last moment.

I remember that I hanged myself in the garden... I wonder if I'm still alive... I wonder if I even failed to kill myself... I'm finished, aren't I?

As I try to sit up, I suddenly realized. There is something wrong with my body. I move my head and look at my body.

First, it was black. Then, it was long and thin.

An earthworm...?

The body was a black worm-like creature.

Oh, the next one was an earthworm...I really was a garbage bug bastard, wasn't I? Oh, I thought worms weren't insects? Well, okay.

I mock myself. I look around, and I see that the grass and everything is just huge.

The next thing I felt was doubt. Why do I have memories?

I knew that I must have been reincarnated as an earthworm.

Huh... I guess I'll have to do it again.

I was thinking about how I would kill myself next. I'm not going to live as an earthworm.

Well, I'll just go to a sunny place and sleep and be done with it.

I moved my body, remembering the dried-up worms on the street.

It was difficult to move around with an unaccustomed body, but it was not a journey that I was in a hurry to make. I wondered if my body could sleep. I was thinking about such unimportant things when I saw something.

It was big...or maybe I was small.

It was something large and skin-colored. I tilted my head and moved around it.

Ah, it was a human being.

It was too big to recognize, but it was human. A man, probably blonde, lying on his face. His face is half buried in the mud.

Is he dead?

He must be dead, judging from the fact that he didn't move even a twitch. It's hard to think he's unconscious when he's buried in the mud.

I was a little concerned, but it was someone else's problem anyway, so I decided to ignore it. I was busy sunbathing. Maybe he's a bug somewhere.

...?

For some reason...for some reason, I was curious. The man's ear hole.

...Why?

Is it calling to me...? No, hunger? For some reason, I feel something close to an appetite.

I don't know why, but it's a tremendous urge. I can't wait to get in there.

Do worms eat corpses?

I'm not familiar with the biology of worms, so I have no idea about that, but I'm a little, yes, a little curious.

I can die anytime I want.

I go in through the ears. It's dark inside. Of course it is.

I hit a wall a few times on the way in, but I pushed myself in and smashed through.

I keep going and going and going. It was pitch-dark, so I just followed the path. I was moving forward, and then my body stopped moving.

Did I get stuck?

I moved my body to check the feeling, and it seems that there is a thread-like object coming out of my body and that it is rooted in the ground.

Hmm? How did this happen all of a sudden? Maybe this is the brain....

Instantly, my vision burst.

Rothfeld Haydn Oratorium was the eldest son of the Oratorium family and lord of the Oratorium estate.

He is 22 years old and has no siblings. He has one fiance, the daughter of a neighboring lord, whom his parents have decided for him.

From an early age, he learned arithmetic, swordsmanship, magic, and other knowledge and skills necessary to succeed his father as a lord.

He was especially good at swordsmanship, and was especially good at fighting. He was active in defeating goblins and bandits in the territory several times, which pleased his father, who was the lord at the time.

He was a kind-hearted young man with a cheerful and sociable personality who treated everyone with openness and honesty.

No one doubted that he would make a great success as the next lord of Oratorium.

However, a shadow fell on his path.

It was when he was over 20 years old. His father, the lord, fell ill and passed away. His mother followed in his footsteps.

As the new lord, he was unfamiliar with his new position, but he was doing his job.

One day, he had a new business meeting with the butler who had served him for many years. His longtime butler introduced him to a new business partner.

The Oratorium territory basically earned its income from agriculture. There were no specialty products, but the quality was good and the harvest was stable, so there was no need to go to great lengths.

The butler had given his word that he was a trustworthy partner with whom he had a personal relationship, so he trusted him.

A few days later the butler tearfully apologized.

To summarize his story, he said that the crops he wholesaled had gone bad and that he should pay a penalty according to the contract.

The butler apologized profusely, saying that it was his fault and that he would take care of it.

A few days later, after all was said and done, he had to pay a hefty penalty fee.

Thanks to this, the territory's finances were suddenly on a downward spiral.

The territory's finances had never been in trouble before, but they were on a precariously balanced footing, and the people complained because they had to raise taxes to make up for what they had lost this time around.

The winter of that year passed, but there were still a few who did not make it through the winter.

Thanks to this, support from the people plummeted.

Then, as if to add insult to injury, the territory was attacked by bandits.

Normally, a group of mercenaries or knights were paid by the government to be stationed there, but this happened just as they cut the contract with the mercenary company they had hired in order to cut costs.

They managed to repel the attack, but the entire village was burned to the ground.

This was the beginning of the exodus of the people from the territory. By that time, the management of the fief had begun to slip to a point where it could not be recovered.

All he could do was to ask his fiance, who lived in a neighboring territory, to accept them.

The acceptance was done without any problems, but in exchange, he had to give up part of his lands.

By this time, he had lost the support of his subjects and showed no emotion other than dissatisfaction with his ability as a lord.

Furthermore, for some reason, his financial situation had turned out to be a result of his spending, which added to the dissatisfaction.

To dispel his dissatisfaction, he appealed to the citizens that the rumors were a misunderstanding, but they threw stones at him.

The situation was deteriorating at a tremendous pace, and he was getting very close to the bottom of it.

One day, while he was pondering in his study for a way out of the situation, the butler appeared and made him a cup of tea with an apologetic look on his face.

Although the situation ended up like this, he was also acting out of consideration for the territory and the house. It is wrong to blame him.

He sipped the tea, telling him not to worry about it....

The memory has since ceased.

...... What a...what a thing. It's like a match-pumping scheme. I'm sure the butler and his fiance set him up, no matter how you look at it. And it's been about 2 years. That's too fast...

The butler is completely guilty, but the fiance's acceptance of the situation is also too fast.

I can't help but think that they were anticipating this.

I couldn't help but feel sympathy for his downfall.

He has been completely deceived so far. The deceiver must be feeling very good about it.

Of course it is the deceiver who is at fault, but this is an example of the problem of the deceiver as well.

And the fact that this Mr. Rothfeldt doesn't suspect the butler or his fiance at all is nothing short of pathetic.

He's probably not that smart....

At this rate, the territory will be gone and it will be under another name. Specifically, of the fiance or something.

The time between the talk of the people leaving the territory and the acceptance is too short...I swear, they must have been preparing for this.

He's an idiot, if he'd been a little more suspicious of people, this wouldn't have happened....

But I've seen the memories, and I know.

He was a good guy.

At least he was good to his people.

He wants to improve his territory. He wants to protect it. He wanted to make everyone happy.

That was all he thought about and worked hard for.

I couldn't quite understand why he grew up to be such a good-natured person, even though I looked into his memory.

I don't understand it, but this guy must not have done anything to deserve this kind of death after what he went through.

That much I do know.

Is it being pulled by memory? For some reason...the people in the fief who turned their backs on him, even though he was a complete stranger, and the butler who turned their long relationships upside down and betrayed him so easily....

I felt a desire to kill.

Open the eyes. I stand up.

I examine my...well, it's a misnomer to say it, my body.

I conclude that I am not a worm, but a parasite of some kind.

I am a creature that can attach itself to a corpse and manipulate it. I'm a creature that can do that.

I check the condition of Rothfeldt's body, which I have taken over.

I try to do some light stretching. I cross my arms and stretch. I bend down and stretch my legs.

It works fine. But the sensation is a little dull.

Tried to pick up a fallen stone, but it felt like I was touching it through a glove.

Sight and hearing are both fine. I can see and hear better than my original body.

"Uh-oh."

I can talk without any problem. Language is also fine, if I refer to the memories.

And I can feel the sensation of my body.

It's camped out in my head, in the top of my brain. It can move if I'm conscious of it.

Next, check the clothes and belongings. Cloth clothes and pants. No other belongings.

Sad initial equipment.

When I looked into my memory, I had overlooked it, but it seems that magic exists in this world.

Ah, this is the recently popular "otherworldly reincarnation," and when I actually experience it... well, it's hard to comment on it.

Originally, I hung myself with the intention of sleeping forever, but when I opened my eyes, for some unknown reason, I was reincarnated as an insect....

In a sense, I failed to kill myself if only by looking at the result....

What should I do now?

For now....

"I'm hungry."