The living have the living’s troubles, the dead have the dead’s joys.
Death is an end to everything, a release from all worries.
If there is an afterlife, that’s even better.
Even those with the deepest earthly ties cannot deny the fact that they will find peaceful slumber after death.
You see the living begging for death, but never the dead crawling out of their coffins to seek life again.
Well, when you’re dead, you’re dead.
It’s fine for the living to seek death, but for the dead to seek life is an inversion of the natural order.
Perhaps it’s what they call “the constancy of heaven’s way”—
That’s why the buried don’t crawl out and cause trouble.
It’s not good to cause trouble for others without permission.
So, OOO died and didn’t want to live again.
Every cell, from the soles of his feet to the top of his head, waited lazily for the final dissolution.
Someone like him, born ordinary, had never truly enjoyed the many pleasures of the living, so the peace of death was surely promised.
How did OOO die?
He himself couldn’t remember.
Maybe he died from overwork?
Maybe he stepped off the roof by accident?
Maybe he hit the jackpot on the highway and folded into three pieces?
He just drifted lazily through this boundless mist, moving along with it.
The mist was so thick that nothing could be seen clearly.
Only the constantly shifting perspective and the erratic flashes of strange light gave OOO a faint sense of human loneliness.
But mostly, he felt a fullness of impending peace and a vague sense of loss.
“…”
The mist rolled on, vast and mighty, churning with endless consciousness and memories.
This was probably the River Styx or something like that—
Though it was different from any afterlife OOO knew of—
but since he had come here after death, he could only think of it that way.
With the benevolent calm of one about to die, he unconsciously gazed at the flickering light that shone endlessly within the infinite mist.
He didn’t know what it was, but from that light, he felt a strange but friendly presence.
Then time flowed as usual.
Consciousness waned in brief surges, merging deeper into the mist.
The final moments of the deceased were over.
Everything would return to the mist.
OOO knew the moment of death had come.
Until, from that distant light, a gentle yet irrefutable voice spoke.
He said,
“Come.”
And the mist parted for that voice.
OOO’s consciousness was returned by the mist.
He said,
“Where do you come from, you nameless little one? How did you find this Ark?”
He said,
“What is your divine name?”
And so, within OOO’s hazy consciousness, countless names of gods flashed by.
Finally, he opened his mouth, not knowing what to say.
Because he was not one of them—
He was merely a fortunate mortal.
He smiled and said,
“Then go, child from another world. You are not a god, yet you saw the light, which means you saw the Ark, which means you saw salvation and completion.”
OOO instinctively knew that he was being watched by some grand, radiant existence.
His will struggled, wanting to faint, but was gently supported.
He said,
“Go. The Eden on earth has not yet had its serpent. Take a walk there.”
The light shone with supreme mystery, drawing OOO’s consciousness to project into it.
“Remember this: I grant you salvation, and you shall give me the fruit of good and evil.”
Finally, gazing down at the falling will, He said gently,
“Serpent, welcome back to the Ark where the gods rest.”
OOO would not remember.
Because when she descended into the world, He gave her a blessing:
let her not recall the terrifying experience after death, only preserve a harmless instinct, the instinct of the living to fear death.
The Ark had welcomed a new mystery.
…
Hanayo felt terrible.
So life really could have a rematch?
Why?
She was pretty sure she had died, right?
Tucking a strand of hair behind her ear, the girl in the mirror puffed out her cheeks in an angry expression, but it only made her look as cute as a lamb begging for milk.
Her long, light-pink hair fell only at her ears.
Her neat but subtly messy bangs just covered her forehead.
The hair at the back of her head was carefully braided.
Beneath the soft hair was a delicate, childish face.
The girl, who had been squinting, opened her eyes, revealing light-green goat-like horizontal pupils.
Intuition told Hanayo that she was neither dreaming nor in heaven—
Even though she had a strange golden halo above her head, supported by tiny crosses.
“Damn it… damn it!”
Hanayo pursed her lips, grinding her teeth, stomping her feet in anger.
Though she couldn’t remember her previous life’s name or how she died, a lingering intuition told her she definitely didn’t want this damn second life.
Especially since her previous self was presumably male, she definitely didn’t want to turn into a little girl who looked easy to bully.
That’s right, a little girl.
Just thinking about it made Hanayo feel embarrassed.
Setting aside the fact that she was barely 156 cm tall, waking up in the embrace of a large, stupid-looking white chicken plushie was unacceptable no matter how you looked at it.
She stared at her reflection in the full-length mirror placed opposite the door in her room, scrutinizing her appearance.
…No matter how she looked at it, it felt embarrassing and mismatched.
“Ugh…”
She made a sound like a kitten hissing in warning, glaring at her own slender figure and the big, stupid, white chicken plushie on the bed behind her, her fur standing on end.
The room was simple.
Less than fifty square meters.
The sky-blue walls were covered with copies of unknown documents.
A delicately carved wooden bed was placed by the window, emitting a fresh woody scent.
In the center of the room was a small coffee table with an elegant tea set on it.
Beside the door, embedded in the wall, was a tastefully simple umbrella stand and shoe rack.
The whole room was neat and simple.
From the perfectly arranged items, one could see how meticulously and elegantly the occupant lived each day.
“What is all this?”
But Hanayo didn’t seem to think so.
She threw herself onto the bed in embarrassment, viciously straddled the plushie, and subconsciously punched the fat chicken plushie that was as tall as she was.
Her toes, wrapped in white stockings, curled up pitifully from embarrassment and panic.
“Ugh—uggh!”
The poor plushie’s face had a funny, tongue-sticking-out expression, like a comedy actor pretending to be beaten to death.
Hanayo hit it instinctively.
Though it looked forceful, the moment her fists touched the plushie, her body subconsciously softened them into gentle, feather-light punches.
This made Hanayo even more frustrated.
After a brief outburst of impotent rage, Hanayo finally calmed down.
Reluctantly, she got off the plushie and subconsciously straightened her simple yet subtly ornate student uniform.
“Hoo… hoo…”
Although she had no idea why she had won the lottery and gotten a respawn after waking up, the priority was to figure out her current situation and the information about this place.
Fighting the sense of dissonance and guilt toward the original owner of this body, Hanayo began searching the room on her own.
The first thing she noticed was the absurd number of documents wallpapering the room.
She walked to the wall, squinting to read the text.
Though she should never have studied it, she read it naturally.
“Regarding the Public Notice on Amendments to the Economic Bill of Kivotos…”
“Federal Student Council Regulations…”
“The Evolution and Future of the Trinity Tea Party: Democracy and Politics…”
“The Feasibility of Superhuman Politics: Taking a Certain Gehenna Student Council President as an Example…”
What was all this?
What was Kivotos?
What was the Federal Student Council?
And the Tea Party?
How was a tea party connected to democratic politics?
Hanayo stared blankly at the text, feeling like there were some vague impressions and a sense of déjà vu in her mind, but there was always an obstruction preventing her from remembering.
She instinctively tapped her chin with her right index finger, propping her right elbow with her left hand, squinting as she thought.
I feel like… no, no, the original owner of this body seemed to love studying these things.
Failing to get information from memory, Hanayo focused on the document titled “Regarding the Public Notice on Amendments to the Economic Bill of Kivotos.”
“Federal Calendar, July 11, 2021. After discussion at the Student Council meeting, the Federal Student Council President officially announced, signed, and passed the ‘Kivotos Economic Bill Amendment.'”
“The bill focuses on the long-standing issue of land annexation among the major academies within the Federation. It amends the original bill’s clause that ‘each academy owns the operational rights and ownership of its academy land’ and implements a series of measures such as establishing a blacklist and whitelist for economic activities of major companies, including Kaiser Corporation.”
“The Federal Student Council President announced that the bill will be subject to public notice in December of this year and will come into effect in February of next year.”
The content somehow gave Hanayo another strong sense of déjà vu, but she shook her head, dismissing that strange feeling, and began analyzing.
“Kivotos… and the Federal Student Council…”
She continued reading.
…
After about an hour of reading, Hanayo had roughly grasped the information she could find.
The place she was in was called “Kivotos,” a super-high-tech city composed of various academies.
The political subject of the entire city was “students,” but there were also many cats, dogs, and robots—
Yes, here, cats and dogs were humanoid, and even robots could think.
The entire city was managed by the Federal Student Council and its President.
Within the city, vast autonomous organizations had developed—
The Student Councils of each academy.
These Student Councils were somewhat like medieval vassals.
On one hand, they accepted the management and deployment of the Federal Student Council; on the other, they enjoyed a considerable degree of non-interference.
The Student Councils of different academies had different names.
For example, the Student Council of Trinity, which she hadn’t understood earlier, was called the “Tea Party.”
There was Gehenna’s “Pandemonium Society,” which was said to have once practiced something like “superhuman politics,” and Millennium’s “Seminar,” famous for its high technology.
These Student Councils operated as one of the clubs within their respective academies, managing internal affairs while acting as vassals under the Federal Student Council.
Outside the academies, there was a vast collective composed of various companies, expelled students, and general non-student residents, filling the life and daily needs of the academies.
…
That was about all Hanayo had learned, because among these documents, political ones were too numerous.
They were all analyses of some student council policy, historical developments, or reports on the Federal Student Council, with hardly any daily reports.
And some documents were unsettling.
“Regulation on Firearm Sales in Kivotos”
“Efforts of the Trinity Tea Party: A History of Peace Talks with the Pandemonium Society”
“Guns Are Justice! New Round of MomoTalkFriends Collaboration Confirmed!”
…
She had a feeling that this place called Kivotos was not particularly safe.
Why did the government need to specifically regulate firearm sizes and sales?
Was Kivotos not afraid of gunfights?
Wouldn’t giving guns to adolescent boys and girls cause a huge mess?
Hanayo felt uneasy.
Something was wrong.
Especially regarding the halo above her head.
None of the reports mentioned halos, as if they didn’t exist or were just taken for granted.
She looked at the simple, mysterious halo above her head and tentatively reached out to touch it.
It was intangible.
Watching her hand pass through the golden ring, waving back and forth in the projection-like ring, Hanayo stared foolishly at her reflection in the mirror, wearing a bewildered expression.
“Huh?”
The next second, the halo flickered.
An overwhelming fatigue surged from deep within her body.
Then, Hanayo, who had just woken up, rolled her eyes and fainted again.