Hitsugi Repeated Vice: I Refuse to Be Important Enough to Die Volume 3

1. Auflage 2026
ISBN: 978-1-7183-8585-6
Verlag: J-Novel Club
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: Adobe DRM (»Systemvoraussetzungen)

E-Book, Englisch, 250 Seiten

Reihe: Repeated Vice: I Refuse to Be Important Enough to Die

The Stelia arc kicks off! Guided by a mysterious girl named Yunaile, our ever-so-villainous protagonist begrudgingly sets out to save Warm from his imprisonment.
Needless to say, none of it is easy. From a labyrinthian prison to the kingdom's strongest swordsman, many obstacles bar Lofus's path, but the Lightless heir remains undeterred. His real goal isn't to save his friend anyway-it's to make a certain swindler pay.

Lofus teams up with the Scarlet Wind, but all of them struggle to lay a scratch on the infamous hit man Red Cap, who has an uncanny ability to defeat mages without breaking a sweat.

This is bad news for Lofus, who has done everything he can to prevent his own death! Amid all this confusion, Lilka isn't quite herself...
Can Lofus survive this encounter? Will Warm be freed? And what secrets hide behind Lilka's pensive gaze?

Autoren/Hrsg.

Hitsugi, Kurokawa

Weitere Mitwirkende

Kuki, Kushiro

Piyo

Leseproben

“You’re as unruly as him too,” I said. “No wonder you’re siblings. How old are you?”

“Why are you acting like you’re my uncle? I’m ten!”

She snapped angrily, but still answered my question.

“Cera, what happened to your father and Warm?” I asked.

“Wh-What gives?” she snapped. “Don’t call my name so casually.”

“Permit me to do so, at the very least. Now, back on topic. You blamed me earlier, but what happened?”

“W-Well...” Cera fell silent for a few moments before she spoke again. “Father and brother got caught. They were tricked by Gillan, that horrible merchant.”

“Elaborate.”

Encouraged by me, she began to talk.

???

Warm’s father, the magistrate of the Stelia fief, was anguished by the wealthy merchant Gillan’s evil deeds. Even he couldn’t deny that Gillan had single-handedly supported Stelia’s economy immensely, but the merchant’s internal affairs were anything but praiseworthy.

Repeatedly threatening and harassing competitors were among Gillan’s lesser crimes; his more serious offenses included involvement in the slave trade and smuggling of weapons. All in all, he was well acquainted with the darker side of society. The biggest headache for Warm’s father was the circulation of drugs in impoverished areas. Gillan’s list of crimes were almost too long to list, but he was nothing if not meticulous, having managed to scrub any concrete evidence linking him to these heinous activities.

That was when the heir of House Lightless had appeared and publicly declared that Gillan was involved in the slave trade, with the lordling even leaving behind a trinket bearing his family emblem as proof of his words. was the opportunity that Warm’s father had been hoping for, and so he rallied the soldiers to raid Gillan’s manor. They successfully managed to grab evidence of Gillan’s involvement in the slave trade along with a myriad of other crimes that he was guilty of. Warm’s father then took all this evidence to Margrave Stelia, the lord of the land.

However, these efforts were fruitless. Margrave Stelia not only swept all of this evidence under the rug, but he even released Gillan and arrested Warm’s father instead. His crime was defamation, falsifying evidence to sully Gillan’s good name through false accusations. After all, the fall of Gillan signified the fall of Stelia’s economy as well.

The margrave could only make his choice as a lord supporting many. Warm’s father was thus arrested with a ridiculous charge, and naturally, Warm was furious. He stormed the manor all by himself and fought valiantly against the guards and knights, declaring his father’s innocence throughout it all. Eric Idia Stelia, the current Sacred Sword, rushed to the scene and defeated Warm, which led to his capture. And with that, the Draconis family, Cera included, had to flee from Gillan and hide themselves in this isolated, snowy village.

That was Cera’s side of the story. She had learned about me from Warm’s account of when I had attacked him in the past, so when the guard who sheltered me told Cera about me, she just had to come to me to give a piece of her mind.

In a sense, Warm’s father had only acted against Gillan because of what I’d offered him. Had it not been for me, neither Warm nor his father would’ve been captured. Hence, she pinned the blame all on me. But this was a childish, unreasonable, and frankly unwarranted grudge. When I heard her story, I couldn’t contain my annoyance, and a dark aura of mana emanated from my body, darkening the shadows all around me.

I ignored Cera’s prattling to instead focus on Gillan. Sure, I was the one who had entrusted Warm with outing Gillan’s misdeeds in the slave trade, and I was willing to concede that I might have been the trigger behind it all. But didn’t cause those dolts to fail their endeavor. In a nutshell, Warm’s father had proven too naive and incompetent for the task.

Honestly, House Draconis got what they deserved. They allowed themselves to be manipulated and used by some nouveau riche bastard, and had no one else to blame if they couldn’t rise above it. In fact, considering how pathetic of a job they’d done after I’d left behind House Lightless’s emblem, they were practically tarnishing honor.

The claims against Gillan had been mine in the first place, so it was simply unforgivable of the merchant to ignore them while filing complaints of his own, and of Margrave Stelia to turn a blind eye to it all. I had to teach them a lesson and make sure that they rued the day they snubbed House Lightless. But as mentioned earlier, this wasn’t my primary concern for now. What bothered me the most was Warm’s defeat.

“Did Warm really lose?” I asked.

Cera’s eyebrows twitched. She turned pale by the intensity of my mana but managed to eke out a response.

“That’s...what I heard.”

“And you that?” I asked with a scoff. “I don’t know who your source is, but still.”

“Well! Well... He was up against Sacred Sword! And he hasn’t come home since!” Cera insisted.

She glared at me, but quickly averted her gaze.

“I see,” I said. “I guess your brother’s so weak that he lose so easily.”

“That’s not true!” Cera insisted. “Brother’s strong! He isn’t weak at all!”

I roughly tousled her hair again. “Precisely. Hold your head up high, Cera. Your brother is the strongest man I’ve ever met. He knows not of defeat.”

This time, she didn’t bat my hand away. She tilted her head and looked at me quizzically. “Lofus Ray Lightless, did you not attack my brother? Are you actually his friend?”

“I wouldn’t say that we’re close enough to be called friends, but I do admit that he’s strong. And stop calling me by my full name. ‘Lofus’ shall suffice.”

“Th-Then, Sir Lofus.”

“Oh? Well done, you know your manners. You’re a very good child, Cera.”

“Hey! Stop messing with my hair!”

I petted her again, and this time, she shook herself free. As we continued to converse, the night wore on.

Warm Rio Draconis was seen as the strongest of the Elite Four within the tale. He wouldn’t be bested, even if the sky fell down on this world. I suspected that his father was being used as a hostage to keep him in check.

???

I spent the night at the village. The next morning, I crossed two mountains from that shed until I spotted a towerlike structure. This was the Prison Tower, an impregnable, defensive building that no one could escape from. The Stelia fief was quite proud of this structure. Once a criminal was locked up here, they would never see the light of day again.

Cera suspected that this was where Warm was being kept, as she’d supposedly heard some guards sharing gossip about it. If those rumors were false, I was wasting my time, but this was the only lead I had. I decided that I would check and see if Warm was inside.

The tower was massive, but it still fell within range of my perception field, and stone buildings were powerless in the face of my mana.

“Hm?” I muttered.

It seemed the walls were covered by a powerful barrier that repelled mana.

That was when my perception field picked up on a unique mana that belonged to a spirit of sorts. I whirled around, immediately recognizing who it was coming from.

“Good morning,” Yunaile said with her usual expressionless face. She was in her white dress with her snow-white hair.

“Don’t give me that,” I snapped. “Where did you vanish off to last night?”

“I’m sorry. I don’t want to be seen by people.”

“I couldn’t care less about your circumstances. I have many questions for you.”

I glared at her, but she pointed to the Prison Tower.

“I want you to save Warm first,” she said. “He’s in the basement of the tower.”

“If I save him, will you answer my questions?” I inquired.

Yunaile nodded, then disappeared. A moment later, I noticed her right next to Prison Tower. I hadn’t noticed her cast any sort of spell or magic, but it seemed too late now to be surprised by her antics. I didn’t know who she was, but that wasn’t my concern for now.

She pointed to a nearby window, as though to tell...