I was Reincarnated as an Incompetent Leader with Zero Popularity who met his downfall early on. Instead of banishing the hidden cheat Protagonist, I decided to embrace him, and somehow, I ended up being treated like a Hero instead. - Chapter 6

When I opened my eyes, I was sitting in a classroom after school.

The cracked clock above the teacher’s desk caught my attention immediately. That crack jogged a long-buried memory—this was my middle school classroom, back when I was in my third year. I remembered how Saitou from the baseball team had broken it while fooling around with a ball. Despite having nothing to do with it, I got scolded for not stopping him.

It was a trivial incident, something I hadn’t thought about in years. Yet the memory returned, sharp and vivid.

Judging by the acne scars on my cheeks, my body had reverted to that of my middle school self. I was touching one absentmindedly when the sound of the front door creaking open snapped me back to the present.

“Takumi Haimura,” a woman’s voice called, clear and authoritative.

She stepped in—a striking woman with glasses, her hair neatly tied back, and dressed in a tailored suit. A small beauty mark adorned the corner of her lips. She looked to be in her mid-to-late twenties, exuding a sharp, no-nonsense aura.

Her face tugged at my memory. She vaguely resembled my third-year homeroom teacher, but I couldn’t recall the name. Then again, there was no way this was her. Whoever she was, she walked with purpose to the podium and turned to face me.

“You’ve done something truly extraordinary,” she said.

“Huh?”

The sound that came out of my mouth was more a noise than a proper response. I had no idea what she was talking about. She had to have the wrong person.

Her sharp eyes fixed on me, and she sighed, the kind of sigh reserved for dealing with an underperforming student.

“Have you already forgotten how you died?” she asked.

“No, I remember that much. Kind of hard to forget,” I replied.
“If you hadn’t sacrificed yourself to stop that attacker, three other people would have died,” she explained. “Among them was someone—let me make this simple—who will become humanity’s savior. At the time, they were still a fetus.”

“Oh… uh… right,” I stammered, struggling to process the gravity of her words.

It all sounded so grandiose, like something out of a fantasy novel. Still, I vaguely recalled the pregnant woman I’d shielded. If I hadn’t intervened, she and her unborn child wouldn’t have survived.

“Thanks to you, humanity averted its demise and has thrived for over a thousand years beyond your time,” she declared, her tone triumphant.

“That’s… good, I guess,” I muttered, nodding awkwardly.

Her lips curled into a satisfied smile, clearly pleased with my reaction.

“As a result,” she continued, “humanity has advanced to the point where we can mimic the actions of a creator god. That’s why we’ve granted your wish.”

She clasped her hands together like she was praying, her expression radiant with pride.

“Isn’t the wisdom of evolved humanity incredible?”

Her demeanor reminded me of my nephew showing off a new toy, practically bursting with excitement. If I wanted to humor her, I probably should’ve clapped and heaped on praise.

But there was something I just couldn’t ignore.

Raising my hand halfway, I said hesitantly, “Uh, excuse me… but I think there’s been a slight mistake. My wish hasn’t… exactly been fulfilled.”

Her confident expression faltered, a hint of confusion creeping into her sharp features.

“I mean… I’m kind of a minor villain who dies early in the story,” I clarified.

For a moment, she just stared at me, wide-eyed, as if I’d said something completely incomprehensible.