The Villain's Reincarnation – Tired of Working Hard, I'm Slacking Off! The Peacefully Oblivious Slacker Avoids Ruin! - Chapter 11

“The world is at peace today.”

I was basking in the sun in my favorite garden for the first time in a while.

(Honestly, I put quite a bit of effort into avoiding that meeting.)

Ever since that absurd order was given, I had been running around all over the place.

In order to survive that ridiculously long seven-day inspection, I racked my brain to come up with a schedule.

At first, I thought it was a good idea to send the royal family to people who wanted to meet them, but that turned out to be a real hassle.

Of course, just suddenly announcing that a member of the royal family would be arriving for an inspection didn’t mean people could prepare on such short notice, so I had to assist them quite a bit.

At some point, I started wondering if it would’ve been easier to simply accompany the First Princess rather than all this trouble. But after putting in so much effort, there was no way I could just back out now. In fact, I probably worked hard enough to shake off my reputation as a slacker.

Coordinating with the knights, coming up with excuses for my absence, and setting up the necessary arrangements took a significant amount of effort.

To be honest, if not for my past life’s experience, I would’ve scrapped this whole absurd plan of not meeting the royal family and dumped everything on the bureaucrats.

Even subtly informing Satsuki and Yuki was a challenge. Since I was mostly separated from them, I had to go out of my way just to meet them. On top of that, I had to prepare decent gifts as part of my strategy to avoid disaster, which was another hassle.

Still, my efforts paid off, and Satsuki and Yuki were able to adjust their schedules to arrive toward the final days of the inspection.

So much had happened, and one thing became clear to me:

(I never want to do this again.)

Frankly, I felt like I had used my brain more for this than for my actual survival plan.

If there ever is a “next time,” I’ll abandon the idea of not meeting them and just find the most efficient way to get through it.

(Not that I intend to let there be a next time.)

Hoping this would be the last, I enjoyed the well-earned reward of my lazy, carefree life.

(Come to think of it, they should be arriving soon.)

According to the schedule I had put together, they should be here any moment.

Just as I was thinking that, I heard the loud cheers of celebration echoing all the way to where I was.

“They’re putting on quite a show.”

There were some rather enthusiastic locals who wanted to throw a grand welcome celebration, so I left it to them, and it seemed to have turned into quite a spectacle.

(After all the help I gave them, I’ll have to make sure they stay useful in the future.)

Of course, even though I delegated the preparations to the residents, there was no way everything would go smoothly without intervention. I had to involve my bureaucrats to cover for them significantly.

“We can’t allocate this much budget!! We’re not hosting a nationwide festival! Also, this route is too reliant on major roads! Just because royalty is coming doesn’t mean we can reserve them entirely! Even if we could, we’d need traffic adjustments, and the more prominent the route, the more security and manpower it requires! This route is out! Instead, this one here has less traffic at this hour, making adjustments easier. Plus, since this location is part of the later inspection, it’s fine to allocate some extra funds. And—”

(…Yeah, that was exhausting.)

Recalling the intense debates I had, I couldn’t help but let out a bitter smile.

I had to go through this kind of discussion for almost every event involving the residents.

Having passion was great. Actively suggesting ideas and taking action was important for organizing an event. But the reality was, managing costs, logistics, and smooth execution required a vast amount of knowledge. Those responsible for it often found themselves in hell.

Since this was my idea to begin with, I couldn’t just dump everything on the bureaucrats, which made it even worse.

Especially when it came to budgeting, I practically went through hell. In the end, I became close enough to the financial officer to consider him a war buddy.

Still, thanks to this, I had gained valuable experience in organizing events and built a decent network.

Someday, I’d be able to put this to use. I was sure of it. This was an investment for the future.

I deliberately erased from my mind the obvious question: Why is someone who plans to retire in a few years even thinking about this?

If I didn’t convince myself that this effort had some meaning, I’d probably go insane.

(I also made sure to silence everyone involved.)

This time, I had put in quite a bit of effort. I didn’t care about the hard work itself, but if word got out and my reputation improved, that would be a disaster.

So, I made sure it looked like I had no involvement whatsoever. I even arranged for the official representative to be someone else—the one who had suffered the most—so that I wouldn’t get any credit.

I especially warned everyone that, no matter what, they were absolutely forbidden from mentioning my involvement to the royal family.

Thinking about how difficult it had been, I reaffirmed my resolve.

(I want to go back in time and punch my past self for coming up with this idea.)

The more I looked back on it, the bigger a mistake it seemed.

(Well, whatever. I’ll get to sleep through this death flag. That alone is a huge benefit. And from now on, I’ll just slack off even more.)

I was a villainous noble through and through—one who fully intended to retire in peace.

Using this incident as an excuse, I vowed to spend the rest of my days doing absolutely nothing.

“I Just Have to Wait for the Storm to Pass—Long Live Being a Shut-in!!”

And so, I embraced my life as a carefree slacker.

However, perhaps because I had been involved more than I intended, I couldn’t help but remember the schedule—what was happening at each hour, who was participating, and how much effort they had put in.

(The first stop was the florist, right? That guy was insanely enthusiastic about it. I hope he gets some well-deserved praise.)

I recalled the most memorable conversation I had.

“Lord Kaito, look! This is my masterpiece!! The First Princess will remember this for the rest of her life!”

“Yeah, it’s definitely impressive… but are you sure about the costs? You’ve used a ridiculous amount of rare flowers.”

“C-Costs…?”

“…Never mind. If the worst comes to pass, I’ll figure something out.”

(…Yeah, there’s no way she won’t remember that.)

It was one of the many things that gave me a headache. If it didn’t leave an impression, that would be the real problem.

(Might as well use Clairvoyance to check in on things.)

Clairvoyance was an incredibly convenient ability.

Being able to see things from a distance without moving was a godsend for someone like me, whose greatest goal in life was to slack off.

I used Clairvoyance to monitor the situation and delegated tasks to others accordingly.

It was one of the best ways to handle things without lifting a finger.

In my book, Clairvoyance was the ultimate partner in laziness. If I combined it with long-range sniping, I could even eliminate dangerous enemies without ever moving.

Yes, truly the best.

And of course, this wonderful ability would once again prove invaluable in my current plan.

First, I could check on everything without physically moving. And even if I needed to act within the First Princess’s vicinity, Clairvoyance would ensure that we never crossed paths.

I had put an immense amount of effort into this.

Which meant that avoiding the First Princess entirely was something I had to accomplish.

To that end, I had even prepared a secret retreat where I could hide at night—when the inspection was over and she would be staying at the estate—to prevent any accidental encounters.

At night, I would retreat to my hideout and eliminate even the slightest chance of running into her!

Granted, because I had to prepare it amidst my already packed schedule, the place wasn’t the most comfortable. So I planned to stay here as much as possible.

(Well, this garden is in a part of the estate that people don’t normally visit. The chances of running into anyone are basically zero!!)

From my perspective, my plan was flawless.

It required more effort than I would have liked, but as long as I could justify it to myself, it was worth it.

And perhaps that was why… when it happened, I couldn’t properly process my emotions. I couldn’t even muster a proper outburst of rage.

Yes—right at that moment, as I was about to use Clairvoyance to check on the florist—

I noticed something.

Someone had entered my garden.

At that moment, I should have realized what was happening.

After all, despite how things had turned out, I had been significantly involved in preparing for this inspection.

Because of that, I should have known—

There wasn’t a single maid in the entire estate who had the luxury of visiting the garden at this time.

If only I had pretended not to notice and waited for them to pass by, I might have had a chance.

After all, whoever they were, they were taking a major risk by being here. If I hadn’t called out to them, they might not have acknowledged me at all.

But in my blissfully lazy, completely relaxed state of mind—

I foolishly, thoughtlessly, called out to them.

Since I couldn’t scream it back then, I’ll let my future self say it for me now.

“Give me back my efforts!!!! Damn you, cruel fate!!!!!!”