The delicious smell of freshly squeezed orange juice, piping hot scrambled eggs, spicy sausage, and perfectly buttered toast slowly shook my consciousness awake and caused me to open my eyes. Though I didn’t recognize the ceiling above my head or the feel of extremely soft linens on my bed, my mind was so preoccupied with the mouth-watering smell that I disregarded them and pushed my heavy body up into a sitting position.

“This… isn’t my room.” I mumbled as I looked around at the ‘ornate’, or as I like to call them, tacky furniture. Everything from the enormous four poster bed with the satin red duvet to the giant wooden wardrobe in the far corner looked as if they were pulled from a ‘millionaire's home’ magazine… And not in a good way.

The room itself was huge, easily large enough for a family of four to live comfortably in. The walls were painted a striking crimson color with what looked to be an inlaid pattern of gold around the top of the walls. That, coupled with the expensive looking furniture, was making me worried that I’d gotten drunk and broken into some rich person’s house and the cops were on their way to arrest me.

I swung my oddly short legs off the bed and dug my toes into the plush black carpet.

Yep, this is definitely some rich guy’s house. I should probably get out of here before he finds me sitting in his bed… Wearing his pajamas? I stared at the loose and extremely soft fabric that hung off of my pudgy body in no small amount of confusion.

I pulled the shirt tight around my stomach and stared in horrid fascination as my already large stomach seemed to have grown three sizes overnight!

Is that why my legs seem shorter this morning? I wondered.

The door at the far end of the room swung open and my eyes darted in its direction.

“Oh, good, you’re awake.” A beautiful young silver-haired woman with bright blue eyes that I faintly recognized, but couldn’t quite place, said as she pushed in a silver cart laden with covered food trays.

I silently watched as she pushed the cart over to the large circular wooden table at the foot of the bed and calmly began moving trays onto the table.

“As ordered, we have scrambled blue salamander eggs, spicy mountain boar sausage, and freshly squeezed orange juice.”

The woman carefully uncovered each plate and placed the silver coverings back onto the cart, then looked at me expectantly while I just stared at her stupidly.

“Sir?”

“Is… Am I supposed to eat that?”

“Is it not to your liking?” a worried expression appeared on her face as she began to fiddle with the hem of the apron attached to her maid outfit. “Shall I have something else prepared?”

“Oh! Uh… No, I was just surprised, that’s all!”

The worried expression slightly faded but she still looked uncomfortable.

As I stood up on slightly shaky legs, I noticed her flinch at my movement and drop her eyes to the floor as if she were awaiting a punishment.

“Is… Is there anything else?” I asked while keeping my distance from her.

I wasn’t sure why she looked so nervous around me… Okay, aside from the whole ‘stranger’ thing, I had no idea why she was nervous. It’s not like I’ve done anything to her, right... Right?

“The master requested your presence in his chambers after breakfast.”

“The master?”

Now it was her turn to stare at me. Though her stare was more of a ‘are you stupid or something?’ stare, rather than my ‘clearly confused’ stare.

“Yes… your father?”

Having no idea what she was talking about, I choose to just laugh it off as a joke and waved her away.

“Very well, I shall return to collect the trays in half an hour.” She bowed her head to me and closed the door on her way out.

As I walked around the bed to the table and pulled one of the two heavy wooden chairs out so I could sit down and begin eating, the reflection in the mirror next to the wardrobe caught my eye and froze me in my tracks.

“No… There’s no way.”

I slowly walked over to the mirror and watched as the reflection perfectly copied my every action. But the man, or rather, the boy in the mirror… Wasn’t me.

My skin wasn’t that pale, my hair wasn’t black, I didn’t have dark circles under my hazel eyes, and I especially wasn’t that short!

But… seeing the boy in the mirror made me finally remember where I recognized the maid from.

She was a minor character in my favorite anime!

The anime in question: God’s favored Arcanist, an isekai story about a Japanese boy falling through a wormhole and finding himself in a magical world where he has the extremely rare ability to wield every element and, to a lesser degree, magical class.

He saves a princess, fights demons, slays dragons, and by the end of his story is made the emperor with a harem of beauties at his beck and call.

There’s just one problem… the guy in the mirror isn’t the hero… He’s the first ‘antagonist’ of the series: The previous fiancé to the same princess that ends up being saved by the hero and becoming the first member of his harem.

The tragic guy with the worst possible ending; the love of his life stolen, his kingdom destroyed, his family butchered, before finally having his magic sealed and being worked to death as a slave.

The boy staring back at me from the other side of the mirror was none other than Aren ‘The Devil’s Duke’ Ulvani

In other words…

“... I’m the bad guy!?”