"Young Lord Balzac!"
Were first words I heard when I woke up. I was sitting in the middle of huge dining room, sitting alone at the table that could seat about forty people. There were maids standing on both sides of the table and butler standing right behind me. The room was white with paintings all over the walls everything looking expensive and luxurious.
The moment I tried to remember where I was, my head started to hurt. The moment I tried to remember who I was it got even worse. The pain was extreme, I was about to pass out right then and there. As I was about to fall down from the chair, somebody grabbed me and prevented me from falling down to the ground, just after that I lost my consciousness.
When I woke up, I was in the luxurious bed, in the middle of huge luxurious room. I tried to remember something. Worried that the pain will come back, but it was no longer there. I sighed in relief and tried to make sense of what was going on and where I was.
That was when the weird stuff started happening, I remembered two different lives. First one was the one that felt like much closer to me, it was life of an introverted office worker that lived alone and found solace in training, diets, manga and games after a nasty divorce.
It felt weird, I knew that it was me but I also knew that it was no longer me, and that the person was already dead. What I remembered most vividly from this life was a game called Mystical Fencer. I knew every detail every little thing, I knew when, what and where things happened. It was scary.
And the second 'me', I remembered was son of the duke Manfred Balzac, Victor Balzac. Lazy, lewd, perverted, violent psychopath. The things he did made me want to vomit; but there was a bigger problem. I, Victor Balzac, was an antagonist in Mystical Fencer, I was a piece of shit that ended up dead in the end of the first act of the game when his wrongdoings caught up to him. I ended up being killed by the main character after kidnapping one of the main heroines, and it was just an icing on the cake of despicable acts I did before that, my stomach turned just thinking about that.
That was when I remembered, Victor in the game was fat. I looked down and indeed I found a rather sizeable belly, I stood up and ran towards nearest mirror. When I looked into the mirror barely catching up my breath from running few meters all of my doubts vanished, I knew the face in the mirror from the game. It was much younger version of it but there was no doubt.
"I am Victor Balzac!"
I fell down on my ass, pointing towards the mirror. My feelings were all over the place. Fear, panic and many more gripping my hearth. Several seconds later I passed out on the ground once again.
I woke up sometime later, back on the bed. I took a deep breath, stood up and looked into a mirror once again. Indeed, I was still Victor Balzac. I sat down on the bed formulating strategy. I needed to live, and I wanted to live like a human being not a scum of the earth Victor was until now. What surprised me was how calm I became about everything; it felt like I was able to accept everything after I passed out a few times. I was very grateful for that since I had a lot on my plate even without worrying about that.
It took me some time to formulate first few steps of my plan. Plan to be a decent person. I stood up, dressed up and left the room, deciding to find head butler. As I walked in the hallway, I met a maid, the moment she saw me, she dropped down to her knees. And begged, her voice filled with fear.
"Young Lord Balzac! Please forgive me your highness I was on my way to your chambers!"
I sighed. Seeing her filled with fear almost passing out, tears streaming down her cheeks. I didn't even want to remember how much of douche I must have been. I was lucky that unless I tried, I didn't recall anything from the memory of the original owner of this body. When I tried it, all what I asked for came to me, but the list of atrocities was so vast that I didn't even want to remember.
"Please don't worry, just point me to where Sebastian is right now and go get some rest!"
I spoke using the calmest and most reassuring voice I could. The maid froze looked up and saw me looking down to her, doing my best to smile and look as calm as possible. Hoping she will calm down.
She nodded and started to stand up. I offered her a hand to help her stand up and she took it, very hesitantly. Bracing herself for impact. Like she was not able to believe I would just want to help her stand up without harming her. I was disgusted by what the piece of shit in this body did before I arrived. Once she stood up, she showed me to the room with head butler.
"Thank you! Go and get some rest!"
She nodded and quickly ran somewhere, her eyes filled with panic and confusion. I sighed and knocked on the door.
"Sebastian! It's me Victor, we need to talk!" I spoke from outside of the room and the door opened right away. Head butler of the mansion, Sebastian standing in front of me.
"Young Lord Balzac! Come in please! How can I help you?"
Sebastian was an NPC in the game, he was not just any butler he was ex-knight that served as head butler because of a promise he made with my grandfather. He was documenting everything I did for years and when I kidnapped one of the heroines, he came out with all of it and pretty much handed over to the main character free pass on killing me and destroyed my whole family as a bonus. But I get him, he was a good man disgusted from watching a bastard do evil things for years.
"Sebastian, please I need to talk to you about changes that I want to make here in the mansion!"
The room I entered as I spoke was Sebastian's personal chamber, it was much smaller and simpler than the one I woke up in, but still bigger than my flat in the previous life.
Sebastian tried to hide the terror in his eyes as he asked.
"What needs to be done?"
I took a deep breath. Realizing that I didn't gave too much thought to the reason I am going to give for everything so I quickly spouted first bullshit that came to mind, hoping it will work.
"As you surely know, I passed out a few times these few days."
Sebastian nodded.
"One of those times I met my mother, my mother that died giving birth to me. And she was disgusted by me!"
I pushed myself to look sad and shed a few tears.
"I want her to be proud of me up there!"
I spoke and looked up to the ceiling.
"I want her to approve of me! So, I decided to change! Will you help me, Sebastian? Will you do it for me and my mother?"
Sebastian nodded; skepticism written all over his face. But by the looks of it, he was having hard time believing my words not questioning if I am Victor.
"I want to make things right. Firstly, I want all the slaves around the mansion to be released, and paid out. Then I want you to hire some people that are going to be properly paid! No slaves allowed! I want people that will work out of their free will for money. With this I would like to ask you to stay and help me put things right!"
I bowed to him in ninety-degree angle as I continued to speak.
"I know you must be disgusted by me, but I want to change. Please stay and help me with that!"
I looked up towards the face of the rough old knight in his sixties, that was having visibly hard time processing what was going on. He ultimately nodded after almost a minute of standing there motionlessly.
"I will help you my lord, it is the least what I can do! I promised that to your grandfather!"
I smiled and spoke once again.
"Next thing, I would love if you could do for me is changing my diet. I want to eat just meat, veggies and fruits. No potatoes, no rice, no pastries, no wine, nothing. Just water, meat, veggies and fruits! Is that doable?"
Man nodded. "Yes, that can be done!"
"Perfect, that will be it for now. I will bother you with more requests later but right now I need to go work out! It should take two to three hours; I would love some water and something to eat after that. Is that doable?"
Old knight looked at me shocked as he nodded with his mouth open.
"Thank you, Sebastian. I will be relying on you from now on!"
With those words I headed out of the mansion to the garden. I wanted to work out some sweat so that I can gauge how much work I will have to do, to gain a body I will be comfortable with. Nothing against people that enjoy being big, it's just not my thing. I feel sick and sluggish like this. I hate having hard time even walking.