Marriage Hunt Warring States - Romance Battle Royale of Cheat Skill Holders - This isn’t a marriage party, it’s the interview hall of the Demon King’s Castle.

Memories from a past life have a way of resurfacing at the most inconvenient moments. Monday morning, Tanabe Shinji saw the envelope placed on his desk and immediately remembered the dim little hut of the Valtiza Frontier Seventh Records Bureau. Mountains of parchment. The smell of ink. Nights when no one came. The envelope read: "Participation Confirmation Notice." "Tanabe!" He turned. Section Chief Miyamae stood there, grinning ear to ear. Forty-five, average build, eyes completely disappearing when he smiled. The type of boss who shoved his hands into his subordinates' lives with that smile. "I went ahead and signed you up for a marriage hunting party! Put it on the company tab!" Shinji looked at the envelope. Then at the section chief. Then back at the envelope. "…Why is someone else's marriage hunting a company expense?" "Simple. When you get married, the company gives a congratulations bonus. A bonus means company budget. Company budget means it's work-related. Therefore, marriage hunting is business-related." "The logic completely falls apart somewhere." "It doesn't. In my head, it connects perfectly." "That's the problem." Shinji searched for a counterargument. But the section chief beat him to it, pointing at his business card holder. "I already put eight thousand yen in your card holder. No refunds." Shinji opened it. Eight crisp thousand-yen bills, lined up with meticulous precision. —That's when the skill activated. Total Memory Return. A terrible skill Shinji had gained with his reincarnation. It automatically triggered for any reincarnator within a two-meter radius, flooding his brain with their past life memories as vivid images. He couldn't stop it. With multiple people, all their memories came at once—his head felt like it would split. And it was useless. The section chief's past life memory flowed in— Pure white. White filled with noise. Nothing. Void. (…This person isn't a reincarnator. Just a normal human.) Shinji felt genuine envy in his heart. (Lucky. What's it like having nothing for a past life? My past life was a records bureau assistant in the frontier, earning twelve silver coins a year, less than half what the capital gate guards made, social status of "they'd miss me if I was gone but nobody remembers me anyway"—) "Tanabe? You listening?" "…Yeah, I'm listening." Shinji closed his card holder. He'd lost. The eight thousand yen wasn't coming back. --- Saturday afternoon, Shinji exited the south ticket gate of Shinjuku Station. He was wearing a suit. Gray, barely used since job hunting, sleeves a bit short. Only the silver piercing in his left ear honestly declared: "This guy isn't actually into marriage hunting." Walking along Koshu Street, he opened his phone's notes app. He typed the title "Marriage Hunting Party Strategy Memo" and tried to write the body— His past life habits kicked in. That pressure when writing on parchment with a brush. The sensation of pressing ink into paper with force. It came back unconsciously to his fingers, and he pressed the phone screen with tremendous force. Screenshot. Another screenshot. Another screenshot. Shinji opened his gallery. The blank "Marriage Hunting Party Strategy Memo" screen appeared fifty-seven times. (The records assistant's brush pressure from my past life doesn't work with modern smartphones.) He sighed and closed the notes. The strategy memo remained blank. Whatever. He hadn't written anything anyway. Grand Vista Shinjuku was an eight-minute walk from Shinjuku Station's south exit, a twelve-story mixed-use building along Koshu Street. Inside the first-floor entrance stood two elevators side by side. The directory read "Serene Hall (Marriage Hunting Event) → 7F." Shinji took the right elevator. Pressed the button. Doors closed. It started ascending. …Then stopped. Between the sixth and seventh floors, right at the wall-ceiling junction, the elevator came to a complete halt. The doors wouldn't open. Not a sound. Just static. He pressed the intercom. "Yes, management office." "The elevator stopped. Around the six-and-a-half floor." "Ah, again?" "Again?" "It happens pretty often. Should restart in about ten minutes. Please wait." "Wait—" The intercom cut off. Shinji stood alone in the elevator box, looking up at the fluorescent light glowing steadily. (So it happens often, I wait ten minutes, and then I still have to go to the marriage hunting party?) It restarted after eleven minutes. He felt like he'd gotten a one-minute bonus, but it didn't make him happy. --- When Shinji rushed into the Serene Hall entrance, he was slightly out of breath. A reception table was set up in the hallway. White tablecloth. Behind it sat a single woman. As he approached, Shinji observed her—another habit from his past life. The instinct of a records assistant to understand the whole picture without standing out. Tousaka Mei, as he would later learn, wore black-framed glasses. Her hair was tied back behind her ears, her neckline clean and sharp. Her expression was—a perfect administrative smile. Unreadable emotion, textbook professionalism, but somehow too polished. Shinji unconsciously straightened his spine. Before he knew it, he was adjusting his shirt collar. "Tanabe Shinji, correct? Let me verify." Her voice was low. Quiet, but carrying well. While she checked the list, Shinji pulled out his wallet and took out the participation fee. Eight thousand-yen bills. "Participation fee of eight thousand yen confirmed. —" Mei paused. That pause felt slightly long to Shinji. "All participants today are reincarnators from the isekai Valtiza. Tanabe Shinji, you are registered as well. Thank you for coming." Shinji's hand stopped. Wallet in hand, he couldn't move for five seconds. He counted in his head. One, two, three, four, five. "…Um." "Yes?" "This is marriage hunting, right? Marriage—marriage hunting." "Yes, a marriage hunting party for reincarnators. Please read the bylaws of our organization, the Kaikyo Society, before participating." Her smile didn't move a millimeter. (Kaikyo Society. So that's the organization running this. If the bylaws said "reincarnators only," I definitely wouldn't have read them.) While Shinji was frozen, Total Memory Return activated. Mei was less than a meter away. The skill mercilessly flooded his brain with her past life memory. —An image. A grand palace hall. Not chandeliers, but the pale light of mana lamps. Long shadows on marble floors. A single woman standing in the center, hand to her ear, eyes narrowed. Someone was making excuses. The voice echoed. And the woman—Mei—quietly said: "There is falsehood." The image vanished. Sweat beaded on Shinji's forehead. (A skill that detects lies through voice. Voice pattern analysis… that kind of ability. Which means if I get nervous and lie to this receptionist, I'm done for.) "Tanabe, is there something unclear?" "N-no. Nothing. Nothing's unclear, everything's clear." (Nothing's clear. Nothing's clear at all.) Mei observed Shinji's silence, her eyes narrowing just slightly for a moment. "If you wish to withdraw from participation, we cannot refund your fee." The receptionist delivered the finishing blow while smiling. Shinji decided that receptionists were the strongest species in the world. --- Shinji walked toward the hall entrance. Three steps in—he stopped. (Wait. Think clearly. How should I interpret this situation?) In his past life, he recorded everything. Village finances, population statistics, weather, everything on parchment. Recording helped him organize situations. That was what a records assistant did. Let me organize the current situation. He came to a marriage hunting party. Paid the fee. The venue is right there. But all the attendees are apparently reincarnators from an isekai called Valtiza. He's a reincarnator too. He's known for five years. That night, all his past life memories suddenly came back, and the days he spent alone facing documents in that dim hut of the Frontier Seventh Records Bureau played like a montage on the futon in his six-mat apartment. Twelve silver coins a year, social status of "they'd miss me if I was gone but nobody remembers me anyway"—that past life. For five years since then, he'd tried to live normally. Because he was good with documents thanks to his records assistant habits, he became a stationery company salesman. He avoided crowds so his skill wouldn't go haywire. He stayed away from reincarnator topics— He tried to turn back. Reflexively, he spun on his heel. He reached for the entrance door. He pushed. It didn't budge. He pulled. It didn't budge. Looking at the edge of the door, the seam glowed pale blue. Faintly, but definitely. It looked like mana light. "Participants cannot exit for thirty minutes after the party begins." Mei's voice came from behind. "This is a Sealed Bind lock on the venue. Please understand." Shinji turned around. "That's… legally…" "You consented when you paid the participation fee." Instant response. Not even a second. Shinji looked at his wallet. The receipt for eight thousand yen. The pale blue glowing door. Mei's administrative smile. —Everything was the enemy. Sealed Bind, he repeated in his head. Oath Binding. In Valtiza, contracts made verbally could gain physical binding force through ancient mana culture. Paying the fee meant consenting to the contract—yes, he'd handed over eight thousand yen. That was the contract. (Even in my past life, there was no escape.) The Frontier Seventh Records Bureau. Far from the capital, the most remote location. Mountains of parchment. Ink smell. Lonely nights. He could have escaped, but there was nowhere to escape to. (But back then, the doors opened normally.) That single fact was, for some reason, specifically frustrating. A sigh escaped his lips. Shinji reached for the hall door. --- Serene Hall was spacious. One hundred eighty square meters, white walls, three chandeliers, a bar counter in back. From the south-facing windows, you could see the Shinjuku Gyoen area. Standing-style reception, already nearly fifty participants scattered throughout. Shinji froze at the entrance. He tracked what was happening in the venue, one thing at a time. First, a woman standing near the entrance. Long black hair, flowing. Every time she moved her hand unconsciously, the air around her turned slightly white—the temperature was dropping. Just slightly, but definitely. That heavy quality of air right before ice crystallizes. Next, a girl near the center. The youngest-looking among the participants. A thin aura wavered around her body. Red, blue, gold—colors of emotion, Shinji intuited. Her complexion looked slightly off in the crowd. Moving his gaze to the sofa area in back—there was a woman whose presence was hard to pin down. Her outline was faintly hazy. Her existence was thin, as if the space around her was forgetting she was there. (This isn't a marriage hunting party. It's a demon lord's castle interview.) He screamed internally. At that moment, Total Memory Return went haywire. Multiple reincarnators in a dense environment—Shinji's skill tried to process them all simultaneously. Images flowed in fragmentary, like noise. An imperial palace. Battlefield smoke. An assassination—the sound of someone's breath stopping. A headache came. He pressed his forehead. "You okay? First time jitters, right?" A male participant nearby spoke to him. Thirties, handsome face, his posture somehow looked refined. Total Memory Return activated. An image flowed in—a hero standing on a platform commanding a massive army. Flags rippling in the wind, countless soldiers spreading below his feet. (I'm not okay. Your past life was an imperial general and my head hurts.) "Y-yeah. I'm fine." The man smiled and walked toward other participants. Shinji moved to the bar counter. He took mineral water from a staff member and pos

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Episode 1

Name: Marriage Hunt Warring States - Romance Battle Royale of Cheat Skill Holders
Author: Novelia

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