Maro

As though compelled to, I began watching all sorts of anime and playing all kinds of games—anything I could get my hands on, anything that was meant to be “fun.” And they were interesting, to be sure; but that sense of “fun” was ultimately too palpable, and I couldn’t shake off the resulting sense of guilt I felt, ingrained in me since my childhood.

It was then that I came across fantasy web novels. Maybe it was the fact that I was still reading blocks of text, but with them, I managed to shake off that nagging sense of guilt, even though the content was decidedly noneducational. Moreover, the otherworldly reincarnation genre, which was all the rage at that time, really scratched the deep, psychological itch I’d had to start my life over, a desire that had plagued me throughout those years. Thinking about that now, though, I could only laugh.