Chapter 1: Your System’s Reaction Time is a Bit Slow
Freista Empire, Deep Blue Territory.
Lesa City, on the border.
Inside a manor near the outskirts of the city, magic lamps illuminated the entire banquet hall.
Shaya sat at a dining table in a corner, watching the noisy banquet in the hall.
The attendees were young men and women around sixteen or seventeen years old, their faces still carrying a youthful immaturity. Their coarsely made clothes were a stark contrast to the elegance of the banquet.
“How fortunate we are to be taken in by a noble lady as soon as we arrived in Lesa.”
“Indeed, not only are they providing food and lodging, but they’ve also promised to introduce us to the extraordinary academy. As nobles ourselves, compared to the stingy lord of my hometown, Miss Annrina is truly like an angel.”
“My uncle warned me that cities are full of people who devour others without spitting out bones, but it seems there are more good people in this world after all.”
“I will make a name for myself in the big city and then make my hometown prosperous! I carry the heavy expectations of the villagers.”
The discussions reached Shaya’s ears, making him feel an urge to rub his forehead.
“Do you guys have to put so many flags on yourselves? If something doesn’t happen at this banquet, it would feel like a disservice to all the flags you’ve planted.”
Of course, if this noble estate were truly peaceful, he wouldn’t be here.
Shaya leaned against the table, quietly cracking melon seeds, and reconfirmed the information about his target in his mind.
Annrina Tazella.
The owner of this manor, a hereditary baron.
She is also a second-class wanted target by the Directorate, suspected of involvement in several disappearances in Lesa City, with a bounty of three thousand Rhine gold coins on the secret wanted list.
Of course, his purpose for coming this time was not entirely for the bounty offered by the Directorate.
Fundamentally, it was because of the light blue screen that was clearly displaying in Shaya’s consciousness at that very moment.
[Destiny Great Villain System]
[Humans are merely beasts who do not cherish life without sacrifice. Ignorant children can only grow into adults after experiencing pain. Only blood and death can water the growth of beautiful flowers.]
[Therefore, let this world feel pain!]
[Beginner Mission: Cause Sylvia, the naive and tender daughter of the Grand Duke of the Azure Court Duchy, to experience the betrayal of a loved one, and undergo transformation and rebirth in pain and despair.]
This was the system that appeared in Shaya’s mind when he awakened his transmigrator memories at the age of eight.
At first, Shaya was extremely calm about the appearance of his golden finger.
Although this system seemed inherently evil, it might be more suited for hauling rice.
But after all, transmigrators these days are not simple. Some become slimes, some turn into treasure chest monsters, and some become skull heads who can only talk nonsense.
There are even those who want to quit the hero’s party, those who want to be the power of the shadows… even playing it safe, playing with shields, playing with sticks, are all commonplace.
Being a villain was nothing. Not to mention that according to tradition, he might have to be whitewashed later. Even if he couldn’t be whitewashed, Shaya wouldn’t care. If he wanted to become stronger, wasn’t it natural to pay some price?
He had even repeatedly tormented Miss Sylvia, whom he had never met, in his mind with tropes like “the rabbit is cooked after its usefulness, the exile, and the broken engagement.”
This calmness continued until Shaya searched the entire continent’s map and couldn’t find the words “Azure Court Duchy.”
After exhausting the information on the Abyss and the Elemental Planes without finding anything, Shaya, feeling like he was racing towards the ending of the Frenzied Flame King, finally found a clue.
It was a short line of text in a dusty historical record in the Imperial Capital’s Grand Library.
“The Azure Court Duchy was destroyed by the Twilight Calamity in the year 346 of the Holy Calendar.”
It is currently the year 902 of the Holy Calendar.
In other words, the Azure Court Duchy had turned to dust nearly six hundred years ago.
According to records, the Azure Court Duchy was founded in the first year of the Holy Calendar, and its history lasted only a little over three hundred years until its fall. After more than five hundred years, it was no wonder that people had long forgotten it.
Using this as a clue, Shaya also found records of the Grand Duke’s daughter, Sylvia, in historical books—
“Azure Silver Witch” Sylvia.
A legendary Beast Tamer, she ascended to the supreme legendary throne five hundred years ago.
After establishing the “Cretaceous Tower,” she disappeared and was never heard from again, making her impossible to find.
After confirming the accuracy of the records, Shaya looked at the stark black and white words “naive and tender daughter of the Grand Duke” on his system panel, speechless for a long time.
For a moment, he couldn’t tell whether he had traveled five hundred years too late, or if the system’s reaction time was a full five hundred years.
Originally, Shaya intended to completely ignore this unreliable system.
But then again, no one can escape the law of “true fragrance.”
Faced with the generous mission completion rewards, he finally chose to complete this beginner’s mission, which was overdue by five hundred years.
And after ten years of daily effort, Shaya’s exploration had finally made some progress.
This time, he traveled specifically from the Imperial Capital to the border city of Lesa for this purpose.
The noisy discussions around him suddenly quieted down and then disappeared.
A woman in luxurious clothing appeared at the center of the banquet. She wore a pure white long dress and had a gentle face.
She was the Miss Annrina, described by the young people as angelic, holy, kind, and beautiful.
She was also the target Shaya had seen on the Directorate’s secret wanted list.
And almost the moment Annrina appeared in the hall, Shaya sensed a decaying aura of dead silence that accompanied her.
“The aura of an evil god.”
Shaya’s spirits immediately lifted, and even the melon seeds in his hand no longer tasted good.
“Woman, you have successfully caught my attention.”
According to the information Shaya had painstakingly pieced together from scrolls of dusty historical fragments, the short-lived Azure Court Duchy was destroyed by a calamity triggered by the resurgence of a Twilight Deity.
Due to the long interval, the specific details of that Twilight Calamity were no longer traceable. It was only known that a powerful figure had eventually intervened and pacified the resurgent evil god.
Based on his information, this noblewoman named Annrina might possess a token, or rather a pollutant, left behind by the Twilight Evil God that had revived in the Azure Court Duchy.
And this was one of the last two keys that Shaya lacked.
That’s right, after spending ten years, countless money, and wealth, Shaya had been working towards a plan that went against his ancestors.
He wanted to—
[Deceive history]
