Lucien Ashborne was supposed to be a nobody — an early-game villain who existed only to be crushed by the protagonist. After provoking the wrong person, he vanished from the story without even a dramatic death scene.

When a player named James dies and wakes up in Lucien’s body, he inherits every bit of the villain’s broken reputation and zero of his privileges. Bullied, scorned, and abandoned by his own noble family, Lucien now stands at the bottom of the academy hierarchy.

To make matters worse, the world he knew as a game has no guaranteed happy ending… and the protagonist’s party treats him like a criminal.

But James isn’t the Lucien they think he is.

With fragments of meta-knowledge, a half-broken system that barely works, and a determination to avoid becoming cannon fodder, he chooses a different path.

He doesn’t seek glory.
He just refuses to disappear.

This is the story of a former villain trying to rewrite his role — not as a hero, but as someone who survives on his own terms.

Affiliation: Imperial Academy / House Ashborne


━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━


My strength stat had finally passed the 20 mark.


At least now I won't go numb after firing a couple rounds like some frail scholar.


And the 5,000 points—my reward for neutralizing Eldric's incident—that was the real jackpot.


All in all, I'd call this a very profitable disaster.


I wasn't able to recruit the third villain.


I arrived in this world a month earlier than the original timeline.


Chapter 61 - Bug's Nest