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.

"Ack!" Celestia shielded her eyes, her concentration wavering.


I sprinted. Blindly. Trusting my [Detection] skill.


I broke through the snowstorm. I was right in front of her.


I raised my fist—enhanced with everything I had left.


She opened her teary eyes, seeing me loom over her. Panic flashed on her face.


She instinctively unleashed everything she was holding.


A massive column of ice erupted from the floor directly under me.


The air left my lungs. My ribs cracked.


I was launched into the air, spinning, before crashing down hard onto the stone floor outside the ring bounds.


I tried to push myself up, but my body refused to obey.


The last thing I saw was Celestia standing in the center of the ring, surrounded by jagged ice, clutching her chest, looking at me with wide, shocked eyes.


Chapter 91 - Mock Assessment [3]