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.

"Lily mentioned you're planning to move the establishment. When you do… may Irina and I come along?"


I had bought this place in the Commercial District because it was cheap and secluded when I was broke and hiding. But now? It was too far from the Academy. The commute was eating into my training time.


With the points from the Elena raid and the gold I'd "earned" (looted) from the slums, I could afford something better.


"No issue," I said. "But why are you so eager to move?"


Merle looked at me. The playfulness vanished from his eyes.


"Because I believe you are Hope, Mr. Lucien."


The old man's eyes held no trace of deceit. Since the incident with Elena, since he threw that Big Bang card, something in him had shifted. He wasn't a coward anymore.


"I want to be where the Hope is," he whispered. "And I want Irina to grow up seeing it."


"Then pack your bags, Manager Merle. We're going to the Academy District."


Chapter 144 - The Root of Decay