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.

"Yeah. Let's do that," I said downcast, walking past the peanut gallery.


The rest of this conversation needed to happen in private. I followed Ariana up the grand staircase to my room on the second floor.


The moment the heavy wooden door clicked shut behind us, her composed facade completely crumbled.


"Do you have any idea how terrified I was?!" Ariana spun around, her voice cracking. "I got the news from academy hospital! A High-Ranking Demon, Lucien! In an unmapped ruin! You were supposed to be planting trees at a safe border camp!"


"The situation escalated. I had to step in," I tried to explain gently, taking a step toward her.


Chapter 189 - Interrogation