Author's Note:
This chapter will serve as the first official Side Story focusing exclusively on the perspective of the supporting cast. In future volumes, I will periodically include similar side stories detailing the backstories, hidden motivations, and alternate perspectives of the primary Heroines and other crucial figures, always denoted by the "{}" brackets in the chapter title.
Furthermore, this is the very first time—and I assure you, it will absolutely not be the last—that I will feature a dedicated 'Bad Ending View Event' chapter of this nature. So, before we plunge into the despair, allow me to explicitly clarify the fundamental purpose and mechanics of the System Window within this narrative framework.
As you have likely noticed from the genre tags, this world operates with a 'System'. However, as I have carefully structured it, the only entities capable of accessing or possessing a System interface are very specific, predetermined 'Certain Characters' within the novel's lore, and the primary 'Heroines' who are fated to intersect with Rudeus's overarching storyline. This deliberately excludes the Main Character (Rudeus/Damien) himself, whose System was permanently shattered by the Demon God prior to his reincarnation.
Without further ado, let us discuss the specific rules and purposes governing these System windows:
First: This iteration of the System window is fundamentally and mechanically different from the standard RPG-style System window that Damien utilized in his past life on Earth.
Secondly: The primary utility of this System is drastically altered. The 'Certain Characters' and the 'Heroines' who awaken this interface can only initially use it for one very specific, traumatizing purpose: to view their own preordained, catastrophic future demises. In a literal sense, they are forced to watch their canonical 'Bad Endings' play out in real-time. Yes, astute readers will notice this mechanic bears a thematic similarity to the classic trope found in "The Villainess I Served For 13 Years Has Fallen". This novel is indeed heavily inspired by that concept, though with a much darker twist.
Third: Once awakened, this System permanently bonds to their souls. After the initial trauma of the 'Bad Ending' viewing, the interface expands, granting them standard RPG utilities such as viewing their own numerical stats, analyzing their magical abilities, and receiving specific, mandatory 'Quests' that inevitably revolve around interacting with the Main Character. (P.S. I am still actively deciding whether I will ultimately include Veronica and Adelina in the finalized romantic harem route, considering the MC harbors a deep, visceral hatred for both of them based on his past life and game knowledge. I will likely hold a reader poll on that specific romantic trajectory as we approach the End of the Series).
Fourth, and most importantly: The horrific events depicted in these 'Bad Endings' are no longer guaranteed to happen. Because the MC (Damien) has already forcefully derailed the canonical timeline simply by reincarnating and altering his own behavior, the preordained fates of everyone around him—including the characters viewing these visions—have been violently shifted. The System is showing them the ghosts of a timeline that Rudeus is currently working to erase.
That is all the necessary exposition. Thank you for dedicating your time and attention to reading this meta-information. Let the tragedy commence.
- ILoveVillainesses, Out.
***
The Void - Dimensional Viewing Space.Current Observer: Princess Veronica Adnelia Van Rosania.
The glowing blue System window hovered silently in the absolute, suffocating darkness, its stark white text illuminating Princess Veronica's pale, terrified face.
[You have precisely 10 seconds remaining before the forced viewing of the designated Bad Ending Event commences. Please, make all necessary preparations to secure your mental health.]
[ 9 ]
[ 8 ]
[ 7 ]
Veronica stood rigidly in the center of the void, her breathing shallow and erratic. She began biting the impeccably manicured nail of her thumb, her aristocratic poise completely crumbling under the sheer, unnatural pressure of the countdown. Her face, usually a mask of haughty perfection, twisted into a grimace of profound anxiety.
'Will that... will that horrific ending really happens tomorrow?' Veronica questioned herself, her mind racing back to the upcoming First-Year Dungeon Simulation.
She remembered the fragments of her initial nightmare—the dark labyrinth, the scent of sulfur, the massive demon. The simulation was supposed to be a highly controlled, safely monitored academic exercise. It was mathematically impossible for a genuine, lethal demonic entity to bypass the Academy's holy wards.
'Argh! I should not overthink this! It's just an illusion! A complex phantasm sent to test my royal resolve!' Veronica tried to convince herself, shaking her head violently.
[ 5 ]
[ 4 ]
[ 3 ]
The numbers flashed faster, each chime of the digital clock sounding like a death knell in the empty space.
[ 2 ]
[ 1 ]
[Commencing the Viewing Sequence.]
[May your fragile mortal psyche possess the fortitude to withstand this specific trauma...]
The blue screen shattered into a million pixels of light.
Instantly, the sensory deprivation of the void vanished. Veronica didn't just see a screen; she was forcefully teleported directly into the location of the vision. The transition was so abrupt it caused a wave of extreme vertigo to crash over her.
She stumbled forward, her silk nightgown brushing against cold, damp stone. The oppressive, familiar scent of stagnant water, old blood, and abyssal sulfur flooded her nostrils.
It was the exact same environment as her nightmare. The deepest, unmapped catacombs beneath the Academy's training simulation arena.
And then, she heard the frantic, echoing slap of boots against the stone.
She looked down the long, torch-lit corridor and saw them.
They were running desperately, fleeing for their lives from an unseen, terrifying predator. She saw herself—the dream-version of Veronica, wearing a torn, dirt-stained practical combat uniform. The dream-Veronica was staggering under a heavy burden, physically carrying the unconscious, limp body of the black-haired commoner woman, Adelina, slung over her back.
And running closely behind them, acting as the ultimate rearguard, was her beloved guardian, Amanda.
Veronica, the spectator, felt a desperate, primal urge to intervene. She wanted to run to them. She wanted to grab Amanda's arm and pull her to safety. She wanted to scream a warning.
She took a frantic step forward—
-THUD.
"!"
She slammed face-first into an invisible, completely unyielding barrier. She couldn't move past it. It was as if she were trapped behind a pane of indestructible, one-way glass. She could see and hear everything with terrifying clarity, but she could not interact with the timeline. She was condemned to be a helpless witness.
"Amy!" The dream-version of Veronica screamed, looking back over her shoulder, her face a mask of absolute terror.
From the shadows at the far end of the corridor, the Greater Demon General emerged. Dratkthar. He was a towering monstrosity of shifting obsidian armor and roaring hellfire.
Without breaking his relentless stride, Dratkthar raised a massive, clawed hand. The air warped around him as he instantly chanted and summoned a volley of 5th-Tier Abyssal Chains—massive, spiked links of dark metal designed to seek out and bind the souls of the living. The chains shot down the hallway like striking vipers, aimed directly for Veronica's back.
Amanda didn't hesitate. She smoothly pivoted on her heel, coming to a dead stop while drawing her twin trench knives.
She executed a flawless, high-speed flurry of parries. The enchanted steel of her blades sparked violently as she deflected the heavy chains, knocking them harmlessly into the stone walls. Even though she was visibly exhausted, her pristine uniform ruined and her breathing heavy, she defended them effortlessly.
"Yo-you damn, stubborn Humans!" The Demon General roared, his voice echoing like grinding tectonic plates, infuriated that a mere mortal maid was stalling his divine mission. He accelerated, his heavy footfalls cracking the floor.
Amanda knew she couldn't keep deflecting indefinitely. She stopped running entirely, planting herself firmly in the center of the narrow corridor to create a physical bottleneck.
She focused her remaining aura, activating her highest-tier Night Raven Art. Deep, twisting shadow chains erupted from the darkness at her feet, snaking forward to entangle the Demon's legs, drastically slowing his advance.
"Princess! Go!" Amanda ordered, not looking back.
The dream-Veronica, gasping for breath, roughly dropped the comatose body of Adelina onto the stone floor. She spun around to face the advancing demon, her oceanic blue eyes flashing with a desperate, magical light.
She drew upon her royal lineage, channeling the specific, highly potent magic art she had inherited from her late mother, the Second Empress.
"Illumination Light Magic Art: Blinding Cascade!"
Dream-Veronica thrust her hands forward. A concentrated, localized supernova of pure, holy light erupted from her palms, flooding the entire corridor with a blinding, searing radiance that was utterly anathema to abyssal creatures.
"ARGH!" Dratkthar shrieked in genuine pain, throwing his massive arms over his face as the holy light temporarily burned his retinas, rendering the demon completely blind for a crucial ten-minute window.
Seizing the opening, dream-Veronica quickly hoisted Adelina back onto her shoulders with a grunt of exertion. She then reached out, desperately grabbing Amanda's free hand.
Amanda allowed herself to be pulled along, and the three of them resumed their frantic sprint deeper into the labyrinth, leaving the blinded demon roaring in the distance.
"Even if both of you manage to escape my immediate sight!" Dratkthar's enraged, echoing voice chased after them down the corridor. "It is utterly useless! The exits are sealed! And when I find all of you in this maze... I will slowly butcher you, and I will eat your corpses while you are still screaming!"
The spectator Veronica, pressing her hands frantically against the invisible wall, watched her other self running away with Amanda.
'You fool! You shouldn't have just used a blinding spell!' Veronica screamed inwardly at her past self, her tactical mind criticizing the panic. 'You should have used Starfall Cascade! You should have tried to crush him while he was entangled!'
Veronica balled her hands into fists and began to viciously punch the invisible barrier separating her from the scene.
"Let me in!" Veronica demanded, tears of frustration stinging her eyes.
-SLAM!
-SLAM!
-SLAM!
"Let me in!!! I can help her! I can change it!" Veronica screamed angrily, her knuckles bruising against the unyielding forcefield.
But the System cared nothing for her pleas. The vision simply glitched, the digital environment tearing at the seams, and the scene violently shifted forward in time.
When the visual feed stabilized, the environment had changed.
Veronica found herself looking into a small, damp, naturally formed cavern hidden deep within the simulated dungeon structure. It was a temporary safe room.
She saw herself, Amanda, and the still-comatose Adelina hiding within the gloom.
The dream-Veronica was kneeling on the rocky floor, her hands glowing with a soft, pulsing emerald light. She was frantically pouring her remaining mana reserves into casting a continuous healing art over Amanda.
The Head Maid was sitting against the cavern wall, looking worse for wear. She had sustained several deep, bleeding lacerations across her ribs and arms during their ongoing flight through the maze.
"Princess, please... this should be enough. You are depleting your core," Amanda reasoned, her voice tight with pain, gently trying to push Veronica's glowing hands away.
"No!" The dream-Veronica violently interrupted, refusing to break the healing connection.
"Sniff... sniff... sniff... you-you should not even be down here!" Dream-Veronica stammered, her voice breaking as she finally succumbed to the overwhelming stress, shedding hot, frightened tears. "You should have abandoned us at the entrance! You should have saved yourself!"
Amanda didn't scold her for crying. She just offered a soft, incredibly sad, maternal smile. She reached out with her bloodied glove and gently wiped a tear from the Princess's cheek.
Amanda then shifted her gaze to the black-haired commoner girl lying unconscious on the cavern floor.
"Do you know her, Princess?" Amanda asked softly, her slate-grey eyes studying the girl's face. "Why did you risk your own royal life, and practically drag us into the deepest levels of hell, just to save her?"
The dream-Veronica sniffled, looking down at Adelina with a complex mixture of resentment and profound confusion.
"I-I don't know," dream-Veronica admitted, her voice trembling. "This is not really me. I have never cared for the peasantry. But... when the simulation collapsed, and I saw her fall... it's like my conscience physically wouldn't let me move. I couldn't simply abandon a defenseless woman like her to die horribly at the hands of that Demon. It felt... wrong."
Amanda studied her ward for a long moment. Then, the stern assassin's face softened completely.
"I see." Amanda reached out and gently, affectionately ruffled Veronica's silver-blue hair, a rare gesture of pure, unadulterated pride.
"You know, I am incredibly proud of what you did today, Princess," Amanda said, showing a genuine, radiant smile that Veronica rarely ever saw. "You acted like a true ruler. You protected the weak."
"This should not be something to be proud of!" Dream-Veronica argued, her aristocratic pride clashing violently with her guilt. "If-if I hadn't been so stupidly heroic and stopped to save her, you wouldn't have had to come down here and save me! At the very least, you would have survived and evacuated with the faculty!"
The spectator Veronica, watching from behind the glass, nodded vigorously. She really, truly wanted to scream at her dream-self to just abandon the commoner. But she recognized the truth in her dream-self's words. It seemed her buried conscience, the fragile morality she had inherited from her gentle mother, had won over her cynical survival instincts, forcing her to choose the noble, ultimately doomed path of saving Adelina.
"Do not say that, Princess," Amanda chided gently, her tone firm but loving. "Even though we are trapped in a dire situation like this, you should never be ashamed of performing a righteous act. Because I know the truth. Beneath all the royal posturing and the anger... you are a fundamentally good person. No matter what the world tries to make you."
Amanda leaned forward, ignoring the pain in her ribs, and pressed a tender, maternal kiss to Veronica's forehead.
"Tsk. I don't even know her name, and yet I risked my entire life saving her," dream-Veronica muttered, crossing her arms and acting annoyed to hide her blushing embarrassment at Amanda's praise. "She had better be heavily in debt to me when she finally wakes up! I expect lifelong servitude!"
Amanda let out a soft, genuine laugh at the Princess's attempt to reclaim her haughty persona. She then looked back down at Adelina's unnaturally still form.
"Hmm. It is quite weird, actually," Amanda mused, her brow furrowing in professional concern. "It seems she is still locked in a deep, unnatural sleep. The ambient mana density hasn't revived her. Shouldn't she be awake by right now, Princess?"
Dream-Veronica simply shrugged, looking equally baffled by the medical anomaly.
"Yeah, it's incredibly weird for me, too. It seems she's not physically sick, nor does she have a high fever or any visible head trauma. I already used my highest-tier restorative power to try and heal her nervous system, or at least shock her awake with pure mana, but—"
Dream-Veronica sighed heavily, dropping her hands into her lap.
"—It's all entirely useless. Her core is completely dormant. She's locked in."
"I see," Amanda replied, nodding thoughtfully as she processed the tactical implications of carrying dead weight through a warzone.
"Let's just try to get some sleep, Princess. Rest your mana core," Amanda advised, leaning her head back against the cold stone. "We are still miles away from the primary exit vector of this simulation ward, and the demon will eventually pick up our scent trail again."
Dream-Veronica nodded obediently, curling up into a tight ball on the hard floor, shivering in the cold dampness of the cave.
The scene shifted violently again.
The digital transition tore across Veronica's vision. She staggered, bringing her hands up to her face. She was still biting her nails, her cuticles raw and bleeding.
"What is the absolute use in making me watch this?!" Veronica screamed at the empty void, her voice echoing with mounting hysteria.
She felt like a rat trapped in a psychological maze.
"You know, whoever you are running this sick illusion!" Veronica yelled, pointing a trembling finger at the darkness. "You're a sadistic asshole!"
She clicked her tongue loudly, a habit born of profound annoyance.
"Tsk. Great. Now I'm actively copying that infuriating Defect's sharp, vulgar tongue," Veronica muttered to herself, briefly thinking of Rudeus's cold dismissal in the stairwell earlier that day.
The System, completely devoid of empathy or sentience, did not respond to her bickering. It simply automated the viewing process, marching relentlessly toward the inevitable conclusion.
The vision completely stopped. The environment didn't shift; everything simply went pitch black.
"What the...?!" Veronica gasped, stepping forward, her hands groping blindly in the dark.
"Where is it? Where is the rest of the vision—"
Before Veronica could finish her frantic question, the massive blue System window finally popped up again, illuminating the darkness after she had endured the psychological torture of watching her past failures for what felt like two agonizing hours.
The text typed out with brutal, mechanical efficiency.
[After resting in the cavern, you eventually leave the safe room. You and your team navigate the labyrinth and finally locate the primary exit portal leading back to the surface. But—]
"But what?!" Veronica screamed angrily at the screen, her heart hammering a frantic rhythm.
[The Demon General, Dratkthar, manages to track your mana signature. He intercepts you and your companions directly in front of the exit.]
The black void shattered.
The scene shifted one final time to the grand, vaulted antechamber located just before the exit portal of the simulation ward. The room was bathed in the hellish, flickering red light of Dratkthar's abyssal fire.
The spectator Veronica watched as the climax of her nightmare unfolded before her eyes.
Amanda was standing alone in the center of the antechamber, her twin trench knives drawn, her uniform stained black with her own blood. She was standing squarely between the towering, thirty-foot-tall Demon General and the corner of the room, where dream-Veronica was desperately trying to drag Adelina's unconscious body toward the glowing exit portal.
"Found you, little rats!" Dratkthar roared, his voice shaking the massive stone pillars. He didn't bother targeting the maid. He swung his massive, flaming broadsword in a devastating, horizontal arc aimed directly at Veronica and the comatose Adelina.
-CLANG!
A deafening shockwave ripped through the room.
Amanda had completely abandoned her defensive stance. She leaped directly into the path of the colossal blade, catching the strike by crossing her tiny, dual trench knives. The sheer kinetic impact drove her to her knees, the floor cracking beneath her boots, but she held the line.
"Do you really think I would ever allow you to kill her?!" Amanda screamed over the roar of the flames, blood dripping from the corner of her mouth as her muscles tore under the strain.
"Not a goddamn chance in hell!"
With a ferocious, guttural shout, Amanda deflected the massive blade upward.
"Night Raven Art: Shadow Step Cascade!"
Amanda didn't just teleport once. She triggered an incredibly advanced, suicidal variation of the technique. She teleported herself dozens of times within a single second, bouncing around the massive cavern in a blur of black and white motion. She moved so impossibly fast that even the Demon General's highly enhanced, abyssal eyes couldn't track her trajectory anymore.
-SWISH!
-SWISH!
-SWISH!
"Forbidden Art: Featherfall!!" Amanda chanted from the shadows.
Suddenly, thousands of pristine, glowing white feathers materialized in the air above the Demon General. But these feathers were not ordinary conjurations. They were razor-sharp constructs woven from highly compressed, lethally toxic anti-magic.
Dratkthar's burning eyes widened as he realized the true nature of the attack entirely too late.
The feathers fell upon him like a torrential rain of steel and poison.
"ARGH!" The Demon General screamed in genuine, agonizing pain as hundreds of the razor-feathers pierced through his thick, obsidian armor, burying themselves deep into his demonic flesh.
Worse, the specific anti-magic imbued within the feathers violently reacted with his abyssal core, acting as a massive debuff that drastically slowed and stunted his innate, high-speed regeneration.
"Damn you, human insect!!!" Dratkthar cursed, thrashing wildly, trying to swat the lethal feathers away.
Amanda materialized standing atop a broken stone pillar, thirty feet in the air. She was panting heavily, her aura flickering dangerously low.
"As I explicitly stated before—" Amanda declared, pointing one of her bloodied blades directly at the monster's face.
"I will not let you get anywhere close to Her Highness. Nor—"
She dropped into a low, coiled stance, readying herself for the final, fatal exchange.
"—Will I let you kill her while I draw breath."
Dratkthar growled, a sound that vibrated the very air in the lungs. He began to physically pluck the embedded feathers out of his flesh one by one. He grimaced in pain as black blood sprayed from the wounds, but he paid absolutely no heed to the damage.
He was a Greater Demon. He had a divine mandate. He needed to kill the royal, and far more importantly, he needed to absolutely ensure the death of the 'Chosen One of the Goddess'—the black-haired girl lying unconscious in the corner. That was his true, overriding mission, directly ordered by the Demon King himself.
"Amy..." The dream-Veronica whispered from the corner of the room. She was holding Adelina tightly to her chest, using her free hand to frantically cast and maintain a shimmering, golden defensive barrier—the 'Shield of the Stars'—around them both.
Dratkthar finished pulling the last feather from his chest. He wiped a streak of boiling black blood off his lips with the back of his armored gauntlet.
"I will not hold back my power this time!" Dratkthar roared, his voice escalating into a realm of pure, unadulterated madness. "I no longer care if the Academy faculty senses my true aura or finds out who I truly am! I will completely annihilate all of you right here and now!"
The Demon General widened his stance.
Instantly, a massive, suffocating wave of pure, concentrated [Killing Intent] exploded outward from his body. It was a physical force, a tidal wave of psychic despair and murderous malice.
"Tsk!" Amanda clicked her tongue, gritting her teeth as she watched the Demon unleash the terrifying wave.
She quickly glanced down at the corner of the room. The dream-Veronica was screaming, struggling desperately to keep her fragile golden shield from shattering under the sheer, crushing weight of the Demon's killing intent. The barrier was already cracking, the Princess bleeding from her nose as the mental pressure overwhelmed her.
Amanda knew she couldn't outlast him. She had to end this in a single, decisive strike.
Amanda forcefully stood up straight on the pillar. She closed her eyes, tapping into the deepest, darkest reserves of her assassin training. She unleashed her own, highly concentrated wave of [Killing Intent].
The two distinct auras of murder—one a roaring hellfire, the other a freezing, silent abyss—clashed violently in the center of the antechamber, warping the very air between them.
And, for a fleeting, glorious microsecond... Amanda's focused, surgical intent pierced through the Demon's chaotic rage. She won the psychic clash.
Seizing the microscopic opening in his mental defenses, she teleported instantly.
She appeared directly in front of Dratkthar, inside his massive guard, hovering mid-air right before his chest.
"What the—!" Dratkthar's burning eyes widened in absolute shock at her audacity and speed.
Amanda didn't hesitate. She gripped her blade with both hands and swept it violently upward in a clean, perfect, devastating arc.
She sliced entirely through Dratkthar's thick, obsidian chest plate, carving a massive, vertical chasm straight up his torso, ending the strike by burying the blade deeply into his throat.
"ARGH!" Dratkthar choked, caught completely off guard, utterly unable to defend against the surgical, lethal precision of the strike. Black blood erupted from his neck like a geyser.
Standing behind the invisible spectator wall, the real Veronica watched the scene unfold. She clenched her fists tightly against her chest.
"You can do it, Amy," Veronica whispered frantically to the empty void, watching her guardian deliver the seemingly fatal blow.
Her manicured nails dug so deeply into the soft flesh of her palms that the skin finally broke. Warm blood slowly began to drip down her fingers, pooling onto the invisible floor, but she paid absolutely no mind to the physical pain. She was entirely consumed by the fight playing out before her.
"I believe in you so much! Just finish him! And—"
Veronica pressed her bloody hands against the invisible barrier, her breath fogging the metaphysical glass.
"Survive."
Veronica's oceanic eyes were wide, filled with a desperate, burning determination. She was actively, fiercely wishing to alter the fabric of the vision, praying to the universe to make Amanda survive this encounter.
It was utterly, profoundly foolish, wasn't it?
For a highly educated, supposedly rational woman to stand in a void of absolute certainty and desperately wish for her mother figure to survive a fight in which she already explicitly knew the tragic outcome.
She was a massive fool. To think that a woman as prideful and cynical as her was trapped in such a deep state of psychological denial, even after the omniscient System's description had explicitly, clearly told her about Amanda's ultimate, gruesome demise.
She still clung to a microscopic sliver of hope. It was a cruel, deeply ironic reality that humans like her, when faced with absolute tragedy, remain locked in denial. They cannot accept the cold, hard truth, and will fiercely, irrationally cling to that final, pathetic shred of hope, even when they have already read the ending of the story.
And yet, it is the most normal, fundamentally human response possible. Because, after all, that is our nature. To still cling to a bit of hope, even when the executioner's axe is already falling.
Veronica watched Amanda fighting the bleeding Demon from behind the impenetrable wall, still desperately clinging to that fragile, useless hope left in her heart. She refused to accept that truth. She wanted to deny the System's prophecy with every fiber of her being. That was why—
"Please!" Veronica screamed, her voice finally breaking completely. She began to cry, the tears flowing freely down her face, mixing with the blood on her hands.
"Please, just survive!" Veronica sobbed, her legs finally giving out from the emotional exhaustion. She slowly slid down the invisible barrier, kneeling onto the floor of the void.
"Please...!!"