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.

Behind the secondary barriers, Princess Celestia grit her teeth and swallowed a ragged breath. Her eyes were bloodshot, and her usually pristine face was a mess, her silver hair matted with freezing sweat and dirt.


"Ah, ah. I'm fine. Perfectly fine. Nothing's wrong. So please stop calling out to me, sister. It's hard to focus and answer," Celestia responded nonchalantly to Rumina's worried tone.


Rumina would erect the physical glacial barriers, and Celestia would rapidly infuse them with strengthening mana to keep them from shattering upon impact. Originally, they had intended to alternate between building the barriers and imbuing them, giving each other time to rest, but the sheer volume of the assault meant that was no longer possible.


Chapter 213 - Dramatic Return