WHTVT C3

Chapter 3

There is, though.

Even if he was an idiot who couldn’t use magic, a bottom-tier young master ignored by his family, he didn’t want to end the comfortable life he enjoyed as blood of one of the Empire’s foremost ducal houses just like this.

And the vivid sensation of death he’d tasted yesterday while coughing blood was a terror he never wanted to feel again.

Remembering the last sentence the system had floated yesterday, Noel asked as if clutching at a straw.

“Ha…. So if I complete that main quest thing, you’ll actually grant a wish as the success reward?”

[Of course! If you complete the quest and help the original flow, by the system’s authority I will perfectly grant any one wish Young Master Noel desires! (Mana awakening, independence, wealth and honor, all possible!)]

Mana awakening. Noel’s pupils trembled finely at the words.

He was the only one in a magical powerhouse family who couldn’t handle mana, and he’d taken every kind of contempt and mockery for it. If he could only awaken mana.

……It wasn’t a bad offer. If he was fated to die like a dog if he left things as they were, it might be a trade worth trying once.

Collecting himself, Noel leaned against the headboard and narrowed his eyes. Then he let out the most fundamental question circling his head.

“Fine. Let’s say I’ll do the damn thing.”

He thought of the skinny Chase he’d faced in his hideout yesterday.

“But…… what even is that Chase that he’s the main villain? He looks like he’d fall over if you poked him. He’s in no state to do anything.”

[Haha. That’s why you have to blacken him! That’s Young Master Noel’s role.]

“Fine, let’s say that. But…… why is his last name like that?”

Once he collected himself, it was strange.

Where a surname should be, it said %^@#.

[%^@#, it’s %^@#.]

What was that impossible combination of words supposed to be. What are you even saying……? Noel let out a breathless little laugh.

“Is it some secret I’m not allowed to know? Or do you just not want to tell me?”

[Both are correct! You’re quicker than I expected?]

Huh. A secret. Noel still couldn’t accept the absurd story; he pressed his brow and shook his head.

So the main villain had a secret, as if he were entitled to one.

[You don’t understand, Young Master Noel. Villains originally emerge from hidden secrets and harsh hardship. Isn’t that cool? These days even villains need a narrative.

The system rattled off something absurdly carefree. A dazzling narrative for the main villain. While that kid was being granted that grand story, Noel was a third-rate minor villain who would help the villain awaken and then exit. Not even a proper black curtain—just this petty role.

“What about me! What about my narrative! If you’re going to make me a villain, at least give me a role that looks like something. This is too cheap!”

[And if I gave you a role, could you do it? For example: locking him in a lightless sealed room, breaking his ankle, binding him for life so he goes mad looking only at you. Holding his throat in your palm and enjoying that worn-down despair. You would have to handle at least that much. Is that the role you wanted?]

Noel’s words died at once. Honestly, he had no guts at all for harming someone or committing grand evil.

Cowled by the system’s spine-chilling, savage description, he quietly looked away from the air and answered in a mutter.

“Ah, no. Not that…. I just meant in terms of talking.”

Even so, the more he chewed on it, the sadder he felt. A trigger role that just starved a kid and pulled childish mean tricks.

The more he thought, the more tearfully insignificant he seemed to himself; a hollow laugh came out.

If he’d died so emptily in his last life, chased by debt and overwork, shouldn’t he be allowed to live a little more luxuriously and comfortably in the life newly given to him. But lamenting his lot now was useless.

Noel let out a long sigh and asked. If he tried to understand any more here, his head felt like it would burst.

So he decided to change the subject and ask the system what he was curious about.

“Haa……. Fine. How am I supposed to blacken that wonderful villain Chase.”

[Hm? I thought you’d carry it out easily, but you’re worrying? Having trouble finding a handle? Then I’ll help you.]

With a bright notification sound, a translucent window filled his vision.

[Sub-mission: One Step Toward Awakening the Main Villain!]

Goal: Provide Chase %^@# with meager food. (Success upon 2 completions)

Progress: 0/2

On success: One step closer to quest completion

On failure: Hematemesis

What? Koreans live on rice power? Ah……. This isn’t Korea.

At the thought that popped up unbidden, Noel pressed his forehead. Ever since he’d collapsed coughing blood yesterday, his head had been a wreck.

He still didn’t fully believe this situation, but it was clear that the common sense and morals of his previous life were slowly lifting their heads over the original owner’s high-handed nature.

No, never mind that.

“Isn’t that abuse?”

[Eh? Calling it abuse is a little hurtful. This is only an essential process for a great blackening.]

He’d asked for a method and it offered something ridiculous; Noel was so appalled he snapped back.

“This is just bullying! What if he actually blackens later and kills me!”

[Aigoo. Fortunately, Young Master Noel does not have a death ending after the blackening. Don’t worry.]

“Ha……”

If it wasn’t a death ending, then what. If it was an ending where he got tortured for life in revenge, that would be even worse. Noel tore at his hair and wailed.

[You have a rich imagination. It isn’t a torture ending either, so put your worries away!]

Having already read that thought, the system floated letters in front of him in a nasty way.

“Even so, you’re telling me to bully a kid? I can’t! How am I supposed to bully a normal person!”

[……Are you serious about that?]

Behind the system’s ellipsis, a blue light somehow wavered in the letters. The constantly blinking text at the edge of his vision gave off a strange pressure.

“…Of course I’m serious.”

[How would you bully him……? I know Young Master Noel’s original conduct. Just a week ago, because the tea was brewed lukewarm, you threw the teapot beside a servant’s face. Three days ago, because a gardener was late greeting you, you kicked the ladder he was on and sent him crashing to the ground. And…….]

“Ah, I get it! Stop, stop!”

Looking at his own past record, Noel’s mind went distant. Seeing those garbage acts in letters made him want to hide in a hole.

Because previous-life memories had mixed in, the things the original him had done landed objectively as petty, ugly evil.

A pathetic, childish villain who only hounded the people beneath him. The more plainly he realized his own measure, the stranger the self-loathing and frustration that rolled in.

Noel muttered like an excuse in a voice that shrank.

“E-even so, can’t I do it another way? Or I take a different role……. I don’t necessarily have to be the trigger, right? Something like Extra A who clings to my protagonist brother would suit me better.”

At the end of Noel’s words the system window flashed red for an instant. He flinched at the sudden bleak atmosphere.

[Will you truly give up the trigger role?]

Unlike a moment ago, thick letters were carved into the air. Feeling the intimidation, Noel hunched for no reason and went on.

“…Huh? No, not giving up so much as finding a substitute……”

[The system values efficiency. If Young Master Noel gives up the role, a ‘new’ trigger must be assigned for the blackening. To do that, the previously assigned unnecessary entity would have to be disposed of. Will you give up? However, giving up will be treated as quest failure and you will be processed as immediately deceased.]

Death…….

At the terrible word recalled once more, Noel shuddered. The awful sensation of coughing blood and rolling on the floor yesterday flared vividly over his skin.

How could that damned system spit out something involving a person’s life so casually.

“I’ll do it! I-I’ll do it! I don’t have to do it this second!”

[Of course. A wise choice! Then do your best on the quest! Call the system anytime you need it.]

Only then did the system window slowly pull back its crimson light. The letters wavering in front of him lost their glow as if flickering out, then melted completely into the air and vanished.

It just disappears like that? After saying only what it wanted? Isn’t that completely self-willed……?

But for now it was actually convenient. Whatever it was, the letters that had seemed to watch him being gone was welcome.

Once the window blocking his view vanished and his sight was finally clear, Noel pushed himself up. Quest or whatever—he wanted to deal with this filthy state first. Standing in front of the full-length mirror in one corner of the room and looking at his face, sure enough, his appearance was a spectacle.

Even when he rubbed with his hand, the bloodstains he’d coughed up yesterday had hardened along his mouth and chin and wouldn’t go away.

Ugh, disgusting. And he’d lain in bed looking like this.