I still remember the ending of that game clearly.
It was a scene that looked almost perfect.
The sky burned orange as the sun sank toward the horizon. A gentle wind stirred the grass across the vast field where the final battle had taken place. The prince stood there with a blood-stained sword in his hand, his breathing heavy after the long fight.
Standing before him was the woman who had long been known as the kingdom's greatest enemy.
Seraphina Duskveil.
The cruelest villain in the entire story.
The woman who manipulated nobles, burned villages, and ignited wars just to satisfy her own ambition.
At least… that was what the game had always told us.
The prince's sword pierced straight through her chest without hesitation.
Seraphina's body trembled slightly.
Blood slowly trickled from the corner of her lips.
From behind the prince, the heroine ran toward him, her face soaked with tears. Victory music began to play, signaling that the story was finally reaching its end.
Everything looked like a perfect ending.
But there was one strange thing.
Seraphina was smiling.
Not a bitter smile.
Not a regretful one.
It was a smile that… strangely looked satisfied.
As if death was something she had been waiting for all along.
I still remember how I merely frowned a little.
"Huh?"
That was my only reaction.
A few seconds later, the scene shifted to the prince and the heroine embracing beneath the evening sky.
The screen slowly faded.
THE END appeared in the center of the screen.
And I… smiled in satisfaction.
"Not a bad ending."
I even read the discussions from other players on the game forum afterward.
Some people said Seraphina's smile meant she had finally regretted everything.
Others believed it was the story's way of showing that even the cruelest villain still possessed a fragment of humanity.
I didn't really care.
All that mattered to me was that the hero and heroine were happy in the end.
The game was over.
The story was finished.
I closed my laptop.
And then… I died from a drug overdose.
When I opened my eyes again, the world felt different.
The first thing I noticed was the unfamiliar ceiling above me.
Old wood, carved with intricate patterns.
I blinked several times, trying to understand the situation.
"…Where am I?"
My body felt light.
But strangely, it didn't feel like my body.
As I slowly sat up, something immediately felt wrong.
My hands.
They looked different.
Younger.
Smaller.
I turned my gaze toward the mirror sitting on the table beside the bed.
And the moment I saw the face reflected in it… my chest turned cold.
I recognized this face.
Not because I had ever seen it in real life.
But because I had seen it in the game.
This was the face of a character.
One of the characters from the game I had played before dying.
Lucien Valtheris.
A young nobleman.
And also…
one of the villains in that story.
I stayed silent for quite a while.
"Okay…"
I let out a long breath.
"O-okay."
This clearly wasn't a normal dream.
Something extremely familiar came to mind.
Reincarnation into a game world.
Plots like this appeared all the time in the novels and manga I used to read.
But usually, people reincarnated as the hero.
Or at least as some powerful main character.
Not…
as a minor villain like this.
In the original story, Lucien Valtheris was merely one of Seraphina's followers.
He wasn't important.
Just someone who committed a few small crimes before eventually dying halfway through the story.
I leaned back in the chair.
"…Well, at least I know the future."
If I avoided conflicts, maybe I could live quietly in this world.
But the moment that thought appeared—
something happened.
A faint light appeared before my eyes.
Like a transparent screen slowly forming in the air.
Strange text began appearing on it.
I stared at it in confusion.
Then my body froze when I read the words.
[Hi, I am the creator of this world, and you are the villain of this story. Don't worry about your life. In the end, you will die.]
My heart pounded
.
What was this?
A game?
A system?
Before I could think any further, another line appeared.
[First Mission:
Hide the truth about your own mother's death.
Completion Time Limit: 1 month.
Failure Penalty: a faster death.]
My hands immediately began to tremble.
"…You've got to be kidding."
I tried to close the screen.
It wouldn't disappear.
I tried to ignore it.
It stayed.
The screen didn't move at all.
As if it were waiting for my answer.
I forced myself to calm down and think clearly.
Panic wouldn't help anything.
If this really was the world of that game, then at least I had one advantage.
I knew the story.
I closed my eyes for a moment, trying to recall details I had never thought were important before.
Lucien Valtheris.
A young noble from the Valtheris family, a house whose influence in the kingdom had been declining. In the original story, he was known as a cunning opportunist. Not the kind of villain who started wars like Seraphina, but dirty enough to involve himself in political scandals.
And the thing I remembered most clearly…
he died fairly early.
If my memory was correct, Lucien was killed around the middle of the story after one of his schemes was exposed by the prince.
I sighed deeply.
"Great… so even without this weird system, I was already destined to die."
It was almost funny.
But my attention returned to the text still floating before my eyes.
[First Mission:
Hide the truth about your own mother's death.]
My mother?
My eyebrows furrowed.
In the game's story, Lucien's background was barely explained. He simply appeared as a young noble who didn't seem to care much about morality.
I stood up and walked toward the window.
Outside lay the vast courtyard of a noble estate, with neatly arranged gardens and a stone statue standing in the center. The afternoon sun illuminated the towering stone walls of the mansion.
Everything felt far too real to be a dream.
"If that's the case…"
I looked back at the screen.
"Hide the truth about my mother's death."
The sentence felt strange.
Not because the mission was evil.
But because…
I didn't remember any story about Lucien's mother dying in the game.
If this were part of the scenario, I should have seen it before.
But I hadn't.
Which meant there were only two possibilities.
First.
This was a detail that was never shown in the game.
Or second…
something in this world was different from the story I remembered.
I was still thinking about that when suddenly—
*Knock knock knock.*
A knock sounded from the door.
My body stiffened immediately.
"Young Master?"
An elderly woman's voice came from outside.
"You're awake?"
I hesitated for a moment before answering.
"…Yes."
The door slowly opened.
A middle-aged woman in a maid's uniform entered, carrying a tray of tea.
The moment she saw me standing near the window, relief appeared on her face.
"Thank goodness…"
She let out a long breath.
"I was very worried."
I looked at her carefully.
"Why?"
The woman seemed slightly surprised by my question.
"Young Master… you don't remember?"
My chest felt uneasy.
"Remember what?"
She lowered her head for a moment before answering quietly.
"About… the Lady."
The room suddenly felt much quieter.
The Lady.
Lucien's mother.
She continued, speaking more cautiously.
"It has been three days since she lost consciousness and…"
I frowned.
"Lost consciousness?"
"Yes…"
She nervously gripped the edge of her apron.
"The family doctor has already examined her."
I looked at her seriously.
"And?"
The woman lowered her head a little further.
"According to the doctor… the Lady's body has suffered very strange illness."
"Strange? What do you mean?"
She inhaled slowly.
"The doctor said… if this continues, the Lady may only have about one month left to live."
One month.
The number felt heavy in my ears.
But what made my thoughts spiral even more was another phrase I had just heard.
Strange bodily damage.
Before I could ask more questions, the screen in front of my eyes suddenly flickered again.
New text appeared.
[First Mission
Hide the truth about your mother's death.
Completion Time Limit: 1 month.
Failure Penalty: a faster death.]
My hands clenched into fists.
"Hide… the truth?"
I stared sharply at the screen.
If the doctor said my mother only had one month left…
then this wasn't a normal illness.
My mind began racing.
Something didn't make sense.
I recalled the original story again
.
Lucien Valtheris was known as a cold person.
But there was never any mention of him having a bad relationship with his mother.
Even as stranger…
in the game, his mother was never mentioned at all.
As if that character had never existed.
Which meant there were only two possibilities.
First.
She simply wasn't important to the main story.
Or second…
someone had deliberately erased her existence from it.
My thoughts halted for a moment.
A horrifying possibility emerged.
If the system was asking me to hide the truth about my mother's condition…
then maybe…
the original Lucien…
was the cause of it.
I immediately turned toward the maid.
"Where is my mother right now?"
The woman looked slightly surprised by my question.
"In her room, Young Master."
She pointed toward the long corridor outside the door.
"The doctor is still there monitoring her condition."
I walked past the maid without another word.
But before I left the room—
the system screen flickered once again.
New text appeared at the bottom.
[Additional Hint
The true cause of your mother's condition
must not be known by anyone.
Including yourself.]
I stopped in my tracks.
Including… myself?
So even I wasn't allowed to know the truth?
For the first time since reincarnating into this world…
I felt something far more terrifying than simply being forced to play the role of a villain.
This system…
wasn't just forcing me to commit evil.
It was also trying to control what I was allowed to know.
And that made a far more disturbing question appear in my mind.
If I'm not even allowed to know the truth…
then how am I supposed to hide it?