The Fresta Empire, Azure Province.
The border city of Resa.
Within a manor near the city outskirts, magitech lights brightly illuminated the entire grand hall.
Shaya sat at a dining table in the corner, observing the bustling banquet in the hall.
The attendees were young men and women of sixteen or seventeen, their faces still holding a youthful innocence. The coarse cloth garments they wore were a stark contrast to the banquet's refined elegance.
"We're so lucky. I can't believe we were taken in by a noble lady right after arriving in Resa.".
"Yeah, not only is she willing to provide food and lodging, but she also promised to help recommend us to the Transcendent Academy. Compared to the stingy and miserly lord from my hometown, Miss Annelina is truly like an angel.".
"My uncle even warned me that the big cities are full of people who would eat you alive, but it seems there are more good people in this world after all.".
"I will definitely make a name for myself in the big city and then make my hometown prosperous. I carry the heavy expectations of everyone from my village.".
The murmurs reached Shaya's ears, giving him the urge to facepalm.
Are you guys trying to jinx yourselves?
If nothing goes wrong at this banquet, it would feel like a complete waste of all the death flags you've raised.
Of course, if this noble manor were truly peaceful, he wouldn't have come here in the first place.
Shaya leaned against the table, quietly cracking melon seeds as he confirmed the target's information in his mind once more.
Annelina Tazzera.
The owner of this manor, a hereditary baroness.
She was also a second-class wanted target of the Bureau of Control, suspected of being connected to several missing person cases in Resa City. Her bounty on the Bureau's secret wanted list was three thousand Rhine gold coins.
Of course, his purpose in coming here this time was not entirely for that small bounty from the Bureau of Control.
The fundamental reason was the light blue screen that was clearly visible in his consciousness at this very moment.
[Destiny's Great Villain System].
[Humanity is but a beast that does not praise life without sacrifice. Ignorant and foolish children can only grow up after knowing pain. Only blood and death can nurture beautiful flowers.].
[Therefore, let this world know pain.].
[Novice Mission: Cause Sylvia, the innocent and naive daughter of the Grand Duke of the Azure Court Duchy, to experience the betrayal of her closest kin, completing her transformation and rebirth through pain and despair.].
This was the system that had appeared in his mind when he awakened his memories as a transmigrator at the age of eight.
At first, Shaya was extremely calm about the appearance of his golden finger.
Although the system seemed a bit inherently evil, perhaps more suited for carrying sacks of rice.
But transmigrators these days were rarely simple. Some became slimes, some became treasure chests, and some turned into skulls, capable of nothing but fruitless talk.
There were even those who wanted to quit the hero's party, those who wanted to be the power in the shadows... not to mention those who played it safe, focusing on shields or staves, which was all commonplace. [bruh, I know all of these guys]
Just being a villain was nothing. Never mind that, according to tradition, he would probably be redeemed later. Even if he couldn't be, Shaya didn't care. If one wanted to become strong, wasn't it natural to pay a price?
He had even mentally tormented the as-yet-unseen Miss Sylvia multiple times using tropes like "killing the hound after the hunt," "the exiled," and "the broken engagement."
This calmness lasted until Shaya had scoured the maps of the entire continent and still couldn't find the words "Azure Court Duchy."
After turning the records of the Abyss and the Elemental Planes upside down to no avail, Shaya, feeling like he was on a fast track to becoming the Lord of Frenzied Flame, finally found a clue.
It was a short line of text in a dust-covered history book in the Imperial Capital's Grand Library.
"The Azure Court Duchy, destroyed by the Twilight Calamity in the year 346 of the Sacred Calendar."
It was now the year 902 of the Sacred Calendar.
In other words, this Azure Court Duchy had returned to dust nearly six hundred years ago.
According to the records, the duchy was founded in the first year of the Sacred Calendar and had only existed for just over three hundred years before its fall. It was no wonder the world had long since forgotten it after more than five hundred years.
Using this as a clue, Shaya also found records of the Grand Duke's daughter, Sylvia, in the history books—.
"Azure Silver Witch" Sylvia.
A Legendary Beast Tamer who had ascended to the supreme legendary throne as early as five hundred years ago.
She vanished after establishing the "Chalk Tower," and there has been no news of her since, making her impossible to find.
After confirming the records were true, Shaya stared speechlessly for a long time at the distinct black and white words on his system panel: "the ignorant, innocent, and naive daughter of the Grand Duke."
For a moment, he couldn't tell whether he had transmigrated five hundred years too late, or if the system's reflex arc was a full five hundred years long.
Originally, Shaya had wanted to completely ignore this unreliable system.
But alas, no one can escape the law of "true fragrance."
Faced with the generous mission completion reward, he ultimately chose to complete this five-hundred-year-late novice mission.
After ten years of daily effort, Shaya's search had finally made some progress.
His special trip from the Imperial Capital to the border city of Resa was for this very purpose.
The noisy discussions by his ear suddenly quieted down, then disappeared altogether.
A woman in luxurious clothes appeared in the center of the banquet. She wore a pure white full-length dress, and her features were gentle and beautiful.
It was the very same Miss Annelina whom the young people described as being as holy, kind, and beautiful as an angel.
She was also the target Shaya had seen on the Bureau of Control's secret wanted list.
And almost at the exact moment Annelina appeared in the hall, Shaya detected a decaying aura, carrying the stillness of death, that accompanied her.
The aura of an evil god.
Shaya immediately perked up, and even the melon seeds in his hand lost their appeal.
Woman, you have successfully caught my attention.
According to the information Shaya had painstakingly pieced together from scrolls of dusty historical fragments, the short-lived Azure Court Duchy was destroyed by a calamity caused by the reawakening of a twilight deity.
Due to the long passage of time, the specific details of that Twilight Calamity were no longer verifiable. It was only known that in the end, some powerful expert seemed to have intervened and pacified the reawakened evil god.
And based on his intelligence, the noblewoman before him, named Annelina, very likely possessed a memento, or rather a contaminant, left behind by the twilight evil god that had reawakened in the Azure Court Duchy.
And this was one of the last two keys that Shaya lacked.
That's right. Having spent ten years of his life and countless amounts of money and wealth, Shaya had done it all to complete a plan that went against all his ancestors.
He was going to—
[Fool a piece of history].
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I retranslated it since I'm not satisfied with previous translations.