The first thing Cassian felt when all those lights disappeared was the nostalgic sensation of high-quality sheets.
He opened his eyes abruptly, sitting up in bed so suddenly that the sheets tangled around his legs and, before he could do anything about it, he lost his balance at the edge of the mattress and fell face-first onto the floor.
The impact was dull and echoed throughout the entire room.
For a moment he didn't move, just remained in that position with his face pressed against the cold floor of the room.
'Shit…' he thought, aching.
Just as he began looking around to figure out where the hell he was, the same screen from before appeared in front of his face, almost brushing against his nose.
[What an elegant way to treat your new body.]
[Ten points for the entrance.]
Cassian stared at the screen for several seconds before jumping up from the floor, ignoring the new message the system displayed.
Right now, he had something more important to deal with than reading the system's mockery.
He ran toward one of the nearest windows, yanking the curtains aside in one swift motion.
What he saw left him frozen.
What stood before his eyes was something he simply… had never seen in his life.
The sky had a violet hue along the edges, where there wasn't just one sun. There were two—one clearly white and the other a nearly orange shade.
It was one thing to read about it and something entirely different to see it with his own eyes.
In the distance, he could make out a massive city stretching in every direction. The only things he could clearly distinguish were the black stone towers surrounded by vegetation.
The novel had never exactly mentioned what the city Marek Nightrend came from looked like, beyond its name: Aurenthas.
"Seriously…" Cassian muttered. "I'm in another world."
[Do you like what you see?]
[Not bad for a fallen secondary villain, right?]
"Shut up," he replied in a low voice, though without any hostility. It was hard to hate something that had just given you access to a landscape no human had ever seen. Or well, from his world.
[With all the respect you deserve, no. I will not shut up. Or well, not for now.]
Cassian ignored the response and simply stepped away from the window. There was something he needed to confirm, something that had been circling in his mind the moment he opened his eyes.
And that was that he was currently in Marek Nightrend's body.
The very same Marek he had just wished the worst upon… how long ago?
He quickly turned around, searching for a full-length mirror that he found almost immediately.
He walked toward it.
And when he saw himself in the reflection, he was stunned.
The reflection staring back at him had absolutely nothing to do with the brown-haired, forgettable boy he had been his entire life.
Now he was tall—noticeably tall—with a straight posture that easily conveyed authority even while wearing sleepwear.
He had black hair, short and slightly messy.
His eyes were red. A dark red, almost like blood, that contrasted brutally with the rest of his features.
Cassian stared at his new appearance for several minutes.
'This body… is incredible.'
He had to admit it—Marek Nightrend was, from any angle you looked at him, fucking attractive.
The build of that body was someone who had trained without obsessing over it, enough for the results to be noticeable without being exaggerated.
'Marek was a complete idiot,' Cassian thought as he continued admiring his reflection. 'He could have lived a quiet life. Found a woman who had nothing to do with the heroines, settled down somewhere in a corner of the world where no one would bother him, and lived without problems. But no. He chose to mess with the story's protagonists and ended up dying in a pathetic way.'
'An absolute moron.'
[Cassian Nightrend.]
The system screen appeared again.
[That will be your name from now on. I took the liberty of making some minor adjustments.]
[You're welcome.]
Cassian blinked as he read the message, then looked at himself in the mirror again.
"Cassian Nightrend…" he murmured softly, testing how it sounded.
And to his taste, it sounded good. It sounded better than Marek, without a doubt.
"All right." he admitted, crossing his arms without taking his eyes off the mirror. "You outdid yourself with that one."
[I know, I know.]
[Now that you know that, there's something you need to see.]
The screen began to flicker, expanding slightly as a new message appeared, arranging itself like some sort of list.
Cassian, instinctively, as if suspecting what he was about to read, frowned slightly.
[MANDATORY MISSIONS.]
[1- Turn the heroines into villainesses and conquer them.]
[2- Reach the MAXIMUM rank in all available skills: magic, combat, swordsmanship, special abilities, and any discipline this world has to offer.]
[3- Kill the forgotten god.]
What followed after Cassian read the message was absolute silence.
One so long it seemed as if Cassian had fallen asleep standing up.
Then he blinked several times before rereading the message multiple times, in case he had misunderstood any part of it.
But he hadn't misunderstood any of it.
"Conquer the heroines?" he finally said, with a calmness that did not match the chaos in his mind.
"I have to turn them into villainesses? And reach the maximum rank in everything? And kill a god?"
Then he swallowed hard, feeling the burn in his throat.
"A mandatory mission…"
[Exactly. No option to refuse. You already signed the contract when you chose to transmigrate.]
[Well, technically you chose the only option that didn't involve existing in an eternal void, but it still counts.]
Cassian reread the list for another moment before shifting his gaze toward the mirror, meeting the reflection of his red eyes that he still hadn't fully come to feel were his own.
'Well,' he thought with resignation. 'At least I'm handsome…'
He thought with a hint of humor, trying to cheer himself up at least a little.
"And what if I refuse the mission?" he asked with slight hope that maybe nothing would happen if he rejected it.
[Well… you would die instantly and cease to exist.]
[But so you can see I'm a good guy, I'll give you the option to choose.]
[Do you accept the mandatory mission?]
[Yes / No]
Cassian could only laugh nervously, clearly understanding that he had no options.
"And you say you're a good guy… my ass." He muttered, somewhat annoyed as he pressed [Yes].
'I hope I don't regret this later.'