[Ensemble Cast] [Otherworld] [Sword and Sorcery]
The villain guy has always been popular.
After all, he's got the stats, he's got the looks, and he's got something wrong with his head (read that again).
He intercepted an army single-handedly, swept clean an entire section of the front, and took the enemy leader's remains. He held the emperor's bones in his arms, seeming quite reluctant to let them go.
"These are the most beautiful bones I've ever seen." The pale, beautiful young man smiled more happily than ever before. "...How could I have only met you now, my Third Highness?"
Steve felt a chill run down his back as he read this. He wanted to yell:
Holy shit! What a freak!
Yet once this intelligence was released, exactly zero people showed any concern for the deceased.
Everyone except Steve immediately started saying they wanted to be Yuka Hain's dog and would gladly die for him.
No taste!
Steve cursed them all.
--
Steve transmigrated into a story he had read before his death.
It was an unconventional otherworld adventure about a one-armed, middle-aged, handsome fugitive from war wandering the continent. It had humor, warmth, another world, multiple races, and cat-eared girls.
And page after page of angst to fill in the gaps.
Swept along by the tides of the era, the original protagonist was destined for a life of regrets and scars, no matter how peerless his natural talent.
Emperor Ludwig was the person he respected most in the world, yet he died violently on the battlefield. His body was desecrated after death, and he wasn't even given a gravestone. The protagonist hated it so, so much that even alone, he was determined to find a way to kill the necromancer and avenge Ludwig.
He followed the villain for 300 chapters, and then... holy shit, the villain killed himself.
The original villain was unapologetically evil. The story never tried to make him sympathetic or redeem him, and he never spared the protagonist a single glance, right up to the end.
He took up half a chapter, inspired countless iconic fan artworks, then set his own house on fire and died without a second thought.
Steve nearly tore the book apart when he read that:
Damn it, sure, the villain was handsome, but could someone speak up for the protagonist??!!
Now that he'd transmigrated with the script in hand, he swore he would change everything and help the protagonist get together with his beloved Emperor Ludwig.
After all his scheming, the protracted war that had brought so much sorrow never happened.
The original protagonist never lost an arm, the original villain never set the woods on fire, and Ludwig was officially honored as the Great Emperor in the history books.
Everything seemed to have worked out perfectly, but...
What the hell? Could someone please explain why Ludwig was now clinging to the villain's waist and refusing to let go, while the villain looked annoyed but indulgent??
If the original protagonist hadn't grabbed him, Steve would have rolled up his sleeves and rushed over.
Even in death, he had to cry out:
Stop being Yuka Hain's dog already!!
You tasteless bunch!
*
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1. The protagonist is the original villain. Steve is just Steve!
2. A misanthropic, fragile Archmage x an emperor skilled in both magic and martial arts (a passionate puppy when he was young)
3. Content warning: The male lead may be the most heartless person in the whole story.
4. No character is perfect. The characters' values do not represent the author's.
5. It should include an academy romantic comedy, a travelogue about an adventuring party, Ludwig's struggle for power, a battle of wits against the mastermind, awkward, innocent interactions between boys going through puberty, tense push-and-pull while the group is together, and two people who aren't love-addled but steadfastly choose each other despite every obstacle.
Theme: A life shaped by twists of fate.
