Lucien Ashborne was supposed to be a nobody — an early-game villain who existed only to be crushed by the protagonist. After provoking the wrong person, he vanished from the story without even a dramatic death scene.

When a player named James dies and wakes up in Lucien’s body, he inherits every bit of the villain’s broken reputation and zero of his privileges. Bullied, scorned, and abandoned by his own noble family, Lucien now stands at the bottom of the academy hierarchy.

To make matters worse, the world he knew as a game has no guaranteed happy ending… and the protagonist’s party treats him like a criminal.

But James isn’t the Lucien they think he is.

With fragments of meta-knowledge, a half-broken system that barely works, and a determination to avoid becoming cannon fodder, he chooses a different path.

He doesn’t seek glory.
He just refuses to disappear.

This is the story of a former villain trying to rewrite his role — not as a hero, but as someone who survives on his own terms.

So this was why the Crown Princess was here. She wasn't just casting a wide net for the Executioner; Imperial Intelligence must have picked up on an anomaly regarding a slave with an impossibly high mana density.


The Phantom Sword of the Abyss?! This wasn't even supposed to happen in the original timeline! Or rather, this must have been the hidden backstory that the game skipped over.


In the current era of Asteria Online, there is one supreme male swordsman—the Sword Saint, Kael. And eventually, a supreme female swordsman—the Sword Queen.


But in the late-game, there was one boy whose name struck terror into the hearts of both. A young, emotionless assassin who fought Sword Saint Kael to a bloody standstill.


'The Phantom Sword, Nero, was a Black Market slave,' I realized, the pieces finally clicking together.


Chapter 162 - Phantom Sword