I Decided to Become a Villain.

Known as one of the Empire’s Three Swords, the prestigious heir of a martial arts family, and the promising second son of the Lyaird family.

That was the title that followed me until I was ten years old.

In my childhood, the magic I was born with was so vast and outstanding that it might have been an inevitable course of events.

Because being an excellent swordsman in this era isn’t a position you get simply by being good at swordsmanship.

Just like my brother, Hasel Lyaird.

But it didn’t take long for that title that followed me to change to ‘Shame of the Lyaird Family,’ and even for my own flesh and blood, who should have been my only ally, to give me a cold look.

“It’s truly pearls before swine. To have such vast magic and not be able to use it. Tsk.”

“I’m ashamed that you’re my brother.”

I was thirteen years old when I heard my father clicking his tongue in front of me and heard my only brother’s harsh criticism for the first time.

That’s right.

I had vast magic that I was born with, but I had absolutely no talent for martial arts.

While my brother learned one thing and understood ten, I was an incompetent good-for-nothing who couldn’t even properly do the one thing I learned.

Thanks to that, by the time I turned fifteen, I had already become a non-existent being in the family.

“Hasel, I heard the story from Teacher Chloe. I heard there’s been some progress recently?”

“Yes. It may not be enough in Father’s eyes, but I’m managing to do it somehow.”

“Hehe, you’re indeed my only son. The future of the Lyaird family will be fine.”

“Of course. He’s your blood, so wouldn’t he take care of it himself?”

“…….”

Even when I attended breakfast, no one asked about my daily life.

No, the person Kyle Lyaird had already been erased from my parents’ and brother’s minds long ago.

Even so, there was nothing I could do.

My best resistance was to quietly put down my utensils and leave the table first, so I wouldn’t have to hear that sound anymore.

“Someday, I will definitely….”

Meanwhile, in one corner of my heart, I resolved to prove my worth someday.

But there were too many things in the world that couldn’t be achieved with will alone.

It was a cruel reality that I didn’t want to admit.

“Damn it…!”

Eventually, I turned away from swordsmanship and started dabbling in magic to use this vast magic power.

Of course, the family wouldn’t assign a competent teacher to a good-for-nothing like me, so I had to somehow do it on my own.

Sometimes, I would secretly sneak into my father’s study and look for books on magic.

I would secretly slip out of the castle in the early morning when everyone was asleep and practice in the nearby forest.

But the results were disastrous.

For some reason, I couldn’t even properly draw out the vast magic power contained within me.

I was the owner of a cursed, rare constitution, one of the few in the Empire who had magic but couldn’t manifest it.

Kung! Kung!

“Why, why…!”

On the day I learned that bitter reality, I banged my head against the innocent wall and resented the world.

I thought it might be better to break my head and have my brains flowing out, facing a foolish death, than to continue living my life.

But it seemed that even the courage to choose death was not available to a wretched person like me.

After that, like a rolling hamster wheel, there was nothing I could do but repeat empty days.

“Kyle, help Bell even if you swing a sword that doesn’t work. You’re still the second son, so you should contribute something to the family, shouldn’t you?”

“Ah, no. Madam! How can I let the young master….”

“…It’s okay, Bell. I’ll help.”

The family, who had treated me like an invisible man, had become so severe that they openly insulted me even in front of the servants working in the castle.

I tried to endure and move on somehow for the first few times, but as it became more and more severe, and the moment even the servants looked down on me came, I resented everything.

What more do I have to do?

I always compared myself to my brother and swung my sword for even one more minute, and even when I gave up catching up with the sword, I tried to sit at my desk for even one more minute.

How can you treat your own flesh and blood, who has done everything in his power, so coldly for the sole reason that he doesn’t meet your expectations?

“I’ve heard the story, Kyle Lyaird. If you’re okay with it, why don’t you join us? You’re not a person who should be stuck in a place like this.”

As I swore that I would walk any path as long as there was a way to prove myself, and as I vowed to show them what I was made of someday, a man approached me.

He called himself one of the ‘Four Saviors.’

“I have no intention of talking to a 잡배/japbae bastard whose origins I don’t even know. Get lost.”

My initial reaction to him was ridicule and swearing.

That’s because there was only one being in this Hespia Empire who called himself a savior.

That is the leader of a radical and rebellious group called ‘Eyes of Dawn,’ who is said to have been expanding their power in the shadows of the Empire for a long time, a leader of an imaginary group with only rumors abound.

But no one had ever seen their faces, and it was only conveyed through rumors, so I couldn’t help but think it was nonsense.

Who in their right mind would think that anyone who openly rebelled against the Empire would survive?

“You don’t believe me, do you? But it’s true. If you really can’t believe me, I’ll give you a gift and leave.”

Tuk.

To me, who was ridiculing him, he threw a book and disappeared.

As if he was sure that the moment I opened it, I would look for them again.

I wanted to burn the book right away and give them a sneer, but I couldn’t because I kept remembering what he had said at first.

It was the first time since I was thirteen, when I was labeled as a failure of the Lyaird family, that I had heard someone say something that seemed to acknowledge me.

“This is….”

And his belief that I would look for them again was not arrogance.

The book contained black magic and methods of manifesting magic that I had never seen before.

Using it, even a person with my constitution, who was inherently unable to manifest magic, could use magic through some tricks and sacrifices.

I knew that the price of black magic would not be positive.

But for me, who had nothing to lose and didn’t feel any meaning in this futile life, it was truly a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

So, I read the book he left behind and finally succeeded in using the magic I had so longed for, and by the time the book was worn out, the other side came to find me first.

“Your face is quite different from then, Kyle Lyaird. Do you want to join us now?”

“…What do you want?”

“Asking a question in return to a question, you have a nasty temper. But I like that things are fast.”

The fact that they offered me this power first, instead of other methods, meant that they wanted something from me.

So, I immediately got to the point and asked what they wanted from me.

And the answer to this was simple.

They wanted me to become their henchman and destroy this country together.

In some ways, it was a predictable answer from a rebellious group, but that’s why I was drawn to it.

After all, didn’t it mean that they would give me both power and authority, which I thought I would never get in my life?

There’s no need to cling to being the head of the family now.

Now that I’m prepared to lose everything, it’s time to aim for a higher place.

And I nodded, vowing to trample on those who ridiculed me, and finally reign over them and sneer at them.

“Prove yourself with the power we gave you. If you complete three missions, we’ll make you our henchman.”

After that day, he presented me with three missions.

He confidently said, ‘Prove your strength,’ but I didn’t feel that way when I was carrying out the missions.

It felt like a mission to prove my resolve rather than my strength.

To see if I was really willing to give up everything and be with them.

And true to that resolve, I quickly completed two of the missions as they requested.

As I was waiting for the time to come before the final mission.

“Kyle, you’re getting to the age where you should be starting a family. It just so happens that this father has found a good bride for you.”

“Are you telling me to go on a blind date?”

“That’s right.”

When I was called by my father, whom I hadn’t seen in years, I was able to receive a rather unexpected proposal.

“Who is the other person?”

“Leave that as a pleasure until the day. Or do you not trust this father?”

“No. Please give me some time to think about it.”

I knew that I, who had already been abandoned by the family, would not be offered an ordinary blind date, but I felt suspicious of my father’s actions, who was hiding even the name of the other young lady.

I had long since given up on the idea of having a family, so I thought I should reject the blind date proposal.

That night, I had to quickly change my mind because of the man who came to find me.

“I’ve heard the story. You have a blind date with the young lady of the Eleanor family in three days, right?”

“The young lady of the Eleanor family… How did you know that?”

“The rumors have already spread so much that everyone knows.”

For some reason, he already knew my blind date partner, whom I didn’t even know.

Was it because the rumors had already spread as he said, but no one had told me?

Or was he spouting nonsense with information he had obtained in a secret way? I couldn’t tell.

Anyway, thanks to him, I was able to find out the identity of the other person and deduce the purpose of this blind date.

‘Indeed, are you planning to exile us by marrying off the troublemakers?’

That’s because the young lady of the Eleanor family was a person who was as infamous as I was in the world.

She was the owner of the cursed eye called ‘Evil Eye.’

I vaguely heard in a book that those who are with the owner of the Evil Eye cannot avoid misfortune.

That is, it means that they will gather and monitor the troublemakers who don’t have suitable daughters or husbands to marry off.

‘They’ll be perfect as disposable pieces.’

Moreover, even if I die from the curse of the Evil Eye while living with her, our family will not suffer any loss.

Furthermore, the Eleanor family, though it was a long time ago, has produced an empress and has a high reputation and a fairly deep friendship with the imperial family.

It would have seemed like a very attractive fruit to my father, who always aims higher and wants to increase the size of the family.

If you assume that they are abandoning a failure like me and receiving it as compensation, it is a very sweet fruit.

“Anyway, accept the proposal.”

“Why?”

“Because killing that young lady is the last mission I’m giving you.”

“……!”

And as if by a cruel twist of fate, the blind date partner, Sylvia Eleanor, was also my next mission target.

That didn’t mean I felt guilty about killing her.

It was too late to do that.

No, I was rather happy.

I thought I could finally put an end to this tiresome daily life.

“Okay, I’ll tell my father tomorrow to accept the blind date.”

I nodded with a bitter smile, sent him away, and clenched my fist alone.

It was the first time I felt like I saw the light, except for when I first manifested magic through the black magic book that he brought me.

Was that why?

The three days waiting for the blind date felt like the slowest days in my life.

＊＊＊

It was the longest three days of my life, but the time finally came.

I was able to take the castle’s corridors, which always felt heavy to walk on, with a particularly light step today.

I don’t know how many years it’s been since I enjoyed this feeling.

I went around the castle and headed to the greenhouse on the right corner of the garden.

Knock knock.

When I finally reached the door, I sent a signal first.

I heard that my blind date partner had arrived first and was waiting.

– Yes, please come in.

Soon after, I carefully pulled the door open and stepped inside to the soft voice that didn’t even feel high or low.

Originally, I would have frowned at the somewhat stinging sunlight shining down from the opposite side as soon as I opened the door, but this time I couldn’t.

“It’s an honor to meet you. I’m Sylvia of the Eleanor family. You must be Lyaird- gongja/young master?”

“…….”

It wasn’t because of the mysterious silver hair that I had never seen before, or the outstanding beauty that didn’t match the title of witch, or the curves of the woman’s body that she couldn’t hide even though she wrapped herself up as much as possible.

It was just that I felt momentarily mesmerized by her heterochromatic right eye, which was emitting a ruby-red light.

They say that those who face the cursed eye are seized with fear, so are the eyeballs of the bastards who spread those rumors all knot holes?

“…Beautiful.”

“…Pardon?”

It was as if time had stopped when the profanity, which I didn’t know who it was directed at, was suddenly replaced in my head and leaked out of my mouth without me knowing.

What did I just say?

Because I was so confused, I could only remember what I had said after confirming her face with a slight blush.

‘I’m crazy.’

It was a phenomenon that could only be thought of as having finally lost my mind after dabbling in black magic.