Chapter 1

Chapter 1
In the Asteria Kingdom, settled in the eastern area near the continent’s center.

Inside a modest room on the right wing of the second floor of the Count Palatio household in the southern territory—

“…Did you complete the task successfully?”

“Yes, I did.”

The knight standing there bowed toward the man seated casually on the bed.

“As ordered, I rescued the orphans from the small village in the eastern region… or rather, the children who had been imprisoned in that human experimentation facility.”

“And the orphanage is being properly overseen?”

“Yes. As you instructed, I placed the orphanage under the care of a girl named Yutia.”

“…Did you conclude the negotiations with the baron’s household that governed that area?”

“Yes. The moment I presented the documents regarding the experiments, they complied with all of our demands, including handing over the entire castle.”

With those words, the knight—Evan—took out a leather pouch from inside his coat and set it on Alon’s bedside table.

“Good.”

Alon opened the pouch, and his expression softened with satisfaction as he counted the gold coins within.

“Young Master, may I ask something…?”

After a brief pause, Evan spoke quietly.

“What is it?”

“You said that the reason you attacked the human experimentation site on Baron Alfon’s lands was to save that girl… Yutia, yes?”

Alon gave a small nod, signaling him to continue. Evan did so.

“…She truly was remarkable. I’ve been a mercenary for many years myself.”

He paused, seemingly searching for the right words, then continued.

“But it still doesn’t make sense. A girl that powerful—why would she be confined in such a place?”

“And?”

“…Why would you leave her behind at the orphanage instead of taking her with you?”

Alon didn’t answer. Evan’s tone carried mild confusion, but the question itself was completely reasonable.

Saving someone as extraordinary as Yutia without using her abilities in any way seemed like a waste.

That was true—if one looked from Evan’s viewpoint. But from Alon’s side, it was an entirely different matter.

‘I’ve erased one of this world’s destruction triggers. That alone is enough for now.’

Yutia.

Her real name: Yutia Bludia.

In a decade, she would transform into one of the Five Great Sins—the “Sin of Wrath”—and annihilate two of the five allied kingdoms, leaving hundreds of thousands dead.

If anyone asked how Alon knew the future… it was because he was someone who had reincarnated with full memories intact. And he knew this world was destined to collapse ten years later, just as it did in a dark fantasy RPG game called “Psychedelia.”

“…Sigh.”

He rubbed his aching forehead as he recalled the moment he regained consciousness two months prior, letting out a heavy exhale.

‘Realizing I’d woken up in a fantasy world kept me bedridden for three days. Realizing it was ten years before Psychedelia’s main storyline started made me sick for ten more.’

At first, Alon believed he had simply reincarnated into a fantasy setting. He spiraled into depression for days. But as he adjusted, he began to think that perhaps things weren’t so bad.

Surprisingly enough… being a noble was quite pleasant.

The life of a noble was absurdly easy. Wake up whenever, sleep whenever, eat whenever, do whatever.

Even though he was the count’s third son with no authority, that also meant he bore no responsibilities. He could enjoy all the comforts of life without pressure.

For someone who once worked 78 hours a week at a low-wage job, this lifestyle was unbelievably luxurious.

Losing access to the internet—humanity’s greatest invention—was a tragic blow, but everything else more or less compensated.

But that didn’t last long.

His mood darkened the moment he learned that this continent was called Ampelan…

…and even more when he recalled that he had been born into Count Palatio’s family.

Ampelan was the setting of Psychedelia, the very game he played during the rare scraps of free time he had while drowning in work.

And the Palatio family had appeared briefly in one of the game’s side quests.

Even worse—discovering that he had arrived ten years before the main storyline of Psychedelia crushed him as thoroughly as the time his salary was delayed for three straight months.

In Psychedelia, all living things—nobles and commoners alike—were destined to be erased ten years after the start of the plot.

Among the doomed nations was the Asteria Kingdom, home of the Palatio family. Every route of the game confirmed that once one of the Five Great Sins appeared, the kingdom vanished.

Meaning total destruction.

The kingdom would fall. The nobility would be wiped out. Cities would cease to exist.

And so, the relaxed life Alon currently enjoyed as Count Palatio’s third son would inevitably disappear ten years from now.

If he wanted to keep living comfortably, he had only one option: eliminate all Five Great Sins before they matured into the human-killing calamities they were destined to be.

Everything he was doing now was part of that plan.

“Well… that’s all.”

But there was no way he could explain this to Evan.

“The timing just isn’t right yet.”

“…It isn’t?”

“Correct. For now, make sure no information about this spreads, and continue managing support for the orphanage as instructed. Also, there’s one more thing.”

Alon withdrew a letter from inside his clothing and handed it over.

“Give this to her.”

“…A letter?”

Evan looked puzzled. Alon answered plainly.

“Yes.”

It was actually quite important.

Inside the letter was a phrase that always appeared in the compulsory event when the Sin of Wrath appeared in Psychedelia.

‘The suffering of the dark, the enlightenment of the light. A single despair and belonging.’

It was something a somewhat suspicious archbishop NPC from a holy nation would chant while accompanying the protagonist in an attempt to soothe the Sin of Wrath. But the moment he said it, the archbishop would explode into a heap of blood. Then the Sin of Wrath would mutter “Too late,” and the fight would begin.

Alon’s reason for using the phrase now was simple—this moment in time was what the Sin of Wrath referred to as “the past” in the game.

He’d seen the line many times while replaying Psychedelia. It was labeled by the archbishop NPC as a “spell that could build affinity with the Bloodline.”

‘Honestly, it’s ridiculous to expect one chant to be enough to befriend those insane beings who make pacts with Cthulhu-like entities… But considering their fanatic tendencies, weirdly enough, it might work.’

The thoughts of zealots who worshiped eldritch powers were not something a normal mind could predict.

As Evan bowed and left the room, Alon shrugged quietly.

‘Now that I’ve dealt with the first ticking bomb… time to move on to the second.’

—

A few days later—

“This is the letter.”

Following Alon’s instructions, Evan returned to the orphanage and handed the letter to the girl, still feeling unsettled.

His reaction was natural. There was something uncanny about Yutia.

Her white hair and blood-red eyes displayed not the slightest hint of emotion.

No—there wasn’t even the faintest sign that she possessed emotions at all.

Total emotional void.

The girl who seemed to view everything in existence as nothing but objects accepted the letter with the same lifeless expression she had worn the day he’d rescued her.

Rustle, rustle—

Yutia quietly opened the envelope.

Evan watched her, still unable to understand why she had been imprisoned in that laboratory.

He wasn’t a master, but he could wield mana—and with that came the ability to sense the energy of others.

And Evan’s talent in sensing mana greatly surpassed that of ordinary knights. His sensitivity was sharp—far sharper than most.

Which is why he could tell immediately:

‘This is absurd no matter how I think about it.’

The girl in front of him was far too strong to have been held in a place like that.

And while he pondered that contradiction, another question surfaced.

It was about the third son of Count Palatio—the young man who had hired him at a tavern months ago.

During his mercenary days, Evan had heard rumors that the count’s third son was essentially shunned, dismissed as the stereotypical useless noble-born child.

There were even stories that his notorious elder brothers bullied him relentlessly because he was timid and powerless.

So then… how had that same third son discovered the baron’s secret human experimentation in a hidden facility?

‘I really can’t figure him out.’

As Evan was deep in thought, his eyes suddenly widened.

The reason—

The expressionless girl who had stood motionless until now… suddenly had a bright smile curling across her face.

No—calling it simply a smile didn’t do it justice.

‘Her mana… it’s visible to the naked eye?!’

A feat only possible for those who had reached a high level of mastery—yet she was doing it effortlessly.

Then—

“The one who sent this letter… was it Sir Alon?”

As Yutia spoke, her pupils—vertical and reptilian, a trait of the Bloodline—focused intently on Evan.

Even that single glance made Evan, a seasoned expert, feel danger prickle across his instincts. He swallowed his surprise and answered quickly.

“Yes.”

“Why did he not summon me?”

Her question.

He almost said he didn’t know, but stopped himself.

A deep instinct warned him not to speak thoughtlessly.

Instead, he recalled Alon’s offhand comment and answered carefully.

“…He said the time wasn’t right.”

“…I see.”

A brief reply.

But it was the right one—he could tell from the long, crescent-shaped smile forming on her lips.

She…

Yutia Bludia—no.

“…Understood.”

The first daughter of the Bloodline—Yutia Bloody Queen—parted her alluring red lips and murmured,

“I comprehend his intent.”

Holding the letter with the secret phrase that only her master could speak, she let a warped smile spread across her face.