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Chapter 1
Violet’s Words
A day that was unusually bright yet strangely sorrowful.
Violet Everdeen was walking toward the temple.
This morning, Violet had decided to throw away the ring that was the last keepsake left by her biological mother.
[You! You’ve been hiding that lowly woman’s ring all this time?]
A few days ago, her father had become furious and raised his hand.
The reason was because Violet’s biological mother was a bad person.
A woman who deliberately seduced her father, who came from a prestigious noble family.
A woman who almost ruined her father’s marriage despite him already having a fiancée.
After giving birth to Violet and successfully taking a huge sum of money from him, she wasted her days drinking and indulging in luxury until she eventually died on the streets.
Her father had been angry because Violet possessed the ring of such a woman.
[That strange uncle gave you this ring? Then you should have thrown it away, sister.]
Her stepmother and younger sister had both harshly criticized Violet.
In the end, Violet decided to donate the ring to the temple.
She thought it would be fine because, in a broad sense, it was an act of “emptying oneself and letting go,” just as the scriptures taught.
“Please, spare me even a single coin.”
While walking, Violet noticed an old woman sitting in front of the temple with a cloth spread out, begging for money.
After hesitating for a moment, Violet placed the ring into the old woman’s begging bowl.
“Hm? This ring looks like it’s made of real jewels…”
The old woman’s eyes were surprisingly clear and sharp.
“The weather is cold. Please don’t stay out here for too long.”
“Still, it seems like this item has a story behind it… I don’t think I can just accept it without knowing…”
“I’m giving it to you without conditions, so don’t worry. With this, you should be able to spend the winter warmly.”
After saying so kindly, Violet turned around.
At that moment, the old woman’s hand tightly grabbed Violet’s ankle.
“…Excuse me, Grandma?”
“You’re quite impatient. We’re still having a conversation.”
The old woman’s hand was wrinkled, and her wrist was thin and dried.
Yet Violet’s ankle did not move.
It was as if it had been attached to a steel bar.
Moreover, Violet was afraid to forcefully pull away.
She couldn’t possibly kick an old woman.
“You’re stronger than you look.”
“Ehem. Even beggars have their own sense of morality. One must always carefully consider accepting physical goods.”
“You even have a strong professional philosophy…”
In the end, Violet gave up.
“So, who originally owned this item?”
How did she know the ring had been passed down?
Violet felt puzzled but answered anyway.
“This ring belonged to a bad person who abandoned me.”
“Bad? Do you really think that?”
“Everyone says so… Honestly, I don’t know.”
Whenever the beginning of winter approached—the season when she was born—Violet would often imagine things.
Was it possible that her biological mother had given birth to her instead of erasing her existence because she loved the tiny life inside her?
Had there been a cold night when her mother hugged her swollen belly and whispered words of love?
Had she done so, even just once?
“Well, I understand. Then I’ll accept it. Thank you.”
“Then I’ll really be leaving now…”
“Listen until the end. I’m not saying I’ll just take it. Even someone like me, who begs for a living, has at least one treasure. Treasures should be exchanged for treasures.”
The old woman released her hand and pulled something out from her clothing.
Violet instinctively caught the object the old woman tossed toward her.
“Is your treasure a candy you saved?”
Inside a glass bottle was a brilliant, round sphere.
“Candy? How dare you call it that. This is an elixir. It’s especially suitable for a talented apprentice knight like you.”
Only then did Violet understand the situation. She politely refused.
“Thank you for your kindness, but I won’t buy it.”
“The payment was already made with the ring! Trust me and try it. The effects are incredible. It reveals the secrets of heaven, whether in this world or the next—”
“Drug reports go directly to Imperial Palace Guard mailbox number three. Grandma, I don’t know what bad people tricked you into getting involved with something like this, but you’re going to get into serious trouble.”
Violet seriously warned her.
“What a stiff expression, yet such a vivid imagination. You must have many worries, don’t you? Do you know how to solve worries?”
“How?”
“You need to know the future! This medicine shows the future! Though the downside is that it shows things randomly…”
Violet began to wonder if she was actually talking to a crazy person.
“Grandma…”
“That’s enough. My working hours are over. Balance between work and personal life is very important. Understand?”
“R-right. Balance. It’s very important.”
Clink, dong.
At that moment, a clear sound came from the glass bottle.
Violet stared at it.
‘Did I hear that wrong?’
She raised her head again.
“This medicine, I’ll return it—”
But there was no one in front of her.
The begging bowl and even the mat the old woman had been sitting on had completely disappeared, as if they had never existed.
“She was just here…”
However, the glass bottle in Violet’s hand was undeniably real.
And that wasn’t the only strange thing.
‘I should have asked how she knew I was an apprentice knight.’
Violet had a delicate figure and golden hair that made her look like a young girl.
Because of that, ordinary people couldn’t tell that she knew how to use a sword.
“…And she called me ‘talented.’ But I have a constitution where I cannot accumulate mana inside my body. Everyone calls me useless.”
The worst failure in the history of the academy.
That was Violet’s nickname.
Naturally, no answer came.
Violet returned home with complicated feelings.
The Everdeen mansion, located in the center of the capital, was empty.
This morning, her family had left on a long winter vacation without her.
Half of the servants had followed them, and the other half had been given leave.
After climbing the creaking stairs, she reached the attic—the only space in this house that belonged to Violet.
Simple and shabby furniture, only a few pieces of clothing.
The only thing of value in that room was a handful of afternoon sunlight.
“Something that lets me know the future… There’s no way that’s possible.”
Violet sat on the bed and rolled the medicine bottle around.
She could easily imagine her future.
She would quietly live while atoning for being an illegitimate child, then marry Bludin—the man her father had chosen as her fiancé and the son of the capital’s head knight commander.
Bludin hated Violet terribly and always treated her cruelly.
So most of their marriage would probably be filled with insults or silence.
‘Then it won’t be any different from my current life.’
Yet somewhere deep inside her heart, a hopeful whisper said:
‘Still… something might change.’
‘At least, couldn’t I live an ordinary and quiet life?’
Of course, living like the outstanding female knight from her favorite novel would probably be impossible.
At that moment, the glass bottle made a sound again.
Violet opened it.
‘Huh?’
Something unbelievable happened.
The medicine inside the bottle sparkled and floated into the air.
“Why is this…”
The moment she slightly opened her mouth to say the rest—
The medicine flew straight into her mouth.
‘If this medicine had a forced-feeding function, it should have warned me beforehand!’
Clink, dong, clink, clink.
Another beautiful sound.
This time, it echoed loudly beside her ears.
Violet slowly blinked.
A strange scene unfolded before her eyes.
BANG!
A loud noise rang out.
“Violet” was tightly bound from head to toe.
Her body was covered in injuries, as if she had been tortured.
An imperial messenger standing before her began reading from a document.
<Criminal Violet Everdeen, 34 years old, born June 13th. The greatest villain in history, leader of an evil organization, the worst criminal to ever exist after performing a demon summoning ritual and slaughtering 753 people.>
<Ha.>
The “Violet” in front of them laughed mockingly.
An explosive amount of mana erupted around her body.
Ten layers of different-colored mana circles appeared.
However, those mana circles soon faded.
Something around the place where she stood was absorbing her mana.
<The Performer of Evil, the Mage of Barriers, the first human to create a ten-circle mana formation, a talent possessed by only one among ten thousand. In the end, you used that talent only for evil and died. Today, after thirty days of torture, your punishment will be decided.>
Behind the messenger, an executioner whose entire face was covered with cloth approached.
<Immediate execution.>
The executioner twisted and removed the gag from “Violet’s” mouth.
<Spit! Me? A villain? You are the ones who made me this way. I will curse forever the family who insulted and abused me for being an illegitimate child, and all of you!>
But no one listened.
A thick rope was wrapped around her neck.
Before she knew it, the ground beneath Violet’s feet disappeared, and the rope tightened.
The sounds of her struggling lasted only briefly.
Soon, only silence remained.
Everything became quiet.
“Gasp!”
Violet opened her eyes.
“What… was that? Was I seeing an illusion?”
The old woman’s words came back to her.
[This medicine shows the future!]
The greatest villain in history was supposed to be her future?
“That can’t be me. No, I won’t let that happen!”
She was the very definition of an ordinary citizen who respected rules.
“I’m not some genius. That alone makes no sense.”
She was currently enrolled in the Knight Department of the Academy.
The Academy’s Knight Department focused on training knights above the level of “Sword Expert”—those who could control mana, known as aura users.
However, after Violet entered the academy, it was discovered that she was born with a constitution unable to store mana inside her core.
Naturally, she couldn’t form an aura either.
‘But I definitely felt and saw it…’
She had clearly seen the ocean-like, endless ten layers of mana circles surrounding “Violet’s” body.
‘Among mana users, one in ten thousand is unable to store mana inside their body. Instead, they can surround themselves with circles of mana. Such people are called geniuses.’
She had definitely read about it in a book before.
She had thought it was just some vague legend…
Violet walked to the back of the garden as if possessed.
‘Don’t focus on the mana inside the core. Focus on the possibility that there might be circles existing around me…’
When she opened her eyes again, Violet saw a transparent, faint ring floating around her body.
It was not the colorful ten-layered mana she had seen before.
But one layer of mana definitely existed.
Violet reached out and touched the band of the mana circle.
She could feel it.
“Ah!”
Startled, Violet quickly pulled her hand away.
At the same time, a hollow laugh escaped her lips.
The mana circle had been continuously accumulating according to her training results.
She simply had never known it existed.
Violet was a genius with a talent possessed by only one person among ten thousand.
