The Graduation Banquet of Saint Norra Emblem Academy was the dazzling highlight of the social season in Capital Lucien.
The light from the crystal chandeliers flowed over the polished marble floor, filling the air with the faint intoxication of champagne, the rich scent of expensive perfumes, and the young nobles’ dreams for the future.
Livia von Stern was like the moon surrounded by stars—undeniably the center of the banquet.
She wore a pure white lace dress embroidered with delicate patterns, tailored perfectly to outline the mature curves of her figure.
Her slender legs were wrapped in white stockings, and on her feet were exquisite high heels.
Her platinum hair fell smoothly behind her shoulders, adorned with tiny lily decorations.
The clear cornflower blue of the young lady’s eyes swept over the crowd with a calmness and distance befitting her position as the top student.
Simply standing there, she naturally drew all attention and praise.
“Miss Livia, you saved my life during the recent cultist attack. I am deeply grateful,” a noble student said with a respectful bow.
Livia nodded slightly.
“Protecting others is my creed; there’s no need for thanks.”
“Livia, let’s keep in touch after graduation!” a noble girl approached and linked arms with her.
“Of course,” Livia smiled, subtly maintaining a bit of distance.
“Miss Livia, I heard that the Crown Prince intends to propose a marriage alliance with you—is that true?” a handsome young noble boldly asked the question everyone was thinking.
The nobles present all discreetly pricked up their ears.
They cared not only about gossip but also about the Kingdom of Lorraine’s future political landscape.
Livia’s decision could very well shatter the fragile balance between the kingdom’s factions.
Her lashes fluttered slightly, revealing a perfectly measured hint of trouble.
“That…is not something I can disclose.”
Her answer was watertight, neither confirming nor denying.
“Miss Livia, is it true you have joined the Royal Knights?” someone else asked loudly.
This time, Livia’s smile carried an added firmness.
“Yes, I will fulfill my duty to protect the kingdom’s people.”
A timely round of applause rose from the crowd.
Livia was the embodiment of perfection—the academy’s pride, the Noble Swordsmen’s ideal future star—the true nobles whose bloodlines had borne the Emblem Power for generations, wielding both strength and authority.
In contrast, the Robe Nobles, such as the Laval Family who rose through wealth and their position as Tax Farmers, were nothing more than nouveau riche in the eyes of the Nobles.
In the most inconspicuous corner of the banquet hall, Allen de Laval paid no mind to the other nobles’ disdain toward his family.
Holding a plate heaped high with food, he stuffed it relentlessly into his mouth.
Allen’s black hair was disheveled, sticking to his forehead, his face pale from chronic lack of sleep with dark circles beneath his eyes.
His half-worn formal wear was out of place among the surrounding elegant figures.
While other nobles dressed up extravagantly for socializing, Allen’s casual appearance made him look like an outsider crashing the banquet for free food.
Though Allen was a graduate of Saint Norra Emblem Academy, it wouldn’t be wrong to say he was just here to freeload.
Tonight’s banquet was a self-service feast prepared by the Royal Chef.
To enjoy this luxurious meal, Allen had come starving, determined to leave as stuffed as he arrived.
The Laval Family had long since fallen from grace.
For Allen, just eating enough every day was a challenge.
While mechanically chewing, Allen sneaked glances through the crowd at Livia.
Admiring her stunning beauty in secret, tears unexpectedly welled in Allen’s eyes.
After tonight, their lives would no longer intersect.
Hot tears rolled down Allen’s cheek, dripping into the foie gras on his plate.
It wasn’t sadness—it was…ecstasy.
“Finally…finally made it through!”
Allen silently shouted in his heart, nearly choking on his food.
He quickly gulped down a large sip of expensive red wine, coughing and drawing a few disgusted glances from nearby nobles.
After tonight, Allen de Laval—the minor villain who didn’t survive past three episodes in the original work Starshine Romance—would say a final goodbye to Livia von Stern, the Feng Aotian-like heroine!
In the original story, he wouldn’t even last through the academy arc, dying in countless ways.
But now, after 998 cycles of disastrous endings and countless times being sent to hell by this walking death god, Allen had finally, through sheer stubbornness, managed to survive until the Graduation Banquet.
What did this mean?
It meant he had successfully avoided every Death Flag related to him in the original!
It meant he could finally break free from Livia von Stern, the walking Grim Reaper, and embrace the dawn of “living”!
Just think of all those painful reincarnations: being sacrificed by cultists, blown up by out-of-control magic experiments, poisoned by jealous nobles, trampled by passing carriages, even struck down by justice raining from the heavens for stepping out of the academy gates first.
Allen’s soul was almost engraved with epitaphs of countless bizarre deaths.
But this time, he had learned his lesson.
He kept his tail tucked and lived low, as ghostlike as possible, never provoking any major characters, especially not Livia von Stern!
He flawlessly played the part of a background character with a bad reputation and negligible presence, avoiding all fatal incidents!
Why was he trapped in this cursed game world?
It all began with the famous otome masterpiece Starshine Romance.
As a casual otaku who played every genre, Allen had once stumbled upon the enthusiastic recommendations of yuri fans praising this game’s yuri route as the industry’s pinnacle.
Out of curiosity, he tried it.
What he discovered was a vast, complex story and hardcore gameplay that drained even the most dedicated players.
From nation-building to banner strategies, following the guide alone left you drenched in sweat.
He was stubbornly pursuing a hidden route when suddenly the world went black, and when he opened his eyes, he had become Allen de Laval—the villainous young master everyone hated.
His father was just a Robe Noble who bought his way into status, and Allen himself was notorious for bullying girls—a classic minor villain tasked with troubling the heroine Livia.
The only thing players liked about him was his countless creative deaths—officially recorded at over a thousand!
Players enjoyed watching him die in every possible way, especially fans of the heroine who wished he’d just die sooner.
Allen had been one of those players once—until he became Allen himself.
He had savored using cheat Emblems to kill off this villainous young master, and now he was deeply frustrated to be trapped as the character.
“Finally, it’s ending…Tomorrow, I’ll escape somewhere Livia will never find me, face the sea in warm spring, and dream of a beautiful future,” Allen said, tears streaming.
Seeing his pathetic, completely un-noble demeanor, the nobles whispered among themselves:
“Hey, isn’t that Allen de Laval? His family went bankrupt, right? How dare he attend this banquet?”
“Disgusting! The guards should throw him out—he’s tainting Miss Livia’s purity just by being here!”
“That worthless Emblemless nobody isn’t fit to be among us Noble Swordsmen!”
Allen ignored the buzzing flies insulting him. I came here for the buffet—do I need your permission?
My family’s bankruptcy is none of your business!
Emblemless?
You’ve never seen an Outsider Swordsman before?
Just as Allen moved to a corner out of sight of the nobles to enjoy his meal in peace, the banquet hall doors suddenly slammed open.
Prince Charlie Durand stormed in with a squad of fully armed Royal Knights, their presence instantly silencing the once noisy hall.
Charlie wore a splendid white suit trimmed with gold, his handsome face sculpted, icy blue eyes sharp as a hawk’s.
He elegantly greeted everyone, calming the startled graduates before turning his gaze to Livia with formal concern.
“Miss Livia, I apologize for interrupting the event, but it’s urgent.”
His eyes swept sharply across the crowd.
Allen’s heart plummeted.
This plot was all too familiar!
In the original, the Crown Prince had discovered cultists infiltrating the banquet to assassinate Livia and arrived just in time to save her.
But Allen clearly remembered that to ensure his own survival, he had secretly “dealt with” the disguised cultist student beforehand.
The unfortunate cultist’s bones were buried in the academy’s back garden as fertilizer.
So why was this event still triggering?
After dying countless times, Allen was used to the world’s malice toward him.
He had little doubt the Crown Prince was coming for him.
Without hesitation, Allen grabbed his half-eaten food and lowered his head, trying to slip into the crowd.
Unfortunately, wherever he went, people made way for him—
Prince Charlie’s sharp gaze quickly locked onto the conspicuous Allen.
“Allen de Laval!” Charlie’s voice rang out like a cold hammer of judgment through the hall.
Allen froze.
Charlie stepped forward, looking down with undisguised contempt.
“Your father, Bernard de Laval, a Tax Farmer of this kingdom, was executed by the law for his rapacious exploitation causing great unrest!”
Allen lowered his eyelids, silently mourning for half a second.
Dad, you’re dead again…
Rest in peace.
Charlie continued with unquestionable condemnation.
“And you! A noble who bullies the innocent and disgraces your house’s reputation! Even worse, you have secretly colluded with the Crimson Spiral Cult’s cultists, plotting to assassinate the kingdom’s treasure tonight—Miss Livia von Stern! The evidence is undeniable! Royal Knights, seize this traitor and execute him on the spot!”
Absurd rage surged up Allen’s head.
What nonsense was this so-called evidence?
The Laval Family was dirt poor.
Dad scraped every copper to support my studies (mostly so I could freeload the academy’s subsidies).
As for me, I harbor a blood feud with cultists (in other cycles, I died by their hands more than once). Collude with them, my foot!
This was a blatant frame-up!
But Allen knew well: it was pointless to legally refute Charlie’s accusations.
After all, Charlie was the Crown Prince and one of Lorraine’s heirs!
When he decided to kill Allen, this minor noble without even a title was doomed to no escape.
Allen was no Feng Aotian heroine Livia; he couldn’t single-handedly take down the whole world.
He had planned to bring the leftovers home for his father after the banquet, but now, those delicacies would serve as their sacrifice.
“Very well,” Allen lifted his head and forced a faint smile, holding his plate steady.
“If Your Highness says so, then so be it. But…”
He tapped the plate with his fork.
“Can I at least finish this last bit? After all, we shouldn’t waste food—the kingdom still suffers famine.”
He then took another bite as if the prince’s death sentence wasn’t addressed to him, just a bystander.
“If I’m going to die, might as well die full.”
Allen’s ridiculous attitude at death’s door drew sneers from the nobles around him.
They didn’t care about the legality of the prince’s sentence.
Allen de Laval was a hateful nobody, and his death was well deserved, unworthy of pity.
Thinking about tonight’s spectacle of execution, the noble students shouted eagerly.
“Kill him! Kill him! Kill him!”
Livia’s gaze swept over the bloodthirsty onlookers, her brow furrowing slightly.
She disliked the nobles’ disregard for human life.
Even if Allen was guilty, he shouldn’t be executed so rashly.
With her reputation, Livia could have easily stopped the atrocity, yet she chose silence.
Her deviation from her usual justice was complicated.
Livia had vague memories of Allen, although she had never met him in the past three years.
In her mysterious memories, Allen was a grim “Abyss Walker” whose eyes burned with revenge—an elite member of the Crimson Spiral Cult second only to their leader, the Listener of the Stars.