Well, if Lucas were caught off guard like earlier, I might have a chance, but in a face-to-face confrontation, no matter how many times I tried, I wouldn’t be able to shoot him in the head.

Maybe if I tried hundreds, no, thousands of times, I could hit him once.

…But for the sake of the main story, this guy has to stay alive. He plays a pretty significant role as an antagonist in the original.

So, in order to ensure the future events unfold as expected, I have to go through the trouble of rewinding time to save this guy I worked so hard to kill. How absurd is that?

Besides, even though Lucas annoys me and sometimes I genuinely want to kill him, I don’t truly hate him. I never had much attachment to the male characters in the original game, but I didn’t despise them either.

And this situation, to be fair, was partly my doing.

Plus, the emperor plays a supportive role for the protagonist until a certain point. He usually helps through his children, and Lucas was one of them.

Maybe I’ll end up being one of those children too. After all, I’m the one in Claire’s position now, not her.

In the original story, Claire didn’t enter the academy right away. Initially, she interacted with the protagonist and their party from the outside, and only later, when the story really got going, did she infiltrate the academy as a transfer student.

She was actually an undercover agent for the emperor, spying on the protagonist.

I have no idea if I’ll end up taking Claire’s role in this situation.

At the very least, I think I’m quite different from Claire in personality.

Claire was a multi-faceted character who lured people in with her devil-may-care attitude, only to reveal a much harsher side when her true nature was exposed. In contrast, the character I’ve built under the emperor is someone cold and expressionless in every situation.

It couldn’t be helped.

I once dreamed of becoming a voice actor and even attended a voice acting academy, but I wasn’t particularly talented in acting. So, instead of trying to convey a wide range of expressions and emotions, I opted for the unchanging, emotionless persona.

It suited my ability to react as if I could foresee the future, thanks to my power to rewind time. This cold demeanor fit well with my ability to know what was going to happen beforehand.

“Oh, Sylvia. And Lucas.”

As I walked briskly down the palace hallway, doing my best to ignore the incredibly irritating Lucas at my side, someone approached us from the distance.

Unlike Lucas, who wandered around the palace like a delinquent without even bothering to manage his hair, this person had brilliantly shining golden hair neatly parted 2:8, with not a single eyebrow hair out of place. He, too, was one of the emperor’s children, just like Lucas.

His face brightened when he saw me, but when his gaze shifted to Lucas, his expression immediately soured. And I’m sure that wasn’t just my imagination. This person had a particular fondness for cleanliness, and Lucas, let’s be honest, tended to look rather unkempt.

Despite looking like a noble, he wasn’t actually one. Out of the emperor’s children, only one was a true royal by blood—a daughter. The rest were all orphans gathered from the streets.

Why all these street orphans turned out to be monsters, I have no idea.

“Lucas, could you at least try to button up your shirt properly while you’re in the palace?”

“Huh?”

As expected, Lucas didn’t like this person much either. They were complete opposites, after all.

“Who are you to boss me around? You think you’re my big brother or something?”

“Well, I was born a few months earlier than you.”

And he’s taller too.

Saying that now would only irritate Lucas further, though.

“Hey, Jaiden.”

Lucas stomped over toward Jaiden Fangryphon, pretending to be angry.

…But it was obvious he was faking it.

Lucas liked to pick fights with Jaiden whenever they met, but it wasn’t just because he didn’t like him.

Jaiden was already the empire’s strongest knight.

And Lucas, in the future, would become the empire’s greatest swordmaster.

The difference between the strongest knight and the greatest swordmaster is subtle, but Jaiden earned his fame on the battlefield, while Lucas gained his reputation after defeating the Sword Saint.

So, you could say the titles reflected slightly different meanings.

Jaiden was a loyal soldier who followed the emperor’s commands with utmost dedication, while Lucas was a madman with ambitions to surpass the emperor and become the strongest being in the world.

He also loved to fight. If I ever truly challenged him, he’d probably be thrilled and rush at me with full force.

…Well, earlier, I caught him off guard, and he ended up with a bullet in his head before he could even react.

“I told you before, if you want to boss me around, beat me in a sword fight first. Prove to me that you’re definitely stronger, and I’ll even drink horse piss if you tell me to.”

“...Sigh.”

Jaiden let out an exaggerated sigh, ran a hand down his face, and with a flourish, pointed that same hand toward me.

“Look at Sylvia. Everything about her, from her posture to her demeanor, exudes elegance! No matter how many times you swing a sword at her, she avoids it all with graceful, noble movements. And that’s not all! Even when she meets with His Majesty, she carries herself with such refined poise, far beyond her years. You could at least try to be half as dignified as your little sister!”

Of course, all of that was the result of countless hours of practice.

To everyone else, it looked as if I’d been that way from the beginning.

…And this relationship between Jaiden and me was a major deviation from the original story.

Even setting aside the fact that I was here instead of Claire, Claire and Jaiden never got along. Jaiden, who loved clean and noble appearances, couldn’t stand Claire’s scruffy, shabby attire.

Naturally, I had no intention of dressing like that, and it didn’t fit my image anyway, so I always dressed neatly.

It seemed that earned me Jaiden’s favor.

Thanks to that, I’d become Jaiden’s most beloved ‘little sister.’

…So much so that he publicly declared he’d personally assess any future boyfriends I might have.

Why do you need to do that, you crazy man?

Well, to be fair, Jaiden had always been a bit of a comic relief character in the game, so his reactions weren’t entirely unexpected.

“...”

Lucas, who had been full of bravado just a moment ago, now looked utterly crestfallen.

Yeah, I get it. Even for a madman like him, that comment probably came off as… creepy.

Calling a twelve-year-old beautiful and graceful…

Of course, Jaiden had no inappropriate intentions—he genuinely meant what he said.

But couldn’t he choose words like ‘dignified’ instead?

“Come on, Sylvia, let’s go.”

Suddenly, Lucas, who had been talking like a complete thug moments earlier, spoke in a surprisingly gentle voice, as if he were a doting older brother.

“We shouldn’t stay near this pervert.”

“What the hell are you talking about? Pervert?!”

Jaiden protested fiercely, but Lucas just grabbed my shoulder, turned me around, and gently pushed me away from him.

•  

In this empire, the term ‘children of the emperor’ isn’t just a literal term.

In the game… no, in this empire, it’s practically a common noun.

While commoners might not know, among the nobility, the term is used to refer to the emperor’s private organization.

And that’s exactly what it was.

I don’t know how the emperor managed to gather them all, but every one of the people he called his ‘sons and daughters’ was a superhuman in their field.

…Technically, I’m one of them too.

“Oh, everyone’s already here?”

Lucas said as he pushed open the door to the audience chamber.

In a normal situation, there would have been knights guarding the emperor, but inside the audience chamber now were only the emperor, a woman, and a man.

“Oh, you’ve arrived.”

Despite being the final boss of the evil organization in the game, the emperor’s voice sounded very fatherly when he called us.

Arthur III.

The embodiment of Fangryphon.

The emperor who established the most powerful reign in the history of the Azerna Empire.

A literal villain who sought to conquer the world and put everything under his feet.

And kneeling before him were two more of the ‘emperor’s children.’

The delicate-looking man with long black hair cascading down his back was, contrary to his fragile appearance, an incredibly strong martial artist. Despite his lean figure, he was all wiry muscle, with almost no body fat.

He didn’t speak much, and his handsome face made him popular with the female players in the game.

For the record, Lucas was also quite popular.

Jaiden wasn’t.

The slightly sinister-looking woman kneeling next to him was the one who, in the original story, served as Claire’s mentor. Of course, Claire called her ‘unnie’ (older sister) due to their relationship.

She wielded a sword that resembled a whip. In the original story, she was already dead by the time it began. How she died was never explained—she was only mentioned as the original owner of Claire’s weapon.

She apparently adored Claire and taught her many things, including her wicked personality, which contributed to Claire becoming a polarizing character.

…Well, that’s just backstory, and honestly, the writer was at fault for the way Claire turned out, but there’s no point in dwelling on that here.

Still, I’m curious what kind of swordsmanship Claire will learn in the Grace family. If Baron Grace has any sense, he’ll make sure Claire is properly trained and sent to the academy.

The emperor’s true daughter wasn’t present. Then again, part of her character arc was her inferiority complex toward the ‘children of the emperor.’ Her story was about overcoming that.

I wonder if she’ll develop an inferiority complex toward me as well.

“Have you been well, Your Majesty?”

“Hmm.”

As I knelt and spoke the line I’d practiced hundreds of times, the emperor nodded with satisfaction and smiled.

I could hear Jaiden letting out a soft gasp of admiration behind me, but I ignored it.

“Have you been well too?”

I almost got cut in half by my beloved brother’s sword, but sure.

Of course, I couldn’t say that.

“Yes, I’ve been diligently training as always.”

“Excellent. Even though you know how talented you are, it’s important not to neglect your efforts. You’re at an age where you’re ready, so I’ll soon assign you a task. Don’t worry—it will be a mission you’re more than capable of handling.”

Despite being a literal villain who dreamed of world domination, the emperor’s tone was like that of a kind father. But I was sure that the mission would involve killing someone.

Probably an order to assassinate one of the noble faction leaders, or at least incapacitate them. In the original, it was said that the emperor had secretly killed dozens of nobles.

There’s no doubt about it. But accusing the emperor based on suspicions alone is impossible.

“I’ll be ready, Your Majesty.”

And the fact that he was assigning such a task to a twelve-year-old made it clear—this man was definitely a villain.

He probably played a big role in warping Claire’s personality in the original story.

“I’ve returned from my mission, Father.”

No one took the title of ‘child of the emperor’ more seriously than Jaiden.

That’s why he wasn’t popular. He had no depth and was solely devoted to the emperor.

“Good work. The count is still alive, I assume?”

“Yes, he didn’t die. But I made sure he clearly understood your message.”

“Very good.”

This coming from the empire’s top knight?

“Lucas.”

“It’s done.”

Lucas answered casually, and though Jaiden glared at him, the emperor didn’t seem to care.

“Excellent. It makes me happy to see my children doing so well. Keep up the good work.”

The emperor smiled warmly.

…And I was certain that smile was genuine. So were the words ‘my children’ and ‘father.’ He meant it all sincerely.

And that’s what makes him the true villain.

That’s what I believed.