Residence, the morning air always felt heavier. For Eris, a young girl with pale blonde hair and blue eyes as clear as ice crystals, every second ticking on the wall clock was a threat. Her hands moved deftly, grinding dark, rich coffee beans whose aroma filled the damp kitchen.
"I have to hurry... it's been almost five minutes," Eris murmured softly, her eyes glancing restlessly around, searching for a jar of rock sugar. Her hands trembled slightly.
From the corner of the room, deliberately loud whispers cut through the air.
"So pitiful, having to serve Master Veyr this early," said a black-haired maid with a mocking smile.
"Yes, that's the hardest task. Not just for her, but for all the servants here. Lucky for us, Master Veyr prefers to torment her rather than us," added another older maid, leisurely stirring her tea.
Eris paused her movements for a moment. Her jaw tightened, but she lowered her gaze. 'If I had a choice, I wouldn't want to be near that monster either,' Eris thought bitterly. 'But he always seeks me out. Commands me specifically. If I refuse or run away... he'll punish me even worse.'
Eris let out a long sigh, trying to calm her pounding heart. "Lazy servants," she muttered very quietly, which unfortunately was still caught by their ears.
The maids immediately shot Eris sharp, irritated glares. However, Eris ignored them. The coffee was ready. She placed the porcelain cup on a silver tray and hurried toward the kitchen exit.
But just as she passed the center table, the black-haired maid stuck out her foot.
Thud! Crash!
Eris stumbled hard. Her body sprawled onto the stone floor. The silver tray flew, and the porcelain cup shattered into pieces, spilling the hot coffee, some of which splashed onto the back of her hand.
Heat seared her skin, but the fear freezing in her chest was far more painful. Eris's face turned as pale as paper. Shards of terrible memories mercilessly invaded her head.
**
That morning, several months ago, Eris was late delivering clothes because she had been blocked and harassed by senior servants.
"I-I'm sorry, Master. I was blocked by some servants in the hallway..." Eris said with a trembling voice, bowing deeply.
Veyr Noctis, with an arrogant face and eyes radiating pure cruelty, stared at her with sheer disgust. "So what? Do you want to ask for my understanding? My sympathy? That's your job. Why didn't you just hurry up and hit them, for instance?"
"I-I... I didn't dare..."
Slap!
A hard slap landed on her cheek, sending her sprawling to the floor. The corner of her lip bled. Her tears spilled uncontrollably.
Veyr crouched down, pulling Eris's hair until the girl looked up. With a whisper that felt like poison in her ear, Veyr said, "Next time you're late, I'll cut off your finger. Can you keep your promise to be on time?"
"I-I will keep it, Master..." Eris sobbed, desperately trying to contain her voice so no screams would escape.
**
In the present, Eris stared at the shattered cup with ragged breaths. She looked up at the black-haired maid. "You... did you do that on purpose?" Eris's voice trembled, a mix of anger and despair. "You know what will happen to me if I'm late! Why did you do this?!"
The black-haired maid merely smiled cynically, folding her arms across her chest. "That's your problem, Fallen Noble Lady."
However, the mocking smile didn't last long. The sound of high-heeled footsteps echoed in the hallway, and a mature woman with an intensely intimidating aura stepped in. She had jet-black hair and sharp purple eyes. Selena Noctis. Veyr's older sister.
"Can't you work without causing a commotion?" Selena's voice was cold, slicing through the kitchen air like a blade.
Eris jolted and hurriedly knelt to clean up the porcelain shards. "I-I'm sorry, Young Miss. I tripped and dropped the coffee for Master Veyr."
Selena stepped closer. Her sharp eyes swept over Eris's figure. Beneath the maid uniform, Selena could see several small, unhealed wounds on Eris's wrists, as well as bluish bruises peeking out from behind her collar. Of course, these were the results of Veyr's cruelty over the past months, plus the small "punishments" from the other servants.
"Eris," Selena called, her tone slightly softening as she looked at the girl. "Did that wretched child do something else to you?"
"N-No, Young Miss. He only ordered me to make coffee," Eris said, her gaze unsteady as she anxiously imagined her fate. "But... maybe I'll be punished again for being late."
Selena snorted harshly. She turned to look at the black-haired maid who was now trembling in fear. "Get out of my sight. Now."
With just one sentence, the gossiping servants fled helter-skelter, not daring to oppose Selena's authority.
Selena returned her gaze to Eris, crouching slowly and gently touching Eris's cheek, which had a thin scratch. The unexpected touch made Eris's defenses crumble; a teardrop fell from the corner of her blue eyes.
"You don't need to worry, Eris. I'll handle it," Selena hissed, her eyes flashing with anger imagining her younger brother. 'So he's acting up again. Hitting servants without reason, and not coming down for lunch. This boy really needs to be taught a lesson before entering the Academy.' "Calm down. Follow me to his room now."
---
Meanwhile, inside my dim room, I was sitting cross-legged on the carpet, massaging my throbbing temples.
"Ten days," I muttered to the silence. "Only ten days left before the Academy Arc begins."
Ten days was an incredibly short time to overhaul a body ruined by this curse and to devise a survival plan. Though Veyr's scheduled death was still quite far in the middle of the Arc, every step I took at the Academy would later determine whether my head stayed attached to my neck or rolled under the Emperor's executioner's blade.
"If I can't train using my skills because the Black Reflux will destroy my internal organs, then my main progression right now is equipment. I have to steal from my own house," I said, tapping my chin.
The Noctis noble family home had a secret storage room holding several Rank S artifacts. However, there was one artifact that far surpassed that classification. A cheat item that, in the original novel, would only be found by the Hero near the end of the story. The Primordial Knowledge Artifact.
"System," I called in my mind. "Bring up my knowledge archive from my previous world regarding that artifact. Search my memory. I want to review it in detail."
A red warning immediately flashed before my eyes.
[SYSTEM WARNING: Forcing the System to extract and display high-level narrative information from origin world memory will trigger Cognitive Overload. Risk of triggering Black Reflux: 98%. Proceed anyway?]
"Do it," I commanded without hesitation. If I feared pain, I would have surrendered from the first night in this body.
Suddenly, excruciating pain pierced my skull, as if a hot iron rod was driven directly into my brain. My vision faded momentarily, replaced by a holographic screen displaying text rapidly.
[ACCESSING MEMORY ARCHIVE... OVERLOAD DETECTED]
Artifact Name: Codex Ignis (Book of Fire / Primordial)
Type: Natural Law Manipulation Artifact
Description:
A book bound in light-absorbing dark leather. The pages are blank, but when the owner understands the physical principles of a phenomenon, the Codex automatically "translates" that knowledge into a magical skill.
Main Mechanism: Skill Manifestation by Understanding
Knowing the theory of friction and atoms → manifests as heat/fire manipulation without using traditional mana.
If the user ONLY copies skills without understanding the physics laws behind them → [WARNING: FATAL ENERGY BACKLASH]
Limitation: Cannot violate the absolute laws of the wor—
[DATA CORRUPTED. COGNITIVE OVERLOAD REACHED CRITICAL LIMIT. CURSE ACTIVATED.]
"Urgh!"
My eyes shot wide open. A burning sensation exploded in my stomach. I coughed violently, vomiting a lump of pitch-black blood that smelled like rusted metal onto the floor. My body shook violently. My nerves screamed from pain amplified by two hundred percent.
"Damn... the memory I got is incomplete, the system cut it off because my body nearly collapsed from holding the information," my breath was ragged, wiping my black-stained lips. "But it's enough. I know how it works. I know why an artifact as powerful as this exists in the house of an incompetent villain like me."
The sound of sharp, quick footsteps came from the hallway outside. Before I could steady my breathing or wipe away the black blood stain on the floor, my bedroom door was shoved extremely roughly, slamming into the wall.
Bam!
A mature woman with black hair and purple eyes blazing with fury stepped in, followed by Eris, who bowed fearfully behind her. Selena Noctis. The older sister of the body I inhabited.
"Oi, Veyr! What did you do to this little girl?!" Selena shouted. Her voice boomed, her fists clenched tightly until her knuckles turned white, as if ready to punch my face this very second.
I fell silent, observing this woman. In Veyr's memories, Selena was an anomaly in the Noctis family. While the others were filled with cunning intentions and dark auras, Selena was a figure who was disciplined, harsh, and—though she never said it—deeply cared for her increasingly lost younger brother.
The original Veyr would always shrink back in fear facing his sister's anger. He would stammer, make excuses, or look away.
"Selena, I—" my words were cut off.
"What did you just say?! I am your older sister! Call me Sis Selena, you idiot!" her tone rose even higher, venting years of accumulated frustration.
Eris stood behind Selena, gripping the hem of her servant dress with trembling hands. She didn't even dare to look into my eyes.
I changed my posture. I did not bow, nor did I avoid. I sat upright, staring directly into Selena's purple eyes with a gaze that was empty, cold, and completely unaffected by her aura.
"You did it again, didn't you? You tormented her in secret? Are you never satisfied being a pathetic thug?!" Selena assailed.
"I haven't done anything to her this morning," I replied flatly. My tone carried neither fear nor self-defense. Merely a statement of fact.
Selena was momentarily stunned by my uncharacteristically assertive reaction. However, that precisely triggered another wave of anger. "Oh? So now you have the courage to look me in the eye and contradict my words?!"
Slap!
A slap landed on my left cheek. Hard enough that my head was slightly thrown to the side. Pain, amplified twofold by the curse, immediately stung my facial nerves like a whip of fire. My eyes twitched, suppressing the Reflux that wanted to rise again. I swallowed saliva that tasted metallic with blood.
But I did not scream. I did not hold my cheek. I slowly returned my position, staring straight at Selena as if the slap just now had been nothing more than a gust of wind.
Selena seemed shocked by my lack of reaction, but she quickly covered her surprise with a long sigh full of burden.
"You know I'm hard on you because I want the best for you," Selena said, her tone suddenly dropping to one of weary concern. "You will enter Lumina Academy in ten days. It's not Father's domain there. Fix this rotten attitude of yours. Don't act like an emperor there, because they won't hesitate to sever your head!"
I just stayed silent, listening. My head was still throbbing madly from the system backlash earlier, and her lecture truly did not help. I was in the middle of calculating how to enter the artifact room, not listening to family advice.
"And one more thing," Selena pulled Eris out from behind her back. The blue-eyed girl looked like a deer trapped in front of a lion. "Eris... this servant will accompany you to serve you at the Academy. So watch your attitude toward her. She is not merely a servant. Although she comes from a fallen noble family, she has remarkable talent and will study in the support class there."
Hearing this, Eris looked at Selena with an expression of shock mixed with immense gratitude. She looked at Selena as if looking at her savior goddess.
Meanwhile, inside my head, a new piece of information had just clicked into place. This maid... entering the academy with me? This observant heroine will be by my side? Interesting.
"Yes, yes, I know. I'll look after her," I answered curtly, dispelling the boredom beginning to assault me. "Satisfied?"
"Do you not understand, IDIOT?!" Selena glared at me again with a threatening look, seemingly unable to believe my casual response.
I merely snorted softly, turning my face toward the window. I was already too lazy to waste energy on this conversation. "Get out of my room, Selena. I want to rest."
Selena snorted harshly, turned around, and walked out of the room with stomping steps. "Make sure you come down for dinner, or I'll drag you myself!" she threatened before disappearing into the hallway.
Now, only Eris and I remained at the threshold.
The maid girl froze. Eris nodded quickly in farewell, but her blue eyes narrowed for a moment as she looked at me. She stared intently at my reddened cheek, then her gaze dropped to the spot of black blood on the floor that I hadn't managed to erase, before finally returning to meet my eyes.
Eris's gaze was no longer completely the look of pure fear as usual. Instead, it was a look full of questions screaming inside her head.
Inside Eris's mind, the puzzle of anomalies began to assemble. Her arrogant master did not get furious when his coffee didn't arrive. Her master did not scream in panic or look for excuses when slapped by Selena. Her master stared with a terrifyingly calculating gaze, as if pain no longer affected him. And most importantly... her master's gaze when looking at her just now was not a degrading look, but the look of a hunter assessing his pawn.
Eris bowed deeply, closing my chamber door from the outside. Behind that door, I knew she was watching Selena's departing back. Eris wanted to run, wanted to share her unease about Master Veyr's extreme change with Selena. But her mouth was locked by habit and fear.
She realizes, I thought, letting a thin smile creep onto my face, letting black blood drip again from the corner of my lips. That little girl realizes that the monster inhabiting this room... has been replaced by a far worse demon.