I spent my first official night as a lair-owning villain sleeping on a pile of half-burned curtains and monster bones. Classy, I know. The Lair System had offered me a tutorial on furniture crafting, but I was too busy shivering and swatting away ghost moths to appreciate the feng shui of it all.
The next morning, after a nutritious breakfast of stale emergency rations and spite, I decided to check out the surrounding area.
According to the system map (which looks suspiciously like a D&D grid drawn in blood), the nearest settlement was about two miles southeast: Duskmoor.
[System Note: Duskmoor – Under the jurisdiction of House Valdris]
Status: Oppressed. Economically drained. Excellent villain opportunity.
Side Mission Available: "The Price of Silence"
Objective: Discover why no one ever leaves Duskmoor.
Reward: Classified
I toggled the mission window off. I didn't need a reward to know something was deeply wrong. You could feel it in the way the trees thinned near the village, like even nature didn't want to witness whatever went on down there.
Still, if I was going to plan a proper takedown of House Valdris, I needed eyes on the ground and not the kind I exploded last chapter.
So I activated Villain Feature #006: Disguise Module and morphed my appearance into that of a middle-aged apothecary. A little hunch, a little soot in the hair, and bam: traveling herbalist with no ambitions.
Even added a limp. For flavor.
The guards at Duskmoor's entrance barely looked at me, probably too bored or too underpaid to care. Once inside, the illusion of peace shattered faster than my will to do laundry.
The streets were cracked. The air reeked of rotting fruit, burnt ash, and something else I couldn't name—like fear soaked into the soil. Every building leaned like it was too exhausted to keep pretending to be a home. And the people?
They didn't walk.
They shuffled.
Eyes low. Backs bent. No children playing. No music. Just gray faces and silence.
Except for the square.
That was full of noise.
A crowd had gathered dozens of villagers pressed together like cattle, murmuring in a daze. I squeezed through, murmuring "excuse me" and "sorry, herbs" until I reached the front.
That's when I saw him.
The boy couldn't have been more than ten. Ragged clothes. Muddy face. Hands shaking as two armored Valdris enforcers held him up like a puppet on display.A nobleman stepped forward red robes, gold mask, voice like a man who practiced sounding bored.
"Caught stealing bread from the ration stores," he announced. "Third offense."
The crowd barely flinched. I could tell by the way their shoulders curled that this wasn't the first execution they'd seen this week.
I felt my hands curl into fists beneath my cloak.
[System Notification: Morality Divergence Detected]
Villain Alignment: Wavering.
Would you like to intervene?
Suggested Action: Do Nothing.
Viewer Poll Opened: Should Lucien act? (Voting ends in 10 seconds)
My vision tunneled. Ten seconds. That's all it would take to change everything. To blow my cover. To start the war early.
The noble raised a gloved hand.
"By decree of Lord Valdris, you are found guilty. Sentence: Death."
I didn't move.
Didn't breathe.
The enforcer drew a curved blade and I turned away.
Didn't look back.
Didn't need to. The silence that followed was louder than the scream.
[Viewer Poll Result: 72% "He had to watch." / 28% "He's not ready yet."]
[No Evil Points Gained.]
[Narrative Stress Increased.]
I left the square without speaking. Just a hunched apothecary limping his way out of town with "rare herbs" and a rapidly fracturing soul.
Back at the tower, I sat on my broken throne in the ruinous gloom and stared at the wall until the screaming stone started to feel like company.
House Valdris had made a spectacle of fear. Not power. Not justice. Fear.
And now I had names.Faces.A schedule.
I could still feel the boy's silence like it was carved into my ribs.
This wasn't just going to be a robbery.
This was going to be a reckoning.
End of Chapter Four
[Evil Points Total: 235]
[Viewer Count: 94,122]
[Top Comment: "OKAY THIS HURT. I NEED HIM TO WIN. NOW."]
[New Flag: Emotional Risk – 37% Sympathy Spike]