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This work is serviced through an EPUB viewer. Through viewer settings, you can adjust [font], [font size], [line spacing], [left and right margins], and more. Pressing [Reset Settings] ‌in the viewer options will initialize all settings. Readers are asked to take note and use accordingly. Violet's First Words - Episode 1 A peculiarly ‌‌melancholic day of brilliant sunshine. Violet Everdin walked toward the Temple. This morning, I had resolved to discard the ring—my biological mother's final keepsake. [You! You've been hiding that lowborn woman's ring all this time?] Days ago, Father had erupted in fury, raising his ‌‌‌‌hand to strike. Because my biological mother was a wicked woman. A woman who had deliberately seduced my father, a man of distinguished noble lineage. A woman who had nearly ruined my father's marriage when he already had a fiancée. After bearing me, she ‌had successfully extorted a vast sum of money, then squandered it on alcohol and luxury before dying in the streets. That was why Father had been so enraged—because I possessed ‌‌‌‌such a woman's ring. [That eccentric uncle gave you this ring? You should have thrown it away, Sister.] My Stepmother and my Younger Sister had both condemned me harshly. In the end, I decided to donate the ring to the Temple. I reasoned that this, too, constituted the "emptying and discarding" spoken of ‌‌‌‌in scripture, so ‌‌it should be acceptable. "Please, even just a coin." It was then that I noticed an Old Woman sitting before the Temple entrance, begging with a collection bowl. After a moment's hesitation, I placed the ring into her alms bowl. "Hm? This ring appears to be genuine jewelry...." The Old Woman's eyes ‌‌were unexpectedly sharp and ‌‌‌clear. "The weather is cold. Please ‌‌don't stay out for too long." "But this seems like something with a story behind it... I'm not sure I can simply accept it...." "I'm giving it to you without conditions, so please don't worry. With this, you'll have more than enough to spend a warm winter." I turned away, speaking kindly. In that instant, the Old Woman's hand seized ‌‌‌‌my ankle with a firm grip. "...Excuse me, Grandmother?" "Impatient, aren't you? We're ‌‌‌still talking." The Old Woman's hand was wrinkled and her wrist was gaunt. Yet my ankle wouldn't budge. It was as if she had grasped an iron rod. Moreover, I was now too frightened to push her away roughly. I couldn't very well kick an old woman. ‌‌"You're surprisingly strong for your appearance." ‌‌"Ahem, even beggars have their professional ethics, you see. One must always be cautious when accepting goods in kind." "Your occupational philosophy is quite rigorous, I must say...." In the end, I gave up. "So then, ‌who did this ring originally belong to?" How had she known it was an inherited piece? I felt puzzled, but I answered nonetheless. "This ring is the keepsake of someone terrible who abandoned me." "Terrible? Do you ‌‌truly believe that?" "Everyone says so...but honestly, I'm not certain." When early winter arrived each year—the season of my birth—I often found myself imagining. What if my Biological Mother had chosen not to erase me, not out of ‌‌mere obligation, but out of love for the small life within her? What if on some cold winter's night, she had cradled her swollen belly and whispered words of affection? What if, just once, she had done so? "Well, I understand then. I shall accept it. Thank you." "Then I really must take my leave now...." "Hear me out. I didn't say I'd simply take it for nothing. Even someone in my begging circumstances has a treasure or two. Treasures must be exchanged for treasures, after all." The Old Woman released my hand and withdrew something from her garments. I caught reflexively what she tossed toward me. "Is this a precious candy you've been saving?" It was a luminous, spherical orb contained within a glass vial. "Candy? Where did you pick up such careless talk? This is a spirit elixir, you see. Particularly ‌‌‌suited for a talented ‌‌‌apprentice knight such ‌as yourself." Only then did I grasp the situation. I declined as respectfully as I could. "I appreciate the offer, ‌‌‌‌but I cannot accept." ‌‌"The price has already been paid with the ring! Trust me and take it. The effects are absolutely extraordinary. It reveals the heavenly secrets perfectly, regardless of this world or the next—." "Drug reports go directly to the Imperial Palace Guard mailbox number three. Grandmother, I don't know what villains deceived you into this, but you'll find yourself in serious trouble." I offered my counsel with utmost sincerity. "Goodness, with such a rigid expression, you certainly have a vivid imagination. You must worry quite a lot, don't you? I know how to solve your worries." "How is that?" "By ‌‌knowing the future! This elixir shows you the future! Though admittedly it displays things somewhat randomly...." I began ‌‌‌to suspect I was conversing with a madwoman. "Um, ‌‌Grandmother...." "That's enough now. It's my quitting time. Work-life balance is tremendously important, you understand?" "Y-yes, balance. Very important indeed." Ting, ding. In that moment, a crystalline sound emanated from the glass vial. I stared at the vial instantly. 'Did I mishear that?' I lifted my head again. "I should return this medicine after all...." But there was no one across from me. The beggar's bowl and the straw mat the Old Woman had been sitting on had vanished as if they had never existed in the first place. "She was just here a moment ago?" Yet the glass vial in my hand was undeniably real. And that wasn't the only mystery. 'How did she know I'm a knight candidate?' I was Violet Everdin—a slender girl with delicate features and blonde hair. That's why most people never noticed I wielded a sword. "...And 'talent'? I'm someone with a defective constitution—I can't accumulate magical power in my body no matter what. ‌‌Everyone calls me a failure." The worst dunce in Academy history—that was my nickname. Naturally, no answer came. * * * I returned home with ‌‌a complicated heart. The Everdin Mansion in the heart of the Capital ‌‌‌was empty. This morning, my family had left on a long journey to their winter retreat, leaving only me behind. Half the servants had gone with them, and the other half had been given leave. ‌‌‌Climbing the creaking stairs led to the Attic—the only ‌‌‌space in this house permitted to ‌‌‌me. Simple, shabby furniture and a few meager clothes. The only thing of value in that room was a handful ‌‌‌of afternoon sunlight. "Reveal the future? That ‌‌can't possibly be real." I sat on the bed and rolled the medicine ‌‌‌bottle once. I could easily imagine my future. ‌‌I would atone for being a bastard child and live quietly, eventually marrying Bludin—my father's chosen fiancé and the son of the Capital Knight Commander Order's leader. Bludin despised me terribly and always treated me cruelly. So most of my married life would probably be filled with harsh words or silence. 'Then it wouldn't be any different from my life now.' From a corner of my heart came a hopeful whisper: 'But something will change, won't it?' 'At least I could live an ordinary, ‌quiet life, couldn't I?' Even if I could never live like the ‌‌‌brilliant female knight in my favorite novel. At that moment, a sound came from the glass vial again. I opened it. 'Huh?' Then something extraordinary happened. The medicine inside the vial began to shimmer and float into the air. "Why is this...." ‌‌‌—I was about to say something, opening my mouth slightly. The medicine shot into my mouth in a flash. 'If this medicine had a forced administration function, you should have told me beforehand!' Ding-dong, chime, chime. A crystalline sound once more. This time, it rang deafeningly close to ‌‌my ears. I blinked slowly. An unfamiliar scene unfolded before my eyes. Crash! A tremendous sound echoed. My entire body was bound tightly. As though tortured, every part of me was broken and battered. Before me stood an Imperial Herald, who began reading from a scroll in a booming voice. 【Criminal Violet Everdin, age 34, born June 13th. A villainess of unparalleled infamy, leader of a wicked organization who committed a demonic summoning ritual and slaughtered 753 people—history's most heinous criminal.】【Ha.】 As I scoffed at ‌‌the Herald's words, explosive magical power erupted from around my body. Ten layers of magical circles in various colors. But soon those magical circles faded away. Something surrounding ‌‌where I stood was draining my magical power. 【Evil Virtuoso, Barrier Mage, the first in human history to achieve ten circles of magical power, one among ten thousand blessed with such talent. Yet you squandered it only on wickedness. Today, we end thirty days of torture and pronounce your sentence.】 Behind the Herald, an executioner with their entire face concealed in cloth approached. 【Immediate execution.】 The executioner twisted and removed the gag from my mouth. 【Spit! A villainess? You made me this way. I curse you all eternally—my family who mocked and tormented me as a bastard, and every ‌‌one of you!】 But no one listened to my ‌‌‌‌words. A thick rope tightened around my neck. The ground beneath my feet vanished, and the rope grew taut. The sound of my struggling was brief, and soon only silence remained. Everything went quiet. "Gasp!" I opened my eyes. "What was that just now? Was I seeing a vision?" The Old Woman's words came back to me. ‌‌‌ [This medicine shows you ‌‌‌the future!] The legendary villainess was her future self? "That's impossible. No, I won't become that!" She was the very model ‌of an ordinary citizen who respected the rules. "I'm no genius—that doesn't even make sense." She was currently enrolled in the Academy Knight Department. The Academy Knight Department focused on cultivating knights of 'Sword ‌‌‌‍Expert' rank or higher—those capable of wielding aura, which required mastery of magical power. Yet after enrolling at the Academy, it was discovered that Violet Everdin possessed an inborn constitution incapable of accumulating magical power within the core of her body. Naturally, she could not form an aura either. 'But I distinctly felt and witnessed it....' I had ‌‌‌‌clearly sensed ten layers of magical power circles surrounding Violet Everdin's ‌body—infinite as an ocean. 'Among magical power users, an extremely rare few—roughly one in ten thousand—cannot accumulate magical power within their bodies. Instead, ‌‌‌‌‌they can form ‌‌‌‌it into circles around themselves. These individuals are called prodigies.' I had definitely read such content in a book ‌‌‌before. I had dismissed it as vague legend, but.... Violet Everdin stepped toward the rear of the Garden as if entranced. 'I must not focus on the magical power of my core. Instead, I concentrate on the existence of circles that might surround me....' When I opened my eyes again, I saw ‌‌something transparent and faint like a ring hovering around my body. It was ‌‌‌not the ten layers of shimmering, multicolored magical power I had sensed before. But a single layer of magical power undeniably existed. I reached out and touched the band of the magical power circle. It was tangible beneath my fingers. "Gasp!" Startled, I quickly withdrew my hand. Simultaneously, a breathless laugh escaped my ‌‌‌lips. The magical ‌‌‌power ‌circle had been accumulating endlessly according to my training results. I simply ‌‌‌‌had not known of its existence. I was a prodigy—one in ten thousand.

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