How a Villain Defies Destiny Chapter 102

‘He looks so proud, like a big dog bringing back a frisbee and expecting praise.’

 

While I was inwardly making trivial observations, Yves’ expression grew increasingly serious.

 

“So… that’s why you suspected her to be an incarnation of a god.”

 

Moreover, he seemed to have roughly grasped the situation.

 

‘I’ve only just barely come to understand the relationship between the world’s principles and divine power…’

 

Just when I thought I was catching up, the conversation quickly went beyond my comprehension.

 

Suddenly, dragons were brought up, and then there was talk of divine incarnations—I couldn’t fully grasp it. I glanced at Yves, signaling that the pace was too fast for me.

 

Noticing my confusion, he smiled gently and asked, “Where did you start losing track?”

 

“Well, why dragons were brought up, and what exactly is a divine incarnation?”

 

When I honestly shared my confusion, Yves nodded lightly and added some explanations.

 

He said that in the current era, where mages have completely disappeared, dragons are the only race capable of using magic on the surface, and since he had recently experienced the power of dragons firsthand, he brought them up. 

 

As for the divine incarnation, it’s essentially an avatar of a god.

 

Thanks to witnessing the magic unleashed by dragons firsthand in Dilbat with Yves, I could immediately understand the first part. But the concept of a ‘divine incarnation’ still felt unclear.

 

I wasn’t sure if it referred to something like Selene and me—humans granted divine power by divine beasts—or if it meant a god personally being born as a human. I couldn’t quite grasp it.

 

“Is a divine incarnation the same as a saintess?”

 

So I asked again to clarify, and this time Fenrir answered.

 

[No. Probably… no. Because all the gods in the divine realm agreed not to create incarnations on the surface.]

 

“Earlier, you mentioned some kind of covenant. Is it related to that?”

 

[Yes.]

 

Fenrir readily agreed and explained the exact definition of a divine incarnation and the covenant.

 

[First, a divine incarnation is a shell made of the materials of the surface world, imbued with a portion of a god’s consciousness instead of a soul. In the past, gods often created incarnations to enjoy themselves.]

 

“Oh…”

 

It felt oddly familiar, and then I realized it was a common trope in old fantasy novels.

 

Stories where beings like dragons, spirit kings, or gods, who exist on a higher plane, would hide their powers and mingle with humans, going on adventures.

 

‘Back then, reincarnation and interdimensional travel stories were mainstream.’

 

Having devoured various genres indiscriminately in my past life, I had read quite a few novels published before e-books became a thing.

 

The classics, in particular, were enjoyable no matter when you read them, regardless of the passage of time.

 

‘The popular themes and writing styles may differ, but many are revised and republished to fit the times… Oh, wait, that’s not the point.’

 

I snapped out of my nostalgic reverie and brought my wandering thoughts back to the main topic.

 

“I see. I didn’t know gods created avatars to come down to the surface for fun.”

 

[What are you talking about? Don’t you know the most famous example?]

 

“Huh? I don’t think so.”

 

I genuinely couldn’t think of anything, so I denied it, but Fenrir’s blue eyes filled with disbelief.

 

Unlike before, when he subtly ignored me to mess with me, this time he seemed genuinely shocked, at a loss for words.

 

‘Why is he acting like this?’

 

I was equally puzzled by Fenrir’s strange reaction, but I soon found out why.

 

[It’s the ancestor of the kid next to you.]

 

He gestured with his chin toward Yves.

 

“Huh?”

 

For a moment, my brain seemed to stop working.

 

The conclusion I had just drawn by piecing together the information Fenrir had given me clashed with the assumptions I had already formed.

 

“Wait a minute! Does ‘descendant of a god’ literally mean being born from a god?”

 

[What did you think it meant until now?]

 

“I thought it was just a metaphorical expression.”

 

Fenrir scoffed in disbelief, but I was just as stunned. Sure, the game’s founding myth was said to be true, but it never used the term ‘divine incarnation.’

 

From the beginning, it only referred to them as ‘descendants of a god,’ so I assumed they were ordinary humans like Selene who had been granted divine power.

 

I thought they were called descendants simply because the trait was passed down through their bloodline.

 

‘I never imagined that a god, wearing a human body, would openly reveal their divine nature and then go on to establish a nation!’

 

In most stories about gods playing among humans, they usually hide their identities and solve problems incognito!

 

That’s why I never thought they could actually be biological parents.

 

‘I… might be more biased than I thought.’

 

Realizing that my past life’s memories could lead to misjudgments in the present, I resolved not to hastily draw conclusions about ambiguous knowledge or information from now on.

 

Along with that, I decided to break the habit of making assumptions based on clichés.

 

“It’s okay if you didn’t know. It happened over two hundred years ago.”

 

Just then, Yves’ voice broke through the flood of thoughts in my mind.

 

“The first king passed the throne to his descendants, and there have already been three successions since then. Everyone who witnessed the divine incarnation back then is long dead.”

 

He went on to explain that while the founding history has been passed down through oral traditions and records, stories tend to get distorted, and many people dismiss them as fiction unless they see it with their own eyes. He reassured me that it was normal not to know.

 

Once again, I thought, ‘Only Yves would do this,’ and just as I was about to feel deeply moved, Fenrir, oblivious as ever, cut through the moment before it could fully settle.

 

[Well, humans are often so full of themselves that they can’t even properly distinguish the truth they’ve witnessed. Compared to that, Laura is quite endearing. Her understanding and judgment are both good.]

 

It was hard to take Fenrir’s sudden praise seriously, especially since just a few minutes ago he had scolded me for not knowing about divine incarnations. But I decided to let it slide.

 

Just as I was about to make a sarcastic remark, Huluppu shifted the topic.

 

[Let me say it again, the founding myths of the seven nations are all based on real events. But there’s more to the story hidden within.]

 

He went on to explain the circumstances behind the founding of the seven nations.

 

Unlike the previous example, the seven ruling gods descended to the surface not for temporary amusement but to end the chaos that had engulfed the continent.

 

‘Now that I think about it, wasn’t the continent in a dark age before the seven nations were established?’

 

It was a line from the founding myth of the Euphrates Kingdom, mentioned a couple of times in the original story.

 

‘An era of endless wars, driven solely by human greed without any greater purpose. The descendants, guided by the will of the seven ruling gods, drove away the darkness from the continent.’

 

As I tried to recall more details about the founding myths, Huluppu began to reveal a shocking truth.

 

[The highly advanced magical civilization accelerated the horrors of war, and under the pressure of the times, mages eventually broke taboos.]

 

Magic, a surface-world discipline, had encroached upon the realm of the underworld—souls.

 

Unethical and inhumane experiments were conducted, such as forced synthesis between different species and attempts at human immortality.

 

[The most horrifying of all was the mages absorbing the souls of ordinary people.]

 

“Absorbing… souls?”

 

I had expected something like human experimentation, but the sheer horror of it didn’t fully hit me until Fenrir continued his explanation.

 

[Yes. Not the illusory death humans created, but complete annihilation.]

 

In a world where death was supposed to lead to a new life, like in the concept of reincarnation. The idea of souls being devoured by other souls and vanishing without a trace from this world, this dimension, was utterly devastating.

 

Yves, too, seemed deeply shocked, furrowing his brows as he spoke.

 

“But wasn’t it only the gods who could manipulate souls?”

 

[Originally, yes. But the mages, who didn’t know their place, overstepped the authority of the gods.]

 

[In fact, the reason the seven ruling gods descended together was largely because of that.]

 

As Fenrir finished, Huluppu immediately added to his explanation.

 

It struck me that no matter the world, human greed always leads to disaster, and I realized that this was why mages were vilified in the game.

 

‘Just like how the curses on the romanceable characters were connected to the world’s flow, everything is tied together.’

 

I had vaguely suspected it, but realizing that everything happens inevitably due to cause and effect sent a chill down my spine.