"This kingdom is utter trash."
Born as a noble, with a father who was a baron and possessed vast private territories.
From the moment she was born, she had a silver spoon in her mouth.
"The common people are all uneducated trash."
She received a full education. Born into a family lineage specialized in Ice magic, she had the potential to one day lead the entire clan if things continued this way.
She had a bright future ahead, and the people believed in her.
"The government is full of greedy pigs."
Her family had loving parents and an older sister she adored. The servants were all kind-hearted.
Her extended relatives were the same — they might argue sometimes, but in the end they always stood united.
"My family is full of naive idiots who trust people too easily."
She had once been truly happy.
Once…
"I hate all of you down to my very bones."
Her family became the target of envy from another noble house.
Ridiculously, their scheme succeeded.
The royal family stripped her father of his title, reclaimed the lands, and in one brutal stroke, the proud and glorious Winterbell family collapsed completely.
From a prestigious noble, she became a commoner in the blink of an eye.
Her relatives turned on each other, tearing one another apart in an endless bloodbath.
Her father was betrayed by the very servants he trusted — they poisoned his wine glass.
And so, the strongest member of the family died.
The common people who once praised her family endlessly, claiming the Winterbells would change this land for the better, turned their backs and fled to avoid any association.
Some were even bribed by other nobles, allowing those scum to break into her mansion, curse at them, and humiliate them.
And she witnessed her mother and sister being gang-raped.
All of it happened within mere days after her father lost his title and was assassinated.
She was dragged away, turned into a slave, forced to watch commoners gleefully looting her family's possessions and setting the entire mansion ablaze.
Her mother was burned alive inside.
Her sister was dragged to the village square to become the plaything of the mob.
Her relatives paid the commoners, then looked at her with smug satisfaction.
It turned out the ones who had bought the hearts of the people were her own blood relatives.
From that point, at the age of ten, she was sold into the black market.
An age far too young, far too innocent to endure such a horrific tragedy.
She was bought by a wealthy merchant who planned to turn her into a prostitute in the red-light district — the final destination for countless broken fates like hers.
On her very first day, her first customer was a disgusting fat noble who enjoyed anal.
She felt pain. She resisted desperately.
And then all hope died.
She lost all of her innocence.
"This damned place… I swear… I swear I will destroy it."
And then, miraculously, fortune smiled on her.
Right after her first client, someone came and liberated everyone in the red-light district.
Seizing the chance, she escaped.
She caught a glimpse of her savior — green hair dusted with dirt, muscular build wielding a massive greatsword. That was all she could see.
"I will definitely destroy it. There is no avoiding this fate."
She kept running until she reached a small village.
There, a kind old woman took her in.
…But she could no longer trust anyone. She was grateful, but she trusted no one except herself.
"And when I destroy this kingdom, I will rebuild it — turn it into something better."
"Then I will conquer the entire world, to eradicate the very tragedy that created me."
"So that this world never produces another me."
She grew up. The hatred inside her grew stronger every day.
But to achieve any of it, she needed power.
So she trained relentlessly, devised plans, identified targets to avoid.
Especially one name.
Aura Clint of the Clint family.
Unlike the Winterbells, the Clint family was older than even the royal family and held power second only to the crown.
And Aura Clint was an extremely special case — her birth shook the entire continent.
Prophets trembled in fear. Astrologers were ecstatic. Sages believed the age of gods would end once Aura Clint fully matured.
Neighboring countries feared her very existence.
And those filthy royal dogs and government officials decided to sponsor Aura with everything they had — turning her into a weapon of mass destruction to threaten the world and conquer other nations.
Aura — a god in human flesh. That's what they called her.
…She was jealous. Jealous of that terrifying power.
She wanted it too. With that power, she could change the entire world.
But she was also realistic.
If there was any way to make her go to her side, she would do it without hesitation.
Aura was planning to attend Blue Sky Academy so she decided to aim there too.
Luckily, she passed the entrance exam — of course, under a false name.
Irelia.
But when she finally saw Aura in person… she was disappointed.
Because Aura believed in justice.
She had been brainwashed by the kingdom.
She was no longer worth recruiting.
So she fell back to her original plan — the backup plan had only been to test whether Aura was worth bringing to her side.
And because Aura had become a thorn in her eye, she had to monitor her every move.
That's why she befriended Violet — the weakest in Class S — to gather information through her.
And while plotting, she witnessed something that almost made her eyes pop out.
A boy from Class F, with hair the same color as her savior from back then.
The rest didn't match at all, but his aura… was eerily similar.
But similar was all it was. Age, body — completely different people. Impossible for them to be the same.
…Still, she decided she would pull him to her side — out of her own lingering hope.
Now she was quite disappointed.
He was weak and obsessed with money. Completely shattered the image.
So she would just use him as a pawn in her plan.
Yes — the dungeon her party entered once belonged to her family.
Inside was an old stone throne containing the souls of countless members of the Winterbell clan.
The Winterbell family graveyard — that was its other name.
She had been incredibly fortunate during her harsh training to find exactly what she needed:
A Gear that absorbs mana from the dead — the relic of a greedy mage.
As long as she absorbed mana from people of her own bloodline, her power would grow twice as fast as normal.
Now everything was on track.
There was only one problem.
Even with this power, she absolutely had to avoid Aura — because Aura would crush her plan without effort.
She needed to know her weakness.
This was her final gamble…
Because if she failed, she feared she wouldn't have the sanity left to even choose suicide.
But fortune smiled on her once again.
Right now, she was witnessing Aura suffering the side effects of her own skill.
This was the perfect opportunity — almost too perfect, like a dream.
She… she could finally have the power to destroy this cursed place.
She had to succeed.
She absolutely could not fail.
She could not be allowed to fail.