So, stocking stuffer two. I made it as a mix of asian transmigration novels, with the generic another world character traits. It's just funny to imagine he's out there somewhere, in this world, running the generic isekai/transmigration troupes.
The next one will either be a lizard in sheeps clothing, or random toku rider back in a different world.
If I do the lizard, I'll probably do 3 different stocking stuffers which are smaller and meant to signify arcs.
Or kaiju ant eater. That might happen.
I died by truck.
Two of them in fact. Technically one and a half.
The first time I tripped over a toy truck a kid left on the street, flipping and cracking my skull.
I should've died there, but I didn't.
Perhaps I could've came back from that.
So where's that other truck?
WHHHHHRRR!
There it is.
Apparently I had fell right into the pathway of an actual truck, and if my head was cracked the first time, then the second time around, it was positively crushed, as I got the unfortunate pleasure of feeling as my brain splattered against the side of the sidewalk.
I thought I was dead.
But if you know any isekai novel, or transmigration, you know what happened next.
Yup, I woke up as the main villain of a fantasy romance story.
Reincarnated as, actually.
Apparently I was reborn here without any memories, and lived my whole life up to this point, until recently, where I tripped and hit my head, knocking myself out, and getting all my memories back of my past life.
A bit cliche?
Definitely, but that hardly matters to me.
I'm out, leaving, gone.
Who am I now?
Well, I'm the villain. The former heir to a relatively powerful baron.
Former, because a few days from now, my father, the pathetic wheezer who's never shown me a lick of attention, is going to arrive with my half-brother in tow, as he promptly replaces me with him, causing my ultimate down spiral as I see all the hard work, I've done over the years go down the drain.
I still remember my life as Alan, his son. All the efforts, all the desperation to get that man to look at me.
I feel so pathetic recalling that.
Well, no more!
Alan would go on to sell his body and soul to a demon and stand in the way of the female lead, Leah Vales, the daughter of a nearby baron, and the duke of the north's son, Connor Bergstrom, which ultimately results in Alan's death and eternal damnation.
Thankfully, that selling your soul bit only occurs near the end of the book, so I have plenty of time to ditch the story line.
No point in sticking around any way. My father has already gone out, so I'm sure that he's gone to collect my bastard brother.
That's harsh, but he also drives me into insanity, so screw him. He's not a bad person, but neither was I.
I take my sword, steal some clothes belonging to the servants, pocket change, and I'm off!
Well, that and a letter.
Dear Father,
I have no doubt that when you return, you will return with an appropriate replacement for me as heir to the barony.
That's fine, but don't mind if I collect what rightfully belongs to me, and finally collect an allowance, which you have refused me for the last 16 years of my life.
I wish the bastard the best of luck, putting up with the biggest bastard that is my negligent father.
Sincerely,
your progeny Alan, since I do not want to be recognized as your son.
P..s., go fuck yourself.
It's not hard sneaking out of the house undetected. As Alan Iskey, I trained my body to the level of a low B-rank swordsman, with my aura control barely falling behind.
Admittedly, sneaking's not my strong suit, but I managed.
The knights around here only fall within C rank, since the empire is huge, we're a fringe barony, and the Iskey family is only relatively strong, with the average knights around here falling within the D-E rank.
It means that it isn't hard to sneak past most of the soldiers here.
A few close calls, but ultimately, it goes relatively smoothly.
You may wonder, then what's the plan?
What's my aim in this next life?
Flee. Run, far and hard, and apply to the adventurer's guild for a new identity.
The adventurer's guild is shady that way, as I know from this life that all kinds of people sign up to become adventurers to gain a new identity in this world.
You might wonder why I would need to go this far, to start a new life with a new identity. I mean, I'm being replaced, so that means he'll have no reason to come collect me right?
Well, that's right.
It's also not right however, as he'll be looking to collect my corpse.
Alan Iskey is like any good villain, in that he has a tragic backstory.
His father seeks to eliminate him and replace him as heir with his bastard brother, who doesn't hate him, but their father's repeated efforts cause the desperate Alan to crack under pressure and eventually go crazy, killing his father and keeping his bastard brother under lock and key, only to later be discovered by the female leads friend, and later helps to bring down his brother, who's by this point gone mad.
Yup, all of this, because of a moronic, abusive, bastard.
Grrr, that damn father! To think I ever wanted his attention!
Huff, whatever.
It's more important I run now, since once he gets back, the attempts to kill me will start.
Poisonings, assassinations, sending me on high level expeditions, and handing me cursed artifacts.
I hear I had an uncle who had mysteriously disappeared on a hike, leaving father as the only successor to the barony.
Back then, I merely regarded it as a mystery, and I couldn't even fathom the thought of my father killing his brother just for a stupid piece of land.
But recalling my past life's memories of the man described in flash backs, in conjunction with my real-life experience with him, I can see it, I can definitely see it. The fog has been cleared, and to me the ugliest beast called my father has been revealed.
I'll be heading near the Western bank of the empire for now, since it's the easiest and cheapest way out.
Well, first I got myself an adventurer identity.
Hmm. Nothing too fancy, but nothing too simple.
I have to be able to use it like a real name.
How about... Flash.
Yes, Flash works.
I could add more, but adding a last name feels like trouble, especially since so many noble families use a last name. What if I step on some toes?
Nope, flash is fine.
No missions, not a single one.
My priority is to get out of there as fast as possible, and raising rank can come at a later time, amongst many things.
Now that I am no longer aiming to be a noble, my next goal is to live a comfortable life, maybe buy a new noble title under my adventurer's title.
But before that, doesn't it only make sense if I start gathering some golden fingers?
Yes, around this point in the story, it's noted that countless brand-new species of monsters begin to appear in the Romanan empire.
Some of them sound like horrible rip-offs of certain brands, like a roomba turtle, which is obvious what it is, a group of monsters that initially take the form of a ball, before appearing in an explosion of light and a fancy transformation of the spherical storage form, and golems that combine and transform into larger golems. Or living tops that use their mana to generate elemental tornadoes as they clash with their enemies, or even monsters that give the user the ability to "henshin".
And others seemingly new out of nowhere monsters, like plants that act as laboratories, dragon ants, dragon birds, bird/dinosaur kobolds, axolotl kobolds, fungal beasts, all types of symbiotic monsters and more.
It's clear the author had a weird mind.
The book also described a number of magical artifacts and countless hidden dungeons that are all basically hidden treasures for me to harvest.
But what about the story?
Well, I'm the main villain, and I'm gone, so really, what's the worry? They'll be fine.
I'm just taking some of the more useful things that they'll never use.
And in the case of the monsters, I'm just being proactive right? It's not like I'll be taking all the monsters, and the empire seems lacking when it comes to monster taming anyway.
Besides, the story mentions a crazy powerful madman being the one behind the creation of these monsters. I'm sure he can deal with all of that.
The book mentioned crazy monster tamers living in the north pole, but they're not my problem, and never relevant to the main story, so there's no chance they'll ever be my problem.
What's the first familiar I'm aiming to tame?
A draven.
The most practical familiar to take on as mine.
Because when you tame one, you don't merely tame one, but it's future partner, and the drows it'll take as its own adoptees, caring for them until they get too old and then get kicked out once they become dravens to raise their own family.
Taming a draven isn't merely taming a draven however, as it also means getting on the good side of all dravens around the whole world!
Even if they're D-rank monsters, only as strong as an orc, they also happen to number in the millions, and maintain a close community.
It's even noted in the story that when they first appear, the dravens cause widespread havoc due to their first appearance, and stupid people who attack the newly formed race, only to find their homes constantly bombarded by the beasts. You can't even kill them all, since they're spread worldwide, and happen to flock with the crows and ravens, with any corvid with sufficient dragon blood becomes a drow or a draven.
One can only grovel and apologize, hoping the draven collective accepts your apology.
They're basically rats with wings, more pigeon than pigeon!
That's a worthwhile ally to have.
Since I have most of the book memorized, it shouldn't be that hard to tame one, really.
It's really not much different from normal crows and ravens.
I found myself a draven.
Just... not the way I thought I would.
I hadn't been looking for a familiar that day, but rather going on an expedition to complete a mission.
Finally having escaped the territory anywhere near the Iskey Barony, I had managed to land myself in Shonin village, a village near the 3 part jump village, and a small out of nowhere village.
It was a nice quiet village to start from, bought a small house with my gold, and it was a nice and quaint place, whether I chose to live there or use it as a rest stop..
So, I picked a small simple mission, and began scouting out the nearby area, looking to find a small flock of drows and dravens.
Hunt some wolves.
...
I ran into a staguar.
It thankfully wasn't after me but was actually hunting a draven.
I could've carefully left, head to the village, report seeing a staguar, and be done with it.
I didn't have to save it.
But... it looked so brave.
It was standing in front of a drow, who had been knocked unconscious at some point, and it stood stalwartly in front of the smaller dragon like bird, sustaining grievous injuries.
...
Damn it.
I got involved, getting into a fight with the beast.
I might've been a B-rank fighter in theory, but with lacking aura control, it'd be more accurate to call me a high C-rank.
I obviously couldn't win, but merely had to scare it off.
Thankfully, staguar's are cautious creatures, and thus, after trading blows for an hour straight, the creature backed off, seeing me as not worth the extra effort.
I still left that fight with a broken arm, and gashes way too deep to be normal.
The draven didn't warm up to me at first, being more weary than grateful.
I respected that. It still had its brood(?) to care for.
Still, in the end, it was worth it, after forcefully tending to the draven, watching it fly away slowly, as it shot me one more grateful glance.
Walking back was still a bitch and a half of course.
It started visiting me after that, the start of it signified by a tapping on my window.
The first time I responded by opening my window curiously, I found a cluster of berries good for healing potions and their own healing qualities.
And the next time I found a cluster of twigs. Huh. Nice I guess.
A few trips later, and a cluster of random items later, I had a drow and a draven resting in my house, making themselves at home. Half my bed goes to birds now.
It's true what they say, birds can be very bold.
I didn't mind, except for the occasional worms they brought in.
They started following me on hunts, which meant I stuck to low level hunts.
Drows are ranked F, having the strength of a goblin, but being slight larger than the average crow.
And dravens are orc levels of strength, while easily being double the size of an actual crow.
It was fun having companions in a fight, when most with whom I had teamed up with were more temporary acquittances than anything else.
The two of them became roommates I guess.
The drow was quick to warm up, easily allowing me to rub it's feathers.
They were interestingly soft, with slight little bumps beneath the surface, evidence of the drows draconian lineage. A little ball of fluff really.
He wasn't allowed to touch the draven's feathers though.
When he tried, he received a fierce nip, and a glare from the draven, as if its space had been pervaded, as it screeched offended.
Yet the day after, it practically yanked his finger out of its socket to get it to rub the down coat, cooing at the sensation, but stopping him from doing too much before flying away to the other side of the room.
It was confusing, but still, he enjoyed the feeling, rubbing the feathers, which felt slicker and smother than the fluffy down of the drow.
The feeling of scales was more prominent beneath the plumage, and he even felt the small forepaws of the draven, hidden beneath the frontal down of the draven.
The new life was good, fun in its simplicity, something he'd never gotten to enjoy, whether it be as the heir to the barony, or as an overtime worker on Earth.
It still came with its own fair share of difficulties.
The occasional punk who bothered his pretty bird, or small-time bandits, even the occasional assassin or two, since Baron Iskey's efforts still reached him once in a while.
Life was good nonetheless, and he managed to settle into a comfortable rhythm.
Perhaps the greatest issue came when he named the two of them.
After spending two months together with the two, Alin decided to name them.
Not just so he could identify them, but because just as the book suggests, naming monsters in this world with magic can help boost the monsters mana storage, and push it closer to evolving again.
It made sense to name them, just as he'd been feeding them mana cores, even if they were worth a lot of money.
The drow was named Andy, and the draven was named Lety.
He'd come to realize the energetic bird was female, and it made sense all of a sudden why she'd been so offended the first time he had carelessly rubbed her.
Alin had almost stopped rubbing her feathers for good, until Leticia had insisted that he rubbed her, and ultimately he determined that she had come to really enjoy belly rubs, and he'd overthought it.
Until the next morning when he heard a sharp screech in the morning, and for once, it wasn't the screech of a bird, but the screech of a woman.
Roused to waken, he found himself sleeping next to a girl with raven black hair and sparkling purple eyes, with a small boy also resting on the bed, with both having tails of feather throughout their body, and a pair of wings to boot.
"Lety?" he asked, unsure, yet also feeling that creeping sensation, the foreboding understanding that...
"Flash!" squealed Lety, as the girl jumped forward, squeezing poor Andy as she hugged Alin.
Poor Alin wasn't aware that this was merely the start of a common trope of isekai and transmigration alike:
Harems.
Supporting female character: I don't know where the villain has gone! ;(
Vicious female villain: come back to bed wife :)
Villain's brother: who's left me with all this work?
