The Palaces of the Twelve Sacred Beasts - Chapter 8

A Wicked Witch, trailed by vengeful spirits and curses.“Hey, Tin Can! Did I not tell you to stop causing trouble?!”A Courageous Lion, descended from the bloodline of a hero.“Uh, no matter what, this seems like a bit much, no? Huh? Whatever doesn’t kill you only makes you stronger? Um, Sir Knight? Sir Knight!?”A Scarecrow, sealed away for pursuing the taboo.“Despite appearances, I’m quite capable from the shoulders up. Below that, you say? Let’s see, if I had to give a cold self-assessment… perhaps an emergency shield?”A Solitary Tin Knight, forever barred from human warmth.[The ‘Tin Knight’ urges everyone to initiate the boss battle, saying the cut scene is over!]This is a cruel, fairytale-like adventure story told by twisted protagonists.…Maybe!

After possessing the game’s villain, my goal was solely one thing –

To escape from this cursed game world.

[Embrace a death befitting a villain]

I failed on the first run.

But I resolved once more to escape this world…

“I missed you, Kyle.”

Yet the heroines who once loathed me began to plead for my affection.

The witch, Elonora Asil, has fifteen previous convictions.

And the transmigrator, Noah Park, had no intentions of being involved in the novel’s original plot of the dragon beheading the villainess. With that thought in mind, she abandoned her titles as The Wicked Witch and sought to live a long and peaceful life.

So she heads down to the countryside wrought with deep remorse for all her misdeeds. And all should be happy… or she thought.

“Please raise me!”

And so it would seem that she stumbled upon the heroine’s pet dragon — the black-haired kid that would turn ballistic and obsessive later on — imprinted the villainess as his mother. And to make matters worse, the male lead suspects her as the prime culprit of stealing the dragon.

“How long should I keep up with you?”

She thought he’d arrest her right away, but seems like the male lead was slowly becoming the dragon’s butler.

“Can I hug you?”

“No.”

“Then… can you hold me?”

The villainess believes that the dragon needs a bit of taming.

‘Oh, male lead, won’t you sign a life contract as a real butler?

Anton is a great-grandfather. He is living quite a happy life, despite his advanced age and declining health… until a group of cultivator bandits moves into the area. The nearby guardians of the area, the Order of Ninety-Nine Stars, are unable to track them down as they continue to ravage nearby towns. During one desperate winter Anton is out on a hunt when his family- his entire village- is killed or taken as slaves by the bandits. He lacks the strength to fight them, and he wasn’t even present for their arrival to die with his loved ones. At the pit of his despair, he wonders if he ever had any chance to change things. What could he even do? He cannot even pull his best bow, and his eyesight is failing. If he had been a cultivator… perhaps there might have been a chance, but he was decades- perhaps even most of his life- too late.Participant in the Royal Road Writathon challenge (2022)Notes on cultivation levels:There are five general stages of cultivation, though the fifth is extremely rare. Each cultivation style might have their own name for the stages.1. Body Tempering2. Spirit Building/ occasionally System Creation (Ninety-Nine Stars)3. Constellation Formation (Ninety-Nine Stars)4. Life Transformation/Galaxy Construction (Ninety-Nine Stars)5. Ascension