Scumbag Fate System-Chapter 1: Crappy Beginning

The last thing he remembered was falling down from a skyscraper.

A bullet through his chest from a suppressor held by his partner. And the understanding of the organization he spent twenty years serving had decided to retire assets that were too dangerous.

He saw the moving cars, countless lights, and approaching before then.

Darkness.

Then stone beneath his palm, and the silence of five hundred people holding their breath. While there was an old man looking at him with a sorrowful expression.

Reinhard blinked.

A blue crystal sat in front of him, barely glowing. He could feel the crowd growing restless, their whispers turning from excited to something uglier.

This wasn’t good.

Then memories crashed over him, which weren’t his. Someone else’s life poured into his mind all at once, like reading a file instead of living a real life. Seventeen years of names and faces all quickly flashing by him without him properly understanding it. Yet he could grasp snippets of a boy being locked in a basement, and hearing whispering of "let him starve" outside the door.

Reinhard inward sighed after the memories stopped flashing. And looking down at the dull blue light, he realized this body had nothing to offer.

Well. He withdrew his hand from the crystal with the same calm he’d used to walk out of a burning embassy. That’s inconvenient.

The hall exhaled.

Not with relief but with the sound of disappointment and disdain.

The elder at the front of the ceremony sighed with a look of disdain. "The crystal has given its answer."

No Sigil. He understood from the borrowed memories what that meant here. The baseline requirement for power, for advancement, and being taken seriously. The body he’d just inherited had been born without it, or had it taken, and the distinction barely mattered because the outcome was identical.

Now the gazes around him were showing what they thought of a person like him. He withdrew his hand from the crystal slowly before turning to face the hall.

Four seconds of silence.

Then the commoners cracked first. All of them were leaning forward at first but then pulled back, like touching him might transfer whatever was wrong with him. And then some of them began laughing, it was poorly contained. It spread sideways through the rows the way laughter always did when it finally had permission.

The nobles were more controlled, they didn’t laugh and simply turn away.

The professors sighed, some gave him looks of pity, others sneered, and some even had smirks as if enjoying the sight.

"Next candidate."

He walked to the side of the hall, as he passed by. He started hearing the muttering of those who couldn’t contain themselves.

"Are you serious? He’s a noble—"

"Didn’t even flicker—"

"I heard the family bought his way in—"

Reinhard kept his face neutral even when it wasn’t his body, it still followed him. But at the same time, he was cataloguing every face he saw that laughed.

...

The first class was the Combat Arts Department.

He’d found it by following a group of students who knew exactly where they were going and had never had reason to doubt, they’d be allowed inside. He’d trailed them at a distance, an old habit and arrived at the door thirty seconds after them.

The instructor didn’t even look at him yet still spoke his name as if he sensed him. "Melvin."

"I’d like to attend-"

"You’re aware of the enrollment requirements."

"I thought perhaps-"

"Minimum Initiate rank. Active Sigil." The instructor’s expression hadn’t changed once as he pronounced each word with a sneer. "You meet neither and so have no business here. I have no need to entertain a fool."

The man waved his hand and the door closed.

He stood in the corridor for three seconds before turning to the next department.

...

"Hopeless."

"Sorry?"

"I said it’s hopeless." The female professor sighed. "You want to learn about magic? Are you being serious?"

"You could still give me a chance..."

"All the students here can feel and use the mana within them. Have you ever felt your mana?"

"Well-"

"No, you can’t because you don’t have a Sigil. Only with a Sigil can you have mana appearing in your body." The professor leaned down at him with an indifferent expression. "Even a child knows this."

"I might be able to awaken-"

"The Obelisk has never made a mistake for the last centuries. It has never been wrong for countless students who walked in the school, and it certainly won’t be wrong for you."

Reinhard lips twitched as the way she said you was filled with such disdain that it surprised even him. All the students in the class snickered away. But that didn’t stop him as he ignored the mocking laughter of the students.

"Can I at least stay for the lecture-"

"There is no space and you would distract the other students." The professor bluntly said with an irritated stare and look of disdain.

Reinhard didn’t say anything and simply turned to leave. It was his fourth failure, but he still had many other departments to try.

....

The Theory and Applications wasn’t so bad.

A younger woman with the distracted energy of someone genuinely interested in her subject at least looked up and did not give him a look of disdain.

But the pity wasn’t helping.

"Instructions were already given to me by the department head if you showed up."

"I haven’t even-"

"The notice was sent this morning, before the ceremony." She turned a page. "It was anticipated."

He paused, his expression still neutral but inside he became suspicious.

Before the ceremony? Why would they... Unless they either expected me to fail or not even be able to live through the ceremony.

"Is there anything-"

"No." It wasn’t cruel but simply a dismissal. "And do everyone a favor, close the door."

...

The Resonance Studies hall was the tenth attempt.

He made it three steps inside before a student noticed him.

He was a noble from the way he held himself and the arrogance in him. The specific confidence of someone who had never once questioned whether a room was built for him.

"You’re in the wrong place." The man said but Reinhard ignored as he continued.

But then he paused as five more students appeared. Soon all six formed a wall before him with grins, smirks, and sneers on their faces.

"I’m looking for Professor-"

"Give it up. The professor already gave us permission to tell a failure like you to scram."

"He already agreed it’s beneath him to even acknowledge you."

"There’s nothing here for you."

Reinhard already saw through them and knew they were lying. But glancing past them, he saw the class had gone quiet with the twenty students watching. And the male professor didn’t even look up from their desk.

Reinhard held the boy’s gaze for exactly two seconds before turning around and walking away. In the corridor he passed a familiar group of commoner girls who had laughed at him in the ceremony.

They didn’t laugh this time and just looked away as if he wasn’t worth the reaction.

...

By the time the sun had moved two hours across the sky he had collected rejections from every single department.

He found an empty courtyard by the eastern wall and sat down.

The sounds of celebration drifted across campus. He heard the laughing, clinking glasses, the buzz of new beginnings. Without seeing it, he knew exactly what was happening. New students meeting their teachers. Handshakes all around. Papers being passed out. Everyone finding their place in the system.

Except him.

The truth was simple: he didn’t belong here. 𝐟𝕣𝕖𝐞𝐰𝕖𝚋𝐧𝗼𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝗰𝐨𝐦

Before that wasn’t really an issue, since he could always find a gap to enter. But those were for normal problems with normal solutions. Sweet talk worked on people, waiting worked on time, and experience worked when the challenge came down to what others might do.

This was different.

A missing Sigil wasn’t something he could talk his way around or wait out.

But that was only one problem.

The other problem was that his family wanted him dead. The memories made that clear, they never expected him to make it this far. Only the headmaster’s protection stood between him and whatever killers they might send.

The headmaster’s words from ten minutes ago flashed in his head.

’I will let you stay even if the departments won’t take you. Your family’s situation is known to me and I will not add to it. But staying means existing here without structure, without classes, without any of the things this Academy was built to provide.’

But even inside these walls, he wasn’t sure if he was safe. Every student at today’s ceremony was someone he’d need to watch carefully.

Am I fucked?

[Fate System - Initialization.]

What?

[Complete Host Registration: Reinhard Melvin]

A blue screen appeared in front of him.

[Main Fate mission available: Seduce the One Loved By The Void.]

Reinhard stared at the screen before blinking, just as the text began changing.

[Hello, Host. We have quite a lot to discuss.]

Reinhard looked at the screen for a long moment.

Then at the empty courtyard.

Then back at the screen.

"...Of course," he said quietly. "Of course there’s more."