How to Raise the Villain Right

After losing her only sibling—her beloved sister—Lucella finds herself thrust into the role of sole guardian for her orphaned nephew, Lucian. She pours every ounce of her remaining strength into raising him, striving to fill the void left by her sister’s absence with warmth and stability. But their fragile, hard-won peace is shattered when a horrifying truth dawns upon her: the world she inhabits is not reality, but the pages of a novel. Worse still, the sweet, vulnerable boy she has nurtured is destined to become the story’s most despised villain—a merciless antagonist who will dedicate his life to tormenting the protagonist. Armed with this grim foreknowledge, Lucella is plunged into a desperate moral crisis. She knows the dark path that lies ahead, yet she cannot bring herself to abandon the child who has become her entire world. Every gentle word, every bedtime story, and every act of discipline now carries the crushing weight of a potential future she must prevent. The narrative seems determined to warp Lucian’s nature, and Lucella finds herself locked in a silent, exhausting battle against fate itself. As she struggles to untangle the boy's innate goodness from the cruel script written for him, she must confront an agonizing question: can a guardian's steadfast love truly defy the ironclad pages of destiny, or is she merely delaying the inevitable tragedy she has already glimpsed?