Shift! The Side-Character Heroine

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

In the source world of the "Witcher" game series.

Olivia was only three, but she was currently immersed in the library of the Kingdom of Cintra, all by herself. She had activated a certain "book-eating" skill and was eagerly absorbing the knowledge of this source world.

By looking at the structure of the books alone, anyone could tell that this world's papermaking and printing technologies were quite developed. These books had not been handwritten, they had been printed. Of course there were also handwritten books, but those were pretty much precious ancient books.

It took a week before Olivia mastered the universal language of this world, much to the surprise of her elders. Her aged teacher immediately deemed her a genius. In actuality, she had only taken a day to master the language. Of course, this was because the game system came with a translation function…

However, after completing the side quest "Mastering Language," she instantly became more eloquent, and sounded far wiser. The system had awarded her with some experience points and skill points. For example, if she learned how to cast a "fireball," it might take her a while to get good at it. On the other hand, she could use the skill points and instantly get maximum proficiency.

This gave Olivia all the incentive needed to clear quest after quest. Anyway, if she accumulated more skill points, she could use them at critical times. It would seem like those miraculous turn of events in clutch situations.

Some skills were already maxed out by default, such as "oriental swordsmanship," "musical talent," "gaming skills," "learning concentration," "in-depth reading," "acting skills"…

Indeed, these corresponded to her iconic character cards. Additionally, there were two skills that were close to max. To achieve maximum proficiency in these two skills, she probably had to use many skill points. These skills were "psychic cat," "riding sense"…

This game system had been really well-designed. Although she could not drift Lamborghinis in this world, she could always participate in some horse racing. She could also do some boxing in this world. As for "gaming skills," she could play some tabletop board games. Apparently, a card game named "Gwent: The Witcher Card Game" was pretty popular in this world…

Olivia had reason to suspect that the skill points was the equivalent to the energy in the previous supernatural world. That also meant that she could extend the lifespan of high popularity character cards. She could also use them on the "Two Dimensional Gate" and shorten its cooldown time. This would accelerate her plans to acceptable levels.

It was time to bulldoze through all the quests. She went for "Mastering History of the Mainland." She had grown so obsessed with "eating books" that she could never be separated from them. The way, the books that she had "eaten" would also be automatically saved in the "Book Menu" of the game system, available for viewing at any time in the future.

"The four boundaries of the World of the Witcher known to mankind are respectively: in the West - the Great Sea, in the North - the Dragon mountains range and Amell mountains range, in the East - the Korath Desert and the Haakland tribal territory, in the South - the half-mythical land Hannu and Barsa."

"The earliest intelligent inhabitants of this world were gnome halflings. Dwarves, elves, and humans were outsiders who came by later. Elves were sent down here by some powerful force. Humans arrived here as a result of the Conjunction of the Spheres[1] 1500 years ago. The arrivals of dwarves and elves were relatively mild, but conquest and slaughter accompanied the arrival of humans. Magic and monsters were also the products of the Conjunction of the Spheres."

"Although the humans in the Northern Kingdom and in the Southern Nilfgaardian Empire were of the same species as they were all products of the Conjunction of the Spheres, they came from completely different places. The ancestors of the current humans in the Northern Kingdom landed in the Pontar Delta after their exile 1000 years ago. However, the origins of the humans in the Southern area remain unknown. List of human Northern Kingdoms: Redania, Temeria, Aedirn, Kaedwen, Kovir and Poviss, Cidaris, Hengfors League, Cintra, Lyria and Rivia, Skellige, Verden, Brugge, and Kerack."

…

History of the mainland was not meant to be easy. However, for the brilliant hacker Olivia, it was a cake walk. Almost all of her time was devoted to learning. At the age of three, she received the title of "Book of Cintra." Such a title was inferior to the title "Pearl of the Northern Kingdoms." However, with her good looks, that would only be a matter of time.

Titles meant a lot to medieval civilizations, regardless of culture. For example, her grandmother Calanthe had the title "Lioness of Cintra" because she was beautiful and brave. She was also a powerful ruler in her own right. She was now essentially the Queen of Cintra, because her ex-husband had passed on. Her current husband was a warrioro of the Tuirseach clan from the Skellige Isles. He was the brother of Bran, a nobleman from the Skellige Isles. Currently, he was the King of Cintra, but that title was limited to being nominal.

Obviously, the "Lioness of Cintra" Calanthe preferred Cirilla over Olivia. Stupid reason being that Cirila was her splitting image. And so, Cirilla was given the title "Lion Cub of Cintra." She was also the older granddaughter. Naturally, she would inherit everything before Olivia.

To the ambitious Olivia, this Cirilla was a hindrance. An obstacle to her grand plans. However, she believed in the phrase, "political power grows out of the barrel of a gun." You'll have to earn something yourself. She did not want a divided empire. She wanted to build a unified nation on the foundations of a central government. This was the Chinese woman in her speaking, which was totally unlike a Westerner's thoughts.

A Western Creator who stumbles into this source world would most certainly find Olivia intriguing, provided that she did manage to achieve her dreams.

As Olivia remained obsessed over her books, two people in the library were watching her, while whispering things to each other.

These two people were Emhyr and Vilgefortz. The former was Olivia's father, and the latter was his "heart." He was powerful and had the gift of "prophecy." He was a mage and a member of the Chapter of Sorcerers. He was talented and good at strategizing. He also had a great reputation in the whole World of the Witcher. If this was a martial arts world, then Vilgefortz would most probably be the peerless master! The people of Jianghu called him "Grandfather Vil." Unfortunately, he was not a good person…

The two have been plotting on how to leave Cintra and return to Nilfgaard in the South to reclaim the throne.

Emhyr, who was determined to revive his country, was not very close to his wife and daughter. He treated them more as tools than anything else. However, the "brilliance" of his second daughter Olivia might be worth nurturing. As for Cirilla, according to the "law of surprise," she was destined to belong only to that legendary witcher —- —- Geralt of Rivia.

"Vilgefortz, isn't it better if you taught her personally?" Emhyr suddenly spoke up.

Vilgefortz was stunned. Little Olivia meant nothing to him. He only cared about Cirilla, because she was the elder child, and was incomparably more valuable. This was why he was helping Emhyr revive the country. When Emhyr becomes emperor, along with the wealth and power, he would also have Ciri's bloodline in his hands. That was power!

As for Olivia?

Wasn't she just a side-character?

Why would he, the "Grandfather Vil," be interested in an unremarkable girl like her?

Translation note :

[1] The "Conjunction of the Spheres" is a cataclysm which occurred 1,500 years before the events in the novels, trapping many "unnatural" creatures in this dimension, including ghouls, graveirs, and vampires. It was during this time that the elves say humans, or more specifically, the Dauk and Wozgor people, first appeared, their own world having been destroyed. These people colonized the North, and possibly the South. According to elven lore, humans arrived during the Conjunction, their own world having been destroyed. These human ancestors learned how to harness the power of primordial Chaos, and thus the first human wizards were born. Looking for a place in the world, humans took up arms against the Elder Races, who were unable to withstand the barbarians and ultimately surrendered. This is how humans came to rule the world.